Volume One
bwa-bushka diaries | index
- volume one (july 3 - 14) | lite version
- volume deux (july 14 - 23)
- volume trois (july 24 - the end of time)
Saturday, July 3, 2004
8:09am
We're set to leave in about 2 hours. After Sunday, 11 hours on the plane from LAX, we have basically lost an entire day, going from 12:20 am Thursday night to 5:30am Saturday morning. It's a five hour flight to Vlad, and then...??? Who knows what the agenda is... right now, little Jennifer is playing video games (zelda III) on my laptop. Wish we had more plug converters.
We met a group of missionsaries from Young Nak LA at LAX going to Afghanistan (although not to Kabul, like the team from SBC Houston)... we met a set of parents going to Vladivostok for a child adoption... and another group going to Vladivostok from Sydney down under. Jennifer is the adopted child of one of the couples, and she is the cutest little thing. The parents were hoping to be able to meet up with her real mother while in Korea, but apparently that didn't work out. Right now, Mike Mulder and her are playing Mario golf. There is also a HUGE group of Koreans headed to Tokyo to sing/evangelize in Japan. As Pastor Jimmy said, "They have a tough job... you know how hard it is to evangelize in Japan?"
We still have absolutely no idea what to expect. :) But it's all good. We start teaching in 2 days!!! Crazy!
Bulgogi Kimbap for $4... Now that's crazy. Good stuff.
Sunday, July 4, 2004
7:40am
Amazingly I have very little jet lag here. I suppose it'll strike on the way back to the states. I woke up and read "5:09am" on my iPod feeling very awake, thinking I had plenty of time to spare before our 7:30am start. Unfortunately I forgot to push the time zone up 2 hours... and we are now about 10 minutes behind... so... We're here! The facilities are pretty nice - PJ keeps dogging us that we have it too nice... Me, PJ, and Hannah and a few others were exchanging jabs at dinner yesterday about how "the facilities don't make the experience" and how we can "concentrate without distractions since we have good facilities", etc etc etc. Yeah... PJ kinda shot us down... :) We got to meet all of the missionaries here, including Dae's parents (doode, the similarities in mannerisms between him and his mom are spooky!). We visited the beachside-site next to the trans-siberian railway... that was beautiful. The picture you see at the top of this page was taken there. The dreams they have for this place are totally eye-opening... The phrase "God-sized dreams" is one that is so often overused, and even then almost doesn't do it justice... but that's exactly what they are. The purpose of our stay here is still not totally clear but if this is a glimpse, then... wow. The sun sets here at around 10pm... at 8 or 9pm, it still looks like early evening. Maybe this has something to do with why they are 2 time zones ahead of Korea, despite being almost directly north. Today is the only Sunday we're spending on-site, if I'm not mistaken... and we're performing a Body Worship or two. So we'll see how it goes. Girls get the showers in the morning, guys in the evening. BTW... it is a PAIN typing with an injured middle finger on the right hand. Can't open up an html tag without struggle - UGH! But it's time to get dressed for breakfast/worship... so off I go.12:52pm
After lunch, it is official: We are NOT losing weight on this mission trip.
In a few hours, we will be administering the placement test for the english classes. There are 50-some-odd students, median age of 11, ranging from 4 to 21+, and five class levels. It is up to us to determine who goes where. Nobody else is going to take that responsibility off of us. Scary? Sure. We'll see how it goes.
Quote of the day: not actually a quote, but one of the multiple-choice questions on the diagnostic exam which asked for a proper social response to a question:
Hi, may name is Allen.A-L-L-E-N
Monday, July 5, 2004
4:29pm
Wow. Okay, soo.... we administered the placements tests, and as we could have predicted, they were basically useless. The curriculum we brought to teach is - for the most part - not applicable. We can teach out of it, but... these kids are not gonna be able to really relate to the level that these books are aimed at - adults trying to learn english. What is a 10-year old kid that barely speaks english gonna know about naming the stars of the movie Cinema Paradiso? And by the way... the food here is GREAT. But that's old news, right? I think by now - after a full day of teaching - most of us are thoroughly exhausted. I know I am... I'm lying down on my bed as I write this. The kids for the most part seem receptive, if not overwhelmed. I mean... their background does not qualify them to be learning on this sort of level. I mean... this teaching material is seriously college-level stuff. Varying degrees of college stuff, but... college stuff nevertheless. Quote of the day belongs to Danny Kim, during the lunch break, while standing in line, to me and Dae Hong:"Dude... I thought I liked kids........ Pastor Jimmy gets an honorable mention for his "hostess" crack... (the "use the word 'hostess' in a sentence... ask somebody if you don't know). It'll be interesting to see the relationships and interactions we'll be able to build with the kids in the 14 teaching days we have remaining. It'll be interesting to see how many more fruit spiders we'll see in our room... the one we killed this morning was disgusting. It was fat. As in... chubby fat. Don't think it looked poisonous (of course its hard to tell I suppose just by glancing at it)... but still gross. Wonder if the kitten outside would eat it... meow-meow geting some eentsy-weentsy chow-chow. ^_^ Time for a nap.
