Unexpected Blessings

(So you all know, I am not intentionally leaving out paragraph breaks. For some reason when my writing gets published, it takes them away. I don't understand it, but it is very frustrating.)

These past few weeks have had their ups and downs. The heater at school has decided that it wanted to produce substantial amounts of carbon monoxide along with the heat for our building. The temperature has dropped finally in Korea too leaving it somewhere around 0 degrees C and below. Needless to say school has been quite chilly since last week. The students and staff have been exposed to considerable amounts of carbon monoxide which resulted in major headaches and other side effects. Please pray for wisdom as the owner of the building and workers try solve the problem as they attempt to fix the system.


There have been some major blessings in the past few weeks as well. Open positions at my school are posted for the 2006-2007 school year. If you were to check out the web page you would see that my current job is listed as needing filled. Do not fret. This does not mean that they have fired me or I am being deported or that I quit. This simply means that for next year (and however long I am here after my initial contract) that I have my ‘dream’ job. Next school year I will be teaching high school English and a Speech and Drama class. That’s right! I GET TO TEACH BRITISH LITERATURE AND THEATRE!


I have really been shown the importance of waiting on God’s timing for things. I am not the most patient person a lot of the time. I have been shown that multiple times since I’ve been here (hence the job teaching middle schoolers). The position for next year is a true blessing and testament to God’s grace. It has shown me that if I follow what He wants me to do (event though it may not be my first choice) I will eventually be blessed with the things that I desire.


He has also shown me this through financial matters. It’s not easy being on a missionary salary, living off the economy in a foreign country, and saving money for plane tickets home twice a year. It is especially frustrating when you do not have a set date that things like rent come out of your pay (it is around the first of the month but you never know exactly which check it is coming out of). With this in mind, I did some much needed shopping for things around Thanksgiving and left enough money in my bank account to last me until my next pay. When I went to the ATM to withdrawal the money I needed I realized that my account was so low that the machine would not allow me to take money out. That was Wednesday of last week and I’ve had to pay for expenses since then too. Today after the final bell of the day rang, my friend Laura (who was the head volleyball coach) came and gave me money that was from the school as a ‘bonus’ type payment for coaching. This could not have come at a better time. I owe my roommates money (since we’ve had things we’ve had to pay for since last week) and I hate owing people money. Now, I can finally pay them back! What a blessing.

Everything I've learned, I've learned in. . . Korea?

I've recently learned that sometimes things 'end' in a draw, meaning it's not over yet.

God does things for reasons, some we know and some we will find out. But it's often the period of waiting to figure it out that gets us in the most trouble.

People are put in our lives for sentences, paragraphs, or even chapters often times for reasons we may never know.

I miss real steak.

I cannot wait to get home to actually shop and buy American convenience items.
Americans take SO much for granted- myself included- that it's often difficult to live without some of the luxuries.

Sometimes the bridge isn't burned to the point of no travel; it just needs some repairs from us.

Restored friendship -if it is genuine- can be one of life's greatest gifts.

Making friends knowing that one or both will inevitably leave is very difficult, but there is such a blessing that comes from those people in that short time.

No matter how much we say that we will never have a stupid period in our lives, we lie. We all have them at some point to some degree.

No matter how much we NEVER want to be like our parents that is also inevitable.

Nothing can ever replace the personal friendship with God. We are never complete without it.

Squatty potties are NO fun.

While in Korea, do not go in the bathroom in the Outback Steakhouse and play with the buttons on the toilet unless you know for sure what they do (and do not stand in front of them when you do decide to play with the buttons). Look out for the free shower.

Starbucks in Korea is an AMAZING comfort of home to have (even if I do have to go to Suwon or Seoul to get it).

Even when one of your best friends lives in the same country (that is about the size of Florida) as you do- you still NEVER see them because both schedules are far different from each other. :0)

There really is a McDonald's (and Burger King, Popeye's, Baskin Robins, Subway, and Pizza Hut) everywhere in the world.

I want to see my family more than anything. Christmas is going to be awesome because I get to see everyone again!

I am a professional. I am no longer an undergraduate student in a university. I have my own job, my own place (with my roommates of course) and my own bills to pay. I should have appreciated the free living more when I had it.

This is one experience that I will never forget. I am thankful for all the faithful support I have received from family and friends.

My relationship with my parents is only going to get better from here, and I miss them the most. :0)

Tis the (end of the) season (volleyball that is).

