The Final Push

Wow, it has been over a month since my last update. A lot has happened since then! To those who are continually reading this blog and keeping me in your prayers, thank you for partnering with me during this season! :)

Early December, I made a trip back to the states for a week due to an unfortunate reason. My girlfriend's (Lynn's) father passed away during the first week of December. So after praying and talking to my parents and pastors (here in India and back at home), I decided to go back for a week to attend the memorial service and to also comfort and encourage Lynn. Please continue to keep her and her family in your prayers that God would continue to comfort and guide them!

After a week I came back to India, I went to Korea for two weeks. I originally bought my plane tickets to Korea last year when I bought my tickets to India. Since I am a foreigner, each stay cannot exceed 180 days so my parents and I decided that I would go spend St. Paul School's winter break in Korea. Since I made the last minute trip back to the states, I technically didn't have to go to Korea. However, the tickets that I purchased were nonexchangeable so I decided to go.

During that week in between my trip to the states and to Korea, I went caroling a few times here in Bangalore with the AECS students. It was the first time I had gone caroling and it was quite an experience! We walked around the neighborhood and village kids would join us and sing a long. We would stop by each house and sing Christmas songs, and then hand the St. Paul School calendar and a bible.

Now I have been back here in Bangalore continuing serving in the ministries I have been involved with. One thing God has been teaching me recently is to diligently obey. Whenever there is a need, I am reminded to obey with a joyful heart and not with an attitude. Running errands, being told to teach a class last minute, taking the official school class photos (with my phone), sharing messages during morning service, leading teacher trainings, and teaching my English and discipleship classes has been filling up my schedule these last few weeks. I have to constantly remind myself why I am here and what I am doing here. It simply comes down to this: to obey God. To obey God diligently, to obey with a joyful heart, and to obey because of His unconditional, never-ending, and indescribable love for me and for His people.

From 1/20-1/29, I will be making a trip to Jalpaiguri which is in the state of West Bengal. There is a St. Paul School campus headed by Pastor James and his wife. I will be mainly going up there to hold teacher meetings and trainings. I will also be sharing my testimony during the Sunday church service. Please keep me in your prayers and that more than teaching strategies and techniques, that I would encourage the teachers to portray God's love and presence in their classrooms.

After I come back from Jalpaiguri, I will be making another 3-4 day trip to Berekai sometime in February. I will be also leading teacher training and meetings in Berekai. When I come back to Bangalore from Jalpaiguri, my main ministry and focus will be on heading and leading the special education program with Pastor Abraham. I will only teach my fourth standard classrooms when we write back to their pen pals back in the states. The rest of my time will be devoted to the special education classroom and the discipleship class with the PUC students.

I have less than two months left here in India. Please pray for strength and passion that I would continue to do the work that God has given me here and that I would serve diligently and wholeheartedly. The following week coming back from Korea was a tough transition for me, as making trips to the states and Korea has been a bit comfortable and refreshing since I was able to spend some time with my close friends and family. Although the transition was a little rough, the time to adjust back was a lot shorter than it took me to adjust back when I first came. Please pray for St, Paul School, the pastors and their families, AECS, and India, that God's presence and love would continue to be magnified here.


*Interesting story: This story isn't too exciting or thrilling, but here in India, (money) bills that are even slightly ripped or torn are rejected. So if you receive torn bills for change, you are allowed to give it back and ask for another bill. So what cashiers do when they receive torn bills (and counterfeit bills) and don't realize that they have, they store them in a separate pile in their registers. I've been realizing that since I am a foreigner, I see cashiers reaching for that side pile (of torn and counterfeit bills) when giving me change. I immediately give back the torn and fake bills and ask for new ones. Just thought it was quite interesting that they take advantage of foreigners like this!

A picture we took when I took the trip back home

My students excited to eat some candy I brought for them from the states!

The discipleship group I have been growing closest with!

