5 dollar feast!

Yesterday, the girls in our dorm got to go out to eat for dinner for getting 1st place in the monthly cleaning check-up. It was really intense on that day and everyone was super tense, especially the teachers. I thought that the health inspector was going to come seeing how everyone was cleaning everything inside out. But actually, it was just the director of the home with a couple of the teachers coming around each dorm, only they were giving scores on how clean things were. At one point, they pulled out a clean cloth and wiped the floor to see if it were indeed clean. You passed if it came up clean, not if didn't.

Anyway, we decided to go to this 냉면 place that all the girls were raving about. It's called "고기주는 냉면집" aka "the naeng-myun place that gives you meat." A bowl of 냉면 + a plate of 갈비 (galbi) = 5,000won. That's less than 5 bucks! It was soooooo goood! We must have inhaled that junks. The 10 of us were basically done in 10 minutes, noodles and meat. Man, Korea knows how to eat. I was telling my dad about the place this morning and he was like, "I'm gonna go to Korea, too" hahaha.

Left to Right: Saemi, Jin, Solee, Elisabeth @ the naeng-myun place (pre-eating)

We started taking prayer requests from the kids who we teach. We made a big tree with only branches and had the kids fill in a leaf with their prayer requests. Right now, the leaves are starting to fill out. Our hope is that as the prayers get answered, we will replace the leaves with Fruit! Props to John-Michael for the idea. Here's a snippet of what the kids have written:

- To do well on my final test (the school year is just ending for the kids here)

-Wish: Nintendo

- Where is my mom?

- For my sister to be happy.

- To become rich and own a lot of apartments

- For my dad to come get me soon.

Through this prayer tree, we are seeing more of the kids than just joking around. Some of the kids have been for a long time Yesterday this one high school boy told us with a dry chuckle that he's been here for 14 years. They all, at least older guys and girls, want to get out of this place and away from always having to follow strict rules, only they have nowhere really to go or even if they find a relative, they'll send them back. Sometimes I wonder, what are they thinking about? How much is still hope and how much is feeling abandoned?

Other pictures from the week:

@ the Anicenter: cartoon museum. It's where the kids can go to watch anime for free in little cubicles. The boys here decided they wanted to see a scary anime. You can see how stunned they were by looking at the boy on the far right. They didn't know I even took a picture.

The two little ones in the "pool" aka wash-basin. The kids loved it nevertheless~

quarter of the way there, already?!!! O.o

Elisabeth, my partner, reminded me that we are already a quarter of the way done with our missions here. That really tooke me back because I feel that we haven't really started anything. So far, I've become accustomed to the customs of the home and its schedule but in terms of real, meaty, spiritual substance has yet to begun. So here are some things we are considering:

1. Prayer meeting for the staff: The hope is to start/end the day with Scripture and prayer with some of the teachers and that they will see fruit in their relationships with the kids. Then, ultimately, other staff who are not believers will see the fruit and transformation and be led to Christ. We are only here to get this ball rolling, real fruit, I believe, will come more with time.

2. Bedtime prayer for the kids: We want to pray with/for the kids before bed. It won't be anything super long but prayer in itself shows great love.

3. Bible study with middle/high school girls: Since we are living in the same suite as the older teen girls, we have the deepest relationship with them. Rather than just having fun and being nice to them, we want to offer something more: Everlasting food and comfort~

4. Collecting prayer requests from the kids: We want to allow every kids an outlet to express their concerns/prayer topics so that we can pray for specific things. So we are planning to hand out prayer leaves and pasting them on a prayer tree. As the prayers get answered, the leaves will be exchanged for fruit! We are hoping for lots of fruit!


In all these things, we are finding ourselves needing to rely on God's hand in everything-- scheduling, open and willing hearts, physical energy. Please keep these ideas in your prayers. We want to offer them lasting things rather than just niceities :)

spacesuits

So, I'm seeing a lot of typos and grammatical mistakes in my entries thus far. And if you're questioning the integrity of my English, well.. it's not my being here that I'm forgetting articles and spelling. Most of the time, I'm trying to squeezing in an entry before the kids start coming home which can be as early as 12:30pm. Otherwise, it's before bed and the girls in our dorm are blasting kpop or watching drama at the same time in the same room. So there! hahaha~ excuses, excuses, right? Actually I'm pretty concerened that my English would be downgraded upon arrival in the States just in time for speech therapy training. wohoo! I suppose I can just give myself speech therapy ;)

