New Years Eve

Last night I spent my first new year's eve outside the US.  I live in a small town and there wasn't much going on.  Our school has a church at it that meets on Sunday.  I know the people at the church but we never have service together (they go to Korean, I go to the English service, and during Korean service I watch their kids.)

So anyways I hear they were having a midnight service and my roommate and I decided to attend. We were hoping to slip into the back unnoticed but of course everyone saw us.  On the fly they even provided an English interpreter for the service.  We felt a little guilty because we didn't want to cause any problems, but in typical Korean fashion the people bent over backwards to accommodate us.  

The message was good.  Pastor In talked about forgiveness and letting go of things for the new year, having a positive attitude, and holding on to the promises of God.  After he preached Pastor In prayed for every family in the church and ever member of every family.  It was great.

The service wrapped up around 1:30 and we went home around 2am.  It was good to fellowship with believers here in Korea.  Their fervency in prayer is inspiring, and despite the language barrier it's always a powerful time when worshipping with other believers. 

Brief but Good

Well, I leave to go back to Korea in a few hours.  I will be there for 8 more months.  I'm not excited to go back, but I am thankful for the brief time I had with family and friends.  Thank you to those I saw and sorry to those I didn't.

I was reminded this Christmas of how little I really know about my future.  Many people asked me what I'll do in 8 months and to be honest I don't know.  Only God does and I think that's ok.  I wish I knew but no matter what I'll be fine.

Keep me in your prayers as I go back to work.  I'm still tired and not really to excited about the prospect of working 12 hours after touching down on Korean soil.  I need strength, wisdom, endurance, and grace to go on.

Fireworks, TV stations, weird plays, and decision time

About a month ago I went with some fellow teachers to Seoul for the day. I ate a lot of food, went to some high fashion stores. No really, I did. I couldn't afford to buy anything but it was fun to look. Well the real highlight of the day was going to see the fireworks. Apparently all of Seoul wanted to watch the fireworks as well. I kid not, when I say there were a million people there. It took us nearly half an hour to get out of our subway car up to street level. See video below. I've always read articles about people being trampled to death and wondered how stuff like that happens, but as I was pushed along by the sea of Korean people I began to see how it's possible.

Although I couldn't really afford to buy any of the high fashion articles of clothing I'd seen throughout my day in Seoul, I did get the opportunity to snatch up this delightful t-shirt. One of the individuals I was with noted it was something I easily could have gotten at a truck stop, but I feel it is an authentic Korean shirt.


A few weeks ago my preschool class (that I teach) went to Seoul for a field trip. We watched a play in an underground theatre. It was silly and I think the kids liked it. It was a version of the tortoise and the hare with a more Korean flare to it. It's hard to explain so here's a little video of it.

I may or may not have mentioned this but my school is surrounded by rice fields. Over the duration of my stay here I've watched the fields go from barren in winter, to planted in spring, to lush in late summer, and now I've seen the rice harvested. Here are some recent pictures of the fields.

Now I come to the final part of my post. I have less than a week to decide if I will renew my contract and work another year here in Korea. At this point in time I honestly don't know what I'm going to do and I need wisdom. Please keep me in your prayers this week. My desire is that God's will be done and not my own.

DMZ Day

This last Saturday I had the opportunity to travel with some of my fellow teachers to the DMZ. Which is the border between North and South Korea. It was actually pretty fun. Lots of food, buses, trains, and subway.

To see the border we actually had to take part in a tour. Our first bus stop was at a kind of museum. The museum highlighted all of the North Korean conflicts and invasions that have occurred over the last 50 years. The museum was ripe with symbolism and hopeful of the two countries reunifying in the future. We watched a short video that basically proclaimed the two countries were on track to reunify. I found this contradictory to a lot of the information in the museum. It was interesting to see the spin they put on things.

The highlight of this stop though was taking a tram down into a North Korean dug tunnel. The tunnel located 54km from Seoul, is one of four that has been found. They guess there are probably 10 more undiscovered that are located on the border.

We then went to a look out that let us peer into the North. It was a foggy day and there was not much to see. Apparently on clear days there is a town visible in the distance. I was told that the town functions with piped in noise and is not really inhabited by people. It is maintained for appearances by the North. From the vantage point we could see the national highway that runs between Seoul and Pyongyang. The highway was completely empty and I believe is only used by diplomats.

Our last stop of the tour was to a newly built railway station near the border. The South built it in hopes of running rail lines in the North when the 2 countries reunify. So this brand new train stations was built symbolically but has yet to run any trains through it. They speak as if there is little standing in the way of reunification. It's quite interesting.

Here are some pictures from the day.

This picture is from the museum. It's hard to see but two sides are pushing the globe back together. On one side is South Korea and on the other is the North.

The bottom picture is me and some of my fellow teachers.

The Kids I work With

I occasionally am asked to make videos for the preschool, and here is one of them.

I've Been Unfaithful

With this blog that is. On my recent visit home I had a handful of people tell me that they still read this blog, and to you I apologize, I will try to put more pictures and stuff on here.

Here is me and a student of mine named Kevin. Kevin is by far the smallest kid in our class despite being far from the youngest. This coupled with his affinity to smile no matter the circumstances, makes him a kid that gets picked up a lot. I toss, carry, twirl, throw, and catch Kevin on a daily basis.


These pictures aren't from Korea, but I finally saw my niece last week and boy has she changed.

Whenever I'm out wandering...........

Here is a brief video I made of a walk I take. I've found myself taking these walks a few times a week. It's peaceful to me. I sometimes forget what is in fact unique to Korea, so hopefully this video gives you a visual of some of the differences between the States and here.