Nikki Jordan

Caged Bird

2012-02-03T01:50:00.001+09:00

I'm like a caged bird that needs to be set free. If I keep chirping in the hopes of one day being freed I'm likely to die alone in the cage. An escape is a must, otherwise I will forever be under the bird keepers hand. Never allowed to fly free and soar high to the potential that I can be.

Some Toilet Tissue for my Tears

2012-02-01T00:05:00.001+09:00

So yesterday was a rough day at NL, by far one of the worst and I was struggling with frustration and lost my cool. I burst out to two staff members in my office and started sharing all this stuff that I was feeling and frustrated over and then I said I feel like crying. When I said that the staff member sitting at her desk promptly put a huge roll of toilet tissue on her desk. All three of us burst out laughing and it definitely lightened the mood. I felt bad for sharing so openly about my feelings, since it's not really a Thai thing to do and sought both of the two staff members out later and separately told them I was sorry for speaking so directly about my feelings. They both encouraged me by telling me that it was good for me to share my feelings and affirmed them as valid too. It's times like these that I'm so thankful I can speak Thai.

What does it mean to be content

2012-01-28T02:55:00.001+09:00

Tonight, I am reflecting on contentment. What did Paul mean when he said "I have learned to be content in all circumstances," and is that really attainable in an imperfect sinful world? When contentment doesn't come after months of praying for contentment in a situation, does that mean God is saying it's time to get out of that situation? Is that the way He speaks through the pillar of "situation"? Or does that mean one must work harder in order to obtain contentment... In "any circumstance" like Paul teaches.

Friendly Faces

2012-01-27T12:24:00.001+09:00

Yesterday I went to visit at the IDC, which is something I've been doing for the last two months while some of my friends who were released from prison wait for their ticket to go home. There are some really nice guards there too and specifically one that works at the ID control, where you submit your ID to get a locker key with corresponding number card, before going inside. Yesterday when I came to return my key before I was even at the counter he had already grabbed my passport remembering what slot it was in without my corresponding number card. I was impressed with his attention to detail. I've been enjoying visiting there both for my relationship with the prisoners going home as well as the new opportunity to make new friends that work or visit there and their smiling faces.

Think to Much

2012-01-24T03:14:00.001+09:00

So this is where I am as I lay in bed at 1 am because I'm thinking about work at NL and what the future holds for me. I've decided for now blogging might help clear my mind just as it did back in the day when I first began blogging. Unfortunately, blogging was replaced with Facebook, as much as I vowed it wouldn't be.

Think to much is a phrase commonly used by the prisoners I visit, when they or a friend inside is thinking to much about the future (worry) or things they cannot immediately control, like in my case the piles of work that need to be done at NL or what my future holds there.

I do know one thing and that is, I'm tired of sleepless nights or lost sleep over NL, think to much, and the lack of motivation to get up three mornings a week and go there.

All I want is the peace of Christ and I know it's there but when I reach out to grab a hold of it I just can't get there, something is in my way. I can't help buy think that, that one thing that I think to much about is my hindrance to what God desires most for me.

Changes

2009-03-10T15:19:00.002+09:00

Well, I am officially a senior in college. At last. It is very exciting and if it be God's will also, I will be finished my degree by December 2009. I have to do an internship, so that would be the only reason why I wouldn't necessarily graduate by then. I'm not sure what the internship entails, or if I can do it in Thailand, but I am hoping to find out soon enough.

When I was in Thailand for missions last month I looked at several houses for us to live in. The first one we were set on got rented two days after I looked at it. The most recent one, we thought were working out a deal, but the door seems to be closing. We can only imagine that God has something awesome in store for us. It has been really trying to not worry and try and control every little detail knowing so far in advance where God has us going, but by His strength, I have been patient and doing little to prepare. I made a deal that I would not do much of anything till April. April is looming, and the preparations will start. Basically at that point we will have 2.5 months to pack, sort and sell. After April we will start raising additional support to help offset some costs for me volunteering at NightLight regularly.

Broken

2008-09-17T16:59:00.003+09:00

Yesterday evening, Allen and I were getting ready to go meet some friends to cruise the Hangang River to take night photographs. We got on the bus at our normal stop. Since we were getting off in 2 stops, I did not sit down in the empty seat near where I was standing. When we got to the stop after where we got on, an old Korean woman was pushing her way by to get to the seat I left open, and I moved out of the way for her, however, she still shoved and pushed me out of the way (and it was right in my back). Of course, this frustrated me. A few seconds later, the bus started to move, and a Korean man shoved me from behind. I was holding on, and it hurt my arm and back so bad. My arm was pushed out of position and it just hurt and was tingling and I cried out in pain. All the man said was sorry, yet I was writhing in pain. At this point I was so upset at the seemingly selfishness of those around me, that I did not want to go out and be around this same type of people for several hours (see disclaimer below). Yet, I persevered. We got off the bus and headed to the subway. When we got on the subway, I just sat and prayed. Lord, help me love these people. Lord, I know that they are not all selfish, but I am having a hard time seeing that right now. Lord, I know you desire for me to love these people, but I cannot do it on my own strength. Lord, MAKE me love these people. At that moment I opened my eyes and there were 2 Korean girls and their mother standing in front of us (we were sitting). The mom says, my daughters came to talk to you. At this moment I was so broken, I could not say anything, I just smiled. Allen asked them the questions that are normal, what is your name. The older girl, replied that her name is Love, "Sarang" in Korean. I could not help but notice, she was wearing a shirt that said "Jesus" on it. Lord, I said, this is you, answering my prayer. The tears came and I tried to not let them show. The younger girl said her name was Joy (and gave the Korean word). They asked us where we were from and Allen answered for us. At the end, they gave us a Korean treat and said it was a gift for us. All I could say was, it was nice to meet you. Words cannot express the feelings in my heart. All I can do is ask that God would make me never to forget that moment and the knowledge that not all Koreans, and not all humans are the same. That all have sinned, all have fallen short, and all need Jesus - and the only way for me to show them that, is to love them. Even when I cannot, I will love them because it is Jesus who makes me love.

Please, do not take this to mean that I hate Koreans. Just as those I love in Thailand, have or do struggle with sexual sin, so those that I am trying to love in Korea struggle with the sin of selfish pride. I desire to be obedient to God's call on my life as I live here daily, and try to minister to a sin that grieves me more than most.

tHt training

2008-09-17T16:54:00.002+09:00

Friday was the tHt (teens Helping teens) training at YISS. This is where I teach the students how to help other teens with issues like depression, low self-esteem, bullying and skills for effective conflict resolution. The training was originally scheduled to be for 3 days, but because there were only 2 interested students, I thought it might be beneficial to make it only 1 day of training and cover things more in depth on an as needed basis. I cut down the material, but it was to a point where I felt that I could not cut out any more material, however, it was still to much to cover in an 8 hour day.

The morning of the training, I opened in prayer, and I said Lord, give us an ample amount of time to cover all the material that you desire for me to teach these students. Late in the day as we were finishing the last part of material, having covered everything in the book, I said, wow, it's a miracle, that we finished everything, I cannot believe. Then I said, wait, I should be praising God for answer the prayer that I prayed in the morning. How faithful is our Lord, when we just ask! Praise God for an awesome day of tHt!

Thailand Bound

2008-08-03T19:31:00.002+09:00

I'm going to Thailand tomorrow for 3 weeks. I will be working with NightLight, so pray for my ministry there. Also, pray for Allen as he will be on his own.

We had an awesome time with my family and an interesting time in China. I hope to update more later.

Escaping Unusual Situations

2008-07-10T18:16:00.002+09:00

Life is definitely not dull in Korea. I have escaped 3 unusual situations in the last 24 hours. Let me tell you about them.

Situation 1: last night I went with the girl from church who is going to spend a week with me in Thailand to the mall at Yongsan: to eat Thai food, prayer walk and shop. When we went into the store there I had the Bridget Jones 2 movie in my purse. (She had borrowed it to watch the sceens on Thailand.) When we were going into the store I asked her if she thought I should take it out... then I reasoned through my own question with the fact that it's region 1, clearly American and clearly not available at that store. We proceeded into the store. The metal detecters beeped when we went in, but not till after I went through. I thought maybe it was from the glass bottle in her bag from the Thai restaurant. The guard's didn't say anything, but radioed to someone. Likely saying "2 meegook people are entering with something that set the alarm off, watch them." So we went to look at the things she wanted to look at, then I proceeded to get my Cranberry juice. When we went to pay we set off the detecter again. The cashier wouldn't give me my card back and kept asking me what was in my bag (in Korean of course). So naturally I was freaked out thinking they are going to arrest me for bringing my own movie in to the store. So I took the movie out, showed it to her and explained (in English and some Korean) that it was from "meegook" and that it was mine. She said OK and told me next time not to bring it in. Yikes! Fortunately no arrest!

Situation 2: This afternoon I went to the dentist. When I got to the building I hesitated outside double checking that it was the right building. When I was certain, I went in to the elevator. Right as I was pushing the button for the elevator a Korean man comes running in and starts asking me where I am going. The he proceeds to ask me if I will teach him English. I tried the best to explain to him that I am going to be busy over the next 3 months and that I was going to a dentist appointment. He proceeded to try and persuade me telling me he'd pay me $30 for just 10 minutes of English lessons. Then he asked when I would be done and said we could go study English at a hotel. I tried to explain to him that I had to go home to my "nampyon" husband after the dentist. Usually that gets them to leave me a lone if I think they are interested in more than just English lessons. Well, it didn't get rid of him, and he wanted my phone number. So I gave him Allen's number. Well, then he asked me if the number I gave him was mine. Naturally I didn't lie. He wasn't happy and kept asking for my number. I told him that my husband would be available to teach him English. When that didn't seem to be good enough, I got the impression he wasn't going to go away, so I just told him no, I can't. Finally he left.

Situation 3: The dentist itself was an experience. This was my first time getting my teeth cleaned in Korea and they did something called scaling, which hurt like heck and made me bleed all over. It was so bad there was blood on my shorts from my mouth. Gross. The pain was so horrible at times because my gums are sensitive that I had to ask them to stop. Finally, she resorted to only using the hand pick. Thank the Lord! Fortunately I came out alive and the dentists chair is still intackt. I was gripping the arms pretty hard to displace the pain. Weird thing is I had a dream about the dentist visit last night and it was pretty bad. I must say it was my worst experience at the dentist to my recollection. Especially since I appear to have 7 cavities. Yuck!

Korea in the Summer

2008-07-06T20:24:00.002+09:00

The only disadvantage to being in Korea over the summer, is not being able to swim everyday for free. So far, time has not permitted me to go and spend $10 so that I can swim, but Allen and I have been enjoying nightly walks pretty much each day.

Last night, I decided we would walk down by the Han river. It was so peaceful. The wind was blowing quite nicely, the river was flowing pretty good and there was a saxophonist playing. It was a really nice walk. As I was nearing the end of the path to return to the street, there was a Korean adjima (old woman) sitting there, and she looked quite sad, and I just thought I would smile at her, and she smiled back! It was one of the best Korean summer moments for sure. It's not often that a random Korean returns a smile when I smile at them. Praise God for the joy of her smile!

Studying Like Crazy

2008-06-26T12:31:00.002+09:00

Well, it has been an interesting last couple of weeks. I've been studying child psychology, adolescent psychology and statistics. The two psychology classes have really given me an insight into the development of children and adolescents. I know more now that as far as school, and helping students, adolescence is definitely my called concentration. Learning about development has helped me to understand the Korean people better and Allen has made the suggestion that if I ever get my PhD in Psychology that I could do my dissertation on Korean development. I've already started making lots of notes and I found a Korean American Journal Article for my Article Summary assignment in Adol. Psych. I am so thankful for Allen, because if it were not for his help, and the Holy Spirit's calming guidance, I would not have been able to get this far in statistics.

Going through these 3 classes has also woken me up to the fact that there is no way that I can take 18 credit hours in the fall and 21 in the spring. Now wait... yes, I could to it with God's help, but I really feel that it is not what He wants me to do. There have been times during these two psych classes where I have really wanted to dig deeper into the information, but I cannot because I have just enough time to do my assignments. I don't want my studies about my concentration to be like that. Since all the classes I have remaining are also upper level, it would be madness to study and be able to do extra research and such. Plus, I would have zero time for anything else. Which, as we all know, causes me stress. So I am praying and seeking God's guidance for my studies. I am pretty confident about what He wants, but I want to be 100% sure that I am discerning His voice and not my own inner desires.

1.5 weeks till my summer vacation! I get 7 whole weeks off from studying!! Yay! Praise the Lord!!

Nina's Visit

2008-06-14T23:09:00.002+09:00

Nina came to visit us in Korea. She is officially the first friend to make the trek to Korea. We had a good time. We took her to Namsan Mountain up to the N. Seoul Tower. From there you can see all of Seoul. Then we took her on the Seoul City Bus Tour. Unfortunately, some things were closed early because of all the riots going on over the new agreement between the US and Korea. There were even some areas where the riot police had their buses blocking the street. Then we went to Namdaemun Market to do some souvenir shopping. Nina found some things and I was able to get a few pictures of Korean stars for my pen pals in the Thai prison. Thursday night we ate Calbi and Samgapsil. Traditional Korean meat dishes... Mmmm good. Then on Friday we had another Korean spread at Kimbap Chungu, Allen and my favorite Korean restaurant. We introduced her to several of our favorites. Today before she left, I took her to the Sauna. We went into the heat rooms and in the swimming pool. For the first 30 minutes or so we were the only ones in the pool. Then there were a few others, including a cute Korean boy. Unfortunately when we took Nina to catch the ferry to Dong-Incheon, where she was scheduled to take the ferry to China to visit another friend, we found out that the boat was delayed quite some time. They had sent text messages to my phone, but they were in Korean and we didn't think it was urgent to try and find out what they were. It turns out we should have found out what they were. All in all it was a great time. It was sooooo good to have a friend here. It helped me remember why I love(ed) Korea. Hopefully, I will continue to feel excited to be in Korea... because I have not been enjoying it as much recently. I'm posting just for Nina, since she did complain that it has been since April that I updated my blog.

I must admit, that my blog has been slightly abandoned for facebook. Not that I am there much these days because of schooling, but I do make more of an effort. I am taking 9 credit hours right now, or in layman's terms, 3 classes in 8 weeks. It's not so bad, and I feel confident about being able to do it for a full year.

My family is visiting in July, and I will visit the states in September/October for my cousins wedding.

God Works Through Packing Tape

2008-04-15T12:14:00.003+09:00

It never ceases to amaze me how our God works. Today I left my house like I have been doing every other Tuesday since we started having the house cleaned. I stopped by the dry cleaner to drop of a skirt on my way to my 4 week allergy shot appointment. Well, when I came out of the dry cleaner there was packing tape stuck to my shoe. Now, most people in Korea would just pull it off and fling it on the street. However, since I am trying to unconform to the selfish aspects of the Korean culture that I have conformed to, I pulled it off and kept it in my hand with the intention of disposing of it properly. This always proves to be difficult as trash cans are few and far between. As I am approaching the bus stop, the tape drops out of my hand. The bus I need to catch pulls up as I am picking up the tape. I grab the tape and run to get on the bus. Unfortunately for me, the bus pulls on by me. However, God's plan prevails. Now that my bus has gone, I know that I have time enough to walk across the street and dispose of said tape properly, so I do. Then I resume my spot waiting for the bus back on the other side of the street. I wait a good 10 minutes for the correct bus to come again. Naturally again part of God's plan. So I go about my business to get to the allergist, stopping at Starbucks to read 1 chapter of my Educ. text and enjoy my blueberry muffin. Arriving at the allergist still early enough that I have beat the dr. there (since Tuesday is surgery day) I sit and read the second chapter. My turn comes and everything is fine. Then I have to wait for my pharmacy prescription and receipt. Now, I am anxious to get back to the house so that my lovely house cleaner can go on to her next job, but I wait about 15 minutes for the papers... when it starts to get to be crunch time, I tell them I cannot wait any longer, and just then the receipt is ready and the pharmacy prescription is ready. I assumed it was printer problems, but ultimately it was God's intervention. When I go out of the office I decide I really don't have enough time to wait for the bus, so I decide to take a taxi. Now, of all the taxi's in Korea, God has divinely appointed me to this one, all on account of the packing tape and the receipts etc. He speaks perfect English and is pleased to have conversation, so as we travel back to my home we start talking about lots of things. We are about to turn into my "dong" when I feel this prompting from the HS to ask him if he's a Christian. Well, what a weird thing to just randomly ask for no reason, but I yielded and asked. I learned that he is not, and that if he were to just "pick" any religion he would pick Catholic because of the comfort. I told him it was more than about comfort, but a relationship with Jesus. We were getting near to my stop and I was wondering what else I could do, when suddenly it occured to me that I have a copy of the 4 spiritual laws in my purse! So I gave him a copy. I pray that he reads it and it opens his eyes to the relationship he should have and needs with Jesus. I got out of the taxi, awed and amazed at how the thought of that very frustrating packing tape could have led to the perfect timing of my leaving the allergist to meet this man, for such a reason as to speak of Christ to him and give him the 4 spiritual laws!

