Street Racing--A Clean Sweep

I thought I'd share just another city experience.
I was out doing some running...heading back home, I heard some lovely flute music from across the river. I thought I'd go check it out, only that as I got closer to the bridge to cross, the music seemed to also be moving. When I got to the place where the bridge and the street I was running on joined, I met with the vehicle producing the music--a street sweeper! Moving slower than other vehicles, it was possible to actually keep up with this music making, street cleaning orange beast! So I did. So here I was, running along the street, six feet away from this machine, blasting its "Happy-Street-Clean-Sweep" flute remix, as I'm almost sprinting to keep up with it. Though it was near the end of my run, I was strangely energized by the challenge! Yes, I kept up with it 'till I got to my crosswalk to turn. Take that! A whole lot of fun. Too bad I don't go running with a camera. No pics. Another experience of a small city guy in Daejeon, Metropolitan City.
It's interesting, though, because the street sweeper was going a lot slower than it could, and I was going almost my fastest, and it was, for a time, a good match (although I don't think I would've lasted much longer!) It made me consider that part of 1 Corinthians, where Paul the apostle says that the "foolishness" of God (if there could be) is still greater than the wisdom of man, and the weakness of God is stronger than man. Man at his best is still nothing compared to God at His "worst", if there was such a thing. I think it might be talking about the crucifixion of Christ, as God incarnate humbled Himself even unto death--which seems to be weakness and thought of as foolishness to the natural man. But look closer--it's the power and wisdom of God, for by the cross of Christ are our sins forgiven and cleansed, our guilt removed, and both justice and mercy satisfied.

Samgyupsal!

Last week after Thursday Night Bible Study, this girl from our church, Hye-Yun, and her mom wanted to treat us all to dinner!
We went across town to a small but lively resturaunt to have a delicious Korean meal: it's called Samgyupsal! Who likes bacon? Well with this meal, they give you uncooked pork, that you put on a hot plate on your table to cook it (it's tilted so lots of fat runs off), along with other vegetables and kimchi. Then you take the cooked meat, dip it in some sauce, and with whatever vegetables you like, wrap it in some lettuce, and eat it! It's so good! They kept bringing on the meat! We were so blessed!



Click the picture to get a bit better of a view of the food..(the pic isn't too high quality).


What they do with the leftover meat and veggies is that they add rice and spice and mix it all up to make something called (I think) Bibimbap. Somehow, after feeling so full, you find that you're somehow able to eat this awesome mix of food! I think it's a mental thing--a different way of looking at it. The bacon-lettuce rolls perhaps seem much more filling then they are or something!




And here's Mike and Mangyu (aka Mario)! Mario is a cool guy. He loves to hang out with us, and it's a blessing to have him. It's sweet to spend time with people from church (and even with those who aren't)! There's such an opportunity to share with them in spiritual things, and we get to disciple guys and see them grow in Christ. Many Koreans here know English in different degrees, some very well, some not so well, or some not at all. Many desire to learn. Pray that the language barrier would be overcome as we seek to teach the Bible to the people here.



After we ate, we walked down to a certain open-air market called Shijang...late at night, when everything was closing/closed down. But it was cool to see. We bought a few things. Open-air markets are where you can bust out your bargaining skills, get fresh meals and cheap deals! just...not so much at night, for not so many people are there.

English Time At The Orphanage!

Every Saturday we visit an orphanage here in Daejeon. It's got quite a few kids there. We go and hang out with the kids, playing with them--it's a lot of fun! (Though I don't always know what they're saying. A good opportunity to learn some Korean!) It's a blessing to be able to hang with these kids every week.

After some time playing with the kids, we teach some of the older ones some English. We teach some pronunciation, grammar, and some fun idioms! (Remember MELT? Yeah!) We also read through a paraphrased Bible story as we teach 'em. Awesome!

So from left to right, our students are Susan, (Iza's not a student) Kaka, and Bandy. (These are their English names. Well...sort of.)

Kaka is surprised and excited about something! Is it the exceptional English lesson that I gave? Was it that there was Mountain Dew present on this occassion? Or was it that the camera I used accidentally took 6 pictures in quick succession?

What? I need more pictures of the kids at the orphanage? Well, let me take some...

By the way, Mountain Dew in Korea (in other parts of Asia, too!) is not quite as sweet as it is in America. It's still way sweet! But there's a subtle difference...it's probably a good thing--not as much sugar loaded in there...still delicious, though!

Teaching English At Minsoo's

Right now, the main way God is providing for me to stay here in Daejeon is doing English tutoring.

As of right now, I do some tutoring sessions a few times a week, to groups of people of different ages. So a couple times a week I head on over to Minsoo's house to teach some kids English! Their mom makes us delicious snacks whenever we go over there!

Here's Minsoo, the eldest son of his parents. He's about...7 years old or something?

And when I go over there, I also teach his little sister Minji, their cousins, Jenny and Elizabeth (those are their English names), and their friend Pogum (also called Isabella).

They're very cute kids, but they're difficult to control (especially Minsoo)! There's a difficulty in keeping them focused on the English. I'm trying to make it fun and easy, but this is definately a challenge. I have some experience working with kids from times I helped in children's ministry, but then I had lots of help. I'm really thankful for the opportunity to teach them, but my, it's challenging! I definately want to be faithful to God in all I do, including teaching English to these kids. Your prayers for these kids and I would be greatly appreciated! ...and good ideas for engaging English activies!

Aaaaghhh, who's he going to crash into this time?!!!