The boys and I are on vacation! Last week, we went to Elior Camp in Tae-an. This is fairly close to the beach which is great except that it rained a little too much! But the boys enjoyed playing with their friends and I enjoyed listening to sermons related to being children of God. 

Children of God was the theme of this camp. I was in charge of the Bible verses that needed to be memorized before meals. Four days of memorizing verses for breakfast, lunch, and supper does take it's toll on people. Near the end of the last day, the Koreans were more than a little weary from everything and I did extend some grace their way. They were just required to read those verses. It's biblical to give grace, don't you think?

As I meditated on the verses, the theme of suffering kept appearing. After we have suffered a little while, we will enjoy the fellowship and grace that Christ extends and become children of God. We are children of God.

It was good to see old faces and I enjoyed the new people I met. We went swimming on the second day out in the ocean. I remember I was having trouble going completely under water. I was a child playing in front of my maker. I remember taking a nap that afternoon. It was only about twenty minutes but it felt good. I felt like I was being taken care of. God was there. I walked home with two African students. One was from Swaziland and the other was from South Africa. I loved listening to their accented as they compared notes on what had gone on that afternoon. The one was giving the other a hard time about finding a boyfriend. "My mother said that I should study. Don't look around for boys. You can look for a boy back home!" I remembering things that they were just so young and full of life. Children of God.

I taught a short lesson on Zaccheus to the children. They were running around and screaming quite a bit, including Aidan and Jordan! I was trying to teach them a song about Zaccheus and how much he had changed. He did a 180 turn around. That short tax collector was changed by that encounter with Jesus up in the tree. He went from bad to good. He was darkness and became light. He stopped stealing money and probably returned quite a bit of it. Zaccheus was a child of God. 

We wandered in the sand-dunes the following day before it rained. We were dressed in white so it was easy to spot everyone. Jordan, of course, slowed right down until we were close to being dead last. I remember seeing pockets of white and looking out over the ocean. It really was amazing. I had this great picture of what the Red Sea must have looked like right after the big miracle where the waters parted. We then started moving through 'the wilderness'. Sand-dunes just covered the area and I was paying attention to all the flowers that were popping up everywhere. 'The wilderness' really was beautiful. And right on the edge of the sand-dunes were trees. A forest of trees to get lost in. It was a lovely hour where I felt like an Israelite. We wandered, we walked, we enjoyed, we complained. We did everything the Israelites did. 

I also remember the drinks the ladies bought immediately following this. It had started to rain just as we finished and I remember thinking that it was just interesting timing. As we tucked into a small convenience store, the ladies went looking for ice coffee and drinks for the children. Very thirsty children of God. 

This was the theme for the week extending all the way into Sunday night's prayer time. (We pray together as a family every Sunday around 8:00 pm!). Jordan thanked God for lemonade after the English Sunday School was finished! He also thanked God for his brothers and his mom and Dad. Aidan was a little more serious in thanking God for lemonade and lunch. Please notice the L's in that last sentence. He also was thanked God for family and prayed for mommy and daddy. Justin also thanked God for his shoes! And he prayed for God's blessing on our family. 

They are a mischievous bunch but they are my family and I love them all, including that the big one! (Yes, Daddy!) We are all children of God. 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:23 ESV

He has Risen and spring is in bloom. We celebrated Easter Sunday in April and for the first time, I truly understood the beauty of "God is for us". God calls us to accept Christ as Lord and Savior. We come to a realization of our own depravity, our sin. We turn from that depravity to God. We repent and come to faith. The celebration at Easter is more profound then at Christmas. At Christmas, we understand that "God is with us". At Easter, we know that He loves us through the death and resurrection of Christ.

And through the resurrection of Christ and his love, we are aware of how all things grow. I am focusing on the fruit of the Spirit in this post as the boys are growing in these areas in different ways.

Jordan has had some amazing movements into love, joy, and peace.

