Destination : Asia

I cannot believe only have a few days and two weeks left in Korea! Time has gone sooooooo fast.

First things first, I must apologize if this post is very random. My mind is like confetti in a wind tunnel at the moment, but I don’t think I will find time to write another update any time soon, so I must do my best with how my brain is at the moment.

I have been as busy as ever. Not only have I been teaching at the girls’ high school and the mission center, but also at day care centers and different churches. I also had the experience of working with a translator. I remember in the book “Do Hard Things” Alex and Brett talked about how they had to learn to get used to translators when they went to Japan. I always wondered why that would be difficult, and now I have learned why!

I am slowly getting used to Korean culture. I never knew I could make people so happy by just eating their food! They also love to buy gifts. This can be a very humbling experience when you know your family has much more than them, but they are the one buying you the gift.

Today was my last class at the mission center. Tomorrow is my last day at the girls’ high school. I then will have Thursday to rest, and on Friday the rest of my mission team arrives. I’m excited to see them all, but I know that their arrival marks the end of my trip. With the mission team, we will be doing some sightseeing, along with teaching an English camp and visiting different churches.

Korea has been a completely amazing experience. It has taught me so many things, and I have definitely seen God at work. It has been a lot different than I would have ever imagined.

I have attached some pictures below so you can see.

These are two girls I teach at the mission center

These are two girls from the high school…..I love the pink uniforms!!

This is the view from the apartment I am staying in

This is a traditional Korean table….sitting on the floor was definitely hard to get used to, but it gets easier every time.  I’m sitting with the brother of my Korean pastor’s wife. He was taking me to eat his favorite food – mud snail soup!!  (and yes, there was mud in it!! ) .

These are traditional Korean houses

Last but not least, here is a picture of a good friend of mine – Sunhye. She was the one that I ate eel with….hahaha….

As I’ve mentioned some strange food in this post, I must say the hardest things I have had to eat are still tomatoes and mushrooms. I don’t think I will ever learn to like those things…..

Anyways, I guess that’s all for now. Thank you so much for all your prayers!!!

Let me know if you got as angry as I did.

We need to be praying for our country that it would return to how it started!

Let me begin my post with this : God is awesome. Period.

I know you all know that, but I had to stress it, because I think many times we forget. We may say it, but do we truly believe it in our heart? Has it become trite? I know that phrase certainly does in my life. I am always so thankful when God humbles me, and shows me how great He is.  It is a tremendous experience, and what He has done in Korea is no exception.

Before arriving in Korea, I was told I would teach one class each day to about 20-30 students. It was also mentioned we might teach the parents some English, but that wasn’t definite. I was content with that. I felt safe. It seemed like I would be doing enough work to consider this an actual mission trip, and not just a vacation. However, God had a different plan.

After having a few days to sight see and get caught up on sleep, I was informed that I had been asked to teach Bible at a girls’ high school, right in the middle of school hours! This was certainly a large door of opportunity that I did not expect.

I go to the girls’ high school Monday through Friday, teaching 3-4 classes per day. Each class has around 40 students in it, meaning 120-160 girls hear the message of the gospel every day. I am so blessed that God has given me this opportunity! It is better than anything I could ever imagine.

In the evenings, I teach a group of 7-8 elementary school students English. This is much harder for me, because I only have one student who understands. It is a long process for anyone to learn anything, and has definitely tested my patience! However, God is still in control, and I think I am slowly making progress.

About Korea in itself, I’ve been telling people that if I had one word to explain it, it would be “cute.”
Here are some things I find cute :
~The small sizes of soda
~How everyone bows to one another
~That everywhere I go people tell me to sit down
~How children on the street will laugh and point at me
~The way English is written incorrectly everywhere
~The school bell – it’s a tune, and actually rather pretty
~All their colorful socks
~How everyone likes to practice their English phrases on me, whether they know what they mean or not
~The school uniforms (at the girls’ high school they are pink !!)
~How many people are worried about getting a suntan
~The pretty and colorful signs
I’m sure there are more, but I can’t think of them right now…..

