My Starbucks Refuge

There is a strange thing that happens every couple of weeks or so, usually after church.  It goes like this: I would have a good weekend and a good time of worship on  Sunday. And then, right as I'm leaving church...BOOM! I would crash. I would be overcome by thoughts of worthlessness and loneliness.  Or homesickness. And these feelings would attack me like some horribly untamed beast, ripping at my heart and pulling me into a very real battle that I am not prepared for.

It has happened so often over the past few months that it should not come as a surprise to me but it almost always does. My guard is down because it's the weekend and I feel safe. The spiritual battle is most intense at this time because I am not ready for it. When this happens I would usually go to Starbucks.

At this point you're probably wondering why I don't just go home and deal with it there, or call a friend to hang out. Sometimes I do go home, but other times I think I need to be somewhat around others so that I am not isolated and so stuck in my own head. And as for hanging out with people, that has happened too, many times, but it wouldn't solve the underlying problem: my need to be close to Christ.

Ok. Back to Starbucks...

I order my regular Chai Tea Latte or Iced Chai, head upstairs, and grab a seat by the window and try to figure out why I feel so down all of the sudden. I would pull out my notebook and write down exactly how I feel, usually as a prayer to God or in the form of a drawing.

And the tears would come.

The hidden and suppressed stresses and feelings of the past week pour down my face. 'Why do I feel like I have failed in everything that I have ever done? Why do I feel so lonely and hopeless? Why am I not married? Am I worthless? Why am I so unsure about everything? What is going on with my health? What am I doing in Korea?'

I know the cause of a few of the those questions...and a partial reason as to why some of those feelings usually come on Sunday instead of other days of the week but I'm not going to divulge that information in a very public blog. 😜

Anyway,  the hours I spend at Starbucks are great. I sit in a place that feels like home (America) and drink my favorite drink. I read. I pray. I write. I draw. And I listen to the desires of my heart and to God's voice. It's a time of real personal reflection.
And the best part is that God meets me there, glad that I have finally stopped my busyness long enough to see the pain in my own heart and my need for Him.

Well done, Starbucks.  Well done.

Quick, and I Mean Quick, Update

Work has been fun. My kids have been growing in their English ability. They keep me busy. They're lovely.

I'm also taking two online courses at the moment, leading a Bible Study, singing on the worship team, and heading up an event at school. Oh, and I'm reading the Bible in 90 days...I'm on Jeremiah. I started at the end of June. You do the math. Oh and I started working out, want to paint again, and want to play my guitar that has been sitting and collecting dust for 5 months now. 

So I thought, maybe, just maybe I should write a blog entry. Hmm...

That's all I can squeeze out.

Till next time.

Blogs and the Case of the Missing Student #2

Blogs.

I used to write a lot in blogs.

Lazy, I guess.

Anyway, I arrived in my class today with another student gone. For good. I guess his parents wanted to enroll him in a different English kindergarten. Okay. But why can't we say goodbye?! And again, I was not told until I asked my students after noticing his books were gone. Yikes!

Being a teacher at a private school in South Korea can be difficult sometimes. I shouldn't be surprised. Last year students came and went all the time at my evening hagwon. Kindergarten has actually been better about it. Some kids leave, but most stay.

It will never be easy for me to say goodbye, especially when you don't actually get the chance to say 'goodbye', but I'll survive.

Here's wishing you a great life, Tyler! May your new school treat you well and enjoy your company as much as I have! May they appreciate your goofy humor and give you the time needed to flourish in in English.

The Case of the Missing Student

One of my students was missing today. Well, not actually, 'missing,' per se. Everyone else knew where she was. But her books and everything were gone as though she never existed. I asked the other students where she was and in very broken English and cute little voices they told me that she was not coming back. I went to my co-teacher and was told that it was sudden, but that everyone else knew she was leaving at the end of the month and that she'd just left one week earlier than they thought. It's funny how everyone discussed it, yet failed to tell me, her teacher. 

Sigh. 

I remember, last Friday, when this student told me that she would be gone on Monday and Tuesday. In hindsight, she was probably trying to tell me that she was leaving. I just didn't understand at the time. 

Aww...

I'm sad to lose any of my students. This student in particular was one of my lowest level students when we first began and she improved so much in just a few months. Well, I hope that things go well for her. 

