for heidi...

My dear friend Heidi has asked me to write another blog... seeing that she is flying to the other side of the world to visit me IN TWO WEEKS, the least I can do is write her an entry.  :)

So.... it got a lot colder a lot sooner then I had expected.

Last weekend was SO great.  I went to Gimhae (a 40 minute bus ride away) on Friday to spend the night at my friend Jessi's apartment.  I truly am SO thankful for her friendship, encouragement, and accountability... plus we just have so much fun together!!  

Church was amazing last Sunday as well.  I love getting to  know the other members of the church.  We enjoyed a FREE typical Korean meal at the church after the service... seaweed soup, rice, kimchi, and apples.  After lunch I went to Starbucks with some girlfriends from church.  It was such a sweet time of fellowship, discipleship, and girl talk. :)  I am so blessed to have these women in my life!!

This last week was a busy one!  I got to spend some time Tuesday afternoon at a center for children with disabilities  where I was asked to tell them a Bible story and lead them in singing.  They were all so beautiful and precious.  Tuesday night Jessi spent the night and Wednesday was Bird's birthday.  We went out for burritos for her birthday dinner. :)  Thursday my boss took me to interview my new students at VOLVO.  Basically I walked in, was given a list of students and a list of different levels at which they could be ranked.  There were eight levels and each level had about 5 characteristics to define it.  Before I could even read through all of the guidelines employees were coming in and I was given 2 minutes to interview them and determine their English level.  Hopefully my ranking skills are halfway decent or I might have some very skill-diverse classes!  Thursday night I got to go out for coffee with Haimi, one of my Korean friends.  She is such a wonderful person and I am truly enjoying getting to know her!!

Friday I had to go to a several hour seminar for foreigners... basically a huge waste of time for most involved.  I brought my KINDLE and spent my time reading Wuthering Heights.  Time well spent if you ask me!!  Friday night I went back to Jessi's in Gimhae.  I was SO tired that I went right to bed.  I'm sure Jessi must be so glad to have such a fun friend! :)

Traditional Korean dance at foreigner seminar.

Saturday Jessi and I got to go with one of her Korean coworkers, Janey, to her parent's farm in the mountains.  What a great day!!  We got to hike the mountain.  It was so beautiful!!  There was one house that was particularly big and beautiful so we decided to take a closer look.  The owner of the house came out and gave us a tour... this house was amazing!  After our morning hike we headed back to the cottage.  The weather here is starting to get a bit cold and so when we got inside we sat on the floor (the floors are the only thing that's heated) under a blanket and played some Korean cards.  The game was quite difficult for Jess and I and it seemed like there were new rules added every turn.  Kind of reminded me of when I was little and Emily (my sister) and I would make up card games to play with Alyssa and Laura (our younger sisters).  We were constantly adding and changing rules to guarantee a victory.  Great sister memories. :)  Anyways, Janey's mother prepared a delicious traditional Korean lunch for us: Sam Gup Sal.  Basically it is grilled pork wrapped in lettuce with a variety of sauces and toppings.  Jessi and I were both brave enough to try the anchovies... I always get nervous when my food can actually look at me!  For dessert we got to have some of the Persimmons (fruit) from Janey's parents farm.  We had a great day in the mountains!  When we arrived back in Gimhae Jessi and I were craving some real American food... pizza.  We got a reference from one of Jess' foreigner friends saying there was a good place right near her apartment.  We went in and ordered a plain cheese pizza... we figured better safe than sorry. :)  While we waited for our pizza to be ready we noticed an advertisement on the wall for one of their specialty pizzas.  This particular one had full hotdogs, peppers, corn, and who knows what else covering the pizza.  Yikes.  When our pizza ready we carried it home with great excitement.  We got to Jess' apartment, opened the pizza box, and found a cheese and CORN pizza.  bummer.  Surprisingly it wasn't as disappointing as I thought it would be. :)  We had a nice girls night in... movies, music, reading, and writing.  

