CHUSEOK HOLIDAY

For those living in Seoul area, you must've noticed how quiet and empty Seoul was from Saturday to Monday. The reason behind that sudden demographical decrease last weekend was Chuseok (추석/Korean Thanksgiving) day. People go abroad or come to Seoul for work and school, and during Chuseok they all go back to their hometown to gather with their family and spend the holiday together. The whole thing's pretty much like how Indonesians come back home from abroad and Jakarta to celebrate Christmas, Lunar New Year, or Eid Al-Fitr Holidays with family and friends, actually. Speaking of family, I haven't been home for like almost half a year. Not only that I don't live with my family, my brother, Keniko, who has just started university lives like 6 hours away from Seoul. We made plan to use this rather long holiday to catch up on our quality time, so my brother came all the way from Pohang to see me. This time we actually produced something out of out quality time. We decided to relive a tradition that my family holds dearly; free worship sessions. Back in Indonesia every morning during family prayer we had our own praise and worship session and just like at church, in between songs there were long free worship sessions with all the interludes, medleys, songs sung from the psalm, or prayer turned into songs. Every session was fulfilling and beautiful. Coming to Korea, I continue with my personal worship session. But it's just different. Last weekend, having a worship session with Ken was the closest we could get to our family session. But nevertheless, we did have a wonderful time. Plus, we recorded the whole thing (they're on both soundcloud and youtube). It's super spontaneous, we recorded it on our first go, since we originally only wanted something that we can listen to whenever we miss each other. The song's Bethel Music's "Jesus, We love You." It's a powerful song, so powerful that I couldn't help but naturally jump into worship mode the moment we reached the refrain part (my brother teased me for this). Just like how the song's been a blessing for us, I hope the same for you too. Enjoy!

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Artwork: Stella Nikiko/ Vocals: Stella Nikiko & Keniko Stefanus /Guitar: Keniko Stefanus