On September 15, 2014, Sally, Esther, Sarah, and I became full-time employees of Life International School. Our first job was to attend the Life Family Retreat, which included all teachers and staff of Life University, Life Primary School, Life Secondary School, Life High School, and Life International School. All of the Life University students were also invited to join. We had over 300 people in attendance. It was barely 24 hours long because we arrived at lunchtime on the 15th and left after lunch on the 16th. But it was great time of praise, hearing the Gospel message, getting to know our coworkers, and bonding with all of the other teachers and staff of Life Campus. For the next three days, we had teacher training with Mrs. Sharon Hataway. The new teachers were able to learn new techniques and ask any questions they had about teaching. It was a great time of learning and preparing! The next week was a Cambodian holiday so we didn't have work for three days. However we used that time to plan our lessons, prepare our classrooms, and get ready for school. On Sunday night, the day before school started, all of the LIS teachers and staff went out to dinner. We had a great time of fellowship and was able to get to know each other better. Everyone was encouraged and ready to work! On Sept 29, 2014, Life International School held its Opening Ceremony to mark the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year. All of the students returned to school. Many parents came and stayed for the whole ceremony. We had 25 flags representing the different countries that our students are from. All of the teachers got to introduce themselves. And I was able to greet everyone as the new principal. The next day was our first full day of class. We started with the flag ceremony. All of the students from Preschool to Grade 10 lined up outside to show respect for this country. After the flag ceremony, we gathered for chapel. Every first day of the week, we have chapel for primary school and secondary school. For this one, we combined all the students for a huge chapel time. Another ceremony we had was the Bible ceremony. Students in 4th and 5th grade received English Bibles from Gideons International. We pray that the students will treasure their Bibles and read it every day! And now after two full weeks of school, we are adjusting well to the school schedule and loving our kids! Our October mission video will have more information about that, so please look forward to it :)
-GC- By Sally Han Yesterday was an exciting day for not only us but also for the children of a small village nearby Life International School. It was Graduation Day! The Theology students of Life College taught the children of that small village for five weeks during their summer break, teaching them English, the Bible, crafts, and more! It took a BUMPY dirt road to get to the village (which could wake anyone up from a nap!), but it was worth it as it led us to a small beautiful white church in the middle of a small village. It was beautifully decorated with balloons and streamers and colorful wall decorations. Later we found out that the Theology students came at 6:00 in the morning to hang up all the decorations and prepare for the graduation ceremony. The graduating students were already there, wearing matching blue shirts and black pants and skirts. The students ranged from what seemed like kindergarteners to fifth graders. With a podium on stage and the students sitting down in rows and a projector screen, it reminded me of our graduation ceremonies back at home. The students’ teachers wore matching yellow shirts and their faces were just as bright and happy as the students. I was touched by how loving the teachers were to their students. They smiled and laughed and greeted the parents in, and I want to guess it was because they were so proud of the students. As the graduation ceremony progressed, I realized that even in a different country halfway across the world, the celebration of learning is all the same. The parents are happy because their children were able to receive some education. This small village was built around a factory for the factory workers to live. But they are not able to send their children to school, maybe for reasons of needing them at home to watch their younger siblings or maybe because they cannot afford to send their children. So how joyous this day was for the students, parents, and the teachers! There was a celebratory video made to recap the five weeks of learning and the children laughed and smiled brightly as they saw themselves on the screen. Then Pastor Wonchul Park gave a short sermon for the students and the parents. Sadly, when asked what their dreams are, many Cambodians say it is to become rich. Pastor Park preached that Jesus is our one, true Joy. We do not need money to be happy; we only need Jesus. He continued with the story of Zacchaeus. Due to his short height it seemed like there was no way for him to see Jesus. But God provided a way by a tree. Zacchaeus was able to see Jesus by climbing the tree. Pastor Park said to the students, "Now, you are the tree for others to see Jesus." God always provides for us; everything we need. That is why Jesus is our true Joy and we lack nothing in Him. Then the graduation ceremony progressed with performances by the teachers and then the students. And then finally, it was time to award the students for all their hard work! There were certificates and prizes for best student, best attendance, and more! All in all, it was quite a morning! I was happy to see these students receive an education, and I was grateful that the teachers were praising their achievements. I felt hopeful that maybe one day soon all of Cambodia could go forward in learning and value it. "Get wisdom, get understanding, do not forget my words or turn away from them." - Proverbs 4:5
