Korea's Sunny Side

So I made a new Korean friend this year at school. After only meeting with Sunny a few times at the beginning of this past fall semester, I asked if she would mind getting together once a week or so to help me out a little bit with my Korean. After about two weeks of the class being just Sunny, her roommate, and I, the class exploded. Since then we've consistently been meeting on Sunday nights, and what started out as a couple of people getting together has turned into 2 classes of about 8 total students.

I don't know how to thank enough or how I can show her how much I appreciate what she's done to help me! She's been such a great teacher, and I've really learned a lot. (I've even been neglecting school work at times on Sunday afternoons to make sure I get my Korean assignment finished in time! heehee)

Another time, a few weeks ago, I pretty much invited myself over for lunch to Sunny's apartment. She graciously accepted the my own invitation for her to cook Korean food for me, even though looking back I think she may have been pretty busy that weekend.. oops!

Regardless, she whipped up this delicious meal that we shared together! (And she says she's never really cooked before...)

Thanks Sunny!!

100 Day Countdown!

So I was informed today that in exactly 100 days from today I will be arriving at our debrief in Alabama before heading to Seoul for the summer! I was so excited I literally had to hold onto my chair so I didn't get up and start jumping around my room!

So 100 days left of preparation. But I was later reminded in the midst of my busy day of the most important part of preparing for a summer on mission. I met with a friend who is preparing for a summer in Africa. It will be her first time overseas, and we were talking about what she might expect. She said that she just didn't know what to expect and what to do to best prepare. I then began to think of myself a year ago and what I was anticipating my coming summer to be. I remember feeling inadequate and unworthy of the task set before me.

Now I feel like I know somewhat of what I should expect, but I'm beginning to think there is potential danger in having this confidence. The last thing I want to do is forget that there really is nothing that qualifies me for this job outside of the fact that I am Christ's willing servant. He could just as easily accomplish His purpose without me involved in the least.

So how do I best prepare? Knowing or not knowing, being ready or not, I think some sound advice can be found in Micah 6:8

"... And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

What else could make me more ready?!

"He felt their pain."

A friend from this summer called me up today and shared the following story with me...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34611705/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

In short, the story is about a 28 year old Korean American missionary who has been in Seoul since June 2008. He planned on being there a month or so, but felt compelled to stay after getting involved in refugee work. Since then he has been in Seoul as well as in and out of China working to help refugees.

He knew good and well that this work in China was very dangerous, but that's not what mattered to him. So on Christmas Eve, he attempted to illegally cross into the North. He crossed over the icy river with a letter to the leader himself, crying out for peoples' freedom. He has not been heard from since. It is suspected that he is mostly likely now being detained by the government. The story also mentions that when his parents began to have feelings of what he may be up to, that they told him to keep doing what he had been in Seoul, where he was safe.

"Why in the world would he put himself in this situation?" is the question that most of us want to ask. Why would he leave this comfortable, easy life of the few?

I try to put myself in this situation (well not this situation [don't worry Mom]), and wonder what I would do. When everyone seems to be against me. The Spirit is telling me to go one way, yet everyone is telling me otherwise... even those who may seem to know better. What do I do? ...what seems to make sense or what I know I'm supposed to do even when I'm not sure why...

The following was quoted from an email Park sent to his parents on the 23rd of December:

"Know that I am the happiest in all my life... Incredible miracles are happening in the liberation of North Koreans right now.... We are going to see a big and beautiful change in Korea and in the World this year!"

Robert Park set out to raise awareness of what is really going on, and now, because of his sacrifice, their story is reaching countless masses. It is, after all, because of HIS sacrifice that any of us may receive the freedom which determines the value of it all in the end. So what will we do?

Entertaining Angels

Before I came home for Christmas break I took a little trip up to Indiana to visit an old friend from last summer. Indiana is a lot colder than Louisiana, so there was a little blizzard that got in the way of my original travel plans home... 2 short flights turned into 4 flights and getting home four hours later!