Life as a teacher.

Life as an expat.

You are always having to say goodbye...

Kindy Kindy Kindergarten

I confess.

I haven’t been much of a blogger lately. I’m not really sure why. I guess life happened and I didn’t really feel like writing about it. No worries though. My journal writing has suffered too.

You can just call this my attempt at continuing this…whatever it is.

Since my last entry…a lot has happened. Not gonna recap much.

My first year in Korea was fine, teaching elementary and middle school students. It was fun and I had a blast but the hours were late. I usually didn’t get home until 11pm. After that year was over, I finally went back to New Zealand to visit friends and ended the 6 year hiatus. I also went home for the holidays and was able to see family and friends, and also managed to get sick 3 times!
Now, in 2015, I am back in the land of Kimchi and teaching at a kindergarten in Daegu. My school isn’t perfect but I love my students and I love teaching this age.

A typical day? Well…my schedule is a bit varied when compared to the 8 other North American teachers at my school. While they all have an English kindergarten class and their own classroom to decorate and field trips, I sit in an office with Korean teachers, my stuff heaped up on my desk and on the window sill behind me. I’m a bit of a traveling teacher/substitute when someone is sick or on vacation. When I first found this out, I was a little annoyed, but I got over myself, with God’s intervening of course. After all, my schedule is pretty open. It’s doesn’t mean that I don’t work hard, just that I have a few more breaks than the others.


The School

My school is located in a 6-story building. The first floor houses the reception area, some interview rooms, a play area, and a small gym. The 2nd floor is the Korean kindergarten. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th, floors are dedicated to the English kindergarten, and hold the 8 classrooms that the other foreign teachers teach at. Each floor has a small library, bathrooms, and an office. The 6th floor is the big gym/music room/special events room. There is a music teacher and a gym teacher who come in once a week. My office is on the 4th floor with the principle and the head Korean teacher and random other co-teachers who float in and out. I sit with my back to a window which means it’s cold in the winter and probably hot in the summer, but at my desk only. For some reason, the heater/aircon goes right over my head to reach the rest of the office. Ha!


My Schedule

I teach two 30 minute English classes, three times a week at the Korean kindergarten in my school. In the afternoon, I teach the same students in an English kindergarten setting for about 1.5 hours, everyday. I have 2 afternoon kindy classes of about 8 students each, 3 times a week (ie Class 1: M,W, TH, and Class 2: T, W, F). Since they overlap on Wednesdays, we have a combined class of 15 students! On Wednesdays and Thursdays I also have three 20 minute storytelling classes of young 3-6 year olds at another Korean kindergarten campus that’s about 10 minutes away. On Fridays I have a 30 minute Storytelling class for the preschoolers on the 2nd floor Korean kindergarten. Whew! See, I told you it was varied! All in all, on my busiest day (WED) I teach 3 classes for a total of 3.5 hours. On my lightest day (TUE) I teach 1 class for 90 minutes. It’s spread out. So, not much to complain about. I’m ahead of schedule on most things.

During afternoon kindy we cover 3 subjects; Phonics, Reading, and Writing. I have a Korean co-teacher, but she's usually gone during most of the class. These kids are beginner level students of about 5-6 years old (though I suspect some of my kids are 4). I love these kids! They’re well behaved for the most part and they know my rules and what I expect, even though most of it was initially communicated with pictures and gestures.  They also get super excited about getting a sticker if they earn 5 stars by the end of class. They have grown so much in the almost 3 months that I have been teaching them! Many of them are really beginning to put sounds together into words and starting to read. It’s exciting.

I don’t know what God’s plans are for me later, but I really feel like I was made to teach young kids. If you've ever seen me around young kids, you know that I have a gift with them. I don’t know how or why, but I call it my ‘pied piper’ affect. I come home from work exhausted, but happy. I have so much fun with my students and oddly enough, they all like me too. Even the kids that I have substituted for a short time and barely know. Even the kids that I don’t know but they are excited about me because their friends are excited. You can always hear excited yells of “Hello Cara Teacher!!” from students whenever I enter a room or elevator. And more often than not, I’m getting smothered by hugs regularly.

Fun times!

6 months!

