Talented Students

As I walked toward our classroom after lunch today, I could hear loud laughter coming from our room. As I opened the door, I instantly knew why everyone was laughing. Hoon, one of our funniest students was up at the front of the room drawing characters of Josh, myself, Moses (the IWT Korea leader, and Sun-Gun (the University President). Let's just say Hoon has talent - though I think he has made Josh look a bit more like superman than himself.

Chicken Soup...kind of

Yesterday was the traditional 2nd hottest day of the year. In Korea, they celebrate this "hot day" like a holiday of sorts. In honor of this holiday, Koreans prepare a "wonderful dish". A chicken soup of sorts. Now when you think about it, eating soup on a hot day is not the smartest idea in the book - but then again Koreans eat some sort of soup everyday and in my experience it is hot almost everyday. Go figure.

So, at dinner time, the entire university body lined up outside the dinning hall early in anticipation of this "wonderful dish". Josh and I stood in the sun with the rest of our students, and began to get really excited about the chicken. Now, please note we have not eaten chicken since arriving in Korea (this is due to the threat of bird flue). When we got inside this is what was served.



Despite how it looks, it tasted just like Campbell's Chicken and Rice Soup out of can. We just had to pull the chicken off the bones! Can you believe over 400 people were served and entire chicken, not counting those that went back for seconds!

Back in South Korea

After a very long couple of days of travel, I (Misty) have arrived back in Jeju Island. It is wonderful to be back together with Josh and great to be back on campus with our students. Our students have been so welcoming and keep commenting that Josh looks much happier now that I am back:> This morning we started the week with campus wide worship, and I have to say it was great to be with people that are totally different than you, yet have the same heart to worship THE KING.

Yesterday, Josh and I decided to try and fight jet lag and went on a little hiking excursion to Sunset Peak. Sunset Peak is a volcanic crater right by the sea. Of course by the time we got there it was the hottest time of the day with about 100% humidity. These two facts alone almost made me chicken out, until I saw a few Koreans hiking the crater with umbrella's held high to protect themselves from the sun (they take sun protection very seriously here - the lowest Sun Screen protection we could find was rated SPF 47). So after lathering up in sun screen, loading up with two large bottles of water, and caring our umbrella up we climbed the crater. I have to be honest and say I have not sweat that much in ages. Here are a few pics - it really was quite beautiful....


Us at pre-climbing Sunset Peak


The volcanic crater


The view from the top - supposedly you can see Japan from here...on a clear day.


The umbrella was a brilliant idea.


The Volcanic Landscape of Jeju

Update from Jeju

Well we've hit the end of another week of the IWT school here in Jeju. It's been a long week and we have covered a lot of territory revolving around the IWT committee structure and set up, a lot of details. We also talked a lot about public speaking and gave the students and oppurtunity to practice a 15 minute pastors presentation in front of the whole class. I was astounded and the confidence and the way the students put their presentations together, it really showed they have been learning and retaining what has been taught. Every day they amaze me. We finished the week by visiting the stadium here in Jeju city, looking at how we would set it up for IWT. It was a good way to finish a lot of class hours. 2 more weeks to go....

Tonight I'm heading back to the city to have dinner with a pastor from Jeju. He's taking a few of us out for dinner, so that should be the perfect way to end a busy week. Maybe some korean BBQ?

I'm greatly anticipating the return of my beautiful wife tomorrow night, 2 weeks is far too long. Will be excellent to have her back with me again!

Josh

Misty in America

While Josh has been busily working in Korea, I have been visiting friends and family in the USA. In addition to that, I have been hanging out with my beautiful friend Cristina who tied the knot last Friday night. It has been a great time of connection for me with so many I love dearly. Some friends really are for life and some friendship can truly transcend all time and distance. Unfortunately in my attendance of the bride, my camera got left behind....however here are a few pics from my time in Texas.


Pre rehersal dinner gathering. I love these girls!


Some of the bridal party and I at the reception.



Mr. and Mrs. Chris Baatz

Friday....

