Korea Prayer Calendar & Team Photo

The team will be meeting on Sunday the 14th at 6:00 pm in the room S105. Anyone who would love to come help pack supplies or pray for us please join us!! 

Prayer Calendar:

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July 17th – Praise and thankfulness for all of those who are supporting us to go as a team and represent the body of Christ and Westover, which ultimately is praise to God. Pray for the team to have safe travels and make our flight connections okay. Pray for all to be able to endure the 14-hour flight from Minneapolis to Incheon Korea. Pray for the unity of the team, whether things go smoothly or not, and for us to exhibit a gracious spirit. Pray for Anna that God will quiet her spirit so that she is not anxious in dealing with all of the travel. July 18th – Pray for all of our bags to arrive with us and for no issues going through Korean Customs. Pray for the team to be able to rest and recover from the roughly 21.5 hours of travel from point to point. Pray for unity of the team with those we will be serving alongside, including the Korean English teachers from Yeo-Myung School who will be our translators for the week of camp, the staff from Seoul Central Evangelical Church, Westover’s supported missionary for Northeast Asia, and other local Koreans we may interact with. July 19th - Pray for boldness and courage for the team that we will be humble and obedient to the calling of the tasks set before us. JaMonica’s prayer request is that she can go on this trip and do God's work without being judged based on what was raised or not raised on her behalf and that she will be effective in the work she is going to do with the North Korean refugee students. July 20th - Pray for the two college students, Laura Beth Fraley and Monica Ma, who will be joining up with our team in Seoul. They are serving with TEAM and SCEC during the month of July. They will be providing the music portion of our teaching during camp. Molly’s prayer request is that the Lord would prepare her heart to share the gospel with the students and give her courage and wisdom when deciding whether or not to do so. July 21st - Pray for good fellowship with Pastor Kang and members of Seoul Central Evangelical Church where we will worship today. Pray for opportunities to minister to whomever God puts before us, whether it be the students, other teachers, staff from the school, staff from the church or just someone we come in contact with while we stay in Seoul. Pray for the wellness of each team member and for each of us to have an awareness of God’s plan while on this trip. Chris asks for prayer for a selfless heart and a keen awareness of the needs in our midst. Also, pray for dependence upon His strength and wisdom. July 22nd - Pray that as we work God will guide our hearts, minds, tongues and hands bringing glory to himself. This is our first day of teaching and meeting the students. Pray for a spirit of peace, joy, laughter and understanding as we begin to interact with the students. Pray for the unknowns of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), as all but one of the team members have never done this. Pray that it would be a profitable experience for the students, and that they would see the love of Christ demonstrated in a practical way through the team. Pam requests prayer that God helps her to see everything on this trip through His eyes and that she is open to any and all opportunities. Also, pray that her business doesn’t suffer while she is gone. July 23rd - Pray for our hosts from Seoul Central Evangelical Church and the Yeo-Myung School. Pray that this will be a fun time for the students as they could have chosen to do something else with their time off. Kayla’s prayer request is that she asks the Lord to give her the right words to say to the students and that they will see Him through us. July 24th - Pray for the relationships we build as we serve alongside the Korean teachers and students. Pray for safety in travel and good health. While there, pray for each student that they will be receptive to the Word of God and see Christ in us. Pray that we present the classes clearly and make some lasting friendships. July 25th - Pray for the team to be able to make the best of our accommodations and the food we are served. May we have grateful hearts for God’s daily provisions for each of us. Pray for Steve that his office will not experience any major issues while he is away. Praise for getting to see once again multiple Korean Christians he met and served with in 2017. July 26th - Praise for all that was accomplished throughout the week. For those of us who are task oriented by nature, praise that we put a greater value on relationships and not just tasks. Pray for the students during their summer break. They face difficulties with studying. They fear being discriminated against due to being from the north. They have mental and emotional wounds from their past. Many have physical ailments. And finally, it’s difficult to adjust to a new life in South Korea. July 27th – Pray for a time of reflection and rest as we prepare to depart Seoul on the 28th. May we be able to articulate the good and not so good things, if there are any, we were able to be a part of over the last 10 days. Praise for our amazing God and the Korean brothers and sisters in Christ we were able to serve alongside. July 28th - Pray for safety in our travels home, for on time connections, for some sleep as we fly, and for an awareness of the sacrifices that so many make to go to the least of these, God’s creation around the world. Amen.

