Discipline: a 2015 recap (aka January's almost over and I haven't collected any *Year End/New Year* thoughts AT ALL)

2015 was hard. Can I get an amen?

It started with a mission trip to Nepal and a new job, and ended with an unusual trip home, hanging out with my dad in the hospital for a week. 

It included a lot of highlights, especially a summer trip around the world (gahhhh I still need to post about that), but behind the highlights were a lot of frustrations, most of which aren't meant to be shared. 

I wouldn't trade it, even if I'm really really really glad to have 2015 behind me. 

Every year I choose a theme to pray into or focus on.
2013 was Obey.
2014 was Set-Apart.
2015 was Discipline.

I know right?

Last year on New Year's Day, I posted that I had chosen a theme for my year and I said something like "if God is willing to teach me, I want to hear Him!"

What a naive thing to say.

Every time it got hard and I wanted to hurl something against the wall, I came back to that. I chose this. I decided this. I asked God for a word and when I heard "Discipline," I accepted it joyfully.

"Yay! What a challenge! This might be hard, but it'll be soooo worth it!"
Ugh. It's easy to think those things from the safety of January 1. Now we're in the middle of January 2016, and I've had a chance to reflect on how I grew because of the challenges and frustration that happened as I stumbled my way through my Year Of Discipline.

And I guess it was worth it. (I mean, I know it was worth it.)

But, oh.
Oh man.

Several times during the year, I remembered that chipper little imp who beamed at the thought of a long, hard year. Oh yes, I remembered her optimistic "think how much closer I'll be to God at the end of a year learning about Discipline!" I remembered her idealistic whims and pleaded with God to make next year easier. Can 2016 be the Year Of Puppies?

And, honest to goodness, it was a great year. The hard is what made it great. My head knows that, because that's what wisdom says, but my flesh is still all like ughhhh that sucked. On this side of it, in the arms of beautiful beautiful January 2016, I can say that gladly! 2015 had so much greatness, so much richness, so many obvious blessings. I almost let the blessings get buried by the struggles, but I want to remember that I love my job as a librarian. I love living in Seoul. I love my adventures! And dangit, I can even say I love the struggles. That annoying Pollyanna outlook just won't let go of me. I'm an idealistic optimist til the day I die.

The lessons learned this year are hard to explain mostly because they are below the surface. They're foundational, root, building block lessons. It's harder to fix a foundation with a house sitting on it, and landscaping all around, you know? Foundational lessons are often the hardest to learn.

Discipline is a foundational thing.

So, real talk. I am bold and talkative, and I’ve never been afraid to speak in front of people. Because I was willing to serve, I have been trusted with leadership in every church I’ve been a part of. In recent years, I didn’t realize that my confidence in leadership had begun to take me in a direction I don’t want to go... I was in danger of becoming arrogant with my faith, with my leadership skills, especially because I thought my opinion was better than anyone else’s in leadership around me... if only because my opinion was the loudest.

God started to open my eyes to the danger of overconfidence (read: PRIDE). There have been times when I’ve disagreed with a leader about this or that, and I would occasionally let them know that they were wrong and they should probably do it my way instead. The first time I was called out on that, I was shocked. Someone I esteemed pulled me aside and gently told me how disrespectful it was. I thought I was just being strong, refusing to be pushed around. I didn't see that I came across as stubborn and combative. In hindsight, I can see a number of times where I refused to submit to authority and thus disrespected the structure that I'd agreed to.

I started to ask God to teach me how to be a respectful follower. (danger! danger!) I'd never prayed something like that, but it became important to me. God is faithful. I didn't know what I was about to get.

This went deeper than just being a follower, truthfully. I want to be a better friend, co-worker, roommate, daughter, human being. The lessons that God threw at me this year went deep into every relationship I have. Thank you, dearly, to the people who faced all this with me. Thank you especially to the ones I fought with, or fought against. You might not have known it but you were being used by God to teach me priceless things. Thank you for being the iron to sharpen iron.

A while back, I went through membership and leadership training at my church in Seoul.Some of the key training, for me, was about healthy submission to godly authority. God has been radically changing my paradigm. In the past, the word “submission” made me recoil. Over time, God has been teaching me about the value of submission. It has stopped being a bad word. It's still hard. I have moments of rebellion (lots of them). That's part of why last year was so foundationally hard. I'm trying to figure out the line between independence and submission, between strength and rebellion, between being exuberant and being a bulldozer.

I don't want to be an uncooperative, obstinate mule.

You know something funny?

ALL DAY LONG I expect my students to follow directions because I am their teacher, because I care about them, because I have their best interest at heart and I know more about what's going on in the whole classroom than any one of them individually might realize. It bugs me SO MUCH when the little ones refuse to follow directions. Their tiny, stubborn voices pepper me with "why?" "why?" "why, teacher?"

Substitute "leader" for "teacher" and "me" for "students" and BY GUM! I'VE DISCOVERED MY PROBLEM.

My mom taught me to obey her instructions first because she was the parent and I was the child. I expect my students to obey my instructions because I am the teacher and they are the student. SO...

When my boss or church leaders ask me to do something, why do I constantly ask why? Can I just take my own advice and trust that they are my authority and they know a lot about the whole situation and probably have a good reason to ask me to do something (or not do something) and I can trust them? I trust God, don't I? Doesn't that mean I can trust the leaders He has set?

Over a long season, I came realize just how much I didn't like to submit to authority and, more importantly, why. For years, I feared submission because I feared the abuse of authority. Knowing that godly leadership is safe because leaders are accountable to God, based on Hebrews 13:17, brought me to a new level of understanding. Layer upon layer of distrust and fear are being peeled off and it's so FREEING.

[Big Specification Here: I am not encouraging myself or anyone to trust all leaders everywhere, blindly. Don't be blind. If your leader is asking you to do something immoral or illegal or just dumb, I think there is room to respectfully ask for clarifications,etc., and, of course, don't do the immoral or illegal thing. I think the reason many of us fear authority is because it's been abused so often. That hurts. It's real. It takes time to heal those scars. 
The leadership structure I'm talking about is a godly, Biblical structure that has proved to be trustworthy. I'm also talking about leaders at work, where my pigheadedness has gotten me into some conflict with bosses over the years. I've made mistakes and learned a lot. I'm certain that I'm a better employee because of 2015. This is big for me!]

