ps. sorry in advance, I was on a roll.... I acutally had time to write! :) enjoy.chel
Today we went back to International Lutheran Church in Seoul. As I have mentioned before, they do not have a called pastor but are in the process of that. The chaplains on the base come and preach and give communion sometimes but other than that, each week a different person preaches and they all share in the greeting, acolyte-ing, ushering, etc . Making the church function. Each week a clip board is passed around and each week enough people volunteer for the next week to help out. It’s amazing that people are always willing to volunteer and I know sometimes there is a hard time finding people to volunteer, but I think there are few that are there to help always. And it’s weird to think about it in this way, but when I got to LTU, they said I was a big answer to prayers and a miracle. To me I just volunteered my time to come here, I did not know what was happening at the other end. It happened at the perfect time in my life, as I was moving back to STL to find a new job, I was able to give my time, and knowledge and love for Christ to volunteer for this position that had been open for a while and no one else had volunteered for. It has changed my life. Opening my eyes to a new culture, giving me the experience of teaching kids in a classroom setting and learning from the people I have talked to here. This week, Karla and I planned to do miracles for our Bible lessons. (week 1 was Old testament, week 2 was parables) We decided on Walking on Water, Feeding 5000, Lazarus and the Resurrection. The Gospel today was Matt 14:22-33… Walking on Water. Staton was the ‘preacher’ today and gave a great message on that. He started by saying “do we have faith because of our courage” or “do we have courage because of our faith?” Sometimes it is hard to have faith when so little is left.
He mentioned being 18 and joining the military and having a hard time passing the physical test. (Which hearing from a friend struggle with it, sounds really hard.) and being frustrated to the point there is nothing else to do than stop and laugh at what has been done. You have lost so much faith in your goal and have so little courage left that there is not much left. Cling onto that little faith and courage and pray to God. Not to pass the test, but to give you more courage and strength and faith. I can relate a little bit. Karla and I talked after the service about our classes. We have been to the point of frustration with some kids in our classes that are having a hard time learning English, not knowing if they just do not want to or what it is. There have been several times when all you can do is stop and laugh at the situation. The kids are too cute to really get frustrated at but sometimes it gets frustrating, when they ‘enjoy’ getting red stickers and keep pushing that point. But at the end of the day I just laugh at what happened that day and thank God for giving me this great experience and pray that I am getting through to the kids somehow. Leah, a friend from church, explained to me today that if the kids are taking their summer vacation to study English, their parents much be pretty wealthy. Now I am not sure if they are or aren’t, none of them have acted in any way to show they are but I do hope they all receive the same things out of the class as any other kid would. I hope that they all get something out of the Bible lessons we are preparing and sharing with them, that even with the language barrier, this will be a first contact for some of them to learn about Jesus and I hope it leads them more to him in the future. I hope that they all have enough courage to speak in English more and practice so they can become great at it. Yesterday I spent some time with the family of the Japanese Language teacher at LTU. Her kids were 8 and 4 ½. Her 8 year old was excited to hang out with me and he kept asking me questions and using English. And trying to get his little sister to ask me in English too. They were cute. We went to Shinsaega, a department store that was super expensive with Louis Vatton and what not. I did not buy anything and they did not expect me to, but they just wanted me to experience it. And then we went to E-Mart. Very much like Wally World in the States. And that was more enjoyable for me. Seeing the things that I probably would be buying if I live here longer. A lot of people are shocked that I tell them I am only here for 3 weeks. Usually when people come to teach English, they stay for 6mo, or a year or more. I tell them I am only here for a camp for 3 weeks and they understand a little better. But then some of them tell me they wish I could stay longer. They want me to see more of their country and learn about their culture. I spent some of last night reading a book about the Korean culture, granted the book was 20 years old. But I learned much still. They are humble always wanting to give. Bowing a big part the culture too. Everything has flowed as I typed it so far, but I forgot something I wanted to type before. About the Walking on Water. When I went to Juarez Mexico several years ago, that was the theme verse for the week. Walking on Water as Jesus did. As Peter did with Jesus’ help. We talked about where are you in your faith. Are you in the boat, afraid to step out? Are you drowning on the water? Are you looking into Jesus’ eyes and walking? Hopefully getting near to walking with Jesus if not already. I think that’s something we can all work on and hold each other accountable for. Recently, well recently in the great scheme of things, 2-3 years ago, one of my best friends came to know Jesus and Jesus is a HUGE part of her life now and she has been a great example for me in my faith life. 
