The Long Awaited First Blog from Korea

It is the end of the first quarter…and I haven’t written a blog since arriving in Korea almost 3 months ago. Now I have the task of some major summarization ahead of me!

I feel like I am getting the hang of living in Seoul. My apartment is about a 30-40 walk from the school. I try to walk home often, which has helped me have a better grasp on where things are located. It also gives me a chance to meet people along the way. I have been surprised by the lack of warmth Koreans show. I have made a connection with the couple who run the grocery store near my apartment, but until I learn some Korean the relationship probably won’t deepen much.

Right now school takes up most of my time and coaching JV volleyball eats at the remainder. I hadn’t planned on coaching this year, but God impressed on my heart that it was a great opportunity to minister to girls I wouldn’t have the chance to meet otherwise. It has been stressful at times, but I am so grateful that God allowed me to have the chance to be a part of this team. I have seen growth, not just in skill, but also in teamwork and how they treat one another off of the court. We have started praying as a team and the girls are actually volunteering to take a turn at it now. I had a few who were actively leaving out Emily, my one white girl (Canadian), and it seems like that has dissipated. The “leader of the pack” actually asked Emily if they could warm up together –if this doesn’t seem like a big deal to you pretend you are 15 and in a different country than where you lived for 13 years and that you are the only white person on the team—that’s a HUGE deal to a teenager! Anyway, it has been encouraging to see change.

Many of my students come from privileged families, but a tendency towards becoming a workaholic seems to run deeply among their parents. It is heartbreaking to hear some of their stories. They have the newest technology; the fanciest phone and a touch iPod, but one girl casually mentioned that she only sees her Dad on Saturdays. One brilliant female student is extremely hard on herself because her Father has made it clear that only his son matters to him. He has even voiced this to teachers. This has turned her into a perfectionist of immense proportions. Please pray that I will have wisdom in dealing with the various situations.

I miss family and friends, but I haven’t dealt with intense homesickness. It’s just a moment-by-moment thing. I can say, like many others before me, the SWO letters came at EXACTLY the right moment….right in the middle of a terrible, no good, very bad day! God is so good to me!

I was able to go to the Philippines and work for a few days with a church and a school there. Korea has a harvest celebration called Chusok, which gave us a few extra days off of school. By the time we left Korea our team was whittled down to three, but we all knew God had called us to go—amidst the storm—so off we flew. This trip was eye opening for me to say the least. I was impacted by the contrast of the Philippines to where I live and teach, which has made it difficult to adjust now that I have returned. The people there have nothing--but are filled with joy. The church was truly a modern world example of the Acts church. The pastor doesn’t receive a pay check and people just provide for his needs. We often could not determine whose child was whose without asking. They all take care of one another, literally. It is a church of broken people, a church that demonstrated grace unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. They brought in and loved on people who were actively rejected by other Christians. It is something we are still mulling over and fully expecting God to use in our lives.

Thank you for your prayers, your love and support, and your letters! Some days that is what God uses to keep me going!