OK! so yesterday was bit of a crazy day. I found out on Monday that my friend Erica, who was suppose to have arrived in Korea on Monday for the orphanage missions, never got out of the airport. The reason being she had a fever and was showing flu-like symptoms, so they kept her in quarantine at the korean airport. Yesterday, she was transfered to a hospital near where my home is so JM and I went to visit her. Only they wouldn't allow any visitors! She's sealed in a room and no one except for doctors and food servers are allowed. They wouldn't even allow us to see through the door! Eventually, they allowed her to wave to us through the security camera and we were able to see her behind her info desk (apparently, this is not allowed). Everyone entering the room were wearing these intense spacesuits- goggles, bags over shoes, and gloves-- the whole shebang. I know we should take precautions against infectious germs but a bit overboard? We were given her room phone number so at least we can talk to her. JM and I agreed that since she's not allowed visitors, we would get her tons of snacks and random stuff to do to prevent extensive boredom. But it's crucial that she gets well quickly so she can do what she came to do! The doctors are estimating a week's stay but through prayer she can get well in a few days time and then the doctors will be amazed and give all glory to God!

As for me, we started official English classes with all the kids (1st to high school). We have scheduled blocks from each age group and are planning lessons that can be shared amongst the groups. However, there is a lot of planning and thinking through that we need to do. I'm so blessed that my partner has taken a lot of the burden in this... because honestly, I often don't want to think about. Recently, I've been feeling a bit lazy and not really wanting to give my all. In such moments, I'm reminded that I am weak and my "works" is not worth much. Then I turn to God to take care of everything and feel much less burdened. God's been truly filling me in crucial moments of parched-ness.

OK! Time for a super cute video! He's our youngest = loved by everyone. But how can you not?!?! One of the younger girls is taking the video so it may be a bit shaky at times. After seeing this clip, I'm thinking I need to be more gentle myself. His head bobbles like crazy~

trek up 남산 (Nam Mountain)

Today is my first Sunday at the home. Sunday is the one day out of the week that we allow ourselves time to rest/catch up with rest/meet people. It's bascially a day to get recharged~~!!!

In the morning, however, I was woken up by the sounds of kids getting ready for something. Everyone was going on a "walk" to NamSan and having already woken up, I decided to go with them. Our home's backyard is basically the mountain so getting there was no problem. But what I thought would be a walk was more like intense boot camp. I think we must have climbed 1000 stairs.. seriously, 30minutes of incline and finally at the end, we were at the top of the mountain. Here we proceeded to take a group picture then immediately started our trek back down. Then instead of going the long and proper way, we went through a "shortcut" down a dirt path. I ended up getting scratchs on my hands from sliding down the rocky parts and I was even wearing sneakers! The little kids (<10>

I am beginning to realize that just having fun and teaching English to the kids are not enough to get into the deeper things of the kids' hearts. Not that I am here to counsel them but in order to pray specifically we need to know details too. So I've been trying to brainstorm some ideas such as prayer for the kids before bed time, weekly bible study with the older girls, and getting prayer requests. Also, JM reminded me that we really need to bring the staff here to pray for the kids too. All these things I want to first give it up to the Lord and make sure that I'm not doing it out of my desire for deeds. If anyone has other suggestions, please tell me!!! I need all the brain and prayer power I can get!

pictures:

We went up like 1000 of these stairs. Even the little girl went up them all. No mercy~

The view from the top. To Koreans, this is the one of the best views.. one of the girls was like.. "it's so beautiful".. no wonder they Koreans want to go touring mountains so much when they come to the U.S.... this is all they got!

All of our kids and some teachers. Apparently, this is a hot spot and lots of movie sceans were taken here. If you look real close you can see how sweaty we all are.

feels like home already~

It's amazing how fast one gets used to things. It's day 4 and already I feel familiar with the schedule. Yesterday, I even bought a 5,000won watch to keep myself in check for promptness. Some things that I've gotten used to:

1. Sleeping on hard tile floors.

2. Eating rice 3x a day.

3. Manuevering around zooming motorcycles and the occasional cars that travel in the same space as pedestrians.(all legal in korea)

So far the kids seem to be very open to us being here. Not a lot of resistance... perhaps from the older boys but we don't get to interact with them much since they live in a different building than where we are housed. They love to be hugged and want to have your full attention. If you turn your head to listen to another kid, they will immediately call you back and with more urgency in their voice, ask you to watch them/read to them/ etc. Basically they seem to be like any children in a stable home. There have, however, been moments when I am taken aback by somethings that don't seem typical for children their age.

