Reflections from My First Summer in Asia

Hello and happy October!!! An entire summer has come and gone since my last blog post, and with that there are many reflections, testimonies, and updates to share as to how God has been moving in my life from the summer and even now as we’ve entered into fall. So without further ado, here are some updates~

Bike riding along Qixingtan Beach during my trip to Taiwan <3

Home?

I feel very fortunate and blessed that this year, a lot of friends from the States happened to come to Korea. I’ve shared about home friends I got to meet up with in previous blog posts, and since the last update, I’ve been able to meet up with a couple more! Shoutout to Sarah and Brian, Caitlin, my sister (who came to Korea again after having previously visited with my mom back in February/March), and Gloria for being willing to make time to see me during their travels here!

With Sarah in 춘천 (Chuncheon), Caitlin in 강릉 (Gangneung), my sister when she visited my school in the boonies, and Gloria in Seoul!

In addition to seeing home friends, some of my Fulbright friends were willing to make the trek up north to see me back in late June. Five of my Fulbright friends (Kaitlin, Nimi, Aubrey, Lauren M, and Jess), who are all placed in the southern part of Korea, came all the way up to 춘천 (Chuncheon), the biggest city near me. I got to show them around the city a bit before we headed back to the boonies where I live. Originally, I was trying to figure out a way to get all six of us to be able to sleep at my place (which is really not meant for that many people LOL), but my co-teacher and the head teacher offered to let us sleep at school instead, which I live right next to. The students at my school had just had a sleepover event in the library around that time, so the school already had mats that we could use to sleep there. Having a sleepover at school was definitely a childhood dream unlocked haha and it truly was as fun as it sounds. I am so grateful for my co-teacher and head teacher, not just for allowing us to sleep at school overnight, but also because they were willing to pick us up from 춘천 and take us out to dinner before dropping us off at school. For context, my place is only about a half hour drive from 춘천, but because of how rural my area is, it takes about two hours by bus to actually get home from 춘천, as there is usually no direct bus to my place from the city and there’s always a wait between transfer buses. It was really fun to give my friends a tour of my school as well as the village I live in - you can imagine the surprise of the owners of the local mart when they saw a big group of foreigners enter their store haha.

Fulbright friends who visited my school :)

After having these five friends visit me, I had a couple of other visitors visit the boonies during the summer, including another one of my Fulbright friends, Lauren Y, then my home friend, Caitlin, and later on my sister. With each visit, my school was gracious enough to let me show my friends around the building, and it was especially surreal to have people from home see where I have been teaching and living this year. With more and more visits from friends and with the more tours of the area that I’ve given, I’ve realized that where I am now has become like home. This area that once felt new and unfamiliar has become comfortable enough for me to excitedly show visitors around, even as there isn’t too much to show in town. Whether it was the small mart near my place or the one restaurant in town that everyone goes to (because it’s the only one), I was happy to have visitors see what’s around. When my sister visited, I at one point said to her, “I wish you were here with me every day.” This came out without me realizing, and it showed me that as much as I feel very blessed to live here right now, there are times that can feel lonely because I am by myself throughout the week. So I cherish the times that I’ve been able to host friends and show them a little bit of the life I’ve been living here in the boonies, especially because I know that this season, with all of its joys and loneliness, will eventually come to pass.

Me at the one and only restaurant in my village :)

Summer

The first semester of the school year ended in mid-July, after which I had a month off that mostly consisted of traveling. I spent the first week of summer break with relatives, first with my 고모 and 고모부 (paternal aunt and uncle) in 거제도 (Geoje Island), an island down south where my 고모부 is currently working, and then back up north with my 이모 and 이모부 (maternal aunt and uncle) and later 외삼촌 (other maternal uncle), 외숙모 (other maternal aunt), and little cousin. Then shortly thereafter I embarked on my first international solo trip (excluding the solo trips I’ve done in Korea)!

I went to Taiwan for about a week, during which I got to explore Taipei, Jiufen, Hualien, Kaohsiung, and Tainan. Prior to arriving in Taiwan, I was most nervous about the language aspect, since I had never been to a country where I didn’t know the language at all - and I was more nervous because I knew that people could mistake me for being Taiwanese. Thankfully, I quickly found that Taiwanese people are very kind, friendly, and willing to help, which made navigating the country a lot more comfortable; the transportation system is also very similar to Korea’s, which made me realize that Taiwan was a great first place for solo traveling after having gotten used to navigating Korea. One highlight of the trip to Taiwan was that I got to meet up with my friend Rachel, a fellow Fulbrighter (and part of the Fellowship & Bible Study group I co-lead within the cohort), and we ended up visiting an English-speaking church in Taipei together! We happened to do a day trip to Jiufen together on a Sunday, and the thought of there probably being English-speaking churches in Taipei (like how there are many in Seoul) came up to my mind - I had just shared it aloud as a thought, but Rachel actually went out of her way to search up churches with service times that aligned with when we would make it back to Taipei from Jiufen. We visited an evening service, during which the pastor made a call for any newcomers to raise their hands. Rachel and I looked at each other for a while, having an internal dialogue about whether or not we should raise our hands LOL, before the pastor noticed and called us out haha. While we shared with people after the service that we were just visiting from Korea, it was really neat to be able to visit a different church - to be reminded of just how global the Church is - and also to be met with warmth even as just one-time visitors.

