A few pictures!

A few pictures from my first days here!

Worshipping with one of the local churches... what a blessing indeed :)

My desk!

My room!

Our favorite Samba!

Yum! Seminary food rocks!

Electricity has been out the last few days... this is my source of light for my room.

And that's it for now! Maybe more later? Maybe!

I guess I will use this blog to recap here and there and share thoughts and meditations that I have during my time here. I guess that's what you do on a blog, eh?

Something I reflected on the last few days is how blessed we truly are living in a place like America. I know this is said over and over, often times where it loses its meaning but when you come outside of the environment you have grown up in, I think you can really see what that statement means. Even something I know is such a blessing but I take so much for granted is the gift of being a fluent English speaker. One of our main ministries here is to be English teachers at the seminary here, AECS (Asia Evangelical College & Seminary). Right now, they are on vacation so we're not teaching right now but I am able to see the last few days how God is using us the last few days.

This week, we've been working in the office, doing a lot of translating from Korean to English (which takes forever... and for all we know, we can be totally translating something wrong!), helping the missionaries revise and proofread documents, and drafting letters for them among other tasks. It really makes me think, our gift of being able to speak English proficiently is used in tasks and things that seem so menial or much like time-killers and used to help the ministry here and do things that we can help out in. At morning prayers, we are reading about 4 chapters a day in the New Testament and they ask Edward and myself to read, so that they can hear and follow along with the text and hear a clear pronounciation. Even something like that, reading to them, somehow is used to encourage the missionaries and seminary students here.

My prayer is to be a willing and able servant all throughout this trip, in whatever is asked of me. No matter what, I hope to serve wholeheartedly with complete joy for the glory of God alone. So, being able to have something like a proficiency in English has made me appreciate how beautifully and masterfully God has created us and how He is able to use anyone that has a willing heart :)

Until next time..

ciao!

I made it!

I'm in INDIA!!!!

:)

I arrived here safely by God's grace alive and well.

I am so blessed and encouraged to be here.. and am excited what God has in store for me the next few months!

I'm mostly updating through email, I'll try and blog when I can. So, if you'd like to be updated through email, let me know! :)

pictures aren't working right now.. so I will try and post some soon.

God is good! all the time!

We are bound for India Land

I leave for India tomorrow! :)

I will try and blog as much as I can.

I'm mostly going to email but blogs are nice too :)

Please let me know if you'd like to join the email list.

If you have any prayer requests also, I'd love to pray for you! Let me know how and what I can pray for through email.

A couple of prayer requests right now would be:

1. For safe travel to India: that we would have a safe flight to India and arrive without any complications or setbacks and for God's protecting hand to be over Edward and myself.

2. For God to continue to prepare my heart to serve Him and the missionaries and that God may go forth and prepare the work that is to be done!

I'll try and update this blog as often as I can, hopefully next time with pictures! :D

In His Grace,

James

And... for a few pictures! yahoo!

Edward, my partner in crime (but no crime will be involved!), Missionary Chung (the main missionary we will be working with), and myself!

One of my classes I taught last summer! I hope to see them soon!

Atonement

"Apart from God's grace, no one has power to do anything but sin... grace is the only hope for any sinner."

Atonement ... a definition I like is the work that Jesus did in living and dying to earn our salvation.

As I read this, it really makes me think... oh man, without the grace of God, our destination is hell. No matter how hard I try to earn my salvation or to earn God's favor, it's impossible. My offering and my sacrifice is imperfect. I would be bound to punishment for my sin from a God who cannot be with any sort of sin. Someone has to pay for sin, right?

Yet, God in His amazing and faithful love chose to send Jesus. Why? So I wouldn't have to pay. Even if I tried to pay, it would be like trying to give my two cents to a debt of a bajillion dollars. (if that even existed!) It would fall completely short. Jesus, in His perfection, knew that He was the perfect sacrifice and He was obedient to the point of death. Obedient, knowing that my obedience would fall short and that only He could appease the wrath of God. And He paid the price that I couldn't pay and He gave His life freely so that I could receive freely.

Jesus lived the perfect life and earned the salvation that we ourselves cannot earn. Why? Cause we'll fail no matter what, we'll fall short, our attempts are imperfect.

He lived the perfect life and died the perfect death so that I could die to myself and to find life once again in Him.

What I could not atone for (nor can anyone else) was atoned for by the gracious love of God. The wrath I deserved was placed upon Jesus at the Cross and there I was freed. The salvation that I could not earn and atone on my own, Jesus did.

You don't get any more awesome than that.

Thank You Jesus for living the perfect life, dying the perfect death and resurrecting in perfection to top it all off!

Haha thank You Jesus!

Last day

Last day at my job

It came a lot quicker than I expected

I've learned a lot through this job (maybe I'll share that later)

For one thing, I've learned a whole new meaning to patience

(God must have placed me at this job to build up my patience for India... God knows all!)

I've learned that not every Korean grandma/grandpa is the sweetest person in the world (yes, you may call me a jerk but it is what it is)

I've learned that it is tough to work and do my job or any job in general with true joy

And many other things.

What's next?

Nightmares

I hate nightmares.

They seem so real, but I know they're not.

Seniors

So, as some of you know, I work at a senior apartment building. It's low-income housing and so much of the work I do is paperwork and assisting in the compliance department to get people moved in. When I first started the job, I never really thought about the people moving in and I was just focused on the task of interviewing people, reviewing their files, and getting them moved in.

What I've noticed over the last few weeks, as the tenants begin to move in one by one, is how many of them really are on their own. The building is for seniors, so everyone is 62 or over. Many of them tell me stories of how their loved ones have passed away, either recently or it has been many years. Many of them come alone and have no one to help them. A lot of the tenants are Korean and can't speak a lick of English so I translate for them with what little Korean I know.

I don't know why but it breaks my heart to see so many of the tenants on their own. Some of them do have family nearby but many do not and so they are left to survive on their own. When I look at many of them, especially the Korean tenants, I think of my own grandma and it's hard to not want to help them in whatever way I can.

I don't know, I feel like I'm reminded of how cruel and broken this world really is, that seniors late in their years, are left to themselves. In all honesty, it doesn't seem fair. Maybe because I'm young and I still have yet to really understand life. Maybe I'm just naive and unwilling to accept reality. Whatever the case, my heart breaks for these seniors.

Yet, I feel like I understand a glimpse of what Ecclesiastes means when it keeps saying, "All is vanity" because this world is fading away. It really is all vanity. This imperfect world will soon pass but heaven will be lightyears beyond what this world is. So, I'll take my hope in that.