Testimonies from Orientation
- Jennifer Choi
- Feb 27, 2024
- 13 min read
Hello everyone!!! I am happy to announce that I have survived orientation, AKA my first 6 weeks in Korea with the Fulbright Korea program! There’s a lot that happened over the past 6 weeks, but I’ll try my best to focus on a few particular testimonies of how God met me during my orientation experience.
I officially landed in Korea on January 11, after which I headed straight to a university in Chungcheongbuk-do/충청북도 where I spent 6 weeks of orientation with a cohort of 70 other Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) from all over the U.S.. Orientation consisted mostly of Korean language classes (instructors from Korea University’s Korean Language Center came to teach us!), cultural and teaching workshops, two teaching practicums (we got to teach a lesson to Korean students over Zoom!), and a few cultural excursions (an ice fishing festival in Hwacheon/화천, a day at Mungyeong Saejae Provincial Park/문경새재, and a trip to a Korean folk village called Minsokchon/민속촌).
Me and all the fish I didn't catch lol </3
Fellowship & Bible Study Group
During the plane ride and into my first few weeks in Korea, I prayed a lot to God for holy encounters, that the Spirit would move and that I would be perceptive to His movement and faithfully bear witness in response. I prayed that I would be faithful to live out my faith during orientation, in a setting where the majority of people are not Christians. A huge way in which God answered this prayer was through the Fellowship & Bible Study group that I got to co-lead during orientation. Before heading into orientation, we were given the opportunity to start up a social initiative group (think like a school club) that could meet outside of mandatory programming hours. I expressed interest in leading a Bible study, although I was really nervous to do so - one, to put my faith out there in a non-Christian setting, and two, to do so not knowing if there would be any interest (I was honestly so afraid that no one would be interested lol). It turns out that another ETA, Josh, had expressed interest in leading a Fellowship group, so we decided to co-lead a Fellowship & Bible Study group together!
During the first week of orientation, all of the social initiative group leaders were instructed to announce their social initiative group to the entire cohort so that ETAs could sign up for any groups they were interested in. I was nervous to share about the Fellowship & Bible Study group with Josh, but there were actually people who came up to me and expressed interest in joining the group after we had announced it, including some nonbelievers. Beyond the Fellowship & Bible Study group, even just the simple act of praying before eating during mealtimes led to people asking questions about my faith and gave me the opportunity to engage in really meaningful spiritual conversations. Whenever I had any doubts about the Fellowship & Bible Study group, I was encouraged by Josh, who was always very responsive and committed to co-leading, as well as by people who joined our group, as many became regular attendees! Various denominations were represented in the group, but we were all grounded in the same gospel. I'm grateful that we were able to gather and have a space where we could grow together spiritually in the midst of the intense orientation schedule. I was so encouraged by the turnout and by how several people expressed their desire to be connected to a faith community not just during orientation but throughout the grant year. Please keep us in prayer to be able to keep growing together spiritually throughout the grant year, even while we are all spread out throughout the country in our respective placements!
Outside of the Fellowship & Bible Study group, I unfortunately wasn’t able to attend a physical church during orientation, especially since we usually had programming on Sundays. There were a couple of times during which I was able to watch an online service, so I checked out a couple of different English-speaking churches in Seoul via their live stream. However, I definitely was feeling the loss of having a church home over these past six weeks, and as I attended these virtual services, I felt that much more motivated to find a church especially after settling into my placement after orientation. Please keep me in prayer to find a church at my placement!
My Placement
Speaking of placements, one of the most exciting moments of orientation was the placement ceremony, which is when we found out where exactly we’d be spending the rest of our grant year to teach and live. Our placement ceremony was on February 5, but even in the weeks leading up to this date I was thinking and praying a lot about where I would end up. On January 22, I wrote a journal entry about Matthew 9:35-38, which are the following verses:
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
I had read these verses many times before, but that night what immediately stood out to me for the first time is the part in Matthew 9:35 that says that Jesus went throughout all the cities and VILLAGES. The word “villages” led me to think about Fulbright placements and how I could be placed literally anywhere in the country. I felt really excited to get my placement as I dreamed about the possibilities that could be, but I also wrestled with feelings of nervousness as I was afraid that I wouldn’t like where I ended up. Yet as I grappled with this mix of feelings, God showed me through this passage that the harvest is plentiful EVERYWHERE in Korea - wherever I go, there is a spiritual harvest, and there is a need for the gospel to be proclaimed, whether I end up in a city or a village. I ended the night by praying that I would be a faithful laborer for God’s Kingdom and that I would receive my placement, wherever I would be placed, with peace.