Temporarily Abandoned but Not Forgotten

2008-03-16T20:33:00.003+09:00

Well, it has been a long while. A lot has changed. Here's a brief update:

Allen and I went to the USA for Christmas. We had a great and relaxing time. We came back to Korea and I started 2 new classes. With those 2 new classes I started a more full time daily studying routine. I was barely at the school at all. Working so hard to make it in Biology and Humanities. Fortunately now that term has eneded and I'm on to another. This week starts Education, differentiated learning and Creation studies. Should both be very interesting.

As for my health, well to put it bluntly it stinks. Upon returning to Korea, my insomnia went from 3-4 times a week to every night. Basically from Jan. 12 to Mar. 12, I got about 4 or 5 nights where I did not lie awake for 45 minutes to 2 hours before falling asleep. It appears as though it was related to my new medicine. I stopped taking it, and have slept well for 3 nights. Praise the Lord! However, my stomach is still a concern. Poops are either to frequent or not enough. Allen claims I have no middle ground in that department. The internal pain has been minimal, although the external pain has been quite horrid.

For the first time Allen was able to accompany me to Thailand. We went over the Lunar New Year break. He spent some time at NightLight meeting the ladies, and he got to visit with his friends who he hasn't seen in a while. I also was able to see some good sights for the first time! We had a really great time.

For Christmas Allen got me a DSLR, and I am loving it! I've taken nearly 2000 pictures since then and it's grand. It's given me a new fire for photography.

In 1 week I will go back to Thailand and work at NightLight with a teacher from Allen's school. I am looking forward to it. Allen will return to Indonesia with 51 middle school students and 10 teachers from school to minister to the people there.

Soccer season started earlier this year, and I am coaching again. The girls had a phonomenal game on Wed. We didn't win, but it was the first game in my 4 year history as part of the coaching team where the second half of the game was better than the first! Praise the Lord! I believe we can win some games this year!

So that sums it all up in a nut shell.

IDK

2007-12-19T08:24:00.000+09:00

IDK = I don't know... I don't know what to write! I want to write about the plane ride... but it was rather uneventful, praise the Lord! I did learn some stuff about myself though in transit. Certain behaviors that I have and patterns, etc. for when I fly. For anyone traveling with me, it'd be good to know these things in advance to avoid weirding someone out.

We arrived 1 hour early in SanFran. Then about 20 mins in Philly. Got home and to bed by 1:30 AM and we slept until 1 PM! I couldn't believe it! Neither of us have slept that long since we've been married! Went to bed around 12 last night, and we were both up at 5 AM. That's what we get for sleeping from 1 - 1. Hahaha. Right now Allen is asleep on the couch. Poor baby is suffering from a pretty bad cold. The basement is 60 F so it doesn't help his cold.

Before leaving Korea, I found out that my portfolio for teaching was approved! Praise the Lord! Those 6 credits make me officially a junior! (Well once this term is finalized.) The other good news is, is that I managed a B in Philosophy. I thought I wouldn't make it! Praise the Lord for that too!

Today I went shopping with my sister, it was lots of fun. I know the cashier at Kohl's was quite ammused by my forgetfulness. I kept forgetting things, like my bill amount to pay my Kohl's bill, then I forgot to buy a gift card. Then I forgot to ask for gift receipts. Needless to say I went through her lane 3 times. Ah well. Comming off of stress is still frazilling. Hopefully by this time next month I will be my old self again.

Good news from the poop dr. today, I'm going to go on another medicine. Hopefully it will work. He got on me for not letting them know how I was doing, so I will make sure to keep in better contact with their office. Especially since we won't be back till Sept./Oct.

Dude, I have this huge zit on my face and it's driving me crazy! I keep meaning to buy some face wash while I'm here, but so far I keep forgetting. Hopefully this zit will act as a reminder.

So lots of nonsense about nonsense and I am trying NOT to fall asleep! Since I've been up since 5 AM.

Arriving in the USA today!

2007-12-16T09:02:00.000+09:00

We are leaving for the USA in a few short hours. We will arrive Sunday night around 11 pm. Look forward to hearing from you! If you don't have our cell number or my parents house phone, please send me a message and I'll get it to you!

The cell usually doesn't work when we are at my parents house, so if you want to get us, it is important for you to have my parents number!!

Putting Out the Fire

2007-12-06T16:28:00.000+09:00

Tuesday night was our annual staff Christmas party. This was the second year in our new building and thus our second annual Christmas Chili Cook Off. Everyone brings chili, a dessert or an appetizer to share.

Everything was delicious! I ate good chili, had some yummy lunch meat and other treats that are not everyday delights in Korea.

Towards the end of the dinner festivities, one of the kids of the other teachers who was sitting with us started playing with a napkin and putting it over the little tea light candles that were decorating the tables. I said, "hey, what are you doing?" His response, was "nothing." The next thing I knew was the napkin was on fire! He naturally dropped it and backed away as if asking for someone to help, and I not really knowing what to do, and acting with faith in God proceeded to bang out the fire with my bare hands. It worked. I am certain that it was because I had so much faith that it would, but nonetheless God was faithful and out went the fire.

Now I have the first ever fire I put out to add to my list of "firsts" that have occurred since moving to Korea. No one sustained any injures and I only had one hint of a burn on the tip of my left ring finger.

God is good, and the fire was put out! And it definitely gave us something to laugh out loud about! I know I was hysterical!

Weevils BEGONE!

2007-11-30T22:09:00.000+09:00

For a couple days in a row I was spotting these weird looking bugs around the house, just one per day, you know, no big deal. I figured I'd clean pretty good over the next few days just to be sure, but no worries.

Monday night I was all excited that Allen was to return home from the Philippines (he went there on missions over Thanksgiving by the way) and so I decided that I would make him some of his favorite cookies, No Bake Cookies. I got the ingredients all ready and boiling and pulled out the Oatmeal to prepare it. When I opened the Oatmeal to my complete and utter discust I was greeted by loads of Weevils (although at the time I didn't know what they were). Yuck!! OKAY, so I was totally grossed out, I closed the Oatmeal and went to call my mom. Hahaha, no such luck it was 6:45 am there, not going to do it (lucky for her - since she had called me at almost 1 am the other day!). So I started googling these bugs trying to figure out what they were. That was of course when I discovered that they were called "Weevils." Well, I went back to the kitchen after a bit to see what the situation looked like, and there were about 100 of them crawling on the Oatmeal container and in the sink (OK reliving this has given me the ebeejebees). So at that point it was a bit later, so I called mom. Told her what was going on, what I found out on the internet and all. She said the internet's advice was good, but that I should check all my other grains just to be sure. So needless to say I did that, not fun.

So I began the process of cleaning out the cabinet where the Oatmeal was, and sure enough there were more weevils in there, fortunately not in other grains, just in the cabinet. Took the Oatmeal out, and the salt (since I had found 1 in my salt shaker the day before and I wanted to be sure) and down to the corner where the garbage (surreggi) sits. Vacuumed them all away and out of the cabinet. YUCK! Cleaned everything with clorox. Allen came home to find me in my cleaning clothes, my pink ajuma gloves and no cookies! Bummer. Not at all what I had planned. However, having left these mangy weevils loose, they may have been crawling in my bed at night! TEN TIMES WORSE!! Generally them crawling in my bed is my only fear when it comes to bugs, UNLESS of course they have lots of legs, I can't catch them, or they have been at some point drowned in my mouth and mistaken for potato chips (that's a story for another time!).

So, since then I haven't seen any weevils, and I am quite happy about that, although I am not saying that I haven't stopped looking over my shoulder for them!

Insomniac

2007-11-15T21:24:00.000+09:00

Insomniac, that's what you can call me. Since I am now halfway through my second psychology class, I feel that I am able to diagnose myself. Hahaha. Actually, I was looking through one of my counseling adolescence books and I stumbled upon this think about sleep disorders. Now, normally I would just pass by a distraction such as that, however I have been having sleep problems since August and they are just getting worse.

The diagnosis for insomnia is taking a long time to fall asleep, not sleeping all the way through, and still be tired when you wake up. However, this needs to occur 3 times or more a week, and the taking a long time to fall asleep must be at least 45 minutes. I am a shoe-in-fit there. Since August I've not slept well for at least 3 nights a week and it's taken me that long to fall asleep. This past week, it has been every stinking night. I've tried everything too. So since it seems to fit, I can properly diagnose myself. Hahaha. Well, actually it's not funny because I am serious. I am pretty certain that I have insomnia. This morning I forced myself to get out of bed at 6 AM. I only did this by God's grace and with Allen's help. It's fitting really because the way to cure insomnia is to get into a good sleep cycle. Which I haven't had because when I can't sleep at night all I want to do when I wake up in the morning is sleep. Sometimes it is necessary, like when I have BHS (bobbing-head-syndrome as Allen calls it) and can't focus on my course work, but other times extra sleep is not necessary, like today. When I was busy all day.

Although, when I was at Costco I wouldn't have said that sleep wasn't necessary! Since I almost went into the men's room, then almost knocked my salad on my lap and had a fight with the ATM... and then got squished in between the shopping card and another persons cart, when it feel on me on the incline up escalator (you have to know Korea to know what this is). But it's all good. I fought the tears and relied on God's strength and persevered, and although I was in pain and feeling like an idiot, I kept going.

Ps. upon proof reading I noticed so many mistakes due to my tiredness, that it would take more time and energy to change than I've got - so I leave you with this: SORRY!

Convicted

2007-11-13T15:38:00.000+09:00

Today we had SEW, Spiritual Emphasis Week, and I was convicted by the messages. I was convicted in two ways, 1. I am not relying on God, when He is more than enough for me. I was already starting to see conviction in this area last night as I laid in bed with what was another beginningly sleepless night. Satan was attacking, but God was preparing me for the message He had for me today. 2. I am complaning to much about my studies and the fact that I don't have a "life", again that goes hand in hand, God is more than enough.

However, God did create us for relationships, and we have emotional needs to be fed by others, I am not denying that. I am however, admitting to my selfish desires and complaining heart. I want to live a life that does not involve complaining, and that relys wholy on God, but it's hard. Especially, when all I did for 3 days straight, aside from going to church, was study and do course work. This is just for a time, and Jesus Christ Himself went through a greater hardship than this, and that is WHY I can make it through this hardship - by His grace and His strength. Not on my own. God just needed to bring me to a point where I was to be reminded of this.

Praise the Lord for those others that He used to show me!

Thank you to the two of you out there who replied via email, I am encouraged to know that you are still reading and thank you for your encouraging words, they meant a lot!!

The Truth is...

2007-11-12T00:09:00.000+09:00

The truth is I'm sad. Now I really am happy that I am not working in the Guardian Store and that I have time to do my studies. But thats just it. Since I started my schooling again (over 2 years ago) I've had no social life. Even the last two summers were really difficult because of college courses.

I know this is for a time, but sometimes it just hurts. Like now when I really could use a friend, and it is discouraging to write emails to friends and post comments on their facebook and hear no responses even after a week or more. Sure maybe they are just busy, and who understands that better than me? But I'm just lonely and I could use a friend. The last two nights it's kept me up ya know?

Like I keep wondering why I am reminiscing over the past back in high school or even right before coming to Korea, when I had loads of time with my friends, and I keep telling myself it's because of the Melody Carlson books I've been reading or the stuff I've been reading in my psychology text. The reality is, is that I miss it. I miss having time to be with my friends. I miss my friends, you know those of you who read this nonsense. Most of all I miss having a friend here in Korea, a gal-pal, just someone to do stuff with. Sure it's different now that I am married and I do have a few gal friends, it's just I spend time with them like once every 3 or 4 months. It's pathetic really.

You know we got this phone so that people could call, and you know sometimes I wonder why people don't call. I know, sure maybe some don't have the number, but I've still repeated it that if someone wants it to tell me. Heck, even Allen's parents don't call us and it's free. It's like we don't even exist to them.

I am excited for Christmas, but now I think, why? This past summer I was really discouraged by like 10 people who never returned my phone calls. I think we come all the way from accross the world and there is minimal to no effort on the part of some to see us. Sure, I know that it isn't the case for you guys reading this, but it still hurts me. I guess I just need to get this out. Maybe getting it out before God and others will help me to finally get some good sleep. That's what I am praying for.

Free as a Bird!

2007-11-08T20:14:00.001+09:00

AYE! I am loving THIS! Yesterday I actually had time to clean my home office desk that has been a mess since well over 1 year ago. I also had time to organize some insurance papers (that had been sitting since June). AND the awesome part is, I didn't have to take time away from my course work OR my own time to do these things. Monday night Allen and I just sat together (literally just sat). Can't remember the last time we did that! Sure was nice. Tuesday night I didn't have to work on any course work and could just focus on the wives meeting. Today, I went in late, just because I CAN and it was awesome! I was in such a good mood. It feels so relaxing, I am beginning to feel the stress dissapate - I've been able to get my course work done, not had to worry about the store AND I've had time for things that I've been neglecting AND TO BOOT it's only the first week! Praise the Lord!! Who said disobedience was better than obedience? Whoever that was, was WRONG!!

Today was nice

2007-11-05T20:11:00.000+09:00

Today was the first Monday that I did not go to school. It was nice. Actually, it was better than nice, because now I have time to just lolly gag on the computer. Can't remember the last time I actually had lolly gag time. (Well, I mean that I wasn't stealling time from something else to lolly gag, hehe.) I got a lot of school work done today, and am glad that I did not have to "come home" and do school work tonight, because it was done, and what I would have done tomorrow night is done too! So that gives me two nights that I can do something else like actually spend time with my hubby, now theres an idea for something that doesn't happen very often! So, it's the first week of my absence from the Guardian Store and I am already starting to feel a bit of relief from stress! I know it will take time, but nice is a good start.

Top 5 Things I Love About Korea in the Fall (Oct./Nov.)
1. Beautiful clear blue skies
2. Beautiful color changing leaves
3. Can still work up a nice sweat when walking and not be freezing your butt off at the same time
4. Good fruit
5. Less sewer smells

Top 5 Things I Don't Love About Korea in the Fall (Oct./Nov.)
1. Increase in cigarette smokers (they think it keeps them warmer or something!)
2. Every public place has the heat on like 100 f and it's still 50 f outside
3. Traffic is weirder than normal
4. Road construction
5. The knowledge that the cold Korean winter is just around the corner

Thursday is my last...

2007-10-29T00:50:00.000+09:00

Over the last two months it has come to my attention that I have been in disobedience to the Lord. I believe that it is God's will that I no longer remain volunteering in the Guardian Store at YISS. God communicated to me almost 1 year ago that I should cease working there after August (the back to school rush). The last two months it has remained heavy on my heart that God has not been happy with me. I have continued to work there entirely for selfish reasons. I let myself be deceived by those reasons. However, it is without regret that I can say that God has gotten a hold of me and Thursday will be my last day working in the Guardian Store at YISS.

I will continue working with the Peer Mediation Program and the MS and Girls Varsity Soccer Teams. God has given me a heart, passion and vision for these two ministries (peer mediation and soccer). I do not believe that God ever gave me a heart for the Guardian Store.

I am also pleased that God has already provided someone to take my place in the Guardian Store. She has been working there since I began part time hours at the beginning of this school year.

Please pray that I would be in continued obedience to God's will. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

YISS Missions trip to Thailand - Update

2007-10-11T14:05:00.000+09:00

Our theme - พระเยซูคริสต์เป็นความหวังของเรา "Jesus Christ Our Hope"

The names of the people that went with me, that are mentioned here are: Sam (the teacher who went) and Mary, Esther and Michelle (the three senior girls who went).

Street Ministry

On Sunday, Sam and I were both moved by the compassion in the hearts of our students. I was taking them to an area in Bangkok and I said that we needed to cross the street. This is a place that I have been to many times and know how to get to. As we were going to cross the street it crossed my mind that Sam and I had discussed what to tell the girls about the street beggars and whether it is OK to give them money or not. As we went to cross the street we were going on an over walk bridge where I know there are often street beggars, so God reminded me to tell the girls. As we were walking God soften the hearts of our students for these street people. Moments later the girls asked if they could feed this particular woman and her baby who were on the over walk bridge. Sam and I told them it was up to them, and that they should do whatever God was leading. We continued on to where I thought the place was that I was taking them too, and we encountered more street people. All of a sudden it occurred to me that I was on the wrong side of the street. I believe that God did that on purpose, that He put a fog over my mind, so that only He could receive the glory for filling our students with compassion to minister to the street people. As we walked back to the other side of the street, the girls distributed milk and bread that they bought for the various street people that we saw. Michelle decided to buy a bigger loaf and milk for the woman and son that we saw. Again, God intervened in this part, because when we went back she had a daughter with her too. Praise the Lord! The girls wanted to get tracks, so I took them to a Christian bookstore. They gave us the tracks for free! Praise God. Sunday and Monday night the girls handed out tracks and gave bread and milk to the street beggars. (OK, I could continue but this part is already long!!)

