Shincheonji Volunteers, Colombia, and a Saturday I Didn't Expect to Remember
Shincheonji Volunteers, Colombia, and a Saturday I Didn't Expect to Remember I hadn't planned on doing anything meaningful that Saturday. I just wanted to get out of the apartment, walk off my coffee, maybe pick up something cheap at the flea market a neighbor had mentioned was happening at Sinyong Bitgoeul Neighborhood Park. That was the whole plan. I didn't expect to leave thinking about Colombia. The market looked ordinary enough from a distance — twenty or so tables spread across the grass, people sorting through clothes and shoes and secondhand toys, the usual weekend hum. It was the banner overhead that made me slow down: "Colombia Hope-Sharing Flea Market." I hadn't heard the news, or maybe I had and it hadn't really landed. A 7.4-magnitude earthquake had hit western Colombia on August 10. By the time I was standing there on September 12, more than 330 people had died and nearly 466,000 had been affected, according to the figures posted on an ...