Also, for strange food, I have eaten eel, squid, and conch. To tell the truth, none of them were all that bad!

I would love to add in some pictures, but it isn’t letting me at the moment, and I don’t have time to figure it out….I also have way too many to choose from!!

Thank you all for your prayers!!  This week will be a bit different, for the girls’ high school is having testing, so I will not be going there. However, I will be teaching a Bible study to some church members, along with still teaching my evening elementary school classes.

God has been doing great things, and I’m excited to see what’s next!

No, I didn’t swim the English channel….or climb Mount Everest. I also didn’t invent a new ice cream flavor, discover a new planet, or anything like that. It wasn’t quite that exciting.

However, I probably made one of the biggest decisions in my life. (Notice how I said one of them. I did not accept Christ as my Savior today or get baptized, since I all ready have; nor did I decide whom I would marry). What was this decision? It has been something that has been bothering me for about four years. Actually, make that five. This decision is about college. And, why I am dragging this whole thing out is because I’m still nervous about the whole thing myself, (which is basically why I’m forcing myself to announce it on my blog).

To get to the point, I have officially decided to attend one of the largest Christian colleges in North America – Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Yes, that school. How God brought me there is beyond me. For a long time, I had planned on going to a teeny-tiny Bible college in Canada, which had about 150 students at tops. Now I will be attending a college with 12,000 students on campus. I’ve seen the campus for all of three hours, but have had a wonderful year with their online classes. The teaching is just incredible – I have learned so much, and drawn closer to the Lord. However, to get the degree I would like, I need to be on campus. So, this is why the transition.

Because of this decision, my schedule has turned practically insane. I’ll be in Korea until July 29th, then going straight to Maine for 2 weeks, and finally being dropped off at Liberty University on the way home. It is going to be crazy busy!

One friend has commented :  “Is that even healthy?”

Speaking of crazy busy, a lot of other things have been going on. I have been squeezing in as much time with family and friends as I can.

I went out to a Vietnamese restaurant with my Chinese friend

Also, one of my dear friends from Maine came to visit me.

We have been having a lot of fun so far! Here we are on a hike.

Also, some of my Arkansas friends has us over for a lovely dinner!

Of course, I have also been squeezing in last minute things with the family. How I will miss them!!

The last time we will be together is on Sunday, because of all of our busy summer schedules. However, I know that God will provide the strength we need when we miss each other, and how could we even serve God if none of us went anywhere?

So, that is what I did this week…in a nutshell at least. I have a feeling I won’t be updating anymore for a while, but please continue to keep me in your prayers as I go to Korea. I can’t believe it’s coming on so soon! As I write this, I have 4 days, 6 hours, and 50 minutes….yikes!

Much of church “discusssions” are on worship today. Some want to have just hymns, while others want a mix of choruses and hymns, and some just want choruses. And then there is the question about should there be drums or not? How about a guitar? Should the worship leader wear a suit and tie, or jeans and a T-shirt?

Well, take a step back from all of that. Does it really matter? Or are all those just personal preferences? I saw this movie about worship in Vietnam, and it made me realize just what worship truly is.

Hope you were encouraged, and that next time you go to sing in church, you remember why you are actually doing it, and what is truly important.

So, I noticed that my trip had been featured on Jibenow. Because of that, I felt like I should make a post with more of the details of my upcoming adventure.

As you can tell, I have a heart for Asia. For years, I would tell my mom that I wanted to go to China or Japan….or anywhere over there. However, my mom would always think to herself, Over my dead body is my daughter going over there by herself!

Well, when my family moved to Arkansas, God placed us in a church that had a Korean ministry. Was this a coincidence? I think not! I see God’s hand all over that. With that, I have had many opportunities to teach English over the past year, and even pick up some Korean myself! I was then asked to help teach English and Bible this summer in South Korea. And, because of my many Korean friends I have, my mom is at peace about it….a huge answer to prayer!

