Our First Week in Korea!

This has been a good, but difficult week. I don't know if Jill and I will have the typical "honeymoon" phase of culture shock. We are enjoying much of the newness that we are experiencing, but everything is so different than we are used to, and because we know that we will be here for a while, it can be very overwhelming. We are having to learn to be very flexible. And as both of us like to be in control, it has been emotionally draining to realize we have very little control. Everything from communicating to eating has been difficult. I am enjoying much of the food, but the diet is so different that there have been some days where Jill and I just went to McDonalds to cope.

This week we met our head teachers, and I loved my teacher! She is a sweet Korean women named Mrs. Jeon Yang-ok (pronounced Mrs. Chon). She liked to smile and laugh, and I think we will do just fine working together. I will be teaching at Cheonan Buk Middle School which is in downtown Cheonan. I've only seen the school from the outside, but I've never been more excited and nervous to start a new job!

We've experienced so much this week that it has been a whirlwind adventure. From singing Karaoke at a Noreabong, to always using chopsticks, to learning to get around in communication and geographically, to visiting a Buddhist temple in the mountains, we have been drenched in this new culture!

One stressful thing about Korean culture is that nothing is really planned in advance. Often, we find out about things at the last minute. For instance, in one of our sessions for orientation, the schedule stated that we would be learning about how a Korean church usually works. But when we arrived for the session, we found out that they had invited a bunch of Korean pastors from Cheonan, and they had assigned us each with a pastor of the church that we would be attending for the year. We were totally unprepared. It is one thing to unexpectedly meet someone on the street through a friend, but to not be told that we would be meeting a Korean pastor, AND that they expected us to go to their church for the year was incredibly stressful.

We've been trying to trust God in all of this. I'm trying to realize that this is just how Korean culture is. It isn't necessarily wrong, it's just different, and if we can learn to be flexible and trust God, and keep a healthy prayer life, I think we will learn to love the Korean people. I know that the director of our program was just trying to help us, and probably thought it would be easiest for us if they just showed us where to go to church.

We ended up going to Tang-Jung Church of the Nazarene this Sunday with our new friend Ho Kwon. He speaks English and is studying theology here at Korea Nazarene University. He attends the church we were given to attend. Our first Sunday was an overwhelming experience, because the whole service is in Korean. They wanted us to introduce ourselves, so they had us come in front of the congregation and Ho translated while we spoke. After service it is normal to eat lunch with the congregation, so we went into their fellowship hall and sat on the floor and had rice, a spicy soup, a couple different types of seaweed, and kimchi. I actually liked it! The church is full of children, and they were so curious about Jill and I, so they crowded around us and stared and said "hi", and asked us questions that Ho translated for us. The children helped us relax and enjoy ourselves.

Our first week has been no walk in the park, but God has been good to us, and we are being transformed for our roles here in Korea. We have made many new friends (both foreign and Korean), and all of our needs are being abundantly taken care of.

I had a dream last night that I was a foreigner trying to sneak my way into a new land. I was caught in the waves, and the guards of this land were throwing spears at me to keep me out, but in my dream I had no fear, only a desire and anxiousness to gain access to the new land.

Emotionally, and intellectually this is how I feel; like and outsider trying to get in. The Korean people aren't what is keeping me out, it is ignorance of the culture and language that is not allowing me to feel like I've arrived. If you've ever experienced the shock of jumping into ice cold water, you will know a bit of what we are experiencing right now. It is such a change of environment that we are basically in a state of shock.

Pray that the shock will pass, and that we will become acclimated and successful in this new culture. Pray that we would discover the role we have to play in ministry here. We are going to be in prayer over the church that was chosen for us, and try and figure out if this is the right fit for us.

The whole month of February we will have TESOL training, which is a university level course that will certify us to be good teachers of English as a second language. Our first day of teaching will be March 2nd! Pray for us...and our students!

Know you are in our prayers! Feel free to comment!

Love, Andy and Jill

First Day in South Korea!