I want to have a heart for submission because I trust God.

I think that's what this year is about. And that's why this year has been so hard. My "token sin" is pride. Willful pride. Obstinate, combative, stubborn, inflexible, headstrong, bullheaded pride. The voice that said that my opinion was better than anyone else’s around me... if only because my opinion was the loudest.

It takes discipline to re-learn what I now want to know, which is to say, submission.

It takes discipline to re-learn how to submit.

And it might have sucked, but I needed 2015 to begin the process of re-learning what I should know, cause I've had yeeeears of practice not submitting. There is a lot of stuff built on a broken foundation.

(When I say I need to re-learn submission, I'm not just thinking about submitting to bosses or leaders,  but to friends and parents and roommates and even people who push me on the subway ... based on Ephesians 5 ... because submission is a form of kindness, and love, when you think deeply about it.)

Last year I wrote... 

Who am I? What is this?? I'm willingly seeking discipline, knowing full well that discipline is rarely easy. I'm inviting all sorts of challenges with this word. And yet, at this point I know without a shadow of a doubt that discipline is worth it. I'm a little nervous, yes, but I also eagerly anticipate some huge, valuable lessons at the end of it all. Proverbs 3:11-12 confirms what we all know: good fathers discipline because of love. I'm asking my Father for discipline, confident that whatever He does will be good, pure, righteous, and that I'll be a better daughter because of it.

"My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline,

and do not resent his rebuke,

because the Lord disciplines those he loves,

as a father the son he delights in."

Proverbs 3:11-12

If I want God to use me for greatness, for His purposes, for His glory, I need to be ready for that. I need refining, I need challenges, I need iron sharpening iron, I need discipline (all wrapped in love) to accomplish great things. I am a set-apart, obedient daughter of the King. Royal daughters are leaders. Princesses must act with decorum. Princesses must have self-discipline. 

But seriously, God, I'm praying that 2016 is less of a struggle. 2015 was hard. Lots of waiting. Lots of pruning. Lots of refining. I want the harvest. 

But thank you for your Discipline. 

Jay mashi means “Victory in the Lord” (and other tales from Nepal)

It has been two full months since my team and I returned from our life-changing trip to Nepal. As usual, I cannot believe time is moving so fast! My new job in Seoul started the Monday after we returned, so I hit the ground running and haven't slowed down for hardly a minute. Such is life in the big city, I guess? And let's be real. Busy is how I like life to be. Sweet sweet adrenaline. More on that another time, today I want to tell you about Nepal!! 

The TL;DR (aka Summary of Nepal Missions)
Our Team of ten spent January 30th to February 6th in Nepal. We were privileged to minister to one church in Kathmandu, two youth revival services, and one Native Missionary Training Center in Hetauda.  We were able to minister to a total of 406 people and 27 local pastors.  During our services, 16 fell under the power of the Holy Spirit, one woman's legs were healed of pain, two people with headaches and one man with back pain were healed, and we saw countless manifestations of the glory of God.  Thirty-one youth responded to a call to full-time ministry.  Themes of forgiveness, God's love, greater things for Nepal, and being mighty warriors went out in the preaching of the Word, testimonies, and exhortations.  We also had the privilege of visiting the house of a local pastor and ministering to several local families.  And to top it all off, we adopted a puppy to be a guard dog for one of the local churches and we attended a Nepali wedding and danced the night away celebrating what God is doing in Nepal!

That's the ministry update that our team is able to send out recounting the events that happened on our trip. Praise the Lord! You all know how hard it can be for me to be concice, so this time our team leader did it for me!! YAY! Haha... but for real...

FYI: most of these photos were taken by the exquisite Hannah Love Yoon, our trip photographer and legit photography journalist (that's her real job -- we were hecka blessed to have her as a member of our team, not only for her photog skillz but for her presence as a powerful woman of God. Check out more photos here.)

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

It is very hard to narrow down my thoughts about our week in Nepal, what it meant to me, and how I saw God moving. A few years ago, I was telling a testimony of a mission trip and I talked for over two hours... true story...
I want to share every meaningful moment, day by day, because so much happened in such a short amount of time! If you have a spare 3 hours, I could talk your ear off, but I'm learning not to do that! (I see you smirking. I know. It's a process.)

To begin, I must tell you Jay Mashi! Jay mashi means “Victory in the Lord” in Nepali and it’s the most common way to greet fellow Christians. Nepal is only about 1% Christian and there is a lot of persecution from people who feel threatened by this strange, new faith. I can tell you with absolute certainty, God is moving powerfully in Nepal. That was my favorite part of our trip was along those lines, meeting fellow Christians around the country, who are doing work that I can hardly fathom. More on that in a moment...

Our host for the trip was a powerful man of God named BP. Uncle BP and his wife, Auntie Tara, traveled with us the whole time and truly felt like family after just a few days. I asked my prayer partners to pray that we had a strong and fast connection to Uncle BP and oh my goodness, did we ever!! Auntie Tara is one of the sweetest people in the world. Uncle BP teased us, played jokes on us, fed us, and treated us like his very own nieces and nephews the whole time. On one of our road trips through the mountains, we stopped by the road to use the restroom. While we were away, he pulled out a bunch of grapes from under his seat (purchased as we left the city) and snuck over to a bush. As we walked back, he offered them to us like he'd just found a grape bush on the side of the road and "picked" them then and there. ...we kinda fell for it for a minute. WINNING. We felt (and were!) very very loved! Nepal would not be the same without them! We spent a lot of time with their daughters and son-in-law while we were in Kathmandu, spending evenings in their home, eating, and even going to a wedding all together!

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Speaking of road trips through the mountains, OH MY GOODNESS NEPAL IS BEAUTIFUL. We stayed part of the week in Kathmandu, the capital city, and part of the week in Hetauda and Sirlahi, so we were in the van a lot driving from place to place for revival services and to meet with pastors at different churches. Two of our days included 8 hour van rides through the mountains, which make up 77% of the country's topography. We prayed over our drives and BY GOD'S GRACE we didn't have a head-on collision, get rear-ended or side-swiped, fall off a cliff, and not one person threw up in the van (though the same can not be said of the puppy - more on that in a moment!). PRAISE THE LORD. From our viewpoint in our van along those long winding roads, we saw a lot of beauty. Roads are dusty, hills are alive, skies are wide, air is crisp. My soul sings!

