This is for Mandy Keys

I feel vain and self-absorbed thinking anyone would want to read anything I write but I’ve had a few people ask me to set this blog thing up so I will try do it.
I am in South Korea and have signed a year-long contract to teach at a sort-of “English camp.” I made the decision over a year ago to pursue teaching abroad and through the help and encouragement of some friends I am here now. The application and legal hoops I was forced to hurdle were exhausting and stressful. I had made the decision to commit to a year long before I processed the emotional toll I would be subjected to. I wanted to go but it was hard to leave. Much harder then I would have liked. I try to read into signs and the getting over here process was anything but smooth. I feel like if you are pursuing the desires of your heart that the Lord will mold your heart to do what He wants from you. I had the desire to live and teach abroad. So, I figured if God did not want that from me, He would let me know. But I have never been great at hearing, interpreting, or understanding God. I’ve asked to given a direct phone line like in the old Batman television series where Commissioner Gordon could ring Batman on his red phone with the red blinking light. I wanted that red phone with God on the other end of the line. Well, I don’t have a florescent red phone so He is trusting me to use my judgment…
Anyway, the application/interview/Visa process was so stressful and trying I was starting to believe that God was whispering for me to stop. Or maybe it was just a test? Or persecution from the Devil? My traded mind is always trying to confuse me. I finally got my Visa on a Tuesday and flew out of DFW on the following Monday. The flight over wasn’t as bad as I was anticipating. I got a seat by the emergency escape which meant I had a lot of leg room so that was nice. I think I watched four movies on the way from San Francisco to Inchon.

Day one: Needless to say I was a little overwhelmed. The foreign teacher coordinator at the camp picked me up and dropped me off at my apartment. He seemed to be in a rush as if he were in a hurry to watch one of the many awful Korean comedy shows that run 24/7. He also showed me where to meet the shuttle van that picks us up to take us on our 40 minute commute to school. I was so paranoid I would oversleep, miss the van, make a bad impression, get fired, be forced to go back home, and have everyone think I couldn’t handle it… that I kept waking up every 30 minutes or so. When I actually got ready to leave it was raining and I couldn’t remember where the bus stop was. So I stood in the rain just hoping to see another white person. I actually did and they ended up working at my school. So that worked out. The first day at work was odd. Everybody else knew what they were doing and I was just… there.
The entire first week I find hard to remember I just recall being so tired all the time.

I do miss people and Camp Peniel but I don’t think I am homesick. I struggle the most at night. I have been dreaming about my empty classroom at Hardin, walking up-and-down ‘camp road’, American food, and the most random people. I have dreamt about people I never even talked to like Melcher Rockwood and Sayers Arnecke. And if you do not know who those people are, don’t work, neither do I.

That is all for now.
I do miss some of you and it still hasn’t processed that I wont see you for a year.
In .love.
Jp