I boarded my third flight of the day, from Baltimore to Orlando and sat in between two unsuscpecting ladies who seemed harmless enough. Neither of them really spoke to me, which, at this point, I considered a good thing. I couldn't count how many times I had already been asked that day the same string of questions you get from strangers you meet while traveling... "Where are you going...
Oh, where are you in school...
Well what are you studying...
Kinesiology? Um, that would be...
Well, what do you do with that...

Missions, huh, well-- (fillin the blank with their opinion of where that would get me)."

Maybe now it would at least be a little easier to get a good nap in, especially since it had just gotten dark outside. All three of us dozed off and on until the flight attendant came by to bring us some snacks. I ate a few Cheese Nips and then offered my Southwest honey roasted peanuts to the woman on my right in the window seat. "You don't like peanuts?" she asked. "Sure, I'll take them, thank you." I really do like peanuts, but no matter, that was unneccesary talk.

This was the extent of our conversation, until something sparked it... that string of questions. But at some point in the procession of it all, I began to feel at ease. This woman had a very comforting spirit about her. She was so easy to be around and just easy to talk to. I really felt like she was considering everything I was saying, not just speculating from her own point of view at what I, to her just some young college girl, was doing with my life.

Essentially what I ended up telling her is that I have no idea what I am doing with my life. I have ideas, and I am trying my best to follow Christ, but I'm not exactly sure where He is leading me. I shared with her my heart for culture, diversity, and language. I told her all about Korea and my plans to return. In the end she said, "He's putting it in your heart right now. Just keep following Him, and He'll show it to you. He'll take you where you need to be."

By the time our flight was done, we had traded stories and email addresses. I had told her all about Katrina, and she had shared her experiences with 9/11. But deeper than all of that, I knew that God had placed my by someone special on this flight. The connection was there.... because Mrs. D and I really are family... sister in Christ! Another of His followers to give me a little extra encouragment in my journey. Before she got off the plane (where I was to remain for the very last leg of my treck to New Orleans), we hugged and said goodbye, nice to meet you, etc... but I couldn't help but think to myself of the verse in Hebrews 13:2 which says, "Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for in doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it."

Blogger Revived!

I sit here pondering what to say... what to write to get back into the blog that I started just about a year ago. I first began keeping this blog because after a close friend of mine started blogging. (Thanks Mer!) I wasn't sure what exactly I would blog about, or if my life could be interesting enough for people to want to actually take time out of their day to read. So I decided to blog about a huge adventure that was awaiting me. That adventure has come and gone, but in another sense it is still such a real part of my life. It changed my life and many of my priorities. It is now what consumes much of my day to day thoughts and conversation. Now I can only wonder why it took me as long as it did to hear God calling me back to Seoul next summer.

A couple of months ago I began throwing around ideas of what I might spend my time doing next summer... knowing that if I was going to anything other than just getting a summer job, I should probably start thinking about it sooner than later. I had many mediocre ideas, none of which really holding my attention. I actually felt somewhat wary about getting too excited about any of these ideas because I hadn't really started praying about any of them, and I knew I couldn't seriously consider any of these before I had lifted it all up in prayer. So after a week of really asking God to reveal to me what He would have me do, I was offered different mission trip opportunities, which I began to think might be the right answer. Still none of these really gripped my heart. Suddenly one night, while talking on the phone to a team member from Seoul, I felt as if God was telling me that I would return to Seoul next summer. I went to my room where all I could manage to do was pray and cry.

I later explained all of this to a friend who replied, "Well wasn't it obvious?" I stopped and thought for a moment... and it did seem pretty obvious. Now that Korea took up the majority of my thoughts, why hadn't I seen that, of course, this is where God wants me to go? I think often times we can be looking so hard for what God wants us to do or where He wants us to go that we so easily miss what He's trying to tell us in those sweet, still whispers.

So now the new adventure begins... or maybe it just continues! So back to Seoul next summer, and blogging too ;)

Language of Love

Yesterday was our last day at school. We had a mushy gushy ceremony where the students sang to us in Korean and we each got to share one last teary message with them. They gave us little gifts, and we finished with a very unsugary cake for all the summer birthdays. It was good... sweet, sentimental.. everything it should have been.