We arrived at Incheon International airport Monday at 4:30pm in South Korea. We had to wait for Terry Hwang from Korea Nazarene University to arrive with KNU's charter bus. After waiting for the rest of the native English speakers to arrive at the airport, we departed at 9pm (6am Monday in the Midwest) for a two hour bus ride Cheonan City.

Meeting the other English teachers at the airport was a huge encouragement, as we all quickly became friends while telling some of our stories. Many of us had similar passions, and our reasons for coming to South Korea were not unfamiliar. While we sat there talking, we all realized our common solidarity...we were now guests in a host country where we were now the minorities!

Our first day in Cheonan was nothing less than jumping in the cold, yet exciting water of cultural immersion. As with a sudden splash of ice cold water, our entire beings were almost in a state of shock when we arrived back in our apartment at then end of our day. So much happened, and the sensory stimuli was almost overwhelming. Yet, I must say, I loved every minute of it (this coming from one who is in the "honeymoon phase" of the culture shock process).

Much of our first day was business oriented, as we still had some things to tie up before settling into a routine. The new native English teachers make up a group of 16. In order to obtain health insurance, we had to complete the application and requirements for an alien registration card. Part of the requirements meant that we had to go to the local hospital for physical examinations.

The tests that they conducted on us were: for color blindness, vision, height, weight, chest measurement (I'm not sure why they needed this), and blood pressure. Then we moved to another room where they took x-rays of our chests (my friend Brandon Chapman who is a pre-med student thinks they were testing for TB). After, we had to pee in "hello kitty" cups, and give a couple vials of blood. It was a crazy morning, but we all got it done.

After our hospital visit, we had an authentic Korean meal. It was a totally new experience for both Jill and I, as neither of us have been exposed to this cuisine. Our reactions were surprisingly opposite. I enjoyed it (and even liked the kimchee), and Jill was the picky one! It is usually opposite for Jill and I; I'm the picky eater, and she's the one who likes everything! Note: I've added some video of this meal!

Later in the day, we had the chance to walk through some of Cheonan. Jill and I needed to buy some groceries, so our good friend Tori Palmer (who has already been here for half a year) took us to the local "Lotee Mart." The mart is as close as we'll probably get to a Wal-Mart. Walking down the streets of Cheonan is similar to the experience of a big city like Chicago or New York. Lots of high rise buildings, street vendors...and smells. There are many Korean advertisements and neon signs. It's even more overwhelming to be bombarded by the sights and smells because we are alien to the culture and language. But, being a city dweller, it hasn't been too difficult an adjustment (of course this is only the first week).

If you've ever been to a store where there are no signs to guide you to the products you are looking for, then you will know a bit of what it was like in Lotee Mart. Add this dilemma the fact that all the products are primarily written in Korean, and you have a bit of a challenge to find the things you need. Fortunately for us, we had Tori, and her friend Courtney with us, and they guided us to the things we were searching for.

Our next door neighbors are seasoned cross-cultural workers and missionaries named Larry and Martha Wilson. They invited us and some others who were available to go out for dinner to get to know us. We went to "Signore Pizza" and had some authentic Italian fire baked pizza. It was a nice conclusion to our night to sit and eat some familiar food, and get to know our new friends. We look forward to this new adventure that we find ourselves on.

Our apartment is a cozy one bedroom loft style environment. We live on the fourth floor, and have a kitchen, living area and a small separate bedroom. Our ceilings are really hight and we have these great big windows the open onto two patios that face the west and overlook a nice trail and park. It's a bit of nature, while we live in the heart of the city. One genius thing I already like more about Korean housing is that the heat comes from the floor. Our floors are heated, so in the winter, when we get out of bed, we are greeted by a warm floors! This makes absolute sense, as heat rises anyway. I'll post pictures of our new place as soon as we've finished unpacking!

Keep us in your prayers, that we might acclimate well to our new life and host culture, as you are in our prayers!

