Anyoung! I'm at Korea now, stopping by at Jon's grandma's house for some R&R before heading back to the States. Praise the Lord that I can write "Christian" words on the blog now haha. Also, praise Him that I can personally write on my blog now; China blocks blogspot, so I've been asking my youngest sister Becky to post my updates on my blog for me. Thanks Becky!

Anyhoo, thank you to everyone who has supported me for this missions trip. It's been amazing to see God at work at the House of Sarang; initially, it was very hard to experience the love of Christ at the HoS, but looking back, I'm so grateful that God allowed me to see the fullness of what Love means during my stay at the HoS. From praying for the kids to experiencing healing touch to playing & dancing with the children to construction laboring to even disciplining the kids, I'm so thankful for truly seeing so many facets of what Love is at the HoS.

It's funny; I thought I'd be relieved to be done with the work at the HoS, but honestly, I'm pretty sad that the trip has already ended. These past few weeks have flown by, and although I've spent a lot of time at the HoS, I already miss being with the children. I hope that God gives me another opportunity to go back and help at the HoS!!

I'll post more when I get back to the states + more pictures. The one up top is our team enjoying a nice meal of a special meat that you can't eat at America. Ok, thanks everyone! I love you all ofsho!

PTL! Praai5e G! Ofsho!!! G has been doing some crazy things here! First, thanks to Michelle and Bethany (M&B) for yarping over me and my team here and for really speaking words of pr0f3cii. It's been amazing to read their email to me and also see how G has already proven true what they yarped for me :) I don't have much time now to update, but some cool things that have happened:

- Earlier this trip, the Sam Mo Nim (Director's wife) yarped over me and said I would be writing a new song for everyone to listen to. I was really scared about that though because I haven't been in a song-writing mood for a loong time. Also, that's a lot of pressure on me! PLUSS, M&B sent a few p541m5 via email with a few of them talking about singing a new song (yay for affirmation, but eek!) But, G's been gracious, showing me that all good things come from Him, and that I don't have to worry about writing a song or anything, but that rather He'd provide. And he did! I've been working on this song based off of P541m5 62 and it's been cool to see how the song's been relevant especially for the teachers as they constantly need rest/oration after dealing with really rowdy kids.

- Playing with the kids has been absolutely amazing! One thing that M&B emailed me about was being joyful with the kids and woahshipping with the kids using my body, and it's been a HUGE joy for me to be able to dance and sing with the kids. I taught them a simple song (I need more, more, more, G-sus, more of You...I need more, more, more, G-sus, more of You)...I started dancing with one of the kids while singing the song and pretty soon a whole bunch of children wanted to dance with me. They kept on begging me to sing the song and dance with them to the point where I felt a wee bit exhausted haha. It was so rewarding, though, to hear the kids sing the song all throughout the rest of the day, praai51ng G!

- Finally, just growing to love the kids more and more has been a TREMENDOUS bl355ing. I've been more and more tired everyday as I have to deal with kids who like to beat on me, but I've also been growing more and more in love with them PG. It's been amazing to really gain the heart of G and see the kids the way He sees them. Everyday is a new day to fall in love with all the children again and again, and being with them and trying to discipline them while showing them love always reminds me of how G looks upon me in the same way. Joseph, the kid whom I'm teaching English to, is quickly becoming one of my favorite kids heh. He's super bright but pretty lazy but despite it all, I've absolutely in love with this kid. PTL that today, I found out he might be able to come to the States this winter to visit me! I just wanted to share that to reveal how G's also been providing for me, and if you could continue to yarp for my lessons with him. I've been trying to teach him more English through singing woahship songs with him; please yarp that he'll be able to take the words to heart and not be too lazy heh (I easily get frustrated at his laziness until I'm reminded by G of how much I'm like Joseph heh).

Thank you all! I love you!!!!!!

