Last Day In Korea

It is our last day in South Korea. I still can not wrap my mind around it. I can't believe we will be getting on a plane tomorrow morning and will be landing in the United States.
I guess I haven't really been able to wrap my mind around where I've been the past week. And who I've been around. Who I've been living with. It blows my mind, and I am so excited to come and share everything with people in person! I have documents and articles :) God just becomes more and more real to me. I go to a place expecting to show people who God is, and they show me how real God is. How He still works amazing miracles. America misses out. People in America are just way too into living a safe and happy life. Way too into going after things they want. Things that will make them happy, rich, successful, whatever. Americans ask why God doesn't do miracles anymore. America needs to let God take over and open its eyes.
Oh there is so much I want to talk about.
I have a new favorite superhero. His name is Pastor KiWon Chun. And he's real. He's for real life. Look up in the dictionary Missionary B.A. and you will see his picture. James Bond does not measure up. Mr. and Mrs. Smith: not even close. This man is like a ninja/spy/superhero/angel who takes no credit for the things he does. All the credit goes to his stupidity and our amazing God :) Interested? I am so willing to talk your ear off when I get home :)
Before coming to Korea, the plans we had for our last week fell through. Where we are now, was not planned. Our location is a total God thing. Our mission: to love on the people we are staying with, show them how real God is (although I think they have done that more for me than I have for them), and demonstrate that being in love with Jesus has nothing to do with religion. Last night we led a "service." Let me just say, it was probably the best service I have ever been to. Ok actually let me say this, it was pretty much the best Friday night of my life! I wish everyone my age could just experience this! Sooooo many countries were representing: Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Mongolia, I think a European country, and America. So many stories, backgrounds, and cultures. All coming together to worship one God. Absolutely, purely beautiful all by itself. Then more beauty happened. God showed up. Nate began by saying that if people were expecting a traditional service, they were going to be disappointed. This was hang out with Jesus time. Amen :) It was a good thing he said that, because after that the Holy Spirit took over. Almost everything we planned to do went out the window. People worshiped God with the gifts He gave them. People danced. People sang. It was taking everything in me to hold back the tears. The beauty of seeing people using the talents God gave them to glorify and worship Him...no words. Then we got to perform the "Everything" Drama. How blessed am I?! I am the small town screw up who got pregnant in high school. God took me out of my life, reminded me what I was made for, placed me and my son in South Korea, and allowed me to perform the best drama I have ever gotten to participate in with and for the most amazing people I have ever met. These people deserve to be celebrities. I was so overwhelmed by who I was surrounded by. I was so overwhelmed by how blessed I am. By how blessed my son is! By how blessed I am that I was the town screw up who got pregnant in high school :) Trent is the most amazing kid. I watch him in awe. People are just drawn to him. Yesterday morning, someone called the church asking for Trent! It was a mom and child he had met at the park a couple days ago. They wanted to know if Trent could come to the park to play again! Crazy. He is a crazy kid. I just can't even believe that I get to be his mom. Thank you so much God for choosing me to be this awesome kid's mom.
So yeah I pretty much don't want to leave. The pastor of this church said we could come back anytime and volunteer to teach English and help out the church and the people here. He said we can stay here and they would feed us. All we would have to do is pay for our airfare back here...I considered just staying haha...not really -- well kinda. Only for a minute though :)
I love this country and these people very much. They have my heart. I can't wait to see Korea become one country again. I can't wait until we don't have to use descriptive words like "north" and "south." I am very excited to go home though. I'm excited for Texas warmth. I'm excited to get to 60 degree weather tomorrow. I'm excited to have all our teams come back and be one big family again. I'M SO EXCITED TO SEE KELSEY!!!!! I'm excited to go home and see my real family!! ...MN better warm up though before I get there. I'm excited to go to my church and see my own awesome pastor and church family. I'm excited to see my theater family. ...man God has blessed me with a lot of families. I am currently sitting here in awe at how much love I have for people. How is this even possible? I serve the coolest God.
Jesus, thank you so much for what you have done in my life. Thank you for bringing me to YWAM. Thank you for bringing me to South Korea. Thank you for the things you have spoken to me. Thank you for the experiences you have allowed me to have. Jesus, please bless everyone we have met here. Continue to work in their hearts. Continue to show them your perfect love. Continue to protect and bless them. Continue to bless and protect my team, especially as we make our way home tomorrow. God, I just want to thank you for everything you are. I am so blessed to belong to you. In the beautiful name of my Jesus I pray. Amen.

