As many of you may have heard, I went on an island adventure with the sixth grade students last week. We went to Cheju Do, (chay-ju doe). If you were to look at a map of Korea, you would see a rather large island off the southern coast of the peninsula. That's her. It is a beautiful place that many describe as a Korean Hawaii. The island was created by volcanic activity. There are some amazing formations of volcanic rock around the coastline.
We spent four days touring around the island. We took a submarine ride which was very interesting. We hiked down into a cave that consisted of a cavernous tube that had formed in the molten hot magma. Don't worry, the magma has cooled off considerably. In fact, it was about 90 degrees in the sunshine and about 65 degrees in the cave. There was freezing cold water dripping from the ceiling of the cave. I was hoping that I wouldn't encounter any vampire bats and I don't think I did, but it was pretty dark in there.
The trip was partially described by Sarah in the previous post. Each night, we would head to the youth hostel for a worship service and message. I played a set of Roland electronic drums for the worship service every night. I didn't have a monitor and I couldn't hear much of what I was playing. I was told that it sounded pretty good overall.
I was really upset at the way some of the kids acted during worship. When I talked to our chaplain about the situation he said, "Maybe it's because they're tired?" I said it was not from being tired. After a couple more suggestions he asked if it was the "darkness". I said, "That's the one." I was appalled at some of the behavior I witnessed. The way I see it, I have the next four months to do my part to help these kids before they hit junior high. At one of my low moments, the students began nominating their fellow students to receive a song of blessing. It was great to watch. After that, they sang a blessing to the teachers and gave out hugs. I got hugs from two very sweet kids. God reminded me of the scripture that Pop Dan assigned to me before we left: Psalm 27. You know the song, "I would have despaired unless I had believed that I'd see Your glory." I can be brokenhearted for these kids, but I don't have to despair. God is firmly seated on His throne and I will see His goodness in the exuberant Earth.
Speaking of, we were thrilled to tears to hear the great news from the Butler camp!
The island adventure was fun, but very exhausting. I had to sleep on mats on the floor without my wife. It was miserable and wonderful depending on my immediate circumstances. That reminds me of the kids' memory verse this week. I Thessalonians 5:16 -17. Read it, it's a good 'n'.
Love to all,
Micah
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
At Long Last
Whew! Our blog is finally up and running again. We're not sure why, but sometimes the blogger site is broken from our end of things, which means we can't post anything! So, anyway, sorry for the long delay in updates. As you probably know already, we just had some wonderful visits from Kimi and our mothers. It was SO GOOD to see them! And it served to make us miss everyone all the more - but it did give us a boost until Christmas time when we can see everyone! We will find out this next week exactly when we can leave here to visit home - school here is technically in session through the 24th of December! We will try to leave here on the 23rd day (insane travelling ahead I'm sure!) and be home in time for Christmas. We should be able to stay for almost (if not all) all of January, so it'll be a nice long visit. Can't wait!
We've had such a good time getting to know people here, but it will be nice to see familiar faces and catch up with everyone back home - there's just something about talking to people who already know you!
Micah just got back from a long and tiring school trip. He had some fun, but it gave him a good chance to see how students are really doing. While he was pleasantly surprised by some students (think of this retreat as a sort of Rock the Planet summer-camp thing) and how soft they were to God, there were a handful of students that are not doing well at all. He was really saddened over one student in particular who seems very hard towards God, and in fact is pretty bent on being rebellious. And this kid seems to be actively trying to negatively influence his peers. Not a good situation - we would really appreciate prayer for this student. He's a young boy in the 6th grade. We don't really know anything about his family situation. Micah really felt the boy should probably be expelled from the school for some of the behavior he displayed, but I know what we'd rather see is that his heart would be turned towards God. Please join us in praying for this student.
Tomorrow is the official start of our 2nd semester. I am so excited for it too! There have been some positive changes made with my schedule that should help this semester to be much less stressful for me and my students. For length's sake, my mom can fill you in on the details of this if you'd like. (or you can call us through skype, ya, pick that one!)