A pack of tissues I was given by a police officer who saw me dying in the heat (I sweat a lot), me and Rachel from when we visited a church in Taipei, and the mango shaved ice I still dream about

You can get food delivered to you at your seat during longer train rides in Taiwan :o It was so good

After returning from Taiwan, the rest of summer went incredibly fast, but another highlight was that I got to meet a student who I had tutored during the spring semester over Zoom. In my previous blog post, I briefly mentioned that I participated in an English tutoring program specifically for people who have defected from North Korea. I finally got to meet my student (to protect her privacy, I will refer to her as J) in person for the first time! J and I met in 대림동 (Daerim-dong), a small Chinatown neighborhood in Seoul, where she introduced me to some Chinese dishes before we went to a nearby cafe. During the tutoring semester, I hadn’t asked J about her experience of defecting, in part because we were focusing on English tutoring, but also because I knew that it could be a sensitive topic. However, when we met in person, I found that she was actually very open and very comfortable in sharing about her experience (which isn’t necessarily the case for all defectors but just happens to be the case for her). While I won’t share details about her experience here, I will say that it was incredible to hear about her experience and to be a witness to her resilience. As someone who grew up fairly sheltered in suburban New Jersey, hearing J’s testimonies was very humbling, and I was especially encouraged to hear her share the vision that she has for her career path and how she has come to know the Lord through everything she has experienced. I am grateful, too, that although the tutoring semester is over, J and I have stayed in touch, and she has become a sweet friend and sister in Christ in my life.

As for another friend and sister in Christ, I was really sad to say goodbye to Florence, the English teacher at the school next to mine who also happens to be a Christian. Florence had arrived in Korea last August and had committed to staying for just one year, so she wrapped up her time in Korea at the end of this past August to return to her hometown in Canada. Saying goodbye to Florence was a reminder that for many of us foreigners, our time in Korea is limited and will come to an end. Nevertheless, I am so grateful for the time that we got to spend together (especially with going to church together in Seoul) and that we could be a part of each other’s journeys here in Korea. I am even more grateful to have gained a friend and sister in Christ from another part of the globe, whose friendship I continue to value even beyond our brief time together in Korea.

Resting and Investing

I hadn’t shared much about this in my previous blog posts, but during the spring semester, I had gotten myself involved with a couple of volunteering opportunities outside of school, both of which were through Fulbright. One of them is the virtual tutoring program for North Korean defectors, which I mentioned earlier, and the other is a virtual reading buddies program for KKOOM, which stands for Korean Kids and Orphanage Outreach Mission. As a virtual reading buddy, another reading buddy and I would read a story and prepare activities to do with children at an orphanage in the southern part of the country. Because this program was just being piloted this past semester, I’ve only been able to meet with the kids once so far, but all of the volunteers on this team and I met regularly throughout the semester to plan and troubleshoot, especially in anticipation to really kick off the reading buddies program more formally in the fall.

As wonderful as all of these commitments (including teaching at school) have been, I was honestly finding myself feeling burnt out as summer was drawing nearer. During this time, I also wasn’t spending consistent time with God in the Bible and in prayer, and my church attendance was still inconsistent. Going into summer break, I felt God really highlighting the importance of rest and putting this on my heart as something to seriously pursue. I started to think about stepping down from either the tutoring or the reading buddies program for the fall semester and decided to step down from the former. At around this time, I started reading a Christian book that a friend from my home church gifted me before I left the States, called What Are You Going To Do with Your Life? by J.D. Greear, which really challenged me in ways that I needed at a time when I was making excuses to not spend time with God or go to church consistently.

to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear.

-Isaiah 28:12, one of the many verses God highlighted to me about rest this summer

There was a sermon from church one Sunday about the offerings that we give to God. I thought that getting really busy in serving (at school and with the volunteer commitments) would be a pleasing offering to God, and while I know it has been in some ways, I realized that what wasn’t pleasing to Him was the fact that I was allowing my busy-ness to rob me of another, perhaps more important, offering, that is, my personal quiet times and spiritual disciplines with the Lord. Essentially, I was compromising my intimacy with the Lord by getting caught up in doing the things that I thought would bring me closer to Him. It’s funny, because I went into my time in Korea back in January feeling so certain that God wanted to put me to work here, and while I still believe that to be true, I didn’t realize that He would also be humbling me and teaching me how important it is to learn how to rest. I especially knew that the Lord was emphasizing rest to me when I found out that the church I’ve been attending decided to do a summer book club on a book about rest and slowing down, called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer, and that the meeting dates aligned with weeks I wasn’t traveling (and therefore days that I could make it to church). Going through the book with the church not only solidified my sense of commitment to this particular church (seeing how God was speaking to me through not just the book club but also the church services), it also challenged me to start practicing Sabbath, which I had honestly never attempted before in my life (because I never thought it could “work” for me). Since the end of summer, I have been trying to practice Sabbath once a week, and while it has been imperfect and something I’ve quickly found that I have to fight for, in the process I’ve been learning the value of resting well and enjoying God’s presence in the quiet.