The Last Stretch

We are all done here at the high school :( sucky. I really loved these girls and the one guy in my small group haha. This was a really good camp. One of my favorite times here. I did end up getting to hang out with Rose and her family last Saturday. IT WAS SO AWESOME. Her family is amazing. Rose brought me and Trent breakfast in the morning to see if I was feeling better...and I was :) We went to her house after. Yeah her family is really cool. I spent the day with her mom and her older brother, Tim. Tim spoke a little English and all day his mom kept making him practice it with me...he was not happy about it lol. We had an awesome lunch. Their mom cooked pretty much every Korean dish you can think of. It was all SO GOOD! As we were finishing up, they asked Trent what his favorite food was. He told them Korean Strawberries. So Tim got up right then, grabbed his wallet, put his coat on and Trent's coat on, and the two of them left to walk to a store down the road to buy strawberries! That's Korea for you! They were buying Trent snacks all day long. They spoiled him like crazy. In the afternoon, we went to a park about 20 minutes away. Kind of like a garden/petting zoo. I was praying that there would be no goats and, because God loves me very very much, there were no goats haha. There were sheep, a couple dogs, and chickens basically. The best part though was the small snow hill that we got to sled down on tubes. Trent loved that. We began and ended with the snow hill. When we were done there we went back to their home to wait for their dad. We practiced a lot of English speaking lol. Then we went to a restaurant where their dad met us. I love him right away. I wish I could have spent more time with him. The meal was EPIC!! It was like shin ramyun glorified! I can't even tell you what was all in it besides the ramyun and beef and I think onions? But I can tell you it was Spicy! AND SO GOOD! Even though we only got to spend a day with her family, I feel like I have a Korean family now. I would come back to Korea just to visit them. I want to learn Korean so that if I do ever come back I'll be able to communicate better with them. I just can't get over how much I feel like their family is my family. I definitely saw Rose as my little sister after that.
My small group got to perform our twist of the Mirror drama today. It went really good! Two guys on my team teared up -- I take that as a good sign haha...although I didn't really understand why...Its a performance directed at the pressure girls get from their culture to live up to a certain standard of beauty. But its still pretty cool :) I was pleased. A total God given drama. I'm working on getting it up on facebook. I'll share a link when I do. Oh that reminds me!
Nate's awesome short teaching during the forgiveness teaching!!! : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlZEIAc8gsk&feature=share
This teaching just randomly legitimately spoke to me about a small aspect of forgiveness. As funny and as awesome as it was -- it was just very good. So there's the link :)
So tomorrow we are heading out. We are going to be working with the same kind of population we were working with at the beginning of outreach. The guy in charge is a Korean gangster from New York named Jimmy. Man, I really hope I get to hear his story. He wont make any plans with Nate. He doesn't want a program. He wants his kids to see real Christians. He wants his kids to see that we are real people who really love Jesus in our everyday lives. So the rest of this week will probably be a lot of randomness. I'm good with the randomness...but I'm really praying we'll get to shower haha. Small blessings are so good :)
And Sat we are heading back to America! And the times are even crazier than I thought. Our plane flies out at 11:00 A.M. Sat morning and then 15 hours later, we will arrive at 8:30 A.M. Sat morning....WHAT THE WHAT?! Its pretty much probably going to be the weirdest experience of my life...should be interesting :)
Please keep praying for my team! We only have one week left. Pray that they stay focused on the work God has for us. Pray that they stay fully engaged all the way to the end.
Also please pray for the kids we will be spending the rest of our outreach with. Pray that our team is a good representation of Jesus. Pray for hunger in these kids. Pray for God to satisfy that hunger. I'm very excited. I loved working with this population. Its a random blessing that we will get to work with this population again. It's very draining, but so fulfilling at the same time. Please pray for my leaders. Pray that God continues to fill them with strength and joy and peace. And please pray for Trent! He has done such an amazing job on this outreach and I know its because people are praying for us back at home. Thank you to everyone for your love and support! We'll be home to see you face to face so soon! God bless!!