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Fun story. During one of our stops along the mountain roads, Auntie Tara walked across the road and started talking to someone about these cute puppies that were lounging about in the sunshine, then she picked one up and walked back to us with the biggest smile on her face. She adopted the puppy! I was a little concerned at first, I mean, how can we just pick up a puppy on the side of the road and take her home?? Is that how it's done? Well, yeah I guess so! One of the churches we would be visiting in a couple of days is relatively new and needed a guard dog, so she decided to adopt a guard dog for his church! I tentatively suggested we call the puppy Philly (after our church, New Philadelphia), and the name stuck! Hooray!!
We piled in the van again and headed out, Philly the puppy napping at Auntie's feet for a long bit of the drive, then, bless her heart, she got carsick! We had prayed that none of the people in the van would be sick, but we sure didn't anticipate the puppy! Poor thing! It was pretty funny, though, to stop the van and air out the puppy and clean off the van mats. Crazy life experiences, right?

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

As you read in our missions summary, we held several services during the week. We held services at a church in Kathmandu, two youth revival services, and a Native Missionary Training Center in Hetauda, which is the church where Philly the puppy lives now! We met so many people and saw the Holy Spirit move in power everywhere we went. It's incredible to see what God does when people have GREAT FAITH for Him to do great things! Supernatural. People shaking, falling, joy, healings, speaking in tongues, and other powerful manifestations of God's glory. Experiencing God is a unique experience every time!! I've never personally fallen (what some call "being slain in the Spirit"), but in Nepal, it happened to people in my arms several times. I've never experienced anything like it, and from the expressions on their faces, it had never happened to them either! The Word of God was moving, living, breathing in the services. There we were, vessels of the Lord's anointing, empowering other vessels of the Lord to be the light in the darkness! Because there are so few Christians in Nepal, these powerful girls, boys, women, and men that we met have such a powerful role to play in the future of the country!! It was such a privilege to spend that time in worship together.

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

I mentioned that the highlight of the trip for me was spending time with local pastors around the country. Of all the powerful things we experienced, this was maybe the biggest blessing (and most eye-opening) of the trip. My church partners with NPWM, which stands for Native Partners for World Missions, so we spent a lot of time connecting with men and women from several cities around Nepal. Each pastor that we met runs several different ministries and has stories that are larger than life. Pastors shared about planting churches and Bible colleges, directing films, starting political parties, and small businesses. They spoke of graduating from college and immediately adopting 15 orphans into their home. They spoke of walking for days to reach villages that don’t have roads, just to share the gospel. They spoke of trekking ministries in the Himalayas.

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

They laughed and joked with each other and you could palpably sense the brotherly love these pastors have for one another. But even as they joked, there was a lingering heaviness to their ministry stories. They spoke of being imprisoned in a latrine for months at a time for sharing the gospel where it’s illegal... only to get out and tell more people about Jesus again, risking more jail time in a literal toilet. The spiritual climate in Nepal can be very hard. The darkness is real. Even while we were there, we heard that Christians in a village a few hours away were kicked out of the village. Their land and everything they had were taken from them. The persecution is real... but the joy that these pastors carry is so much brighter than the darkness! They carry the light of Christ with them wherever they go.

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

A big part of our role in Nepal was to pray for and encourage Christians in area churches. If you've ever been in a place where there is a lot of persecution or hatred toward your faith, you understand how important it is to be filled up so that you can continue to pour our love and hope and joy. We had the immense privilege to pray with the Holy Spirit over pastors and their families throughout the week!! Kim, another member of our team, pointed out that these men and women are rockstars of heaven, and we were so humbled and honored that they wanted us to pray for them. We loved to hear their stories and pray for them, and they wanted to know about us too! They asked us about our current jobs and our future hopes and goals, then they’d pray for us! Every encounter was mutually edifying and built us up in our faith. God used them for us, and He used us for them! By this, the name of our Christ Jesus is glorified.

HEY LOOK I got a photo *with* Hannah Love Yoon! 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Throughout the trip, I kept having intense surges of emotion in my spirit while praying or looking up and out over the hills. I thought I would be undone in an emotional sense, but I didn't have that one giant overflowing emotional outburst... I felt a little like a water balloon that keeps getting filled up. Mmmm... slowing falling more in love with Nepal. On the last big ride through the mountains, the skies finally cleared and we got to see a perfectly clear view of the Himalayas stretched across the horizon. To try to capture them in words or even photographs cannot do them justice. STUNNED. GOD, YOU MADE THAT. I kept just looking up and thinking "God made those. His hand crafted them, crag by crag. Each boulder is there on purpose. He knows each avalanche before it occurs. Jesus knows these hills. Jesus knows the paths that go through them." Humbling barely begins to cover it. I couldn't help but pray. I lift my eyes up to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

I was torn up as we left for the airport. I cried as we said goodbye to our host pastor, Uncle BP, his wife Auntie Tara, and his daughters. It’s amazing how fast people can feel like family. When Uncle BP runs for Prime Minister of Nepal someday, he is going to have a powerful campaign staff from South Korea!! It blows me away every time I go to a new country, just to meet other believers. We may not have anything in common – no language, no history – but when we are united in Christ, we are one. The Cross of Jesus Christ bridges cultures. We have brotherhood, we have shared traditions, and most importantly, we have a shared eternal future together. God is doing BIG things in Nepal. He is using powerful men and women all over the country to act out His sacrificial love and extravagant grace. He’s moving in politics and business. He is healing and empowering. He is caring for the orphan and the widow. His church is growing. It needs our prayers! Nepal is so beautiful. The pastors there are doing such powerful work. God took our team of 10 to encourage, pray for, and lift up powerful ministers of the Gospel in Nepal! In return, these pastors encouraged, prayed for, and lifted us up, sharing their mighty testimonies! That’s what God does! He brings us to a place of undeserved privilege, sets us in community to strengthen each other, and together we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing His glory. Amen!


Truly, every member of our team has 1,000 stories to tell. I wish I had time to share all of them! Someday, we can all sit around in heaven and revel in the goodness of our time spent sharing the gospel together in all the ways and all the countries here on earth. Then, time won't be too short, and neither will our attention spans. But, alas, for now I should let you get back to work, or cooking, or watching the kids, or staring out the window pondering how beautiful springtime is, or whatever else you could be doing while you read this. Thank you for taking a moment to know what has been on my heart, and I pray that this testimony blesses you and sets you free. God is so good. He has so much in store for us to share!