Because English is such a large draw for those in Asian countries, it is a wonderful ministry to bring others to Christ. Normally, parents pay for their children to go to after school English classes, but we will be teaching them for free, if they listen to the Bible lesson of course. For teaching, we will be using the Alpha and Omega program, if any of you homeschoolers are familiar with that. Along with teaching the students, I believe we will also have a conversation class two times a week for the parents. That way, we can not only reach the children, but also the parents for Christ.

So, I have my passport, schedule, and ticket. What else do I need? Your prayers. Without those, I don’t know if this trip will be possible. For prayer requests, pleasue pray for traveling safety, but also that I would be okay being gone from home for so long. I have never been that far for that long ever in my life, so I am pretty nervous about that. However, I am also very excited. I leave early early in the morning on May 27th, and according to my handy-dandy Mac timer download, I leave in 11 days, 18 hours, 32 minutes and ten seconds.

Back to prayer requests, please pray for the hearts of those who we will reach. We are estimating to have 20-30 students, and it would be amazing if all of them knew Jesus Christ as their Savior by the end of the summer. Even better, it would be cool if their parents got saved…don’t you think?

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. I will keep you updated when I can!!

So, way at the beginning of the month, I was planning on posting this on Mother’s Day. Apparently, I forgot. Maybe I should learn how to do the scheduling thing, so I can write posts ahead of time and not forget to actually put them on my blog!

Anyways, back to the beginning of the month, I received my monthly Voice of the Martyrs newsletter. (These magazines are free by the way, and I highly recommend them, only not for children or younger teens). For May, it was focusing in on China, and a young woman named Esther whose parents were taken into prison labor camps back in November 2009. Their whole church was demolished, and many people were beaten. Since Esther is in America for seminary, she was safe from the persecution. However, she does not know where her parents are, and she misses them terribly. Also, Esther’s mother, Yang Caizhen, has arthritis, and that will be especially difficult with the 15-hour work days at the labor camp.

For Mother’s Day, Esther asked us all to write to her mother, and Voice of the Martyrs sent out six post cards in Chinese that we could send. All we had to do was pay postage, and Bible verses and an encouraging message were able to be sent to encourage Yang Caizhen. Although it cost almost a dollar to send each one of them, I can totally say that it was worth every penny. We in America understand nothing about persecution, and that was certainly the least we could do for those suffering for the cause of Christ.

Although I wouldn’t recomend it for everyone, you can watch Esther’s story from a CBN update on the Voice of the Martyrs blog. There is also a movie where Esther says “Thank you” for all the prayers and letters people have done for her parents, which I would recommend to anyone. You can watch it here.

This was just something I had been thinking about, and made me realized how fortunate I am. Not only is my mom fantabulous, (as I’ve all ready shared in an earlier post ) but she’s healthy and in a safe place. On top of that, so is my dad and brothers and me. Yet, how many times did I complain today? Gee….I wish I could remember better how blessed I am…

This is a post I wrote for another blog I contribute to. The theme I had to write about was Mother’s Day, and since today is Mother’s Day, I thought I would post it here on my own blog. Hope you enjoy it, even if the audience I write to on the other blog is mostly adults!

As this mother’s day draws near, my thoughts go back to my own mother, whom I love very much.
One of the things I appreciate in my mom is her frugality. When we were little, we used to get a lot of hammy-downs, which, to many kids may not be very exciting. However, when my mom passed our “new” clothes out to us, she made it seem like Christmas!
Also, instead of paying extra money to have our birthday parties somewhere else, my mom was willing to have our birthday parties in our home, and make up our own games. They weren’t just pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey type of games either – these were serious scavenger hunts with lots of fun, homemade prizes! After all the fun and games, my mom would present us with a delicious cake, which was of course made from scratch and decorated with her own artistic designs.
Although we were home educated and spent a majority with each other, my mom made everything special. Whether it was singing silly songs to help us remember our multiplication tables, cuddling up on the couch while reading history books, or planning picnics for lunch, every moment was seen as significant and not a time to be wasted. Of course, a time that was always made special was morning devotions. It never had a time limit – Mom would talk until we understood the concept!
Looking back through these memories, I think it shows just how a mom impacts a family.  It is her spirit and her countenance that affects the family the most. The saying “if Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!” is certainly true. Having a mom that got excited about everything, (especially vegetables!) helped me learn what Paul says in Philippians about being content in every circumstance. Not only that, but it also showed me the joy of the Lord, and how it truly is our strength. Most importantly, it showed that my mom’s faith was real. Now, am I saying that my mom was perfect? No, of course not. There were plenty of times when my mom wasn’t cheerful. However, when she did mess up, she readily asked for our forgiveness, and made it right with us then and there.
So, to all you moms out there, just remember how important your actions and words are around to your family, and everyone else for that matter! Your facial expressions and tone of voice can easily set the stage on how everyone around you will act.
And, to those of you who have a mother or wife that has been a cheerful influence on your life, don’t forget to say thank you to them this Mother’s Day. It will return the joy they have given you!