Asan and My Plans for After Korea

So this weeks has been awesome! We are working with an all girls high school in Asan. We are running a camp for girls here and from another high school, along with 3 boys from another high school haha. We all get together for the day at 9:00. We begin with worship and then dive into the teaching. We (we as in 5 of my peers in DTS) are teaching on 5 core DTS teachings. So far we have done three. Jonathan began the week teaching on the Nature and Character of God. He did SO GOOD! I took notes :) God is loving ~ 1 John 4:7-8. God is all powerful ~ 2 Chronicles 20:6. God is all knowing ~ Hebrews 4:13. God is always faithful ~ Deuteronomy 7:9, Psalm 108:4. God is personal ~ John 10:27-29, John 1:14.

"When God makes a decision for you it is always for your best"
(Nate's awesome quote of the day).

The next day, Grace and Michael tag teamed the Fatherheart of God. Grace taught in Korean - which was awesome for the students, but not so much for me. I wish we would have translated for us haha. Michael finished up by teaching about the three P's (something he randomly taught me about one evening after just a couple weeks of knowing him haha): God is our protector ~ Romans 8:15. God is our provider ~ Galatians 4:6. God is our priest ~ Mark 14:36.

"God gave each of us fathers to represent Him. But sometimes His representors don't represent well. But God is the perfect father. God will not fail in any of these areas"
(awesome quote number two from Nate).

Yesterday, Lydia (seriously gifted in teaching!), taught on Forgiveness. Forgiveness is NOT approving or diminishing sin, a feeling, forgetting, conditional, ceasing to feel pain, a one time event, neglecting justice, or trusting again.

(This time the awesome quote of the day was from Lydia)
"God does not ask us to 'forgive and forget.' Having some kind of brain damage is not a requirement for forgiving."
Love her :)

After the teaching, we break up into our small groups. I get to partner with two of my fellow YWAMers this time: Katie and David...and David speaks Korean - plus + :) We have three beautiful girls in our group and a very handsome young man. They are in grades 10th - 12th. And each of them can speak decent enough English were it has made it so much easier to get close to them. I'm loving that about this camp. I love not needing to have a translator to talk to people. Then we take a break and come back for an English teaching, ending in letting our small group practice with us. Then comes my favorite part of the day :) -- One hour of rehearsal with our small groups. Each small group was given the assignment to come up with a dance/skit/or drama revolving around the theme of "truth". These will be presented on Monday during our wrap up ceremony or whatever of the camp. ...and let me just say -- MY GROUP IS THE BEST! It will be taped and hopefully I can get a link up :) Katie and I worked really hard (a couple of long days and nights) to put together the "Mirror" Drama with a culture twist added to it. Basic plot of it: American mirror on one side, Korean mirror on the other, Jesus in the middle. Both girls struggle with what their culture calls beautiful and how they don't measure up. But by the end of the song, with the help of a friend, the girls realize their identity and value doesn't come from the world, but from Jesus, and they see their identity in Him. The kids in our group have done so well with this. We put the whole thing together in two days. Crazy. God is in this. And I think He is really going to use this. I pray it brings Him glory.
Our afternoons consist of going out on a field trip all together to enjoy each other and the Korean culture. We visited an old folk village, a museum, and a traditional market place. Today we went to a nursing home and spent some time with the residents there. Yeah like I said, its been a really fun week :) its been so packed I haven't even written about everything...like the 500+ people we performed in front of this morning - I should probably mention that. Our team got the chance to attend a cerimony the high school was having. And they asked us to perform. So we started off with our team dance (which we had been working on all week to make it super awesome), then the Clincher drama performed (followed by an epically loud silence -- like people were not breathing), followed by Aimee giving her testimony -- which was perfect. It was all just very cool -- and it felt so good to be up on a legit stage performing in front of so many people :)
Tonight, each person on my team got to go home with a student to spend the night and all day tomorrow with their family. Unfortunately, I "squeezed the orange" a little too much this week. I started not feeling very well after lunch this afternoon, but tried to ignore it and talk myself out of it. When we came back from the nursing home, I still wasn't feeling very well, so I laid down to take a nap with Trent. When I woke up for supper, I barely made it to the bathroom. A couple of my teammates helped Trent get supper while I fell asleep on the floor. When I was woken up, it was time to head to start heading to the homes of our students. Nate said Trent and I should stay here at the high school for the night (which both Trent and I were not happy about). The young woman we were going to go home with, Rose, came in to check on me. She ended up taking Trent with her and her family. During that time, I stayed close to the bathroom and couldn't get off the floor. Around 9:30, I was able to get myself into a chair. Trent and Rose came back around 10:00. And he was very excited haha - he had a really good time shopping with them. He came in wearing a super cute stocking hat and a jacket vest (both very Koren looking :) i love it!) and carrying an excessive amount of snacks that Rose's family had bought for him. So nice! I couldn't believe it. Tomorrow morning, I'm hoping to feel perfect again...I will be feeling perfect again. And I'll still get to spend the day with Rose and her family. Man, I can't believe I got sick on the last weekend before heading back to America. So dumb.
I can't believe we are going back to America in 9 days! That is so weird. We will be flying back the morning of Feb 19th...and arriving in America the morning of Feb 19th haha. That will also be weird. That following week will be a debriefing week for all the teams, concluding that Sunday evening with talking to the YWAM Tyler family about the awesome things we have seen God do. Then its back to Minnesota! ...hopefully. I haven't worked out how yet exactly lol. My plan is to be home enjoying my awesome family for one month, and then heading back down to YWAM Tyler to attend the second half of the school, School of Evangelism SOE. I am really excited. I really feel like God is calling me to staff for YWAM Tyler. There is an awesome ministry there that takes in young expecting mothers, and the staff really work with them throughout their pregnancy and after until they can get on their feet. I really feel called to be a part of this for awhile. I love this ministry. God has also really been setting my heart on fire with some random ideas involving the arts. And I'm hearing that I'm not the only one. There are a few people who are feeling called to get the arts back to YWAM Tyler. I feel like I will be a part of this as well. I'm just very excited about the plans God has for me and Trent - no matter where they take us. Of course, none of this is for certain. There is always that awesome issue of money to deal with. But I know if God wants me somewhere, He will provide. He will open doors, and He will close doors. And I'm just going to do my best to trust Him every step of the way.