Ready to meet my friends in the boonies
As for my placement, I ended up getting placed at an elementary school in a super rural area in Hwacheon County/화천군 in Gangwon Province/강원도, which is on the northeast side of Korea. It turns out I did end up being placed in a village, so looking back on my journal entry from January 22, it seems that God was preparing my heart for this. To be honest, I wasn’t super thrilled when I first got my placement. I had told people I was open to being placed wherever, which was generally true, but I had ideally wanted to be placed in Gyeonggi Province/경기도, where my relatives live, or in a coastal area near the water, and I had gotten neither. Everyone’s placements were announced during the placement ceremony, so we could easily see who was in which province. Out of all of the 70 other first-year ETAs, only 2 other ETAs were placed in my province, and of the two, the closest one was about an hour away from me. I didn’t think I cared much about whether I would be placed near a lot of other ETAs, but as I saw friends get placed near each other (many of them in the same exact city), I started to feel envious as well as the fear of becoming disconnected from other ETAs during the grant year. When I called my mom later that night to tell her about my placement, she told me that my grandfather’s younger brother was stationed in Hwacheon at one point as an officer/장교 many years ago, so I at least had somewhat of a family history in the area.
It wasn’t until I sat down to genuinely pray about my placement a couple of days later when I started to truly feel peace and gratitude about where I got placed. With this new sense of gratitude, I also started to feel a bit apologetic for my initial lack of excitement, but then I realized that it was important to give myself permission to be honest with my feelings and to ultimately bring them all before God with an attitude of trust. As I started to actually embrace my placement, I was able to make some connections between my placement and the school district I had taught at in the States - both are rural areas with a mid-to-lower income population (although my placement is far more rural than where I had taught in the U.S.) and both are near military bases (Gangwon Province is super close to the DMZ). Also, I later found out that there would be 4 Renewee ETAs (previous ETAs who would be returning to Korea to live and teach here for another year) in my county, and when I talked with them upon their arrival, they all spoke really positively about their time in Hwacheon. My school has only 35 students, which will be very different from most ETAs who have hundreds of students, so this also makes me that much more excited to hopefully connect with my students!
Korean Language Graduation Ceremony
The next testimony I want to share is about the role I got to have in the graduation ceremony for our Korean Language class! All 71 ETAs had to take a Korean language course for a month during orientation; we were all placed in classes based on our proficiency levels. I ended up in the smallest class with only 3 other classmates. At first I think I put pressure on myself to perform well as the only heritage speaker in my class, but that quickly went away as our instructor treated me the same as she treated my classmates - which became a relief, as I felt like I had permission to make mistakes and take risks in my language learning journey just like any other student.
Another big event during the orientation program is a graduation ceremony that marks the end of our Korean language courses. Each class was expected to put together a performance in Korean, and two MCs were expected to host the event in Korean. I saw that Fulbright was looking for MCs, but I didn’t think much of it, as I figured that two people who were super extroverted and lively would take on the roles. Little did I expect that I would be asked to MC with another ETA LOL… When I was approached to be an MC, it evoked deep-seated fears that I’ve long had that I would be seen as “not Korean enough” the moment I spoke in Korean in front of everyone. Growing up, I had been so insecure about my imperfect Korean, to the point in which I simply did not speak beyond basic sentences in Korean for years due to the very fear of being judged or made fun of. God has brought me on a journey with my Korean language abilities especially over the past 4-5 years, and it’s a big part of my story that led me to apply for Fulbright. While my Korean has certainly improved over the past few years, I never would have expected to be asked to co-host an event entirely in Korean. A big part of me wanted to resist this invitation because of a lingering sense of imposter syndrome, but there was also a part of me that felt deeply grateful that this could be part of the beautiful story of healing that God was still bringing to this area of my life.
Thankfully, I had the awesome pleasure of being an MC with another ETA named Lana. Lana and I wrote a script and rehearsed lines together in the week leading up to the ceremony. We were both feeling nervous, especially the morning of the ceremony. When I had prayed about it the night before, though, I really felt a sense that God had given me and Lana this opportunity - especially since neither of us had initially signed up to be an MC LOL. But God wanted us to do it, and He would be with us. I knew that I might mess up, but I knew that it would be okay if that happened - no mistake would make me any less Korean or mean that it was any less certain that this opportunity was from the Lord. Overall, MCing went really well, minus some mic issues! Personally, I felt gradually less nervous as the event went on. The biggest highlight for me, though, is that Lana and I got to pray together twice before the event. I’m very grateful that we got to have that moment and be united in our desire to really trust the Lord with the role He gave us as MCs.