Team Photo:

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from left to right-->Steven Miller, Pam Slepp, Anna Lewis, Kayla Armstrong, JaMonica Thompson, Molly Humphrey and Chris Lewis.

HOME!

Praise be, and thanks for your prayers.  Check back for more later!

-- blr, for the team

Sunday, 1/22: ALMOST home!

We flew out of Seoul this morning, and landed in Detroit around noon local time. Unfortunately, Detroit (and other midwestern airports) are dealing with heavy fog, so our Detroit to Greensboro flight has been delayed. Please pray that we can get home in a timely manner. Thanks!

Some photos

While we were at the conference center where the English camp was held, the internet connection was not the best. (Thanks to Valerie Stone for helping get the blog posts up!) Now that we're back in the land of good connectivity, I can share some photos with you:

Setting up for camp on Monday. Steve M, setting up tables and chairs. Different continent, but some things don't change.

The students compete in a vocabulary activity. The team that completes the activity in the shortest amount of time wins a point. (We can't show you the students' faces here. Sorry!)

 Students on a hike/vocabulary-building scavenger hunt. Leaf! Rock! Pine cone!

Koreans are very careful to keep their floors clean. That's because they LIVE on the floor -- they sit on the floor, they sleep on the floor, they often eat on the floor. For that reason, they leave their shoes just inside the door. Most of the students went around in their stocking feet. 

Those of us who brought along our own slippers were very glad to have them!

And here's what you'll find just outside the bathroom door. The floors in the bathrooms are sometimes wet, and you don't want to get your socks or slippers wet, so you just use a pair of these plastic sandals. 

Here's the dining hall, where we and the students ate our meals. Conversations were good; the food could be a little challenging!

And here's a typical meal. Rice and kimchi (what's kimchi?) were served at EVERY meal: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then there were several other dishes that we had trouble identifying, along with a bowl of soup. Standard utensils were chopsticks and a spoon. If you asked, you could get a fork. 

While we were at the English camp, some of us stayed in a house on the Conference Center property. And here's what the sleeping arrangements looked like! (Don't worry: Anne and Jan stayed at a hotel, with real beds.) It turned out that sleeping on the floor was surprisingly comfortable. The challenge was....

... controlling the heat! The heat primarily comes from the floor. Apparently this is common in Korea. The picture above shows the heat controls for the room in the previous picture. We had some trouble getting the heat adjusted so that the room was at a comfortable temperature. This led to us saying things like: "Turn the floor down." or "Is the floor even on?" or "The floor's a little too hot." 

Some evenings the teachers from the school (not the Westover team, but the students' regular teachers, who were there to supervise, translate, and otherwise be indispensable) ordered-in an evening snack. This particular night, the snack was fried chicken! Quite like KFC, with regular, hot, and soy-flavored. Interestingly, the chicken came with...

... radish! It's another form of kimchi. Usually kimchi is spicy-hot, but this was not.

That's all for now. We start the long journey home tomorrow, so please keep that in prayer. Thanks!

--blr, for the team.

Friday, January 20

We woke up to four inches of snow! So beautiful!

We closed out English Camp today, and relocated to our hotel in Seoul. We so enjoyed our students this week! It was hard to say goodbye to them. Lots of picture taking! We can't post pictures of students, unfortunately. After hugs (and the more culturally-acceptable bows) and pictures, pictures, pictures, we departed from the camp. 

