Well, crazy times here in Korea. We are all still healthy and well, but several of us team members have been experiencing some difficult times lately. My Grandfather, Menno Simon Hofer, passed away this past Tuesday evening and I found out about it via email from my parents on Thursday afternoon. I am grateful for his 80 years of beautiful life spent in loving service to our Lord, as well as for his 60 years of faithfull marriage to my grandmother and the witness of a Christ follower for all of his grandkids. He was a wonderful, wonderful man, and I will miss him greatly. The sparkle in his eye could warm your heart in an instant, and his sweet little wink made you feel like the most loved person in the world, even if for just a moment.
I have made the difficult decision to stay here in Korea and miss the funeral, but the Lord has given me a great peace about this. My grandparents devoted much of their lives to missions, and I believe that being here in Korea is the best way to live out my grandpa's desire for me right now. They invested greatly in this trip I know they believe greatly in what my team and I are doing here.
I would appreciate all of your prayers for my family (my immediate family is all split up right now and my grandma, dad, and aunts are suffering from the loss of their husband and father).
I had a wonderful time in China touring for 5 days, and I am back in Korea now finishing up an English camp. We have one more English camp to do next week, and I look forward to seeing how God uses us in our last week of service here. He has been so faithful to our team so far on this trip and it has been eye-opening to see how huge our God is and how He moves so actively all around the world. He is a great God, and I am daily learning more and more about how GREAT HE really is.
I will be back in the States in 9 days and look forward to seeing you all again.
God Bless,
Karissa
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Half-way point!
I believe that tomorrow marks my halfway point... not that I'm counting or anything! :)
I really have had a wonderful trip so far, full of interesting, new, and wonderful experiences, but the time seems to pass fairly slowly. I have a hard time believing that it was just over two weeks ago that I sat in the airport making my last few phone calls as I waited to board the plane. God has been faithful, though, and He is certainly working, even way over here in South Korea!
Our team has been afflicted by many difficulties of various kinds and it is obvious that Satan has been at work here, but God is bigger than Satan, and for that we are grateful! Many people have been sick, but have recovered within a day. The immigration police paid us a visit at our first location and threatened to deport us since we were 'teaching' under 'tourist' Visas, but many of the police officers saw what we were doing and said they would try to help us out... we have not heard anything of it since. Praise the Lord! A team member has been struggling with back problems (we are on our feet ALL day long!), but she has received much prayer and even some Korean acupuncture, and was feeling much better today. I actually had some sort of eye infection suddenly on Saturday, but the church we are at this week called a doctor to come visit me, he gave me some sort of antibiotics (gotta love overseas meds... who knows what it is!!) and some eyedrops that seemed to clear it up almost immediately. It ends up that he is normally a missionary doctor in Russia and he gladly gave me the medicine for free in exchange for prayer. I was so grateful, and I feel honored to pray for such a generous man. In fact, his wife drove to the store to buy me the eyedrops while I was still in the office with him... what service! People here are more generous than anything else I have ever experienced. They are truly beautiful people.
All that is to say that the Lord is at work here with us. He is watching over our team, and hopefully He is working on the seeds we have planted so far. Short-term missions are always difficult because you rarely see the fruits of your labor, but we have total faith that we are somehow being used to advance God's Kingdom. Please pray that we are able to make some sort of impact for God's Kingdom in our short time here.
There are too many stories to share in a silly little blog, but trust me when I say that I am happy and doing very well here in this foreign land! I am teaching lots, and learning tons!
God Bless you all... I love you!
I really have had a wonderful trip so far, full of interesting, new, and wonderful experiences, but the time seems to pass fairly slowly. I have a hard time believing that it was just over two weeks ago that I sat in the airport making my last few phone calls as I waited to board the plane. God has been faithful, though, and He is certainly working, even way over here in South Korea!
Our team has been afflicted by many difficulties of various kinds and it is obvious that Satan has been at work here, but God is bigger than Satan, and for that we are grateful! Many people have been sick, but have recovered within a day. The immigration police paid us a visit at our first location and threatened to deport us since we were 'teaching' under 'tourist' Visas, but many of the police officers saw what we were doing and said they would try to help us out... we have not heard anything of it since. Praise the Lord! A team member has been struggling with back problems (we are on our feet ALL day long!), but she has received much prayer and even some Korean acupuncture, and was feeling much better today. I actually had some sort of eye infection suddenly on Saturday, but the church we are at this week called a doctor to come visit me, he gave me some sort of antibiotics (gotta love overseas meds... who knows what it is!!) and some eyedrops that seemed to clear it up almost immediately. It ends up that he is normally a missionary doctor in Russia and he gladly gave me the medicine for free in exchange for prayer. I was so grateful, and I feel honored to pray for such a generous man. In fact, his wife drove to the store to buy me the eyedrops while I was still in the office with him... what service! People here are more generous than anything else I have ever experienced. They are truly beautiful people.
