I was able to jot down some notes a few weeks ago. Hopefully I will have a chance to update more recent events soon. I have a few minutes to transfer some thoughts from paper to y'all. Thanks for the prayers and for the support. I am so blessed!
My first few days here were hectic. Little did I know it would be the most relaxed time of the journey. I left home on Saturday, July 17 and visited family on the way to Dallas, before our departure early on Tuesday the 20th. I arrived at BU with my parents, luggage and a Dr.Pepper Slurpee at 6:50 AM, settled in the van and headed to the airport for a flight that would leave me forever changed. It was not the flight itself, it was the new home where it was taking me. We (finally) got our tickets printed, bags checked and through security. Our first flight left about 10 that morning. TI was served some of the most interesting, nasty food on the plane ride that seemed to last ages. That flight was from DFW to Tokyo, Japan. I believe it was about 14 hours long. I was able to watch several movies and play games like solitaire on the seat-back screens on both the flight from Dallas and from Tokyo. The long flight, I sat by a lady from Taiwan that wore a mask and knew enough English only to tell me not to talk because she could not understand. The shorter flight, after about a 3 hour layover, I sat by Cameron. He is the other person on our team that is staying as long as I am.
I forgot to mention our adventures at Japanese Customs and airline security. It was such a hectic exhausting waste of time...only to travel to the other side of the airport and leave their country as quickly as we entered. Anyways the flights were overall not bad at all, just lengthy. The food suffered and I was awake for all but about 20 minutes. As we stepped off the plane in South Korea, we retrieved our luggage and made it through customs and met some pastors from Suwon Central Baptist Church and exchanged some money, loaded up in some vans and drove a few hours to our apartment. It was conveniently located above a small grocery and a few blocks from the church. There were so many neat places we walked to frequently.
Bar all of the blessings, after the 30 hours of travel with bad food and 20 minutes of sleep, making it as far as the apartment with our bags we were worn out! The apartment was a small three bedroom apartment with three cots about the size of twin beds, and plenty of hardwood floors! The shower I usually used was simply a half bath with a shower head attached to the sink so I held it in one hand and tried to avoid spraying clothes, toilet paper, towels(the size of hand towels, if we got one) and pajamas.
I do not know what I was expecting but that was not it. The boys, Cameron and Felix took a small front room and the other front room was for luggage. The room with 3 cots and the bathroom was at the back and the rest of us settled into the living room with our sand paper-ish sheets, with the exception of Mrs. Judy who took the balcony by the clothes washer.
The apartment nice and cozy, never had to worry about being cold or lonely! It was a great experience. The church bought us American snacks and a few Korean snacks to keep at the apartment. We were definitely taken care of!
There is so much more, but I must go! It is pitiful that I have been here over a month and am just posting about our trip and arrival!! I guess it just proves how busy we are! I am going to try to be more diligent in posting. Hopefully I will get my computer working again or get a replacement which would make contact easier. I would appreciate your prayers!
1 Samuel 17: 37-47
"....it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's....."
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