My apartment… a mini hospital…

My apartment within the orphanage doubles as the guest apartment/sick room for the orphanage.  A few weeks ago we had a guest stay here for two weeks.  In the past 10 days I’ve now had five different boys come live with me because of pink eye.  Overall this year I have had over 21 boys (losing count) live with me because of pink eye or chicken pox.  Their sicknesses have lasted anywhere from three days to two weeks.  I’ve had as many as 6 boys in my tiny little place.  Right now two boys are playing video games behind me as I’m updating… one arrived last Saturday and will be cleared to leave tomorrow… the other arrived just today… both with pink eye.  I don’t know whether it is God’s miraculous provision or if white people are immune to the pink eye strain in Korea (which I guess is still God’s miraculous provision), but I’ve yet to get sick from the kids staying here.  I’ve been learning a lot about caring for the kids, learning to be patient, and also learning to just let go of my agenda and serve.  God is good. 

Last of the leftover summer pictures…

Youn Ha is an up and coming Korean pop singer.  Although she is Korean, she started her career in Japan (speaks perfect Japanese) and then recently came to Korea.  She is only 19 years old.  My friend Ae Kyung at church is one of her managers and arranged for her to come visit my home.  Here are some of the pics, along with one of her music videos…

Youn Ha introducing herself in front of the kids

Singing at the piano

The kids enjoying the concert

After she sang she signed for each child and then had a polaroid picture taken of her with each child and signed the picture for them as well… here she is with Dal Woo

Soo Yun… some of the little ones didn’t even know who she was, they just wanted her signature like everyone else… it was cute

Eun Ji

In Chul posing for the polaroid shot

Chae Young

Eun Ho

Soo Hwan

The littlest ones were playing outside, but Yoon Ji snuck in and kept by me

Go Hyun

Jin Seul

Eun Jin

Sun Ran

After the concert and pictures, she had dinner with the kids in the cafeteria and then really showed her age by running around with the kids outside in the rain… after playing with them outside (raining too hard to take pictures) she came in the baby room with some of her staff and played with the littlest ones

I think she was unexpectedly blessed by her time here

Youn Ha’s “Secret Number 486″ Music Video

And just a random summer picture thrown in… this is me with my apartmentmate who is the one dorm father here at our home, Dong Min

Today I went with a bunch of the boys to the big Seoul orphanage soccer tournament.  My boys did great and won all three of their games… 3 – 0, 2 – 0, and 1 – 0.  Their last game, the championship, was postponed due to rain.  Enjoy the pics…

Team shot

Pre-game stretching

Shaking hands with their first opponent before the game

Team huddle before the game

The bench players

Min Ho

Jong Hyun

This was a goal… it was a really far free kick… the boy who missiled it is way out of the picture

With Chae Young and Choong Hee in betweeen games

Encouraging Soo Min… I’m wearing my church’s team soccer jersey… the Korean script reads “jae-ee-aem,” or simply, “JM”

Half time speech by our coach, a volunteer who coaches at a local school and got to know some of our kids there

Sang Kook before the start of the second half, he scored 4 of our 6 goals today

Action shot, I think this is Min Ho

Soo Hwan taking a free kick, he scored a beautiful turnaround shot in the first game

After the third game, the boys all exhausted but happy coming over to greet Pastor Chae and Mrs. Chae (our director)

With Doo Bong, a boy who graduated last year but came to cheer the boys on too… I used to play with him outside often when he lived here, it was good to be with him today

After the long day, Pastor Chae and Mrs. Chae treated the kids to a big dinner… here we are applauding the dorm father Dong Min for encouraging the boys and training them

Here we are applauding Mrs. Chae for the meal

The spread of food

Good times today, the championship is scheduled for Saturday, October 13th at Children’s Grand Park.  More pictures then.  God bless!

Willie Moon – Where Did Your Love Go

This is Hae Hyun, one of the girls from our home. 

She is suffering from liver cancer and has been in the hospital for one month now.
She is 8 years old and was attending 2nd grade.
She is expected to be in the hospital for another year in order to recover.
She has endured the first of her cancer treatments, but it has weakened her a lot and she needs strength in order to continue with the treatments.
Please pray for Hae Hyun to eat well (she is losing her appetite) and for her body to be strong so that she can endure the treatments.  Pray for her healing.
Please pray for her to be protected in the hospital and constantly be reminded the she is loved.
Please also pray for the dorm mothers who are attending to her… we have at least one of them there at all times and the extra serving can be tiring… pray for the dorm mothers to find strength and to be prayerful through all this.

God is good.  Thank you for your prayers!

Summer has passed here in Korea, but I still have some pictures to post from it.  Enjoy!

The Pizza Hut truck came by and they made pizzas for the kids.  They also brought this tomato(?) and the kids took advantage of it… here is Bum Yong

Ye Rang… his front teeth have grown in now, but he really loved to make that face when he didn’t have them… good thing his teeth grew in…

Joon Hyuk

Hae Ran

Jung Hwan was too short to get his head up in there

Playing some games with some 4th and 5th graders

I sometimes feel like Adam Sandler from Billy Madison when I play games with the kids… too bad so few people know that movie anymore… (and yeah, I play dodgeball with the kids too, but they make me use my right hand (I’m left-handed), rats)

Min Shik

Eun Ji and Sun Mi

Playing a relay race, they had to tag my hand and run back… and of course I would soon get bored just standing there and would start running around in circles with my hands out… poor kids

The infamous “Pass the lifesaver around” game… we lost a lot of lifesavers…

At night, letting some high school boys play video games at my place

These are one of the pair of hands that grab onto me for hugs and to get my attention… needless to say, when I wear white t-shirts I tend to have little handprints from the kids all around the bottom of them by the end of the day

Hae Hyun by the church in our orphanage

Michael W Smith – Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful

Pictures from my recent mission trip to the Philippines… enjoy!

Wearing a hat my sister got for me in Europe (this was during training, just before we left Korea)

Worshipping outside the Mall of Asia in Manila

We missed our flight to Dumaguete (one of the islands we would visit), but the team kept upbeat and took advantage of our time at the airport by passing out Gospel tracts…

A guy reading a tract we had given him

With teammate Celine… its good to be tall…

During one our prayer ministry times, some of us laying hands on a young boy with heart problems

One of the little girls in my group during an arts and crafts activity… she wanted her mommy, who came and rescued her… I’m great with kids, right? 

Some of the kids with their crafts after doing the activity…

An example of the hospitality we received at the different churches we visited… needless to say, we ate a lot every meal

With Sung Ho, about to devour… good stuff (yes, that is a real pig)

Okay, so I had just stuffed myself with that pig (and other food) and I’m also slouching down to read… but yeah, it looks like I’m resting my elbow on my gut…

A view from one of the churches… just one of many beautiful natures scenes we were blessed to witness…

At one of the churches we visited… the church’s pastor and pastor’s wife are seated in the middle

Another church we visited

Teammate Sung Ho (Tom) with a friendly pig

Prayer ministry (a bit blurred, but you can see everyone praying… God worked mightily during these times)

After prayer ministry one night, claiming a kid for my own (like my farmer’s tan?)

Team shot at the end of our mission trip, about to board a boat that would take us to the resort island of Cebu for a day of rest before returning to Korea

Pushing Pastor Josephine in a hammock at Cebu

Banana Boat… we got flipped off twice while being pulled by a big jet ski… good times!

God bless!