Through Waves and Wilderness: August's Stories
August has arrived. In the heat, the body seeks rest, but the mind often loses its bearings. A vacation, in the end, is simply a matter of stepping away from the ordinary for a while, and what fills that empty space determines the quality of the season. The four stories gathered this month fill that space in different ways. Two can be found from the comfort of a couch, sheltered from the heat; two are waiting in places that still smell of paper and ink. A girl standing before the waves, a people crossing the wilderness, and readers gathered around the printed page.
1. What Remained After the Arm Was Lost — Soul Surfer
A trip to the theater during vacation season can feel like too much effort, but setting aside two hours on the couch under the air conditioning is something anyone can manage. As the first recommendation for a summer spent at home, this writer suggests Soul Surfer, streaming on Netflix.
At thirteen, surfer Bethany Hamilton lost her left arm to a shark attack off the coast of Hawaii. For a girl who dreamed of turning professional, the accident upended the entire direction of her life. But the film is not really about rehabilitation or a triumphant comeback. It is about a different question: what does a person hold onto when something has been taken away? In the place where a part of the body has vanished, what does a person stand on to rise again?
Bethany is a real person, and her faith was not a dramatic embellishment but the substance of her actual life. In the hospital bed just after the accident, what she held onto was not an optimism about recovery, but the conviction that her life still rested in hands other than her own. The film does not preach this conviction. Instead, it follows, with quiet restraint, the long and difficult road back to the board: the loss of balance, the falls, the return again and again to paddling. That restraint is precisely what leaves the deeper impression.
For those heading to the sea this summer, and for those going nowhere at all, this film offers a quiet comfort. Whatever plans a vacation may have interrupted, the truth remains unchanged: there is still something to hold onto, even in loss.
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- Director: Sean McNamara
- Starring: AnnaSophia Robb (as Bethany Hamilton), Helen Hunt, Dennis Quaid
- Platform: Netflix
- Rating: All Ages
- Runtime: 106 minutes
2. A Liberation That Began with a Basket — The Prince of Egypt
The second recommendation is likewise an animated feature that requires no trip beyond the living room. During the summer break, there may be no better film to watch with children gathered on the couch.
Born a slave and raised as a prince of Egypt, Moses is the subject of this DreamWorks animated feature, which renders the narrative of Exodus with striking fidelity to the source text while lowering the threshold of entry for those encountering Scripture for the first time, through sweeping animation and score. The fact that a single basket set adrift on a river became, in time, the starting point for the liberation of an entire people lands with even greater weight when watched together with children during the summer holiday.
The story begins with Moses growing up in the palace, unaware of his origins, moves through the collapse of his brotherhood with Rameses along the fault line of nationhood, and arrives finally at the parting of the Red Sea. What is particularly striking is that the film never reduces its miracles to mere spectacle. The scene of Moses hearing God's voice in the wilderness, and the moment he confirms his calling before his brother, are rendered with a lyricism distinct to animation, without ever losing the weight of the biblical text.
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- Directors: Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, Simon Wells
- Voice cast: Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer
- Platform: Netflix
- Rating: General audiences
- Runtime: 99 minutes
3. Heading Busan for the Smell of Books — Book & Contents Fair
At the height of summer, BEXCO in Busan fills with the printed word. Held annually in the region's largest such gathering, the Book & Contents Fair brings publishers and readers together directly, without the usual layers of distribution. In a publishing landscape centered heavily on Seoul, Busan's position here is distinct. Content built by local bookstores and regional publishers over years is laid out across three days in one place, and visitors encounter names rarely seen at the capital-centered book fairs.
As its name suggests, the fair does not confine books to ink on paper. It reflects publishing's expansion into webtoons, audiobooks, and merchandise, offering a firsthand look at how a single story can splinter across multiple media. It is, in effect, a place to witness just how many faces the medium of the book can wear.
For those already choosing Busan as their summer destination, there is no better way to split a day between the sea and the shelf. Morning can be spent walking the exhibition halls at BEXCO, away from the heat of Haeundae, before returning to the water in the evening. A book picked up while on vacation has a way of holding onto that summer long after the trip has ended.
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- Venue: BEXCO (Haeundae-gu, Busan)
- Dates: August 21–23, 2026
4. Three Days in Which an Alley Becomes a Bookshop — Gunsan Book Fair
The Gunsan Book Fair sets itself apart from other book fairs in one key respect: its stage is not a single building but an entire city. Gunsan Hall serves as its central venue, but the fair's true setting is the old downtown of Gunsan itself. For three days, aging buildings bearing traces of the Japanese colonial period and narrow, winding alleys are transformed into temporary bookshops and spaces for author talks. The experience of a city itself becoming a bookstore carries an entirely different texture from a book fair held inside a large convention center.
The power of this format lies in the act of walking itself. Rather than moving between uniform booths, visitors carry a map and follow the alleys, drifting from one bookshop to the next, one story to the next. At the point where the texture of an old city meets the texture of the printed page, a book ceases to be merchandise on a display shelf and becomes something laid alongside the history of that alley.
Late August, as the worst of the heat begins to break, is not a bad time for walking. For readers seeking a quiet stroll, these three days, in which Gunsan's alleys and its books speak together, may prove a fitting way to close out the summer.
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- Venue: Gunsan Hall and the old downtown district (Gunsan-si, Jeollabuk-do)
- Dates: August 28–30, 2026
In Closing
Summer always feels like a season of loss. But the stories gathered this month suggest that loss does not necessarily mean an ending. Like the girl who lost an arm and still stood before the waves again, like the liberation that began with a single basket, the moment that appears most helpless can turn out to be the most decisive beginning. Whether by the sea in Busan or in the old alleys of Gunsan, people still make the effort to walk toward the printed page. Whether facing a screen from the couch or walking through a bookseller's alley, may this summer leave you with a story worth holding onto.
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faith.log
A journal that connects faith and everyday life. In each small piece of writing, we share the grace of God and the depth of life together.