All that is to say that the Lord is at work here with us. He is watching over our team, and hopefully He is working on the seeds we have planted so far. Short-term missions are always difficult because you rarely see the fruits of your labor, but we have total faith that we are somehow being used to advance God's Kingdom. Please pray that we are able to make some sort of impact for God's Kingdom in our short time here.
There are too many stories to share in a silly little blog, but trust me when I say that I am happy and doing very well here in this foreign land! I am teaching lots, and learning tons!
God Bless you all... I love you!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
update... sorry it's been so long!
Family and Friends, how are you all?!?
I am now in Suwon, South Korea, which is about an hour out of central Seoul. It is a great area of the city and the people are just as friendly here as they were where I lived last week. I am living with a wonderful young family with three kids (ages 3, 2, and 10 months). The husband works for a German company and actually speaks English quite fluently. Last week I struggled to communicate at all with my host family so it has been great these past two days to have an English-speaker in the family. I also have two of my teammates with me this week which has been fun.
I have realized that the Korean food is much easier to handle this week since I now recognize most of what I eat and the tastes are familiar even if they are not my favorite. We had 16 new teammates join us from the States this past weekend and I already feel like I'm adjusted here and I'm sympathizing with them, remembering how it was my first few days. It's nice to be the experienced one now...
The Korean countryside is beautiful. I have been surprised how much of the time I feel like I am back in the States except that I can't read the signs. The city is just as developed as ours are, including the huge digital screens on the sides of buildings that flash advertisements and such. There are Starbucks on every other city corner, and other little coffee shops on the corners in between. There are 7-elevens everywhere as well as Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robins more frequently than we have in America.
Teaching has been wonderful. I so love my children, and I realize how much I look forward to working with them in my career someday. It is definitely challenging to spend three hours each morning teaching an English class to kids who may or may not understand what I am saying, but I do my best to speak S-L-O-W-L-Y and V-E-R-Y S-I-M-P-L-Y! Last week I had a class of 12 kids, all age 6-8. This week I have a class of 30 students, ages 8 and 10 (the 9-year-olds are in a separate group for some reason...), and they wear me out!!! They are great, though, and they give me lots of love when I'm not telling them to L-I-S-T-E-N and L-O-O-K A-T M-E (with hand gestures and everything!)!!
I have been having a wonderful time and have loved getting to know my teammates. This evening several of us hung out on the front steps of the church for a while and sang songs with a teammate who knew several songs on the guitar. Some of the random "chill" times have been my favorites! It also makes me miss my friends back home, however, and I love to think of you all.
I hope you are all doing so well, and I hope to hear from you soon. Feel free to write me here or to write me an email at hofediddy@yahoo.com. I check my email almost every day and love to hear from people at home. May your week be filled with God's joy and love!
p.s. Happy Birthday, Abby! I love you, sis!
I am now in Suwon, South Korea, which is about an hour out of central Seoul. It is a great area of the city and the people are just as friendly here as they were where I lived last week. I am living with a wonderful young family with three kids (ages 3, 2, and 10 months). The husband works for a German company and actually speaks English quite fluently. Last week I struggled to communicate at all with my host family so it has been great these past two days to have an English-speaker in the family. I also have two of my teammates with me this week which has been fun.
I have realized that the Korean food is much easier to handle this week since I now recognize most of what I eat and the tastes are familiar even if they are not my favorite. We had 16 new teammates join us from the States this past weekend and I already feel like I'm adjusted here and I'm sympathizing with them, remembering how it was my first few days. It's nice to be the experienced one now...
The Korean countryside is beautiful. I have been surprised how much of the time I feel like I am back in the States except that I can't read the signs. The city is just as developed as ours are, including the huge digital screens on the sides of buildings that flash advertisements and such. There are Starbucks on every other city corner, and other little coffee shops on the corners in between. There are 7-elevens everywhere as well as Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robins more frequently than we have in America.
Teaching has been wonderful. I so love my children, and I realize how much I look forward to working with them in my career someday. It is definitely challenging to spend three hours each morning teaching an English class to kids who may or may not understand what I am saying, but I do my best to speak S-L-O-W-L-Y and V-E-R-Y S-I-M-P-L-Y! Last week I had a class of 12 kids, all age 6-8. This week I have a class of 30 students, ages 8 and 10 (the 9-year-olds are in a separate group for some reason...), and they wear me out!!! They are great, though, and they give me lots of love when I'm not telling them to L-I-S-T-E-N and L-O-O-K A-T M-E (with hand gestures and everything!)!!
I have been having a wonderful time and have loved getting to know my teammates. This evening several of us hung out on the front steps of the church for a while and sang songs with a teammate who knew several songs on the guitar. Some of the random "chill" times have been my favorites! It also makes me miss my friends back home, however, and I love to think of you all.
I hope you are all doing so well, and I hope to hear from you soon. Feel free to write me here or to write me an email at hofediddy@yahoo.com. I check my email almost every day and love to hear from people at home. May your week be filled with God's joy and love!
p.s. Happy Birthday, Abby! I love you, sis!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
I enjoyed shrimp tonight...