This morning we went to church.  Another great message was preached by Pastor Jimmy and I enjoyed a time of fellowship and discussion after the service.  For lunch?  Burger King.  I then went to another STX "football" game with my coworker Julia and her family.  What an awesome family they are!!  I truly love spending time with them and I'm so grateful to them for including me in their fun.  Today Isabelle, their one-year-old and I bonded. :)  She is such a sweet girl and she loved holding my hand and being silly with me.  I think I'm going to adopt her as my niece while I'm here in Changwon. :)

I'm starting to find that I'm no longer even noticing the things that I initially found so strange here.  For example, today on the bus to Changwon I decided that I really liked a guy's purse.  It was only after looking at it for a minute or so that I remembered that guys shouldn't carry purses.  

God is still teaching me so much and drawing me to His Word more and more.  I'm loving that I'm learning so much and at the same time growing so much closer to my Lord and Savior.  I'm currently using a Journible... a journal that is used to rewrite a book of the Bible.  Each day I write out a chapter of Proverbs.  I love how this makes me examine each word.  When I read the Bible I will often read so quickly that I don't truly read all that the Lord has written. Writing slows me down and draws attention to each word... I love how this is opening my eyes to all the wisdom that can be found in Proverbs.  I'm reading in 1 Kings right now so I'm really enjoying reading about Solomon at the same time that I am writing Proverbs.  I've also been listening to some sermons online from the westcannon.org website.  I'm currently listening to sermons by a pastor named Voddie Baucham on the life of Joseph.  Although I have heard this story since I was a child, I have never heard it taught like this and I am learning so much.  On top of that, whenever he tells a joke I can hear my dad laughing in the background... I love that!

Today in church a Korean professor from the local university presented us foreigners with a great opportunity.  He mentioned that he could advertise an English speaking Bible study on campus.  He believes that many would come for the opportunity to learn English from a native speaker and we could use that to teach them about God's Word.  I'm hoping that I can be a part of this great opportunity and that God could use me to reach some of the area college students.

Again, I thank you all for your prayers as they are making all the difference over here.  I am growing and learning and being challenged daily.  God is so good and I am so thankful for this opportunity.  Please pray for me as I start teaching 10 more classes a week starting tomorrow.  Hopefully this new schedule doesn't wear me out too much!  Pray that I will have wisdom and discernment to take every opportunity to share God's love and God's story.  The Korean people and the foreign teachers here are searching and I know that God can do a great thing through His people here if we are willing.  I can already see our missions team growing and becoming more passionate by the day!  I'm so excited to be a part of it all!!

Jessi and I in the mountains.

Traditional Korean snack...

Lunch table

Janey's mom cooking the Sam Gup Sal

Anchovies... eyes and all.

Cutting up the Persimmons for dessert.

Cottage bathroom.

LOVE this tree!

Janey's parent's farm.

Jessi and Janey eating a tradition Korean snack.

yumm...

Beautiful house in the mountains.

Yummy smelling fruit... can't eat them though.

hotdog, corn, pepper, and who knows what else pizza

"Plain Cheese" + corn pizza.

                                                 

                                                          Our Church!

   

                                      

                                                   Amazing women of God... and some crazy clowns. :)

Notice the English sign: "for DAEJEON of CITIZEN with PURPLE".  Awesome English.

Sweet Isabelle

STX sun bonnets... surprisingly VERY popular!

Chingu (friend)

JEHOVAH-ROHI...

It has been such a long time since I've written and I have so much to tell!  I really need to start writing more frequently so that I can fully convey all that God is doing in my life here in Korea.  I guess a good place to start this would be where I left off... two weeks ago!