Prison Ministry

On Tuesday afternoon we went to the International Women's Prison. There is a prison ministry already in place there and all of the women that we talked to were already believers. The idea behind the prison ministry is that we were to go and encourage them. However, we were far more encouraged by them, then they were by us. The women are testimonies to how little you need in order to have Joy in Jesus. Despite the fact that many of them have not heard from their families, have a cold floor to sleep on that is a small number of inches by a small number of inches, and that they are in prison, they are Praising the Lord for putting them there. They know that in all things God works for good, and He had a perfect and ultimate plan for putting them in prison. A plan to meet Him! We were so encouraged by their faith and joy. Please pray for those in prison who have not heard from their families, that their families would be filled with compassion and love for them despite their circumstance.

NightLight

We had divine appointments with 4 women. 3 who are workers at NightLight (used to be in the bars) and 1 who is a volunteer there.

On Monday, the girls gave their testimonies to a group of non believing women at NightLight. God used Mary's testimony to speak to the heart of one of the woman. "Joy" wanted to accept Christ as her savior. After talking to her we found out that she does believe and wants to accept Christ, however she does not want to denounce the spirits that she worships in Thailand. We believe that God got a hold of her, and we ask you to pray for her to accept Christ as Lord and Savior over the spirits.

On Tuesday, we went to outreach. The girls had a good learning experience as they saw night and day. The difference between going on outreach and going to the prison was eye opening. The girls all learned a lot. Esther and Michelle had an opportunity to build a relationship with one of the women that we outreached to, "Mora" I was able to build a relationship with "Beauty". Please pray that God would deliver both of these women out of the bondage that they are in.

On Wednesday, we worked at NightLight without any heavy ministry. Basically we worked on what we were working on the rest of the time when we weren't sharing or at outreach. The girls and Sam helped the women on the 3 floor prepare the jewelry pieces (separated clasps, cut chains, etc.) and sowed the ties into the jewelry bags. I worked in the office updating the email program for Annie.

On Thursday, we met with a group of non believers/new believers. We didn't really have anything planned, but we were leading the group. God used it to His glory. It was amazing! The women were asking us questions and we were clarifying using scripture. God was leading each one of us to scriptures and we were just sharing away. One woman, "Mickey" was questioning her attitude for God. She wanted to know how she could live for Him, and act as He wanted her to, when sometimes she was so frustrated about her past. God used each of us to speak truth through His word to "Mickey". At the end we prayed for her, and she was encouraged. God used us in an amazing way to help her not to dwell on the past. One of the girls (I don't remember who) found an amazing scripture that challenged her not to focus on what is in the past "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippines 3:13-14) How great is our God! Please pray that "Mickey" would be able to know that she is clean and forgiven and that God desires her to live according to His great will and plan!

On Friday, we met with the advanced believers group. I shared a personal testimony about being in God's will and it spoke to the heart of one woman "Hope" who was struggling with a very similar situation. God used my story to challenge her to be in obedience to Him. Please pray that "Hope" will be obedient to seek God's will and heed to His answer.

During the week we also ministered to one of the volunteers named Sophia. She has experienced many trials and difficulties. The Lord used each one of us to bring hope into her heart and remind her that where she is right now is part of God's plan and that the things Satan is using for evil God is using for His glory. Pray for Sophia to rest in God's will for her where she is, and in what she is going through. Right now her husband is in the USA and she is in Thailand. She is trying to get a visa to the USA, so pray that God would provide for her.
Please note that names are changed for the protection of the women.

Airplane ministry

How could I forget? Before we were even on the plane, Sam was witnessing to a non-believing western man. God's divine intervention landed him sitting right next to us during our flight too! Sam was able to share more with him while on the plane. Please pray for him, his name is Nathan. Also, on the way back there was a woman sitting with us who spoke French and was quite distraught about who she was meeting and how to find him, etc. God used Sam to provide assistance to her also! Praise the Lord for providing opportunities in our midst. Remember that everyone you encounter is a mission field!!

OK, well I could keep going as these are just the highlights. If you've read this far, I thank you from the depths of my heart for continuing to read.

Please remember to pray for the dark and Christ needing nation of Thailand.

Our theme verse - 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 "May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word."

Permanent Jet Lag

2007-09-19T13:12:00.000+09:00

I seem to have a permanent case of jet lag. On non school days it takes 2 hours for me to get up. I wake up in the morning, and I'm tired. 10 am hits and I'm tired. 2 pm hits and I'm tired. 5 pm hits, and boy I'd better have something really intense and meaningful to do, otherwise I'm out like a light. 10 pm hits and I'm wide awake and have my first wind. Even if I've been tired all day with no nap.

I just don't get it. And no, I am not pregnant, so don't even think it. I either definitely have permanent jet lag, or I am so burnt out and exhausted that my body just needs sleep (even though I am getting the normal amount). It's weird to think too, that about 2 weeks ago, I couldn't even sleep, now this.

Hopefully after Chusok and my missions trip next week, I will be refreshed and there will be some significant changes in my work load for the best.

Oreo Cookies

2007-09-14T20:19:00.001+09:00

You know, most people think Oreo's are only good for making people gain weight during their freshman year of college, but that is not true! Apparently, or at least for me Oreo Cookies are an excellent source of fiber - or should I say a poop maker!

I love Oreo's! Especially right now. First, because they are one of only two things that helps me poop (the other one is my mom... hahahahaha) and second, because they are sooooo delicious and such a relief when I am mad stressed, which is all the time these days.

Believe it or not, even though I am eating Oreo's everyday I have not gained any weight, not like when I used to eat them during my freshman year of school.

What is unfortunate is that when I was at Costco last week I saw a jumbo box of Oreo's and I was soooooo excited (good thing right?) that I said to Allen that we should buy one to save money, because the price was equal to purchasing like 6 boxes and I was getting 10. So I was all excited to break into my load of Oreo's, when to my dismay after putting the first one into my mouth that it tasted WEIRD!!

Now, one might think I am weird at this point in my blog, it only gets weirder. I finally get Allen to give me his opinion of them and he says that it tastes absoultely fine and normal to him. So my thought is that they are either stale OR that the Korean Oreo's just taste that much better than these Oreo's that I bought at Costco, which are actually an import from the USA.

If you've ever been overseas, then maybe you might identify with this Korean Oreo's tasting better thatn USA Oreo's, because you 'da feel me' as they say in Pigeon English. You know it's like the PowerAid here too. It's just so much better than the USA PowerAid. Maybe you've noticed it in the Pepsi or Coke in other countries - or even in the McDonald's food (like Japan is different, and the Ketchup at McDonald's in Thailand is different) - or maybe you think I'm lucid in my head!

Anyhow, I decided that I need to write for my piece of mind, even if I am to busy. It's just a matter of sanity thats all, which as you can tell by my Oreo story, I don't have any left.

Smells Like Korea

2007-08-05T21:35:00.001+09:00

Korea has this distinct smell, and well now that we are here I can smell it again. People who come here for the first time are generally grossed out by the smell, but to me it's refreshing. Why you ask? That is because it reminds me of where I am. It reminds me that I am home in Korea and that is where I should be... at least for now. :)

We had a really great summer. We didn't get to see everyone we wanted to, but that is OK, hopefully next time. We tried to get in touch with a lot of people but had a lot of unreturned phone calls. I was pretty heart broken over that, but I suppose we saw the people that we were meant to see.

The first week was very relaxing for me, mostly because Allen wasn't there, nobody wanted to see just me or they were on vacation. Once Allen arrived we were busy traveling and visiting people. I also was actively working on my studies, including watching lectures in the car with the laptop on my lap - haha that sure was an interesting experience. I was able to swim laps pretty much everyday which helped exersise my arm and reduce the pain. I'm hopeful for opportunities to swim once school starts. We are back to work tomorrow!

Well, at any rate we had a great time and are super thankful to those of you who helped make our summer a special one.

God Bless You!

Wow it's been a month!

2007-06-16T18:15:00.000+09:00

I cannot believe that it has been a month since I have updated! Well, school is finally out and I am getting caught up on things that have been sorta on the back burner. The website has been updated and the house has been cleaned (well mostly) and such.

I am excited for my trip to the states. I will arrive in PA late on the 27th of June and will stay until the 1st of August. Allen is teaching summer school and will arrive on the 9th of July and will depart when I do. We know that it will be a short time for both of us to be there, but we hope to see many people, while relaxing all the same. I personally need a rest from all the crazy run around from this year. I look forward to chilaxin at my parents house by the pool and naturally will welcome any company. Allen is anxious to meet his great-neice for the first time. She was born in January.

We'll be in Florida July 18th - July 23rd and will have a road trip home. We plan to stop in NC and WV to visit friends and in VA so that I can finally see the Liberty campus, which is where I take my online classes from.

It is really hot here in Korea right now. It's already in the 90's. Im about ready to break down and turn on the air conditioning. It's hard to focus on my studies when it is so hot. Next week I start two more courses and still have the one to finish. It looks like I picked a good time to do the two courses that I am doing this summer because they both involve a lot of work, so it will be good to not have to work full time, coach, have a social life and study all at the same time. And I am certain it will not be as much work as last summer that it prevents/hinders me from visiting with people. Especially since I can choose when to do my course work and not be restricted to a certain place and time.

Looking forward to seeing lots of you in a few short weeks!

Had a Great Birthday!

2007-05-15T17:18:00.000+09:00

So my birthday was on Thursday. It was a lot of fun. I had lots of messages on my whiteboard wishing me a happy birthday and lots of students wished me a happy birthday. Then the entire middle school sang to me during chapel. It was a bit embarrasing but I was beaming from ear to ear none the less. Then the girls from my discipleship group (bible study) brought me a cake and we ate it and pop-tarts. We were all sugar high and didn't do much discipling, lol. There are no pics of them cuz they didn't want me to post them :(

Then I met Allen and a couple of friends at Outback for dinner and dessert.

Allen surprised me with a wonderful gift. It was a file folder full of notes that my friends and students wrote to encourage me and wish me a happy birthday. It even included a drawing from my favorite little friend, Charis (she's 2)! Allen knows me real well because words of affirmation/encouragement is one of my dominant love languages and I felt really special and cared for.

I have a dr. appointment next week with a specialist for my arm. Today I bought a bunch of stuff to try and make my home computer more comfortable for my arm. Keep praying!

MIA, but only for 1 month

2007-05-07T14:04:00.000+09:00

So I've been MIA. Well, only as it pertains to the computer and it is not because I have been super busy, but because I have been experiencing super pain. Although, I much prefer the super busy than the super pain. The tendonitis pain has moved into my elbow, and I do think I mentioned that, but it is possible that it has been forgotten. I really have tried to avoid being on the computer as much as possible, but I know that my blogging is long overdue. I've wanted to post many times about the funny stories that I've experienced, but I never seem to receive the motivation to due so because the pain is just that bad. I'm not actually sure I can make it 2 months to see my dr. in the US, especially after the pain medication and acupuncture only provide a moderate level of relief, but it is all in God's timing and I know that He has a plan.

Since January I have been going weekly to get allergy shots. They have been helpful, however allergy season is really bad right now with the pollens of spring and all, so I'm a bit sniffilish and have been struggling with a cold/allergies since returning from Thailand.

School is winding down and it is hard to believe that it is only a few short weeks till summer. I don't have much time left for teaching. Things are underway in the school store for preperations for next year and I am optimistic about not having to work the whole time I am in Korea before going to the US this summer. :-)

Things are looking really good for staying at my parents this summer. My dad made a promise to me that he would clean out the basement and he is making progress. I'm very proud of his huge accomplishments and my brother for helping him. I'm excited and have had dreams about a beautiful finished product.

Allen will be teaching summer school again this year, so I will come to the US one and a half weeks before he does. That will give me some good quality time with my mom and sis doing girl stuff, including going to the shore and shopping for scrapbooking supplies!

Last weekend I was blessed to receive a gift of money to go to Thailand. It's a miricale how it all happened actually. Since returning from Thailand I've known that I am meant to go back, just didn't know when and or how. The school doesn't really pay me, but they do give me gifts and one gift recently was in leui of a coaching stipened and I set that gift aside designated for Thailand, as it was not quite enough. Allen and I figured that if we saved 50$ a month from now till October I could go over Chusok break no problem. Then on Sat. April 22nd we went to the ATM to take out our normal tithe and I hit the wrong button. Let's just say I took out 10 times to much. When we got to church they were taking a love offering for our Pastor who is leaving. Allen always prays over certain special offerings and tells me whatever number he feels God has put on his heart. That number was half of what we took out of the ATM. Now, it is no secret that missionary's don't have a lot of money, so I am sitting there thinking, OK God, you know we don't have much money... but I know this is what you want and I know that you will provide for us. So, I gave Allen the money and off it went for the love offering. The next Sunday, April 29th I am sitting in church waiting for the service to begin, when a friend of mine comes over and hands me a card. She has prayed for me this year about Thailand and even helped me some in the store, so I thought maybe it was an early birthday card. Curiosity just kills me you know, so I had to open it right then and there and inside the card is a note from her and her husband that they have prayerfully considered giving me some money towards another trip to Thailand. The amount was 4 times as much as what we had put in the offering. Tears filled my eyes and I ran over to thank them both before the service started. So now, with the money that the Lord blessed me with through His servants and the gift from school I have enough money to go to Thailand 2 times! Even 3 if we can find really good airfare. I'm so excited about God's provision and now I am anxiously awaiting His timing for my next trip.

That's about it for now! Please pray for when God's timing is that I should go to Thailand again.

Missions Report - Long Overdue

2007-05-07T13:57:00.000+09:00

The Singapore/Indonesia team poses with some of the Telunas staff before returning to Korea. Picture by Allen Hester.

Singapore/Indonesia Praise Update:

- There were no major injuries, only a few who suffered from dehydration

- God's will was done through the Survivor guest speaker

- The students had attitudes that were glorifying to God

- The students grew in their relationships with the Lord and 7 of them accepted Him as their personal Savior

- The teachers were strong in God's provision to minister to the kids

The Thailand Team poses for a picture one night out to dinner.

Thailand Praise Update:
- God's will was done
- There was minimal complaining from the team even when we had to do things we were not excited about
- We thought that we would not have enough money while we were there, but God provided and we were blessed to have some left over (and we can bless NightLight and other missions with it)
- One of the girls shared Christ with a Buddhist woman who works at a nearby laundry mat, the team gave her a Thai and an English bible, pray that God would continue to speak to her
- I was able to Praise the Lord when I saw the fruit of how He used the work I did in June to help NightLight grow, I was also amazed at how many more women have been brought out of prostitution
- God used this trip to teach me many things

Please Pray for our Trips!

2007-03-30T11:25:00.000+09:00

It is that time of year again! Allen and I will be going on missions trips this next week. Allen leaves tonight for Indonesia/Singapore and I leave Saturday for Thailand. Below you will find a synopsis of what each of us will be doing and some prayer requests.

Thank you for your faithful prayer support!

Synopsis of the Thailand Trip: Once in Thailand we will be ministering to women who used to be bound to a life of prostitution. These women now work at NightLight. NightLight is a ministry that helps bring women out of prostitution and offers them alternative employment making jewelry.

We will be helping NightLight do their quarterly bead inventory. We will also be performing a worship dance for the women and sharing about our home country traditions and languages. We will also have opportunities to share the gospel and to provide encouragement or counseling for the women. Our trip will include prayer walking around the area where other women are still bound to prostitution in Thailand.

Prayer Requests:
Ø That God's will would be done
Ø That we would be obedient to God's will and allow His Holy Spirit to work and move in us
Ø That we will have God's strength and provision for the trip
Ø That we will be courageous in sharing our faith and testimonies
Ø That God would soften the hearts of the women at NightLight who do not yet know Him
Ø That God would use us to glorify His name in the lives of the people who live, work and travel to the area where we will be ministering

Synopsis of the Indonesia/Singapore Trip: The team will fly to Singapore and then take a boat to Tulunas island off the coast of Indonesia. There are 51 middle school students and 10 adults going from our school. They are also taking with them a guest speaker who starred on Survivor Exile Island, Panama. Once they are on Tulunas island they will be having a missions and ministry training conference. Students will learn how to do missions and how to minister. They will also be having a survivor style game. They will also take mini service trips to the neighboring islands off the coast of Indonesia. They will also visit an Elementary school to witness through their actions.