He is a beautifully emotional boy who cries easily when he does something wrong. Perhaps it is his age, but I see him full of love for his family. Every Sunday night he thanks God for his family and has at least one story about a sweet or great food that he enjoyed over the week.

He expresses his love for family and his delight and joy in friends, food, and family relationships. He smiles delightfully when he talks about his seatmate at school. I still receive sweet expressions of love every evening and morning from this dear child.

He is learning peace. We spend quite a bit of time learning Bible verses from Sunday School during the week. He does this with great enthusiasm most of the time. 

(Jordan being delightfully mischievous!)


Aidan has been working on patience, kindness, and goodness.

This child has an unending amount of patience. He endures teasing from his older brother, and encourages his younger brother to try things when scared.

His endurance for kindness can be seen in his aptitude for service. He enjoys helping around the house. This past Saturday, he did one of Justin's chores. He took out the wet garbage and washed the pail. He returned it to the kitchen perfectly clean and proceeded to show me.

​He also continues to work on goodness through the memorization of Bible verses. This seems to come easily to him and has resulted in fewer emotional outbursts. 

Justin has started high school; he is learning faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

This is the child who had incredible hills and valleys of learning in middle and elementary school. He seems to be getting a grip on faithfulness. He is starting to understand commitment and what Eugene Peterson coined as 'a long obedience in the same direction'.

Faithfulness is becoming a habit! He is learning to breakdown his learning into manageable chunks that are done little by little over a long period of time. He will say, "I am angry" when something happens that he doesn't like, but he does this in his gentle and funny ways. 

Self control is an thing that many adults still aspire to. A little over a month ago, Justin expressed to me that he wanted to be like Aquaman. He wants that actor's build and particularly the long hair. "I am going to get a flat stomach Mom! Then, I am going to work on a six-pack!" Well, he has the flat stomach, and is working on the six-pack.

The fruits of the spirit are about growing in Christ, and they reflect growth in personality. I'm excited to see what will happen with their lives as they grow into who they are in Christ. 

The fruit of the spirit are about growing in Christ, and they reflect growth in personality. I'm excited to see what will happen with their lives as they grow into who they are in Christ. 

We all grow in the fruit of the Spirit. We are saved by God and then we grow into who he calls us to be, but we all grow into love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Which of these virtues are you contemplating lately? 

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Just one more shot that happened this morning! Too good not to post!

In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8 
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The turn in the weather has a blessed thing here in South Korea. The sun shines, the temperature climbs, and March has beautifully come in.

Our family has enjoyed March as a season of beginnings. The school year has started, the new semester has begun for my husband and myself, and the season of Lent has started.

Aidan passed a Taekwondo test a few weeks ago. He, of course, was brilliant on the day of the test! I am one proud momma! And we are still waiting for him to bring home the actual belt. 
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Aidan's birthday was March 21st, but it was much more like a birthday week!

On the Sunday before, he had no problem putting up his hand in church when the announcer asked if there were any birthdays. He gleefully accepted a box of chocolates. I was not surprised when he asked if he could eat a few before lunch, but I told him to wait. He enjoyed most of the box after Sunday School.

On the actual day, we went out to eat at the one and only Uzbeki restaurant in Jochiwon. Justin also brought him special chicken on that day which all of the boys ate on the way to the restaurant. Aidan ordered a really lovely pork and rice dish, but he couldn't finish it all. 

We let him have a couple of friends over on Friday night for a pajama party and sleep over. They had a great time eating pizza and cake, drinking cola, and playing games on their devices until 11:00! Apparently, this was way past their bed time for all of them. Interestingly, they all got up early to play more games together, enjoyed chocolate pancakes for breakfast, and went off to spend the afternoon together.

In other news, Justin has started high school, and can't you tell from this picture that he is quite proud of his uniform? LOL!

I admit that I am not exactly comfortable with him going to high school. What happened to that energetic, rambunctious young boy who bounced around like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh? He grew up! 

