Typing at last!

So I am lazy. BUT there is another reason for my recent negligence in updating my blog and or contacting/replying to emails. In short, my duh-duh-duh-Dell is on its last leg. The top row of keys mysteriously stopped working around the middle of July and have failed to revive themselves. This leaves me without crucial letters, and though I tried copying and pasting, that will erode your sanity over time.

So finally today I just went out and bought an external keyboard. It was only 10,000 won (approx. $10) and it has all the Korean letters on the keys as well as English, so its definitely unique. Maybe it'll help me remember how to read Hanguel (Korean writing). Prooooobably not though.

I've been teaching at an English camp for two weeks now and its been a blast. I'm teaching at a neighboring school, and it hosts kids from 5 different elementary schools in our area. So, I've gotten to know a lot of new kids and gotten to spend some extra quality time with the kids from my school I taught all year. One of my favorite kids calls himself "genius", though he spelled it wrong on his camp application, so his English name tag says "Jenius". Oh the irony. He's a cutie.

Today we took them to Seoul Land, which is an amusement park south of the city. Seoul Land reminded a lot of Fun Spot Amusement Park and Zoo back in Angola, IN...though maybe slightly bigger, a lot safer, and WAY more hyperactive children. The kids got to ride the rides for a couple hours, we went on a 3D movie adventure ride where there were 3D butterflies, asteroids, and sharks (during the shark part I screamed like a girl and hid behind Heejin, one of my 5th grade students). In 3D, there is nowhere to run. Or swim.

I ate lunch with my coteachers - they're all terrific people. I've had limited meaningful interactions with Koreans because my school is nearly devoid of English-speakers (though you quickly find out that a lot can be said through warm gestures and smiling...my nickname at school was "Miss Smile", or "Mee-suh Suh-mah-eel" as they would say). At this camp, there are some wonderful people I can actually communicate with. We were all lamenting today about the fact that I'm leaving and we won't have enough time to get to know each other better.

God is changing my heart regarding how I feel about Koreans. Granted, there are still things at the societal level that really bug me, but when you look at just one Korean, instead of the whole mass of them, you get a much clearer picture. On the whole I'm very glad to be going home, but there are very specific things I will miss, including the chance to invest more time into these women.

In other news, Hil and the Crews are leaving in 2 days. Hil will be taking her month-long vacation in America before returning to Korea on the 23rd of August. I'm leaving the 26th (tentatively - the school system I work for...yeah...we'll leave it at that) so I'll see her before I leave. The Crews however, will not be back until September, so I must say goodbye to 2 people who mean a lot to me on Saturday. This is an excerpt from a blog I wrote back last August:

"Yesterday I went to church and it was really neat to worship in a different country. We went to an English speaking service and the worship was so...genuine. Everyone seemed so sincere. It was a breath of fresh air. Hil and I decided we want to start a Bible study, and there are a fair amount of other Christians here, so we might meet up with them. There's one really nice couple, Nate and Jessica, who seem really interested."

God is so amazing. What I didn't know then was that this mere idea of starting something to fill our spiritual needs would grow and grow into a community of believers learning to lean on the faithfulness of God together as one body, in the midst of struggling to survive in a foreign nation. We started with 6; we've ended up with 20+, with about an equal number who have moved on throughout the year. We never asked or claimed to be shepherds, but nonetheless the sheep started coming. And the ministry has not been easy; it has been attacked multiple times and has experienced setbacks because we listened to people and not to God.

But He has been so faithful. In ways that our lack faith could not predict. In ways our nearsightedness could not foresee.

God's will is a beautiful thing. Amen.