Giving Thanks: October & November 2010

Giving Thanks 감사의 기도

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”Psalm107:1

Greetings from South Korea! What a blessing it has been to spend the fall months here in Gyeonggi province. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been in Korea for five full months already, soon to be six. Many things have been happening over the past few months. First, I’ve been able to develop a number of wonderful relationships with Korean teachers at my school. We enjoy going out to dinner and movies, they really like introducing me to Korean culture. I am so thankful for their friendship and thankful for the opportunity to get an inside look at the Korean way of life.

Second, after what seems like months, I’ve been able to find some foreigners to connect with whom also teach in public schools. Living cross-culturally can be difficult at times especially when you are surrounded by people who don’t speak your language. Having English speaking friends has never been more of a blessing.

After being with my students for these past five months, I’ve gotten to know many of them much better. It’s difficult to get to know each every student individually when you have 300 of them. But little by little I’ve been able to see their personalities come out and develop relationships with them. These kids are fun and energetic and it has been a lot of fun interacting with them both in and out of class!

Korean Kindergartners Attack!

I was asked in September to teach the kindergarten class once a week. After coming from a job in America teaching preschool age kids, I was reluctant to agree because I had a feeling I knew exactly what I would be getting into. Lots of high energy kids who don’t speak English every week was sure to be a difficult task. My first day in class was hilarious because the kids just stared at me in confusion and awe (some of them had never seen a foreigner before). It only took about 1 week before they were comfortable around me, babbling to me in Korean, asking for high fives, jumping around the classroom showing off their jumps and somersaults. It turns out that these kids have great potential for learning English at their young age and as crazy as they may get sometimes, they try really hard to listen in my class and follow instructions. They are now one of my favorite classes to teach each week. They have interest in everything I do, from songs to dances to puppets and videos. I’ve seen more progress in them over the past 2 months than many of the other classes, including the 6^th graders.

A funny story about my kindergarten class. The students are so active and fun, that at the end of the class they like to run up and give me high-fives. They can get pretty wild because they are all pushing and shoving each other out of the way to slap my hand. One particular day at the end of class, I happened to drop something on the floor. I decided to get down on my hands and knees to pick it up; it had rolled under a chair where I couldn’t reach it. One student decided to jump on top of me; it took less than 5 seconds before the entire class joined in, all 17 kindergartners. The best part about this is that at that exact moment, the principal of the school, my boss, walks by the classroom and looks in to check on the progress of the class. It was probably one of the funniest moments of my time in Korea. Luckily he has a sense of humor and was laughing at me as I pushed the kindergartners off me one at a time. The kindergarten teacher was so appalled by her class that she ran, screaming in Korean, across the room and started grabbing kids as fast as she could. I was laughing pretty hard at that point, eventually she calmed down when she realized I wasn’t upset. She is constantly worried that the kids are too crazy around me and that they “bother” me. What she doesn’t know is that after working with preschool kids last year, nothing really bothers me anymore, when it comes to little kids.

And so…

This experience in Korea has been such a wonderful one, but it is not without it tensions and difficulties. With the presence of North Korea so close to where I live, it has really given me pause to reflect and think about many things that I had taken for granted for so long. I have never been in a situation where I’ve actually had to consider what steps I must take if the country I’m currently living in is suddenly attacked. I’ve been blessed to live in countries where I have always felt safe and secure. Being in this situation opens my eyes, ever so slightly, to what so many people around the world go through everyday. Ultimately I am at peace because I know God is completely sovereign and in control. However, it does shed light on those others who also live day to day in fear and makes me realize how blessed I truly am.

              

Praises

·         My close relationship with my co-teacher Moon, she is such a wonderful teacher and friend. It is such a blessing to have a Christian co-worker.

·         My friendship with Ducky, the teacher who drives me to church with her every Sunday. Ducky has two daughters, a 15 year old and a 10 year old, and they have become like family to me. I spend a lot of time with these wonderful girls, I am so thankful to have them in my life!