And hopefully a big example for her family too so they can come to know Christ. In January, inspired by Mac, we decided to read the Bible in a year. When we were roommates, we would read together, or check on each other. As we moved out of that little house, we lived separately and it was harder to keep reading as much as I should every day. When we lived together for 2 weeks (? Lol, a blur) we talked about our reading. She was much further than I was, which has inspired me to stop for a few minutes each day. 24 hours! I can take a few minutes to stop and read the Bible! If I can play spider solitaire until I win, I can read the Bible. It’s great to read. Because it essentially is my history, and I love reading history, it’s fascinating to read and grow closer to God. Another book, I bought randomly in Chicago about a 2 months ago, was Three Cups of Tea. Greg M…. who is the author just so happens to have grown up in Africa because his parents are “Lutheran missionaries” and he went to Concordia MN. He went mt climbing in the Middle East and on his way back down, after getting lost, stumbled upon a little town. There he learns the kids do not have a school building. He vows to return with money to build them a school. And he does. He raises enough and goes back. That is where I am in the book now. He has brave enough to make this statement and come back to build the school. Pretty crazy when the Holy Spirit is in you and just speaks out!! I still remember standing there after Emily told me about this opportunity, I turned to Lori and said, “I think I might go to Korea next week.” And when I walked into the LSC after missing prayer and praise that night, and Donna told me I missed a great night of the Brazil people- David and Janice- talking about their mission trip and she asked me if I was going that summer (knowing that the past 2 summer s I had wanted to) and I said, Yes! Not knowing if I was or not, but I was. And later that night telling Caysea that I was going to find a way to go and showing her my old Brazil map of where I was going and she was on the phone with her dad and said, I am going to go to Brazil with Chelsea this summer. We don’t have the money but we are going to find it. Lol, crazy how God makes things happens in our lives and make us say yes. (Emily….)
Sunday we saw Olympic Park. Something that was on my top list to do because I love the Olympics when the whole world- or just about- participates! Pretty cool! And watching them in Korea it’s a different experience to see what they focus on. (SK won gold in Judo! And swimming 400m) and at the Olympic park which was HUGE we went into the museum- which was free bc Beijing is going on. And we got to read Olympic history, Karla is older than I am and remembers things from past Olympics like ’84 when I wasn’t even born. Lol. But it was neat to see that. These pictures were taken there!
Chels at the Olympic Park in Jamsil. with my rain umbrella, covering from the hot, hot sun! when I first walked into this area, I opened my arms and said, this is HUGE and twrilled. then I read the artist statement and thought I would make a very good Italian artist like this man. we think the same.
the God's must be Crazy, part 4, eh? it was surreal. this thing plopped out of the sky.
they had USSR flag up still. it was that in 1988.
Captain, Kevin and Susan hard at work.
Chelsea and Lia, a friend from Church.
Bae Eun Wook and other kiddos working.
YeLim and YeJe not wanting their picture taken.
EunHee's kids. I spent satruday with them shopping. EunHee teaches Japanese at LTU. Her son was pretty good at English.
Today we went back to International Lutheran Church in Seoul. As I have mentioned before, they do not have a called pastor but are in the process of that. The chaplains on the base come and preach and give communion sometimes but other than that, each week a different person preaches and they all share in the greeting, acolyte-ing, ushering, etc . Making the church function. Each week a clip board is passed around and each week enough people volunteer for the next week to help out. It’s amazing that people are always willing to volunteer and I know sometimes there is a hard time finding people to volunteer, but I think there are few that are there to help always. And it’s weird to think about it in this way, but when I got to LTU, they said I was a big answer to prayers and a miracle. To me I just volunteered my time to come here, I did not know what was happening at the other end. It happened at the perfect time in my life, as I was moving back to STL to find a new job, I was able to give my time, and knowledge and love for Christ to volunteer for this position that had been open for a while and no one else had volunteered for. It has changed my life. Opening my eyes to a new culture, giving me the experience of teaching kids in a classroom setting and learning from the people I have talked to here. This week, Karla and I planned to do miracles for our Bible lessons. (week 1 was Old testament, week 2 was parables) We decided on Walking on Water, Feeding 5000, Lazarus and the Resurrection. The Gospel today was Matt 14:22-33… Walking on Water. Staton was the ‘preacher’ today and gave a great message on that. He started by saying “do we have faith because of our courage” or “do we have courage because of our faith?” Sometimes it is hard to have faith when so little is left.
