Hi everyone,

Just thought we'd share the latest from the land right next to the land of the rising sun. Teaching is going very well over all. We really enjoy it and my supervisor game me an inital evanluation by sitting in on four of my classes last week. He gave me a full typed page for each one which said that I was doing great. Of course he said several times that I speak way to fast for kids learning a new language. No suprise. It's also hard to remember how hard the material is for the kids. They've taken it in school before sure, but since it's in a whole new languague I really need to go word by word through some of the stuff to be sure they understand.

Eileen still loves teaching but is finding it really challenging with her health. Working 5 days with lots of standing is quite hard on her and then she needs a day and a half to deal with her drugs. Then the last part of sunday is church so she's getting worn down physically and emotionally. Today she felt a bit of a cold coming on so she's getting anxious about things. If you can pray for her we need it.

New set of wheels

I got a new bike!!! I was actually praying for one and then last week I found one laying on a dumpster. Ye ha! The back tire was finished and it was in rough shape but 8 bucks at a bike shop on our street got that replaced with a full tune up and now I'm good to go. It's so nice since without a car we are a 15-20 minute walk from the bank and grocery stores. Today I did it in 5 minutes flat. Soooo great! Often I feel that praying for those things is so petty and self serving yet sometimes we get them anyway.

Adventures in teaching

It's no secret that it can get lonely here with most English speakers only staying her 12 months so often any friends you do make will leave 3 or 6 months into your term. Nav, one of our teachers decided he'd get a pet rabbit. He gave it all his love, letting it poop in the living room and sleep in his microwave and all. They really came to love each other. But one day Nav was out on the patio with his little buddy and he split the glass door open for some fresh air. Now although his bunny had come to love Nav it still had an instinct for the great outdoors. Sensing an opporunity for freedom Nav's beloved bunny made a dash between the rail for a new life. Unfortuantley at this point the young and naive bunny had to learn a very hard lesson about gravity from the 14th floor of an appartment building. To ad insult to the intense emotional injury Nav then had to go and clean up his new found friend. I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't heard it from Nav himself.

Exotic new friends

The best part of traveling around the world to work is meeting all the interesting people we work and live with. As far as church things have worked out famously. The first week a guy from my floor invited us to his church's (American) thanksgiving dinner. The next week Eileen found that Stephanie who sits behind her on her floor goes to another english church service a bit over an hour away. We went with Stephanie for church at 4:00 on sunday afternoon and she invited us to her small group after church. It's a fun group and they go for dinner after group each week so it's been really easy to get to know them.

Now we had found that Stephanie is from Oak Bluff and lives a 20 minute drive from our house in Winnipeg. On the way home from church Stephanie pipes up to say that I look familiar to her. It turns out that she went to the same church as us before we came to gateway. She was in Senior youth when I was a junior youth leader and she recognized me from the worship team I used to play on. Good thing we all moved to Korea so we could meet each other.

Getting plugged in

Getting to know people has gone well. We are so thankful for finding our school. With 8 foreign teachers on my floor and 5 on Eileens we have lots of people to connect with. We have gotten to be good friends with two of the girls and a guy from Eileens floor who all happen to be Canadians as well. We teach until 10 pm and then usually we end up somewhere for supper. The food is great but you don't know spicy till you've tired Korean! Five peppers on a canadian menu might be mild for a Korean. Eileen has done alright with her diet. The girl that she replaced on her floor was a vegetarian and before she left she gave her some good tips to get by! The food is awesome and cheep despite not being able to read a menu. (some resturants have a few pictures).

Tonight we went to our church for the third time and after church our small group went to one of the pastors homes for a wrap up before the Christmas/January break. (there's no public school through January). It was so great after only three weeks to feel that same immediate connectedness we felt our first sunday at Gateway Lakewood. Again despite the tough parts we are being so looked after. We are greatful for that.