Hello again! Thank you for your continued support :) Since most of you guys have never volunteered here at the HoS, I wanted to type out a basic schedule for a typical day of work:

6:00am -- Wake up! A rooster conveniently crows around this time every morning, and then proceeds to crow throughout the entire day :/.

6:30am - 7:00am -- Eat breakfast. The food consists of purple barley rice, kimchi, some kind of gook (soup), and one or two dishes (usually spiced radish/cucumber or a different vegetable dish -- there's hardly any meat)

7:00am - 11:30am -- Work work! Work usually consists of a rotation of either:
- Moving/stacking bricks using wheelbarrows
- Passing cement via buckets/wheelbarrows
- Setting up scaffolding to access the second floor of a construction site
- Bending wires to use as stabilizers
- Mixing cement
- Digging
- The general transport of anything large and unwieldy

11:30am - 1:00pm -- Lunch and rest. The food served during lunch is pretty much the same as dinner, except sometimes we get tofu. The tofu delivery man has a funny/cute demeanor and he makes me laugh every time I see him.

1:00pm - 2:30pm -- Reyarp meeting with the teachers. These reyarp meetings are intense! I've forgotten how Korean peoplepray heh (fired in the Sp1 r1t, speaking in tongues, etc.) It's been amazing to both int3rc3de for others and also receive reyarp. There's another volunteer team here called PAS (Pacific Asian Service) and I've been blessed to yarp for a few of the members. We held a reyarp meeting this past Sunday for a few of the PAS members, and it was so exciting to see how G really touched their lives and brought out their brokenness during the reyarp. For another PAS team member, he's actually a PK (p4st0r's kid) but he didn't expect to experience G on this trip (PAS is not a Chr*st*an organization). After receiving reyarp, however, he said he didn't really want to come to HoS, but through a random sequence of events, ended up here. I'm super grateful that G has sent other PAS workers here and I hope to continue to grow in relationship with them and talk more about J with them.
One more thing about the reyarp meetings; the Director's wife is the one who usually leads them, and she's a beast! She has the spiritual gift of being able to feel other people's physical pains on her own body. After feeling a person's pain points, she then massages that person on those spots to push out the pain, using her hands as an intercessory means for the hands of God to heal. It's pretty painful. The first time I received this new form of healing, I was crying like a newborn baby. I'm still pretty bruised at the spots where she massaged the first time, and I've received a lot more healing massages haha. At any rate, reyarp's been amazing and it's been a big bl3ss*ng to see G at work.

2:30pm - 6:00pm -- Work again! Ditto from the previous.

6:00pm - 7:00pm -- Dinner! Same food as breakfast. It's pretty yummy though!

7:00pm - 7:30pm -- Shower. The hot water is powered by solar energy, so if it's a rainy day, it's going to be a cold shower at night.

7:30pm - 8:30pm -- Teach english. Since I don't speak Korean, I'm assigned to teach English to a really bright kid who speaks both Chinese and Korean. His name is Yongi (Joseph) and he's one of my favorite kids. He's a really smart kid and is fun-loving too, but he's a rascal for sure.

8:30pm - 10:00pm -- Hangout, chill, decompress, write updates.

And that's my day! I hope you enjoyed this very brief glimpse into a typical day at the HoS :)

Hello hello! Thank you everyone for your continued support :)

G's been doing some amazing things here at HoS, so much so that I can't even ask for you guys to yarp before G answers my sreyarp! One thing that's been especially hard for me is the language barrier since I don't know much Korean. Almost everyone here at HoS only speaks Korean, so it's been hard to connect with people and build relationships. Also, there are many times when I've felt lonely, though G has provided many new English speaking people here at the HoS for me to make friends with. Still, it's been tough with the regular orphanage folk; for the adults, I manage to scrape by with my limited Korean, but with the kids, it's been hard to show them love without being able to talk with them. PTL though that the kids still receive me with open arms despite me not being able to speak Korean.