Photo Cred: Hannah Love Yoon 

"Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory."

Romans 5:2

Myanmar/Nepal Missions Recap 2015 by the incredible and 

incredibly talented Joel Kim, media pastor from New Philly.

For more of the AWESOME photos from our trip photographer, Hannah Love Yoon, check out Flickr and Facebook (srsly. go look.)

Nepal Missions 2015!!!

“How beautiful upon the mountains 

are the feet of him who brings good news, 

who publishes peace, 

who brings good news of happiness, 

who publishes salvation, 

who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.””

Isaiah 52:7

WELL HELLO THERE! 2015 is getting better by the day, right? This month has been busy and exciting with a lot of changes and a lot of rest thrown in. I'm still on winter vacation, but this isn't the boring kind of break from work where I sit in my apartment and stare out the window as the days drag by. Remember how much I hate that? August was like that. No más. No más. This winter break has been restful in all the right ways (sleeping, reading, hiking, baking), but it's been SUPER BUSY at the same time! I'm still commuting up to Seoul on the weekends and going back to Jeonju during the week for a little while longer. The MAIN reason I'm so busy is that I'M GOING ON MISSIONS THIS WINTER!!! We have training every weekend, and my team is busy getting prepped and bonding over dinners, and each team member has different tasks to complete

WANT TO HEAR MORE? I'm so glad you asked!!!

I have the privilege of being sent to Nepal to share the Gospel through my church, New Philadelphia, an English Ministry in Seoul. We'll be serving in Kathmandu, the capital city, and Hetauda, a small town in the Himalayas, from January 30 – February 6.

Photo cred: http://www.sevensummittreks.com/Nepal-1-1.html

For those of you who don't know much about Nepal, Nepal is beautiful. Nepal is where the Himalayas are. As in, Mount Everest. I KNOW RIGHT? Stunning. The more I read into the history, too, the more I fall in love with the country. Nepal has had a tumultuous few decades, with major governmental shifts and protests. The monarchy was abolished in 2008 and the country is now a Federal Democratic Republic with a president and prime minister. Nepal has a rich, diverse culture, many different ethnicities, AMAZING food, and a lot of people who have never heard about Jesus.

YOU GUYS. We're going to the mountains to share the beautiful news that God (who created the world and sits on the throne in Heaven) looooooves you. More than you can imagine. You might think you're not good enough to be loved like that, and you're right, but He sent his very self, in human form, to take the punishment that we deserve, to provide a way to connect with Him forever. God came to us. We don't have to clean ourselves up first and figure everything out, we just respond by running into the open, loving arms of a good Father. That's the Good News that are going to share! That's the Gospel.

Because I believe that, I MUST tell people! Because I believe that His death on the cross redeems people, giving us freedom, grace, and a relationship with the Maker of the Universe… Because I believe Him and accept that great love for me, I have share that great news! I’m so excited to do that in Nepal!! I’m thrilled about this opportunity! Every time God gives me a chance to talk about his freedom, grace, and salvation, I’m blown away. Oh, how He loves us!

WANNA HEAR MORE? OKAY! 

We will be doing ministry with Nepalese and Tibetan refugee communities, hosting worship services, and encouraging local pastors and youth leaders. It's gonna be INCREDIBLE. We are going to experience God in a way I've never seen, and I can't wait to be in the middle of it. God does crazy things. I've seen more of that this year than ever before... He's preparing us for some magnificence. (Is magnificence a word? I'm gonna go with it.)

If you've been around me for very long, you know I’ve been on a few mission trips before with different organizations. I've seen them done well, and I've seen them done poorly. I tell you what, New Philly missions are on the up and up. We're not interested in creating welfare states and dependent nations. We want to see the power of Christ change lives, change communities, and let that transformation change nations. We have seen it happen in Korea! We seek to do ministry that is transformative and meets needs. We partner with NPWM, which is Native Partners for World Mission. NPWM has a network of local pastors all over Asia, so when we do missions, we aren't telling people the Good News and then leaving like, welp good luck! Jesus loves you... we gotta go, yo. That's not how we roll. When we share this glorious story, we are supporting local pastors and the work that they're doing long-term in the community. We might be a novelty with our white, black, and/or Korean faces, we might draw in the curious with the *newness* off it all, but at the end of the day it's not about us. It's not about what we do. It's about what God is doing in these lives. We are confident that He sees the least. What we do is to serve the King of all creation. He sees every person. He loves every person. He wants to use His followers to do good work for his creation. We get to partner in that. It's a big responsibility, one that we don't take lightly. We are able to love people and share the love that God has for them, then help them connect with local ministers that can usher them closer and closer to God through discipleship, into maturity in their faith. IT'S AWESOME. I love every bit!!

I’ve never received the missions training that I’m getting through New Philadelphia. Because of the power that we know we'll see, we have received specific ministry training, VBS training, body worship training (that means dance practice and it is so challenging and fun!), training for support raising (that means money. don't be scared...), training for fasting, for healing, for specific challenges that we might see in the field. This will be the most powerful mission trip I’ve ever been on! Our team is stacked with powerful people who love Jesus mightily and want to share the relationship we have with Him. We want to see broken people made whole. We want to see hurt people be healed. We want to see lost people become known. We want to see it all, and we know the only answer that lasts... is Jesus.


Jesus truly changes lives. I hope that you will catch and share my heart for this cause.


So I mentioned support raising, right? Can we park on that for a minute? In the spirit of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), we are called to go and make disciples, but we are also called to send (Rom. 10:14-15). There are 2 main ways that I'm talking about here. Please send me with prayer support, and please send me with financial support. I need both and I'm asking you for both. Yes you :)

1. Missions teams cannot go without prayer support. 

Pray for me before, during, and after the trip, pray for my team before, during, and after the trip, pray for the local pastors before, during, and after the trip, pray for the people we meet in Nepal before, during, and after the trip, pray for Nepal itself before, during, and after the trip. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you when you pray. Be creative. Get a bulletin board with my/our pictures on it. Write it on your bathroom mirror. Set a reminder on your phone. Ask your 4 year old to remind you. Whenever you think about that guy you have a crush on, let that be a reminder to pray for us. Please and thank you.

