Korea Championship Presentation - July 2013

God's grace is enough!

Hi friends (:

I [Jaime] am the last of my friends to post about the English Missions Camp (EMC); sorry for the delay! I cannot believe that the first week of classes is almost over. On Monday, we tested and interviewed our students, attended an opening ceremony, and met our class. This week, classes are running from Tuesday to Friday, and we are going on field trips with the children on Saturday.
I am co-teaching a Level 4 class with 11 year olds with my new friend Diana from St. Louis. We began with 6 boys and 2 girls. Not going to lie, the first day was a challenge. The students were very shy and hesitant to participate and practice speaking English in class. They enjoyed playing games like Duck Duck Goose (or Kimchi-Kimchi-Moo!), but lacked energy in class. I am so glad that my friends are loving their classes, but it was a little discouraging to compare my class with theirs. Despite the circumstances, God is so faithful. After a season of prayer with my friends last night and planning with Diana, God was gracious to make today a better day of teaching! The students are coming out of their shells little by little and enjoyed the new activities we planned for them. For example, we had a spelling war with our vocabulary words and made origami after talking about craft supplies.

Please keep praying for the Lord to move in all the students and especially to show evidences of God's Word filling their hearts. The theme of the camp is David, and all of our morning devotions come from 1 & 2 Samuel. Tomorrow, all the students are participating in a Talent Show! We have also been working on a musical about David and Goliath for the end of camp, and it is so fun. Just as we were tiring of cafeteria dinners, the EMC staff started preparing American meals for us in the café with food such  as pasta, sandwiches, and fruit (: We all really enjoy interacting with the awesome staff members here. They have such sweet servant hearts!

Thanks for keeping up with us on the blog and remembering us in your prayers.
With love, Jaime

Romans 5:3-4
And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

drawings of our favorite foods

Diana teaching the students how to make origami

playing a lively game

our cute kids walking in the rain

 

 

And these precious souls are the reason I came to Korea...

Jr. High Students in Mrs. B's English Class

     I have begun to care deeply for these kids already, and the way I know that's true is because I find myself thinking of them and praying for them when they are not with me. On the first day I gave each one a journal that I purchased for them. I wrote a personal note on the first page of each one asking questions about things my students had mentioned in class.  Their assignment was to read my note, consider their answers to my questions and write me a note back in their journal for the next day using their best English grammar. Well, suffice it to say, they blew me away! They LOVE writing back and forth with me, and I love writing to each of them everyday too! They look forward to when they will get the next note from me. At this point, the fact that their written English grammar is being practiced (and corrected) daily is just a nice side benefit to the exercise!

     God's purpose and plan for this trip may be (or more likely not be) fully revealed to me, but I know He is stretching me and showing Himself to these Jr. High kids in the process.

     The first morning I explained that each day we would begin by gathering prayer requests and praises for the day, and I would then pray. Well, when I asked them if anyone had a prayer request, you could hear crickets... No one wanted to speak up or call attention to themselves. So I suggested some things I wanted to pray for and when I asked them to bow their heads, one of the girls quietly said, "Mrs. B. Teacher, I want to pray for chicken." All the boys began snickering and whispering in Korean. The girl was embarrassed. I was rather caught off guard by this request so I stammered and tried to get a little more information before I prayed...for chicken. She went on to say how the cafeteria food is really bad and that all she really wanted was to eat some chicken. (I'm not sure I've had chicken in that cafeteria yet, so I knew this was going to be an earthly long shot...) SO, I prayed that if God would so will to answer this small request sometime during camp that we would praise Him and that if He chose not to, we would also praise Him! 

     I ended up working in the classroom through lunch period and nibbling one of my precious-few Cliff Bars that I packed. Well, my kids came running back across campus from the cafeteria 15 minutes earlier than they had to and burst into our classroom shouting in their best English, "We have chicken lunch today!!"

     What a GLORIOUS, personal God we serve! I asked the students if they thought this was 'luck' or if they believed that God had specifically answered our prayer. Two students weren't willing to say that God answered our prayer, but the other five were confident that He had. I told them that this couldn't just end with excitement, but that it needed to end with thanksgiving! I asked them to bow their heads with me and we thanked God for caring about one young girl's desire and that we were grateful that He chose to bless them all with chicken!

 

 



That Crazy Little Thing Called........Kindergarten??

Hello Everyone!!