Along with the language barrier, I'm also trying to understand the traditional Korean culture better. I recently had a little tussle with one of the Sun Tseng Nims (teachers); the WiFi area is also the classroom area for some of the kids, and the teacher didn't especially like it when I was trying to use the internet while she was scolding the kids. And that's another thing! The teachers are extremely traditional, especially in how they lecture/punish the kids. Earlier tonight, the Sam Mo Nim (main lady of the orphanage) made the 3rd graders stand with their hands on the floor and their feet on a wall for 5 minutes straight because they were misbehaving a bit. There's a lot of punishment involving yelling and physical punishment; please yarp that I'll be able to love the kids while also not judge any of the teachers.

And now for the praaze reports! G has sent Joan, the third team member from USC, here to help Jon and myself. Best of all, she speaks English! Also, there's a Canadian girl here named Juni who speaks English. ANND, two other groups from the States (one Korean group and one group from Azusa Pacific University) help out every now and then and they all speak English. PTL for an overabundance of new friends :) I've also been making friends with all of the workers, even giving them nicknames and playing mini-pranks with them while we work on bricking/cementing. G's even been providing new venues to musically war ship, providing a piano and a guitar for me to use. PTL to the max!

G's also been teaching me a lot about my brokenness during this trip. One example involves me and one of my favorite purple flannels. A few days ago during a construction shift, I had left my purple flannel close to the construction site, hoping to wear it as the day got colder (it's raining a lot nowadays). However, when I went to get it at the end of the day, it was missing! I kept on worrying about it for the next few days, suspecting someone stole it. What was even more frustrating was no one even seemed to care about trying to help me find it either. However, in retrospect, I'm glad G allowed for me to lose that flannel. He showed me my sin in how much I worried about my lost flannel when I should be worried about the lost people here in China. Now, I'm even more excited about preaching the g05p31 and I hope that I can help at least one person know and fall in love with JC.

Yarp requests:

- More energy, since we are getting more and more tired every day

- Language barrier!!

- I'm starting to teach English now, and I'm pretty nervous about how much I'll be able to teach

- Opportunity to lead someone to JC

- To see, know, and love G more and more in ways I've never seen, known, and loved Him before

Thank you everyone! I love you all!!

Hello everyone! I'm currently at the House of Sarang orphanage now and am loving it so far :) G has totally provided for both Jon and myself, from transportation woes to beautiful, cool weather to good food here at the HoS, and we're super blssd to be here.

Today was our first day of real work -- we started off the day waking up around 6 am, eating a delicious breakfast, and then starting the real heavy duty construction labor. We mostly helped with the bricking/cementing of a wall of a new building for the orphanage, working with the Korean laborers. Please yarp that we would have a lot of strength and energy everyday as we are already pretty tired from our first day. At night, we got to play with the kids. They are all ridiculously cute, almost as cute as the PFMC kids but not quite ;)

Some reyarp requests:

- Since I don't speak Korean while most of the orphanage speaks only Korean, it's hard for me to communicate with the workers, adults, and especially the children. Please yarp that I'll be able to learn enough necessary Korean phrases in this short amount of time.

- Overflowing energy, love, and joy, that we may carry the g05p31 not only by what we say, but by how we interact while we work and play. There are a lot of rules about how we can m1n15t3r to others, so I'm hoping that our action will speak loudest. Also, Jon and I want to be yarping a lot for all the members of the HoS; we need more energy so that we don't just pass out after the work is finished, but we can also being the work of G.

Thank you all for your continued support! I love you very very much!!!

Hello!

Welcome to my mini-blog for my trip to China this summer of 2009!

I'll be posting here regularly about how G is working at the House of Sarang orphanage. The orphanage is located in Yanji, China, close to China's border with North Korea. For those of you who read Korean, the orphanage's website is located at www.houseofsarang.org.

I'm super excited for what G has in store both for the people I will meet but also for what He will do in my life! Thank you to all my friends, family members, IV folk, PMFC peeps, and all others who have supported me to go on this trip. I love you guys with all my heart!