Last Post (August 2009)

Greetings to you all in the name of our Lrd JC.
I hope you are all doing well right now and are holding firm to the faith that binds us together. This is my last bl0g for my time here and it is a little surreal. It took 7 years from the time I first conceived the idea about serving abroad to the moment I first set foot here. Now 18 months later I am about to go home and it has gone by rather quickly.

Overall the weather here this summer has been abnormally wet with consistent rain shower and it has been relatively cool. So much different than the scorcher & moth/mosquito infested summer last year. The semester ended in late June and I’ve spent July and August here resting, jogging, language learning, prepping to go home and doing an occasional B-study and one-on-one session.

It’s difficult to self-evaluate how successful my ministries were since I’m speaking from my own limited perspective. I guess only time and G himself can tell. But I have faith that good works sowed in His name will not come back empty handed.

In men’s group a fellow brother said that the person you’ll find changing the most in the M field is yourself. I can’t deny that statement since being out here taxed my entire consciousness and stretched me beyond the limits of my perceived capabilities. For example, when someone asks me if I can do something, it’s not so much of a request, but much more an urgent plea for help. It’s hard to decide when to say yes or no. When I say yes I feel burdened, but when I say no I can’t help but feel a little guilty. Also, I’m introverted in nature but everything I do requires an extroverted personality. At least that’s what I feel like is needed but I know that’s not necessarily true. Whenever I do something I can’t help but think how much better a job someone else, either from here or someone I know in The States, could do because they have this language ability, that teacher/b1bl1cal training or this kind of experience or personality, etc. It was humbling and intimidating to be used by Him in such a variety of ways. However, in hindsight I am grateful for the opportunities I had to serve and wouldn’t change a thing.

It was also a challenge to win the mental battle. For me it was hard to deal with what I would sometimes perceive as criticism or dissatisfaction with my performance/character. I like to mull over peoples words and see them from all kinds of angles. Not a great thing since I tend to fixate on the negative and am initially disinclined to improve/fix myself and want to justify myself in my behavior/actions. Thankfully through much yarper and a timely book (The Bait of Satan by John Bevere) recommended by a brother here that I have able to mature a bit from this trait of mine. It’s kind of funny I got some insight from a listening conversation in my Korean class. It basically said that when living in a foreign country (or anywhere for this matter) with a much different culture to have a “wide” heart. My heart has been narrow for far too long and I yarp I will change with His help.

Well that’s my short introspective spiel. Anyways here’s how the semester went:

1. SK B study. I don’t know why but I still felt nervous teaching this class the third time around. Anyways I had a good time teaching this class. Many of the students had spent some time overseas and had pretty good English. As a result we had pretty good discussions on John and they were able to understand my analogies. Thankfully I had purchased a digital B with commentary and that helped me a lot with ideas on how to explain the text. A couple of non-believers came so I hope the lessons were good for them. At the end of the semester my partner, Hillary, and I took them out to dinner, as is the tradition between many teachers and students. The students were so kind to print a group picture we took and put it in a frame as gifts for me and Hillary.

2. I enjoyed my lunch/dinner conversations with my 8 students. At the end of the semester I took them out to dinner. I yarped out loud for everyone before the meal which was interesting since several of them, I know or suspect, are part of the c0mmun1st party. In the party you must pledge no allegiance to a higher power. One girl I know does not have any knowledge of the good book. Anyways I was happy to share at least this little part of my faith with them.

3. The B study with my former student went pretty well. We weren’t able to meet consistently every week but I think the studies went well. When I would go over review questions from the previous or current study he was able to answer the vast majority of questions. I think he’s a member of the c0mmun1st party but I haven’t got around to asking if that’s true. At any rate I’m grateful that he wanted to hear the word and being a member of the party makes that an even more remarkable desire on his part.

4. Teaching this past spring semester went rather well for me. I had two above average classes making the interaction with students rather smooth. For the most part, they could understand my grammar explanations and quirky jokes. Several students expressed how much they liked my teaching with one even saying it was her best English conversation class. That was encouraging since it was almost everyone’s last semester of English conversation. At the beginning of the semester, I also had several former students seeing if they could add my particular class. I guess I did something right, for some students at least. I know I have a lot to learn when it comes to teaching so I’m glad to have gotten some direct/indirect words of encouragement.

5. As before, I have been continuing my one on one meetings with Russian speaking males. I have been privileged to witness growth in some but others seemed to have either stagnated or backslidden. For the most part, as a whole-including males and females, they seem to be on the opinionated side making it a little difficult for them to want to submit to authority and eachother. One yarp request they have amongst themselves is to have patience with one another and spiritual growth. I am happy they realize these things about themselves and I believe they truly want to change despite it being difficult to do so. I used to think they were all similar sharing a common language, ethnicity and country of residence. I have learned they are all very different from one another. This is why they have their cliques. It must bewilder non-believers when they see believers in a Chrch with divisions amongst themselves despite sharing the same core beliefs and our LJC. However, I believe the struggle comes from spiritual forces from above (Eph 6:12). So concerning my students, I must do a better job yarping and encouraging them. I hope this is a weeding out period where everyone comes to realize what they truly believe and it brings about an even greater faith in them.

Someone here once said the harvest here is ripe. I believe that to be true and I’m glad for the small window of opportunity I was given to work here. I’ve met great servants here and have started good friendships here. Thank you everyone for your support with yarping, finances and words of encouragement. I could not have done it without you. I hope to find you all in good spirits when I return on Aug 24th. Take care.

In Him,
Eugene

P.S.
Extras-A list of some things I’ve done up through this summer. Counted the tithe on Sundays and delivered it to the treasurer. Met up with two different students for English/Korean exchange and another student for English/Chinese exchange. I continued my Korean study in the summer for 4 weeks. I’ve actually been able to order food and got a water bottle delivered to my room-an amazing achievement for monolingual me. (I barely passed Spanish and got negative homework points in high school!)

As I was with last year’s set of summer volunteers, I’m also impressed again with this year’s crop of summer volunteers. They bring a lot of energy, have specific goals in mind and haven’t settled in to “living life as usual” here. (In the past, before I came here, this time of the year used to be hard for the long termers. The volunteers in years long passed had a less than desirable level of faith and maturity making it hard for the veterans to maintain the program’s integrity.) With the short interactions I had with some of this year’s volunteers I could see they were doing a good work in their 5 weeks here serving as teachers and English House roommate leaders.