February has been a bit of blur of activity!  The boys have been busy with books and work. I took a class entitled Foundations of Women’s Ordination with the Nazarene Bible College, and I have done various things at church including Children's Church, attending a board meeting and our teachers meeting, and even a read-aloud seminar. Did you know that there are denominations that have grown out of Methodism that are quite positive about ordaining women? But let’s start with the boys… 

Let’s start with Justin. My first son has had some go-rounds during this break. When he finished SuNeung (Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test) he threw away a huge number of books and proceeded to spend most of his time on the PlayStation. Which game? I am not even sure of the name, but I do know there were guns involved. Fast forward to three months later, and he has changed quite a bit. He got a full-time job making walnut cookies, leaving at 7:15 in the morning. He comes home around 3:00 or 4:00 depending on how busy it is. 

He is also excited about going to university!  Wednesday night I saw him sitting on the floor with his new Ipad. He was loving it. Justin was connecting some other items he had bought, and he was playing with different apps. Later on at supper, he was making jokes with his father, carrying on like an adult. It is almost like he is ready to be sent off to university! 

Aidan has also grown. He is entering middle school, and this child loves to study! He and Jordan go to a Study Room in the mornings from 10:00 to 11:30. He also is okay with sitting at his desk in the afternoons for about three hours. I do take Aidan and Jordan swimming so they do get some exercise and to just contrast all the sitting that is going on.
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We do read-alouds as well. This week, we were reading another book from the rather endearing Mr. Putter and Tabby series and Mercy Watson, a fun and ridiculous story about a pet pig and her adventures by Kate DiCamillo. Aidan was refusing to come down from the bunk bed, so I held up the book from where I was sitting on the floor.  I heard Aidan speak very slowly…

“‘Have some more, dear,’ Mrs. Watson said in her sleep. ‘Eat up, yum, yum.” 

And then this: “Mom, What does yum, yum mean?”

“That is similar to ‘it’s delicious’. Mercy Watson sure does love toast with butter on it.”

He seemed satisfied, and he continued to read. When we were finished he said, “Mom, I want some yum, yum food!”

He proceeded to the kitchen to make noodles, and I reflected on the fact that Mercy and Aidan were not that different in wanting to eat yum, yum food. 

And now to Jordan who is a little under the weather today. This one has discovered the glory of the bigger screens! He inherited Aidan’s laptop the cascade of moving devices caused by my husband’s purchase of an Ipad for Justin. Justin gave his laptop to Aidan, and Aidan gave his laptop to Jordan. Jordan still has a small, hand-held unit. 

We were dancing to Sing, Sing, Sing, a rather simple worship song that we are using for Children’s Church. He enjoyed watching the video on that big screen and dancing to it. I was pleased.

I just want to say that it is awesome when all three of my children are progressing in behavior. It means that some of what my husband and I are doing is working!

My last little piece is about the class I was taking from the Nazarene Bible College. We read an amazing book entitled Emboldened by Tara Beth Leach. In it, she calls the church to be the church. Women can be called by the Holy Spirit to pastor. This actually goes back to John Wesley and Holiness Movement in the 18th Century. I know he was open to women in ministry due to being raised by a mother who taught all of her children about the Bible. I know he changed his mind about women being ordained about half way through his life. I know that Phoebe Palmer wrote The Promise of the Father, a theological piece on Acts 2 about how the Holy Spirit came down.

And this is where I will leave you today. The Holy Spirit changes things. He changes you, and he changes me. He has changed by children, and he continues to change children around the world through prayer and reading of God’s word. Be faithful to what God is calling you to do.

Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6
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Mercy Watson to the         Mr. Putter and Tabby          The Captain of the                  Rescue                       Turn the Page                     Storm

This month there was relief from CoVid 19. The boys have gone back to school. My husband has gone back to work. Everyone is being careful to not get infected.

Just as spirits were beginning to rise, I watched the video of George Floyd being killed by the police. I looked at my children differently that night. I was thankful for their lives. I was thankful for the fact that we are very far removed from what is going on. I was just thankful.

I was also a little disturbed. The boys and my hubby carried on as usual. I was disturbed because it seems like I was the only person who was thinking about George Floyd. I was also thinking about Breanna and the myriad of other names that we should know but the memories have faded.