 Wow! I've been in Korea for half of a year!  Where does time go? Well, my update isn't much different than the post a few weeks ago, so let's move on.

First week of teaching.

My first day of teaching was a blur. I arrived at my desk to a big stack of papers that the previous teacher had left me, and an unreadable class schedule full of school codes that I had not yet learned. I met the other teachers in our school shuttle on the way to school, but it was was still awkward.  There English level was lower than I had expected considering we all work at an English language school. One of the teachers grew up in America most of his life so he was my go-to man for everything.

My first class was terrifying.  I don't really remember the age level...maybe 3rd grade. I spoke fast because I was nervous and they looked at me with blank stares. I tried to slow it down a bit, introduced myself, asked names and let them ask me questions. One kid said that I looked like an elephant. I laughed and told him that I don't have a trunk or big ears and wear cltjes so I couldn't be an elephant. After that it was fine. We talked about rules and played games for my elementary classes.

Middle school was frightening but most kids just asked me questions about myself...my age, did I have a boyfriend,  was I married, and other lovely personal things about myself that you would never ask a teacher back home. It was fine. I was prepared for it and I made sure to share with them about my interests and things we haf in common. I only had 1 class that week that kept on talking in Korean. That was frustrating but I survived. I made many mistakes and felt like my head was going to explode from information overload and exhaustion.

2 days of that first week consisted of Halloween parties for the elementary kids so I did face painting.

That's all I can write for now!

Greetings from Korea!

So...I've been in Korea for 5.5 months. Surprise!

I don't know why I haven't written in so long. My guess is that I'd fallen out of the habit long ago and it's hard to pick it back up again. This is my valiant attempt. Let's rewind a bit.

September.

My grandmother moved in with my mom so it was great to spend time with her again, even though it meant moving to the couch. My other grandmother lost the long battle with cancer and I went to her funeral on my 30th birthday. Not fun. Two good things came from that depressing time. One is that I was able to spend good time with my family and all of my niece and nephews. The other thing is that I interviewed for and was offered a job in South Korea that I turned down because I was overwhelmed by the sad week. Thankfully I had a great recruiter (how often does that ever happen) who begged me to reconsider and worked with the school to change a few things in the contract. Fast forward a bit and here I am, living the expat life again in a foreign country!

End of October.

When I first arrived in Korea, I was shocked because there were Koreans everywhere! Duh, right? Don't act like you wouldn't be thinking the same thing! Please understand that I came from a city that was pretty diverse so I was used to seeing people from all over the world. Even when I lived in New Zealand and there was a little less diversity in my city, I still saw many different types of people. When I arrived at the airport in Korea, it was like a different world. It caught me off guard! After trying to make myself look presentable in the bathroom, I just followed the masses and the signs which blessedly had English under the Korean, and made my way to an airport shuttle, and then through a long customs line. Oh! Did I mention that my airplane was like 2 hours late due to a delay we had in L.A.? My recruiter had someone waiting for me with a sign. He looked like he had been there for a while. Oops! Anyway, he didn't speak English and I was tired and nervous so there were many phone calls he made back to his office and to my director. Then he bought a shuttle bus ticket, and put me on a bus to Cheonan with a bus driver who was clearly swearing in Korean because he had to deal with a foreigner. At least that's what I imagined. He actually yelled at everyone so...yikes! The ride was pretty smooth after that.

I arrived at the Cheonan bus station 2 hours later and my director's husband picked me up. He knew only a few words in English. (Side note: I later found out that he got high scores in English at his university, but he never learned conversational English. This is the dilemma of the Korean education system.) So he drove me to the main school to meet some other people. I was extremely aware that I should have worked harder on looking presentable. It was also after midnight and I was quite jet-lagged. Finally, they took me to my apartment and showed me how to turn on a few things. The directors husband bought some fruit, water and snacks so that I would have breakfast, then I was left to marvel at what is my cute little apartment. I was dreading that it would be old and dirty, but it was new and clean and even had an enclosed porch where I could hang my laundry. There was also a nice flat screen TV with cable and internet. Yesssss!