Well its that time of the week, time to wrap up, rest, and begin preparing for next week. We've had a great week together this week, with great input from Dad on leadership and some helpful principals that will sustain these guys throughout the preparation process of IWT.

It's been amazing weather, blue sky everyday and 28 deg celcious with a beautiful sea breeze. However, I just heard word that this weekend we're going to be having some large thunderstorms, and even as I write this I can see the sun going behind some clouds, some heavy clouds.

One of the things I have learnt about the Korean people this week is that they are a devoted people and they do things to the best of their ability. Also, they know sacrifice, in fact during the asian economic crisis, many koreans gave of their own jewelery and money to help bail the nation out. They're loyal, they're respectful, and they love to learn. I'm learning a lot from them.

Yum!

This week in the IES Seminar in Jeju, we are covering "Leadership and campaign principles". Dad is doing a great job covering a lot of territory in such a short time. Again, you should know that we are trying to fit a 12 week course into 6 weeks. So far so good. The students are eating it up, and are so committed. It's really quite amazing.

For those of you who don't know this, Kimchi is the most famous Korean dish, and that was what was on the menu tonight. Kimchi, also spelled gimchi or kimchee, is a traditional Korean fermented dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings, most commonly referring to the spicy baechu variety. Kimchi is the most common Korean or side dish, eaten with rice along with other side dishes. Kimchi is also a common ingredient and cooked with other ingredients to make dishes such as kimchi stew (kimchi jjigae) and kimchi fried rice (kimchi bokkeumbap).

Yum....!

If you are Korean that is....

Yeah, it's not the best tasting food you can find.

The art of running a red light....

Ok, so I have been to a lot of countries in my few years on planet earth. Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea....just to name a few. In all my visits, I have never seen so many people run red lights as I have in South Korea, especially Jeju Island. If traffic fines were $100 per red light, I think I would have seen about $10,000 worth of fines just in the last 4 hours. It's unbelievable.

I picked up my dad from the airport in Jeju this morning, he's here to speak on the IES. We were just laughing and shaking our heads in disbelief as we watched driver after driver after driver run red lights. I thought NZer's were fairly aggresive drivers, but they have nothing on these South Koreans. Pray for me!

We had a few hours off this afternoon and after a good lunch, we ventured into one of the largest volcanic lava caves in all of the world. You walk down many stairs in this spike, and it goes for about 8 miles into the earth. The Manjung Lava Tubes. It's quite an amazing site really, and very cold. It was great to get off campus and have a breath of fresh air and do somthing different. A great walk, and highly recomendable to anyone visiting these parts.

Here's to a new week! Looking forward to it!

Josh

An unbelievable crew to work with!

Well it's the end of another week here in Jeju. Things are going so well. We've had a HUGE week this week with Mark being here. Things have opened up for IWT considerable. We've had pastors presentation meetings, Church launches, YWAM launches, IWT Lectures, Strategy meetings, and much more. It's been full and exhausting yet oh so rewarding. We're so excited about where things are at and where things are going.

Again....we have the best group of Korean students ever! They are so fast to catch on, incredibly smart, soft hearted, techno savvy, fun, and just into it!

Here's a shot of them!

Class Report....

Class Days 2 and 3 with Mark Anderson have been fantastic. Mark has such a wealth of knowledge and solid theological understanding that even the tangents are fascinating. The students minds have been really challenged as they have attempted to understand such topics as heaven, hell, life after death, the gospel, eschatology, lordship, fundraising, public speaking, and the structure of IWT. It has been great.

Today we took our first trip to the airport, where we dropped of Mark and Moses. Tonight they have meetings in Busan - a city of 3.7 million people located on the southern point of the mainland. Mark will be speaking in a large church which has 10,000 members. So....tomorrow morning we get to try and find our way back to the airport on our own, to pick them up. Good thing they drive on the right hand side of the road. It makes me (Misty) feel much more comfortable.

Its been a jam packed week so far, things are moving forward. We're excited, and are looking forward with anticipation what will hapen in the next few days.

