Adventurous 9

Hi all

So I know that I have not posted for a while and in fact it seems that no one has been posting for a while.  I am intending to change this and start to post again.  The first thing that I am going to post is the Adventurous 9, these are the people that I went to Hungary with and taught with for a month.  I have over 8 gigs of pictures to sort though and decide what to post and what not to post (what is worthy of this blog and what is not so worthy) but I thought that I would describe the main characters of the last month.

This is the dream team, we were pretty much the trouble makers of the group always looking for ways to annoy someone or make trouble somewhere and escape camp when ever possible. (starting from left to right Chris aka JC aka Jackie Chan, Viki aka Wiki (the Hungarians could never pronounce the V properly and after calling her Wiki the name just stuck), Alissa aka the blackfoot (called the blackfoot by JC and myself as she constantly seemed to have dirty feet, we actually hypothesis that she took a shower with her feet outside the tub to preserve the dirtiness of the feet), Wes aka Wes (me being me there was never any need for a nickname)

These are some of the ladies in our group looking far too cool for school.  HAHAHA at least they thought that they were too cool for school. (In this group of rapping beauties starting from top left and moving we have Becky aka shorty (to be honest I am the only one who referred to her as this), below with the hood up is Jean (half korean and half Canadian), beside is Wiki once again and beside Wiki and below the guy is Martina aka Tina (Again this is one of those things where only I called her Tina because I knew it annoyed her and it made me laugh)

With the exception of the two guys this is almost all the ladies from the group, we are missing one. (starting from the left we have Shorty aka becky, Polly, Diana, Jean, Wiki, and Tina with two camp guys in the background.  This is what happens when you show up to a camp with 7 foreign girls in tow you tend to make a bit of a stir)

So as you have seen over the last few pictures this was the group that I spent 1 month with in Hungary.  JC was from the UK (London), Wiki and Alissa were from the US (New York City), Dianna was from Romania, Becky was from Malta, Polly from Hong Kong, Tina was from Chek, Jean was from Canada or South Korea take your pick and then of course there was me (I was the angle of the group always against doing anything wrong and of course the most responsible).  It is funny after spending 1 month together you tend to get pretty close to people and I can honestly say that I am going to miss them. However I am sure that I will be seeing some of them in the not too distant future (especially JC, Becky and Tina)

Day in the life of a english teacher in Hungary

Hi all

Alright I have a precious brief moments to outline the average day in the life of a english teacher in Hungary.

7 am:  wake up and get the kids up (usually involves yelling breakfast time down the hall and banging on doors as loudly as I can)
7:30 am:  After I have yelled breakfast time a few times I head down the stairs (I live in a 7 floor dormitory) and bang on the girls door 2 floors below ours (they do not like waking up on time)
7:35 am:  head for breakfast and see what is on the menu and help out where necessary
7:50 am:  finish up with breakfast and grab what I need for lessons for the day (usually what I need is not there so I have to get creative)
8:30 am:  I start my first session
10 am:  I have a short break to take care of everything that I forgot everything to do in lesson preparation
10:30 am:  back in class for another 90 minute session
12 am:  kids go for anther 15 minute break and I try to run around getting everything I need for the third class
12:15 back at class for the last 60 minute session, usually this is a little unplanned as I am pretty tired by the time it is time to plan for the last session.
1:15 Class is done for the day and I head down for lunch
1:30 I finally manage to eat after handing out food and taking care of any concerns
1:55 I have to finish and head to a meeting for english teachers for 2
2 English teachers meeting where we talk about the highlights of the day and the low points and compare different techniques.
2:30 leave the english teachers meeting and run to the camp meeting (where I don't know what is being said but I am expected to attend anyways)
3 finish the meeting and then either take care of anything in the afternoon for the children or start lesson planning.
6 head down for supper and start to serve food to the children and find out what the plan is for the evening
6:45 finish with dinner and head back to keep on working on the lesson plan or to get ready for the evening program
8 - 10:  evening program, this may be anything but we are always expected to be involved in some way
10 run back to the dorms for a quick shower before going back to lesson planning
10 - 2am or so:  work on lesson plan and if I am lucky enough to finish early hang out with friends for a while.
2 head to bed and get a little sleep before starting everything all over again.

I have to run I have to get back to lesson planning and preparing a exam.