The next day (Saturday), the director, her husband, and a head teacher picked me up at noon and took me back to the school to fill out paperwork and to tell me that I would be teaching at the Asan school. I seriously didn't know which of the 3 schools until that moment. Then they took me out to lunch at a buffet because they didn't know if I would like Korean food. They know now. :) So, part of the conversation was awkward because everyone was speaking Korean and I was just sitting there embarrassed and confused while everyone in the restaurant was staring at me. Then they asked me about myself and it came out that I didn't drink alcohol, which then led to them asking me if I was a Christian (yes, if you're wondering :) ), which then led to a (hopefully jokingly) discussion about how I should date the (much older) head teacher at the table? What? 

Next we went to LotteMart (think of a fancier super Target) and they bought household items for me since my cupboards were empty. I also bought some groceries to live off of for the week, including rice, which led to them to buy a fancy rice cooker for my apartment. I was just going to cook rice in a pot like at home, but thanks! Finally they took me home and I collapsed on my bed from exhaustion. I later called my sister on skype and we were giddy because we were in the same country and time zone again.

On Sunday I slept, then spent hours unpacking and trying to talk myself in to going outside because I was scared that I would get lost, or worse, have to talk to someone. I finally ventured out to the 7-11, a 30 second walk away. There were a couple of westerners sitting at the tables outside  of the store. That confused me for a second. I went in, bought banana milk and mouthwash, and rushed out, almost crashing into another westerner walking into the store. Now, let me just say that in my 5.5 months of living here I have never seen that many westerners in that store or outside of it. It must have just been that day. Okay, so after coming home and realizing that 7-11 didn't count as venturing out, I left again. This time my goal was to find the huge Galleria department store which was right next to where I live. So I walked down some streets and, of course, turned the opposite direction from where the store was and walked down to a circular bridge thing. I enjoyed it up there. Then I went back home, seeing the huge Galleria building as I walked back. 

Okay. That's enough for this post. Next time I'll talk about my first week at school. Below I have added two videos that I took on my first walk out of my apartment. I've also begun F.Y.I.s again like I did in New Zealand.

F.Y.I. Korea #1 Fast Food is Not So Fast

There are many fast food restaurants in Korea like Lotteria, McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Popeye's, etc. I don't go very often, but in the building where I work there is a Lotteria. It's like Mcdonalds. The only thing I like there is their Spicy Chicken Sandwich. The workers have cute uniforms and are very polite. In America you can order something in a drive through and keep going in under 5 minutes. In Korea, there aren't many drive throughs (I have yet to see one but they are rumored to exist somewhere) so expect to wait 7-15 minutes for your order. For the most part, they make your sandwich after you order. They don't just have a bunch sitting under the heater for a long time, getting old and cold. Everything comes out hot...I mean really hot like they just took it out of the oven/fryer hot, which they most likely did. It's great! I can do the 5 minute walk back to my school and still burn my tongue on my sandwich. :)

Waiting...and Waiting...and Waiting!

Honestly, I haven't written in this blog in a while because I felt like I had no new updates. Still not in Korea. Still waiting on God. Patience and trust is what he wants to build in me but boy do I fail often.

It's all good though. It's not like I created the world.

I really don't know or understand what God is up to, but he's getting me through each day. I've had a few more interviews and turned down a few more jobs, not because I was being picky, but because they were many clear signs that things weren't as they should be. I don't want to fly over to a country only to find out that I have no visa, apartment, or real school. Yikes! It's very frustrating but I'm okay. I'm still waiting for God's timing and applying like crazy. Last night I had an interview with another recruiter so we'll see where that goes.

My sis has come home to visit and gone back again to begin a new teaching position in Busan. We still talk on Skype almost every day and that has been awesome. There's nothing quite like having someone there to scout out the locations of schools for you and give you tips on what the warning signs are in a contract. It stinks that she isn't here and I'm not there so we can't continue our crazy antics in person, but it will happen again soon enough. I'm so thankful that she was here last week.

My grandmother is coming to live here in about a week so that should be fun...and interesting. She's coming to live with my mom and I am currently staying in her room. I'll be relocating to the couch or the air mattress so it's about to get real interesting. Now I know I've been here too long.  It's so weird that I've lived on my own in New Zealand, and then have come back to live with my mom. I feel antsy like I need to go back out in the world but the world is taking too long to accept me into a real job. I've begun packing for Korea so all I need right now is the job. I have all of my documents ready to go!

Ahh....God's timing.

