Wow, I haven't written in such a long timee in this blog, but I shall give it a go again. It's May 10 here, my dad's birthday and mother's day as well, happy birthday dad and happy mother's day mom! I will be giving them a call tomorrow afternoon since it's still Saturday for them back in the States. I'm in my room right now and preparing for my religion classes that I have been giving.
It's definitely a new, challenging experience sharing and discussing about who God is and what He did to not only Korean people, but older folks who seem a lot more mature than I do. I have had some engineers, doctors, and teachers as some of my students, but I've been lucky in the fact that they were all curious and also open to hearing. My first religion class was in Junggye where I had a class about 11 and we went over who Jesus and the Gospel of John. It was really interesting, and although most of them joined just to practice their conversation and english skills, I really believe I had an amazing opportunity to share what I know about Jesus and what he did for me in my life. I really opened up a lot about my personal life, and beyond everything I taught, I could tell that they were really just trying to find out who I was as a person.
By the end of the religion class, one of my most skeptical students, he was 40 years old came up to me and thanked me for the religion class and said that although he's been taking religion classes for the past couple years because it was cheap and he can maintain hsi english conversation, he really liked the passion I had for Jesus and for trying to share it. His english name was torres, and I believe he really was curious, and I'm not sure what will happen but I hope God continues to reach out and that he one day realizes it.
The mission opportunity here in Korea is really different than a lot of the other mission trips I've been too. Being 3 months in Peru working with abandoned and abused girls, taking care of them gave me the direct feeling that God was definitely working through me and God was there. Korea's been different in that you're trying to capture them by teaching english but once in awhile try to mention something about God. It's definitely more by teaching by example of waht a Christian is like since most of the time we're just teaching english. However, the religion classes I enjjoy the most because that's when I feel like I'm actually doing what I wanted to do in the first place, to help others learn about Jesus. What we're really doing here in Korea is just planting a seed, and once in awhile you might get to see that seed sprout...but only if you're lucky.
Anyways, we start our new religion class and I'm praying about it. The title of my religion class and what was on my religion class advertisements was LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE WITH JESUS NOW. It's a simple title but at the same time very insightful. don't you think? haha, we have all those quotes like carpe diem and live life to the fullest, but you really can't enjoy success or seize the day without knowing who Jesus is and what He did for us right? My first section will be about who we are..and that we are more precious to God and that He loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us..and that now we can call ourselves children of God. We can't really know our purpose in life until we know who God is.
The second part will be that God has plans for us, a purpose..and that's to one day live in Heaven with Him, but at the same time that doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy life here and do our best on earth. God requires us to believe in Him and do our best I believe, and He wants us to prosper and be successful. I believe there's a verse i think from jeremiah 29:11, correct me if i'm wrong but it says something like God has plans for us, plans for us to prosper and to succeed, and not to hurt us.
Thinking about all the time here and how many lives have been lived, our lives are really just a blink of an eye, but in that blink of an eye we can do amazing things. hopefully God reaches out to my religion class students and that I'm an example of who Jesus is.
