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Showing posts from November, 2009

Those who are called to vocational ministry...

Confession time. I have been struggling with jealousy. It’s not often that my jealous nature is brought to my attention. But I couldn’t ignore the resentment building in my chest every time I entered the church. You might think this sounds crazy, and to be honest, it probably is. But I was so jealous of the people who worked at the church. I want so badly to work for a church. Someone in youth ministry once told me that at their orientation day at seminary, a professor stood up and told the group of students that if they could imagine themselves doing anything else, anything else, that they should leave and go do that. That youth ministry was very difficult and unless you are called and can’t imagine doing anything else, you should leave. I don’t know if I agree with that, but it certainly resonates with my soul right now. There is nothing I want to do but ministry. I went to church a week ago and was overwhelmed by my jealousy of those who are serving in full time ministry. I know my

the year of Jubilee

A little pun in the title. Not only is it the verse of my church, but it seems like possibly my verse for the year. This is my year at Jubilee (Church). At every church I’ve committed to over the last 8 years, I have learned valuable lesson. At Trinity Pres. Of SLO I discovered the (second) love of my life- THEOLOGY! In Chile, at la Iglesia Anglicana de Providencia I learned a lot about leadership and ecumenical unity (or lack thereof). In my two years at Westminster, I heard the most beautiful liturgy at City Church and saw what a bunch of hippies turned radical middle class Jesus lovers can do at New Life Glenside. The Village Church was a whole new experience. It was in so many ways the perfect church for me. It was a combination of good fellowship, solid redemptive historical and yet contextualized preaching of the Gospel, and a true love for the broken yet beautiful neighborhood we lived in. Even if I never get to live in New York again (Lord forbid) I know the six months I spent

doing well

I know its been a while since I posted anything. It is not due to any bad turn of events in my life, but on the contrary, life has been good. I am still struggling in various ways with Korean life (like their fierce and vocal judgment of anyone over a size 2 and the way they walk ridiculously slowly down the streets). But I am actually doing really well. I really appreciate my church. It’s not perfect, and I know that. But I really like it. I’ve never been a member of a church this charismatic. They aren’t speaking in tongues from the pulpit or anything, but the way the pastor talk about prayer, or even visions would probably make some of my Westminster buddies uncomfortable. But honestly, I need it. I am so thirsty for the God’s work in my heart, in my life, that I gladly welcome a strong faith in the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives today. Not that my reformed buddies don’t believe in the power of the Holy Spirit, but that too often the power that we so adamantly declare on pap

It goes both ways

So as much as I make fun of my Korean students and their English, this morning I write to tell you that the language fun goes both ways. Not only are we teaching English, but most of us teachers are also trying to learn Korean. Last night, as we were walking home from work, Brittany got a text message in Korean from a friend she met this weekend. His text was as to be expected, in Korean. Great. So the three of us girls huddled around the phone and collectively worked on translating the message. Brittany sounded out, "hwa... hwa hae... hwa haeyo... pri... pri...tan...ni...." and then it clicked, "oh! bri-ttan-ny! that's my name!" At that point I couldn't help but laugh. Here we were staring hard at all these strange characters and really they just said her name (the first part means something akin to "whatcha up to?") Ah, the good times you have when living in another country.

Good times in Hongdae

Like I said, HongDae is the area where the university is. It's totally a sweet hangout for young Koreans. It was SOOO cold (well below freezing) on Saturday but Nicky and I walked around the area trying to stay warm. We stumbled upon this park that has live performances. Really cool. I took a quick video so you can see a little of the madness that goes on here. So this first group was really popular. The lead singer had a mad wig on that looked like an Afro... who knows where that came from. And this second group was just a few meters away trying to compete with the sound of the big group. It was a few high schools rapping. Cute kids, not really that much talent though.

Birthday good times

This weekend was a double whammy. Both Maggie and Kiren(pictured above) were celebrating the big 23. A group of us went out to a part of town called HongDae. It is where the University of Korea is, so it's FULL of cool student stuff. Very hip place. Anyways, we met up at a bar and got nice nd toasty before heading to another bar where we danced. Enjoy the photos! Here we are with a ton of vodka and tequila and fruit. For some reason, they give you fruit when you order liquor. Awesome. Fun note: the fruit platters here are always complete with tomatoes. Of course, right? Sally, Nicky, Brittany, and me Before we went out for the birthday bash, Nicky and I hung out and got a pretzel at Auntie Annes. It was Nicky's first pretzal!

