Hidden in a Whisper: 2012

Saturday, September 08, 2012

Ages As!

It has been ages as since I've written. 'Ages-as'. I call that my kiwi infused Cara language. Lovely, I know. I thought I'd start out with a lil New Zealand love. But seriously, between surgery, surgery complications, life changes, korea stuff, family emergencies and everything in between, this has been an utterly crazy and easily the hardest year of my life. God had a lot that he wanted to work on with me and boy do I feel it. It's good but oh so difficult.

Alas, I am still in the states trying to find a job in Korea. The whole EPIK thing didn't work out, and that's fine. I'm doing the Hagwon (Private) school) thing instead. I had to push the date back because of things, but now I'm ready to go. I found my sister a job in Korea. Or rather, God used me to find her a job. The directors of the English academy are Christians and the husband is actually a worship leader at an English speaking church there so that's cool. Living in Korea is going to be difficult enough but we need the fellowship with other believers and the encouragement and challenge of God's word spoken each week. Since my Korean is nowhere near fluent it would have to be an English service. One of the thing's we've been praying about is finding an English speaking church in Changwon. God has given us a place to at least start.

Oh wait. Did I mention that we're moving to Changwon? I know before I said that we were trying to live in Daejeon, but clearly God had other plans. My sis is leaving in a couple of weeks to start her new job, and I am still looking and hoping to be there soon. I've applied to a million bazillion recruiters and have only heard back from a few. I have an interview next week even, but this whole process has been rough. I really wanted to apply directly to schools, but apparently that doesn't really exist, or is very unlikely? I don't know. All I can do is take it one step at a time.

That's all for now. More news when I have it. :)

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Accepted!...to the recruiter. ;)

I'm finally writing again! And it's gonna be short.

I don't understand why people go through the whole process to teach English and then once they land, they act like they don't wanna be there. I know about culture shock and I've experienced it many times, especially when moving to New Zealand. I know that Korea is very different than America and other western countries. I get it. I do. It's an adjustment. But seriously, act like you have some sense! Drinking every night during Orientation so that you're hungover during the training, complaining about the food like you didn't realize there would be Korean food in Korea, shocked that everything's written in Korean and you didn't feel the need to even learn how to read the characters before coming over, confused that you have to teach even though you were accepted into Korea with the main purpose being a teacher, etc, etc. I really don't know how some of these people on youtube or in these blogs I read even decided to visit a foreign country. It never ceases to amaze me.

With that said, I've been accepted into a recruiter. It's the first step in a very long process...but I can't help but to be excited.

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Anneong Haseyo! 안녕하세요

안녕하세요!

You know what? I think sometimes I forget that I have a blog. ;)

My Korean language study is coming along well. So far I have memorized some key vocabulary, know how to count in sino-korean numbers and some pure korean numbers, know past and present tense, have some basic understanding of particles, know many korean foods and can carry on a short, polite conversation. I can even say "Jesus loves you!" My writing can use some work, but I'm not too concerned about that right now.

I've been learning the language in little bits the past 2 months. Time to step it up. My sis and I will begin our TEFL course in the next week or so as well.

As far as the whole EPIK process goes, I am in stage 1. I have applied to a recruiter. My sister has gotten an email saying that they have receive her app. I have not. I'm trying not to be worried, but...did they get it? I applied 10 mins before my sister did. Should I just assume that they're really busy and will email me eventually, or did they not receive it? If all else fails, when they talk to my sister for an interview, she can ask them.

I have all these worries about Korea, probably because I'm excited about going now. When God first showed me that he wanted me to go there, I was a little reluctant. It's not that I don't like Korea, it's just that I have been trying to go back to New Zealand for the past 4 years. God has never said don't ever go back to NZ, just wait. Now it seems that he was preparing me to go to Korea first. Since the New Year God has really been working on my heart, dispelling my fears and getting me excited about Korea. Now I'm scared that I won't be able to go. Where is my faith?

Any number of endless deterrents keep coming up from the enemy and it really makes me wonder what God has in store for me in Korea. If Satan is working so hard to discourage me and keep me in fear and doubt, there must be something big that God is preparing me for. The enemy is very real and very active. If you knew of all of the things that have been going on since God prompted me to teach in Korea, you would be amazed. The funniest thing about it is that it works like a cycle. If one thing doesn't work, Satan come at me with another. And when that fails he tries another tactic, or goes back to the first tactic. God, in his mercy, has been pointing me to scripture that directly combats each and every one of Satans' lies each day and I am so thankful for that.

Well, I should probably go study some more. I'll leave you with a k-pop video.

Cheers!