late night | post devotional
"I'm sorry for the things I've made it... it's all about You."Tuesday, July 6, 2004
early morning | devotional
"...it covers me... it covers me... it covers me...grace flows down and covers me..." You know, going out on missions doesn't necessarily change your basic persona. The things that you struggle with back home, will find a way to find you almost anywhere... even on a mission trip two-thirds of the way around the world. Focus is something I really need to aim for.
8:07pm | all your ping pongs are belong to us
I woke up this morning in the dark, feeling like we've been here forever... and yet as of this morning, we'd been here for less than 72 hours. The electricity went out in the middle of the night and stayed off for most of the day. Without a working alarm clock, most of us to wake up pretty late. I knew it was a bad sign when I woke up, realized that everyone else was still asleep, and saw that it was bright outside. Luckily the sun came out and gave us enough light through the windows for us to be able to read in class. Given our surroundings, I honestly was bracing myself to be without electricity for the rest of the week. The power came back on at lunchtime to the joyful screams of all of the kids. We had Choco-pies and Milkis for snacktime! Wheeeeeeeee!
We have been challenged to redefine the word missionary, both in our own minds and also in the minds of those back home. I wonder what it will be like when we get back to Austin... honestly, I have not been looking forward to returning. Because the truth is, it'll probably be like we were never gone to the people that are back there.
We are done with our first two full days of teaching. And like anything else, the second day was exponentially better than the first. The kids in our level 3 class seem to be accepting the workload and the material that we are teaching them, and Dae seems to be having a fairly good experience teaching the level 4 class, though I'm not sure how the rest of the folks are fairing. It appears as if we're going to be doing a little bit of re-shuffling between the level 2 and level 3 classes, bumping our roster size up to 8, and shrinking Christine's class down to 4. We started doing songs after snacktime with motions, and I give mad props for getting into the motions for "nothing, nothing, nothing" and "deep down" :p
I played my first match of ping pong today, hence the entry title. Table tennis is absolutely dominating our siesta tiempo here. My body feels like it may be a few hours off, because I can eat like anything during breakfast and lunch, but my stomach can't take anything down at dinnertime.
It looks as if we could honestly finish this trip without speaking a single syllable of Russian. Personally, that's not outside of what I expected... but I wonder if the folks back home would be at all taken aback with that... I wonder what it's going to be like when we get back.
Our internet up here is limited to a dial-up on a Windows 98 (Korean Language) laptop that runs IE5.0, which prevents me from checking my Gmail. I appeared to have 88 e-mails on my actsaustin account, which I almost immediately closed without reading. No blog updating, no photoalbum uploading, nothing. None of that. And that's fine. :)
Quote of the day? Pastor Jimmy Han, in reference to one of our students asking whether British english or American english should get precedence: It's American, man. [dramatic pause] We won the war.
Game night is coming next Thursday.
13 more days of class.
Wednesday, July 7, 2004
11:32pm | post devotional | without politicians III
This particular post will be more of a personal one, and doesn't necessarily pertain to the rest of the mission team... hence the red-letter. That said...
[removed for this public blog]
You know, as I'm sitting here listening to "Grace Flows Down", typing out this... long... blurb... I feel like Tom Cruise in "Jerry Maguire", writing out the "mission statement" on the heels of a bad slice of pizza that led to his demise which led to his rebirth. I honestly think that we at Acts are in for a seriously rude awakening. Take away our college town, and Acts - like many English Ministry church plants that are struggling to support themselves - would be one step from death. Do people realize that?
it is now... 11:55pm
I don't know... I mean... there are so many random thoughts flying through my head right now... are churches really becoming more "missions-minded"? Or is that just our way of paying lip service to that trend? Is missions something that we mistakenly associate with being "out there"? Is missions something that we mistakenly associate with being an event? Because really, true missions is everywhere. everyday. every moment. It's not something I had to fly 3/4 of the world to experience, and I knew that before I signed up for this. I just hope that the people back home will be able to realize this.
I know back home, some people are looking at the pictures we posted from the LA leg of our trip, and some are gonna be looking at the pictures of the girls, knowing that we sent five brothers, concocting up juicy stories in their heads. For the um-teenth time, I am not looking forward to going back. Well... let me ammend that. I'm looking forward to the challenge of going back... because in all honesty I think it will be a greater challenge returning to Austin than it was to come out here to Vladivostok. I almost feel like this is a sabbatical for me... a retreat from the world as I've come to know it. I also did my laundry today, and fully expect it to take about 2 days to dry. :p I also got stuck on the toilet for 10 minutes after lunch today... horrible. ahhhhhhh.
