Cravings for Kimchee

As I sit here in my room. trying to memorize all the muscles in the lower extremity of the body, I can't help but stare off and daydream. I look at the handkerchief that hangs on my wall, signed by all of the students and staff from our schooll. I'm taken back to that place and I go over every name on the handkerchief, remembering each student, what her hair looked like, what his favorite ice cream was, all of the time spent together over the course of last summer.

Now it seems so far away and so long ago...

While I want to put all that I can into what I'm pursing at the moment, I can't suppress the persistent deeper desire to return to what seems more and more like an apparition with every passing day.

66 days...

Value of a Sparrow

As I was reading of Jesus' commissioning of the original 12 (Matthew 10), I was struck with the truth that as a missionary, disciple, minister, follower of Jesus Christ, this is my calling as well.

"...but go to the lost sheep... you received without paying, give without pay... And if anyone will not receive you, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town...

...be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves... do not be anxious how you are to speak of what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you... and you will be hated for My name's sake...

...So have no fear... And not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father... you are of more value than many sparrows...

...Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

I cannot call myself His yet live as something else.

93 days...

It was a Monday...

-Woke up at 8am for my 8am class...

-Put my pants on backwards...

-Found out that a favorite old tee shirt has holes in it (because I also wore it! with the holes, which grew, all day long)...

-Didn't turn in my homework because I thought it was due next Monday (which turns out to be whole nother assignment that I'll have to work on)...

-Spent $10 shipping an item I just sold on Ebay for $12...

-Missed out on an opportunity to walk to class with a cute guy because I was too preoccupied trying to figure out how to print the $10 shipping label...

-Missed lunch because I was shipping the item I sold for a total profit of $2...

-Got back a test... no more needs to be said on that one...

-Broke out in a popliteal rash from the fabric of the previously mentioned backward pants...

(I succumb to the fact that it's me vs. Monday, and Monday is winning)

+I head home for an afternoon of homework and notice the beautiful weather...

+I finish my homework quicker than expected and have time to stretch and listen to music...

+My best friend joins me for a delicious dinner of leftovers...

+I have a great Encounter meeting...

+I go to my other best friend's apartment and we make a cake (while studying of course)...

+I have to walk home, and it's not freezing...

+I decide at 10pm to head to the gym and end up walking for 2.5 miles...

+I meet a new friend at the gym and we share travel stories...

+I'm about to read my Bible before I go to bed...

= not such a bad Monday.

12:01 am Tuesday.

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."