Nuny

Absolutely amazing weekend. On Friday saw Transformers 2 with Kelly and Matt, during which my mind was split into exponential bits, sauteed, and then deep fried in liquid awesomeness. Saturday morning wheeled in with an early saunter off ot CARIBBEAN BAY, the greatest water park known to Korean-man! After rocking the surfing machine and kicking the tar out of the lazy river I made it back to Seoul for some much needed R+R at Itaewon Land Sauna. Sunday pulls into the lane, I drive down to Yangjae to teach Sunday school, turn around, drive back up to OEM to do Podium Directing, and then spend the rest of the night in barrels of Thai Food, good friends, and 31 Baskin creamy creams.

Now it's a race to one-up myself on Tuesday.

Bring it on!

Thrown out.

I just watched the movie Blindness last night, great film, reminds me a lot of Requiem for a Dream except that it doesn't have an cripplingly depressing final scene. It made me think about how un-fun a zombie apocolyspe might actually turn out to be. It also made me reflect on how much I take for granted.

This morning I woke up late, rushed into the shower, dried myself off, and threw out my back. Craaaaaaaaaaap. So now I'm at school and totally lurching around. Haha, I just told my kids that I have 'lots of back pain, back ouch'. I feel old. :)

OEM Retreat

So after an hour and a half bus ride to Jesus Town, Korea we were kerplunked on the side of a mountain. Really. The church was build into the mountain itself. Walking into the main lobby is quickly met by a slanted wall of rock. Awesome.

Lots of volunteering, lots of great conversations that lasted into the morning. Good sleep, but not enough sleep. The invitation to teach Sunday school for 4th graders and becoming the transitional coordinator during church services this summer.

The pastor that was invited for the retreat was even better, he stood in front of the lot of us and gave invigorating messages on three occasions. The greatest thing that I took from it all was the grounding message of loving Jesus.

Don't be a good Christian. Don't be a great Christian. Just love Jesus. Don't be better than anybody else. Just love Jesus.

Jesus walks up to Peter and John and says "pick up a stone and follow me up this mountain."
Peter, being cunning, picks up a small stone so that he won't be exhausted. John picks up a regular sized rock. They hike up the mountain for hours and when they reach the top they're both starving. "Awww Jesus we're so hungry!"
Jesus turns to them and then changes their rocks into bread. Peter, having the smaller rock, looks at John eat the rest of his bread with yearning.

The next day Jesus walks up to Peter and John again and says "pick up a stone and follow me up this mountain."
Peter, not to be outdone picks up the biggest rock, more like a boulder, that he can find. John picks up a regular sized rock again. They hike up the mountain, Peter lugging his slab with grunts and strains. When they reach the top of the mountain Jesus turns to them and says "throw your stone back down the mountain." Peter's mouth just drops, he can't believe it. "What!?" he almost yells, "I can't believe you'd have me do all of this for nothing!"

Jesus looks at him and says, "but who did you carry the burden for?"

This story, as told by the pastor this weekend, leaves me with the greatest picture that I can think of for missions, both where many are saved as well as when everything is lost. All is still done for the glory of God.

I hope you lose your job. I hope everything you've worked to make comes to ruin. I hope you fall into a coma. If God finds you strong enough to draw closer to him through your suffering, I hope it happens to you.

Few are the workers.

A view of things to come

Tomorrow will mark my first completed week at Poly since returning from my sister's wedding in D.C. Both experiences have been a blast. On Saturday I'm going to wake up at the turtle-head of dawn and drive the scooter down to Onnuri church so that I can meet up with Kristen at a spiritual gifts retreat. After getting back to Seoul on Sunday afternoon I'm going to put on the biggest pants party in the world.

Everyone can come.
Anyone can wear pants.

But as for today, 5 year old kids love this.

Drowned on the Freeway.

So what's better than driving on a moped at night for an hour?

Doing it in the rain.

And singing at the top of your lungs during redlights.

I love my life.

Also, Toastmasters is mighty nice.