Intensives, churches and pure deliciousness!

I've been made aware that many of our pictures and posts involve food in some way, and this one, it turns out, will be no different. But more on that later.

It's been awhile since we've given an update, and the simple answer for that is 'Intensive Classes'. For those of you following me on Twitter, you've probably noticed that most of my recent updates have involved my intensive classes in some way, and that's because that's really most of what there is to report.

This month Shannon and I have an extended schedule that involves early morning classes in addition to our regular afternoon/evening schedule. However, there are only four students for this intensive month (since Korea's economy isn't much better than North America's right now), so we only have two classes each. 'Because I'm the man,' I get the earliest classes, which I'm completely content with because I've got two of the cutest and smartest kids EVER. I have two classes with James and Layssa: one for conversation and one for writing, and these guys are so smart, we went through three writing books before they found one that wasn't 'too easy'. Oh, and did I mention, they're NINE?! They actually carry on a conversation in English better than many of my teenagers, and they're hilarious to work with, too.

Shannon's classes are with two of our teenagers, one of whom has been struggling with her regular classes. Hera's main problem is that she is very shy, and even more so when it comes to speaking English, but since the start of intensives, she's really broken out of her shell, and she's speaking a lot more, even in her other classes, and improving dramatically as a result.

It's almost sad that we've only got 10 days of intensives left, but at the same time, the extra hours are really starting to wear on us. Shan's gotten a little sick this week, and we're really praying that she'll be back up and running at full strength before Monday hits and we have another full week of long days to run through.

The other major thing is that we've had opportunity to visit another church in the city (which also happens to be much closer to home). The church is called the Community of JOY, and it's part of the English ministry of a huge Korean Methodist church. The Korean church has 5 services on Sunday, at 2000 attendees per service! By contrast, their English service has only about 70 people, and they're actually mostly English-speaking Koreans who attend. We were connected with one of the foreigners in the church by our good friend Leslie, who attended the Community of JOY back when she was in Korea, so that was a great connection point when we were meeting people after the service finished. Everyone there was very friendly, and the atmosphere was one of real community, like we're used to at home. Lisa, the foreigner who helped us find the church, also told us that there are many ministry opportunities in the church if we're interested, and we're even meeting with one of the English-speaking folk on the worship team this weekend to see how we can get involved musically.

An interesting side note is that many of the people involved in the music ministry for the Community of JOY do not actually speak English. They're members of the Korean church who feel led to be a part of the English Ministry and so they choose and practice English songs for the English service, but often their English is very limited. Worship team practice is completely in Korean, but for the English lyrics to the songs. When I learned this, I was actually really excited, because it gives me a great opportunity to learn Korean in a properly immersive environment. Hopefully, after we get a chance to get more information on getting involved musically, I'll be able to join the existing worship team (or eventually put together one of my own!).

After the service and small group, we were taken out to lunch at a restaurant nearby where we had the chance to try something new (I told you I'd get back to the food eventually!) - 돼지갈비 (dwaeji galbi). It consists of pork ribs marinated in (what I assume to be) soya sauce, which go on the grill in your table (much the same way as 삼겹살), and when it's cooked you wrap it in a lettuce leaf with garlic, pickled raddish and anything else that they happen to provide as a side dish. As I noted in the title, the combination was pure deliciousness! And this Sunday, we're being taken out for something that translates roughly to 'ugly fish', which we can't wait for, as it'll be our first experience with Korean seafood.

We're planning our first trip to Seoul next weekend for Solnal, the Lunar New Year, so your prayers would be most welcome as we travel outside Daejeon for the first time. I've got my sights on a guitar from the Musical Instrument Market (technically, it's called an Arcade, but either way, it's got guitars), so we'll let you all know how it all goes. Till then, we really appreciate all your prayers, and the little notes of encouragement we've been getting.