Update on the Day Off

Well we finally have some time off. So nice. We haven't had time off in a really long time. My team really needed this. We have been dragging. Really attempting to "squeeze the orange" as we would say in honor of Mr. Josh. Last week was crazy hectic. The church we have been working with has a very lack sense of time haha. Monday and Tuesday we ran a Vacation Bible School...kinda. There were three age groups, and we only got an hour with each age group each day. So two hours total to try to love them the best we could. I think we did a pretty good job though. The members on my team are really good at loving Jesus and worshiping Him with their whole lives, so He just kinda overflows out of all of them. It is very much a blessing to be around :) I actually gave my testimony to the oldest group. We performed the "Everything" drama, and I just related my life to the drama afterward. It went pretty good I think. People were crying. That usually means God is working haha :) Wed, Thurs, and Fri we helped run a mini School of Worship. We got to go stay at a resort (Trent and I got the small blessing of sleeping on a bed for a couple nights) and ate some...interesting food. The very first meal we had there was squid lathered in some kind of spicy sauce, rice and vegetables mixed in. Amazing how good rice and vegetables quickly became haha. I ate a lot of it...even some of the squid...except for the tentacle ends with suction cups. That I could not do lol.
But anyway the camp was really cool. A lot of the kids there come from Christian homes, but by day one we saw they were here, not for God, but to learn an instrument or because their parents made them come. It quickly became the goal of our team to show them how real God was. And man did God show up. People met Jesus for real at this camp. We taught them about the true meaning of worship. We answered a lot of the hard questions that religion never seems able to answer. We loved on them and showed them that our God is a personal God who only really wants to have a relationship with each one of us. It was short and hectic, but lasting. So good.
Yesterday afternoon we came back to the house we've been staying at to find that we had no water and no heat. We praised God, had a short worship session, and thanked God for everything He has done on this outreach so far. The heat started working last night :) (Can I get an AMEN! ...its really cold in Korea) but as of this morning, still no water.
Its Saturday morning right now, 9:00 a.m. I'm looking forward to another day off of being with my Jesus and my team. We are super blessed to have internet thanks to the technology genius of one of my teammates, Mr. Andrew. So I'm really looking forward to Skyping with my family in about a half hour :) :) :) And then also trying to do some research on some things God has been speaking to me. And of course, updating the blog :) Its going to be a good day.
Next week, we head to a high school. We'll be running another camp over 10 days. Then we will have 4 days doing kind of the same thing we were doing at the beginning of outreach. And then we are done. Back to Texas. I can't believe outreach is almost over. I can't believe how much things have changed, how much I've changed. How much Trent has changed. The confidence levels of Trent and I have greatly increased. Don't think too much into it, we are both still super shy. But Trent has been getting up in front of groups of people to dance or to sing some worship songs through a microphone, or to help lead a Vacation Bible School teaching. I have been the leader of a small group. I have given my testimony. I led devotions for our team. I have had ups and downs with my relationship with God, and my heart has just caught on fire like never before. I still can't believe how blessed I am to be here. God, you are so good. The more of my life that I give up to you, the cooler my life becomes. Thank you for the blessings you have showered down on me. Thank you for redeeming my life in such an amazing way. Amen.