We prayed for him the night before he started. I hugged and cried my eldest boy and the reality of it all set in. I hope and pray that he will continue to improve himself in high school! Strive on to bigger and better things young man!

And for those of you who are wondering, it's an all boys school! There are only a handful of female teachers, so he will not be learning how to flirt or any of those other skills that are necessary for relationships of the opposite sex! Mom will continue to be the main woman in his life for now.
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And Jordan! A wonderful mischief maker, lemonade stealer (yes, the lemonade in the picture was mine), and all around fun kid! This is the child who still get excited about dances with Mom, picture books, and hidden cookies in the pantry.

This is my sweet trinity of sons. Our home is full of love, and I am blessed by each of them.

And I need to end with the man who has been with me for over twenty years. Hansung Kim is a husband, friend, father, professor, and part-time singer. Next month, we get to celebrate his birthday.

For now, I just thank God for all of these gifts. Aidan, Justin, Jordan, and Hansung. 

But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children--
Psalm 103:17

Summer vacation started last week. The boys and I finished our classes at the end of the week. I had everything finished, including the grading, by Friday at 2:00 and everyone was home at 3:00 in the afternoon! We celebrated over the weekend with some easy homemade meals, family movie night, and an evening at the spa for the whole family (this probably seems strange to all the westerners reading this unless you have been th Korea and enjoy the Jimjilbang or 짐질방).

Earlier this week we went up into Seoul to visit Hansung’s sister and grandma!  I managed to get the boys to write letters and buy a little gift for both ladies before the big event. Grandma genuinely enjoyed reading their letters and clapped her hands when each grandson finished. This then turned into a sing-song for the next 30 minutes. Aidan and Jordan sang children’s songs in Korean, Justin sang an Italian opera song that he had memorized in music class last year and my hubby joined in on that one after looking up the lyrics. The singing continued in Korean with Hansung’s sister and her husband singing old Korean country songs. I was gearing up for Edelweiss because I thought grandma would recognize it when the whole event ended. Grandma was tired from all the young stimulation in the room. The art of the song was more noisy stimulation than actual art!

I laughed when she called me an excellent woman for taking care of three boys. I leaned in and told her it was actually four boys and she burst out in hysterics. It was a good visit and I think we gave her some good memories!

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It turns out little boys know swear words in Korean and it was time to put a stop to it. 

“If you swear, you have to eat soap! It will make your mouth clean and take out all those dirty words!”

Jordan replied to this without missing a beat! “Mom, you too! No swearing!” I agreed.

It turns out that soap has only been eaten once to change someone’s language. Yes, it was the little guy!

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Justin has inspired to the boys to burst into short sentences from Black Panther. He taught Aidan and Jordan “Ee Pompei” which is some kind of war cry. They all break out with this whenever more than two of them are in trouble!

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Aidan was the first place winner for cute sayings when he woke up, rolled over, and declared, “I want to sleep forever but I should get up!”

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i have been thinking a lot about language from stories that keep us connected. We have been reading Kate Di Camillo’s Mercy Watson series. (If you haven’t read these, you really should! They are hilarious stories about a pig that basically lives as a child, not a pet!) There is a great part about two-thirds of the way through the first book where the pig is described. “She is amazing! ... She is unbelievable! She is a porcine wonder!”

These are great lines that the kids have been using around the house. Jordan finished his meal the other night and Aidan declared, “HE is amazing! ... He is unbelievable! He is a porcine wonder!” It was a great family moment with Justin and myself busting with laughter.

Stories connect us in special ways. Of course, there are amazing benefits in terms of academics, improved listening skills, improved vocabulary, but I love how other stories have become a part of the way my children and I speak to each other! They get to experience another life, learn from it, and apply it to their own! Magic and astonishment in a new way! 

Narratives of all kinds bless us. Even those epic narratives in the Bible!
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