     I love teaching!! I am currently co-teaching a class of 10 Korean kindergarteners. I am only 2 long days in, but I am loving it! Being that Kindergarten is the lowest level offered, I have the joy of speaking at a rate of 12wpm. Class goes a little something like this. "Please.........take............ out...............your...............notebook." Although this may seem to be annoying and a waste of time, I love the outcomes. As I collapsed at 10pm last night, I was reminded what an exercise of faith this truly is. Galatians 5:22 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, PATIENCE, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." God is certainly using this time in Korea to build a greater ability and desire for patience in me.

This morning as we finished our story about David and Goliath, I asked if anyone had prayer requests. Just to share a few for encouragement and laughs:
-Having faith to fight Satan like David Fought Goliath
-Overcoming a fear of eating Chickens
-no more bug bites at camp

Please pray for us as teachers, because each of us deal with different classroom dynamics. Some of us deal with an over-active class, while some of us are having a hard time connecting with some of the students in our class. Please pray against discouragement and a lack of focus on our TRUE GOAL.

Thank you so much for your encouraging words and prayers. We covet them, especially during this tough leg of our trip.

Love,
Audra Baumann

I love teaching!

     It's about 5:30 p.m. here, and I've just finished my second full day of teaching. I absolutely LOVE it! I have a class of eight adorable ten year olds, four boys and  four girls, and although it's only been two days, I've connected with them all so much. When I was introduced to them a few nights ago, I broke the ice by teaching them one of my friends' favorite games, Ninja. They loved it and demand to play it every chance they get. I also love working with my Korean co-teacher, Bruce. He's hilarious and super good with the kids. He goes to school in Philly so I may actually get to see him back in the states!!
     Every morning, we have an hour long Bible class. I teach my kids Bible songs, memory verses, stories about King David (that's the theme of the class) and more. Shout out to Mrs. Franck for teaching me so many songs in first grade! They've been useful. After that, we move on to four one-hour-long English class periods. I work with them on their grammar, spelling, reading, pronunciation, and conversational skills. We frequently go over to "Miss. Hannah Teacher's" room and have class wars. We both teach level 3, so after we finish a lesson, our kids compete to test their skills. They get so into it! I also got recruited to be one of the music teachers, and I have to coach the child who is playing David in the camp play on his lines and teach him all the songs. Ironically, I know none of the songs either so I have to learn them all tonight in order to teach him his part.
     If you wouldn't mind, I'd like you all to pray for a few of my students over the next few days. Hannah and I both have students who are farther behind in their English than the others and get very discouraged. I also have a few students who don't know the Lord, and I'm trying my very best to teach them about Him in spite of the language barrier, but it is harder than I though it would be! And pray for Audra! She isn't feeling well and has been out for hours. We're hoping  it'll pass by morning because her class of kindergartners needs her!
   Thanks everyone-- That's all for now!!
Valerie