-SH Esther Yoo We (my team members and I) landed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on August 28 a little after 10 PM. Upon stepping out of the airplane, I could instantly feel the drastic difference in the air; the humidity was no joke. The reality was that we were no longer in NC. Everything was completely different - the air, the people, the traffic, the language. I had one culture shock after another. What I couldn't get over was the fact that we were actually here; we were finally in Cambodia. Each of us had been waiting for this opportunity (some longer than others). I know for certain that our team leader, Grace, had been waiting for this day since the last time she left eight years ago. The first thing we all noted was the humidity. It didn't take much for sweat to start forming on my face... my ENTIRE body felt sticky. You think NC weather is humid? Wait 'til you step into Cambodia. I promise you, it does not compare. However, despite the humidity, I don't recall anyone complaining much about it. I mean we all took turns saying that it was humid, but none of us seemed to have let that fact affect our attitude or the overall mood of our team. The important thing was that we finally landed in Phnom Penh and we had arrived safely without much problem at all (well... except for the fact that I put 4 tubes of toothpaste in my carry on and got it taken away in Korea.. my bad). Settling down in our hotel rooms was a bit of a struggle. We had about 20 bags/suitcases of luggage we needed to take to the 7th floor. Thankfully, we had help from the hotel staff and our team members to help unload the luggage from our van, stuff them into an elevator, make a few trips up and down the hotel, and get our things into our rooms. Whew, we had so much stuff (considering that each bag was almost 50 pounds... the trips up and down the hotel was no easy business). The next morning, on August 29, we had breakfast at the hotel and we left right away to Phnom Penh's newly built mall. The mall was huge... to put it into perspective, it was about twice the size of Crabtree Mall (a two story mall in Raleigh, NC). There were a total of three or four floors. Each floor had a variety of stores... some of which were of American and Korean brands (this includes Puma, Adidas, Skin Food, LG, Sony, Tous Les Jours, etc). As nice as the mall was, I felt strange being in it. Yes, the mall appears to be a comfort location since there are many such buildings in the US, but the odd thing was, this mall was completely out of place. Right outside the mall, maybe within a mile or two mile radius, there is the undeveloped side of Phnom Penh - outdoor markets, dirt roads, trash piles, and a distinct stench in the streets. Don't get me wrong; I'm not at all hating on Cambodia. In fact, I actually LOVE it here. Despite the fact that Cambodia is an underdeveloped third world country, I find peace and comfort in living here. During the few days I've been living in both Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, I made a mental list of observations about my surroundings (none of them are in any particular order):
The last bullet point brings me to my next topic: education. As you all may know, I am going to be a first grade teacher at Life School in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. The importance of teachers does not really have much affect on the Cambodia people (generally speaking). Why? Let me take you through a brief history lesson.
From 1975 - 1976, Pol Pot, a leader of a communist party (The Khmer Rouge) in Cambodia, took over the country, overthrew the emperor, and ruled over the Cambodian people. Under his rule, Pol Pot declared that educated people were a threat to his throne, so as a result, the Khmer Rouge Regime took place. This was the mass genocide of the Cambodian people; over 2 million people were murdered. Anyone who was, sounded, or even looked educated were taken into concentration camps, interrogated, tortured, and then ultimately killed. According to Robert D. Kaplan, "eyeglasses were as deadly as the yellow star" as they were seen as a sign of intelligence. This dark era is commonly associated with the term Killing Fields and the prison, Tuol Slang, which became widely known for mass killings. Because of this mass genocide, many Cambodian people (not speaking for all Cambodians) today are uneducated and do not know why it is important to have an education... many people assume that there is no other life other than the labor work that they already do. Hence, since basically all educated people were killed no one could really educate the rest of those who survived, which led to little value in education. A few days ago, on the same day we visited the mall, my team members and I were given the opportunity to visit the notorious prison, Tuol Slang. I didn't know what to expect. Honestly, I wasn't expecting to be as impacted as I did when I walked out of the prison. I was absolutely horrified and traumatized. The most twisted concept of it all was the fact that the prison was actually an old school building... which was supposed to symbolize a safe place for students