It has been quite some time since I've written in here last. Today I am catching up on it merely as a vice for procrastination. Life in Korea to this point has been very interesting.
Our volleyball tournament was last weekend in Pusan (which is on the Southeastern tip of the country). God took that weekend to show just how amazing He really is. Our girls constantly sang praise songs all weekend long. They did not care who was around to hear them or where they were.
On the bus on our way to Camp Hialeah from the subway our girls started singing (they sang on the train, bus, in the showers, during games- quietly of course, and on the way home). It was amazing too because it was evident that God was working in the situation. A few girls from the other teams on the bus (there were two other teams with us) began to sing with the girls, a few began to mock the girls, and a group even turned on a radio to try and overpower our girls. Of course the radio didn’t work though; the team was just too loud. It was obvious that praise songs were doing something in the hearts of the other girls if they were battling it.
The tournament was a double elimination tournament. The team had lost their first game, meaning if they lost another they were done. Every time after that when the girls were struggling they wanted to pray and ask God for a clear head. We ended up playing six games in all for the competition. Sadly every team we ended up beating left crying. The girls managed to pull their game together and they made it to the championship game against one of our sister schools. We won the first set of the game but lost the last two with an awesome fight. When we lost the girls were excited to have made it to the number two seat in the tournament. It was awesome because the first thing almost all of the girls said was “Praise God.”
It’s awesome to see how God was using our team to be a light to all the other schools.
There are things I miss about home, yes. But I am at peace knowing that I have an opportunity that most people would never get. I get to affect lives in a way that I never could have dreamed of.

This is only the beginning. . .

Attempting this I suppose means I fell into the trap of students and staff in Korea. I'm cool now, I'm blogging. I'm going to attempt this as a way to keep everyone up on what is going on here in Pyongtaek since I am horrible at remembering to e-mail.

So far so good though. This past week was super busy. I made the mistake of having two classes turn in projects (that of course they wanted graded before progress reports go out tomorrow) and two sets of rough drafts due- all in a 4 day week, not to mention the week of our first set of volleyball games. Talk about crazy.

I did however, strictly due to the grace of God, got everything graded that I needed done before I left for our game on Friday.

Our volleyball teams are good this year. Our boys team so far is undefeated 3-0 and our girls lost their first game to ICS-Seoul, putting them at 2-1. We have a game this week at Osan Air Base which means, not only do I finally get to see a military base, but we get to eat REAL American fast food greasyness. It's apparently the event of the season, so I'm looking forward to it.

Homesickness has come in a different form than it typically comes to most people- from what I've been told. I miss my family and friends and home church and I really wish I could just move them all out here. I am really enjoying Korea even though the language barrier can be a discouragement sometimes. I have become a regular in a fellowship group that reminds me of my times at Late Night at Kent. It's a ministry run by a couple at school that is geared mainly for military but there are ICS teachers there as well as locals. We meet every Friday and Saturday night for food, fellowship, and worship. So making friends has not been that difficult.

I'm just thankful for the relationship we are allowed to have with our students here. We are allowed to freely talk about the gospel without fear.

Well, I had finished this at one point, then I went and screwed it up. Basically it said that I am thankful that God basically slapped me upside the head and said 'I want you in Korea, and back to doing what I want you to do, not whatever I want you to do.' I had mentioned that it's amazing how God works everything out if we'll just put our trust in Him. Looking back I always knew that He had something cool for me to do. I became interested in missions when I went to Mexico after my sophomore year of high school. I knew though, that I never had a desire to be a 'traditional' missionary and start churches. This is probably typical of anyone my age, but I've always wanted out of Ohio- I just never thought getting out meant half way around the world. I have always been interested and respectful of Asian culture courtsey of my Aunt Yumi and Janet. I was put in an ESL science class for some of my observations in my fourth year of college basically because they had no where else for me to go. That class immediately sparked my interest. Also, student teaching I had one ESL student in each class. And now, here I am in Korea teaching classes of students who are basically bilingual and Korean, not English is their first language. It's amazing. God is amazing.

Like I have said before I do dearly miss my family and friends but I am content here. I am content here because I know this is where I am supposed to be. I get to go home for Christmas and hopefully for part of summer. I have the awesome opportunity to serve God in a completely different culture and environment than what I grew up in.

I, again, just want to thank all of you who are praying for me. I greatly appreciate it. It means a lot knowing that people are supporting you through their prayers.

Until next time...
Here are pictures of some of the volleyball players (Becky, Sophia, and Jeeyoung) on the team I help coach, and a sunset- taken from a moving van- on our way home Wednesday from the CCS game.