My church is a BIG BIG BIG BIG force of prayer. God says to pray. We are God's house. We pray up and down, sideways, day after day, reminding each other to pray, gathering together to pray, staring meetings with prayer... do I need to say that prayer is a big thing? IT'S A BIG THING. So when it comes to missions, we pray hard. Every team member is covered. Every team member feels the covering. Crazy supernatural things happen that are only, only a result of prayer. God hears prayers. Please please join us. First and foremost, this blog post is an invitation to pray with me before, during, and after the trip. Prayer is essential to ministry!

If you want to pray for us specifically, please check the New Philly facebook page for prayer points every day! This missions season, we are sending out 12 missions teams over 4 different waves. Wave 1 returned recently, Wave 2 leaves in a week, Wave 3 leaves in a week and a half, and Wave 4 leaves on January 30!! THAT'S ME!!! I'm in Wave 4! Anyway, there will be updates and pictures of the different teams up on the facebook page. If you go to the page and pray for us, please "like" the prayer point that you prayed! This is very very very very encouraging to missionaries who come back, so we can see the prayers that have been prayed and answered! Again, check out https://www.facebook.com/newphilly and keep all the missions teams covered in prayer. THANK YOU SO MUCH I LOVE YOU THE END.

2. Missions teams cannot go without financial support. 

Money. I know. It makes people uncomfortable. It also used to make me uncomfortable to ask for it. I had this mindset that I should pay my own way or, "well people should just give to the missions fund at church, then the church can fund the missions," but... God's been changing that mindset in me. Missionaries are ambassadors, not beggars. I love missions, I love the way God commands us to GO, get out there and talk about what He's done, but I never realized that it's important to let other people be part of that. Not everyone has time or the ability to go across the world to talk about Jesus. I am in a place in my life where I have time and I am physically able to go. But what if someone can't physically go to the mission field? What if they don't have vacation time? What if they have 10 kids and can't leave for a week? How can they be part of the Great Commission? They can live missionally, they can send missionaries, they can pray and they can fund.

It gives a whole 'nother level of responsibility to the ones being sent out. When I'm fasting and training and praying and preparing, I am extra mindful of the people who have sacrificed and paid into my personal mission fund. I have to be faithful to what God's called me to for His sake, yes, but also for the sake of the ones who have trusted me with their money for the Kingdom purposes. I can not, must not squander their investment. It's my job to be faithful to give them a good return on their investment. They're literally investing in the trip. They'll see fruit, they'll see photos of the great things God is preparing for us in Nepal!! It helps me prepare, knowing that I'm going to be held responsible for stewarding their money. It's a great responsibility.

SO, if you're still reading, hahaha, I am still raising financial support. My entire trip cost is around $1,700, so, if you can invest in the trip, I would gratefully receive your contribution. As I write this, I'm currently at 77% of my support raising for the trip. I was hoping to be at 85% by last Friday... help me out! I need about $380 to be fully funded.

To donate, please visit my support page here, and if I'm fully funded by the time you read this, maybe you'd like to support other members of my team by clicking here! By funding our team, you're giving a voice to the Gospel. God told us to tell everyone. People need to hear! Thank you for being part of that, and I'm not kidding when I say we take our responsibility seriously! We've worked very hard already and we're not even there yet. This. is. gonna. be. awesome. God is powerful and He can do all things!!

Thank you for your interest in our trip! If you have any questions, you know I'll be oh so happy to talk more about it with you! Shoot me an e-mail, text, facebook message, twitter DM, smoke signal, whatevs. I'm a big fan of Jesus, and I pretty much can't shut up about it.

I love you muchly. Thanks for reading :):)

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, 

as though God were making his appeal through us. 

We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

2 Corinthians 5:20

This Year, Next Year.

Happy New Year!! 2015 is here!!! This morning, I woke up to a beautiful bright blue sky, the late morning sunshine streaming through my window. Perfect. Welcome, New Year, you're gonna be powerful!

Lately I've come up to the New Year with a different kind of eagerness than I grew up with. Maybe it's another product of living overseas, but December 31 stopped being just a night to stay up late and watch fireworks. Maybe it's that I am getting older and wanted to reflect more? In either case, starting in 2013, I began to intentionally choose a word to create a theme over my year. As God brings me to new levels of intimacy with Him, I want to respond! If God is willing to teach me, I want to hear Him! Choosing a personal theme to focus on over the course of the year has helped. In 2013, I resolved to be a more obedient daughter of the King, so every time I heard or read the word "obey," my attention peaked. Ok, God, I'm listening, what would you have me learn here? I got some great lessons and my faith matured quite a bit as I sought after honest obedience.

This past year, 2014, my word was "set-apart." Last January, I asked myself what it meant to be set apart by Christ, in Christ, for the glory of God? What does that look like in practice? This year has brought so much breakthrough! I've learned about vulnerability, submission, identity, letting go of fear, friendship, the Holy Spirit, authority, community, patience, dreams, being time-oriented, and on and on. It was a powerful year! If you've been tracking with me here, you've heard some of what's been going on.

In the spirit of reflection, I've been spending a lot of time this week reading old journals and old blog posts. This is why I love the written word. Emotions come and go, especially when you are ADHD and change your mind more often than your clothes. Having a written record of what I was thinking, praying, dreaming about makes it easy for me to see how far I've come! I will be building on these lessons for yeeeeaaaaars. 2014 started with a fight and the fierce determination to be spiritually steadfast. Through the hard stuff, there was so much fruit. So much favor. I wouldn't trade a single struggle or embarrassing moment. The Zara who is on this side of 2014 is much stronger than the Zara who set out a year ago. I LOVE THAT about life. Every year I can hardly recognize myself, but I know I'm the same. Thank you, Father.

With my theme word in mind, each time I read about how God set Israel apart to be His people, I circled the words. He called them out, for a purpose, to be a powerful testimony of His power and grace. Even in Israel's repeated disobedience, the way he set them apart is a witness to His undeserved mercy! So for me, what does that mean? As a Christian, I am a daughter of the King! Everyone knows that princesses are set apart from the people. They're special. Reserved for greatness. I have been set apart my whole life, and I don't understand why, but I receive every bit of the grace that comes with it! I have a pretty boring testimony. By God's grace, I never walked away from church. I never backslid hard into drugs or promiscuity. I can't take much credit for my boring testimony. It wasn't necessarily that I didn't want to engage in really exciting sin... I mean, I wouldn't have gone out and been like yeah! let's go out and disobey God! this is gonna be super fun, but (real talk) people wouldn't sin if it wasn't fun... I was rarely tempted into the "really exciting sin" stuff because most of the time I just wasn't invited. It's lonely to be left out by people, especially your friends, even when they are off making poor decisions.

