homesick

This past weekend and especially today, I’ve been feeling homesick. It hasn’t even been a full month yet, and I can’t believe I’m feeling homesick already. Pastor Jason told me before I came that whenever I’m feeling homesick, I need to remind myself why I’m here and that God has called me here for this certain period of time. Some of my supporters wrote me letters of encouragement; thank you to those who wrote me a letter because it helped me so much.

I am also getting sick… high fever, headaches, and other symptoms. Please pray for my health and that this illness wouldn’t be severe!

I’ve been challenged that during my stay here as I am not called only to teach at St Paul School, but I am also called to be a light to the neighborhood and the people. Please pray that I would be intentional about every relationship from the barber to the rickshaw drivers and to the students. There are so many opportunities for me to evangelize during my stay here.

The school culture here is very different to the culture in the states. The teachers are highly respected and some of the teachers hit the students. The classrooms are very old-fashioned, traditional, and lecture style based. The way I was taught to teach at CSUN was the very opposite of this; allow student cooperation and interaction, building on prior knowledge, higher and deeper level of thinking, etc. Although the students here are already used to the traditional teaching style, I hope that I would be able to use the information I learned in college to teach the students here effectively.

One of team CRAB's last meals

Last Wednesday, we went back to Andhra Pradesh to join in a church dedication service!

#ANCfamily in India

Another great view on the rooftop of Teacher's Quarter

So we visited a local Korean restaurant. The food was bland and these chips and ramyun were overpriced!

BanChan

We also tried Baskin Robins here!

Dropping of Rebecca at the airport! It has been such an encouragement serving with her and with this group.

This is the campus I am teaching at

Another great Korean meal at BKC

This is BKC (Bangalore Korean Church)

This was a presidential banquet held at AECS (I'm still unsure what the presidential banquet was for)

My three English classes

This is a rickshaw that we ride to get to places

Fried chicken!

Morning exercise and service at AECS

Dog owner's bring their dogs in front of the school gate and let them poo on this land because it is part of public land. This is one form of persecution the school faces.

Thank you to all my supporters and to those who wrote me letters of encouragement! It helped tremendously reading them!

a taste of home

Sorry I haven't been updating as much, it's been kind of busy with the KCM team here. We've been tagging along most of the time with them and helping them with their ministries. This week, I started teaching fourth grade English. I have three English classes and I teach another class for Scripture Time. Yesterday, I played volleyball with some of the high school and college students! They're really good, but I'm so glad that they play here because I love playing volleyball! This past Sunday, we went to Bangalore Korean Church for Sunday service. There are around 7-8 families attending BKC as they're all missionaries or people who are here for business reasons. They served Korean food and it was amazing! The missionaries at Saint Paul School also cooked some Korean food for KCM and the four of us tagged along for that too! We've been eating really well lately...

This past Friday, we took a day trip to Berekai which is around 2-3 hours away from Bangalore. There's a St Paul School there where the missionary there, missionary Moses, has a vision to expand the school over 100 acres. The land is already purchased and so far, only 4 acres are being used by the school. There are around 250 student currently enrolled. I was challenged and encouraged at the same time to hear about missionary Moses' vision for the school.

Prayer requests:

-for the KCM team as they will be going on a two week trip around India spreading the gospel. Please pray for their safety, health, and for God to use them to spread the gospel. 

-to have a vision during my stay here and also in my life. 

-for the students here at Saint Paul School to be receptive and willing to accept and follow Jesus Christ. 

-for missionary Moses and his ministry in Berekai. 

Sorry for such a short update! Hopefully I will have the time to update more often!

To make up for my lack of words in my update, I will upload more photos in this post :)

This is back in Andhra Pradesh. This field was right next to the church/school we stayed at (also known as our "bathroom").

This is the village we stayed at in Andhra Pradesh.

This is in Berekai and is the soccer field at the Saint Paul School.

This is a part of the 100-acre land missionary Moses purchased to fulfill his vision.

This is inside the 4-acre where the buildings are built so far

Missionary Moses leading the school in praise songs

Inside the school field

One of the main streets in Bangalore

A Hindu temple we walked passed by

KCM holding an assembly for the main campus Saint Paul School

There's a restaurant called "California Burrito" and is very similar to Chipotle; from their menu to their interior

The three of us have been riding this Scooty around to get to different places.

Chapati is one of the traditional Indian foods.

Another type of traditional Indian food

Missionary Chung spreading the gospel to the lepers who live near the school

Korean food served at BKC

KCM team performing body worship to a local church in Bangalore

KCM team performing again at BKC

A chinese/fusion buffet Pastor Abe took us to! 