Christmas caroling

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Playing sports with Pastor Abraham's kids and Moses!

Friends I hung out with while I was in Korea!

One of our daily dinners! I made pasta for them for one of the meals!

IV Standard Peace section

IV Standard Joy section

IV Standard Hope section

Teachers/Staff photo

A picture with Pastor Abe and his kids

Bowling fun with Moses and David!

Ridiculously expensive dragonfruit!

Yumm!

Korean-American-Indian?!

Even though I have been living here for several months now, I am still learning new things about the culture here in India. As I have shared in the last post how there are times when it gets lonely and difficult here, I feel like I have hit a mark where Bangalore feels like home. I find peace in situations that used to feel uneasy. I am not fully adjust to the culture here, but I can say that God has definitely given me a bigger heart for India and the people here as I continue to live here. Simple interactions I had with people are now becoming more meaningful. The time I spend with the students and staff is now becoming more intentional and personal.

As I am currently teaching fourth grade English, Pastor Abraham has shared his heart for starting up special education here at St. Paul School. He asked me to join him as he starts this up and asked for me to pitch in the experiences and (minimal) knowledge I have about special education. If this were to happen, I would no longer teach fourth grade starting the end of January and would devote most of my time here in February in training and preparing the teachers for a special education class (two teachers along with about six students with special needs). We are not quite sure exactly which specific special education we want to start up, but please pray with us and that St. Paul School will be a school where Christ's love is shown to all kinds of students, especially to those students with special needs who are often harshly rejected, ignored, and teased by their peers and adults.

One thing that really gets to me here (that seems to be so normal to the people living here) is when the power goes out. It goes out maybe two-four times a day lasting anywhere from five minutes to two hours. The reason why the power goes out is because the city tries to limit its usage; therefore, they distribute the power by shutting off the power in sections of the city. At times, the power goes out for a full day or even more, depending on the construction going on nearby. When the power goes out, I resort to one of three things: I take a nap, pray, or go for a walk/ride around where I live. Sometimes, the power goes off in literally the worst moments possible. The time has finally come when the power went out while I was taking a shower at night. Showers have been really cold lately since the weather is pretty chilly and cool throughout the day. It feels like I am showering with a bucket of iced water.

It was sports day last Friday at St. Paul School. That day, the power was out the entire morning and early afternoon as they were cutting trees nearby the school. Therefore, there was no power (they call it "current") which meant that the microphones and speakers were useless. However, they still carried on with the program having the speakers and announcers just using their regular voice which only the people around them were able to hear. Performances were cut short as the portable speakers ran out of battery, and all these issues seemed to be no problem and normal.

Restaurants and stores (usually just markets) close between 2pm-7pm anywhere from two to four hours. This is their "break" time or their "lunch break".

When it is a student's birthday, I guess it is part of the Indian school culture to have the student bring chocolate (candy) for everyone in their class and to go around the school giving it to each teacher. At first, I thought students coming into my class and giving me chocolate was just because they wanted to share their snack, but it turned out that those students were coming in for their birthday celebration and for months, I didn't shake those students' hands.

The chips, drinks, and packaged foods have a date on the bag/bottle. In America, this date usually means "good before" or simply its expiration date. I carried this knowledge with me here, and for the longest time, I wondered why every drink, chips, and foods were expired wherever I went. A couple weeks ago, I figured out that this date is the "manufactured" date and usually has a "good after three months of opening the package".

Lastly, I want to share an experience I had. To make this complicated story short, I was finalizing the paperwork for my scooter purchase. The shop asked for additional money after we have finalized the price and the scooter was paid for. At first, I paid the additional price, but later went back in to ask specifically why I had to pay more when the price was finalized. The story and situation is actually quite confusing so I am going to leave that out. In conclusion, I went back and was adamant about getting my money back and I did! The only thing that seemed sketch about it was he first asked for a set amount and right after I questioned him, he reduced to half the amount. It just made no sense why he asked for more when we both signed that the price was paid in full. Whether he was trying to cheat me to get more money, or if he was being honest and there really was a miscommunication, I don't feel bad about getting my money back because we both signed the form where it said the price I paid was the final price. It almost made me feel proud that I was that much closer to being an Indian! :)

One of many meals I share with Naomi and Purna! Sharing meals with them has definitely been one of the highlights here! :)

Sports day!