Two books I'd highly recommend!

On the topic of church, as I’ve been feeling a clear call from the Lord to pursue rest, I’ve also felt a call to invest more in the church I recently committed to. At first this seemed a bit confusing and even contradictory, but I’ve been learning that the two can coexist. I wasn’t exactly jumping to serve right away, as I’m still pretty new to my church and don’t know many people yet. The church had announced on several occasions that they were looking for more people to serve on the hospitality team, and while I had always briefly considered it (I’ve long had a heart for welcoming and was involved in a similar ministry at my home church), it was always a passing thought that I hadn’t ever acted on. But just a few Sundays ago, when they had announced their need for more people to serve on the team once again, I had a realization that when I ultimately leave Korea, I would regret leaving without having ever made an effort to actively invest in the church I attended - because it would be so unfortunate to have the opportunity to be part of the global Church in Korea and not actively sow into the work that God was doing here. Unlike the previous times when the idea of stepping up was a passing thought I quickly forgot about, this time I felt a sense of urgency to actually respond to the call. I only just recently started to serve, and honestly as someone who is still new to the church, I don’t feel the most “qualified” to tell other newcomers about the church, but I know that I am not meant to serve by my own abilities or qualifications but by that which God equips me.

In addition to joining the hospitality team, I have also joined a small group that meets on Zoom! I am very grateful that the church has provided a virtual option, since I live too far away from Seoul to make it out during the week. The small group is committed to going through a discipleship course from now until mid-December. We just started meeting last week, so I am excited and hopeful for how God will meet us individually and as a small group over the next few months and hope to share more updates on this in my next blog post. Overall, a huge praise report is that I have found the church I have decided to commit to during my time in Korea and am slowly getting more involved. Thank you to everyone who prayed for me on this throughout the year!

Decisions

As my Fulbright grant runs until the end of December of this year, it’s so surreal to think that I’ll be back home in the States in less than 3 months! While I am excited to go back home, I’ve also been praying and discerning about whether the Lord is inviting me to return to Korea again next year. My grant is technically renewable for up to 3 years, and while I currently don’t see myself doing a full 3 years in Korea, I do wonder whether He is inviting me to serve Him here for at least another year. Before I left the States, I was set on just doing one year in Korea. The Lord made it very clear that He was inviting me to go live and serve in Korea this year, but as I’ve lived out my time here, I’ve become uncertain as to whether that invitation is just for this year or for a longer period of time. The decision isn’t just a simple black-and-white decision of whether to stay in Korea or not, as there are more decisions I would have to make within either decision: if I stay in Korea, I would then have to decide whether to stay at my current placement in the boonies or move elsewhere in the country, and if I return to the States, I would have to decide on my next steps career-wise (as I’m not sure exactly what I would do career-wise back in the States).

I’ve spent a lot of time this past month in the Word, in prayer, and in seeking wise counsel from people at home. Among other things, God has been speaking to me a lot about stability and stewardship - as in, where am I finding my stability and security, and where is He inviting me to be a faithful steward of the gifts, time, resources, etc. He has given me in the upcoming year? I still haven’t made a decision completely yet, but I do have to decide soon. I’ll most likely share my decision (as well as the discernment that led to this decision) in my next blog post, but in the meanwhile please pray for me! Please pray that I would continue to dig deep into the Word, in prayer, and in seeking wise counsel. Please also pray that I would allow the Holy Spirit to be persistent in speaking to me and that I would be open to just however the Lord speaks to me on this, even if it’s in the most unexpected ways - for who am I to limit how the Lord speaks?

Other Highlights

Here are some brief highlights of other events from the past few months! Feel free to reach out if you are curious about any of them~

Going to a movie theater in Korea for the first time to see Inside Out 2 with Lauren Y and Florence!
A scalp analysis that forever changed my life lol
A trip to 포항 (Pohang), which is where one of my favorite kdramas (Hometown Cha Cha Cha) was filmed (shoutout to Nimi for being the best tour guide)
Bike riding and eating ramen by the Han River (and then going on a yacht on the river!) with my sister and 수진
Celebrating my first 추석 (Chuseok) in Korea with my 외삼촌, 외숙모, and cousin

Thank you so much for reading my latest blog post! I hope that you were able to find some encouragement for yourself as you were reading. Feel free to share with me ways that God has been moving in your life and/or any ways I can be praying for you, too. God bless!

With love, Jen