Prayer Requests:
Ø For Safety
Ø For the survivor guest to share according to God's will
Ø That the students would speak through their actions because where they are going they cannot openly share the gospel
Ø That our Lord would send the people of Indonesia and Singapore visions of Christ
Ø That the students would use this trip to grow in their relationship with Him and that those who are on the trip who do not know Christ, would come to know Him as Savior
Ø That God would strengthen the teachers as they spend a week with 51 students

1 Week!

2007-03-23T07:40:00.000+09:00

There is 1 week till Allen and I go on our missions trips. He is going to Indonesia/Singapore to do a survivor style missions training and service projects with 50 students and 10 teachers.

I am returning to Thailand to work with NightLight. We've learned the Shout to the Lord worship dance!

I'll update more later. (Hopefully!)

So Painful

2007-03-11T20:46:00.000+09:00

My right arm really hurts, it's so painful and I have been on the computer as little as possible. Also, my dr. said to rest and not to use the computer. Obviously I am not obeying him right now and therefore am rightly in the pain that I deserve, however, I wanted to write a post for you all to let you know that I have not fallen off the face of the earth. We are busy, but I do take time to reply to emails. I'm just not posting on blogger or myspace because of my arm. I've been going to acupuncture and I have a massage scheduled tomorrow... also someone picked up some asprin off base so that has been helpful.

So anyhow, if you want to talk to me or want me to know how you are doing, the best thing is to drop me an email, it doesn't have to be long. You can also call us here in Korea. Only Jen emailed me for our phone number... but we are paying for the service and it doesn't cost you ANYTHING to call me in Korea (it's an American phone number based in PA), you just have to remember that as of March 11th we are 13 hours ahead of you (so don't call at 1 PM your time-cuz we'll be sleeping) but we'd love to hear from you and take advantage of the phone service that we are paying for. Just shoot me an email at my gmail that says you want the number and I'll respond with the phone number. It's much easier to talk than type these days.

Anyhow I should go put some heat on my arm and relax with my honey! I hope that you are all well...

Taejon

2007-02-20T08:43:00.000+09:00

This weekend Allen and I went to Taejon. It was Lunar New Year, so we had Monday off from school. We visited Allen's friends who live there... they are FSU alumni too. We had a good time. Walked a lot and rested. Soccer started last week and I am excited about the season. Anyway, I've got to keep this short as I am off to talk to a student! I hope that everyone is well and not as stressed and busy as I continue to be!

Packing?

2007-02-04T20:48:00.000+09:00

A few Monday's ago I had a really bad day. When I got home I decided that the best thing for me to do was to clean up the house. The suitcases were still out from our return home and there was laundry hanging up to dry, so I decided to put it away. When Allen came home he freaked out. He thought I had had it and that I was packing to go to America. Not the case. The stress was high, but I was just cleaning up the house!

The stress level is still high, which is part of the reason why I haven't posted in so long. Generally the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit on the computer, and naturally I have no time to do so at school. Slowly the stress will go away, but for now I may not post often or read often till there is more time to both do so and relax. However, if you want to talk to me I always make time to reply to emails (even if it takes a couple days).

Long time no see!

2007-01-16T08:33:00.000+09:00

Long time no see! That is the common phrase I am hearing around campus. I suppose it is the phrase you all would be saying to me too. Last week after getting back I decided that I would close the school store and spend time relaxing at home. It was with much prayer and consideration that I made this decision. Basically, I had been stressed out leading up to Christmas break. The stress has been caused soley by things related to the store and after much prayer (and a parent yelling at and accusing me of something the last day before break) I decided that the store would be closed for 1 extra week. So with that said since I've been back I have not gotten online much, but I have spent time watching my favorite TV shows and just relaxing. I did do some cleaning, but it had to be done because I had been to stressed out from the day that all I'd want to do when I got home was do my studying and then relax. Needless to say things didn't get cleaned for a while. Now I am back into the swing of things and I am continuing to pray about what I should do next year. (That is should I still work in the store, or focus on teaching and doing the things that God called me to do and not work in the store at all - and of course do my studying to get my degree.)

As for our trip home, it has been the best return to Korea so far. Sorry Becca, no exciting stories, but I am happier that way! God was faithful to bring me home stress free and for that I praise Him!

Well, that is it for now, because with the stress comes extra pain and my wrist is killing me from typing!!

Going to the Airport Tomorrow

2007-01-01T06:26:00.000+09:00

Tomorrow afternoon we are going to the Airport. We have a few things planned for tomorrow, and we still have a few errands to run before we go over to my parents where we will say goodbye and transfer the luggage to my mom's car to be driven to Philly. We will be staying at a hotel near the airport because we will have to get up before 4 AM to catch our plane YUCK!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully our bodies will be ready for bed around 9 PM. :-) Please pray that we will have no trouble traveling. If you want to pray scripture for us, please pray Psalm 37:3 {our prayer version: Nikki and Allen, trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe and relaxing travels.}

Here

2006-12-21T13:09:00.000+09:00

We are here. No real problems flying in, Halleluijah! I'm not checking this or myspace much. If you want to get in touch with us, call us or email me at gmail. Hope to hear from you!

4 days, 3 lessons, 2 homeworks and 1 final exam!

2006-12-14T09:22:00.000+09:00

4 days, 3 lessons, 2 homeworks and 1 final exam left and then I will be able to rest!! In 4 days we leave for the states. I have 3 lessons (out of 9) left to finish 2 homeworks to turn in and 1 final exam to take. Things are working out much better. I've planned out things, when I am going to do things and I actually canceled/didn't go to some things this week. Which is sad, because I missed the 2-5th grade concerts :-( so far none of the students asked where I was, so that is good. For now I am just trying to get my desk organized for the break and working on my lesson plans for when we get back! So I should be off. I take my final on Sunday and we leave Monday!!

Here They Are~!

2006-12-12T08:38:00.000+09:00

These are my keys!

So the saga continues, although not with my keys. I am now forgetting to bring worksheets to class and forgetting what readings I assigned to the kids and giving the pop quizzes that are for readings that they didn't read yet. This is really horrible for me, because I am usually a very detailed individual. My desk also looks like well, for lack of anything better to compare it to, my old bedroom.

So I'm really exhausted, forgetting things and trying to cram in 9 lessons for my class this week, as it is the last week. Fortunately I was able to do 4 last night, so that is great. I am really looking forward to a break where I can not be so stressed that I keep loosing and forgetting things. Not to mention I am not myself and yesterday 2 of my students asked if I was OK! You know it's bad then. I told them I was not, but that I would be OK after I had a long rest. I pray that is true!!

We had some fun with our kitchen sick this weekend, and to top it off yesterday I forgot to ask the school to call the landlord! Luckily, when I called them when I got home they were more than willing to take care of it. Which is really great, because I made tacos on Sat. and that is not a fun mess to have sitting in the kitchen for more than a few days - believe me it was starting to stink. The plumbing adjushe's came last night to fix the sink. It had something clogged in it, probably grease, but I'm not sure since we didn't understand what they were saying. Anyhow, it works now and I don't have to wash our dishes in the bath tub! Lol.

Anyhow... I go to have my pinkie finger checked again today. Hopefully it is better, but it was a bit sore this am.

The Curse of the Keys

2006-12-06T22:37:00.000+09:00

I think my keys are cursed. As I mentioned I dropped them in the toilet. Well, it gets worse. Actually it all started before the toilet incident. Last Monday I got home to my house only to realize I didn't have my keys. Luckily it was not below freezing, so standing outside waiting for Allen to come home was not all that hard. He came home, let me in and I found my keys sitting on the shoe shelf by the door. Then came the day with the toilet. That was just funny. Then Monday morning of this week, I arrived at school only to realize that I did not have my keys. That would be OK, if I had a spare key to the cabinet that I lock the store money box in. However, I don't have a key. That's mostly because I was originally told I was getting a new cabinet, so I didn't feel the need to waste money on a key, when it was going to be replaced. At first I thought that maybe the keys were at school, since it was at school that I last remembered seeing them. Saturday we came over for some pickup soccer, and I last remembered seeing them hanging from my pool locker. Well, they weren't there. The PE teacher suggested that the cleaning adjima's may have picked them up. So I found the admin asst who is quite like I was at ZEKS, doing a bit of everything, and he found out that the adjima's did not clean there. So off the campus I went passing most of my own students on the way (which was funny since I only have 10). Well, I got home and found them in the coat pocket of the jacket I wore Saturday. Off to school. At the very end of the day I was meeting with my missions team (in my classroom) and I couldn't find my keys - this was actually only slightly surprising because they turned out to be in the key hole to the filing cabinet - so then we all had a good laugh at me. Then, yesterday, I left my room to go talk to one of the Elm. teachers about doing a presentation in her classroom about bullying, and I locked the store door... only to realize that my keys were in the store! Oops! THis has not happened at all this school year all for it to happen in the time frame of 1.5 weeks! I guess my brain is just fried - either that or my keys are cursed, lol!

Toilet Trouble

2006-11-29T07:54:00.000+09:00

Toilets and I just don't seem to get along. Before I wrote about the beniggans toilet that took it's revenge out on me. Well, I've always seemed to not be able to get along with toilets, but on Monday, the toilet just went to far! It ate my keys. Yes, my keys went into the toilet. I'm not exactly sure of how it happened, as before when the toilet would eat my things it would be because I "dropped" them in, but this time, I didn't do the dropping. It reached up and tugged on my laynard and before I could grab them the whole thing, laynard and keys, was in the toilet. Needless to say when I go into the toilet now, I hang my keys on the "purse hook" lol.

Good news - as of now I don't have to have surgery on my finger. I just have to wear the splint for 2 more weeks and then go for a follow-up appointment.

A Chip Fracture

2006-11-26T20:10:00.000+09:00

OOOOOOOOOOwwwee you may have heard me scream all the way from SK. Tuesday after school I played basketball with some of the teachers. We played against the students. If you haven't already guessed by my title and the beggining of my blog, the results were not good. I went up for a rebound against one of the students and she classped my finger hard in between her hand and the ball. Normal that is, however my little finger was bent at the time! Not good and oooooh so painful. I yelled oooowwweee really loud and paced around in order to manage the pain while the game whizzed on by me. I got home iced it and taped it. Well naturally on Wed. it was much worse and lovely colors that I have never seen before so I decided after lots of different inconsistent advice to go to the hospital. Turns out it's a chip fracture. I saw the x-ray. From this point on if you don't like gorry medical stuff it's time for you to bow out. There was literally a piece of bone hanging off my finger in the x-ray! So they splinted me up and I made an appointment to see the hand surgeon on Tuesday of next week. It appears as though my finger may not fully function again without the surgery. However, since it is my left hand it doesn't make typing so hard. My a's are just s's sometimes, although I've mastered typing pretty well without my left pinky. Which is good since I'm not supposed to "exersise" it for 3 weeks. Yikes!

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!

I'm a PopTart Junkie

2006-11-13T08:18:00.000+09:00

If there were a PopTarts Annonyomus I would go there. If there were treatment for PopTart addiction I would receive it. However, there is neither - that I know of. So I will continue to be addicted to PopTarts. It's funny how it works out. I always ate a PopTart everyday at ZEKS at around 10 AM. It was my morning snack. Then I moved here and you can't buy PopTarts. Except on the black market or on base. So many people offered to ship me PopTarts - well, only mom actually did so my PopTart addiction kinda fizzled, since I only had 4 boxes per visit home or per shipment from mom (you rock mom!), but NOW I have lovely friends here who have access to get me PopTarts from base. They have so lovingly offered to buy them for me and I am so excited to have a PopTart again almost daily... however, my addiction has returned. Right now I am sitting here STARVING for a PopTart and it is only 8:16 AM. It's almost as if eating breakfast doesn't matter. I'm still STARVING for a PopTart each day and it seems as though the time gets earlier and earlier. So I'm off to feed my addiction (literally and figuratively!!).

Forget the Longsleeves, I Need a Parka

2006-11-08T14:06:00.000+09:00

So it went from 80 to 60 to 40 in like 2 weeks time. By the time I had pulled out all my longsleeved shirts I was wishing I had a parka or a blanket to wear or something. It was so cold Monday night that it actually snowed. It's quite interesting too because snow is not common in Korea. I'm glad that the heat is now on at school :-)

Middle School Soccer ended on Saturday. I was pretty bummed, but after seeing the weather the last 2 days I'm glad - only because that means that I won't be freezing my buns off - but I'm still sad that I won't get to see the kids as much.

Monday morning I took my first test for New Testament survey. Sunday was the only day that I could study because I was so busy, but I got a 96%. The only questions I missed were about the syllabus - and I thought they were trick questions!

I finished Old Testament with an A. Yay!

Allen and I are trying to go to Thailand over Thanksgiving. It might not work out for us to go to Bangkok so we are looking into Pukhet. Sounds relaxing!

Count down till mommy: 1 month and 10 days

Frustrated

2006-11-03T11:53:00.000+09:00

Do you ever get so frustrated with conflict that you just "flee" from the situation? That is the worst thing to do - and I teach my kids that too - but yet I just did it. I have never been in a situation before where I have been condemened for following the rules. So I just left. I'm not sure sometimes why we even have rules, because it seems as though nobody follows them (myself included). If I am the only person following the rules, then what is the point of following them? Yet, if I conform to the world and don't follow the rules, then what does that make me? I am no different then those that frustrate me so - those that don't follow the rules - and those that condemn me for following the rules.

Time to Break Out the Longsleeves

2006-10-30T13:10:00.000+09:00

Up until last week it was seasonably warm here. I'm talking 80 degrees. It was nice! Today there is a cold chill in the air and even though the weather forecast said it was supposed to be a warm 67 degrees its just barely that inside my store. When I left the house this morning I thought I could get away with another day of wearing short sleeves before I broke out the longsleeved clothes. However, I've been so chilly that I've actually resorted to wearing my jacket. I actually have a sweater on too! In another week when I turn the heat on it will actually work! Yay!

Our couch arrived on Friday - it's sooo nice! I had the day off and I spent the entire day cleaning! It wasn't much of a rest, but the couch arrived so that was good. Friday night some of the ladies came over to scrapbook (and enjoy the new furniture) and I worked on my wedding scrapbook and I am almost all finished! It's really exciting. I just have to go back and write things and stuff.

This weekend is our last middle school soccer torunament, so hopefully things will slow down for me for a couple of months. :-)

Long Time

2006-10-22T22:16:00.000+09:00

It's been a long time since I've updated. I'm sorry. We have been busy with Middle School Soccer. I have been working hard at my Old Testament Survey class and this weekend I finally had a break. I got a 94% and my New Testament Survey class starts tomorrow. Now that my house is clean, my hair is cut and I've watched countless hours of tv I feel much more relaxed! Things are going well aside for the fact that I still can't poop right, although I started a no rice diet this week in hopes that it would help. I'm still trying to get as much fiber as possible. The tendinitis in my right arm has been flaring, so I generally don't like the idea of sitting infront of the computer these days. At school I'm hoping to get my hands on a chair that doesn't have amrs so that it is more ercornomically friendly. Hopefully the New Testament class will allow me to have more time than Old Testament. Otherwise we'll wait till Middle School Soccer is over in 2 weeks to have more time for me and typing on the internet. I still want to send an update to everyone, update the website and all. We found a new couch and chair on Saturday. It's one that we sorta looked at over Chusok and by sorta I mean there was a 4 person couch that was the same thing(have you ever seen a 4 person couch-I had'nt till then)but we found it in 3 person and ordered it and a chair. They come on Friday, which is good because it is an in-service day and I'm taking the day off :-) As for the weather it is finally (really) raining after not having more than a drizzle or two since we've been back. It was almost 80 yesterday - which is a surprise since it's the end of October and I normally have my winter stuff out by now. Not that I'm complaining, because it is great soccer weather! Anyhow I'm out, just wanted to update.

It's late - almost 2 AM

2006-10-07T01:53:00.000+09:00

It's late. We've had the week off for Chusok. We had a mini get away for 2 days. The rest of the week I've been catching up on my Old Testament Survey class and cleaning the house. It's funny how busy one can be on break. I should go get some sleep now. Last night we stayed up this late and I was really giddy. Hope we'll be able to go to bed at a decent hour for school on Sunday!

Home for the Holidays

2006-09-28T14:37:00.000+09:00

Allen and I decided that we will go to the USA for Christmas. We plan to arrive Dec. 18th. We plan to leave Jan. 2nd. in order to leave lots of time for the "traveling trials" that we always face. It has been a pretty stressful start to the school year for me, so that is part of the reason why we are going to go home (so I can see my mommy!). The plan is for it to be as stress free as possible. Naturally we want to see people, but we don't want to be stressed running from place to place. This summer wasn't much of a break for me and I really need one. Next week is our Chusok holiday, but I am quite behind in my Old Testament class and I need to use the time to catch up. Not to mention that the bathroom hasn't been cleaned in almost 8 weeks :-) Hopefully I will be able to use that break to call some of you. If you want a phone call let me know.