Hello everyone!!!
   So, my friends and I have been in South Korea now for almost three weeks! The Global Youth Forum seems like ages ago. Valerie and I were saying earlier today how this trip seems like four mini trips: the global youth forum, the tour of South Korea, the prep for the EMC, and the EMC itself. We are on the last and most important leg of our trip. I think we all hit a wall during the preparation for the camp. Our friends had left and we were growing weary of kimchi and rice at every meal. We all prayed for perseverance and the Lord answered! I have found blessings in the small things...like a nice run in the morning with Jaime and a good night's sleep in the air conditioning. Also, THEY ARE NOW SERVING AMERICAN FOOD!!!! It is beautiful. A few days ago we had fresh fruit, ham and cheese sandwiches, and PB&J. The next day we had bow tie pasta with grilled cheese. It was such a nice reprieve from rice and kimchi.
    Yesterday was my first day of teaching and it was soooooooooo amazing! I have seven third graders and they are the most adorable kids in the whole world! Their names are James, Jeffery, Jane, Judy, Cherry, Cindy, and Haley. Each one has such a unique personality! James is my sporty and competitive student. Whether we are playing a vocab game or playing duck duck goose (which in Korea is "kimchi kimchi moo"), James gives 100% to win. Jeffery is my quiet and shy student. The rest of the class is outgoing and vivacious and Jeffery is quiet and reserved. And soooooo adorable! He has the chubbiest cheeks. Judy and Haley are both very studious. Each student hs their own notebook in which they take notes and practice their spelling and writing skills. While I was correcting Haley's notebook, I noticed that she spelled a few words wrong. I circled the words and wrote the correct spelling beside them. About ten minutes later, I passed by her desk and saw that she had practiced writing each misspelled word three times on her own without me asking her! Judy is like my shadow. :) Whenever I turn around, I see little Judy tagging behind. Cherry is my tykwondo master! She tried to teach me some moves and laughed as I butchered them. Jane and Cindy are also as cute as can be and amaze me every day with their willingness to learn.
    Today in class we talked about syllables, vowels, consonants, adjectives, direct objects, subject and object pronouns, the verb "to be", and spelling. It is so funny to teach the kids songs and jingles that I learned as a child at Tall Oaks when I was their age! Valerie is also teaching third grade and has the classroom right next to mine. We teach the same material so after each lesson we have what we call "Battle of the Classrooms". Her class is "Team Winner" and my class is "Team Awesome". "Team Awesome" and "Team Winner" play vocabulary and spelling games together and it is so funny to see the kids get competitive!
    The Korean girls are fascinated by our eye colors and our eye lashes. They come up and stare at our eyes and ask us to close them and then break into giggles! They are all so adorable. They also love a game called "ninja". Valerie and I taught them the first night of camp and they loved it! James will randomly raise his hand during class and say, "Teacher Teacher! Ninja?" Then I'll say, "No James. Not right now." Then he will raise his hand and say, "Teacher Teacher! Kimchi Kimchi Moo?" Haha they are so cute. My translator is wonderful! Her name in JuAe and she is so great with the kids. Valerie's translator is named Bruce and all the little boys love him!
     While teaching is really fun, it is also exhausting! I have a new found respect for all my childhood teachers. It is a good feeling though to be so tired at the end of the day. Well I have to go prepare my lesson plans for tomorrow! Take care.
~Hannah Crismon
   

The Final, and Longest Leg

Dear Friends and Family,

      With home and my daily routine left behind, and two weeks of teaching ahead, I find myself (homesick as I may be) looking at the faces of my students in front of me, remembering why we all came. This message comes to you directly from one of our three daily twenty minute breaks, between busy classes filled with laughter and, oh yes, confusion.

      Teaching is proving successful so far, and hopefully will continue to be so. Being that it's only day one, I don't have much to report in the ways of classroom experiences, but I can certainly say it has been an entirely new journey! From classroom soccer with balls of paper, to being riddled with questions ranging from my age to my blood type (oh yes, my blood type), teaching seems as if it will push me even more so out of my comfort zone.

      If my trip so far could be summed up with one word, it would most definitely have to be (provided hyphens are allowed)  life-changing. The ways which the Lord has worked through us all on this trip have been, and continue to be, remarkable. My request to you all is that you continue to pray for us as our journey is on its last leg.

      I think I can safely say that we are all enjoying our time here, but at the same time, we all greatly miss our homes and those we left behind. With our time here having eclipsed its halfway point, we know our time is coming near to its end. Our days in Korea are dwindling, as is our strength in some areas. Please pray we will be given strength to finish out the race.

     The following prayer is a prayer from the Valley of Vision:
 Life-Giving God,
Quicken me to call upon thy name,

   for my mind is ignorant,

   my thoughts vagrant,

   my affections earthly,

   my heart unbelieving,

 and only thy Spirit can help my infirmities.

I approach thee as Father and Friend,

   my portion forever,

   my exceeding joy,

   my strength of heart.

I believe in thee as the God of nature,

   the Ordainer of providence,

   the sender of Jesus my Saviour.

My guilty fears discourage an approach to thee.

 But I praise thee for the blessed news

   that Jesus reconciles thee to me.

May the truth that is in Him

   illuminate in me all that is dark,

   establish in me all that is wavering,

   comfort in me all that is wretched,

   accomplish in me all that is of thy goodness,

   and glorify in me the name of Jesus.

I pass through a vale of tears

   but bless thee for the opening gate of glory

   at its end.

Enable me to realize as mine the better,

   heavenly country.

Prepare me for every part of my pilgrimage.

Uphold my steps by thy Word.
Let no iniquity dominate me.

Teach me that Christ cannot be the way

   if I am the end, 

   that he cannot be Redeemer

   if I am my own saviour,

   that there can be no true union with Him

   while the creature has my heart,

   that faith accepts him as Redeemer and Lord

 or not at all.

      My prayer of the day, and my suggestion to any who read who may find themselves in an uncomfortable situation.
      -JHF