Day 19

I need sleep today. This is doing ministry on Jesus’ strength and not mine. Woke up, fighting every urge in my body to go back to sleep. Unlike any normal job, I couldn’t take a sick day. Not that I would ever take a sick day just because I’m tired, but this would have been a morning that I definitely would have skipped class. My body did NOT want to get out of bed. At all. Yet I courageously got out of bed and journeyed to visit the children and teach them the joys of English.

This morning went very smooth. I had the bright idea to have them make comic strips using their idioms in the dialogue instead of just writing A & B dialogue. Took up more time (Hallelujah!) and was fun for them. Also taught about the season of summer, and taught past tense and contractions in both present and the past. Not always the easiest to teach. When I let them go for lunch, they complained to the Program Assistant that I hadn’t given them homework yet. I was thinking, “seriously?!” So after lunch they were giving me grief working on the grammar section with contractions. They were frustrating me and asked me the time every 2 minutes, so I assigned them an extra page for homework on turning sentences into questions. Then they REALLY started whining. By that point, I had no patience with them. And I didn’t care how much they balked – they have an hour study period every day before dinner to do homework – one page was not going to boggle them down. And if they hated it, I hope it taught them a lesson. Do I sound like a frustrated elementary school teacher? I will never take them for granted again.

I also had to run the Jenga spelling game station for the millionth time. I say that somewhat sarcastically, but I actually enjoy running it. I also sometimes Facebook during that time when they take 5 minutes deciding what Jenga piece to take out after they’ve misspelled a word (seriously – they study the little Jenga tower like their life depends on what piece they decide to pull out). Today we had a lot of trouble with jail, halo, and wheels. Other than that, it was good.

Dinner was awesome. Meat and rice. What every Korean man wants to come home to every night, I bet. And maybe kimchi. Victoria, if you are reading this, you can tell me if your husband meets these criteria.

Our rally also went really well too. It was hula hoop night. Who knew you could do so many games with a hula hoop. First, we played the game where you all hold hands and pass it around the group, and if the music stops when it’s on you, you’re out. Second, we did one where you had to jumprope with it to a certain point and come back. We also had to roll it to a certain point and back in another relay. And then we had a representative hula hooper from each team see how long they could go, and also with teachers. And I don’t think you really care, but I’m making note of it because one day as a children’s pastor I will need all of these games as a resource. We ended the night with the Cha Cha Slide. If I haven’t mentioned, I am doing an incredible job at being a DJ – a career I am not really looking at pursuing, but if I get good enough at it, maybe I’ll burn a CD for my own wedding or something. Haha – I am that cheap.

We went out for David’s birthday later tonight – the girls tried to order buffalo chicken pizza…we ended up with a plate of fried chicken. I saw this coming while they were ordering to a waitress who spoke no English. But the chicken was very good so I’m not complaining. Pizza was phenomenal too – thank God for food that doesn’t taste like seaweed or kimchi. And you might think I am ungrateful or rude for saying things like this – you don’t know what it’s like to have everything taste the same for 54 meals in a row (18daysx3meals). So I give all the praise to the Lord when we have a change in pace.

Had a great talk about missions again tonight with Dan and Eric. Continue to pray, readers, for the 1/3 of our world population who still has yet to hear the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Pray also that out of the relationships and connections we make here through our teaching in Korea that the Lord will open doors for us to share the gospel. Peace out – from JeonJu.