Hey Fam/friends. Sorry for the long hiatus away from our blog. I realized tonight that we needed to update everyone who still checked this thing on some prayer requests (mainly one: see #3) that are pressing.
1) Betsy is sick — Not too sick. She has had a cough for a couple weeks and just came down with a fever. We are going to the doctor tomorrow. Please pray that the doctor would be given wisdom as to what is the best measure to take and that our director at school would give her a day or two off if she needs it.
2) I am giving a sermon at church this week. With Bets being sick and our decision pending, I haven’t been able to focus on it as much as I would like. Pray that the Lord would give me quality time to work on it and that it would speak to our community.
3) Finally, and the thing that is weighing on us the most. We have 3 1/2 months left on our contract and have to let our director know by the end of the month if we will resign for one more year. There are other options, like signing with another school or coming home. Pray for God to give us wisdom and peace as he leads us in this decision.
Thank you for your prayers and support. We love you all.
Hello folks. Sorry for the long hiatus away from the blogosphere. Life has been really busy here the last 2 months. We can’t catch you up all at once, but thought we would give you a little flavor of the culture here in Korea. This is a quick overview of our vacation we took during our week off of teaching. We went to Gyeongju, which is known for its rich Korean Heritage (capital of the old Korean Kingdom). We took a bus 4 hours south and this is what we saw…
James was drawn to Gyeongju for its history, and Bets was drawn for its location (close to the beach!).
That’s the Sea of Japan and an underwater tomb (the rocks) of King MunMu (AD 400 or something like that)
Biggest Buddhist Temple in Gyeongju
Anapji Pond. Where the Kings held parties for all the big shots like 1,500 years ago.
Oldest astrological structure in the Far East. Just look up!
The lake next to our hotel (the sunset reminded us that our Maker
makes all the man made stuff look like Lincoln Logs and Legos)
Praise God for time to get away and connect before the start of the second half of our school year.
Prayer requests:
Love and understanding for one another in Marriage
Hearts that love and trust Jesus and are willing to follow him either back to the States or here in Korea for another year (or wherever else He may want us)
That our church (Covenant Church) would grow its capacity and desire to give away the good news of Jesus Christ to the lost in Seoul.
Seoul is a metropolis of approximately 25 million people (including all of the satellite cities/suburbs), and we were able to experience the clutter that that amount of humanity in one place can create. Here is a video that gives you a picture of what a bus ride back from church looks like in beautiful, but crowded Seoul.
In Lecheler news, we are currently on vacation and about ready to take a short trip across the countryside to see some sights in Korea. Please pray for us as we prepare for the second half of our first year here in Korea. We want to give our lives selflessly away to others for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ, but we know that first we must know him and what he has done for us on the cross. Would you pray that we would encounter Him over this break and be refreshed and ready to do work during the second half of our year in Korea? Thanks and much love from James and Bets
That’s how the Koreans say our Church name: Covenant.
This is a group of us foreigners taking the membership vows into Covenant Church.
Playing some soccer with church boys (James’ friend Chris) (In Background on top of the bridge: 1988 Olympic flame)
Grubbing with the church folk. Yes, that is a full chicken in the soup.
Ephesians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. ”
This community has been that spiritual blessing for us. Pray that it would grow in quality and quantity and that we would all see Jesus more clearly at Covenant church.
I’ll leave you you with one last video. This our friends Chris and Mike singing a Metallica song at a Nor-a-bong (karaoke). You’ll see a few of the faces of the people that we have come to know and love these last few months.
Every few blocks in Seoul it’s common to be met with a peculiar stench. This aroma is so awful, it can’t even be stopped by the beautiful gardens of roses nearby.
Very small James looking up at me in our apartment on the 9th floor. He’s just about to hop a bus to go hang out with some guys.
Pre-haircut
During haircut
Post haircut and polishing off the last of the watermelon.
This shot almost made it into Vogue…then they realized she was a little confused as to how to button her sweater.
A for effort
Lotte World…Where all your “Asian” dreams come true…
First of all, this post has nothing to do with the 90′s Sandra Bullock chick flick. Secondly, for the less quick ones out there, our daytime in Korea is your nighttime in the States. So let this blow your mind; all this stuff we are doing is while you are sleeping.
Here are two eventful things to catch you up on….
1) Andrea Bocelli
Some friends of ours (Seth and Anna Schuett) came up for the weekend from Daegoo, Korea. They were going to an Andrea Bocelli concert in Seoul. Betsy and I decided we couldn’t go because the tickets were too expensive, but I used that excuse to surprise her with tickets. The surprise came on the day of the concert. She was pumped! I was sick…but it was still really fun (as much fun as opera can be for a guy : )
Here is a video of the concert. As you can tell, we were in the nose bleeds, and sorry about the sound. It sounded way better live, of course.