For one, the kids are brutally honest.

Did you clean your room? No.

Who told you to eat that? She did (pointing to the culprit).

Why didn't you come straight from school? I met my friend.

I mean usually kids will try to get away with things and fib a little. But these kids, they look at you and tell you what they did wrong, even the smallest things, things that the teacher would have no idea. But it makes sense because whether the teachers are there or not, they are under constant surveillance from the other kids. If you don't tell with your own lips then they will. So why get in trouble twice, one for doing wrong and another for not telling? So the kids here are all very honest, if you can put it that way.

A typical room. 2-4 kids sleep in one room. At night, they pull out the blanket and mats and sleep on the nice hard tile floors. So do we :)

Our bathroom. Notice, no tubs or shower curtain.

The home grounds.

Laundry hanging out to dry~ tiny undies~

One of our littlest. She reminds me of me at times~~

국민체조 (national exercise)

Wake up. Everyone hurries out by 6 and files into their designated lines by age. The director, who the kids call "dad" or "mom," comes to address them and have morning exercise, which consists of various routine stretches in 8 counts.... forreal... the old school style. Then rush back in and to get ready for school (for the kids) or help get ready. Eat. Walk together to school. Babysit while staff are in a meeting. English for the staff. QT. eat. prep/wait for kids to come back from school. teach. free time. teach. teach. free time. sleep.

Everything is pretty regimented. I regret not having a watch on me, I'm considering getting a cheap plastic one so I'm not the one who come out late for everything. No Asian time here! If the kids are late in coming out for morning exercises... they have to 업드려뻐쳐... which is a form of punishment where one gets into pushup position for however long he is told to. Mostly, boys do this. The kids have been teaching us outdoor tag games and card games and joking around. It seems so much more than 1.5 days. More like a week~ everyday is really full and at times overwhelming. To absorb everything and figure out what to say/do/put my hand... all very much brain power.

I'll try to take pictures of our home! AHHHHH... I wish I had more heads to think. All in all, it's been greeeaaaattttt!

first day at namsanwon

After picking up Elisabeth (my partner) from the airport, JM took us to the home. When we arrived, the kids weren't here because they were in school but we got to get ourselves settled and was taken on a tour around the place. And the place is REALLY nice! honestly, i was thinking like worn out floors and dingy rooms (my prejudice) but everything here is so clean and white. Furnitures, floor, tiles, walls are very light and clean... I found out later that the kids are required to clean the rooms twice daily. The kids then slowly started trickling at which point it was mad awkward.

HOWEVER! once we gave out cookies (I baked a couple dozen before leaving home) they were our's for the taking!! muhahaha!! well... not really but a few of the younger boys kept inching over and peering at the container then I got them to talk to me and tell me their names~ then later they asked me to read their only 2 english books.. one about community helpers and another about dinosaurs. The boys would ask me to read and then fight over what was what! haha.. anyway.. they're shutting the internet off now. gtg!

moving up (literally)

I find myself actively having to think that I am in Korea. At times, when eating at a restaurant or at my uncle's house, I feel as though I'm in Nova or any other Korean town in the states. The side dishes they serve are the same and the same tv shows play in the background. But then I'm hit in the face that, in fact, this is Korea when I see and hear only things you can experience here.

For one, have you ever heard the sound of rubber rubbing against rubber? That is the sound often heard in any indoor parking garage. Kinda sounds like sticky squeals as tires scrape against rubber flooring as they attempt to turn and park.

And everyone here lives in apartments. They're countless! See picture below.. the buildings in the back are also apt.

And have you ever wondered how people move around here? There's no way a sofa can fit in an elevator to get to the 15th floor of the complex. Well, if you're dying to know, I was fortunate enough to discover the answer.

HUGE CRANES!!!

whew... updating blogs is a lot of work. hopefully I'll get faster at this otherwise... these will probably be the last pictures you guys will see! jk jk... perhaps not... :)

KOrEa!!

