Fireworks Festival

Words cannot even begin to describe how insanely awesome the Fireworks Festival was.

We had planned on making a whole day of the event by going to the beach early on Saturday afternoon with a group of friends....play games, talk, eat, etc...but that plan was quickly altered when it poured non-stop ALL day Saturday.  Thankfully they postponed the 1.35 million dollar fireworks show until Sunday night.  On Sunday we opted to all walk down and just find a decent spot to view the show just an hour before it started.  The following pictures do not even begin to do justice to what we saw.  See Facebook for videos! We were having trouble getting them uploaded here!

The Diamond Bridge with the police keeping people off the wall.  

Shabu Shabu

Allow me to introduce you to a fun restaurant called "Shabu Shabu."  Laura had previously been there, so she directed us, along with another co-worker, Amelia, there for dinner Friday night  She had tried to explain it to me before, but it was still nothing like I was expecting.  We sat on the floor for our meal and were brought several bowls with liquid (I have no idea what it was) along with the several side dishes that accompany every Korean meal.  These pictures really are better than me trying to describe what we ate.

Welcome to our FULL table!

Rice paper/wrap/thing

Dipping the rice paper to soften it

Then you pile everything from the soup pot (the one in the middle of the table) onto the rice paper...from meat to veggies to pineapple and sauce

wrap it up...

Then stuff the whole thing in your mouth at once. There really is no other way to eat it.

After you're done eating this part, then they put noodles in the broth and then you eat those. And then they dump a rice mix into the pot and whatever is left gets mixed with it, and you eat that.  SO MUCH FOOD! And SO GOOD!!!

Global Gathering

What a cool day today! We had the Global Gathering and got to spend the day checking out booths from cultures all over the world - all of which are represented in Busan.  We ate food from Iran, Turkey and Nepal.  I even got to have ice cream (maybe twice...). We spent most of the day at the ICC (our church) booth where we had a photo booth with props and a few games with candy prizes. We had a great day spending time with wonderful friends and getting to represent our church! Enjoy a few pictures from the day!

Teeter-Totters...trying to launch each other in the air!

Korean Wedding Clothes

Laura and Nikki's wedding gear.

Turkish ice cream!!!!

Kabobs

ICC Photo Booth

BFS Founder's Day

I apologize for not posting anything in the last few days! There hasn't been anything too terribly exciting, but here are the highlights of our last 10 days or so:

Sunday, October 7: Delicious Japanese lunch after church with friends.  We also became members of our church today!  There are some decisions to be made soon about the future of our church, and we are excited to now be able to officially participate in that process.  We cannot even begin to describe how thankful we are for ICC and how blessed we are to have them!  We also had a delicious Korean BBQ dinner with our friends, Mark and Rachel, from church - complete with Baskin Robbins afterwards.

Thursday, October 11:  Founder's Day!  It was the 15th year anniversary of the school opening,, and we got to celebrate by having a school-wide field day in the afternoon on Thursday.  We even got to wear sweats to school, which, of course, thrilled most of us (especially me!). It was fun to take the afternoon off to "celebrate" with the students.  The High School and Middle School leadership classes planned activities for all ages.  For my kiddos we had face painting, a parachute, some relay games, etc.  The rest of the school was divided into four teams and rotated between various games.  It was an absolutely beautiful day - probably nearly 80 degrees outside.  It is the first time I remember getting sunburned in October.  It was great!

Saturday, October 13:  I had a tournament for basketball and was gone for 18 hours! We left at 5am and got home after 11pm.  Although the day was incredibly long, it was a pretty good time.  Our girls' team went 2-1 and the boys' team went 3-0! We don't have another tournament, or any other official games, until December.  We were proud of our kids, and it was so fun to watch them celebrate their victories.  It is QUITE different than working with TUBB, though, let me tell you.  :)

And now we are into our 6th full week of school! We are getting into the rhythm of the school year and it's nice to say that we're both feeling good about our routines.  We are looking forward to the Global Gathering this coming weekend and then the fireworks festival the following weekend.  We'll have some posts about those for sure!

Pray that we will continue to feel confident in our teaching and that as we get more established in our school routines we will still work to go above and beyond.  We have been thinking a lot about how much of a financial blessing these two years are going to be for us, so pray that we will use our money wisely while still getting to experience life to the fullest here.  Pray for decisions in our church and that we will be able to continue building great, deep relationships with people here.  We thank you again, for your support and encouragement.  We are grateful for the relationships we have with each of you!

Have a great week, everyone!

Geumjeong Mountain

Justin and I have both seen some pretty amazing places in the world, but today we witnessed the immense beauty of this place we now call home.  We met up with a group from Church today and hiked the most popular hiking mountain in Busan - Geumjeong Mountain.  We had no idea what we were in for, but we were so pleasantly surprised!

Our first stop was Beomeosa Temple and a ton of statues.

After climbing pretty much straight up for roughly 2 hours, we came to a flat-ish spot where we stopped for a quick snack before going the rest of the way to the peak as well as to a Spring on the top of a rock.  We got to use ropes to climb up these rocks to see a wonderful view as well as the Spring.  It was pretty cool...something that would NEVER happen in the States.

The peak! So close!

It was a bit hazy, but still incredibly beautiful!

The Spring.

From there we went to the peak, which was absolutely incredible.  We climbed a bunch of stairs and got to climb around the rocks on top and saw a great 360 degree view of the mountains and part of Busan.

With Laura on the peak

We made it!!

View from the top

The peak

The North Gate at the Fortress

 

The Fortress Wall

For lunch we had Duck (unfortunately not photographed) and Korean side dishes and soup.  It was spicy but SO good.

We finally feel like we are taking advantage of where we live.  The next few weekends we have things planned as well, and we are so looking forward to soaking in some good, authentic Korean culture as we continue to explore! I think we both appreciate this beautiful city and country more and more, especially when we get to see it like we did today. We were in such awe of God's creation and how He has brought us to this place.  We still can't believe that we are getting to see and experience all of this! It's pretty incredible.  

Psalm 8:3-5     When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

Church Retreat

It is Tuesday of our Chuseok Holiday, and we are so happy to say that we have had a wonderful break, and we still have one more day off!

Sunday morning was a great morning at Church before heading to the Church Retreat.  That afternoon we headed down to the Busan Youth Hostel, which is really nothing like any hostel I have ever seen or been to.  It was more like a nice hotel.  We had 2 huge rooms to sleep in - one for the guys and one for the girls.  We also had a conference room where we could all gather to have our sessions and play games or hang out.  A pastor was visiting from the States to lead our sessions, and he was wonderful!  He talked about Ephesians 4 and unity in the church through relationships, ministry, and maturity.  It was a very challenging and great weekend.  It was probably the best retreat I have ever been to.  Not only was it a great weekend spiritually, but we were also blessed by deepening friendships we have already started and by creating new ones.  We really are blessed by this church and these people beyond what we ever hoped when coming to Busan.  We truly feel as though we are forming a "family" here as we get to know our new friends - especially now that we have internet and phones (well, only one at the moment, but that's a whole different story, and not a fun one) and can communicate with them much easier.  

We are still so grateful for all of you back in the States or wherever you are in the world and for the impact you have each made on our lives. Thank you for your continued prayers and notes of encouragement.  We think of you often!

As I was trying to pick just one verse from Ephesians 4 to sum up what we have been focusing on these last few days, I couldn't pick just one.  So here is Ephesians 4:1-16

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,  eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,who is over all and through all and in all.  But grace was givento each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
    and he gave gifts to men.”

(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave theapostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,  until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children,tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.