From Katie

Dear friends and family,

Hi! This is Katie writing this time. Thank you guys for praying for me and my health and writing us notes of encouragement. It really helps to know that we have such a great family from all over the world who care about us and support us. I am doing a lot better physically but still needing energy and strength that I feel like I do not have. Aaron and I are beginning to adjust more and more as the days go on. Even though we still only know a few words in Korean, we are taking public transportation on our own everywhere, eating out at restaurants, and communicating with shopkeepers.

We have now been in school for ten days. I already love my third grade class so much. They are all ESL, but there are only seven of them so I have not felt overwhelmed. It has been so exciting to be able to teach Bible in the classroom every day. I don’t know for sure yet, but I think that about 5 of them come from non-Christian families, but all of their hearts are so eager and hungry for the Bible. They have so many questions and there are still many basic Biblical truths that they do not understand. I love their curiosity and enthusiasm. Please pray that God will lead me as I teach our way through the gospels this year and answer their many questions.

Last week was a short week of school because on Thursday the middle and high school went on a spiritual retreat. All of the teachers were required to go and be in charge of different groups of students. I was in charge of sixth and seventh grade girls, while Aaron was in charge of the sixth grade boys. Aaron and I were both kind of worried about the retreat this weekend. Due to a misunderstanding, the staff had to put on the retreat with only one week of preparation. God really did a miracle because the retreat was actually successful, despite the lack of organization and planning. I have to admit that my attitude was often impatient and frustrated during this weekend. Many times, things were chaotic, did not run smoothly, fell apart, or were put together on last minute's notice. In my American mindset, I wanted everything programed, I wanted everyone to know what their jobs were, and I wanted time to rest. I kept thinking that God was not really going to do much because we had not put in the work to make the retreat quality. This experience has really challenged me to let go of some my perceptions of what it means to obey and work for God’s glory. I think planning and being prepared is necessary and effective but God really does not need our plans to work. He does not need our programs or the most gifted speaker and the most meaningful devotion curriculum. Everything was thrown together, but God really used our speakers, worship team, and small group times. On Friday night, there was a time when the students could come up to the teachers for prayer. More than half of the students came up to the stage for prayer. I prayed for so many students that I did not even know. Many students were just crying to their teachers about struggles and hardships they are going through. I felt like even if they got nothing out of the speakers, the students just needed that time to cry to someone. All of them seemed desperate for encouragement.
 
Honestly, Aaron and I are coming out of the retreat not feeling refreshed. We feel really tired and overwhelmed because we still have to lesson plan, grade, and teach another whole week. We do feel encouraged though. When we first moved here, we felt like we were not really going to have a purpose. We felt like we were moving to a very Christian nation in the developed world. Our interactions with the students this week have shown us that there are many needs in this school and in our environment. Sharing a room with six and seventh grade girls opened my eyes to some dark issues that these young women struggle with. All of their conversations were about self-image. They talked about dieting and how some of their parents don’t feed them dinner because they need to be skinny. Some of these girls are ninety pounds. They talked about plastic surgery, and how they believe that the only way to be beautiful is to look American. Self-image issues are issues that I believe many girls deal with no matter what culture they are from, but in Korea it is normal and acceptable to get plastic surgery at a young age and simply want to be and look different than the way God created you to be. There were many other topics of conversation I heard in the room, but it would take too long to explain all of the girls’ needs. Overall, they need Jesus and they need to know that He loves them no matter what they look like or who they are. I am excited to be able to constantly tell them that they are beautiful and perfect just the way God made them. Please join with me in praying for the girls at CCS. I feel a burden for my third grade girls that I did not feel before. I would love to start showing them and teaching them that they do not need to think like this or be like this when they enter middle school. They are so innocent right now but the older girls have a really strong influence on the younger girls at this school. Please pray for these beautiful girls.

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Hey guys, this is Aaron. I told Katie I'd add a note to the bottom to finish up. We are so thankful for you and for your prayers. Do continue to lift up our students. The more I teach, the more I am realizing that there really are so many of them who do not know the Lord or who know extremely little about the Bible. I think it's probably over 3/4 of the secondary student body. We have a great opportunity here. More updates (and pictures!) to come. :-)