I really can't believe how quickly time is flying by here - and I keep hearing that the 2nd semester goes by 10x's faster, which is hard to believe since the 1st semester zoomed by! So, basically, we'll be home in no time! Although, I don't want to give the impression that we're just pining away and moping around here thinking of nothing but being home - that's not it at all! We actually didn't even know how well we'd adjusted until our mothers and Kimi came and we toted them around all over kingdom come with us! (Of course, there was that ONE time when I foolishly decided to go to Seoul alone and got myself lost coming home, but other than that, we're getting around pretty well;) And we adore the people here! We're learning so much! I know for me personally, there are two people here especially that have seemingly made it their life's calling to push me out of my box. This would be the wonderful couple by the names of Joshua and Esther Hong - our Korean Lotterer's. You can shuffle through our pictures on Flickr and find them. Just to remind you, Joshua is my co-teacher/principal and Esther is his wife who is also the English Curriculum Cooridinator for my grade. They are very forthright, honest, and encouraging people. I feel very honored to have them so directly involved in my (and Micah's too) life. It's so funny because the three of us could sit down to have a meeting about the Immersion Program, and then end up having a Sarah-get-out-of-your-box-be-bold-and-be-what-God-destined-you-to-be kind of meeting. And they do it with so much encouragement and such big smiles and such belief in their eyes. And the great thing is that they don't just disappear after that, but rather offer constant support and creative ideas to actually help me do it. Esther has actually told me that she is not just here to help me with my class, but that she is investing in my life! When you realize that somone is putting so much effort towards personally seeing that you succeed in what God wants, it just - well, it just breaks you. I am truly honored. And I know that they are definitely on my list of people that I will always be able to point at and say, "It's because of their sacrifice..."
As always, we deeply appreciate all of your prayers and comments. Micah is sick today, but I am sure he will want to update you as well when he's feeling a little better. Please keep his health in your prayers.
Thank you all for your faithful friendship! You're on my list too! Love, Sarah
We've had such a good time getting to know people here, but it will be nice to see familiar faces and catch up with everyone back home - there's just something about talking to people who already know you!
Micah just got back from a long and tiring school trip. He had some fun, but it gave him a good chance to see how students are really doing. While he was pleasantly surprised by some students (think of this retreat as a sort of Rock the Planet summer-camp thing) and how soft they were to God, there were a handful of students that are not doing well at all. He was really saddened over one student in particular who seems very hard towards God, and in fact is pretty bent on being rebellious. And this kid seems to be actively trying to negatively influence his peers. Not a good situation - we would really appreciate prayer for this student. He's a young boy in the 6th grade. We don't really know anything about his family situation. Micah really felt the boy should probably be expelled from the school for some of the behavior he displayed, but I know what we'd rather see is that his heart would be turned towards God. Please join us in praying for this student.
Tomorrow is the official start of our 2nd semester. I am so excited for it too! There have been some positive changes made with my schedule that should help this semester to be much less stressful for me and my students. For length's sake, my mom can fill you in on the details of this if you'd like. (or you can call us through skype, ya, pick that one!)
I really can't believe how quickly time is flying by here - and I keep hearing that the 2nd semester goes by 10x's faster, which is hard to believe since the 1st semester zoomed by! So, basically, we'll be home in no time! Although, I don't want to give the impression that we're just pining away and moping around here thinking of nothing but being home - that's not it at all! We actually didn't even know how well we'd adjusted until our mothers and Kimi came and we toted them around all over kingdom come with us! (Of course, there was that ONE time when I foolishly decided to go to Seoul alone and got myself lost coming home, but other than that, we're getting around pretty well;) And we adore the people here! We're learning so much! I know for me personally, there are two people here especially that have seemingly made it their life's calling to push me out of my box. This would be the wonderful couple by the names of Joshua and Esther Hong - our Korean Lotterer's. You can shuffle through our pictures on Flickr and find them. Just to remind you, Joshua is my co-teacher/principal and Esther is his wife who is also the English Curriculum Cooridinator for my grade. They are very forthright, honest, and encouraging people. I feel very honored to have them so directly involved in my (and Micah's too) life. It's so funny because the three of us could sit down to have a meeting about the Immersion Program, and then end up having a Sarah-get-out-of-your-box-be-bold-and-be-what-God-destined-you-to-be kind of meeting. And they do it with so much encouragement and such big smiles and such belief in their eyes. And the great thing is that they don't just disappear after that, but rather offer constant support and creative ideas to actually help me do it. Esther has actually told me that she is not just here to help me with my class, but that she is investing in my life! When you realize that somone is putting so much effort towards personally seeing that you succeed in what God wants, it just - well, it just breaks you. I am truly honored. And I know that they are definitely on my list of people that I will always be able to point at and say, "It's because of their sacrifice..."
As always, we deeply appreciate all of your prayers and comments. Micah is sick today, but I am sure he will want to update you as well when he's feeling a little better. Please keep his health in your prayers.
Thank you all for your faithful friendship! You're on my list too! Love, Sarah
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)