I'm a few weeks away from the big 3-0. Surely I'll land a position by then, right?

There are many things I can talk about, but right now, this is what I'm reflecting on to keep my sanity:

"The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
    I will advise you and watch over you." Psalm 32:8

"But I am trusting you, O Lord,
    saying, “You are my God!”
 My future is in your hands..." Psalm 31:14-15a

I really don't know or understand what God is up to, but he's getting me through each day.

Remember when...

Remember when I was going to update this last fall? Well, not so much.

Hmm...

Well, let me give a brief update.

I am not in Korea. I was offered a job back in October but I didn't take it as I was visiting relatives and didn't have my documents with me and also God was protecting me from a recruiter that I later found out was horrible and did many illegal things. Thank God.

In November I moved to a new apartment with my mom and I am so thankful I was here as I knew she wouldn't have been able to do it on her own, and a lot of my friends were there to help. Praise God.

Afterwards I entered a dark period of depression, feeling isolated, missing my sis who has been living in Changwon, South Korea since September, and just tired from the whole year of hardship. I needed the time alone and also with my mother who was able to help cheer me up. I spent some good desperate & honest time with God and I cleared my schedule from most holiday parties and things. It was a good step to get some rest and relaxation as well as figure out what God was doing in my life. Things weren't working out as smoothly as I had planned and that struggling against his timing left me disappointed and worn out. I decided to hold off on looking for jobs in Korea until my sanity returned.

In January I began looking for jobs again, and then had to apply for a new background check. I also began looking for part time work here - to no avail.

In February I had get a new passport since you need at least a full year left on a passport when beginning a job in Korea. Amazingly, renewing a passport is super easy and I received it in 3 weeks rather than the 6-8 they quoted. Praise God! During this month I put the Korea job searching on hold again as my surgery complication from last year was still not fully healed and it seemed like there was something wrong. I had to go through a lengthy process to see my surgeon again as I didn't have health insurance as so had to sign up for a special program through the hospital. I was also concerned about my mother since she needs to have knee surgery sometime this year and I was thinking and praying about staying here while she healed. Last time it took her 9 weeks. I was in New Zealand. I didn't know if I wanted to leave her again. When I told her this, she looked at me like I was crazy and told me to continue plans for Korea.

In March I had a bad case of stomach flu which lasted a week. Not to be a baby, but I've never had stomach flu before so this was very new to me ;) I also realized that I need to get back to exercising and getting healthy, so I began exercising 5 times a week. It's still going well. You can read more about that at my other blog Elohim, My Heart's Desire.

April and currently, I am continuing to look for jobs in Korea, putting in applications regularly. I've had some responses, but not much. I even almost interviewed for a school last week. I'm just trusting God with it as I now truly and fully know that it's in his hands.

SOOO...there you have it. It looks long, but believe me, this IS brief.


For all of you wondering what's up with me and Korea, now you should know. My sis has been there for 7 months. I haven't. And it's okay :)  Just a note: Please stop comparing us. She got a job in September because that is when God wanted her there. My resume is fantastic and believe me, I have been doing all that I can. It is out of my hands. God is in control of it. Yes it has been hard, but it has been good too. I've grown closer to God, which is really enough by itself! I got to see the birth of my niece Kaydence! I've been blessed to see my South Carolina family 3 times, two of those being here and them staying in my apartment! Speaking of apartments, it has been AMAZING having a top floor apt with a balcony that overlooks nature. SO peaceful! I have been able to help my bro and sis in law who live up here with watching the kids and hanging out with them. I was able to see some good changes and growth happen at my church! My head is finally healed which is great! I was able to see a great friend get married. I am so blessed. God knows that I need this time and that he has a purpose for me being here right now. I know you all love me and ask questions because you're wondering what happened. Thank you and feel free to ask. Just don't be surprised if some days I don't feel like talking about it. The best thing you can do for me is pray. Seriously. Pray especially that I will be open to whatever God has for me, and that I won't miss my sis and best friend so much even though we skype every day. ;)


Cheers!

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.  :)

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.

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!

2011 in pictures

Because sometimes it's better to review the past year with pictures! Happy New Year!