Then a few minutes later as everyone was mingling and saying more goodbyes, Leah, a student that I've gown pretty close to, pulled me and Kayla aside to talk to us alone. "Story," she said. She wanted to tell us a story, but she wanted to be able to tell it in her language so she could really express herself well. So, we found someone to translate.

Leah said that she didn't like us at the beginning of the summer. She had only been at the school for a month and barely even knew the alphabet. All we would do was speak English to her, which mad her feel sad, angry, and frustrated. But, she said we persisted to love her and so she began to want to learn so she could speak to us. Our team grew on her, but Kayla and I had a special place in her heart because of the way we had befriended her. Then with tears in her big brown eyes she said that she knew it's inevitable that we would be leaving soon, but that she wanted us to go back home, study, do well in school, and have good lives. She said she would pray for us everyday and pray that we would one day get to meet again.

Tears filled my eyes, and I could see in Leah's face one reason why God has brought me to South Korea this summer.

Leah has learned over 600 words just since we've been here and speaks to me more than any of the other students.

I remember meeting Leah and after just a few days her saying with a big frown, "I am sad. I cannot speak English." I told her we would teach her. Not long after that, I began to notice improvements in her Enligh every day. Every morning Leah would ask me, "Did you have breakfastee?" Leah's a tiny little thing with a big smile on her face every day. "Happy everyday!" she always says. She would go around saying "I piggy" after I called her a pig one day when she downed 6 pork chops at lunch. She's the only Korean I know that won't eat rice. "Rice no delicious." I think she just wanted as much room as she could for delicious foods. She would always make fun of the hair on my arms.. hair down, she calls it, like a down comforter I guess. My favorite thing about Leah was every time I would see her she would hug me so tight and say, "I miss you."

Better to Give

Over the course of the summer I feel God has been dealing with my heart about living a sacrificial life. All too often we live with only one person in mind. ME, ME, ME. We wake up every day, go to job/school with the intentions of making money/gaining knowledge in order to make money, drive our cars, entertain ourselves with TV, computer, books, friends, hobbies, or even studying. Now while none of these things in themselves are the root of selfishness, I think it is our ambitions that are... or can be.

All of this makes me ask myself... When was the last time I did something in which I would receive no benefit? When did I last do something completely for someone else's gain?

Last Friday I walked to a stationary store and came back to school with a cute new notebook with a picture of the map of Asia on the cover. I loved my new notebook, and I even told myself that every time I used it I could be reminded to pray for the 10/40 window. (Let me tell you I had big plans for this notebook!) As I was showing a teammate of mine, a student walks up and says, (in Konglish-- Korean/English mix) "I like that. Can I have it?" Everything inside of me wanted to say, "Of course not.. I just bought this cute little notebook to bring back to America so I could be reminded to pray for your country!" But instead I just gritted my teeth and said, "Sure! Of course you can have it." Then she sat me down to help her with Enlish. After about an hour of going through dissecting and explaining about 10 little sentences she opens up that notebook I just handed over and begins to fill the pages with all of the words I just helped her to understand.

I felt unmeasurably blessed (even without my new notebook) knowing that somehow, even if she never remembers who I am, something that I did, that really cost me nothing, has reached out and helped someone else. What if we all lived like this every day, with every action? We would either all have a lot of new notebooks or we could possibly reach people we have never dreamed reachable all through a never-ending chain of Christ's love flowing through us.

I then began to take notice of all the things that were done for me, just in that one day, that I paid nothing for yet only received the benefit of. I was given a free ticket to Lotte World. People tried so hard all day to communicate with me, even though I was the only one in the group that didn't know Korean. Someone shared there small umbrella with me, and another person, which resulted in everyone still getting wet. Teachers were concerned I would catch a cold because I was wet. I was given tissues, yes.. tissues.. to dry off because I was soaking wet. A teacher bought me a whole dinner, and when I got to the table to sit, I realized he was sharing his dinner already with a student. And a random 12 year old girl in a line for a ride shared candy with me! All in one little day at Lotte World.

What will I do when I go home? Will I sink back into my same old routine? Or will I remain in this challenged state I find myself in here? I pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to convict me, and that my Christian friends will hold me accountable to this great calling.

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