In my life, I was blessed with one year of being able to compete in a Christian homeschool speech organization, known as the NCFCA, (I actually have no idea what those even stand for…National Christian Forensics something something….I think at least… ). Anyways, there were a lot of benefits from that one year, besides learning how to speak in front of people and convey thoughts better. I mean, just look -

New wonderful friends

Cool T-shirts

(Can anyone guess where that picture was taken by the way? Civil War fanatics should know! )

Amazing debate boxes

(and yes, that is my name in Korean…however, that was before I could write Korean, so it’s not actually my handwriting)

Opportunity to see cool places

(I bet no one can guess what that place is…. )

And, did I mention, meet great new friends?

Yes, it was a great year. However, while I was going through that year, it wasn’t so great. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be there. Normally, parents have to force their children to compete in NCFCA….I practically had to beg on my hands and knees to be allowed to! But, I was greatly discouraged much of the time. I wanted to win, to do well, and yet, I failed so many times. For a while, I blamed it on the fact that this was my first year, so it was okay. And then, well-meaning parents would tell wonderful success stories about how first years don’t matter, and how all their kids went to Nationals their first year. So, it was pretty much obvious how bad I was at this speaking thing….Even so, I loved every second of being in front of people. I savored every moment of every debate, even those that I was completely torn apart and demolished on, (which was quite freqent).

My favorite speech I did was probably my Dramatic Interpretation, in which I would act out a book, doing all the characters’ voices and movements. The piece I chose was from my favorite book, (besides the Bible of course!), entitled If I Perish. It is the story of a Korean woman in World War Two. In my interp, I told of the time she refused to bow to the Japanese shrines, and how God helped her have the strength to do so. Every time I told it, the judges would cry, and many would come after me later and beg me to tell them the rest of the story. I knew it was a touching story, a story that could easily change someone’s life. So at every tournament, I would pray that it would reach out to as many people as it needed to. Of course, the better I did, the more people it would reach, since I would show it to more judges, and probably more people would come to watch it if it was ranked higher. However, it never even made it to regionals, let alone nationals. For a while, I was discouraged. Not so much at the fact that I didn’t rank well, (at least, I don’t think that was why…I hope it wasn’t at least!), but I really wanted the story to touch as many lives as it could.

Yet, just recently as I was thinking of my many friends at regionals and how I wish I could be there, God brought something to mind. The story from If I Perish didn’t necessarily need to be told to a lot of people. God led me to chose that story so that I would be changed by it. Now, more than a year later, I am planning to go to South Korea myself. I am planning to leave  on May 27th, and will be gone until July 29th. I’m not sure if I would be ready for that if I had not recited about God’s faithfulness over and over again.

So, for those of you who are competing, and maybe feeling discouraged, don’t give up hope. Romans 8:28 reads, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  God will use what you are doing right now later in your life to serve Him; every experience, good or bad.

This post is for all of you who are studying for finals, and your brain is dead. This post is also for those who have finished their finals, and have nothing better to do. However, if you fit into neither of those categories, yet still love pointless, random things, than this post can be for you as well.

Enjoy!

A new version of “The Lion King”

The death of a bunny ( a marshmellow one – don’t call PETA on me yet!!)

And, my personal favorite, our National Treasure impression:

I apologize for the lack of depth of this post. Rest assured that there will posts of that type coming soon.