This is the Kindergarten race as they hop on all four!

As the school ground is not that big, they have creative sports where it doesn't require too much playing field!

Steak?! Steak! Score! One of many great meals with Pastor Abe filled with meaningful conversations, accountability, and full stomachs!

PU College chapel every Wednesday. Last week, I shared a message with the PU students during chapel.

These are freshly blended fruit juices (pineapple to the left and orange (tangerine) to the right). Made of only fruit, sugar, and ice!

Bulgogi, yukejang, and rice. Korean food :)

This was on Thanksgiving (American holiday) last Thursday. I am glad I was able to share a part of my American culture with them!

Sorry that this is upside down. I can't figure out how to flip this, but this was an ad in the newspaper. This person is an AECS graduate who traveled 250+ countries playing music and spreading the gospel. 

Today was Thanksgiving service at BKC. Some amazing Korean food once again!

The brother on the way right is Dongjoon. He is from Korea and he came with a short term mission team back in 2012. He is currently backpacking around India for three months and decided to stay here at St. Paul School for three days. He left tonight so please pray for his safe travels and that he wouldn't get lost or seriously injured!

The last two days, the four of us had a lot of fun spending time with each other! 

Life in India

There haven’t been too many updates the past two weeks. Last weekend was sports day at AECS. There were a total of four teams and many sports were played over two days. There were competitions and tournaments from basketball to volleyball to football (soccer) to eating contests to bible games and so on. My body got wrecked! I was sore for about 4-5 days and had trouble moving around the first two days. Regardless, I had a very enjoyable time and it was a great opportunity to grow closer and spend more time with the students at AECS.

Today was children’s day here in India. At St. Paul School, we were supposed to have sports day as a part of children’s day, but it was postponed due to the weather. So instead, they had a singing competition and Naomi and I went around the school judging the competition. I also went to a funeral today. It was for an elderly lady who lived in front of PUC, and she passed away this week. President Chung asked me to go with Pastor Yohan to the funeral, and the whole service was in Hindi (or different language other than English).

During the week, teaching my fourth standard English classes are ongoing as well as discipleship group with the 2^nd year PUC students. I have put counseling on hold for now as it interferes with the timing of the discipleship group. On Sundays, I am still serving in the youth group.

There are times when it gets difficult, lonely, and homesick. I miss home, my family, my friends, and ANC. But at the same time, it is such a blessing to be here. To be surrounded by people who love Christ, and also people to share the gospel with. People who come from a totally different culture than mine, but yet brothers and sisters I am able to fellowship with. As serving in the ministry here is the heart God has given me, spending time with some of the people here outside of ministry has definitely been memorable.

As my half way mark has passed, please pray that during the next four months, God would continue to use me here to disciple the students, to share the gospel in every given opportunity, and to encourage my fellow brothers and sisters along with the pastors, professors, teachers, and other staff members.

This was a few weeks back. Pastor Abraham took out all the AECS staff to a day of eating, playing games, and fellowship. A mini-retreat and a day of refreshing for the staff.

A month ago, there were huge rainstorms that went on for about a week or two. A good portion of the books at AECS were soaked as they were being stored in the basement and the basement got flooded. 

Indian currency fun fact: You can tell if the bills are real or fake by looking inside the flower (cloud) shape. When you just look at it from one side, it looks like a random design.

But if you put it up against the sun or light, it is the number of the rupees the bill holds. The other half of the design is on the backside where it becomes full when you put the front and back together through the light.

These are counterfeits. You can see that there are no numbers (or the half designs) inside the flower.