JANUARY 

WinterJam concert

FEBRUARY

Learned how to Crochet

MARCH

Visited Nephew Alex in S. Carolina

APRIL

Easter Art for Reflections of the Cross

Jesus and the two theives on the cross

MAY

Asian Fesival & a month of goodbyes to many friends from church

JUNE

Urban Garden - and City Fresh

JULY

1 Month in S. Carolina to spend time with Alex and new twin nephews

AUGUST

Watched downtown Cleveland transform into a battle scene for The Avengers movie.

SEPTEMBER

My birthday and picking apples and grapes. We've made some really good jelly and apple pies ;)

OCTOBER

Went to see Group 1 Crew in concert and have a good chat with them.

NOVEMBER

Drove to S. Carolina to spend time with nephews and family again and celebrate Halloween and Daylight Savings ending with them. ;) 

DECEMBER

Saw my girl Beckah Shae in concert and prayed with her with my sis about moving to S. Korea.

The EPIK process

I won't lie. I'm not looking forward to the whole EPIK application process to work in Korea. Background checks, recommendation letters, resumes, transcripts, notarized and apostilled blah blah blah. No to mention applying for Korvia Consulting, and filling out the application, and having various interviews. Oh and did I mention that I'm going to start online courses soon to get TEFL/TESOL certification. I'm also learning Korean on talktomeinkorean.com.

It truly is an EPIC undertaking. The bright side of things is that my sister is going too, so we get to struggle through all this together.

Busy Busy!

Here's a picture of the city that we want to live in: Daejeon

Babies and Travel Plans

Woah! I have not written on this blog in months! Shame on me. As usual it just means that life got too busy.

Here's a quick update and maybe I'll go into detail when I have the time later!

1) Went to visit my nephews again! They are getting so big!!! If you ask Alex how old he is, he says "I'm 4 1/2 and I play soccer." While I was down there with my sister, I got to watch him play soccer. I'll use the word 'play' lightly since he was whining and crying during most of it because he got hit in the head with a ball. Yes, he is a big baby, but he'll grow out of it soon...I hope. Nathan and Quinten, or as I affectionately call them, NaDaddy and Quinni the pooh, are doing well. They're so much bigger and full of energy and giggles. Quinni still has a few struggles because of the scar tissue on his esophagus, but he's doing well. He also has to where a helmet some times to round out his head. It's hard for a baby who was in the NICU for almost a month. NaDaddy loved to jump on his little bouncy seat and has sooooo much hair! He really looks like a porcelain doll of a hobbit! They are all cute!

Alex

NaDaddy

Quinni the Pooh - or Megaman cause of the helmet

2) I also got to spend some time watching my other nephew, Julius and he even spent the night. He lives a lot closer than the others so I tend to see him more often. He's crawling standing, and trying to walk. If only he wasn't so stubborn ;)

Julius a.k.a. JuJu

3) The other big news for me is that I am planning in moving to S. Korea next August. YIKES!!! I'm excited but it is such a big decision. Not so much moving to another country...I've already done that with New Zealand...it's more that Korea is SOOOOO different and involves another language. I'm studying like crazy now to learn all I can before I begin taking the TEFL course. Honestly, I have no idea why anyone would want to go teach English in another country without knowing how to tech, or even some of the language. There are so many people who go over there and by the end our their year they still don' know any Korean or even how to read the characters. Shameful! Why would someone go over to Korea to teach people about English and English culture and not bother to learn anything about Korea. Again, shameful!

I'll get more into everything soon, but I am so excited for the adventure ahead and everything that God is doing in my life right now.

Till next time ;)

Buy some art so I can move to Korea ;) 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtbyCara

Skype and Nephews

I love talking to family on skype, especially my nephews. I can't believe there are 4 of them now!! I've put some pictures below. Aren't they cuties! My little hobbits.

Alex - 4 1/2

Julius - almost 10 months

Nathan - almost 10 weeks

Quentin - almost 10 weeks

I have an art blog too!!!

I've started an art blog!! Mostly so I can do post my art from illustration fridays and The Sketchbook Project. Great motivation! Check it out below.

Cara A. Gabriel, Artist: Illustration Friday - Obsession: "Lately I've had trouble feeling motivated to do art. Today I heard about this cool website called Illustration Friday (IF). Basically they g..."

The Babies. The Babies. The Babies.

