The differences I see between Korea and the USA - a year after leaving Korea

Let me give you all some background, some know this and some don't. I lived in Korea for 3 years and loved it the whole time. I was never "ready to leave" like some people are. I cried many times just thinking about leaving this beloved country. I dreaded coming back to America because there is such a richness in Korea that is hard to put into words and I didn't want to leave it. God blessed our lives there in so many ways. I've been back in America for a year and I'm glad I'm back, but thoughts of Korea come to mind everyday in some way, shape or form and I would go back in a heartbeat... even right now with the "threat" of war, if I could.

Before coming back to America, my children had never learned about "stranger danger" because that mentality is so opposite to the Koreans. My girls would have been considered rude to refuse gifts of candy and food from strangers (Koreans) or for pulling away when Koreans reached out to touch them. We felt so safe in Korea... really, really safe! I did not want to have to inform my children of the evil that surrounds us in America. I did not want to tell them that everything they knew and all their behaviors regarding strangers were now not safe. Strangers could be dangerous and you always have to be on the lookout, prepared to scream and kick and fight to be safe!

I knew there was always a chance of N Korea attacking. They attacked S Koreans twice while I lived there. Even then, I never felt afraid. I did feel mad. Mad that some foolish decision by some crazy guy might cause me to need to flee this country I loved! But my daily life was not impacted. I still felt safe.

Americans live with a similar background fear, but it is the "stranger danger" fear and it's different. It makes you look at people funny. It makes you not trust those around you that you don't know and even some you do know. It makes your daily life different. You parent differently because of it, I parent differently because of it. My parenting is very different from what it was in Korea. Most Americans don't even notice it because they have never been free from it. Those who have lived in other countries and have come back to America notice a difference.

America is not a safer country to live in, but we believe we are safe here because we don't have a bad guy threatening to cross our border and attack us. Our family was almost stationed in Colorado when we left Korea. A few months later, a little girl, my daughter's age, was kidnapped and killed in a peaceful, "safe" neighborhood as she headed to school. A gunman killed and injured innocent people in the "safety" of a movie theater. In another state, college kids going about their day were stabbed and killed on a college campus - in broad daylight! And we can never forget about the people on 4 different airplanes who were killed when terr orists chose to use the planes as weapons to fly into buildings. And the thousands of people that got safely to work that morning who died in their places of employment when planes flew into those buildings. These are just a few examples of how we are not safe, even in the great land of America. We do have evil here, it just looks a little different than it does in Korea.

Please pray for those in Korea. They need our prayers. They may have to run for their lives someday because of N Korea. Pray for us as Americans, too. We may have to run for our lives from the guy next door or the kook from another country who hates America. We are all living in a dangerous world!