Dae Han Min Gook!

So, came back from Korea a few days ago. Felt like it was just yesterday that I was "teaching kids English" in Korea. Truly an experience that I will never forget. Honestly, going to Korea I wasn't expecting much. Just expected to meet a few kids, meet relatives (thought this was going to be the highlight), and hang out with friends. Turns out I was terribly wrong.

Wonju! Most definitely my favorite place in Korea. Best memories. So blessed by all the people in Wonju. Not just by the kids who I fell in love with, but all of the church people and helpers. They treated us so well that I couldn't even express how thankful I was. When the head pastor was leaving to go home on the last day, I really wanted to thank him but I didn't know the words to use. At times like that I really wish I could speak Korean well. The kids... little brats haha. Just kidding... for the most part. Most of them were really good kids, they all just wanted attention. Especially the kids that were orphans... right. The church brought the local kids from an orphanage to the E-camp, and we didn't find out until like the second day that they were orphans. They were all really good kids though, love them all. Turned out to be some of the best kids, they probably touched us the most out of all of the kids. We came to be teachers, but they taught us so much more than we could have ever taught them. I'm just rambling now >.>...

Anyways, a lot of these kids were like stones at the beginning of E-camp, and the language barrier didn't help much, but by the end of the E-camp, these kids came to love us and we came to love them. It was only 4 friggin days, yet we grew so close to them. I mean, I'm not the type to cry, but I was bawling. When I saw some of my teammates crying I was thinking "You're an idiot, why are you crying?" But when the bus left with the kids, tears just starting coming out. "Crap, I'm an idiot." In fact, I was one of the ones to cry the longest >.>.

Rest of the trip was good, not as crazy though. Met with the fambam...

Oh right! Air Force Academy E-camp!

Hoped it would be like Wonju... it wasn't. The kids I got were too good. They made me feel like a bad person because they were so good. They opened up really fast too, quiet for the five minutes then... BAM. "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!"

Fun kids, I'm going to remember them.

Overall, Korea was good. Looking forward to going again if possible, especially to Wonju.

Niggahs Be Crazy... Sort Of?

Hmmm, so I just came back from a retreat. Pretty awesome. Lots of adventures happened and I learned lots of new things, some really veiny secrets too. Some Resident Evil ish and some soccer heading. Oh yeah found out that soccer is pretty fun when everyone doesn't tear you to shreds at it... friggin Mexicans. Just kidding... sort of. Anyways, twas a fun retreat. Also Phil is a lame ass PHILosopher. Erhmm, anyways. I felt really blessed by that retreat, although there were a lot of effing bugs... A FRIGGIN LOT OF BUGS ARGHHHHHHHHHHH, AND THEY WERE THE FRIGGIN SIZE OF MONSTERS I MEAN YOU COULD FRIGGIN REGISTER FACIAL EXPRESSIONS ON THEM... my bad. Anyways, I got to meet new people and once again felt how small I am and also how blessed I am.

This phrase has really been on my mind "People who have less seem to appreciate life a lot more, because they know that they have less. While people like us who have everything don't seem to appreciate life as much because we have everything." Thanks Ryan. Anyways, I always forget how much I have, but this retreat was very memorable. One person I didn't get to know, but stuck in my mind if David. He was a blind boy, and a little weird to be honest as he was telling people to "grind dance" and flipping people over with his freestyle wrestling skills. But that's not the point, he had a fervent love for God. I loved that, he looked so happy during praise while many others looked so dead. Later, Ryan and I were talking about him and the fact that Ryan called him a "beautiful person" stuck to my mind. I couldn't agree any further, Ryan was so right. Honestly I wish I could be more like David.

Anyways, I say anyways a lot so bare with it, I'm a boring person. Also there are a lot of useless commas but bare with it because I DGAF.

Retreat, first day cool. Second day awesome. Third day, I guess awesome too because it was an extension of the second day since I barely slept. Minus the time where I KTFO and started snoring but yeah. Met a lot of new people like: Manny, Abe, Josh, Enoch, Isaac, Taelor with an E, Haemi, Mindy, Ryan (THE ONE WITH THE LATINO FLAVOR), David, Frederick, Simon Angela, Michelle, Lyndsey (Is that how you spell it?), GL (Gangster Lee fo'sho), and other people who I can't seem to remember. Lots of new people, feel blessed by them all. I also learned a lot of new things about people I already knew: Ryan, Joanne, Joe.
Stars, things you don't see down here. Thanks Prayer Mountain. I'm inspired to go to Inspiration Point at night now to see everything (no pun intended) thanks for the idea Teacher Daniel. Those things are so beautiful, you wish you could touch them but they're so far away. And yet there are many other things beyond them. We're but a speck in an vast space. Our lives could end at any point, there are so many ways lives could simply just end. I've come to enjoy life so much more. Anyways, time to stop being morbid/philosophical.

I could've sworn we killed more than 50 bugs inside of that cabin 7 at least. Those giant legs and the juicy as hell moths. BLAM SUCKAH! NAW MEAN!??!?!?!?