"Commercial Road" has a lot of small shops and we came here to buy some socks and towels

The phone I am using during my stay. Throwback?

One of the Saint Paul students was going back home on the back of this bike. I thought it was adorable so I took a picture of it

We had bogguem bapp for lunch today. It was so yummy!

this little light of mine

We just returned from our trip to Andhra Pradesh and it was such an eye-opening experience. Bryan, Rebecca, Abe, and I joined the KCM team on this trip. The team was split into two groups and we stayed in two different villages. For the past week, we had no access to running water and bathrooms so we had to take a bunch of water bottles and a lot of baby wipes (we eventually ran out...). In the village my group stayed at, a lot of our ministry was working and getting to know the children. We stayed at a St. Paul School and church, as KCM team also prepared VBS ministry for the children using body worship, skits, crafts, and sermons. During the mornings and afternoons, we would visit different villages (we visited around 8-10 villages) and do ministry there. We tagged along with the body worships and skits the KCM team prepared. Following that, we had opportunities to pray for the people in the villages. Some of the villages had absolutely no believers, while some had a church with a few believers. One village had a Christian community, but that was only because those people were kicked out of their villages for being Christians. Another village, we visited being told that the village had no believers, but as we were leaving, a grandma came to us saying she was Christian and asked for prayer. A few villages had a few number of believers, but there was no church in the village and so they aren't able to grow in their faith. So that was a brief recap of this past week. It was such a blessing to have teamed up with the KCM team; they were so welcoming of us and made us feel like a part of their team right away.

There was this one light bulb that lit up the whole room in the church at night. And as we were debriefing, we talked about how if that light bulb went out, the entire room would be dark, but if there were many other lights in the room, we wouldn't notice much of a difference if one light bulb went out. Just like this, I realized how much of a light we Christians and the church should be. In some of these villages that had a church, the church plays such an important role in the faith and salvation of the believers.And I thought back at home, if for some reason, a church shut down, the people are able to attend other churches. But here, the growth of their faith depends on the one church in the village. It hit me that we as Christians can't always be in a "Holy huddle", but we need to be the light in places of darkness.

There's also another story regarding the light bulb. So we were able to build relationships with children of the village we were staying at. There were around 15 kids that came out constantly; they would knock on our windows in the morning waking us up with "Good morning, sir/maam!" and would bother us til we went to sleep by trying to talk to us through the windows. One of the nights while we were debriefing the light bulb stopped working, so we thought the power went out. Then three or four of the kids kept trying to play with us, and our natural response was "Come back tomorrow! We'll be here tomorrow!" and we ignored them for a little as we continued debriefing. But they kept bothering us, and we found out that they were trying to help us fix the light bulb. They told us to take it out and put it back on, and suggested maybe the light bulb went out and not the power. He then offered to go buy a new one if we gave him the money. The KCM team leader ended up going with the kids to go get a new one. This was probably one of the memorable highlights of this trip. It wasn't just us being used by God to bless them, but God has used them to bless us. My biggest hope and prayer is that these children will grow in their faith and have a relationship with Jesus. Please keep the villages in Andhra Pradesh in your prayers: that God would raise leaders and churches in these villages; for God to strengthen and encourage these churches to continue growing; for there to be light in the places of darkness.

I have so many smaller stories regarding the time we spent with the kids, in the villages, ministry, bathroom situations, and others, but this is all I will post for now. Please continue to pray for India, and that the gospel would continue to be preached and shared throughout this country.

Pastor Abe bought us a Kurta/Kurti, an Indian traditional clothing

St. Paul School had a whole parade for the KCM team, Bryan, Rebecca, Abe, and me!

We shook all the students' hands (more than a thousand students!)

Walking down the parade!

KCM performing their body worships and skits to the students at St. Paul School in Bangalore

A beautiful view on the rooftop at Teacher's Quarter

One of the roads in the village we stayed at

A kid playing with a tire and a stick

A meal we ate at a hotel (hotel = restaurant; restaurant = hotel)

This is the school/church we stayed at. (Sorry this is a bad picture...)

This was a house in a village, and the grandma who lives in this village wanted to proclaim her faith by painting a cross on her house

The missionaries prepared us a nice meal after this trip of beef curry and some kimchi!

I will be updating more and posting pictures soon! We will be going on another day-trip this Friday with KCM. Please keep us in your prayers, and sorry for this brief notice!