2) The Pagoda
This pagoda is on the top of a hill that overlooks Seoul. Bets and I could see it from our apartment window and wanted to try to get to it. After a couple different attempts we made it to the top and got to enjoy a sweet view of the city.
Here is a short video that gives you a brief tour of the panorama. (Helpful info: SBS Tower is like Korea’s NBC. All the bridges in the video cross over the Han river, which is the main river here.)
Bets and I are thankful that the Lord has given us opportunities to enjoy some of the things Korea has to offer. We continue to learn how tough marriage can be as two very sinful people. We hope that God would give us more opportunities to grow closer and learn more of what it means to love each other the way we have been selflessly loved by Him at the cross. Our desire is that he would fill us with the reality of his love for us so that out of that love we would love one another. Would you pray that this would happen in our marriage? Thanks for keeping up with us. Much love
Sometime last month, one of my 8 year old students started calling me Mrs. Lepangsun (“Lay-pong-soon”), a word he made up but contains the Korean word for “bread” in it. The name caught on with my two other classes as well. My range of titles they give me is as follows: “Teacher,” “Mrs. Lekaler,” “Mrs. L,” and “Mrs. Lepangsun.”
I love all of my classes: sweet Korean children who are brilliant in English. Our English school is one of several extra-curricular academies they attend after elementary school, and their mothers still request that we give them ample amounts of homework each night. I feel bad for them. They have so much on their plate: multiple foreign language schools, music lessons, Taekwondo, other sports, plus their regular school. The normal bed-time for many nine year-olds is after midnight. It’s just the culture of academics here. The majority of parents (especially the mothers) push their kids to extremely high standards of success, while constantly comparing their children’s scores and levels of success to those of other children’s.
So, I feel deep compassion for these guys. At the same time though, they can sure push my buttons. There are a few in each class that require my constant attention every day. They want to be funny and make the whole class laugh, so I have to be the bad guy and tell them for the fourth time today to not talk when I’m talking, to put their pencil down, to raise their hand when they want to talk, to read in a normal voice. Gosh! this job requires a lot of patience!
It’s been pretty difficult for me to feel successful as a teacher. To be honest, I frequently feel incompetent and become very sad. I think I must have pictured that when I’d come to Korea all the children would be angels and would never test my authority or patience. I would be some American star that they would fawn over and highly respect. BUT….this has obviously not been the case, which makes it extremely wonderful that I have a partner with me to help carry my burden. James has been a peach in listening to me complain and cry about my classes and insecurities. If you didn’t know, James (much like his father) is a born communicator with an amazing ability to teach. He’s very effective at gaining the attention and respect of a classroom (partly because of his LOW voice . He can whip a lesson together in a few minutes and he’s great at thinking on his feet. I, being insecure about my teaching abilities however, have automatically compared myself to him and other co-teachers, and have been found lacking.
Greater news than having James here with me is that there’s someone else here with me carrying my burden. God has been revealing to me, through James and through scripture, that his power is perfected in my weakness, and that he doesn’t bring me into circumstances without a reason. He always has my best in mind, and in him I lack no good thing (Psalm 34:9-10). These truths bring me true rest, and its on this foundation where I want to spend more time. Please pray to that end.
Here’s a video of my oldest class. I taught them this rhythm during a stretch break. They loved it!
We’re back! Sorry we haven’t been posting lately. We have a lot to update you about though, so we’ll break it up into snippets.
The best news is that we’ve committed to a church that we really like called Covenant Church. They are a new church that just got planted about nine months ago. Covenant holds three services on Sunday, two in English and one in Korean. It’s a small body of believers (about forty non-Koreans at the English services and about twenty-five Koreans at the Korean service) which has made it very easy for us to feel included and cared for. The gospel is preached here and the community of believers we’ve met and have begun to befriend are refreshingly open and deep. Already we’ve been presented with many ways to get involved in church (retreats, accountability groups, one-on-ones, music, membership classes, mercy ministries…). Please pray that the Lord brings us relationships that would grow us and that He would use us where He wants in this church. Check out the church’s website if you want at www.seoulcovenant.com.
Here are a few photos of the view right outside our apartment window….
Ok…I am not going to fake that this is a mutual post. Betsy is in bed reading “Til We Have Faces” (Great book…I highly recommend it) and I wanted to give you a taste of my classroom.
The class in the video is my first class of the day which is a first grade class. They are very bright and a fun group to work with. My mom (Penny) gave us Bananagrams (a game like Scrabble) and I used it to try to get them to spell words together. As you can see we are still working on our spelling (rebbit, ziper, etc), but its fun to watch them get it.
. He can whip a lesson together in a few minutes and he’s great at thinking on his feet. I, being insecure about my teaching abilities however, have automatically compared myself to him and other co-teachers, and have been found lacking.