He mentioned being 18 and joining the military and having a hard time passing the physical test. (Which hearing from a friend struggle with it, sounds really hard.) and being frustrated to the point there is nothing else to do than stop and laugh at what has been done. You have lost so much faith in your goal and have so little courage left that there is not much left. Cling onto that little faith and courage and pray to God. Not to pass the test, but to give you more courage and strength and faith. I can relate a little bit. Karla and I talked after the service about our classes. We have been to the point of frustration with some kids in our classes that are having a hard time learning English, not knowing if they just do not want to or what it is. There have been several times when all you can do is stop and laugh at the situation. The kids are too cute to really get frustrated at but sometimes it gets frustrating, when they ‘enjoy’ getting red stickers and keep pushing that point. But at the end of the day I just laugh at what happened that day and thank God for giving me this great experience and pray that I am getting through to the kids somehow. Leah, a friend from church, explained to me today that if the kids are taking their summer vacation to study English, their parents much be pretty wealthy. Now I am not sure if they are or aren’t, none of them have acted in any way to show they are but I do hope they all receive the same things out of the class as any other kid would. I hope that they all get something out of the Bible lessons we are preparing and sharing with them, that even with the language barrier, this will be a first contact for some of them to learn about Jesus and I hope it leads them more to him in the future. I hope that they all have enough courage to speak in English more and practice so they can become great at it. Yesterday I spent some time with the family of the Japanese Language teacher at LTU. Her kids were 8 and 4 ½. Her 8 year old was excited to hang out with me and he kept asking me questions and using English. And trying to get his little sister to ask me in English too. They were cute. We went to Shinsaega, a department store that was super expensive with Louis Vatton and what not. I did not buy anything and they did not expect me to, but they just wanted me to experience it. And then we went to E-Mart. Very much like Wally World in the States. And that was more enjoyable for me. Seeing the things that I probably would be buying if I live here longer. A lot of people are shocked that I tell them I am only here for 3 weeks. Usually when people come to teach English, they stay for 6mo, or a year or more. I tell them I am only here for a camp for 3 weeks and they understand a little better. But then some of them tell me they wish I could stay longer. They want me to see more of their country and learn about their culture. I spent some of last night reading a book about the Korean culture, granted the book was 20 years old. But I learned much still. They are humble always wanting to give. Bowing a big part the culture too. Everything has flowed as I typed it so far, but I forgot something I wanted to type before. About the Walking on Water. When I went to Juarez Mexico several years ago, that was the theme verse for the week. Walking on Water as Jesus did. As Peter did with Jesus’ help. We talked about where are you in your faith. Are you in the boat, afraid to step out? Are you drowning on the water? Are you looking into Jesus’ eyes and walking? Hopefully getting near to walking with Jesus if not already. I think that’s something we can all work on and hold each other accountable for. Recently, well recently in the great scheme of things, 2-3 years ago, one of my best friends came to know Jesus and Jesus is a HUGE part of her life now and she has been a great example for me in my faith life. And hopefully a big example for her family too so they can come to know Christ. In January, inspired by Mac, we decided to read the Bible in a year. When we were roommates, we would read together, or check on each other. As we moved out of that little house, we lived separately and it was harder to keep reading as much as I should every day. When we lived together for 2 weeks (? Lol, a blur) we talked about our reading. She was much further than I was, which has inspired me to stop for a few minutes each day. 24 hours! I can take a few minutes to stop and read the Bible! If I can play spider solitaire until I win, I can read the Bible. It’s great to read. Because it essentially is my history, and I love reading history, it’s fascinating to read and grow closer to God. Another book, I bought randomly in Chicago about a 2 months ago, was Three Cups of Tea. Greg M…. who is the author just so happens to have grown up in Africa because his parents are “Lutheran missionaries” and he went to Concordia MN. He went mt climbing in the Middle East and on his way back down, after getting lost, stumbled upon a little town. There he learns the kids do not have a school building. He vows to return with money to build them a school. And he does. He raises enough and goes back. That is where I am in the book now. He has brave enough to make this statement and come back to build the school. Pretty crazy when the Holy Spirit is in you and just speaks out!! I still remember standing there after Emily told me about this opportunity, I turned to Lori and said, “I think I might go to Korea next week.” And when I walked into the LSC after missing prayer and praise that night, and Donna told me I missed a great night of the Brazil people- David and Janice- talking about their mission trip and she asked me if I was going that summer (knowing that the past 2 summer s I had wanted to) and I said, Yes! Not knowing if I was or not, but I was. And later that night telling Caysea that I was going to find a way to go and showing her my old Brazil map of where I was going and she was on the phone with her dad and said, I am going to go to Brazil with Chelsea this summer. We don’t have the money but we are going to find it. Lol, crazy how God makes things happens in our lives and make us say yes. (Emily….)Sunday we saw Olympic Park. Something that was on my top list to do because I love the Olympics when the whole world- or just about- participates! Pretty cool! And watching them in Korea it’s a different experience to see what they focus on. (SK won gold in Judo! And swimming 400m) and at the Olympic park which was HUGE we went into the museum- which was free bc Beijing is going on. And we got to read Olympic history, Karla is older than I am and remembers things from past Olympics like ’84 when I wasn’t even born. Lol. But it was neat to see that. These pictures were taken there!
Chels at the Olympic Park in Jamsil. with my rain umbrella, covering from the hot, hot sun! when I first walked into this area, I opened my arms and said, this is HUGE and twrilled. then I read the artist statement and thought I would make a very good Italian artist like this man. we think the same.
the God's must be Crazy, part 4, eh? it was surreal. this thing plopped out of the sky.they had USSR flag up still. it was that in 1988.
Captain, Kevin and Susan hard at work.
Chelsea and Lia, a friend from Church.
Bae Eun Wook and other kiddos working.
YeLim and YeJe not wanting their picture taken.
EunHee's kids. I spent satruday with them shopping. EunHee teaches Japanese at LTU. Her son was pretty good at English.
No comments:
Post a Comment