Praying for the 7 Mountains

It is Monday morning, Jan 30^th. Again, we have no internet (so annoying), but I want to type this up quick before I forget things that happened last week. So I think the last thing I wrote about was the tower. The next day was…Friday? I guess it doesn’t really matter. Friday morning I got to Skype my family at home. It was the evening of my little sister’s birthday back home. I was only able to talk to them for about 5 minutes and then went into the bathroom and cried lol. Not a normal thing for me. I really miss my family! And I think I was just upset because I was expecting to talk to them for a lot longer than I was able to. Our schedule is always so crazy. We are always doing something. Which is good. We are here to be busy doing God’s work. But, Father, if You could work something out so I could talk to my family again a little longer, that would be sweet :) Amen. I love you guys!

Last week, we were staying with The Overflowing Church. Best worship ever! Like concert worthy. Probably my favorite worship "band" now. In the mornings, our team taught some of their pastors and leaders English. In the afternoons, they took us to different places so we could prayer over different Mountains of Culture for South Korea. The Mountains of Culture (or Spheres of Influence) are the things that make up a culture’s ideas. There are 7 of them: Arts & Entertainment, Business, Education, Family, Government, Media, and Religion. When we were doing the camp at the beginning of outreach, Matt Nocus spoke a little on these mountains. He said, “Your ideas affect the way you live and have consequences.” He said the most powerful mountain, the one that touches all the rest, is Business/Finance. It shapes every other mountain every day. The sad thing about were things have come now, is that people think callings to the church are more important than callings to anywhere else, like working in the business world. Without business men, there could be no missionaries. Without business men, families couldn’t survive. Not everyone is called to be a priest, pastor, or a full time missionary. But everyone is called to do God’s work regardless of the job they have. This is something my heart has really been burning about. Psalm 37:4 ~ “Delight yourself in the LORD; and he will give you the desires of your heart.” God has put the desires in our hearts for a reason. We have passions for a reason. We enjoy different things for a reason. That reason is to bring Him glory. “For everything comes from him and exists by his power and it intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.” ~Romans 11:36.

These are places we got to visit sense the last time I posted a blog: the "boarderless street," the DMZ, Yoido Full Gospel Church (the largest church in the world), the largest broadcasting station in the country, the Korean National Assembly (like the U.S. congress)…I think that’s everything… Praying for South Korea was really powerful. It opened my eyes not to just what is going on in South Korea or America, but how events are unfolding throughout the world. North Korea needs prayer. Research that place. Right before going to the DMZ, we were told that it is just starting to leak out how much North Korea has been preparing for the year 2012. Many countries, including South Korea, will be voting for leaders this year. North Korea has been doing a lot to influence people to vote for leaders who fall into the plans of North Korea. For example, North Korea hired 10,000 people to influence the younger generation online. Their job is to set atmospheres on social networks. There is just tons of crap like this going on. Prayer is needed! Prayer is needed for our leaders - especially the ones we don't agree with. The elections this year are going to be huge. Don't vote if you don't know what you're voting for.