This is (was?) a Hindu god that was worshiped for basically being massive...? This sacred tree was struck by lightning during the rainstorms last month and therefore, its branches were cut off.

I have partnered with a few teachers back in the states and arranged our students to be pen pals!

KFC is actually not bad here... I've had it once when Abe, Bryan, and Rebecca were here and I don't remember it being good!

At sports day, women's basketball was a nightmare. It was more like American football.

Many sports going on at sports day!

Brother Michael giving a show as he waits for his team to play.

Eating contest!

Miss Naomi and brother Purna making chapati for the three of us!

The delicious meal they made!

x (ex), y (why), z (zeh.....?)

To start off this blog entry, I'll explain the caption of this post. Here in India, instead of pronouncing the letter 'z' as /zee/, they pronounce it as /zeh/. The students had no idea what I was saying as I was spelling a word with the letter 'z' in it. Just a fun fact!

During the end of my two week trip, we got a message saying how an outreach team from AECS was taken to prison during their outreach. Long story short, this is what happened: they went to Hassam, which is a village with a very strong Hindu group called the RSS. During one of their nights, as they were singing a song inside a local pastor's home, the village people surrounded the home and invaded the home. They took their cellphones and bibles at first, then started taking away their belongings. They then started to hit the students, but no weapons were involved. This went on for two hours. The police then arrived, and took the students to prison. The village people charged them with the Anti-conversion Law (which says that any religion can be practiced, but may not try to convert others). They were then held in prison for 5-6 days, as the process was delayed over and over. Two pastors from AECS went to Hassam to bail the students out. Although they are currently back at AECS, they will have to go back to Hassam every so often for the court cases. This is only 10% of the process, as the remaining is still yet to come. Please keep the students and this court case in your prayers!

Last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday was the Diwali Festival (I think it might have been longer). During this time, Hindu's celebrate Diwali by lighting fireworks and firecrackers. Their belief for this festival is that if they light the firecrackers, they will scare off all the evil spirits (or that the fireworks would catch the god's attention). During these three nights, especially Thursday, firecrackers would be lit from around 5pm to 3am. On Thursday, it would be nonstop and it seems like every street had fireworks being lit. It almost sounded as if a war was going on!

In one of my fourth standard (grade) English classes, I connected the students with a classroom from back home. I knew the teachers since I was in high school, and am so lucky that they were willing to set up pen pals with our classrooms! We have received their letters last week, and the students are finishing up the letters by the end of this week. The students are really excited for this, and I am too as it is my first experience with having international pen pals!

There is a boy in one of my classes and his name is Nitish. One day during tea time (break), we were talking and we both noticed that each other had white hairs. Then he pointed out the mole on my left arm as we showed me the mole on his arm. He was sharing how kids tease him all the time and that he would beat some of his friends for doing so. I then shared how I was always teased, too, when I was little about my white hairs. He then went around telling the whole class how I had white hairs and a mole on my arm just like he did. I was glad that we were able to relate this way allowing him to show off his white hairs for once! Last week, Nitish came up to me again during tea time. He asked if I lived in Los Angeles, and I told him I did. He then shared with me how he was watching Discovery Channel and how he watched a show about a factory (I think it was a factory that made chips). Again, he went around the whole class telling his classmates how I am from the same city as this one factory that aired on Discovery Channel. Moments like these bring a smile to my face (and my heart)! :)

Eating samgyupsal for brother Purna's birthday!

Chicken kebab at Empire Chicken!

I was craving korean food so I went to a korean restaurant and ate some kimchijigae!

A view of the firework madness on the roof

These were two guests who visited here for about two days. Naomi stayed here from 2006-2008 and John came with a mission team during 2007 for two weeks. They are currently on their honeymoon, traveling across Asia, Europe, and America.

As their last meal, we had chicken curry (one of my favorite India dishes) with pastor Yohan and his family.

I introduce you Nitish!