South Korea was an awesome experience for me, personally. It was the first international mission trip that I've ever been on, and I was a little bit nervous about what it would be like. I loved it. Simply living in a country other then the US was an incredible experience. The food was fun to eat...and disect, speculating on the orgin of the meat, or long stringy things in our soup. We ate lots of squid, fish, rice, kim-chi, soup and burgolgi (sp?). I found out later that the meat in one of our dinners was dog...yikes...tasted good though. Foods included bone soup, kimbob (rice and fish wrapped in seaweed), dried squid jerkey and fruit/veggie salads. Fruit is very popular in South Korea, and we ate some of the best fruit I have ever tasted, plus fruit I had NEVER tasted. The people were very welcoming. I found them very polite and well mannered. They were fascinated with foreigners, and expecially the small children that we brought on our trip. My blonde hair was quite a big deal over there as all of the koreans had black hair.
We spent 2 weeks in Seoul, running 3-7 day bible/english camps. We used the need for English teachers to give us a platform to preach the gospel. We ran 3 of those camps in the first two weeks and also spent 3 days working with North Korean refugees. It was quite an experience. We saw many kids come to know the Lord in the bible/english camps and many more rededicate their lives to Christ. It was awesome seeing God reaching out and breaking language and cultural barriers between us and the students. So many times we felt that we were really getting through to them, and in many cases, making friendships. I am still keeping in contact with a few of the teens that I met through those camps. We gave our testimonies, performed dramas, taught English, led small groups as well as workshops and times of worship. We were blessed greatly by God throughout the whole trip. I felt at so many times that we were right where God wanted us at just the right time. The people of South Korea are BEAUTIFUL!
The second two weeks my team spent in the city of Asan. We were the first YWAM team to be hosted by the City of Asan, and were welcomed by the mayor. It was slightly nerve-wrecking, but definently a memerable experience. We all stayed with hosthomes (or, as they would say, homestays) by ourselves for the full two weeks. I was excited to be able to see how they lived and worked as a family in Korea. My family was AMAZING! They had two kids in middle school. No one spoke any Engish exept for their son, Juhan, who made me laugh so much. I ate diner with them every night, most of the time we ate at their family owned restaraunt. I also made friends with all of the woman who worked at the restaurant, serving food. They spoke little English, but were fascinated by my blonde hair and foreign-ness. ;) The last night I prayed over their family and they gave me SO many gifts to take home with me.
While we were in Asan we visted orphanages, homes for mentally handicapped children, nursing homes and habitat for humanity facilities. In the mornings we taught English in private middle schools. We visted Hyundai and Samsung corperations as well. While we were in Asan we were led by a tour guid who knew all of our locations very well. We fell in love with him as a team. His hame was Mr. Lim. He wasn't saved and was at the top of all of our prayer lists. We even each wrote him a letter of thanks at the end. Praise God, he got saved in the AIRPORT on the very last day as we were leaving Korea. We were all estatic at the way we got to end our outreach in South Korea. Mr. Lim went on to write the report for the mayor on the work we did in his city. Apparently it was a very good report because our YWAM base in Tyler, TX recieved a call from the mayor, asking for us to send even MORE missionaries into his city. What a BLESSING and an open door from God.
I could go on and tell more stories, but they are endless. I still remember the faces (although not all the names) of the kids that we ministered to. I still remember the way that God broke down peoples walls, including mine, and poured His love into their lives. I still remember singing in English to a Korean worship song alongside my Korean brothers and sisters in Christ. I still remember the feeling of two thousand koreans singing a missionary-welcome song to me. I still remember what I felt when I heard the nightmare-ish stories of the North Korean students that had escaped from their oppressive country. I hope I never forget.
Thank you for reading.
I plan on going back to YWAM, Tyler in less then a week to complete my training in The School of Evangelism. It includes three months of teaching, three weeks of urban outreach and one month of foreign outreach. I plan on using this blog to keep you all informed on the things that God is doing in and through my life. Please keep me in prayer, I would really appreciate it.
God Bless,
Abigail