The twins were born June 10th! Two new hobbit additions to the family ;) I am now the proud aunt of two amazing little boys...Nathan and Quentin. That brings my nephew total up to 4! Although I wonder if nieces will ever be in the picture, I love my little nephies and can't wait to meet the two newest members of the family.

Nathan / Quentin

Nathan Michael was born at 5:21pm 5 lbs10 oz, Quinten Avery was born at 5:23pm 4lbs 7oz. Quentin is still in the NICU, and had surgery so that his breathing tube and eating tube were corrected, but he is doing very well and will most likely be out of the hospital in 2 days :). It's amazing how quickly babies heal and adapt!

I'm flying down to S. Carolina again to see them and help out during the month of July. I'm super excited!!! I'm glad that my bro and sis trust me again to help take care of their kids!

That's all for now.

T-4 days till I leave.

Meditation

Today was the first day of beginning the study of the 12 spiritual disciplines with my amazing women's group. Scary! And awesome! Love it! This week I'm focusing on meditation of scripture and reading Job 38-41. I'm learning about my own insignificance compared to God, and yet he loves us so much and conquered sin for us through Jesus' death and resurrection. It's crazy! My journal is going to be filled in no time. ;)

And then afterwards I had to listen to this song because it reminds me of how I feel today. Check it out!

Heartbroken

I'm not gonna lie. Sometimes the sin of the world is just so overwhelming...

I've been following an organization called Women at Risk International who try to rescue women and children from the sex trade industry all over the world. They help the women in so many ways, including counseling, bringing them to a safe house, and training them various trades so they can make a living, and reaching out with the gospel of Christ. The stuff that these women and children are going through all over the world is appalling, and disgusting, and heart-shattering. The fact that people are so eager to sleep with prostitutes and abuse children and treat them in such a horrendous way is overwhelming to me. The fact that some many people are kidnapped and used at big sporting events including the Superbowl is crazy. And the fact that there are so many sex slave trading strongholds even in America is horrific.

Well, anyway, today at the Women at Risk facebook page, they posted this article about the devastating truth behind the porn industry, siting a webpage of a former porn actress, Shelley Lubben, who has since come to know Christ, gone through massive counseling and had help in dealing with the trauma of the sex industry. Since 2002 she has been reaching out to others in the porn industry and people who struggle with porn-addiction, showing them the true effects of the industry and sharing Christ with them. Here website and the stats below can be found here: http://www.shelleylubben.com/

Porn Industry Statistics ( www.shelleylubben.com/)

36 porn stars died that we know of from HIV, suicide, homicide and drugs between 2007 and 2010.

66% of porn performers have Herpes, a non-curable disease.

2,396 cases of Chlamydia and 1,389 cases of Gonorrhea reported among performers since 2004.

Over 100 straight and gay performers died from AIDS.

26 cases of HIV reported by Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM), since 2004.

70% of sexually transmitted infections in the porn industry occur in females according to County of Los Angeles Public Health.

Chlamydia and Gonorrhea among performers is 10x greater than that of LA County 20-24 year olds.

The largest group viewing online pornography is ages 12 to 17.

More than 11 million teens regularly view porn online.

There are 4.2 million pornographic websites, 420 million pornographic web pages, and 68 million daily search engine requests.

50% of men and 20% of women in the church regularly view porn.

Of 1351 pastors surveyed, 54% had viewed Internet pornography within the last year.

Of all known child abuse domains, 48 percent are housed in the United States.

At the 2003 meeting of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, a gathering of the nation’s divorce lawyers, attendees revealed that 58% of their divorces were a result of a spouse looking at excessive amounts of pornography online.

Child pornography is one of the fastest growing businesses online, and the content is becoming much worse. In 2008, Internet Watch Foundation found 1,536 individual child abuse domains.

Worldwide pornography revenue in 2006 was $97.06 billion. Of that, approximately $13 billion was in the United States.

It breaks my heart. Sin is so ugly and dark and sometimes I think we forget that Satan is working hard to destroy lives... I am so thankful to God who is so much more powerful and loving and is bringing people to him everyday and breaking the chains of bondage to this sin.

If you or someone you know struggles with porn addiction or sex addiction, a good resource to check out is Setting Captives Free (http://www.settingcaptivesfree.com/).