Two weeks ago I spent a saturday in Jinju... a city that is 1 1/2 hours from Changwon.  Bird and I travelled there by bus.  Our first bus, a city bus, took us to the bus station.  I have never seen so many people on one bus and I have never experienced such a crazy driver!!  I felt like we were on the bus from Harry Potter 3!  :)  Everyone was falling over as we took turns at high speeds.  As we safely arrived at the bus station Bird and I were quite excited to board the big bus with big comfy seats and nap the whole way to Jinju.  Well, we bought our tickets and hopped on to the usually seat-assigned bus.  Much to our dismay we found the bus completely full and our "seats" would be on the bus floor.  Ah well... what can you do?  :)  While in Jinju we spent a little time at an orphanage and then we made our way to the Lantern Festival... a festival remembering the Japanese invasion.  During our time at the fair I was surprised by the following:

• A "clown" (more like a cross dresser with face paint) tried to shove some homemade ?candy? in our mouths.  Good thing our mom's taught us not to take candy from strangers!!  I ended up with the ?candy? in my hand and, after tossing it in a bush, spent the next 10 minutes trying to rub off the stickiness.  gross. 
• At one point I smelled the worst smell ever... reminder: I've worked in an ER... I KNOW bad smells.  We soon after found the source of the stench... A man sitting with a microphone surrounded by 5 people.... burning their flesh.  Each person had a small, burning, green tube thing stuck to their skin somewhere.  I asked my students about this later and they informed me that it was a pain reliever... silly me thinking it was causing them pain!
• Woks of silk worms.  I guess this is a treat in Korea.  My students tell me they are quite healthy and delicious.  Maybe someday I will work up the courage to try them.  Bird got a little closer to these worms than she'd have liked when someone spilled their cup of worms down her leg.  awesome.
• I LOVE traditional Korean music, costume, and dance!!  I really could have watched these performances for days.  I look forward to the next festival so that I can see more!
• At nightfall the entire river lit up with giant dragons, warriors,  and other characters.  There must have been at least 50 different giant figures all down the river.  It was very beautiful to look at!

The next day I went to one of the English church services here in Changwon.  Typically the English service is separate from the Korean service but once a month the services are held together with headphone translators for the English speakers.  I truly enjoyed the singing... the Koreans in their language and us foreigners in English... How awesome to have us all singing to the same God!  At one point I got a little distracted from this awesomeness.  My distraction came in the form of a typo.  The words to the songs were on the screen in both Korean characters and English.  We were singing a song about being whiter than snow and on one of the slides, a frequently repeated slide no less, they had accidently typed an "s" where there should have been a "w".  In the word "whiter".  Needless to say this had all of us foreigners in stitches and unable to continue the song.  I enjoyed meeting new people in the service and had lunch with the foreigners.  At lunch as I was getting to know people I found that at a table of 10 strangers in South Korea I was sitting with someone who had graduated with me from Liberty and someone who had graduated from my high school!!!  SMALL WORLD!!!  

Something I am so excited about here are all the opportunities I'm having to share my faith!!  For example, a very well known Korean who was famous for her motivational speeches committed suicide last week.  This lead one of my students to pose the question, "what is true happiness and where does it come from?"  I can't tell you how excited I was at the obvious opportunity the Lord provided for me to share the joy I've found in Him.  Each student in my class said that they were still looking for happiness and the things that they thought would bring them happiness didn't.  God orchestrated the conversation so perfectly!  i was able to share about the unconditional joy that I've found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  There was a lot of skepticism from the class in my answer... leading to a discussion about the existence of God.  I was the only one in the room who believed He even exists.  I challenged them all to observe me day in and day  out and realize that I truly do have real, unchanging, happiness and joy that can't be found in anything on this earth.  Hopefully these seeds will develop further throughout my time here.  God is so good! 

Last Friday I experienced a South Korea must.  Norre Bong.  AKA:  Karaoke.  Here you are provided a private room for your group only.  This is great because it allows you to sing several times. :)  The room was decorated with a gourd mural, old lady wallpaper, port holes, and shadow box flooring complete with the seven dwarves, flowers, and rocks.  Beautiful.  I had a great time singing with friends!

