Disbrows In Korea: Korea Update

Well, let’s fast forward 6 months and here we are in February. So much for updating our blog consistently. { Sorry about this friends } Our last blog post was in August?! We’ll save you the monthly details of the last 6 months, and jump straight into the question that many people have been asking us since Christmas, “When are you coming home?” Although our current contracts are up at the end of this month, the answer is that we honestly do not know for sure. What we can say with certainty is that God is not finished with us in Korea quite yet. I for one have many mixed feelings about staying another year, but after months of prayer and conversations, we firmly believe that it’s not time for us to go back home. In many ways we’ve only recently begun to feel at home here with relationships and the culture. God has blessed us with some really neat friendships, both Korean and with other foreigners. He’s provided for welcomed ministry opportunities within our church and within our relationships. The Lord has grown my faith in Him immensely over this year, and even though my heart is still a little anxious about committing to another year here, He’s given me a definite peace and excitement that I can cling to. Although we have been thankful for our year at Poly school, many of you know that the hours we work have been exhausting. We will not be staying with them for another year. We know God had us there for a reason, and we have loved our students like they were our own kids. Our weekdays, however, are dominated by our work at school and our weekends are often spent trying to rest up for another week. This year, we are asking for more time to develop relationships and God has already been faithful in answering these prayers. Traylor’s new school will start in March, and he will work for one of the nicest Korean women we’ve ever met. His hours are 1/3 of the hours at Poly—woohoo! Just a good situation all around. He’ll even get to teach a class at the local University, which will be a really good thing for him. As for me, I’ll meet with my new director this week to sign a contract beginning in April. My good friend, Leah, also works at this school and helped me get the job, so that’s a pretty nice perk. Since my job starts in April, Traylor and I prayed long and hard about the possibility of me trying to get back to the ol’ USA for a little break in March. I wish we could come back together, but it looks like just I’ll be able to come back for a few weeks!

So, it looks like we’ll be enjoying kimchi for another year. There’s so much more for God to show us, not only of Himself, but of Korea. For starters, I really want to focus on learning Korean this year since we’ll have more time. We’ve also gotten to go pretty consistently to an orphanage our church supports, and that has been really neat. Just within these past few months, we’ve established some relationships with our students’ families, and even though we are leaving Poly, we trust that these relationships will continue. AND, I just went to my first JimJilbang 찜질방 (Bath House/Spa) for the first time not too long ago, so it will be worth to stay just for that : )

Thank you for praying for us this year. Please continue to do so! Sometimes I ask God what in the world we are doing here. I remind Him that I’m a weak, anxious little girl who isn’t always as confident as I should be. This week he reminded me of Moses in Exodus 3, as He calls him to go to Pharaoh in Egypt. Moses says in vs 11, “WHO AM I?!! That I should go to Pharaoh and bring back Israel out of Egypt?!” I feel like when I ask God things like that, I really just want God to tell me all of these reassuring things about myself. That I shouldn’t doubt myself or my abilities. I’m strong enough. I’ll be ok. I’m not that weak. But, God doesn’t answer Moses like that. He actually doesn’t say anything about Moses or his abilities at all. He just says, “BUT I WILL BE WITH YOU...” Oh how I need to remember that. He will be with us. Always. He always has a plan and He already knows this year even when we don’t know what to expect.

Thanks for journeying with us. Please see the blog before this written by Traylor on our Korean Christmas experience!