I was more than a little curious about race relations when I was a teenager. My mother had encouraged me to read To Kill a Mockingbird. I remember being enraptured by that world. I also read Cry the Beloved Country, a novel about apartheid in South Africa that was just as beautiful and poignant as To Kill a Mockingbird. 

Justin and I had a conversation about George Floyd and it went something like this:

"You are blessed Justin."
"Why?"
"You look Caucasian."
"I suppose I do. No yellow here!"

God bless that child for making jokes.

Aidan looked at the TV screen carefully. He took it in with his eyes. They flickered and he scrunched his nose. He didn't say anything. 

Jordan was not in the room when the rest of us saw the video. He was playing a game somewhere. I am not sure he would have understood that the officer had been on the man's neck for nine minutes. He probably would have thought it was a video game of some kind. 

We turned off the screens for a while. We turned them back on and saw all the demonstrations that were taking place all over the world. 

The following week KOTESOL, a non-profit for English teachers, put out a statement saying that black lives do matter. I was a little stunned, but thought it was good that people were being supportive of what was going on in the U.S..

Was the situation accentuated by CoVid 19? I think the fact that so many people were at home has made it a reality. 

It rocked my world. Why wouldn't it rock somebody else's?

In the end, I pray. 

I ask the kids to pray.

Everything about 2020 has been disturbing. 

It started with classes I was taking.

Then it was CoVid 19.

Then it was 19 hours teaching a week while taking a class online.

Then it was George Floyd. 

Then it was a CoVid 19 scare. 

I pray for change.

I pray in the morning. 

I pray during the day.

I pray at night.

I pray for my family.

I pray for people who are living in poverty.

I pray for people who need a little assistance.

I pray for black lives.

I pray for leaders.

I thank God for all the good, small things around me.

I pray to God for all the terrible, horrible things that I know need change. 

I pray.

I pray for Justin, Aidan, and Jordan. 

Praying is starting to feel like breathing.

And that is really what I want you to know.

Love and justice are trying to breathe.

Amen. 

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

It's the middle of January with record low temperatures here in Jochiwon.  The kids, the students, the parents, and the adults all want to hibernate.  This morning I enjoyed watching Jordan go from sleeping with out any covers to wrapping himself in the covers and pulling them over his head!  It was adorable up until the point where his brothers came in and tried to wake him up.  He even said, "Do I really have to get up?  This bed is soft and cozy and the air is cold!"  In many ways, I concur.

​We had a delightful Christmas!  The boys almost enjoyed opening up a ton of books on Christmas morning, and they were even more thrilled with Safari Walkie Talkies, new devices, and a cold coffee drip for the big guy!  I, of course, pulled together a turkey dinner that took over three hours to put together from start to finish.  I made sure they ate leftovers for the rest the day and into New Years.  The beautiful thing about Christmas really is turkey leftovers!

The other beautiful part of the holiday was New Years Day.  We had quite the slow morning and afternoon doing very little.  About mid-afternoon, we went to KongJu to visit the bathhouses.  I delighted in this because I was alone for an hour without anyone asking for something or dropping something on the floor!  

The real highlight came afterwards when we drove to Outback Steak House for our New Years Supper! This supper had been months in the planning.  Justin had mentioned to Hansung back in the spring that he wanted to earn money and take everyone out on Christmas or New Years Day (he was remembering a Christmas dinner from many years ago when we only had one son!).  My husband promised to give Justin 100 000 won if he got 100 points on any test that he took this year.  Around midterms, Justin achieved the impossible and earned 100 points on the science section of his exams!  Justin proudly took that money and hid it away.  He also managed to get Aidan and Jordan in on the fun as well.  They had more than enough money to pay for everyone's meal!

Justin, of course, took great delight in the ribs that Outback Steakhouse is famous for.  Aidan was the real highlight to watch that night!  I thought the child's eyes were going to bug out of his head when he saw all the food that laid out in front of him.  He tasted absolutely everything which is something for a child who is rather picky.  He tried the chili and the mushroom soup starters, ate some of Jordan's fries, and ate a full plate of baby back ribs.  I don't think I had ever seen the child eat that much food ever!

A few days later, Aidan had a great scheme in his head that he asked his daddy about.  He has decided that he is going to save money to take the family on a trip.  He was asking about prices on airfare, accommodation, and food for traveling overseas.  This is still in its infancy stage, but I believe he will make a trip to Japan happen sometime in the not so distant future!