I seem to be almost fully adjusted to the timezone... Dae has lent us wristwatches, something we were all sorely missing in the lack of our cellphones. Geez, we're so dependant on our cellphones, it's kinda sad. Tomorrow is Thursday (well, technically, it is now 12:07am, so it's Thursday now, but my motto is "it's not tomorrow until the sun comes up"), which is close to the end of our first full week of teaching. Only 12 more teaching days. Is that rat-nuts or what?
Good night.
Thursday, July 8, 2004
random notes
Han Dong University came in this afternoon for Friday's performance. Class today was tough, and although it went fairly smoothly (compared to yesterday's fiasco), a number of us seemed especially exhausted afterwards. We had evening service today at 7:30 where we performed "Testify"... I went to take a shower afterwards only to hear girls' voices in the shower room... only to have Dae bail me out and hook me up with a shower in his parent's apartment. Quote of the Day: Danny to Christine: "Do you consider yourself to be a tomboy?"Mike to Danny: "Do you consider yourself to be a sissy?" Honorable mention: Mike to Ray while wrestling: "Surrender. Surrender."
Friday, July 9, 2004
5:09pm | thank GOD it's Friday!
Wow. We've made it through our first Friday. I mean... like... WOW. Like... Friday is done, and we're still alive. The group from Han Dong is performing their drama right now, and I'm typing this from my usual seat in the cafeteria. The quasi-chamber orchestra they had was really good stuff. Actually, most of their performances are really good stuff - the DC Talk spiff not withstanding. We did a Switchfoot song with our class today. Tough stuff. According to ESPN.com a couple of days ago, the Lakers were in the process of finalizing a contract with Rudy T., supposedly a day after Coach K (yes, the one from Duke) turned down a $40M/5 year offer from Mitch Kupchak. Crazy, eh? oh well... just a few sniffs of what we're skipping out on :p
Hannah Lee spent a good chunk of last night trying to dissect and psychoanalyze me... odd. But... strangely... it was kinda refreshing. Most people don't bother delving into my persona to such a deep degree... I mean... I certainly don't do that with myself. And maybe it was good to look into myself for once... I think I've been... kinda... hiding for a long time... perhaps from myself, perhaps from everyone around me.
As I think back to what's going on back home, there's a handful of thoughts that my mind turn towards... [deleted for this public blog]
I wonder if I'll be closer to any major life decisions when I return to Austin... I'm beginning to realize that this time away is making it easier for me to detach myself from Acts... and possibly prep myself for moving on. Honestly... I think I'm ready for that. I think I'm ready to move on... something I couldn't quite say a year or two ago. But if I had to leave I think it would be rather easy for me. And maybe it's time. Maybe it's time.
Sunday Night, July 11, 2004
12:04am
Folks back in Austin should just be getting ready for church. Meanwhile, we just finished up one heck of a packed weekend. Saturday was spent touring Vladivostok, where we had BBQ pork (I forget the Russian name), toured an upscale shopping mall, bought some food at the supermarket, and witnessed Hyung almost getting arrested for "shoplifting" an ice cream bar.
Today was spent in Ussirysk (sp?) for morning worship (cool stuff!), followed by some fellowship (aka, circle games such as "aaaasa" and "do you love your neighbor"), followed by a tour of a mafia building-turned-church, followed by a tour of some agriculture buildings that were help put up by GSC. We had cake and cream-puffs to celebrate Hanmi's birthday after getting home, some of which was used to cake her ^_^. The guys then went into the sauna and that was GREAT.
Quotes of the weekend:
Pastor Jimmy while handing out a batch of Nestle Mesa ice cream bars: "Hey! Don't mess around!"
(oh btw, that was around when Hyung almost got us busted for shoplifting :p)
Han Dong's website addy: hdmnt.cyworld.com - look for MNT.
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
1:25pm
Most of our classes finished up our first exam today, and we are now in the middle of watching "Pirates of the Caribbean" :p. Hannah got the cutest bear-shaped birthday cake today... so cute that even I wasn't able to smear it in her face, despite the prank she played by stealing our room key last night while the brothers were in the sauna. Incidentally, the guys have gone to the sauna the last 2 evenings and we've had some rather involving discussions. Many good points were brought up. Among them: do we need to start differentiating between "missions" and "evangelism"? I really do feel like this trip is going to change our attitudes on missions more than anything, which in all honesty, is about what I expected coming in.
