"Korea Dreambus" Pilgrimage and Documentary Film

The night of screening Korea Dreambus: A Journey of Faith, the Buffalo Bills were playing the Denver Broncos in hopes of going to the Super Bowl, and we were being hit with dangerous whiteout snow conditions.  I was hoping we might get 25-30 people in; we were set up for forty. Madonna in Korean Hanbok (traditional dress) I arrived early to help my friend from St. Bernard's (with his daughter, who helped us get ready) set up coffee service and some cookies from Leo's Bakery. I hung some posters on the doors, and then I spent some time with Jesus in the chapel. I prayed that "whoever needs to see this film will come," and I left it at that.  When the first attendees arrived, I met them at the door and welcomed them in. I could see people coming up the walkway, and my nervousness melted into gratitude. And then they kept coming...and coming and coming. I greeted everyone with a growing feeling of humility that this many people would come to see my little movie. People ...

Anyone who has created a video -- even a short one -- knows that organizing and managing the media (video and photos) is an essential step in preparing to edit. It can be a behemoth of a task, depending on how much media you have. If you're me, you overshoot everything, and you end up with about 4,000 video clips and photos from Korea to organize and manage. I've had to break this into a few smaller chunks so as not to get overwhelmed.  The first step was to create Albums in iCloud. I organized these by the locations of my pilgrimage trip: Seoul, Seosan, Ulsan, Eonyang, Incheon, and Returning Home.  This was fairly easy to do, as everything is automatically date stamped, and I knew from looking at the images where in my journey they were from. Haemi Martyrs Shrine I also had to prep my computer for editing. This meant several steps: clearing off non-essentials, backing everything up, and upgrading my OS to run Davinci Resolve (DR).  I looked up the minimum required system...

I've finally locked in the piece of my itinerary that was giving me the most trouble:  finding a place to stay in the Seosan/Dangjin area where the shrines in Haemi and Solmoe are located.  This morning I booked two nights at a traditional Korean house (hanok) in Seosan called Gyeamgotaek . I booked on Expedia and got a discount ( 아싸!) . I'll just have to work out how to get around that area; I suspect it will be a combination of taxi (very cheap in Korea) and bus (also very cheap). I'm happy to present an overview of my itinerary with a map to help you visualize where these places are. Note that I haven't marked every single place I'll be going; these are the general areas where I'll be traveling and staying. Please note that so far I've been able to book everything on Expedia. I may have to use other apps once I get to Korea, but for now, I'm extremely grateful this is working! 9/17 - 9/18:  Flying into Incheon  9/18 - 9/23:   Seoul and environs (Myeo...

My pilgrimage will begin in Seoul, the capital of Korea. Myeongdong Cathedral photo by Pixabay Thousands of pilgrims have come to honor and worship at the holy sites of the Korean martyrs in Seoul since Pope John Paul II canonized 103 martyrs including St. Andrew Kim Taegon in 1984.  On September 14th, 2018, the Vatican designated "The Seoul Catholic Pilgrimage Route" as the first Asian International Pilgrimage Site.   Pope Francis beatified 124 more martyrs  during his visit to S. Korea in 2014. The Archdiocese of Seoul  has established three pilgrimage routes to help pilgrims access the numerous sites. I will start my Korean pilgrimage with these three routes, beginning with Myeongdong Cathedral in the Myeongdong neighborhood.  The A.D. of Seoul's website seems to have regular difficulties with the "Exultation of the Martyrs Committee" page, so I will post the maps below. My hotel, a Korean-style hotel (with ondol rooms, meaning I'll be sleeping on a fl...