to seek refuge. The first building we walked through broke me. In the middle of each room was a wire bed frame; they were old, rusted, and blackened. Some even had dents in them. The wall of almost every room contained a photograph of a deceased, decayed body that was at one point a living being, tortured and murdered in the room... that fact really shook my core. The photographs were slightly hazy, but still very much real and graphic. By the time we reached the third or fourth room, I mentally lost it. My stomach was already churning and tense to start with and my body was hunched over as my arms pressed across my chest, my fingers gripping the straps of my book bag (I'm pretty sure I left nail indents in the palms of my hands). I couldn't control the sobs coming out of my mouth nor the tears flooding out of my eyes. I was a complete mess - a broken faucet spewing out water in all directions. It took my entire willpower to stay under control and not fall to the ground in front of everyone (yeah, I sound like a drama queen, but this experience took a huge emotional toll on me). The second building contained most of the pictures documenting the Khmer Rouge. There were endless photographs of all the deceased victims. I saw photos of young boys and girls. I saw photos of middle aged women and men. I saw photos of elderly people. I couldn't grasp the fact that ALL of these people were brutally killed in cold, merciless blood. After seeing all those photos, I physically and mentally could not go through the remaining buildings. The horror and reality of this was too tremendous for me to handle. I couldn't understand how such an atrocity could have taken place. How heartless, cruel, and evil for another human being to do that to another human being. And to think that this happened only 40 years ago and that these atrocities still happen around the world. My heart was literally broken... going through this experience gave me reason to be more compassionate and loving towards the Cambodian people. I will never forget this day. I may have not gone through all of the buildings, but it didn't take much for me to be heavily impacted and broken for these people. I still have much to learn about the culture, language, and lifestyle in Cambodia, but as of now, I feel at peace and nearly worry free about living here. Despite the fact that I still know so little, I have a strong feeling that I will adjust well and grow to love this place more and more. The peace that I have comes not from myself, but from God alone. When I think about surviving in Cambodia and teaching my students for my own glory under my own accord, I panic and become very distressed. However, when I think about doing my absolute best to bring Him praise and glorifying Him through all that I do, I really am filled with a joy and peace that I can't explain. These next 11 months are definitely going to be challenging, but I know they will be worth it. Thanks for reading to the end. I put a lot of thought and care into writing this post. -EY After staying in Korea for about 5 days, we packed all our bags again and flew into Cambodia on August 28!
Thank God we had no trouble with visa, luggage, or health! Please pray for us as we travel to Sihanoukville today. It is a 4-5 hour drive. But we'll finally see the school and settle into our dorm rooms tonight! Longer update to come! August 21, 2014. Where has time gone?! It seems it was only yesterday that I had turned in my Cambodia application. I know I can't speak for individual team members when I say this, but preparing to leave has been quite a roller coaster ride. We each had different challenges throughout this process. However as a whole, we've also shared many moments through bonding, growing, and adapting. Each of us have experienced something different, but overall, we grew together as ONE team and ONE body in Christ. Since the time we each committed to go to Cambodia until this very moment, the day we depart America, we have gone through several different stages of preparation: spiritual training, team bonding, and organizing. Going into this mission trip, I had no idea how much work went into the preparation process. Every detail counts. Preparation is key to ready our hearts, mind, and body for what we will face in Cambodia. I'm sure even if we were ill-prepared, God would use us... but to what extent? Even now, we aren't fully prepared; no one can ever be 100% prepared. However, we have tried our best to ready ourselves and we are going into the mission field knowing God is leading the way. A huge part of our preparation process was through Open Gate. Open Gate was a summer academic camp that each of us was a part of; Grace Choi was the "headmaster", Sally Han was a substitute teacher, Sarah Park was a 3rd grade reading teacher, and I was a reading teacher as well. Although each of us had a different role, we all worked towards the same goal: to work in a way that would provide the best care for the students, parents, and each other. In order for the camp to succeed, we all needed to flourish in each of our roles as a principal, teacher, or substitute. Through the difficulties we encountered during camp, we all learned to either change or adapt to the situations. We also learned to adapt to each other. Not one of us was left to struggle alone; we managed to have continuous communication with one another throughout Open Gate and the preparation process. Through the camp, we each took away a different learning experience that