·         I was recently evaluated by the Korean Office of Education, and I praise the Lord that the evaluation went very well! Because of which, I will more than likely not have to be evaluated again for the rest of the year.

·         I’m headed back to Japan again on Christmas Eve to celebrate Christmas with my family! All five of us will be getting together in Nagoya for two weeks!

Prayer Requests

·         Please continue to pray for my study of the Korean language. I am now able to read and write Korean, however, I have still a lot more studying to do. Conversations are still difficult, though I can get by with some basic conversation skills. Please pray that I am able to absorb a lot more of the language while I’m here.

·         Please pray for the planning of winter camp. After Christmas break, I will be having a 3-week long winter English camp.

·         Pray for one of my students, a 4^th grader named Jack (his chosen English name). A little boy from a very troubled background, currently living in a home similar to an orphanage. Over two months ago he got into a lot of trouble at school and even disappeared for a couple of days, police were even involved. I’ve developed a friendship with this little guy over the past few months and with all this trouble that has happened, I’ve committed myself even more to giving him as much love and attention as I possibly can. He’s been showing improvement in English class, which is wonderful. He goes out of his way to bring me things that he has cooked in his after school cooking class. He’s a wonderful little boy, but has already seen so much sadness in his life. Please pray for him, and pray that I am able to fully and truly demonstrate Jesus’ love for him as his teacher.

·         As tensions rise between North and South Korea, please keep both nations in prayer. Pray for the people of North Korea, many of who are facing very harsh conditions this winter with little to no food. Pray for wisdom for the leaders involved, for the Koreans as well as the world leaders working towards a resolution. We should never cease our prayers for peace.

I thank you all for your diligent prayers for me. I am so thankful for each and every one of you who not only take time out of you very busy lives to read my updates, but also to respond and pray for the prayer requests! Thank you!

August and September 2010

            On specific days during the summer, Koreans eat watermelon and drink chicken broth because they believe it will give them good luck and health for the year. A few teachers at school told me this as they gave me watermelon and a bowl of broth, encouraging me to eat in order to gain good luck for the coming year. Now while I do not put much stock in the magical abilities of watermelon or the healing powers of chicken broth, I clearly saw over the summer the many blessings in my life. Blessings not from anything I had done or anything I had eaten for that matter, but abundant blessings from my Heavenly Father.

            The summer months I have spent in Korea are a testament to God’s faithfulness and provision. In reviewing my prayer requests in the last update letter I see ways that God answered each and every one of those in many different ways. The summer camp that I organized during the first three weeks of vacation was extremely successful. The children were very interested in the camp topics and were eager to interact with other students as well as myself.  Discipline problems were immediately stifled and there were little to no issues through the duration of the camp. I was able to get to know a number of my students better as the camp size was much smaller than a regular class during the school year.

            I had the opportunity of going on a teacher's trip at the end of classes in July. We spent two days together visiting historical sites and various scenic locations and enjoyed having meals together. We spent the night at one of the teacher's homes up in the mountains. This was a great opportunity to get to know other teachers outside of school. I spent the night on the floor in a tiny room with 7 other female teachers, it is next to impossible not to get to know people under those circumstances. This was probably one of the more memorable and hilarious moments of my time here in Korea. Let's just say that by the end of the trip I knew the other teachers a lot better. It was amazing though to see how this teachers trip, though full of awkward and strange moments, was an answer to prayer.

            Being home during the summer was such a wonderful blessing. I had the opportunity to spend time with my entire family, something which doesn’t happen too often. I spent a week up in the mountains of Karuizawa, enjoying the cool weather, family time and fellowship with other missionary families. What a blessing it was to return to such a familiar place and talk to other missionaries as they discussed their vision for churches and outreach opportunities in Japan. I was also able to enjoy a lot of activities such as hiking with my family and enjoyed God’s beautiful creation while being in the mountains. The latter portion of my vacation was spent in Nagoya, the weather being much different to that of Karuizawa, and much more similar to Seoul, very hot. However I was able to go and visit my home church in Toyoake and see many old friends who attend church there. I was so thankful being able to go home for those two weeks and returned to Korea refreshed and ready for the school year to continue!