Bus Stop Ministry

2006-09-26T09:51:00.000+09:00

The last two weeks after my counseling ministry meeting at church I've walked to the far bus stop. Prior to last week I'd been lazy and taken the close bus and just transfered at the far stop, but the last two weeks I've just walked to the far stop. Both weeks I've meet a new friend by doing that. It's really been cool. Allen said that I could have a "bus stop ministry". It's interesting because I wasn't really going to go to my counseling meeting because I was so tired (literally couldn't stay awake while walking to the stop to go there) but I thought I'm going to go, because God wants me to go. Maybe it's because I will meet a new friend and guess what! It was. So I will remember that next time I want to be lazy and just ride the bus, that I may be missing an opportunity that God has for me, by not being obedient to exersise :-)

97%

2006-09-20T13:18:00.000+09:00

I got a 97% on my test!!!!!!! Yay!

119 or 911 as you know it

2006-09-14T08:06:00.000+09:00

On Wednesday of last week (9/6) I took my first ride ever in an ambulance. Wait, are you worried? Don't be it wasn't for me. We were having middle school soccer practices as we do every Tuesday and Wednesday and one of our students fell and hurt her arm. It was pretty bad and she was in so much pain. One of the students ran and got me because I was with the goalies and I came over to console her while another student ran and got the nurse (who I am so thankful to have this year!). She came over and checked the student out and determined that an ambulance (and called 119, yes 911 backwards) was necessary so it was decided that both of us would go with her to the hospital... since I know the student really well. So I had my first ever ride in an ambulance. It turns out that the students arm was broken in the upper arm, which according to Allen is really hard to do. Unfortunately for her she won't be able to play soccer for 4 weeks!

This weekend we had our middle school retreat. It was lots of fun. It was a great time bonding with the students, hanging out with them and just sharing the love of Christ with them.

Unfortunately going away for the weekend set me back in my old testament class, especially since I've been sick and I've been sleeping at night instead of studying. It's all good now because I'm only one day behind. Hopefully I can stay that way or get caught up, because I have to take my first test on Monday and I need to study!!

This Saturday one of my friends is getting married and I'm going to video tape the wedding. So that is exciting. It's an evening wedding so I will be able to work on my studies during the day. It's really great that this weekend worked out as it did. We were supposed to have our first soccer jamboree (tournament) this weekend, but it had to get moved (Praise the Lord!), but I am glad because now I have more time to study and I can focus my other time on the wedding.

Our phone device came on Monday and it actually works (maybe I didn't mention it, but the one we brought with us was defective, so we've been waiting for a new one). I'll be getting the phone number out to people soon. On Tuesday we had another accident at middle school soccer, which resulted in one of our best players getting his two front teeth knocked out and one of our boys varsity student helpers shoulders getting hit (by the teeth nonetheless).

Anyhow, I've gotta keep all this short because I've got some things I need to work on!

I am Used to the Smell Again

2006-09-03T17:26:00.000+09:00

Today as I was waiting for the bus after church I realized that I was used to the smell of Korea again. Korea has a distinct smell when you first arrive or visit here. To those who live here, we generally are used to it and can't smell it most of the time. It was getting a wiff of the smell that made me realize that I was used to being "home" again. One of the first things my mom asked when she arrived here was "how long does it take to get used to the smell?" I'd have to say it takes about 2 full weeks, so in order to really appreciate Korea, factoring out the smell of course, you have to be here at least 14 days. Tomorrow Allen and I will be here 4 weeks. It's hard to believe that, since it seems that such a short time ago we were in the states. Yet when I look at the number "4 weeks" it seems like a long time.

In that 4 weeks there really hasn't been much time for blogging. 2 weeks ago I started my class at Liberty. So right at the time things were beginning to slow down at school my "outside of school life" got busy. I'm taking Old Testament survey. So far it is going well and God is really teaching me a lot about the Old Testament. I am really learning a lot about my Jewish anscestors and what it meant to be a servant of God during that time.

Last week middle school soccer started. Would you believe that we had 60 kids show up for soccer? That numbers half of the entire middle school at YISS. It's fun to be in "coach" mode again and Allen and I really do work well together (even if sometimes we don't!). It's a great match. We make it fun for the kids, while pushing them to do their best. Several of the girls and guys varsity players our helping us coach so it is really good for both them and the middle schoolers.

This weekend (Sept. 8-10) is our middle school retreat. It was lots of fun last year and I'm excited for it. Hopefully I'll get to do the white water rafting fun activity, but we'll have to see where the need is...

Wow am I getting sleepy! You'd think it was 5:30 am not pm! Igo!

School Store Crazy Dayz

2006-08-25T20:48:00.000+09:00

This is my 201th post. I was going to say something about my 200th, but that was the last post! Opps!

WOW! It has been a crazy last couple of weeks. There is so much to write about and so many things I want to write about, but I'd just be typing for hours, so I will leave you with a brief version of the last few weeks.

We arrived late, but safe. God was faithful in getting us here in time for the start in our new school! When I got to the school I saw my room - it was super small and the only room in the buidling without airconditioning. Allen and I spent 1 hour moving all my bookshelves around, because they were infront of the boxes of my stuff, which were up against the wall. Once that was done I called the unpaking crew and we managed to get it all set up in 2 hours or so. Then we hung out at McDonald's with the students that helped. It was really great to get back and be with them.

Tuesday I spent all day shopping for the supplies I needed, running from "vendor" to "vendor. Then over the next couple of days we (my team of helpers and I) got the pre-orders ready... this is something I set up where parents can pre-order supplies that they need for their lists to save time waiting in the back to school lines. The students and my friend Pamela helped everyday. Monday the 14th we opened to the parents so that they could come and pick stuff up. Monday morning was the first day that I actually had 2 fans in my room after asking for them the day I arrived (b/c of no a/c). So I was hopeful that it would help the parents not to complain about the lack of a/c and the small space. It was a nice 82 degrees in the room and when you add a bunch of helpers and parents it goes up a few degrees...

Naturally, the parents complained about everything. Out of like 50 comments only 1 was a good one, and to that comment I said "really, are you sure, really you like it?" naturally they didn't respond to that, so they must have just been being nice. I told the school that the parents were complaining and all... it was frustrating to me because of all the work that we did do that was good, didn't matter to them. What mattered was that there was no a/c and it was small. Not that we managed to get everything ready in 1 week including moving and unpacking. I can just sigh about it now.

The night before school, the back to school night, it wasn't as busy as it has been in years past. I think that is partly because there were like 120 pre-orders and the other part because there was a big opening for the school, so we had a nice break. The PTO president told me that the 3 big questions were 1. about the tuition costs, 2. about the uniform changes and 3. about the location, lack of air and small size of the school store. Isn't that funny? So parents were complaining to the PTO. That night I had a parent offer to right a letter to the school. At this point I had already told the school about all the complaints and they told me they'd do whatever they could to work something out. I told the parent it was not necessary. Then she offered to help move me. I told her I'd take her up on the offer.

Thursday, August 17th school started. It was a mildly busy day. After school on Thursday I looked for a room that was larger that had airconditioning. I found one and went to talk to the headmaster.

Friday was crazy busy in the store. Friday afternoon the headmaster agreed to let me have the room that I inquired about on Thursday. Saturday and Sunday I rested (after working the weekend before and staying till like 6/7 almost every night of the week since our return).

Monday after school my parent team and their kids came and helped me move. I was faithful that it would all get done by 6 pm. Good is good. We moved it all ourselves, were out of there shortly after 6 and it was such a smooth transition.

I've had lots of wonderful compliments about the new larger store with airconditioning. It's been another long week.

Except for my class, I'm taking Monday off.

Thats the last 3 weeks in a nut shell. The only other interesting thing I left out was that Allen and I went to see the USA Basketball team play the Korea Basketball team. It was cool, but I enjoyed the halftime show more than the game, lol. It was Korean Taekwondo.

Hopefully this isn't to long. If it is ;-p you know you love me anyway.

Never a Dull Moment with the Jordan's

2006-08-09T05:22:00.000+09:00

The summer was very eventful and interesting. To top it off our trip home was nothing less than eventful and interesting. We woke at 5:30 am on Saturday (EST) excited to get on our way home to Korea. We arrived at the airport and checked in around 8ish. We had one baggage over weight, so we had to pay the $25 extra charge. We proceeded through security and I opted not to take off my shoes and walk on the dirty floor. Well, I new that doing that would get me extra screening, but I didn't know that it was going to be somewhat of a nuisance. We go to our gate, grab a snack and we are sitting there waiting. About 8:30 I receive a text message from my mom that says "Why is your flight delayed?" Unbeknownst to me I curiously go and check the board. Sure enough it's delayed. Allen goes over to the desk to see what is going on. Almost 30 minutes later he returns and says "There is a mechanical failure. They are driving us to JFK (New York) to get us on a flight that leaves at 11:35 am." (Naturally we would have missed all our connections. It was their fault, so they were paying for us to change plans. In hopes to still get us to Japan in time to make that flight.) So I quick potty, we gather our stuff and we are down to check-in to get our luggage. About this time it is 9:40. We go rushing outside to where we were told that our taxi would be and he's not there. So we find out that they misinformed us and he is on the other side (since it is illegal to pickup at the drop off).

We go back up the stairs and across the cross walk to the other side where several taxi's are waiting. We ask the drivers who are standing around where "Ralph" was. He left, not sure where he is. OK, so we know he's there, now to just wait for him. About 10 minutes later he comes out and finds us and tells us that he was looking for us.

We get all the luggage in the trunk (a miracle) and drive off to JFK. Now it is about 10 AM and we have 1 her and 35 minutes to make it to NY to make the flight. The taxi ride was hot, because the aircon was not circulating in the back. When we got to the Walt Whitman Bridge it was jam packed with traffic and the wait was long. We arrived at JFK around 12:30ish and unloaded. Needless to say the flight departed at 11:32, according to mom's text message. Total taxi $235.00. Glad American was fitting this bill.

We go into the JFK terminal and we go right up to the ticket counter. We spent about 2 hours at the same counter trying to get us on a different flight to Seoul. This wasn't easy to do. There was a flight on Asiana out of Chicago at 1 am Sunday morning. She secured us 2 seats. That was the easy part. The hard part was getting us unchecked out of the 2 flights we were already checked in on in order to swap the ticket. Apparently the woman who booked us on the JFK flight, never unchecked us out of the flight we missed out of Chicago. So we were checked into both the flight out of Chicago and the flight out of JFK. Now this wouldn't have been a problem IF we were going to still fly American Air. However, we couldn't do that. Reason? Well, American could fly us to Japan the next day, but once we got to Japan, their partner, JAL couldn't fly us to Seoul until August 22nd. WHAT??? AUGUST WHEN? Allen and I both almost cried at that (which I assume was why they were trying so hard to get us to make the connection in Japan Sunday night). That was when we asked about trying another airline and she found us the Asiana straight to Seoul (yay!). After lots of phone calls she was able to get the tickets that we were checked in on set back to "OK" so that we could get on the flight to Seoul from Asiana. However, in order to do that, they had to drive us to Laguardia Airport, about 15 minutes away, so that we could fly to Chicago. The woman was a blessing to us and so helpful. Praise God for her!

So we get to Laguardia after an eventful taxi ride there. Once we started driving I couldn't remember where I put the tickets, so we had to stop and look in the trunk. Well, the trunk wouldn't open. So the taxi driver and I spent 5 minutes trying to get the trunk open to find out that the tickets were actually where I thought I had put them (oops).

Once we got to Laguardia we waited in the longest line ever to just check our bags. At least it was moving quick. The only problem was that, by this point it was 4:00ish and all I had eaten all day was a bowl of cereal and half a pretzel and Allen had only eaten half a pretzel, so we were both starving! Luckily I wasn't shaky.

We got checked in and enjoyed some extremely late lunch. Then we proceeded to go through security. I opted for the shoe taking off this time. Although I was completely grossed out by the floor and I plan to write a letter to TSA. It's nice in Korea because when they make you take off your shoes there are sandals provided for you to wear. Not to mention that our airport here is the cleanest one I've ever been in.

So, the first time after waking up at 5:30 am that we were on a flight out of anywhere (after being at 3 different airports) was 6:00 pm. Thankfully the flight was uneventful.

We arrived at Chicago and were back to the Asiana check in gate at around 8 pm. They were not scheduled to be at the desk till 9 pm or later to start checking people in. So we went off to find a snack and wireless internet access (not available). We went back up at 9:05 ish and we checked in. They were able to give us Aisle seats (YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!). Then we went through security again and again I opted to take off my shoes. Probably shouldn't have because the Chicago airport floor was dirty gross. Then we went off to wait and try for some wireless again (it costs $6.95).

At 12:45 am we boarded the plane and we were both soooo excited! Luckily I slept for about a total of 7 hours. So landing at 4:50 am, was not so bad. To our surprise we made it through customs in about 3 minutes (a miracle) and our luggage was not to far behind (yay!).

We made it home around 7:20 am, with enough time to shower and change and make the 8 am bus pickup to take us to our first day of teacher orientation (Praise God for His faithfulness to me in getting us there before it!).

The day was good. Lots of students came to help me unpack and we got about 90% of the way done. Then we went out with them to McDonald's for dinner and we faucet to stay up till 9 pm.

Yesterday I spent the day shopping for school supplies etc. We made it till 10 pm on Tuesday night, but now here it is 5:45 am on Wednesday morning and I've been up since 4 am. So needless to say I have jet lag (which is unusual because I normally get it going to the USA, but this time I didn't and got it coming here).

Yay! Schools Out for Summer!

2006-08-04T13:07:00.000+09:00

Yay! I took my finals today, so I'm finished. I think I did pretty well on both. I am hoping for A's. I should find out my math grade by tomorrow and my psyc grade on Tuesday.

Yesterday I went to ZEKS to visit all my old co-workers. It was good to see them. We saw all but 2 people. Then we had dinner with Susan, Steve & Alicia to say goodbye to them. Then we went to visit Steve & Maggie, who we haven't seen since our wedding. Then I studied :-)

Tomorrow night we are going to connect with Becca, Lynette, Dave, Nina, Laura... the day before we leave is always our hectic day so we won't be able to hangout a whole lot. I have set a side a schedule, because I need to say bye to my dad and brother tomorrow. There is also packing to do and we have to say bye to Allen's family.

We are going to sleep at my parents house, since my mom is driving me to the airport so that we can just go from their house. Well, I'm tired so I should go to bed.

Pilates - - - Ouch

2006-07-19T04:36:00.000+09:00

One of the benefits I thought I would experience by living on campus this summer, was the opportunity to access the WCU gym. However, since I've been here now for 2 weeks I haven't even had the time to go and do the 10 minute training, so therefore no workout. As it turns out yesterday there was a posting about a Pilates Social. I was thinking about going and later when Allen was over visiting for our 2 year (YAY!) he commented on the sillyness of it, and I infact made up my mind that I was going. Silly or not I needed to work out. So inbetween studying just an hour ago I went to the Pilates Social. I don't know how much you can actually call it a Social, as I was the only one there other than the RA who was putting it on, but needless to say, I got a really (ouch) good workout and I'm glad I went. I am glad to have had the opportunity to work out, since I'm quite stressted. I find that during my time here I have not had much time at all to visit with friends and family, because I am studying so much. Aye. So the relief from the stress was much appreciated while working the 3 "spots" I need to work, Abs, Butt and Thighs (making room for more oreos).

Allen and I had a really great weekend in Adamstown (near Lancaster) at a Bed and Breakfast. (Thanks Jess!) The place we stayesd was amazing! There was a 2 person jacuzzi and a massaging chair and a massaging shower. We had a really great time. Friday night I got to wear one of the nice formal dress I bought for Allen (meaning for him to look at) out to dinner. Saturday we spent some time shoping at the outlets. It was actually romantic, because Allen knows I like to shop and appreciate massages, so there was definitely "me" thought that went into planning the picking of the room and the outting for Saturday. After going to a B & B once with girl scounts (or brownies) I always had the desire to return. Since Jess gave Allen the idea I thought it possible that she remembered that I had really enjoyed being there before. Did you? All in all it was a really great weekend and I wish it could have kept going and going... but now I'm back to studying and going to class and having no time for anything else (although I am on here now, so that makes my statement infact, inaccurate).