Although I know the goodness of God and see His blessings in my life daily, I still have my ups and downs.  I was really struggling with not having the spiritual accountability, encouragement, and fellowship that I'm so used to having.  My parents and I have been praying that God would provide me with a friend that was like-minded in faith and practice and who also had a strong desire to glorify God in the big things and the small things.  Last Sunday I visited the other English speaking service in Changwon.  I asked one of my students to go with me so that I would be able to find it and that I wouldn't have to go alone.  She gladly came.  I'm so thankful for Soona!!  At the beginning of the service all the visitors had to stand up and introduce ourselves.  Great.  After our introductions there was a time for greeting us.  At this time a blonde came running at me and hugged me saying that she was excited to meet me because she had arrived here in Korea the same week I had.  We started talking about how we were adjusting and we both had talked about how we both missed true christian fellowship.  At this point we both started crying... we knew that God had answered our prayers and had provided each of us with a like-minded friend who desired to live for God while teaching English in South Korea.  God is so good and so faithful!  Since meeting Jessi I have felt so blessed and happy to have such a great friend to hold me accountable and encourage me throughout my year in Korea.  The message that Sunday was about our thought life.  The pastor of this church is a baptist minister from Ethiopia and he preaches from God's Word.  For this I am so thankful!  After the service there was a time of praise and prayer.  At this time I truly felt the joy of being a part of the family of God!  I met so many people striving to live for God and glorify Him in their lives.  They were mostly English teachers.  Far from their families.  Far from the comforts of being "home".  How great it was to fellowship with so many people who are experiencing the same things I am experiencing!  I left the church feeling so encouraged, refreshed, and challenged to live a life for God and to see Changwon as my mission field.  Being a part of the family of God is such an amazing blessing that I will never take for granted!

That Sunday afternoon I was invited to go to a professional soccer game with one of my coworkers.  It was so great to get to know her and her family outside of the work place.  I am so thankful for such kind coworkers and the opportunity to spend time with them!  

This past week has definitely had some spiritual challenges, but these challenges have lead me to seek out God's truth so for these challenges I am thankful.  

Have I mentioned that I love my job!  I work with some amazing people and I have a boss that is very giving and helpful.  I also have the best students ever.  I am loving getting to know each one of them and about their families and culture.  Through them I learn so much about Korea!!  

From the mouths of my students:

• "We don't hunt deer to eat the meat.  We hunt deer to drink the blood and be strengthened."  Dad! If you're a real hunter you will come shoot a deer here in Korea!!  :)
• From one of my male students: "Last night I saw a very tall and strong foreigner.  I asked him if I could feel his muscles and he looked at me very strangely.  Is this not ok to ask?"  No.  No it is not. 
• While reading a news article one of my students had trouble with the vocabulary.  The word she needed explained?  Sex.  I guess once a health teacher always a health teacher!

Interesting apartment experience:  LAUNDRY.  So I had some issues with my Korean only washing machine.  Added to my confusion was the fact that the drain hose from my washing machine drains onto my bathroom floor.  Sudden flood in my bathroom was a little shocking.  Good to know for next time... I'll make sure there's nothing on the floor.

I guess I should start wrapping this up...you may be asking why JEHOVAH -ROHI.  The Lord is my Shepherd.  I lack nothing.  God has truly been my shepherd through this experience and I am so thankful.  I am listening to a sermon series in Psalms by D.A. Carson and was especially blessed by his message on Psalm 23.  I am so thankful that the Lord is my Shepherd and am humbled by what that makes me... His sheep. 

Praises:

• Jessi!!!  This week has been so much better because of her and I know that will be true of this entire year.  I am so thankful for this sister in Christ and her passion to serve God and challenge me in my own walk.
• Soona!  My Korean student who is also a believer.  Her testimony just astounds me.  Her family abused her for years because of her decision to be a christian and attend a christian church.  She has helped me out with so many different things.  She truly is a blessing in my life.
• Smyrna Church!  I am so blessed to have a church family here to help me grow and encourage me through all the challenges that lie before me.  
• HEIDI AND MARISSA ARE VISITING NEXT MONTH!!!  I can't even put into words how excited I am to have such amazing friends that will come out here and visit!  I can't wait!

Requests:

• Finances.  I won't get my first paycheck until November 9.  Funds are starting run a little low so I am having to be VERY careful.  But I trust God to provide as always has.
• That I would stay faithful and that I would have wisdom and discernment in the many decisions I am having to make while here.

Thank you for reading.  Thank you for praying.  Thank you for your many notes and messages... I truly love hearing from each one of you!  Love, Kristen

Sitting on the bus floor.