A funny story I would like to share was my taxi ride from Incheon airport to Hwajeong after returning from Japan. Because of the long lines for buses and pouring rain I decided to take a taxi only to realize halfway through the trip that I would not have enough money to pay for the entire ride (somehow I had misplaced some of my money in my bags). Meanwhile the taxi driver is prattling on in his limited English about his "baby" and mixing Korean and English so much I really had no idea what he was saying (I found out later his "baby" was actually his 20 year old daughter, and he was very proud of her). I realized I didn't have enough money, so decided to be direct with him and just slowly told him I only had so much Won and asked if he could either stop by a bank/atm or just drop me off at a corner. The situation was so ridiculous that the taxi driver ended up laughing and as I profusely started to apologize, he just told me not to worry and said he would pay for the rest of the ride. Actually he kept repeating "Okay... my cash, my cash." This really is unheard of and I was shocked when he said it, but very grateful that he didn't seem to mind. He probably felt bad for the crazy foreigner who jumps into taxi cabs without enough money to pay for them. But in any case we enjoyed the rest of the ride as he spoke in broken English and I spoke in my very broken Korean. God was so good and provided me with an understanding taxi driver, it's a story I'm not likely to forget.

School has started again, and unlike the American school system, September is not the start of a new school year. In fact, it is the second semester which will go through December, break for winter vacation and the new school year will officially start in March. Which means I have all the same classes and students as before. It was much easier starting school this time because I already knew many of the students, my schedule and some of the other teachers. It has been very busy already as my co-teacher and I have started to prepare for an English play which will be put on by the students in October. I have also taken on teaching a kindergarten class once a week at the request of the kindergarten teachers, the kids are lively and excited to learn English, so that should be a fun experience.

Prayer Requests

·      Although a textbook is provided for many of my classes, I see that students can become bored easily with the material, and so I try to use fun ways to teach the students English. They respond really well to games and activities that support textbook material but aren’t taken directly from the curriculum. Pray that I will continually find new ways to teach the kids, this can be difficult at times but I have seen the benefit of going that extra mile to find fun activities for the students.

·      Please pray for my relationship with my co-teacher, as I mentioned in my last letter Moon has been such a blessing to me and we work very well together. I ask that you pray that this continues and that I can find ways to help really help with her workload, seeing as she has an exorbitant amount of work beyond helping me in the classroom. She is easily stressed and feels the need to do everything on her own, despite my continual requests to help her. Pray that I can find ways to lighten her work load and be a help to her in the coming months

·      I am still in the process of learning the Korean language, I’ve started to pick up a lot more words and phrases and am now attempting to read and write the alphabet. I was blessed early in life to learn Japanese and it is entirely different picking up a language as an adult. Pray for my studies and that I will continue to strive to learn this language despite its difficulty.

·      Please pray for the students at my school: many of them come from difficult family situations, most people who live in the Naeu area where my school is located are low income families with both parents working. In addition to that, many of the kids have to attend more school after the school day is finished, this is very common in Korea as well as Japan. The students are usually exhausted when they get to school in the morning and many of them struggle to keep up with their studies. Pray for them and pray that I will be understanding and will know how to reach them and teach them in my classes.

Thank you all for your continual prayers!

Amy

June & July 2010

Anyong-haseyo from Korea! The past few weeks have been very busy and intense as I’ve transitioned into my new life in Korea, but I would like to update you all on what’s been happening in my life over the past month.

I was very thankful to spend a few days in Japan with my family prior to moving to Korea. After being away from my family for 6 months, any number of days with them is a blessing. The trip was unexpected because I was initially supposed to go directly to Korea. But the Lord provided the opportunity for me to go and for that I am truly thankful.

I flew into Incheon, Seoul airport on July 23^rd, the trip from Nagoya being much shorter than the one from Philadelphia. I am currently living about 30 minutes outside of Seoul in a town called Hwajeong. The experience transitioning into a new culture has been an interesting one. I’ve found that the Korean culture is one entirely unique unto itself, and while it has similarities to both America and Japan, it is vastly different in so many ways.