ultimately made our team unite and grow as one unit. Alongside Open Gate, we also went through a series of spiritual training. For certain, we all can agree that the spiritual training portion of the preparation process has given each of us time for self reflection and reflecting on where we each stood in our relationship with God. Lessons we had each learned in the past were re-learned. Although certain points on topics such as love and holiness seemed like common sense, we each realized how much we had put in the back of our minds and how much more we needed to be in Christ. Each week, we reflected on a new topic in the ways of God: Supremacy of God, His love, Sovereignty of God, and Holiness of God. Through each topic, each of us had been able to open up and share our personal experiences about our relationship with God. To say preparing for Cambodia was an easy matter, I would be lying. Throughout the last couple of months, I have struggled immensely within myself. At times, I've wanted to give up because the feeling of being attacked emotionally, physically, and spiritually was made bigger in my mind than God. When I took things into my own hands, I found myself drowning in misery. However, when God was put into control over my life, I had never felt more peace and reassurance about the decision to go to Cambodia. Each of us has struggled in our own ways and battled internal wars of our own. However, in the end, God was (and still is) bigger than all that we had faced and with that, I can confidently say that we are at peace and ready to start a new chapter of our lives in Cambodia. The future is a mystery, but through thick and thin, God is and will be sovereign over all things. -EY "Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all" 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 My name is Sally Han and I was born in Los Angeles, California on February 21st of 1992. In 1998, our family moved to High Point, North Carolina so that my father could attend Seminary school. My father is the Senior Pastor of our church in High Point, called Korean Presbyterian Church of Greensboro, and my mother is a piano teacher in addition to being Pastor's Wife. My whole life I spent going to church and learning about Jesus Christ. By God's merciful grace, I was blessed with wonderful parents who taught me about God's love. Therefore, I loved going to church and I loved being there. To me, church was always like my second physical home. For me, the role of being a Pastor's Kid (PK) was second nature to me. It was almost like a part of my identity. I could not imagine myself not being a PK nor could I imagine my life without God.
Although my father is a Pastor and my mother is Pastor's Wife, I know that my parents' faith cannot insure my salvation. By the grace of God in 2005, when I was in 8th grade, I accepted Jesus Christ into my life. Our youth group went to JAMA (Jesus Awakening Movement for America) Conference in Dallas, Texas and it was there that I met Jesus Christ personally. I knew in my own heart that Jesus Christ was my Personal Savior and Lord of my life. Then in 2007, I was baptized and I confessed in front of the congregation that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Lord; and I became a born-again Christian. My testimony is not extravagant like some people's. To be honest, I was a good kid who obeyed my parents, who was nice to everyone, who worshipped and prayed to God. I did not have a huge rock-bottom moment that led me back to God. However, now looking back on my life, I believe it is a blessing from God and not by my own deeds that I was able to have a life like mine: having loving parents and a great younger brother whom I love and being able to know Jesus Christ and go to church without being persecuted for my faith. I first heard of this mission trip to Cambodia at VM when they announced it in the fall of 2013. I had just started my senior year at UNC-Chapel Hill. At the time, and it is still true now, my dream was to work for the United Nations and help especially with human trafficking prevention. Cambodia did not stand out to me in particular because I was still in school and I thought afterwards I would go straight into graduate school. However, after leaving VM during my last semester of college to serve at my home church, I was given the opportunity to hear about Cambodia one more time at Graduate Night at VM. When Pastor Jacob was talking about Cambodia, right then in my head I could not help but think, "I wonder if it is too late for me to go..." It was very odd of me to think that all of a sudden because before then I had not even thought about Cambodia, let alone think about going. But God works in amazing ways. As soon as I thought that in my head, Pastor Jacob said, "It's not too late to go." I was pretty shocked. It was like he read my mind. But I know it was God who answered my question. That is the beginning of my long, internal battle with myself. "Should I go to Cambodia? Is this what God is telling me to do? Am I just making this up in my head?" Truthfully, what was really holding me back was my doubt. I doubted my own motives. I knew this was a mission and I knew how serious I should take it. Therefore, I did not want to just go because I did not have a job lined up yet or because of other selfish reasons. So, naturally, in order to avoid my selfishness, I wrote off Cambodia as a "no". However, God kept bringing up Cambodia to me in my thoughts and through close people in my life. -SH |