Love you all

Wes

Southern South Korea vacation

Hey everyone,

This is in response to Wes' challenge about postiing something memorable that has happened in the past week to the family blog. Here are four of my favorite memories of this past week. As you all know, your Momma and I went for a short vacation to the south-western area of South Korea from Sunday through to Friday. Here are a few of my favorite recollections:

1. Camping on a sandy beach in Geoji-do (Geoji Island). We had a fantastic spot right near the shoreline - the morning after a restful sleep, we woke up to find the sun warming the earth and a nice, cool refreshing breeze that was gently stirring the sea-water in the bay and rusting the poplar tree leaves - it was great making bacon and eggs on the beach and anticipating a wonderful day, which it was!

2. Camping on a rocky beach on Namhai-do. We found an area off a harbour that had huge trees and a good washroom - there was all kinds of motor-vehicles coming from the nearby village to the harbour for various purposes but that mostly died out about 8:00 p.m. Little did we know that at precisely 5:00 a.m. the next morning, the loudspeaker would start blaring something in Korean - whatever it was that was said, all kinds of engines and people were roving around the area shortly afterwards - it felt like we were right near the Indianapolis 500 speedway - haven't these Islanders ever heard of sleeping in?!? Needless to say, Mom and I were also up well before 6:00 after having listened to that racket for awhile - not restful by any means, but certainly interesting!

3. By day three, after 2 days of camping, Mom and I agreed we would stay at a place that had indoor showers - by that time we had driven to the city of Yeosu, which is at the end of a long peninsula - Yeosu will host the next world expo in 2012 (this year's expo is being held in Shanghai, China). Anyways, Mom had her heard on getting a pension (a cross between an apartment and a cottage) so we drove just north of the city to a beach - to get there, we had to drive through a narrow tunnel that was about 1/2 km long - it felt really weird but was interesting - southbound traffic had the right of way so, if we met someone, there were areas every 100 meters or so where we could pull off to the right to let them pass. Anyways, we found this amazing pension for only 60,000 won - two full bathrooms, a kitchen/dining room area, a full bedroom and a balcony overlooking the ocean about 20 meters directly below - absolutely gorgeous!!! Needless to say, we made the best of this opportunity while there!

4. On day 4, we decided to head out to Jirisan (Jiri Mountain) National Park, which contains the second highest mountain in South Korea - not much by European standards, Wes, but impressive to us "Prairie folk" flatlanders nonetheless! We decided to take a backroad in after visiting the city of Namwon - I had visited the city with some friends two years ago when Mom was in Canada with you kids and wanted to show her the area - anyways, after visiting, we took this road that was full of switchbacks up and down a mountain pass - there were times when I couldn't even get up some of the 20% + grades in second gear and had to downshift to 1st - a real challenge of my driving skills but so rewarding when we finally got to the top and had a view of both where we'd been and where we'd be going, both far below us!

We wished we'd remembered to pack the camera - shortly after we'd left Handong, Mom asked "Did we remember to pack the camera?" My response was "we?" Anyways, we had to be at the hospital by 10:00 (the surgeon was late so we would have had enough time to pick it up had we known that but that's the way things so sometimes. It was really too bad, since we'd seen some mighty beautiful areas, but there was no sense in whining about something it!

That's it for my favorite recollections of this past week - I'm looking forward to hearing from Mom and you girls, since Wes has already posted!

Love always and forever!!!

-Dad-
XOXOXOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXOXOXXXOXOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXOXXO

I am sorry that I have not posted for a while but I am back

Hi all

I know has been a while since I have posted anything and I intend to change that.  To be honest I was trying to think of a new challenge for everyone however I am lacking ideas, I am not sure about everyone else but I am not really in a position to make elaborate meals at the moment as I am preparing to leave Slovenia and I am still camera-less at the moment so I can not challenge people to submit photos.  So I will offer another challenge, post something that has happened to you over the past few weeks that sticks in your mind.

For example for myself I would say that this last Monday night will stand out in my mind for a while.  It was a normal night with nothing really that special but a number of friends got together for drinks and just to talk and as we talked we all realized that we will all miss each other next year as we are all off to different places for our studies.  It was an unexpected realization and I think that realization really helped to make the night (what was by any other standard a completely ordinary night and not something that we had not done many times before) something that I will remember for a while.

So there you have it post a special moment that you had the past little bit.

Love

Wes

1 John Tests

Hey Family!