The Life of a Pirate

2006-07-14T11:35:00.000+09:00

Yesterday after my morning class I did my math HW like normal. Then Allen picked me up so we could go meet Becca, Nina, Dave and Janet for lunch and a movie. Since we don't normally live here, when we are here my dad lets me drive my sisters car. Since she doesn't have a license and now a permit, it's available to use. It's a 1984 Caprice Classic. It's a 2 door and it's the same size as my old Olds, for those of you who knew that car. So we get out to Max and Erma's and enjoy a good lunch and some fellowship, including lots of laughs. Then we went to watch the Pirates of the Caribean #2 (Thanks NINA!!). I enjoyed it, but it's very possible that I only enjoyed it because Orland Bloom is in it and I must admit (sorry Allen) that he's not bad on the eyes. 3 of the others didn't really like it and the other 2 seemed indifferent. We say our goodbyes and our adventure begins.

We get out onto the main road (Egypt) coming out of the OAKS theatre and Allen tells me that he has to push the brakes all the way to the floor in order to stop completely. I didn't have a good feeling about it, so I told him to pull over. We pulled over a bit before the on ramp to 422 and I called my mom to ask her for my dad's work cell. Called it 2 times, he didn't answer so I thought I'd call his personal cell-funny thing he answered that-so I told him what was going on. I got out of the car opened the hood and started poking around. Based on Allen's description of what was happening my dad said it sounded like there was a problem with the brake fluid, so I checked the brake fluid, and the first container was almost empty. Not good. So since we weren't to far from the Target, so we walked up to Target in search of some Dot 3 brake fluid. We found the fluid, added some paper towels and wetwipes to our purchase and were on our way. On our walk back we found some carry keys laying on the ground so we picked them up and turned them in to Target's Guest Services. We got back to the car and loaded it up with brake fluid. Allen did the honor's this time. We got back into the car and were confident about making it home on our working but not so great brakes. We're driving along on the backroads and I call my mom to navigate us so that we don't have to get onto 422 with the bad brakes and we made our way back to 23. We were looking to connect with 113 and we didn't realize that one direction went right and the other straight, so we were in the wrong lane coming up on a red light. Good thing too. Because the brake's didn't stop. We were coasting a long with no brakes and Allen tried the Emergency brake and it didn't do anything either! Praise the Lord the opposite lane was empty and Allen swerved into it to avoid raming the car infront of us and then the light turned green so we turned quickly and rolled right into a parking lot and it's a good thing that some parking lots still have those stopper thingy's! Cuz otherwise we woulda been into the fence! So when my hands stopped shaking I called my dad and told him we were leaving the car in Pottstown, lol. So we have no car till noon tomorrow. Allen rented us a car for the weekend since we are going away for our anniversary. Which I really need (him too I'm sure)! Hopefully my dad we'll be able to fix the brakes before he leaves for scount camp for the week... otherwise we'll have no car ;-( which will make me living on campus a really good thing for my mom (who has volunteered her services as shouffer when needed-thanks Mom!).

In PA!

2006-07-04T08:49:00.000+09:00

We arrived in PA late last night. Spent the night at my parents, got a few hours of sleep and then headed to my math class at WCU. Learned about "sets" and tried not to fall asleep after having only a few hours of sleep. Then came back here and momma made us breakfast. That was really special. It made me feel welcome and loved. Then Allen and I headed to his parents house. They didn't seem excited to see us. Which hurt me. Oh well, nothing I can do about that. Then I checked into the dorm at WCU and it was weird to think I'd be living there. Oh, yeah for those that don't know I'll be living at the dorm with my sister as my roomate. Cool huh? Then we had a little fender bender in Parking Lot F but God sent us a police officer right away, and she helped us take care of it. Praying my dad won't be upset about it! No damage to our car, just the other car. Sure don't make em like they used to. Now I'm connected to my parents AOL at 48kbps, which sure is slow compared to our 100mbps. Oh well, it's internet so I'm grateful. Going to have my most missed dinner tonight-wawa hoagies!

We had a really great time in Fl. The church took care of us, they took me shopping and Allen golfing. We really had fun. I really enjoyed hanging with Trina and he really enjoyed hanging with Larry and Drue. It was great to be there and have fellowship with the Liberty community. Anyhow, should cut this update short since my arm hurts!!

Tomorrow is the Day

2006-06-26T22:27:00.000+09:00

Allen and I leave tomorrow for the USA. It will be one of the longest days because of the time difference. We arrive in Florida, June 27th at 10:30 pm. We'll be there till Sunday visiting Allen's home church and our friends in Florida. I'm excited now! We arrive in PA at 11:30 pm on July 2nd. I start class July 3 at WCU. I will have a new cell number tomorrow after we land in Chicago. I'll send a text to those who I know read this. If you want my new number and don't get a text from me, shoot me an email with your number. See you soon!

Student Help

2006-06-23T23:31:00.000+09:00

Having students help me is so wonderful! They came in and helped me today. There were 5 girls and 1 guy. After we were done the girls came back to my place and I cooked for them. It was fun. We played cards and hungout. They are just so precious to me! Euncie showed up at 10:25 to help me. She wasn't supposed to come till I called her, but she just hung out with me all day till around 3 when I was ready for her to really help me. It was fun.

On another note, we'll be getting a new phone number on Monday or Tuesday. I hope to have it before I leave, but may not be able to get it till we are in the states. I've got to call to activate the phone we got. We got a T Mobile since I was not happy with my last 2 years or however long with Cingular after they bought ATT and my phone is a piece, so we decided to get a new one and new service. It's a prepay, but the number won't expire if we buy 100$ worth of minutes until after 1 year, so it should workout for us to keep the same number on it, but we'll see. I know some numbers have changed, so if yours has changed I'm going to send an email to a few people in my contacts, but if you know yours has changed, or you want us to call you, then email me with your current phone number.

4 days + some extra hours (LOL) till FL
9 days till PA

Technology Ruled World

2006-06-21T23:20:00.000+09:00

You know that technology has a really high role in society when you are talking on MSN to your husband who is sitting in the room next to you. LOL.

One of the first things we did after my return from Thailand was to purchase a wireless router. We didn't have one before because we didn't need it. We only had one computer. The school however, purchased laptops for all of the teachers, so now Allen has "his computer" and I have "my computer". Naturally we both wanted to be able to have access to the internet and printer, etc., so we bought a wireless. I had the great opportunity of setting it all up :-D

Tonight I set up the network and was really excited, because it's my first one using Windows XP. It's a bit different than running networks and sharing files on Win 98. Setting up the router was a whole nother story. They expect even the computer saavy to know all the lingo and understand what in the world they are talking about! LOL.

So now we are both on MSN and Al thought it would be funny to MSN me from the other room and say "wouldn't it be funny if we had a conversation on here while sitting in rooms next to each other? oh the joy of technology."

Indeed the joy of technology. Btw, I've been doing a major update of the website and there are now over 1500 pictures out there. If you visit the Bangkok pics link below, and then just click on the "home" icon at the top of the "new" and improved website pics, it will take you to the main menu and you can have a sneak peak at all the pics.

Praise God for His Faithfulness in Thailand!!

2006-06-20T22:20:00.000+09:00

Thank you all for your faithfulness in praying for me while I was in Thailand. God was faithful and He used me in ways I never imagined.

On Tuesday (June 6) I arrived and we went into the bars to outreach that night. It was quite an interesting experience. God used me to pray over the men who were entering into the bar seeking the services of the women. Many of them did turn and leave almost immediately or never actually came into the bar. I also had the opportunity to talk to one of the women who was working in the bar who spoke some English. She knows what she is doing is not right, but she is doing it for the money. Please pray for her. Pray that she would seek full comfort in God and seek employment at NightLight.

On Wednesday (June 7) I went to NightLight and met most of the women (some were attending the Cindy Jacob's conference and I met them Thursday night when we went to the conference). Currently there are 30 women working there. NightLight is a ministry that is in place that offers alternative employment for women in prostitution. It is employment and a ministry (HOW AWESOME!!). They have times of devotion and counseling. I mingled with and talked to the women. I was just there to encourage them and get to know them. One of the women who speaks good English was talking to me a lot. She asked me to teach her some Korean. So I taught her some basic Korean words.

The rest of the week God used my organizational and computer skills to help Annie (the director of NightLight) organize all the jewelry. I was truly amazed that God was using my administrative skills to minister. How cool is that!?!? I was in awe of Him the entire time. He also provided me with grace when using the computer, when in times of excessive mouse use like I was doing while there, my tendinitis would normally flare badly and it didn't! I knew it was truly God allowing me to serve using my organizational and computer skills without severe tendinitis pain!

I worked with photographs and I created a photo packing list, and organized all the photos for upload on the website. Annie and I categorized all of the jewelry items by type of bead, stone, pearl, etc. Then I created labels for all the jewelry to tag them. It is AMAZING how God can use our gifts to minister to others! I am soooooo thankful to Him for truly using me to bless Annie and the women at NightLight. The service that I provided will help them to better provide for their customers and enable their business to run smoother! How awesome is that!?!?

Please pray with me for these women. For protective reasons I will not give you their real names, but please pray specifically for these women:
For "Rabbit" pray that she would come out of the bars and work with NightLight. That she would be comforted by God and know that through the Blood of Christ she is forgiven!
For "Gail" pray that God would deliver her from suicidal thoughts. Pray that she might find comfort in His love and in the sisters that care so much about her. Pray that she would know that suicide is NOT what God wants for her (or anyone!!).
For "Tonya" pray that God would give her the strength she needs in order to get out of a mentally and emotionally abusive relationship with a foreign man.
For "Nealla" I sensed that something was troubling her. Pray that whatever might be on her heart would be presented to God and that He would be faithful to her.
Pray that God would continue to give Annie and the other staff members at NightLight strength, wisdom and discernment as to how to lead, guide, counsel and minister to these women.
Pray for the many other women that are all over the world working as prostitutes. Pray that God would comfort them, that they would be brought out of prostitution and know that they are forgiven and that He would provide financial means to bring them out and keep them out of prostitution.

Pray also that the men who go to Thailand and other countries seeking prostitutes, that they would be convicted and know that what they are doing is not acceptable in God's eyes! Pray that God would give them strength to resist the temptation of the evil one!

Praise God for an amazing time of ministry using my gifts! Hallelujah!! Stand in Awe of Him! For He alone is God!! To Him be all the glory, honor and praise!

Again thank you for your prayers.

You can view some pictures by clicking on this link. To protect the identity of the women, I won't be putting their pictures on the web. However, I would gladly show you the hard copies sometime (as soon as they're printed, lol)!
To visit NightLight's website click on this link. I'm not sure how soon you will be able to order items, but if you are interested, please let me know. I'd be more than happy to organize an order to help support the NightLight ministry!!

Fun Days!

2006-05-27T11:09:00.000+09:00

So the last two days have been really fun! On Thursday I had the peer mediation students over here and I cooked taco's for them. We had a good time eating lots of good food. They played some video games, helped me prepare the food and we hung out and talked. Then we went to go play pool, but 2 of them had to leave... so we just went shopping before the other 2 went to watch a movie. We had loooooooooooaaaaaaads of fun and I couldn't stop talking about the fun we had. I was probably driving Allen crazy!!

After the 2 kids left to go watch the movie I went to E-Mart and had a discovery day. This was the first time I really looked around their grocery section. I discovered that their prices are VERY good and that they have a VERY good selection. I think we may go shop there more regularly, buy lots of stuff and then take a taxi. I also found a pair of shorts that fit, Praise the Lord, Hallelujah AMEN! They are blue, but they aren't supper short (actually almost come to my knee) so they'll go with a few of my white tops.

On Friday was the last school lunch, so of course I had to sit with the 2nd graders! It was lots of fun. I ended up helping two of the kids work out a conflict and answered a lot of questions about bullying that they had. I gave all the classes a link to the website that we showed video clips from and the kids were talking about visiting it. Then they told me about talking to their parents about our chapel and bullying. So then they shared some of their parents experiences with bullying with me. It was really cool. I'm really excited to see how the chapel affected them. I also had one of the third grade teachers tell me that they swarmed the sign I made with little address things hanging down for the website (you know the signs u see when you go to the grocery store about a car for sale or smtg-I made it like that) so it was great to hear that she needed another one! Then a bunch of the third graders who I don't know really well wanted me to sign their yearbook~LOL. It was a fun day... then it was Kindergarten graduation, which was cute and 12th grade graduation, which was short and much better than last years!

I'm So Depressed!!

2006-05-23T12:37:00.000+09:00

I'm soooooo sad and depressed. For two reasons...
1st. Today was the last day of teaching :,( so that means I won't have the same kids in class anymore! I mean yeah they'll still be a part of the peer mediation program, but I won't get to see them everyday! So sad... it's going to be a long summer. Good thing we aren't leaving right away and some of the kids are going to help me prepare the store for next year :-)

2nd. On Sunday my alltime favorite grocery store closed! I went in there and it was sooo depressing. The shelves were mostly empty and the one thing I was looking for was sold out. When I went in to shop on Friday, it was super busy, so I asked one of the ladies who speaks some english what was going on and she told me that they were closing Sunday. :,( The good thing is over the last few days I was able to see all the workers there that I've made relationships with. One of which hasn't been around since Christmas time. On Sunday the woman who speaks good english was there and I asked her for more details, like what was happening to their jobs and such. She said that they were going to other stores by the same company, just further away. I was able to tell her that I hoped everything worked out and to say, "God Bless You". These workers have always been super friendly to me (always saying hi and offering to help me) and that is why I choose that place to shop. Now I am left with the grocery store that is rude to me and ignores me when I shop there or the new one that probably caused mine to close!

On another note I'm taking a break from sitting with the 2nd graders till Friday. Yesterday I sat with them and, let me just say that is an experience I'm trying to forget, but it is etched in my visual memory. I'd hate to mention details and have you "loose your lunch" as I almost did, so I chose to keep you in the dark. However, if you want to know I'll tell you.

I just wanted to say

2006-05-19T13:24:00.000+09:00

THANK YOU~!!

To all of those who wished me a happy birthday... it is always a good feeling to be blessed with birthday wishes on (or around) your birthday, so thanks for doing that for me! Love ya all!

The New Nikki

2006-05-19T09:13:00.000+09:00

So not only am I a year older, but my hair is shorter and you can see my eyes without having to look through my glasses... so I guess that makes me "new".

The Sunday before my birthday, I went and got my hair cut. It's just a little above my shoulders. I like it. I guess the students feel that they know me pretty well this year, because they have been honestly commenting on my hair. I think this is the most comments (good and bad) that I've ever gotten on a hair cut before. You know that saying, the kids say the darndest things? Well, it's true, they do. I've heard that it looks nice and pretty and all those sorts of things... but I've also heard some quite amusing statements. Like isn't it too short? or Mrs. Jordan, I really just don't like your hair cut. Maybe you had to be the one they were saying it to, to relate, but it was funny! (And of course I appreciate their honesty!)

On Tuesday I picked up some contacts to try wearing them again. So far I am not having any dizzy problems or anything like I had before, just some focusing problems in my right eye. The first day I wore them to school one of my students (who didn't say she noticed that I was wearing contacts, but definitely noticed a difference) told me that I looked extra pretty that day. I also had the teachers "least likely to notice" comment on my contacts. During 2nd period, the first day I wore them, I was in the classroom where Allen teaches talking to the teacher whose room it is, and when I left all the students told him that I looked much prettier with out my glasses on. However, the comment I received yesterday at lunch takes the cake. When I got down to lunch the 2nd grade class was already sitting, so I sat with the 4th graders. One of the students who knows me from N-Step said Mrs. Jordan did you get contacts? I said yes, and then she replied "it's weird without glasses, but definitely more beautiful." I suppose it was one of those comments that you take as having more than one meaning, like: "It's weird to see you without glasses, however you look more beautiful without them." So anyways we'll see how it goes wearing the contacts... pray that it works!

As for my birthday it was good. Allen and I went to Ruby Tuesday and it was fun. The salad bar is a bit smaller and more expensive than the one in the states, but our food was good none-the-less. We will probably go there again sometime. We were going to go and watch a movie, but I was so tired I took a nap before dinner! Hahaha. He got me silver hoops and a mirror, which I wanted. He's going to get me a vacuum later... he hasn't found one that is within the price range yet.

Today my peer mediation class is speaking in chapel. We spoke during the K-2nd grade chapel already. It went pretty well. We go to the 3rd-5th grade chapel at 10 AM. Pray that it goes well, also pray that what the kids learned about bullying will cause them to do something about the bullying that is going on at ICS.

Off to make Monday's quest (quiz-test)!

My Peer Mediation Kids Rock!

2006-05-10T15:02:00.000+09:00

My Peer Mediation students blessed me so much today, for my birthday. When the bell rang none of them were in class. I thought maybe it was not really 4th period. The announcements came on like normal during 4th period and still they didn't come in. Even if they are late sometimes their book bags are normally in the room when I get there, well, they weren't. The announcements were over and a few minutes passed, so I started to ask Ms. Brown, the teacher whose room I teach in questions. I asked if she had seen them. I knew one of the kids was there cuz he blew by me in the hallway. All the others weren't marked as absent... She mentioned that they were having a "sick out" where they all pretend being sick. I thought maybe they were playing a birthday joke on me.