The first day I was able to meet my co-teacher who helped me navigate the bus system which takes me to the school about 30 minutes away from my apartment. The elementary school, though smaller than most other schools, has about 500 students. And as I found out that day, I will be teaching about 300 of them. The children were all very excited to have a new English teacher, I spent the entire day responding to children as they yelled, “Hello, how are you?” into my class room as they walked by. Their English is limited, but they are very eager to learn, and my co-teacher has been more than helpful in introducing me to them. The next day I was successful in making my way to school and spent another day being introduced to many more of my students. Many Koreans adopt foreign names in addition to their own, particularly in a school setting. While some of my students had names such as John, Samuel and Katie, I came in contact with some interesting names that the children had picked out themselves such as Strawberry, Fire Tornado, Obama and Mr. Bong. They seemed just as amused about the names as I was, I really enjoyed my first few days of getting to know them.

            A very kind teacher at my school invited me to come to church with her the second week I was in Korea. A large church of about 2,000 members which is located in Ilsan, about 15 minutes away from Hwajeong. The teacher who brought me with her is involved in both the Korean and English services that they hold every Sunday. The English service they have in the afternoon is on the smaller size, ranging from 15 to 30 people while the Korean services have anywhere from 400 to 600 people at a time. I’ve had the opportunity to attend both, and have been able to meet many kind people who have made me feel most welcome. Many people involved in the English service are Koreans who want to work on their English, and are always looking for foreigners to get involved in their service. In the past few weeks they’ve asked me to help teach Sunday School for children in English, help lead the Fellowship group after each service for adults and help lead music and singing during the service. They have been really great in helping me adjust to life in Korea, willing to answer any questions I might have and show me around the area.

            Summer vacation has begun for the students, which means that I will be leading a summer camp for the next three weeks. It is very common in Korea for students to go to English camps during their school vacations, parents want them to have as much exposure as possible to the language. The past few weeks have been very hectic, as I’ve had to put together an entire camp with only three weeks to plan. Although I’ve finished the overall camp curriculum itself, I still have much additional planning to do which will have to take place after camp is finished each day. I will have a total of 30 students everyday and will be teaching them about American culture.

The Lord has been teaching me many things as I’ve transitioned into my new life in Hwajeong. Although it has been difficult at times, being in a completely foreign culture, not knowing anyone and not speaking the language, I’ve been amazed at how faithful God has been during this time. I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many kind and helpful people, who have really reached out to me and found ways to make me feel at home.

Praises:

-       A smooth adjustment into my new job. I have found that my co-teacher and I work really well together and she has been such a blessing as I’ve transitioned into my life here. My co-teacher, Moon, has helped me with every detail of my life from buying a bus card to grocery shopping and getting Internet set up at my apartment. I am very thankful for her.

-       Church: I’ve been blessed with a nice group of people at the church I started attending. I’m so thankful for my teacher friend who is willing to bring me with her each Sunday. Finding a church can be very difficult, but the Lord provided me with one the second week I was here and it looks as though I will be staying with them for the year.

-       The opportunity to return home to Japan in August after my summer camp, for vacation prior to school starting up again at the end of August

Prayer Requests

-       That I will get to know my fellow teachers better in the coming months. Many of them don’t speak a lot of English so it is difficult to communicate with them

-       That I will be diligent in learning the language, knowing the most basic conversation will be extremely helpful in talking to people both at school and just being out socially at stores and restaurants. The Korean language has a few minor similarities to Japanese, thankfully the grammar is structured the same, but I am still really starting at the beginning in terms of learning a brand new language

-       That I will find the best way to serve at my new church and not over commit myself this early on.

-       My summer camp: the English of the students is very limited and many of them do not want to be at school during the summer. On the other hand, the parents who send their children to summer camp have high expectations for their English language development over the course of the camp. It is a difficult balance to find, to both educate the kids but also make sure that they have fun in the process. Please pray for wisdom in planning the camp and that I will have patience with the children during the course of the three weeks.

I thank you all for your prayers and support.