And yet! As I took the time this year to reflect on what it means to be set apart, I rejoice all the more that I have been called and chosen by the Most High God to serve Him. My testimony isn't flashy, but it's the story of one set apart. There's a better way to do life than to engage in really exciting sin. Over the years it might have been hard, but somehow, underneath it all, I have known that it's worth it. I'm glad now that I was left out so often. Sin leads to death. Because I was left out of a lot of opportunities to be tempted, I have suffered from less wreckage that comes with sin. Choices have consequences. I pray the same life of grace over my nieces and nephews, cousins, youth, and students, that they would each be set apart and suffer the least possible amount of wreckage from sin. I took it to heart when we received the benediction in my church every Sunday growing up, "The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you..." The Lord God is able to keep you from sin. Open up your heart to that grace. Receive Him. You've been set apart.

2013. Obey. 
2014. Set-apart. 
2015... The word I've chosen for 2015 is "discipline."

I'll let that sink in. Who am I? What is this?? I'm willingly seeking discipline, knowing full well that discipline is rarely easy. I'm inviting all sorts of challenges with this word. And yet, at this point I know without a shadow of a doubt that discipline is worth it. I'm a little nervous, yes, but I also eagerly anticipate some huge, valuable lessons at the end of it all. Proverbs 3:11-12 confirms what we all know: good fathers discipline because of love. I'm asking my Father for discipline, confident that whatever He does will be good, pure, righteous, and that I'll be a better daughter because of it.

"My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline,

and do not resent his rebuke,

because the Lord disciplines those he loves,

as a father the son he delights in."

Proverbs 3:11-12

If I want God to use me for greatness, for His purposes, for His glory, I need to be ready for that. I need refining, I need challenges, I need iron sharpening iron, I need discipline (all wrapped in love) to accomplish great things. I am a set-apart, obedient daughter of the King. Royal daughters are leaders. Princesses must act with decorum. Princesses must have self-discipline. 

Practically speaking, I'm starting this year off with a book on spiritual disciplines. I've started reading Intimate Faith: A Woman's Guide to the Spiritual Disciplines by Jan Winebrenner.  It's already been rocking my world from the first few pages. From the Publishers Weekly review: "To the frequently taught disciplines of study, prayer, worship, fellowship and service, she adds a dozen others, including humility, chastity, secrecy, silence and celebration. All disciplines, she repeatedly emphasizes, have one goal: a passionate romance with God." I MEAN, RIGHT???? The book teaches about 17 different spiritual disciplines. I'M SO EXCITED!!! 

I also know that I must (must) practice discipline in my finances. It is getting ridiculous. I am 28 years old and I haven't saved anything long-term because I haven't paid off my masters (and a bit of credit card debt) because I am more excited about traveling around this great wide world than I am about paying off debt. Up to now, if you'd asked me if I've been saving lately, I could only say "Yeah! I saved $20 bucks on this sweater at H&M! It was such a good deal that I bought 5." ...true story...and that's not responsible. Responsibility is important. Ugh. God's been using many different means to speak into this in the past month, and I finally admitted that ok, God, I hear you, fine! Also, and this might be trivial to you but it's not to me, if I want to get married someday (please Lord), it is not fair to let a man save up enough money to woo my heart only to saddle him with all my debt. That's not nice. That's not fair. I refuse to do that. 

So with all that, I resolved to be responsible, start attacking my debt with all the feisty-ness that I can muster. I have even taken it to the extreme that I am cancelling all my plans for international vacations (not including missions) until I get it all paid. No holiday in South Africa. No backpacking Europe. No vacation on a beach in the Philippines. Sigh. But it's like Dave Ramsey says, sometimes you have to tell yourself no now so that later you can tell yourself yes. It is time to learn that ancient and powerful word: no. I started practicing this week. I went to UniQlo (do we have those in the States yet? It's a popular clothing chain in Korea) to find a pair of burgundy jeggings (because I wear my black ones every day THEY'RE SO COMFORTABLE), but they didn't have my size... I thought about getting them in grey, and then I found a pair of dark blue plaid trousers that were super cute and classy... and then I thought about my debt. I said to myself, "self, do you want to spend this money on pants that you want but don't need? Or do you want to be that much closer to paying off debt?" And then I put the pants down and walked out of the store. IT WAS SO HARD. It was good though. Responsibility is important. This discipline thing. Spiritually, financially, and however else God decides to teach me. I'm ready. 

I'm interested to hear from all of y'all who track along with me! What words have you focused on lately? What challenges are you accepting for 2015? Let me know! Whatever they are, I hope you have a blessed year, that God speaks to you and through you to make His name great. Happy New Year!! 

Misunderstanding

Lately I've been reading through 1 Samuel. You know the story about how the boy Samuel was called by God and thought that it was Eli talking to him? That's been especially comforting. Basically, God spoke to Samuel... Samuel didn't know what was going on. 

"Hey Samuel." "What Eli?" "I didn't say anything, go back to sleep." 

"Hey Samuel." "What Eli?" "I really didn't say anything, kid, go back to sleep." 

"Samuel." "Yes, Eli?" "Ohhhh... hey Samuel, that's not me talking, it's God. 

Listen to Him. Serve Him. Tell Him you're ready to listen and ready to serve." 

Some observations: 

1. God didn't make it glaringly obvious that he was talking. For example, He could have said something like "Samuel, it is God, the God of Abraham, and I want you to listen to me." or "Samuel, it is Almighty God who brought Israel out of Egypt with many signs and wonders, it is I AM, and I am the one speaking to you now." He could have spoken like that. It'd be consistent with His character. But He didn't. 

2. God was patient. 

3. God kept talking, even though Samuel was confused. 

4. Eli also didn't realize it was God talking to Samuel, at least at first. 

5. Samuel was ready to obey the spiritual authority in his life. When he heard a voice, he went to his mentor, ready to respond. He had a structure and habit of obedience to godly authority in his life. 