Bird managed to still get a nap...

Flesh burning pain relief.

Lantern Festival

Clown??!!

Precious girl at the orphanage.

Cool drum in Jinju

Play that drum!

Fortress in Jinju

Cool Dance and Costumes!

Norre Bong!

Sangin

Shadow box floors.  Yes... you do have to remove your shoes.

Awesome Norre Bong wigs.

STX Soccer

Coworker Julia and her family.

Parked car.  Seriously.

Top of a mountain right near my apartment.

Hiking. :)

settling in...

Wow... so much is happening here!  Recently I was able to spend an afternoon exploring a little bit with Bird and we wound up on park benches to read and relax on a beautiful day.  Kindle + Park + Beautiful weather = a perfect afternoon!!  Over the weekend I went on a short trip with Bird and some of her friends to Daejeon... a city that is 3 hours away by bus.  Bird and her friends were going to the city to run a 13k race and I decided I could cheer from the sidelines.  We arrived on Saturday night, checked into a hotel, and went out for Italian food!  Sunday morning we took a shuttle out of the city to the mountain where the race was being held.  This probably comes as no surprise, but as everyone was getting registered for the FREE race I just couldn't resist and signed up... chino shorts and all.  I signed up to run the 5k figuring that it couldn't hurt my knee TOO badly.  Oh, and did I mention that this was a barefoot race???  Yes, 5 kilometers through the mountains on clay/gravel paths without any shoes.  I'm here to have new experiences, right?!  To help all of the runners get hyped up there was an amazing drum team playing.  The were incredible!  I think drums should be a mandatory part of all foot races!  I then removed my shoes, had a Korean flag painted on my face, and hiked the 2 kilometers to the starting line.  I could already tell that the race would be quite interesting as it had rained quite heavily the day before leaving everything wet, slippery, and muddy.   Once at the starting line everyone started chanting.  I joined the chanting having absolutely no idea what I was saying... turned out we were counting backwards.  Before I knew it we were all off and running.  Here are some things that I observed while running:

• Running on wet clay isn't as soft as you'd think... especially when there are pieces of gravel mixed in with the clay.
• BEAUTIFUL scenery.  It was so nice to look around at God's beautiful creation in a completely new place.
• At one point in the race there was a monk sitting up on the mountain side playing a wooden flute.  I remember looking around at all the beauty, listening to the beautiful music, and thinking: "Last week at this time I was at home in Rockford, MI and this week I'm running barefoot through the mountains of Dae Jeon, a city I didn't even know existed, while a monk plays a wooden flute.  Wow."  It really made me realize that I am going to have so many unique adventures while I am over here and it also made me very grateful for the opportunities I have been given.
• The Koreans are great encouragers!  Scattered throughout the trail were several Koreans cheering on the runners.  Their cheer of choice?  "FIGHTING!!"  Who knows where this came from but they were all pumping their fists and yelling at each passing runner.  I fought as best I could. :)

So my injured, untrained body and uncallussed feet were feeling the pain of the mountainous run 4 kilometers into the race causing me to anxiously look forward to the finish line so that I could sit and show my feet the medical attention they so desired and rest my very much in pain injured knee.  As you can imagine, I was very disappointed to see that the 5k point was just that... a kilometer marker.  No finish line.  If only I understood Korean I would have been informed that the 5k runners were to turn around at the 2.5k point and finish at the starting line... a finish complete with rose petals and gold medals.  Awesome. After much confusion and wandering around by myself looking for anything resembling a finish line, I decided to turn around and walk the 5 kilometers back to the starting line.  At that same time two young men from Pakistan were also realizing the 5k dilemma.  We started talking and quickly became friends.  The 5 kilometer walk back, although painful (still had no shoes on!), was quite enjoyable because of my company.  We spoke about our countries, our culture, our families, and most intriguing, our faith.  Yassir and Ali are both Muslims.  I'll be honest, before that day I really did not know much about the Muslim faith.  I was very excited to share my faith and my hope that is in Christ Jesus with them.  Our biggest disagreement came when they expressed that they also believed that Jesus will be returning one day and that they look forward to His return... unfortunately they are looking forward to His return because they believe that Jesus will then proclaim that He is not the son of God. Ali told me that he looks forward to the day in heaven that he can tell me that he was right about Jesus.  I told him that I will be sad that he never believed the truth.  After crossing the "finish line", taking pictures and exchanging information we parted ways.  I am so thankful for the opportunity to make friends with these two men.  I don't think the 3 of us would have joined company in the US and I would have missed out on great conversation, but in Korea we had something in common, speaking english, that caused us all to stick together.  I will definitely continue to pray for my new friends.