Just then they came in joined by the PE Class (which changes next door to the room I teach in) singing happy birthday with a chocolate cake all lit up with candles!! It was sooooooooo cool! So they sang and I made a wish (a blessing really) and blew them out. They had 2 longer candles and 5 smaller ones. That is the custom in Korea the 2 longer candles represent 10 years each and the smaller ones represent 1 year each. Then we all dug into the cake. It was great and I was really blessed.

It was sooooooooooooooooooo cool~~~!!!!

My 25th~is on Wednesday!!

2006-05-08T09:20:00.000+09:00

Allen and I recently discovered that there is a Ruby Tuesday's here in Korea. For those of you who know me well, know that I love Ruby Tuesday's. So we are going to venture to Ruby Tuesday's for my birthday dinner.

The lock-in was fun. Gross, but fun. I'll post some pics later.

The rest of the weekend was OK. Saturday it poured rain all day and I was not happy because of the weather. I went to a counseling seminar, which is the first seminar in a series of 4. The seminar will certify me to counsel in the church. I will be called a lay-counselor (assuming I pass). Basically, it is for people that want to counsel other church members as a service (for free). Since I know that I am eventually going to go into counseling of some sort (at least what God wants me to do now) the seminar will definitely help me out a lot. I've already learned a few things that I plan on implementing in my peer counseling class... and I've already learned some things that will help me to be a better counselor. I look forward to the next weekend... oh and I've got homework!!

Ridding the Big Yellow and Sleeping at School

2006-05-04T09:58:00.000+09:00

You would think I was a student (well actually I am, but I mean at ICS!). Yesterday morning I was running late (as has become the norm from soccer season) and I was debating on how I wanted to get to school and as I was getting to the street where you can take public transportation, low and behold there was big yellow! She's actually smaller than a US big yellow, but neverthless a school bus going to where I needed to go. So I hopped on with the students to ride to school. It's funny because I had to run home on Monday after school to grab the Costco bags, which I forgot to take to school, in order to have them for our trip to Costco (it happen's once a month-the school takes a bus full of teachers and lets them shop at Costco). Anyhow, when I came out of school on Monday the student's school bus going to Bogwang-dong (that's where we live) hadn't left yet, so I hopped on. It's funny how you go all year without doing something and then twice in one week you do it. I used to ride the kids bus a lot last year. Mostly because I was late in the morning and I've been really good about getting up and ready on time this year (except the last few weeks of soccer). Which brings me to my second grade friends! I ate with them again on Tuesday and I might eat with them again today! :-)

Tonight Allen and I are sleeping at school. There is a 7th grade lock-in and we're on the chaperone team. It's funny how the teachers are "sleeping at school" because when I was young I used to think my teachers slept at school! LOL. It should be fun. I'm in charge of the "soccer" playing out front for the first 2 hours (after we eat of course!). Then we're doing some REFS (really exciting fun stuff - I think) which will include using the hand-mixer to make some sort of food con-cocktion and daring the students to eat it (not my idea, but fun I'm sure!).

Prayers!

2006-05-04T09:05:00.000+09:00

Allen and I have prayer requests posted in the following blog: http://jordanprayers.blogspot.com/

Be sure to check it out and pray!!!!

The Following Takes Place Between 11 AM and 12 PM

2006-05-02T11:35:00.000+09:00

Those are the words that I like to hear. Alas, I can hear them again! For those of you who don't know the TV show 24 starts every episode by saying "The following takes place between..." and then the time that the "real time" episode occurs in. For the longest time we were not able to finish the Second season because the person who last rented the disc broke it. Allen and I were wondering how we were going to see the last 4 episodes of season 2 to move on to season 3. The video rental adjushe continued to suggest that we skip it and just go on to season 3, because it'd be a long time before he got the replacement. When low-and-behold Allen discovered a video store near church that had the episodes!! So we were able to watch the last 4 episodes of the second season!!! and now we are into the third season... yay!

Soccer season eneded on Saturday. We had our Kaiac tournament. The girls played really well, we placed 7th out of 7, but we won the first ever Sportsmanship Award. So that was exciting. Pictures later.

My life will go back to "having time to clean the house" and I will not feel engulfed by the dirt anymore.

My birthday is in 8 days (May 10th!)! What I really want is a PDA, but they are so expensive. I've settled on asking for a mirror for the bedroom, mini sized silver hoop earings and a vacuum cleaner. Now I know the vacuum cleaner isn't really a great bday gift, but I suppose it is possible to substitute it for an anniversary gift, and receive the "birthday type gift" for the anniversary? I'm still not sure if buying a PDA is a good idea. Since it is really expensive and we don't have that kind of money... However it would be well used. We'll see.

2nd Grade Friends

2006-04-27T13:07:00.000+09:00

Yesterday on my way back down from teaching one of the 2nd grade teachers grabbed me in the hallway and asked if I would take her kids to lunch so she could run to the bathroom. I took them down to the lunchroom, came to my room and grabbed my lunch card and set my books down, then went back to join them in line. When I got down there and stood in line the kid at the end was worried because he didn't have his lunch card. (Lunch cards are pre-bought and then the amount of lunch is deducted to pay for lunch.) I told him that when his teacher came down we'd figure it out. Well, she didn't come down by the time we got to the front of the line to buy lunch, so I just purchased his lunch with my card. When his teacher came down she said that his card was on his desk and I told her that he could just buy me lunch tomorrow.

Today when I finished my class the student who I bought lunch, Andrew, came to get me to buy me lunch. It was sooo cute, he grabbed my hand and led me to lunch (his teacher let us get infront of the class)! He paid for my lunch and then went over to the deli to get a bagel. This left me at the end of the other 2nd grade class' line. The student who I was in line behind insisted and asked that I sit with him. His name is Kitty. I said sure. Then as I was waiting in line one of the girls a few infront of me, who I know because she (Rachel) used to come to the store regularly was having trouble telling the lunch people what she wanted, so intervined and helped explain what she wanted. She then asked if she could sit with me and I had to tell her that I already told someone else I'd sit with them. However, it worked out that Kitty sat on my left and Rachel sat on my right. Shortly thereafter Andrew finished at the deli and sat diagonally across from me. So it was a fun and memorable lunch with my 2nd grade friends!

Now I'm off to finish some work for my class tomorrow, because I won't be here! Tomorrow and Saturday are the final Soccer tournaments, pray for us!!

Airhead Craze

2006-04-21T14:10:00.000+09:00

Yes, it's been a busy week, so I haven't been here. This week I opened the 7th and final box of airheads. I think they were gone in about 24 hours... and we only have school in 8 of those 24 hours. Anyhow, I've disappointed many a student by saying that they'll have to wait until next year, but I figured after the nightmare I had the other night about airheads and the wait till we got more it'd be summer time anyway.

I don't have much time for a long update because we are going to leave for a soccer game on the Seoul military base in 10 minutes... then we are going to play the Taegu base school. We'll sleep in the barracks and then go off base to play at a rented field. I don't remember playing soccer at Taegu last year, but I was there for Volleyball... and I think I may have gone with the basketball team as a chaperone, but I can't remember if that was just to Pusan or both.

Sunday is Allen's birthday. His gifts are all wrapped (of course) but he hasn't told me what kind of cake he wants yet. He is the man with no favorites. No favorite cakes, no favorite songs, no favorite movies... you get the drift. At least he has a favorite wife... but that may be because I'm the only one! Unlike Leah and Rachel.........

Of to the games.

BroKeN

2006-04-15T16:11:00.000+09:00

Well, one of the many things I've accomplished this week is breaking my hammer. Although it wasn't on purpose. One of the many things I wanted to do was get a new 'medicine cabinet' for the bathroom. Basically the one we have is just an open wire rack and we wanted something that was enclosed, that could hold more stuff and keep the dust out. Until yesterday purchasing one was just something I was 'saying I was going to do'. I finally did and went to hang it, so I got out my trusty stanley hammer and started to put in nails... well, don't ya know there are two nail in the bathroom, 1 that I've had a picture hanging on, and 1 that held our open wire rack. So I decide that I'll just work around the nails and use the one from the wire rack as the 2nd nail in the cabinet. Fine, I get the spacing all marked out and add 1 new nail for the cabinet. I go to hang the cabinet and... the cabinet hangs out to a point where it touches the nail I'm not using. Igo. So I decide I'll just take it out. BIG HUGE MONDO mistake. It's so stuck in there, that when I'm using the head of the hammer to pull it out, snap, crackle, pop, there goes my hammer... The result~the picture you see before you. So needless to say the nail didn't come out. I put this all on hold from yesterday until today, and started again this afternoon. I decided I'd try to use the broken head of the hammer to see if it would still help me get the job done. I decided to take the wire rack nail out, and just use the nail that (cough cough) broke my hammer and then I'd put in another new nail. Well, the wire rack nail would'nt come out either. So instead of breaking my hammer more, I just hammered it all the way into the wall, decided to make two new nails and next thing you know, I'm all good to go (except for all the extra holes, lol-but I filled those in). So in a little while I'll be able to hang our new cabinet!!

Ps. pic quality may be bad, because I took this pic with my cell phone since Allen has the camera with him in Russia!!

Why is it that...

2006-04-14T12:03:00.000+09:00

Why is it that we clean before company comes over, when our homes are more messy after the company comes over, than it was before we cleaned for them?

This to me makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Yet, I still cleaned on Monday and Tuesday and then on Wednesday I had 8 sixth grade girls from my small group spend the night and Thursday after they left my place was messier than it was before I actually cleaned on Monday and Tuesday. It was at this point when I found myself wondering... why did you clean before they came over? Was it to impress? Was it the fact that it needed a good cleaning after not being cleaned for so long? Yet now I feel that all that work was a waste. It's like starting all over again. I know I've felt this way before, beings that I used to have lots of company when I lived on my own... yet, why do I still do it the same way? Clean, Company Comes, Clean again. It makes no sense whatsoever. I suppose it is the subconscious party of me that "aims to please" and in order to please others my house has to look good... but how many of them actually noticed the so clean you could eat off it floor? I doubt any of them did, because moments after they came in, it was dirty again! So it didn't really matter that I'd cleaned the house... or did it?

I suppose we will see next time, how I "respond" to cleaning the house before company comes over.

Despite my sorrow and dismay over having to clean again, we really had a fun time!

Spring Break

2006-04-12T11:16:00.000+09:00

We're on spring break right now. Allen is out doing the Lord's work in Russia. I've actually been able to keep myself pretty busy, so his absence hasn't been hard except when it comes time to go to bed. I find myself missing him most then and not wanting at all to go to bed.

Saturday night his Russia missions team spent the night together. I went to Michelle's (whose husband was on the Ansan trip) and we scrapbooked together. It was nice to finally work on my wedding album after almost 2 years! Believe it or not I've actually worked on it twice since then.
Sunday morning Allen came home to shower and grab his suitcases and then they were off to the airport. I went to church at SIBC (not the church we've been going to, but a place we are checking out) and then to lunch on the military base with some married teacher friends and their kidos. It was good to hang out with them and have Taco Bell, which you can only get on base. I went home and took a nap and some of the single lady teachers called me. They were supposed to go to Jejido (island off of Korea), but there was a typhoon so it got cancelled. I went over to their place and we played scategories, ate, watched a movie and tried to burn the house down (jk, but there was an accidental fire) and had laughed a lot. It was actually all part of God's plan because it led to me hearing about some bullying going on in 3rd grade and the opportunity to speak at Elementary Chapel came up for my class...

Monday morning I began the events of cleaning. It has been since the beginning of soccer season since I cleaned, so it was WAY over due. Tuesday I continued the cleaning, complete with borrowing Michelle's vacuum (and now I want one!). Both afternoons I went to the gym, and that is more times this month than I went all last month (the plan is to go 2 more times this week!). I also got some research done for my class and some other various things.

Today (Wednesday) I am waiting for Janice so that we can go to Costco. She had something come up in the states, so she needs to stay by the phone, so our trip has been delayed. At 5:00 pm, my small group bible study girls from school are coming over. They are in 6th grade. We're going to hangout, watch movies, eat and do some girly stuff like use makeup ;-) then they'll spend the night.

The Air Head Craze

2006-04-06T15:17:00.000+09:00

Last summer Allen and I brought back some air heads for one of the students. Actually, we were supposed to bring her war heads, but we got the names mixed up. Anyhow we had 2 boxes of air heads... one day late last year Oct/Nov I brought one of the boxes to school to give them out as prizes etc. to my students and the MS soccer students. Well, one day one of the customers in the school store saw them and said, oooohh how much are they? Well, I said they're not really for sale, but if you want one I'll sell it to you and give the money to missions (since I was planning on starting a missions fundraiser selling food out of the store like I did last year for our Thailand team). Anyhow, that is how the selling of air heads for missions got started. As word got around that they were a good candy, they sold. When I ran out several kids asked for more, so I had my mom bring 2 boxes back with her from the states. They went super quickly and by the beginning of Feb. I was begging my mom to send me some. She sent me 7 boxes that arrived Mar. 17th. It is now only April 6th and I am almost through the 6th box. Oh maybe I should mention that there are 72 air heads in each box!!! I'm not really upset about it or anything, I just know how disapointed the kids are going to be when I'm out and I really thoguht 7 boxes would last till the end of May. I wasn't originally going to sell the 6th box until after spring break, but since Allen's team to Russia really could use extra money, I decided to sell it. It's such a good fundraiser I'm trying to figure out how I can do it all year round... I'd probably have to have everyone that reads this send me two boxes of 72 count air heads, lol. Which of course I'd send ya the money for. Oh well, maybe they'll have to wait till I after we come back from the states this summer!

Florida Won

2006-04-06T09:47:00.000+09:00

Allen's School FSU's rival, University of Florida won. I actually didn't pick them to win anything since they are the FSU rival. LOL. I did have UCLA loosing to the winner, but UF wasn't the winner I picked. Anyhow I was the closest so I earned the most points and won.

On a different note, next week is spring break and I'm excited for a break. Well, a break from school and getting up at 6 am every morning. Although these days it's been later and later since I really need some rest. Allen's going to Russia, so it will be really quiet and possibly boring. Today is our missions commissioning, so I'll be sending out a prayer letter after that... but keep the trips in mind.

Queen Nikki

2006-04-03T13:44:00.000+09:00

I'm Queen of the ICS-Seoul NCAA bracket. In lahmens terms, we filled out a bracket to see who we thought would win the NCAA and I was the closest, so I earned the most points. The queen title, a year of gloating and my picture on the intranet with a crown... :-) Just thought you'd all get a kick out of this picture.

I'm Sorry...

2006-04-02T02:15:00.000+09:00

Oh Lord, how I am sorry to those people who I didn't listen to when they were speaking to me. To my parents, my family, my friends, my teachers, my pastors, my coaches... If I was ever so bad as to drive someone so batty (which is to the point where I am now) that they just didn't understand why I was not listening, not obeying and totally being disrespectful.

How I love the girls on my soccer team so much!! But, OH how they have frustrated me this week. The times when I was talking when they were talking, the times when I said to show up at "this time" and only 2 girls out of a total of 17 were actually there, ready to go, as asked. OH how it was when I asked them one little thing, just to tell me where it was that they were going and only 2 had permission to be where they were and only 2 were where they were supposed to be.

Time and time again I have repeated how important it is to respect each other and me by being listening in obedience. Rules are not made to be broken, but are made for the good of all on the team, each one as a player. Time and time again I have tried to explain it.

Oh Lord, I praise you for the things I have learned! For the experience I have gained of these things that are important. If ever there was a time when I wronged someone in this way, oh how I want them to forgive me. For now I know of the pain that easily entangles.

This morning/night as I laid in bed waiting for sleep, I was remembering all of the things that I've learned over the years. Those things that you don't see in that email that is forwarded "The things I've learned" but the things that affect WHO YOU ARE. As an individual. Things that you never knew when you were young. Those things that you were ignorant to. Oh Lord, I thank you for the things that I have learned and I'm sorry for those who I have hurt because of my ignorance!

Oh how I wish they knew of the importance now! In your timing Lord, I know. God grant me the patience I so desire to have with these girls!

The Return of the Nikki

2006-03-31T09:19:00.000+09:00

Hopefully my sis will read this and like my title. Anyhow, I am back. Actually I didn't ever leave, but yes I am becoming a myspace junkie. I am trying hard not to, but I have actually reconnected with several lost HS friends. How cool is that? I have also connected with some current ones that I have sorta lost touch with because of being so far away. Still, no excuse for abandoning my blog. However, everytime I tried to post something it was late in the day and a mad rush of customers would come into the store (howdya like that?-not so slow is good!!). Still no excuses. Here I am. It has albeit it been a busy week. Soccer has been hectic, but that is partly because the other coach is gone so I have been running things. I've also had quite a number of unusual requests for me to do things and believe it or not I am actually forgetting stuff. Ah well, I'm only 1 person and what needs to get done will eventually get done.