I was listening to a preacher online and he was talking about assurance of salvation. He talked about 1 John and how this book has a bunch of tests on how a person knows if they are saved. We know that we are children of God:

1. If we acknowledge Jesus as Christ, who came in flesh as the Son of God? (2:22-23; 4:15; 5:1)

2. If we living in the light: hating the things of the world, living in righteousness, loving our brothers and obeying God's commands? (1:5-7) (2:10; 3:14) (2: 3-6; 3:24) (2:29) (2:15-17)

3. If we confessing our sins and have we stopped living or continuing in sin? (1:8-10) (3:6-10)

4. If we have His Spirit? (4:13)

We are saved by grace 100%. But the evidence that we are saved is by a changing in our lives because of the Spirit that lives in us. Not by a prayer that we said at one time in our lives.

I was thinking about this and I believe that when I was saved was not when I was 6 as I had thought. I think that it was later in high school because that is when changes started happening in my life. That is when I wanted to conform my life to Jesus. That was when the Holy Spirit really convicted my heart for the first time about my need to change in my relationship with dad and where He began a work in me. That is where I began to love more and began to see the things of the world not so desirable.

How about you guys? When would you say that you've gone from death to life?

Love you all lots!

Lynne

Life Lesson 159: No matter how much your hair is bothering you . . .

DONT CUT IT YOURSELF!!!!

Monday was a crazy, frizz, almost an afro hair day. I mean it was out of control - I was sporting a very "nice" finger-in-the-light-socket 'do'. Annoyed and frustrated by this fly-away mop, I decided to do something about it - cheap style like. I cut it myself. Thats right, I, the girl who can't cut a straight line even if my life depended on it, stooped to the lowest of low in cheapness. Instead of coughing up a bit of cash a month before my next hair cut was due, I cut it myself. Now, here I will try to place the blame of my loss of sanity on my roommate and mother. You see, I figured to myself, that 1. Shelley and Rachel (and I think Kerry, and even Santana), often have taken a set of shears to their golden (or maybe ebony) locks, and they have survived (with nicely coffied tops), and 2. Mom has often taken the bull by the horns and chopped her own waves (and Dads - though I'm not sure that that counts), and still is as beautiful as ever. So I figured that I, a bright, relatively energetic individual could master this hair cutting thing - Hey I won a gold medal for microbiology so how hard can it be. Well, cutting your own hair is much more difficult than you would think. A LOT MORE! Here are some lessons that I learned: 1. if its your first time cutting your hair don't just start hacking - THINK ABOUT IT FIRST, 2. wet curls are longer than dry curls, and 3. sometimes you just have to STOP, but down the scissors and WALK AWAY!!!!

Actually, the hair cut isn't too bad, a little short, for sure, but I can live with it until it grows out in, lets say, a week. As you will probably notice, the hair cut didn't relieve the frizziness - curses upon humidity and thunderstorms and all that horrid rain!!!

Readings from Ezekial

Hey Family,

Sorry I missed talking to you guys on Skype last week. And I probably won't be able to talk this next week as well (I'm going to Gramsh to visit some friends).

Anyways, I just wanted to share what I was learning as I read Ezekial. I'm in the 11th chapter now. Before that it talked about how the elders of Israel would worship other gods even while they paid lip service to God. They said to themselves, 'O God has left, he doesn't see'. God's response to this was letting Ezekial see the Cheribum who had eyes ALL OVER their bodies. As well, God told Ezekial to open a wall and then to go through a doorway and He showed Ezekial what He saw, people worshipping other gods. It was like God was saying, there is NOTHING hidden from my eyes. He sees all their deeds, even done in secret, as well as their thoughts and their hearts. Then in verse 9, the Cheribum went and put a mark on the foreheads of the people that wanted to follow God.

This got me thinking a lot about the verse in 2 Chronicles 16:9 "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him..." I always thought that 'the eyes of the Lord' were like me, 2 eyes, but after reading about how the Cheribum have sooooooo many eyes and that they go throughout the WHOLE world, it gives new meaning to this verse!!!!

So I just want to encourage us as a family to really desire to walk in ALL the ways of God and not man. For God sees all that we do, think and is in our hearts. There is nothing hidden before Him and we'll be held accountable. He also sends grief and afflictions our way, not willingly, but so that we'd return to Him and follow Him with all of us. God knows His own and will take care of them (like Ezek. 9).

Love you all so much!