Girls' Night Photos

As I shared earlier, I was hosting a girls' night on Sunday. After church, Sunyoung, Nicky and I all headed over to my place where we were joined by Ta'eh and Sally (a new American teacher at my school). We ate yummy stirfry and then settled, all five of us, on my bed to watch Twilight. It was awesome. Totally the kind of thing I love doing. And of course the girls loved Twilight and we have all agreed to go see New Moon when it comes to Korea on December 3rd. Dinner with Becka always includes lots of yummy veggies! Koreans have a space near their from door for everyone's shoes. Check out Ta'eh's yellow crocs, I gotta get a pair of those! Nicky and I as I cook the food All the girls chilling before we start the movie- good times!

Meager Means

I am very excited to share with you that tonight I will be hosting a girls' night at my place. That's right. I'm having a few friends over (3 Koreans and an American) over for dinner and a movie. What's on the menu? My own crazy version of Korea food. It's one of my stirfrys with zucchini, bell peppers, onions, and tofu all in a rich bulgogi sauce and served over noodles. We'll watch Twilight (of course) and then when New Moon comes out Decemeber 3rd here in Korea, we'll head out to see that. I'm really excited to host this. I have such a small place, only 3 bowls (I'm going to borrow another one and use a tupperware myself) and my netbook screen is WAY too small to comfortably all watch the movie, but I decided I would rather live hospitably with meager means than not at all. So there you go!
It's 1:40am. You may be wondering what I could possibly be doing at this ungodly hour. Well after a loooonnnng day at work, I headed over to Kims Club (think Kmart) and then finally to my little studio where I planned on watching some previously downloaded tv shows. It was already 11pm when I started 30 Rock. Then the Office (a great episode, by the way) and finally, the best for last, Vampire Diaries. When all was said and done, it was 1:30am. Even though I was tired and sure that going to sleep was going to be the best solution to that problem, I wistfully distracted myself by looking up KoreanCupid.com. Yeah, internet dating. Not that I think I am anywhere near ready to actually date, but I figured it was about time I at least stuck my toes in the water. So I signed up for a free account and began to answer the multitude of questions for my profile. That's when the panic began. First of all, Koreans are obsessed with looks. I mean, in the US we are too, but there are 7 year

Sexless

I bought Sexless in the City a month before Jason and I started dating. I put off reading it to work on my thesis, and then once the relationship started, and graduation plans ensued, and then the getting OVER the relationship season began... well, let's just say that it took me until mid August to begin reading this book that had so quickly caught my attention in February. Once I began, I realized that this woman, Anna Broadway, was telling my story. Sure some of the details were different, but she and I have walked disturbingly similar paths. I cannot recommend this book enough. Sure, it's about sex and Anna has a lot to say on the subject. But it's also just about life. It's about being a Christian. She describes her experiences with a hindsight that I can only hope to have a few years down the road. It's uncanny how closely her reactions to life match mine. Crushes on guys, not because they are worth even an ounce of your heart's energy but because you are

Kids say the darnest things

I want to start a new weekly, or biweekly posting where I will share with you some of the fun (or just plain strange) things my kids say in class. Everyday in the teachers lounge we share the funny things the kids put on their tests or homeworks. Sometimes what they say is so blatantly wrong that it's just funny. (I want a cool name for this kind of post. So CONTEST time!!! THink of a cool name for these posts. Like "silly sayings" or "wrong readings". Send them my way and I'll use the coolest one.) To give you an example of what my kids say: On the vocab tests, the kids have to write the words and a sentence using the vocab word. Now these are smart kids, so when they don't know the definition of a word, they often try to make up a sentence that is vague enough that it just might work. One of the most popular ones is: "I like ________." Um, yeah, sure but that does NOT tell me that you know what it means. This was (hopefully) the case today wh

Another puzzle piece

Today another puzzle piece fell into place. I've been struggling with my church for weeks. In fact, every week I've gone there I've found myself sitting in the sermon cringing and wondering why I still go to the church. Don't get me wrong, the people are very very nice and I'm sure they love Jesus very much. But for someone who loves theology, indeed who breathes theology, the simplistic and sometimes slightly bad theology was too much to take. I am the first to say that the gospel is simple enough for a 5 year old to understand and yet complex enough to study your whole life and never full grasp the immensity of it. But the teachings at this church were too, well, let's just say they weren't for me. I loved the social aspect of the church. I met so many Koreans there and I loved going out to lunch with them afterwards. But given my own personal state, I knew that I needed to be in a place where I was being fed spiritually, even if that meant being in a chur