No Matter What the Circumstances...

Playing with dirt

Planning room

My Korean mom- because we eat at this restaurant so much

Donkats (mmm fried pork covered in cheese)- what I'm always eating there

Making pinatas

In front of me is my guitar and some speakers and a TV I never watch. Behind me is a terrifyingly messy apartment that I will not be cleaning tonight or probably tomorrow and most likely not Sunday.

After 5 days, the cat I'm cat-sitting has emerged from under the couch. This is a very exciting development.

Let me just tell you how awesome God is. I think when I recognize my need for Him I appreciate Him more but then when I'm fine I forget He helped me in the first place. Flashback to Tuesday, when during break time I thought I was going to DIE... not really die but just... I was so sick of living at work and my students were so bad and I was just TIRED... and then I listened to this sermon (that night) about how we should always be communicating with Him, how we can't seperate the sacred from the everyday, how one job isn't really holier than another... and how we live in an exhibitionist culture with our blogs and facebook and wanting everyone to validate us. *Ha ha hello from my blog yes validate me please* and... what do we do in secret. Do we put any value in prayer and worship--- unless it's prayer and worship for everyone else to see?

And WOW mind-blowing! So a lot more things have become miraculous. For example, having energy at 11 pm right now after 12 hours of children in my face. Not getting angry at any of them today. Having any joy at all (it doesn't really come from coffee, by the way). I am teaching kids to sew, making pinatas, tonight I watched 10 14-year olds debate whether cigarettes should be illegal (in English, nonetheless!) tomorrow we're going to make guitars and sing all morning... all these things are miraculous. In my youngest class (I've decided the best thing about 6 year olds is that they're always excited to see you), Dean is our newest student, he's super tan and wears a gold chain and doesn't even know the alphabet and loves to get in tickle fights (I have the scratch to prove it)... the kids who have been with me longer (who also started in January not knowing a word of English) are helping him and teaching him. So sorry to digress but it's so amazing to me when an 8 year old leans over to a six-year-old, asks him to say how he feels in Korean, and then translates it into English and teaches the kid to say it. I'm often ready to run out (count down is 11 days!) but it's not because of the students... just Korea and all kinds of things in general. I'm so thankful for what I get to witness. Tonight I watched a kid solve a Rubix cube in less than a minute.

God is so good!

Yeah so the man in the sermon was talking about how we long to get out of our circumstances into a better environment where we can be a better person or love God more, but, getting out of our circumstances won't change much. It's finding God within them (or realizing He's already there) which is really profound... and learning how to remember He's there and communicate with Him.

My brain just turned off. Not surprising. BYE!