Well I'm craving some Wingstop and I'm sleepy. So this blog entry must come to an end. I'll end with a favorite quote of mine.

"YO DAWG I HERD YO AND YO DAWG LIKE YO YOS SO WE PUT A YO DAWG IN A YO YO SO YOU CAN YO YO YO DAWG WHILE YO DAWG YO YOS DAWG. NAW MEAN?!?!?!?!?!?!?"

Off Of Hiatus?

Yeah, so I don't really write on this often. I've actually only written on it twice, so I feel that I should start again. I guess I'll start up again since I'm going to have a lot of free time on my hands.

An Attack

First off, I'll start by saying that I'm still blessed by the wonderful retreat we recently had. Second, I'll have to say that praise music has got to be the best kind of music.

Anyways, as I was saying in my previous post. I want to become a man like Job, but it's hard. This past week, I've been focusing a lot on my Christian life but as I said it's difficult. It's as if right after remembering that one verse from pastor Howard's sermon, it became a more apparent reality to me.

Lately, my family hasn't been doing too well financially. My father has lost his job and his only income is from welfare, which he hates because he is a proud man who likes to stand up for himself. He hates laziness and always passes that on to me, so when he lost his job he was devastated. He's not really the same person he used to be, but he's finding himself again. Anyways, as I was saying my family's not doing too well. So my father earns money from welfare, and my mother earns money from her job as an interpreter at a convalescent hospital (Though she doesn't know much English, only enough practical English to get her through normal life. Similar to how much Korean I know.).

So even though my family is going through financial problems, it's not a big enough of a deal that I can't go on through my daily life with all the necessities. I just can't indulge myself in a lot of things I used to.

Anyways, track season has started again and my old running shoes have literally fallen apart. Knowing I'm going to be needing some good running shoes for the season to come, I purchased some fairly expensive (for me at least) running shoes that would last me at least this season and give me comfort like the previous pair.

So, this past week it was raining like the end of the world or something and due to that I had to stay inside for the break periods at school (nutrition and lunch). So while I was eating lunch, I put my shoes down and... FORGOT THEM THERE!!! I left when the second lunch bell rang for the rest of my classes and then went to track practice. At track practice I noticed that my shoes weren't in my P.E. locker, so I figured they were in my regular locker. Then at the end of the day when I went to go check, I realized that I had forgotten them. I looked everywhere and prayed to God that I would be able to find the shoes and spare my parents the trouble of buying new ones. At that point I also realized that I had left my umbrella at school during track practice, but I can somewhat easily replace an umbrella so that's not as bad. In the end, I couldn't find them. I wanted to curse God, but I remembered the story about Job and decided not to. I decided to praise God instead because of all the things he has done for me. If I had cursed God I would have proved Satan was right and lost the battle.

If you were too lazy to read that then here's a quick summary: I lost my running shoes which equals to losing a hefty sum of money, I wanted to curse God but did not because then Satan would win, and I am looking for new running shoes. In conclusion, praise the Lord! :) Don't ever forget what he has done for you, because that will keep you from sinning sometimes (it's regrettable but we as humans can not never sin because of our nature), it will help you to keep being a servant of God like Job, and it will remind you of your worth to Him.

"In Jesus Christ's name we say,
Amen!"

God and Temptation

“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”- 1 Corinthians 10:13

So as I read this passage, I remembered one of the sermons from pastor Howard. He talked about a passage in Job that talked about how God allows Satan to tempt us, so that we may prove to Satan how faithful we are to God. The story goes on and Satan does terrible things to Job to try and get him to curse God, however Job never does. Instead he keeps insisting that it is he that is doing something wrong and must ask for forgiveness from God. Even when 3 of Job's friends come and scold Job for thinking such a thing, Job never gives up on God. In the end, God is proud of Job and greatly rewards him for his good deeds, and Satan's plans are foiled once again.

Anyways, my point is that I believe this is how we should believe in God. I've noticed how selfish I am in thinking that God should keep on giving to me, when He is everything to me. I mean, He is so great that I can't even give anything of worth to him but my praises. Even that, it's not enough. Everything in this world is from him, we can't even hope to offer him anything. So when one bad things happens in our lives, we usually blame God for it or ask him to help us. I'm not saying it's wrong to do that, because even Jesus did it. He cried to God when he was put on the cross "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" So if even Jesus did it, I think we'd be allowed to do it as well, but that's besides the point. What I'm trying to say is that we usually blame God during bad times or only ask for help during the bad times like the Israelites did when going to the promised land. Instead, we should ask God what we are doing wrong and how we can please him like Job (a man who God himself said "is upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil").

After the retreat, I was seeing the major flaws in my ways and now want to change. I want to be more of a person like Job who believes in God with all of his heart, mind, and soul. When God allowed afflictions to burden him, Job still believed in God with his all. I want to be able to do that. When times of trouble come up, I want to be able to get through them while praising God and not blame him.

Well there are more things on my mind, but everything I'm thinking about is in a huge mess. So I'll write some more another time.