As a team, we agree that we underestimated the English skill level of our students. They know lots of vocabulary words, but they have trouble putting sentences together. That's what they needed help with. We anticipate that the next Westover team will be better prepared! 

After checking in to our hotel, we went out to lunch. Pastor K. found us a place where we got burgers, fries and Pepsi! Woot! Some of us had bulgogi burgers. There was a bulgogi sauce on the burger, so it was still a cultural experience! (Click here to learn about bulgogi)

After lunch, some of us took a chilly walk, exploring the area around our hotel. David H. was preaching on Friday evening, so he and Pastor K. and Jim headed out for that. The rest of the team, rested, chatted, ate pizza (woot again!) for dinner, and went to bed early. 

Saturday will be a day of sightseeing and shopping, organized by the tireless Pastor K. Then we head for the airport early on Sunday. There's snow in the forecast here for Sunday, so pray that it won't interfere with our travel. While we've had a GREAT trip, I think we're all looking forward to sleeping in our own beds!

-- blr, for the team

Thursday, January 19 - Last day of English Camp

It’s the last full day of English Camp. We’re a little tired, and so are our students. Today we reviewed the words for body parts. Did you know that “waist” and “wrist” are very confusing?

Today Jan and Al shared their testimonies. We made salvation bracelets with all the students. We tried to have a sack race, but the only sacks available were rice sacks, made of paper, and they ripped pretty quickly. We had more success teaching the Hokey-Pokey. It goes with the body parts lesson!

I was encouraged today when one of my students was able to ask if she could take her workbook home with her when camp is over. Of course she can! And I gave her a high-five for putting that question together!

Tomorrow we will review, and have a closing ceremony. Then the team will move from the camp and back to our original hotel until our departure on Sunday. I’m not sure what we’re doing on Friday after camp, or on Saturday, but I’m confident that Pastor K. has a plan! He is tireless, and has a multitude of contacts. I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s got planned.

Wednesday, January 18

UNO, a Scavenger Hunt, and Jack, Grace, and Hannah It’s Wednesday the 18th, 4:00 in the afternoon. That means most of you are asleep as I write this; it’s 2:00 AM in Greensboro. But here in Seoul, the classroom hums with activity.

One group of students is playing a lively game of Uno. Others are playing Mexican Train (dominoes).  A few are coloring, and some are working on a jigsaw puzzle. A highly competitive game of Twister has also broken out. All of them are, in theory, practicing their English as they play.

The classroom is warm, even though it’s cold outside. The walls are adorned with vocabulary words, Bible memory verses, letters and numbers. Since this is game time, the 24 students drift in and out. And so do their teachers.

Earlier this afternoon JIm R. led a hike/vocabulary scavenger hunt. The students enjoyed the walk, and learned the English words for pine needle, leaf, pine cone, stone, and so on. Jim was in his element.

Many of our students have adopted English names, which is very helpful to their teachers, who aren’t good at pronouncing Korean names! I’d like to tell you about a few of them.

Jack projects a “too cool for school” image. His English is very limited. He is good at small acts of service, which he performs quietly, without being asked. He often brings me a chair when we’re gathering for small-group time. Today he saw another teacher collecting trash in the classroom, and took over that task.

Grace, at age 26, is the oldest of our students. She is determined to learn English. She is hungry for one-on-one help. Last night after class I sat with her and we worked through some very sticky issues in English -- like the two different pronunciations for “the” depending on whether it precedes a vowel or a consonant. Try explaining that to a non-English speaker!

Hannah often looks sad. I learned that she’s only been in South Korea for a month, and doesn’t have any friends here. I’m praying that one of the girls will befriend her, if not this week, then soon.

In general, we think it’s going well. We’re all a little tired. We get started at 9:00, go until lunch, then come back and go all afternoon, then do a little more after dinner.  And then we sleep really, really well!

We’ve had rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day here at the camp. And kim-chi. I for one am starting to long for a burger. Or maybe some French toast.