After completing my 10k race I met up with Bird at a clay pot making tent.  Bird, a bunch of children and myself sat around a table and made some beautiful pieces of art. :)  After leaving the race we went back into the city for dinner and shopping.  The 3 hour bus ride home provided me with a restful nap.  What a great first weekend in Korea!!

Monday I moved into my new apartment!  Thanks to all of you who were praying!  It is a very small space filled with all the colors of the rainbow, but I really like it!!  It's a 20 minute walk from the city which is so nice.  My neighborhood is very quiet and I have a great view of the mountains right from my front door.  Once I get everything put away and organized I will post pictures.  Here are some interesting things about my new apartment:

• The washing machine, which takes up most of my bathroom, has buttons that are all in Korean.  Trying to do laundry is always interesting just pressing any assortment of buttons.  Hopefully I don't ruin all of my clothes!
• I don't have a bathroom sink!  I don't know many people that keep their toothbrushes and toothpaste in the kitchen, but it's something I'm going to have to get used to.  
• I have to turn on the hot water, which is controlled near the front door, before turning the water on.  Forgetting to do so results in a very cold shower.  Trust me.
• The non-english speaking landlord tried to explain to me how to turn on the gas to start the stove.  I hope I didn't misunderstand her hand gestures or making noodles could prove to be quite  dangerous.

I am absolutely loving all of my classes!!  I teach 2 classes in the morning and 3 in the evening.  Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have a 1-on-1 student in the afternoon and on Thursdays I have a 1-on-1 student in the morning.  Basically, I'm getting paid to talk to very fun and interesting people!!  What a great job!

A few Korean observations:

• The 2 young men holding hands walking around town probably aren't gay.  Just good friends.
• Toilets come in a great variety!  Some provide toilet paper, some don't.  Some provide toilet paper at the entrance to the bathroom and not in the stall.  Don't mistake this toilet paper dispenser for paper towel after washing your hands... wet toilet paper stuck to your hands.  Awesome.  Some toilets, like the one at my school, are only a few inches off of the ground requiring a squat.  Some are so ridiculously and unnecessarily technnologically advanced.  I'm talking 10 to 15 buttons.  I was only brave enough to try 2 of the buttons.  I got my butt sprayed and fanned.  That was enough experimenting with the buttons for me.
• If 2 Koreans are dating each other it is essential that their outfits match completely... all the way down to their underwear.  All lingerie stores sell matching bras, women's underwear, and men's underwear sets.  The patterns I've seen so far have been animal prints, flowers, and hearts.  Awesome.

Well, I guess since I've written a novel and probably nobody but my own mother has read this far, I should wrap it up.  Prayer requests and praises:

Praises:

• I got a great deal on a cell phone and cell phone plan!
• My apartment is very comfortable.
• Opportunities to share my faith.

Requests:

• That I will get my alien registration card soon.  Until I get that card I don't have any insurance and I can't open a bank account.
• That I will find a cheap bike.  Currently I am making a 20+ minute walk 4 times/day... sometimes after midnight.
• That I will choose my activities based on what will give God the most glory and not what will bring me the most pleasure. 

Korean BBQ

Bird and her lunch.

Statue at the mall.

Kindle in the park on a beautiful day.  Ahhhh.

Fun with friends.

Clay pots.  (Unfortunately neither of the pots made it home to Changwon.)

Our foot prints.

Shyla and Bird shopping in Dae Jeon

Thank you for reading and for your support, encouragement, and prayers!!  Until next time!