Day 1 with Mark

Today has been very full and it is only half way over. This morning we had a pastor's meetings in the main campus auditorium. Mark gave an excellent message and it seems as though we now have a group of pastors on board with IWT here in Korea.

This afternoon and evening Mark is addressing our class. It is great having him here as he is already addressing many of the traditional mindsets that need to be broken if IWT is to be successful. Here are some pics of the day so far.....

Mark speaking at the Pastors meeting this morning.
Mark addressing our class this afternoon.

Life off campus

The weekend is over and it is time to plunge ahead into another week. Mark Anderson, the founder of IWT is with us this week - so it is sure to be an interesting time. I know things will move forward in monumental ways this week. It always does when Mark is in town.

Saturday was our day for exploring Jeju. Josh and I spent the morning walking around the main city - getting a feel for life here. We found an awesome coffee shop that made fantastic Caramel Macciato's and then met up with rest of our staff. Then we went to a 4 story shopping complex where we walked around trying food samples and putting what we liked into the cart. The power marketing with samples is amazing! Here are a few pics from the day.

Misty with Rahel and Ji Young outside a multi level shopping center.


A typical city street


The rose bushes on campus - as mentioned before


An arrangement made from the roses grown on campus.

First week finished....

Well, we're one week down having finished the teaching for the first week. It's been an extremely full schedule, but we've had a great time bonding with our students. We have fallen in love with them. They're GREAT! Josh and I are in amazement at how quickly they have caught on to the vision Impact World Tour. A lot of paradigms have shifted and God has really been moving in their hearts and challanging each one of them in various areas. There is a real excitement and buzz in the classroom which makes things easy.

Moses and Joanna, the Directors of IWT Korea, are precious people, they really carry Gods heart for this nation, and are doing a great job spearheading the "new thing" that is hapening.

Looking forward to a day of rest. Next week will be even more intense with Mark Anderson coming in.

A Glimpse of Life in Korea

We wanted to give you a glimpse of our life in Korea. Below are some pictures of our life here.



This is the two bedroom house we are living in. It is a 5 minute walk to our office and class room. Rahel (our other staff member) is living with us.


The building on the UofN Campus where our classroom and office is. There are pretty roses all along the path...but I have failed to photograph them as of yet.


Josh and Moses (the IWT director for Korea) teaching at class. translation is always fun.


An all staff prayer and fasting meeting. Koreans love to pray. Hillsong has made it to Korea too....


Us with two other IES staff having dinner. This is real Korean BBQ!

What's Happening!

We are into day three of the Impact Evangelism School here in Korea. We have 13 awesome students who are really switched on and five staff who are also amazing. They know they have been called to bring IWT in to their nation, and it seams to me that each one possesses a steady confidence that is visible. With their families and our staff members, our IWT presence is sitting at 25 people on the University of the Nations campus. Out of 300 staff members, Josh, myself and Rohal, (Rachel in Japanese) are the foreigners. We stick out like sore thumbs. However, we are picking up a little bit of Korean here and there. Our days here have been really full. We start at 8:00 am and have returned home around 9:00pm. Josh has been teaching everyday, so on top of the jet lag, he is exhausted….but doing a great job. We are seeing the Holy Spirit move in power amongst the staff and students It’s so awesome to see the hunger. We are teaching through an interpreter which I am learning is a real talent. I shared this morning and I found it really challenging – so go Josh!

On the fun side of things, last night we went to a Korean BBQ restaurant. We sat with two of our Korean staff members, Chris and Sun Yung and they taught us what to do. We grabbed plates full of marinated Australian beef (yes South Korea is still banning US beef, and the bird flue has eliminated chicken from the menu), pork and vegetables. Then we turned on the BBQ hot plate that sits into the table. After a lot of sizzling, the meat came off the pit. Then we wrapped it and the vegetables in lettuce. It was delicious. For the Americans reading this, think the lettuce wraps at Chili’s and PF Changs, but with more variety. Besides the food, getting to know our staff and gaining insight into Korean culture was awesome. We’re really enjoying it here, and we know God has us here for a purpose.