Well, tonight I enjoyed shrimp for the first time ever. I'm not willing to say "I like shrimp" yet, but tonight was a good start. I certainly have not gotten over the whole seafood thing yet... too many eyeballs staring at me, tentacles in my bowl, and raw fish jiggling around, but the shrimp was okay.
Sorry this one is short, but a friend of my host family just stopped by to meet me and hopefully speak a bit of English! :) Hope you all are doing well, and I will try my best to write again soon.
Life here is certainly interesting to say the least, but I am alive, healthy, happy, and filled with the Lord's strength!
Love you all!!
Sorry this one is short, but a friend of my host family just stopped by to meet me and hopefully speak a bit of English! :) Hope you all are doing well, and I will try my best to write again soon.
Life here is certainly interesting to say the least, but I am alive, healthy, happy, and filled with the Lord's strength!
Love you all!!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
At the end of Day 2
Wow. I have been here only two full days and it feels like I have been here for at least a week. In fact, we haven't even begun working yet! The ESL (English as a Second Language) Camp starts tomorrow morning and will go from 9-5 everyday. I will have a class of 15-20 students this week all by myself and will be running a 3-hour-long class teaching English. Then I will help with two or three other classes in the afternoon until camp is over. If you're looking for things to pray for, you can definitely add my new teaching adventure to your list of requests!
Korea is amazing. It is a first world country and I am realizing that people's lifestyles are really quite comparable to ours in America. The differences include very narrow streets with many cars!!!, a very confusing language, and some crazy food! I was served toast with peanut butter for breakfast this morning and have never been so thankful for food I like! We have had lots of rice, LOTS of kim chi (spicy cooked cabbage... look out!), excellent beef and pork, a little fish, some seaweed, and the list goes on. Nothing is familiar though... I can say that with some confidence!
The house I am staying in is very nice. The family has given me my own bedroom with a bathroom connected, and they are very generous. I have a hard time communicating with them, but we laugh a lot at the language barrier and do our best at acting stuff out. There is a 27 year old girl here who speaks some English and she is able to help me out some. She actually gave me several pair of earrings last night that she designed herself!
Anyway, enough about me... I hope you are all doing well. I would love to hear from you! I have internet access for this week at least, so let me know how you're doing.
Miss you all!
Korea is amazing. It is a first world country and I am realizing that people's lifestyles are really quite comparable to ours in America. The differences include very narrow streets with many cars!!!, a very confusing language, and some crazy food! I was served toast with peanut butter for breakfast this morning and have never been so thankful for food I like! We have had lots of rice, LOTS of kim chi (spicy cooked cabbage... look out!), excellent beef and pork, a little fish, some seaweed, and the list goes on. Nothing is familiar though... I can say that with some confidence!
The house I am staying in is very nice. The family has given me my own bedroom with a bathroom connected, and they are very generous. I have a hard time communicating with them, but we laugh a lot at the language barrier and do our best at acting stuff out. There is a 27 year old girl here who speaks some English and she is able to help me out some. She actually gave me several pair of earrings last night that she designed herself!
Anyway, enough about me... I hope you are all doing well. I would love to hear from you! I have internet access for this week at least, so let me know how you're doing.
Miss you all!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
45 hours to take-off
I'm writing this partly to be sure I know how to use this program before I leave.
As a side-note for anyone reading this, I will have my phone with me in Korea for emergencies and so that I can occasionally let my parents know I am still alive. Keeping my phone on while I'm there, however, means that I will be charged international charges for any calls and/or text messages I receive while overseas. I am asking that people please rely on this blog or on email to communicate with me rather than calling or texting me. Thanks for your consideration in this.
Please consider me in your prayers over the next month and a half as I will be stretched mentally, spiritually, and even physically (I'm not a big fish eater! - yikes...).
Much love,
Karissa
As a side-note for anyone reading this, I will have my phone with me in Korea for emergencies and so that I can occasionally let my parents know I am still alive. Keeping my phone on while I'm there, however, means that I will be charged international charges for any calls and/or text messages I receive while overseas. I am asking that people please rely on this blog or on email to communicate with me rather than calling or texting me. Thanks for your consideration in this.
Please consider me in your prayers over the next month and a half as I will be stretched mentally, spiritually, and even physically (I'm not a big fish eater! - yikes...).
Much love,
Karissa
Friday, July 11, 2008
Korea - here I come!
I leave in less than a week for Seoul, South Korea. I am getting so excited for the adventure that lies ahead, though I feel completely unable to prepare for such a foreign experience. I covet your prayers in this time as I prepare physically, mentally, and spiritually for this trip. I will be teaching English and introducing our Western culture to many children, but most importantly, I will be looking for any opportunity I get to talk about Jesus and share His love with these beautiful people.
Thanks for your support and encouragement! Thanks also for your investment in this opportunity for me to be a part of the expansion of God's Kingdom here on Earth!
Thanks for your support and encouragement! Thanks also for your investment in this opportunity for me to be a part of the expansion of God's Kingdom here on Earth!
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