(speaking of "teddy bears"... :p ) Meanwhile in our "pleasure" hours, we've all been playing plenty of Puzzle Fighter to keep our skills sharp :p. I was able to check my Gmail for the first time last night, and amazingly, I haven't really gotten any crucial e-mails since we left LA. Tonight some of the parents are taking us out to a Canadian restaurant for dinner... should be interesting. I think most of us are starting to get a feel for our kids. Yesterday I played "ABCD" with them, and I think our class is starting to build some bonds. A good chunk of the older kids were singing praise songs in the sanctuary today, they seem to be rather musically inclined, especially the one guy in Mike's level 2 class. Gona is a pretty good singer as well. Quotes of the day, from yesterday: "But we're in Russia!" (Christine, in a context that had something to do with legal drinking ages...) "He's not girly, he's just British!" (Ray, in reference to Hugh Grant) "Noone said ya'll can't come..." (Ray again, in reference to the girls joining the brothers in the sauna) "Vwaaaaa!!!" (Christine making a new sound effect while dying in Puzzle Fighter... hehe)
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
4:09pm | The Beautiful Letdown
I can't believe we're at the midway point of our trip. Right now, I am totally and thoroughly exhausted. I'm listening to the title track of the new Matt Redman record, which appropriately echoes the words, "I fall face-down... as your glory shines around".let's start with yesterday (tuesday evening)...
I can't believe I contemplated skipping the dinner out with the parents to get some sleep in my dorm room. The restaurant we went to was in the Vlad Hotel, and was the fattest dinner we could possibly have had. The restaurant was the consummate American experience (even though it was technically a Canadian restaurant). Though I craved a hamburger, I went for the $35 Chicago Veal Chops. Mmmmmmm ^_^ The hors d'eurves were fantastic... shrimp, caesar salad, potato skins with bacon bits, and Cherries Jubilee for dessert!!! (oh... btw... it was Hannah's 21st birthday... and you know that teddy bear cake that I said was too cute to smear in her face? I smeared it anyway :p Christine got it on video too! wheeeee!) And get this: The restrooms had paper towels! There was an American consulate having dinner at the next table, and he seemed quite happy to hear the chattering of voices with American accents.
After we got back, we met briefly with the KCCC team, then met with our team for a pretty involving discussion out of 1 Corinthians 10:13 and Galatians 2:11-21 on New Testament legalism about how "everything is acceptable but not everything is beneficial". Salvation is gained by one thing alone, and that is faith to Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins. Yes we in the 21st century often suggest by our lifestyles and our attitudes that there is more that is necessary to be proper Christians. For instance, how many times at Acts have we thought to ourselves, "If you're in a frat or sorrority, you're not a real Christian"... or "if you smoke and drink, you're not really a Christian"... maybe that sounds ridiculous on first read... but let's face the truth - it happens in our society.
So what dictate the boundaries of what is acceptable in our actions as Christians? On one side of the spectrum, you have the train of thought that anything which does not cause other people to stumble is acceptable. On the other hand, if you allow that which is acceptable to others to shape the boundaries of how you live, then you are essentially allowing the opinions of other human beings to shape your faith. So how does one strike a good balance?
Pastor Jimmy mentioned that he has only once on his clock said to someone, "You're not a Christian". It was to a fellow that completely embellished himself in drugs and sex and alcohol with absolutely no remorse or regret. And yet, this individual was so well trained, that he made a very aggressive and scripture-based (yet not scripturally-correct) argument to justify his behavior. The point was, this fellow was well trained and nobody had ever confronted him about his lifestyle. Which begs the question: How many of us continue to live in sinful ways without being confronted by anyone? I think a lot of us are never confronted or held fully accountable for the things we do, in regards to the way we choose to live our lives as Christians.
Another interesting point of discussion which was brought up went something like this: If one of my freshmen came up to me and confronted me to say something like: "Hey, I heard you occasionally drink alcohol... I don't think that Christians should drink and I'm really stumbled by that. As a servant in the church, I can't believe that you drink!"... if one of my freshmen ever came up to me and said that, I honestly wouldn't really know how to respond. I mean... maybe now that I've had the better part of a day to ponder it but... drinking is not biblically wrong (although drunkeness is a different matter).
Anyway... one of the biggest points made was that if we can't reform the way we present Christianity... the way we open up our doors to the church... then our evangelism efforts will simply herd people towards a church which in turn will disgust people with its hypocritically uninviting atmospheres and turn them back away from whence they came. And that is a big problem.
Our meeting ended with prayer for the other mission teams from both of our churches... something we probably haven't done enough of. Most of us didn't get to bed until just after 1am... Paul, Christine, and I graded our tests afterwards and didn't get to bed until 2am... which is why we were all looking like zombies for breakfast today.