Tonight is the Guardian Fest. I suppose it is our version of October Fest. There will be some B-ball and play station competitions, a BBQ and a talent show. Of course I'm having practices for about an hour, but after this week, you would be too.

Well, anyhow I should finish grading my kids tests before class... that is if I can find my red pen that I seem to have misplaced, which I just had when I was just grading the tests... maybe I'm just loosing my mind!!

If you want to check me out on myspace, here's my link: http://www.myspace.com/nikkiphoto basically you cand find me at nikkiphoto@ anything, and if u can't find me at nikkiphoto, then try nikkiphoto13.

SuMmEr pLAnS

2006-03-28T14:20:00.000+09:00

SORRY - this has been on draft since Tuesday!!

Our summer plans are still up in the air, but that is basically because I am waiting for Liberty to tell me whether or not they have approved me to take courses at WCU to transfer in to my program at Liberty. I've been waiting for over a month now and they keep giving me the "well, we need this and we need that" spiel. All along I'm wondering why they didn't tell me that when I originally asked what I needed to do. Oh well, I suppose my patience is being tested.

We were also kinda waiting to hear if Allen was going to be doing summer school, but at the same time we needed to make a final decision about our flight, so we made the decision to schedule the flight and worry about Liberty, Summer School and where we were going to stay at another point in time. Although, now we don't need to worry about where we are going to stay since Allen's family will be around. Originally they were going to go to London, but we wouldn't be able to stay at the house... but they'll be here, so yay!

Anyhow, we are planning on leaving on June 27th and flying to Florida. We'll stay there till the 2nd of July, unless of course I am not taking courses at WCU then we can stay longer. Classes at WCU start on July 3rd.

We will then be in PA (pronounced peeaye-LOL) until August 5th. It is possible that Allen will be attending a math conference in Colorado, but we can't afford it, so he'll only be doing it if we can get some help from the school. I of course wouldn't be going with the idea that I'll be enrolled in classes at WCU for the summer. This is hard you know for someone who likes to have everything all planned out. Oh well, such is life. So with that said all our plans are still subject to change :-) Especially at the prospect of Allen teaching summer school which would give us some much needed additional funds.

Top Things

2006-03-24T09:14:00.000+09:00

I posted this on myspace and it was a good one so I wanted to post it here too.

SURVEY ..1:

NINE places I've visited off the top of my head
9. New York, NY
8. Wildwood, NJ
7. Hawiaii6. Bangkok, Thailand
5. Taipei, Taiwan
4. Nagoya, Japan
3. Orlando, Fl
2. Pusan, Korea
1. Songton, Korea

EIGHT things I want to do before I die
8. Visit Paris
7. Go to Ireland with Allen
6. Have kids
5. Finish my degree
4. Visit Italy
3. Drink more Poweraid
2. Write a book
1. See my family again

SEVEN ways to win my heart
7. Tell me you love me
6. Do nice things for me
5. Do what I ask when I ask
4. Make me feel wanted and loved
3. Compliment me
2. Hold me and cuddle with me
1. Shave regularly

SIX things I want
5. Kids
4. My degree
3. To be a counselor/psychologist
2. Clothes that fit
1. A bushel bag of fifty's

FIVE things I'm afraid of
5. Bees
4. Snakes
3. Being in an accident in a moving vehichle
2. My dad not going to heaven
1. Allen having an eary death

FOUR of my favorite items in my bedroom:
4. My Teddy
3. Allen when he's in it
2. My Korean traditional items
1. My underwear

THREE things I do everyday
3. Read my bible
2. Check my email (well almost)
1. Eat

TWO things I am trying not to do right now:
2. Become a myspace junkie
1. Be anxious about anything

ONE person I want to see right now:
1. Sorry I can't pick just one... I'm currently all alone in the store and have had only 1 visitor so far today and a scare by the ajimah in the bathroom, lol. Although I really miss my Twerp.

Lucky Charms

2006-03-22T09:37:00.000+09:00

My loving mommy sent me a box containing lots of Lucky Charms, so I've been content with eating them for breakfast the last few mornings. :-)

Not much else is new other than soccer games. We had a rough week last week and lost 2 games with a really high shut out score in both. The girls seem to be losing the small amount of confidence that they once had. On Friday we shared some scriptures with them and prayed with them. It seemed to help during the first half, but they let the negative thinking and anxiety settle in for the second half and it was rough. We'll attempt to combat the negativity and anxiety again today through prayer and scripture before the game.

I've been feeling better from my sickness, but I have been extremely tired!

Yesterday Allen asked me what I want for my birthday and I was not able to give him an answer. I'm not sure what I really want, other than that camera lens I've wanted for over 2 years, so I have to think about it.

Tonsillitis

2006-03-16T11:45:00.000+09:00

I went to the Dr. on Monday and he diagnosed me with Tonsillitis. It wasn't the normal Dr. that I see. I originally thought it would be a bad thing since the normal Dr. speaks English fluently... but it turned out that the Dr. that saw me spoke enough to get by and I spoke enough Korean to get by... and since the normal Dr. had told me that if I had to come back a 3rd time, which would have been this visit, that he'd take my tonsills out! So for that reason I'm glad he wasn't there! I am starting to feel better tho, but I gave the head cold part to Allen :'( Hopefully he'll start to feel better soon.

It's really a bummer that Al is sick because it is keeping him from speaking in his Irish accent today for St. Pat's day...

I've spent a lot of my free time working on the website, but last night I wasn't able to 'connect' to publish my most recent changes... which is a bummer because I have such a nice Happy St. Patrick's day theme going. My goal was to have it updated by St. Pat's and emailed out to everyone about the update. Oh well, still check it out to see my St. Pat's day wishes, and I'll finish publishing the rest when I can 'connect' again. Who knows maybe St. Pat's day won't be over in the states by then! www.nikkiandallen.com

The girls soccer team played on Wed. and it was a BRUTAL loss, so bad I won't even tell you the score. Mentally they weren't there. We have another game today and instead of warming up before playing we are just going to go before God. Many of the girls have emotional burdens that they need to lay at His feet. Negative thinking, low self-esteem, lack of self-worth, feelings of being unloved by parents... please pray for them! Some of them even seem to be discouraging others. So pray for that too, and pray that Nichole and I will seek God's will on how to help and encourage them!

What an Awesome God!

2006-03-12T22:18:00.000+09:00

This week was our spiritual emphasis week and the cause of why I only posted once. It was a very busy but powerful week. Several students came to know the Lord this week and many others were healed and rededicated their lives to Him!

We had 2 guest speakers, Daryl McCard and Stephanie Fast www.stephaniefast.org and a worship leader, Stefanie Kelly www.stefaniekelly.com. It was really a great time.

I was active in helping out. The two chaplains asked me to help by taking pictures so I was doing that and then they asked me to help do a few minor things on the computer to get it set up. On Wednesday early morning the one chaplain (John)'s wife had her baby so he didn't come to school, but asked me to help do the power point and the sound. It ended up working out wonderfully (Praise God!).

On Wednesday there was some time left after Daryl spoke and the other chaplain (Allen H.) prayed about what to do and felt God lay it on his heart to ask students who needed prayer for healing to stand up. Many students stood and we teachers went and prayed for them. It was very powerful. After that time you could see a change in some of the students and that day several students accepted Christ. One student confessed of the desire to commit suicide that week and the Lord delivered them from it.

On Friday after Daryl spoke he encouraged the students to come to the alter to pray for each other. So many students were praying for each other. Again us teachers prayed over them. I was praying for a group of 9th grade boys. There has been a lot of issues with peer pressure, cheating and bullying in the 9th grade so my heart just broke for the 9th grade students. Many students were experiencing God's pressence and were moved to tears. Upon hearing this I felt God's call to me to bless the students by providing tissues. And so I did. By the end of the time students were calling me over to give them a tissue. How awesome is that! A tissue box ministry?!

Saturday morning I woke up with a head cold and now I am all stuffed up! Hopefully the cold will go away, but if not I will probably make another visit to the ENT tomorrow after school.

Dynamite!!

2006-03-09T22:23:00.000+09:00

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! These girls are DYNAMITE!! We won 6-0!!!!!!! I knew they could do it, I am sooooooo excited!!!!! Praise the Lord for this victory in His name!

Wow, it is our spiritual emphasis week and God has done a mighty work in our students lives. I've been really busy with helping for spiritual emphasis, so I haven't had time to update. Pray that He would finish the week strong with victory and healing! Amen!

What Happens at the Soccer Field Stays at the Soccer Field

2006-03-02T22:26:00.000+09:00

Some pics from today's practice...

Stale Pretzels

2006-03-02T13:27:00.000+09:00

Classic moments shared with 7th grade girls: Today during the MS-HS lunch I was in the store getting some things done, when a few of the 7th graders from the normal crowd came in to visit and shop.

Earlier in the morning I had filed some things and cleaned out my filing cabinet. In one drawer I have a space for food stuff, you know for when I'm hungry. Well, there was a bag of pretzels in there, that I had, had since about October and there was an expiration date of January 06 on the bag. The last time I had the bag out was to share them with my peer mediation students and they had complained about how stale they were. Normally I enjoy stale pretzels, but since the purpose of buying them was to share them with the students, and they weren't interested in stale ones... and since I am going to costco on Monday and can purchase more... I decided to throw them away.

Back to the story. Remember that my 11th graders and my 9th grader don't like stale pretzels: JiHae is sitting next to my desk chatting with me, and she sees the bag of pretzels sitting in the trash. She wants to know why I am throwing them away, so I explained that they were expired and that I'd had them since October. Well, that doesn't matter to JiHae, she wants some... which in a way is a good thing since she didn't have much lunch and needed to eat more... so she asks if she can have some and I say sure and she proceeds to eat from the bag while it is still in the trash. Then Kelly comes in and wants in on the pretzel eating from the trash, so we take the bag out and the girls enjoy some stale pretzels (not all students dislike stale pretzels!).

So by this point the three of us are pretty amused at eating the stale pretzels out of the trash when Sarah comes back from the bathroom (she had been here before the trash picking incident). She proceeds to open the bag simultaneously asking if she can have some. At this point Kelly, JiHae and I are laughing soooooo hard that we can't even speak. Nevertheless Sarah starts eating the pretzels and continues to ask "Mrs. Jordan, what is wrong, what is going on, etc." I gain composure and explain that JiHae pulled them out of the trash. Which, doesn't seem to bother her, and rightly so since they were in the plastic and I'm sure Sarah hadn't eaten much lunch either. So the two of them (JiHae and Sarah) fill up plastic bags of pretzels to eat later. I warned them, I hope you don't get sick from eating these - and don't say I didn't warn you!

At that point Kadeja, Allen and Dora came in. Kadeja wanted some too, but we were laughing so hard again that she didn't know that they were in the trash till after she had one in her mouth. By the time JiHae explained to her the "story" Kadeja interpreted it to mean that they were literally in the trash (like without the plastic), but I clarified, and her and the Allen and Dora all filled bags of pretzels too! So they all left happy with bags of stale pretzels, a story to tell and Lord willing a healthy snack!

LOL

Would You Ice Skate in a Suit?

2006-03-01T20:55:00.000+09:00

Allen and I have had these free passes to go ice skating at the rink at the Grand Hyatt in Seoul. We were actually planning on using them on valentines day, which is the reason why we ended up at the Hyatt for dinner, but it was really icky outside and drizzling that night and when we got there we found out that the rink was outside, so we decided not to skate. So we have been planning to go on several other occassions but something has prevented us, bad weather, someone inviting us to dinner last minute and Allen's sincere desire to stay home and make brownies (LOL).

The tickets expired the last day of February, which was yesterday. So after dinner we made an attempt to go, that actually got us to the Grand Hyatt. So we used the coupons, got our skates and stepped out on the ice! It was awesome! The view from the rink was soooooo beautiful. You could see the city line and there were trees all around with white lights. Definitely a romantic atmosphere. I wish I had had my camera, so that I could have tried to capture the view for you. So we enjoyed the rink before it closed for the night. What simply amazed me was that there were Korean men there skating in suits! Would you skate in a suit? I would be so afraid that I would fall and damage it! Although, they probably have several and the money to them is not an issue, but I was just curious to see if anyone in the states had ever or would ever go ice skating in a suit... anyhow it was really fun. Thanks Tone!

Yay for Strawberry season!!

Haven't Been Here in a While

2006-02-26T17:59:00.000+09:00

WOW! What a busy week. There was so much going on this week. Lots has kept me busy this week, a full week of soccer, N-Step performance, extra planning for my peer mediation class and so on. I finally feel like I've caught up on my sleep, which is a good thing, since I didn't get much from Thursday (the 16th) till Monday (the 20th). Now I just have lots of blogging to catch up on. I'm currently making dinner and Allen is out picking up the latest episode of 24. It will be good to relax for the first time this weekend. Friday night Allen's college friends who are teaching at TCIS (Tajeon Christian International School) came to Seoul to visit us on Friday. We had a fun evening of shopping in Itaweon and eating mmmmm steak and hamburgers. Saturday I went to the first ever Wives event at my church and it was really nice to meet some of the married women from church. After that I went to Chantal's house (art teacher) and edited the video that her and the MS teachers have been making all week about super heros. It's 85% of the way done and it only took 5 hours to edit, LOL! Which is the equivelant of my 8 scene Peer Mediation video, and this one was 58 scenes, so I must be getting better at it! Then we enjoyed an evening at the Bello's for dinner (they are our downstairs neighbors and friends). This morning our landlord drove us to church, it was really nice of him. Well, better get back to dinner.

I Feel Like I Have Jet Lag

2006-02-18T06:50:00.000+09:00

It is currently 6:45 AM and I've been up since 1 AM. Sure at 1 AM I laid in bed and tried to fall back to sleep because 10:30-1 is DEFINITELY not enough sleep for me, but after almost 2 hours and counting 1000 sheep I decided my time was better spent working on here. So here I've been for several hours. I've gotten some stuff done and even talked to lots of people on AIM.

It feels like I have jet lag, because I am not really tired, but know I should be sleeping but can't. I did have some pain in my legs, but now it is gone and the only pain that is around now is the pain in my arm from sitting at this computer. I really need to modify my work station at home. I was hoping to work on updating the website, but my arm hurts to much. I think I might actually go lay on the couch for a little while. Allen should be waking up soon. At least he was able to get some sleep. Fortunately, I don't have any plans for today other than to work on my lesson plans and update the website (oh and maybe get my hairs cut!). So it is a good day to have missed out on lots of sleep!

Valentines Day at the Grand Hyatt

2006-02-16T08:53:00.000+09:00

After soccer practice was over Allen and I went to the Grand Hyatt. We were planning on Ice Skating there. One of my friends gave us some free coupons. Unfortunately I didn't realize that the Ice rink was outside. It was sorta spritzing and the weather was just nasty looking. We decided that we would just eat dinner there and go skating this weekend sometime. We had a nice lovely dinner at a fancy restaurant inside the Hyatt. It was the least expensive place, but the food was pretty good (and still more expensive then Outback!). Then we went home and watched the movie "The Perfect Catch" it was a love movie, but it was also a baseball movie. We both really enjoyed it, Allen for the baseball and me for both! Then we just spent some time together. It was a really nice evening. We decided before that we wouldn't do gifts, mostly because we didn't have time, second because Allen never knows what to get me and third because we had just gotten a few things on the weekend in Songton, so we just made those our gifts to each other. I got a pink top (I look really great in pink) and Allen got a few video games.

Happy Valentines Day

2006-02-14T13:23:00.000+09:00

WHAT IS LOVE?

Romans 5:8 "... God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preservers. Love never fails."

1 John 3:16 "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers [and sisters]."

1 John 4:9-10 "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrafice for our sins."

I love you and more importantly, God loves you!

Happy Valentines Day!

Let it melt, let it melt, let it melt!

2006-02-08T21:57:00.000+09:00

It was nice while it kept us from school. Now that it has caused soccer tryouts to be cancelled and me to fall on my butt more than once, I am ready to let it melt! LOL. We got like 2 inches. That is the most we've gotten since we have lived here. The soccer field was covered in snow so needless to say we couldn't kick a soccer ball around so we just cancelled tryouts. They'll start tomorrow instead. Hopefully everything will work out so that we can have them. It did work out that the coaches were able to go and buy soccer balls, socks and goalie gloves, so it wasn't a complete waste of a day for us. I'm sure the kidos were happy because it was REALLY cold out today. It was soooo windy, now I have wind burn! Tomorrow is Thursday and it's a half day!! Rock on!

Did you ever have a slinky?
Pic from: www.ericshinnphotography.com