6. Samuel had to be open to a leader speaking into his life. He had to be willing to be taught. He didn't realize God was speaking until someone older and wiser clued him into it. His mentor, his spiritual father, helped him hear and interpret God's voice. His mentor helped him learn how to respond to God. 

So why is all this comforting to me? Because there have been plenty of times when I have misunderstood what God's been trying to teach me. There have been times I've ignored God because He was speaking in ways I'm not comfortable with, or in ways I'm not accustomed to. Other times, I've interpreted what God was saying, and I was completely off track.

What I'm learning is that it's ok to misunderstand. It's ok to misinterpret. It is important to keep listening with a heart for obedience. It's tempting to hear something and keep it tightly held, hidden from mentors or friends. I'd say that's a mistake, based on personal experience. Keep serving the authority in your life in the structure God has put in place. Be open to smart people speaking into your life. That's what helps you grow. Maturity is a good thing! 

Misunderstanding God's voice didn't make Samuel less valuable. Misunderstanding hindered neither what God was going to do in Samuel nor what God was going to do through Samuel. 

It's delighting to have really good examples of people who didn't get it right on the first try. Y'all, this is in the Bible. Samuel was a rockstar of faith, but he didn't figure it out on the first at-bat. There have been times that I have thought I heard God speaking, only to realize later that it obviously wasn't God speaking. There have been times that God has tried to speak into my life and either I ignored him, I misunderstood him, or I wasn't ready to listen. He is patient. He keeps speaking.  

We're given A LOT of comfort in that! Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. 


1 Samuel 3:1-10
The Lord Calls Samuel

The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.

One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel.

Samuel answered, “Here I am.” And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.

Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

“My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

December 1. Snow and Joy.

I woke up this morning, this beautiful morning, to overwhelming joy. It is December 1st. My month. Welcome, December, I'm so happy to see you!

As I sit here, Christmas fills my senses! My Christmas tree twinkles, the lights around my warm apartment blink down at me. The first snow of the year blows past my window with enthusiasm, as if it's as eager to welcome this month as I am! Ivory Christmas melodies from The Piano Guys wash over me out through iTunes. My apartment smells like cinnamon. I sip a hot mug of Christmas Blend coffee from Starbucks as I read the Good Book, reading about the Kings of Israel while thinking about the King of Kings. I'm seated in a hand-me-down easy chair, wrapped up in the quilt my mama made and mailed to me in Korea. I'm literally wrapped up in love. Also, I ate lasagna for breakfast. It's the little things, you know? 

This has without a doubt been the best year of my life. It has not been the easiest, but definitely the best. That's not an accident. It's been challenging; I've been pushed and stretched more than I expected. I have been hungry. I've been filled. God has been drawing me into deeper levels of intimacy with him and I can't get enough. I don't want it to stop.

Practically speaking, to get here, I had to open myself up to be corrected. That... was not comfortable. Hungry, I dove into the Bible and committed myself to reading all of it, even the parts that don't make me feel good, even the parts that I don't like, even the parts that are confusing, even the parts that are boring. I started to ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom in Leviticus. Why should I care about Old Testament sacrifice law? I started asking God to explain things that don't click with my post modern mindset. 1 Corinthians 14? What's that about? If this book, this Holy Book, is the everlasting Word of God... I want my life to line up with it. It can't be the other way around. It can't (and won't) change to match my life. God is God; I am not. Lo and behold... When you ask, He answers. He rewards those who diligently seek Him.

Probably the hardest thing I had to do (if I wanted to change, that is) was to allow people (people with godly authority) to speak into my life. I had to let go. Oh how I fought this! My flesh didn't want to give up my hard-fought control... and yet, I felt God calling me there, to that challenging place. Release... Servanthood... Submission... Words that don't sync well with a strong, independent millennial, to be sure.

With all the challenges, I also started reading out His promises. I started agreeing with Him. I asked Him to teach me more about prayer. I read about who God says I am and started speaking those truths over my life.  Life. Changing. 

There have been downs, but there have been SO. MANY. UPS.
So, it might have been hard;
It was worth it.


Oh 2014. The best year of my life, and WE STILL HAVE ONE MONTH YET! One more month, and IT'S MY FAVORITE! December 2014, I expect great things! December, you are full of Birthday and Christmas goodness! The world celebrates Jesus' birthday, and I celebrate with Jesus all month long!

Can I share again the fact that IT'S SNOWING OUTSIDE Y'ALL! The whole time I've been typing out these thoughts, I've been looking up to see fluffy white puffs drift past, landing on the bars of my flower box on my window, swirling and flying! IT IS DECEMBER! IT IS SNOWING! I LOVE EVERYTHING! Thank you, Father!

L'Chaim! 

Nefarious, and ESL lessons about sex trafficking in Korea

One of the best things about my job is how free I am to talk about things that are important. I work at a university, I have tons of freedom with my lessons, I get to joke and tease my students and most of the time they mostly understand what I'm saying! It's fun! Along those lines, I can also talk about things that are... less than fun. This week, I have spent a good portion of every class talking about human trafficking. 

Next Wednesday, there will be a screening of Nefarious at Jeonju University, hosted by REACH, a ministry in Jeonju that seeks "to raise awareness regarding the issue of human trafficking in South Korea and to reach out through the love of Jesus." Five members of REACH are professors here, so we are using our position among hundreds of young Koreans to do as much good as we can with the time that we have.

If you've been tracking with me in real life, you know how passionate I've become in the fight against human trafficking. I'm a big fan of AWARENESS and TELLING PEOPLE and POSTING STUFF ON FACEBOOK about it. The more we know, the more we can fight. One way to fight is through awareness ministries, like REACH. Get the word out there! Another way to fight is by actively (financially) supporting ministries that are in the trenches, like Hookers for Jesus, A21, Exodus Cry, IJM, Agape International, Hope Be Restored, and a number of others. If you want to fight, just open your eyes. There are plenty of avenues. 

Sex is everrrrywhere in Korea, but, well, no one talks about it much. It's stupidly easy to find sex in Korea. It's ironically hush hush and prevalent at the same time. And although prostitution is officially illegal in South Korea, it's very very easy to buy sex. Many red light districts operate within walking distance of city halls and police stations. Not only are police and government officials aware of what's going on, the prostitutes are expected to service them... for free. For more information about prostitution in Korea, I recommend reading this and watching this, because the Eat Your Kimchi team did a very good job describing different aspects. 