I woke up this morning to my alarm clock, and my stomach immediately jumped into my throat as my thoughts stressed over the fact that we still haven't received our visas in the mail. We had been approved for our visas last Friday after our interviews in Chicago, but we still had to wait for the visas to be processed, then shipped to us.

During my morning prayers, I gave these thoughts of worry and doubt over to God, and placed our lives back into His hands, trusting that His will (no matter what happened) was best. He was faithful to give me peace that surpassed understanding.

At 10am, Jill saw the FedEx truck pulling up and said, "get your shoes on and run out and meet the deliverer!" In my excitement, I left my shoes behind, and ran outside in my socks to meet the driver. I felt like a school boy on Christmas morning as she handed me the envelope with our visas inside!

I came inside and opened the envelope with Jill, and there they were, little pieces of paper attached to our passports that say, "you can work in Korea (in more official words of course)!"

We praised God for helping us overcome the last hurdle in our way to working as English teachers in South Korea.

Moving to Korea

I've not updated this blog in a long while, but my frequency of updates will increase as I write about our time in South Korea.

Jill and I have been praying for over a year for the direction we should take with our lives. There have been many months of confusion and lostness as we've sought out God's will. Over and over in our prayers we would express our frustration: "How long will You be silent? How long will You keep our path dark?" I've been reminded recently that life is less about the destination, and more about the journey-- and specifically the transformation we either reject or accept during this journey. I've learned since coming out of those dark times, that unless we allow ourselves to be transformed, we very well may not be able to handle the final destination... Its glory and reality may destroy us.

God has opened the door for us to teach English in Korea, and these positions will allow us to do things that we have been praying about since the first day of our marriage. But getting to the point where we could leave has been long and arduous.

At every step of our paper work to get work visas, we have come up against trials and difficulties. There were times that we seriously doubted if things would come through for us to be approved. It came down to the week we were going to move out of our apartment, and we still needed to have our visa interviews with the Korean Consulate. We were under the impression that we could have video interviews, but after talking with a sweet Korean woman at the consulate, she refused anything but face to face interviews. This was a week and half before our departure to South Korea on January 23rd. On Thursday the 14th, I called Jill from work and said: we have to drive to downtown Chicago TONIGHT to have our interviews on Friday morning if we want our visas to come in time for our departure."

After some frantic planning, we left that day for Chicago at 4pm. God was looking out for us, and thanks to my cousin Suzanne Blackford (who works in the hotel industry), we got to stay at the Double Tree Hotel in downtown with the employee discount! What's more is the hotel was two blocks from the Korean Consulate! Friday morning we checked out of the Double Tree, and walked ten minutes to the Consulate for our interviews.

At 10:30am they called my name for my interview, and after ten minutes of talking with a nice Korean official, and answering a few questions, he shook my hand and said: "Have a great time in Korea!" Jill had her interview right after mine, and the Korean official did more laughing and flirting with Jill than interviewing her! He told her, "you have a beautiful smile, the Korean people will love your smile!" After she answered some questions that he was satisfied with, Jill was approved too!

We left the consulate overjoyed. We had overcome the last wall that stood in our way to taking the jobs we had been praying for for many months. As we walked in downtown Chicago back to our hotel, we were sharing with each other about our experience, overjoyed that the interviews had gone so well. While talking, we walked by a man who was walking in the same direction as us, and he turned to us and said, "Praise Jesus the Lord!" Then he turned and went down another street.

At first I thought it strange that a complete stranger (who I can confidently say was in his right mind) would say such a seemingly random comment to us as we walked by. But as we were driving home, God spoke to my spirit, and showed me the significance of this encounter. God used this man to solidify and affirm the direction Jill and I are taking. I don't believe that it was a coincidence that as we were celebrating the success of our interviews, this stranger turned and reminded us of Who was guiding our lives. As I sat driving, my spirit was filled with deep gratitude and love, as God showed me that He is Lord over all things, and that all things are in His hands, and that all things are being made new. Even in the midst of seeming darkness and confusion, Jesus is Lord, and His Spirit is guiding our lives.