After 16 hours of sleeping, watching movies, eating and reading interchangeablym, I arrived in Incheon, S.K. It's been 10 years since I've last come but the feel is just the same. A lot of dark haired, nicely dressed people walking around :)

Have you guys riden Korean Air recently.. it's pretty nice~ your own tv screen and lots of food :) As everyone recommended, I got the bibimbap then watched House, Tales of Despereux, He's not that into you.. bleh bleh. But toward the end, people were getting ansty despite these ammendmities and babies were crying their heads off. This one poor baby in front, you could see that the mom was getting frustrated because gradually her patting the baby's back became more like a thumping.. eck.. hope it doesn't leave a bruise.

Anyway, my uncle picked me up and so I'll be here until Monday when the REAL fun starts~ I'm all equipped with playdoh, guess who, uno cards, and construction paper :)

Thanks for your prayers everyone. In sum, I am safe, full, and excited!

Korea tomorrow?!

Thank you everyone for your faithful prayers and generosity!!! I have well met and exceeded the cost of the trip, which means 1)God is amaaaaaaaaazing 2)we will be able to donate a significant amount to Jerusalem Ministry and to the children being served under it.

Seriously, when I first wrote down the amount I would need to get to Korea and live there (~$1800), I gasped outloud. Where would I get all that?? I had never needed so much funding for a missions trip before and last year when I went to AZ for 2 weeks, I ended up meeting the deficient amount. So this year, I was like... I guess I'll just have to use my tax-return. But God started to blow my mind with the generosity He showed through you all. Checks were being sent it in 3-digit amounts. Those checks probably were an accumulation of hard work and a lot of saving, and I'm not taking it for granted. So generous! God is good! He provides! wow.

Now, only 24 hours away from the time of my flight, there is much to be done. Other than packing, purchasing things, and all the logistics, I have a lot to prepare in my heart. I'm really excited to see how God reveals his glory during my stay. I'm also antsy to see the children at the homes come to Christ. But at the same time, I can't expect to see the kids falling left and right to repent and be saved just because I go there.

I suppose I do fantasize about it though, leading every kid I meet to Jesus following my first deep conversation with him/her. But like in the story of Nehemiah, it took a lot of people, resources, and time to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem (and have you guys noticed.. the ministry is called.. Jerusalem Ministry ???). People ranging from goldsmith to perfume makers took up a section of the wall and started to build it back up working alongside each other. The perfume maker probably coudln't actually see his neighbor, the goldsmith, working on the wall at the same time as he but, they were, and the wall started to get built. Like such, any ministry or missions work the same way... not one person building it up in a fury of prayer/service/committment but by everyone, layer by layer, adding their own personal florish. So, I shouldn't be disappointed to see little or even no change in the attitudes of the children towards God or others, but trust that my work will contribute to the completion. Maybe my energy there will be equivalent to mortar to help bind the more apparent bricks together, or maybe God will bless me with the opportunity to see one of the gates of the wall being raised up. Either way, it shouldn't matter knowing that all components are essential for His work.

Please pray for me right now that I will not forget this during my time in Korea, whatever happens. And I hope that in whatever ministry or missions that you are committed to, you will remember the same :)

last day at VIA

At the beginning of this week, everyone at work reminded me how it was my last week at VIA (that's my work place), and everytime I would be like, "oh yea... it's my last week." Up until the very last session, it felt like I would return the next day doing what we've always done-- teach, hang out, clean, laugh with the kids-- but today, as the kids got on the bus to go home, it finally became real that today was gonna be the last day I'd be their teacher. I'll still get to see them whenever I visit, but I suppose it won't really be the same.

Either way, I'm so lucky to have gotten to have been a part of their lives. Also, unknowingly, the kids have helped me get over my #1 fear. Some part of me had feared having children because of the chance of having a child with a mental or physical disability. I feared my ability to love him/her, because it seemed extra challenging and less rewarding. But having worked with such children, I can see how it really doesn't matter. They are so lovable in their own ways that other "typical" children cannot be. They share their joy, excitement, and pain just as openly, rather even more so. And with that, I was able to love them enough to know that my fear was nothing to worry about.

I don't write nearly often enough so every entry is like a 5 paragraph essay... but one more thing!

After work today, my co-workers/friends had a huge surprise for me. I had seen it coming because they kept on referring something without actually saying the thing, you know, like "do you want me to leave IT there?", "What do you want me to do with um.. it" and I even caught one person quickly hiding IT. But still I didn't expect it to be nearly so great~ everyone put together a photo album with all the pictures of the kids + teachers (those I knew, b/c they made me pose with the kids) AND they framed an art-piece done by one of the students that I've been coveting. It felt like it was my birthday~ so great~

*"Elephant" ... glued by Basiu.