With my students, many of them had never heard anything about human trafficking. I first talked about the difference between traffic (cars) and trafficking (moving of illegal goods), then I asked if they knew much about slavery. After defining what a slave is, I asked if they knew about modern slavery, slavery that happens around the world today. We briefly went over different kinds of modern slavery and human trafficking, then I got into an explanation of sex slavery and sex trafficking.

I think I shocked, um, all of my students. No one expects a 5'2" talkative bouncy-ball of a teacher to suddenly get very serious and talk about pimps and prostitutes during an English conversation class. They DEFINITELY didn't expect me to be so informed about specific Korean goings-on in red light districts, pornography, happy-ending massage parlors, kiss-uh bangs, love motels, coffee girls, or a number of other pay-for-illicit-pleasure services in this country. I'll share with you some of the statistics I shared with my students this week:

Quoting the International Business Times, 

• The Korean government states that 20% of men in their 20s buy sex at least 4 times a month. 
• South Koreans are the biggest customers of the child sex industry in Southeast Asia (child sex tourism)
• Buying sex at office parties and business trips is an an ingrained part of Korean corporate culture [because of Korean "honor" culture and a history of Confucianism, you "must" do whatever your boss or company requires, including drinking soju until you pass out, or purchasing sex at a company party]

From The Korea Observer,

• Korean companies use corporate credit cards for illegal sexual entertainment, to the tune of $1 billion in 2013, which is completely overlooked by the Korean government 

And finally, statistics cited in the upcoming documentary Save My Seoul,

• Prostitution is more than a $13 billion industry in Korea
• 50% of Korean men have confessed to having bought sex at least once in their lifetime 

I can tell you right now, it is very obvious that many of my students are among the 20% who buy sex almost every week. As I write out statistics on the board (a helpful addition to any language learning class), many of the young men suddenly get very interested in the wall, or their shoes, or just look very, very uncomfortable. Being called out is never a comfortable thing, but WE MUST BE AWARE of our actions, and we must be aware of their implications. 

"Why am I telling you about this? Is it just to make you sad? Angry? No... we have to know, so we know how to fight it. There is real darkness in the world, but there is hope." 

I tell them that there will be a showing of Nefarious next Wednesday at 7 pm in the Star Center Library Theater. "Nefarious means evil, the most evil, and it's a documentary (movie) about human trafficking. We will have Korean subtitles. Here is the trailer, the movie preview..."

I happen to work at a Christian university, so it's not taboo to talk about the Gospel. Thank you Jesus! Some of my students are Christian, while others call themselves Christian but have never encountered Jesus in a personal way. Some go to church because it's the "right thing to do," or their parents expect it of them, but they don't have a love for God that puts their religious actions into motion. That's not what Christianity is about. Christianity isn't about doing good things and hoping God is happy with you so you can go to heaven. There are other religions that believe that. Put this way, Jesus didn't come to make bad people good, he came to make dead people alive. I hear that all the time these days and it brings me so much joy!

That's the heart of Nefarious. That's the heart of this movement. There is so much darkness in the world, but there is a great Light. Perfect Light. "I hope this makes you sad. I hope this makes you upset. It is heartbreaking. We have to talk about it, we must know what's happening in the world. It breaks my heart... and more than that, it breaks God's heart. God loves these women. God loves the men who use these women. God wants to rescue everyone; He is a good Father and he loves, he loves you."

...

After showing the trailer, I am a mess. I've seen the full documentary and cried my way through it, but the reality is so painful that it hits me afresh with each class. Honestly, I hope I never become callused to reality of so much pain in the world. The pain reminds me that the battle still rages.

After showing the trailer, I invite my students again. And you, dear reader, you are invited as well. If you're going to be in the Jeonju area next Wednesday, it's well worth your time. Human trafficking is so real, so prevalent in Korea that the word for Russian has become synonymous with prostitute. So many girls have been trafficked to South Korea to work in brothels that IT HAS BECOME THE VERY SAME WORD. If an old man asks you "러시아 사람?" "rus-si-ah sa-ram?" ...he is asking if you're a prostitute. EYK did a funny video on this a few years back. If I had a nickle for every time I've been asked if I'm rus-si-ah sa-ram, usually by a creepy old man at the bus terminal, or a creepy old man driving a taxi, I could probably buy an overpriced coffee by now. (Another plus to having dark hair while living in Korea? You don't get asked if you're a prostitute quite as often as you do when you're blonde.)

One last thing that I mention to my students, and will mention to you, is that most Korean prostitutes were either runaway teens or Korean orphans. I define the terms orphan and orphanage, then elaborate to teach my students that pimps watch out for teenage girls (and boys) who age out of the orphan homes in Korea. According to Oak Tree Project, "When the children graduate from high school they are deemed adults and are no longer able to live in the children homes. These children will then receive a small amount of money from the government and their orphanage will try to help them find work and a place for them to live. But after that, the children are pretty much on their own and, without healthy role models and support around them, are very vulnerable... Many struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts. For the children desperate for financial income and for some sort of emotional support, the sex industry can become a strong temptation for them. There is such a need for helping these children!"* 

No woman wants to become or remain a prostitute. She does so because she feels there are no other options, or she was outright lied to, tricked into the profession, and/or enslaved. We have to know. We have to tell.

Years ago, I prayed that God would break my heart for what breaks his and that is not an easy prayer to pray. If you ask Him, He is sure to answer. You either mean it, or you walk away when he brings things to light. Since that prayer, he's opened my eyes to so much evil in the world around me. Slavery is a huge, evil force in the modern age. It's been able to make a huge comeback because, for a long time, nobody. talked. about. it. Evil can grow in the dark. Evil can fester in the dark. 

But there is a great Light.

The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. ~ Matthew 4:16

He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light. ~ Job 12:22

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. ~ Isaiah 42:16

I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in the darkness. ~ John 12:46 

Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. ~ 1 John 2:8

"But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you... to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." ~ Acts 26:16,18

http://asoneapproved.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/break-my-heart-for-what-breaks-yours.jpgLyrics: Hosanna ~ Hillsong United 

*You can support Oak Tree Project here! I'm running in a 10k this weekend to raise awareness and support for Oak Tree Project, a scholarship fund and mentoring program for Korean orphans who get into college. My personal goal is $300, but we still need to raise about $75,000 for next year's scholarships.