The Flu and the Rain
Yes, that’s right, I ended up being incredibly sick on my birthday with the flu… I started to feel a cough two days before my birthday, the day we went on our last cultural excursion (to 민속촌), but I didn’t think much of it until I got a fever the next day. Turns out that several other ETAs were also feeling sick, as programming was moved online that day and then those of us who were sick were brought to a local hospital. All of us (except one person) tested positive for Type A influenza. As someone who usually doesn’t get sick, this was actually my first time ever getting the flu. Upon getting my diagnosis, I got an IV injection, which helped me feel a bit better for the rest of that day, but I unfortunately had to move to a different room to not pose any risks to my roommate. When I woke up the next day (on my birthday), I felt unwell, to say the least… I woke up with a high fever and extreme chills, fluctuating between feeling extremely hot and cold. Unfortunately, I ended up spending most of my birthday in my room and didn’t get to go into town and celebrate with my friends like I would’ve if I weren’t sick (huge thank you to the friends who had been planning something for me, though!!). Even so, I was met with so much love and support throughout the day, as I received a lot of happy birthday messages both in the Fulbright group chat and in personal DMs from friends in the cohort (and from friends in the U.S.!). Several friends in the cohort reached out to ask me if I needed anything while I was sick. Shout out to Stuti and Lana for bringing me more than just the kimbap I asked for during lunch, to Kaitlin and Dani for going into town to surprise me with hot soup, to Mika and Neya for dropping off birthday cards and candies, and to Jacky (my former roommate) for surprising me with dessert so that I could at least have something close to birthday cake on my birthday.
Some of the deliveries that were brought to me when I was sick on my birthday <3
I ended my birthday by reading encouragement letters that people in the cohort had written to me (we all got to write encouragement letters to one another during the last couple weeks of orientation). A very good friend I made during orientation wrote about how they think of me when they see the rain because of my rain testimony (you can read about it here if you haven’t already read it), which was really touching. Reading this then reminded me that it had rained earlier in the day, although at the time I had seen it as yet another inconvenience on top of being sick with the flu on my birthday. I had completely forgotten about the rain testimony until I read my friend’s letter to me… I’m so grateful that my testimony could bless someone else, who could remind me of it when I needed it. In the very last minutes of my birthday, which was spent in a less than ideal way, God was showing me that He was always faithful to provide, often in ways I may not expect. In my sick state, I also reflected on Philippians 3:20-21 and was struck by verse 21, which talks about how our lowly body will one day be transformed to be like [Christ Jesus’s] glorious body… I was encouraged to hold an eternal perspective in the midst of being sick, which did indeed come to pass (Korean medicine is amazing!!!).
Departure Day
Departure day was last Thursday, February 22. This was the day we received our living situation (either a homestay with a host family or a one-room, AKA an apartment-style place, by ourselves) and met our assigned co-teacher before leaving orientation to head off to our placements. I was expecting to receive a homestay, since most ETAs in my province had previously received homestays, but was surprised to receive a one-room! This was a pleasant surprise, though, because I had actually wanted a one-room (can you tell I'm an introvert?). I met my co-teacher, who greeted me with a bouquet of flowers. I am still getting to know her, but I was struck right away by her warmth and kindness, not just in her physical gestures (giving me flowers, preparing a lot of materials like bedding, kitchen supplies, etc. at my place before my arrival) but also in her making herself available to me emotionally (she said I can look to her as a mom, since she has two daughters around my age). I’m excited to get to know her and the other staff I’ll be working with at my school as the school year starts next week!
I tried to narrow it down to just a few testimonies from the past six weeks, but this still ended up being long LOL. There’s a lot more that happened and so many other ways that God met me during orientation, so if you want to hear more, feel free to reach out to me directly (also reach out if you want to see a video of me dancing to "Sorry, Sorry" by Super Junior HAHA)! There were definitely times when I struggled to feel a sense of community/belonging even with all of the wonderful people I’ve met so far, as well as times when I really wanted to skip ahead to the end of orientation. But the Lord would always respond by reminding me to be a faithful and diligent servant in where He had me at the moment, reminding me that He has called me to rise up and get to work. Also, I came to really appreciate the diligence and kindness of the people we met at the university, such as the cafeteria staff - they became familiar faces who I will miss seeing on a daily basis. I also had internal challenges with feeling a need for rest that often wasn’t met with the intensity of our packed orientation schedules, and so I am especially grateful for the friends and family at home who reached out and checked in on me when I really needed it. :’)
Stay tuned for my next post, which will hopefully be after my first full month of teaching and living at my placement! In the meanwhile, please don’t hesitate to reach out and let me know how I can be praying for you!!! <3
Love,
Jen
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