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And We All Sang “Amazing Grace”
Gilbert the Tour Guide and the “Intelligent Design”
October 13, 2005
Last month (September 2005), I have joined a busload of Korean tourist group in Vancouver hosted by the Skyline Tours for the 5-days/6-nights/2500km excursion toward the Canadian Rocky Mountain that circled the Banff and the Jasper National Park.
In a nutshell, the natural scene was a majestic, awesome, and whopping display of mountains, ice fields, and thick forests that left deep imprint upon my mind.
I also was amazed by the abrupt and unpredictable changes of weather in the region…on the bus, we encountered snowstorm in one locale and reached the balmy weather of sunshine in another in an interval of a few minutes …namely, we experienced two seasons at the almost same time in the same region.
In addition, we were somewhat blessed to have a tour guide named Gilbert who was experienced, knowledgeable, and energetic in guiding our tour group that mostly hailed from the South Korea for a short stay in Canada. (There were some Japanese stragglers in our group who could not afford to join the Japanese-run tour group due to the higher cost)
Overall, all the tourists appeared to be awestruck by the magnitude of the nature, even though they did not look it through the same lens, formulating different opinions and speaking in different tongues.
In addition, there were some flies in the ointment…and sadly, I found that our guide, Gilbert was a born-again gadfly Christian who attempted the trip as a religious pilgrimage, an expedition in search of evidence that the rock formation of the region was the result of Noah’s flood just as Scripture says. (He said Gilbert became his adopted first name because it has a phonetically sound Korean word of fellow traveler, sojourner, or the like.)
During the entire courses of trip whenever we were awed by the magnificent works of nature, Gilbert, as often as possible, reminded us that there ought to be some intelligent one out there who created the earth and that someone is surely his Father, the God.
And none among tourists raised hands to dispute Gilbert assertion that God created the earth in six days 6,000 years ago. (I found later that a majority of tourists belonged to an evangelical missionary and there were two pastors and their families from the Korean Church in Baltimore, Maryland.)
Another fly in the ointment was a snake-oil salesman of Korean descent hawking his ware of panacea, made out of honey collected by the native Indians at the top of high mountain where only the Indians can find it after tracing through the steps of the hungry bears.
And Gilbert corralled us like a herd of cows into a room with the rows of long benches.
In a few minutes, an amicable, dimple-cheeked and buxom gentleman appeared from behind the door with a big grin.
He did not announce his name or academic credentials, but he assured us like a naturopathic doctor or medicine man that his ware is good for almost every illness including high blood pressure, menstrual disorder, acne, age spot on old person’s face, and even it cures hardened cracks on the heel.
He seemed to have a little worry over his somewhat plump and fatty body that might be construed by the tourists as an overweight and unhealthy person.
And he promptly assured the audience that he was recently being OK’d by the famous Samsung Hospital in Seoul for cholesterol test. (I wondered why he had the trouble to go all the way to Seoul to take a simple cholesterol test and I found an answer: he was smart enough to know that his audience are mostly South Koreans who know that only rich and powerful man can afford to go to see a doctor at the Samsung Hospital and he wants to tell them he is a rich and powerful man even though he’s been selling his wares in a cowtown.)
There followed a salvo of friendly fire by our guide Gilbert for the sale of mysterious honey…he assured the tourists that a lot of people were e
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