Meet our Classes!

So far we have shown you just a little bit of what life is like in Korea, but we haven't really shown any of the school or our kids.  We have included their names so that you can pray for them by name!  Please please please, if you support our mission in no other way, pray for these kids that they would see the light of Jesus in us every day and that they would be impacted by the Kingdom of God.  We love these dear children with a love we couldn't possibly pull out of our own limited hearts.  We hope that you will join us in lifting them up in prayer.

Introducing Mrs. Phillips's 2008-2009 4th grade class:

(Click Picture to Enlarge)Mrs. Phillips's class is: (back row from left) Mikayla, Alex, Sydney, Chris, Mrs. Phillips, Emerald, Sara, Yuno, Kimberly, Shane, and Alexander. (Front row from left): Kelvin, Ianne, JungJae, Sandra, DaWoon, MinJae, Bianka, and Justin

And introducing Mr. Phillips's 2008-2009 3rd grade class:

(Click Picture to Enlarge)
Mr. Phillips's class is: (Back row from left) SuMin, Jamie, Elizabeth, Sabina, Chris, YunJae. (Middle Row from left) Roy, Eric, YeAnna. (Front Row from left) Douglas, Benjamin, JoonHa, Raina.  The big kid in the way back is Mr. Phillips.

Mission Update:

A few days into the school year, both of us decided to start our Bible classes not with a reading from the Word, but with a Roman's Road type of "what it means and takes to be saved" type of lesson.  During the lessons, we could see some of the students in our classes listening intently and taking every word to heart.  At the end of the lesson, we both ended by asking our kids if they wanted to ask Jesus to be their Lord and savior.  We cannot by any means judge the hearts of our kids, but there were 12 or 13 hands that went in the air between the two classes.  We know that it was not because of how eloquently we spoke that day, or by how much emotion we put into it.  We know that those kids responded to what the Lord had pressed upon their hearts, and they responded to the years of love they have received previously here at Pyongtaek International Christian School (ICS).  Thank you for your prayer and financial support.  We hope that you feel connected to this outreach, and we hope that you can see that your part in our mission is equally important to our own.  Thank you for being part of what we have come to Korea to do.  

We love you.. God bless!

-Russ and Jess

Engrish part 2

Nestle Crunk, anyone?

Mmm..

Well, neither of us have ever cooked much before, so this is a learning experience for both of us.  Luckily, tonight it turned out to be a delicious learning experience.  We successfully made our first homecooked asian style meal: sweet and sour chicken with rice and dumplings.  We found out we owned a rice cooker (who knew?) so we cooked up the rice and steamed the dumplings over top.  Then we decided to deep fry some chicken in batter, which turned out awesome.  On top of that, we put some sweet Thai chili sauce we got at Costco in Seoul.  Overall.. it was great.   Go us!

Prayer Request

Hello all.  By the time any of you read this, this will probably have already happened, but still read on.  School starts tomorrow morning for us, Tuesday night for you.  What we really really really need is prayer that the first week or so goes smoothly.  We are both beginning teachers and have had limited time to set up our classrooms and look through our curriculum.  In fact, we haven't planned anything past tomorrow, and don't even really know what we're teaching yet!

  Pray that we will be flexible, pray that we will be calm in the face of sudden changes, and pray that we can work through language boundaries.  To speak to that last request, my class (Russ) has 13 students, 7 of which need an hour to two hours of English language training each day because they don't speak well enough.  Three of the students that I met personally last night don't (or at least don't let on that they) speak ANY English.  It's going to be a challenging year, for sure.  So please support us in prayer and rally up God's warriors for us.  Thanks again, and we love you!

-Russ and Jess

Engrish part 1

Oh they try so hard.  The English language is pretty hard for most Asian language speakers to learn, so inevitably there will be mistakes that we, as native English speakers, will find funny.  I'm going to try to add some examples of 'Engrish' that we have found to the blog every once in a while so that you back at home can see what we get to laugh at all the time.  Enjoy.

"...in the aaaaaarrrmmyy."

Our Apartment

Ok, FINALLY got some photos of our apartment to put on here.  Our apartment was laid out wonderfully in a very livable way when we arrived, fully furnished and ready for someone to step in and take over.  That was great for the first week, in fact, it was very convenient.  But the time came when we decided we wanted to make it our own, plus we received a bigger dining table than we had room for.  Sooooo, we stayed up until 12:30 am last night reconfiguring.. and reconfiguring.. and reconfiguring.. and re- ok I think you get the picture.  We finally settled on a way that we both like, and we are both very happy.  Now comes the part where we put stuff on the walls and make it look and feel like home. Yipee!  

This is what you see when you first enter the apartment.  It is our living/entertainment room.  In the door straight ahead is Jess in the office.  The door on the left is the spare bedroom.

 We bought these rolls of bamboo to make curtains for our bedroom (see below) and we had an extra, so we thought it might be neat to stick pictures in it and hang it on the wall.  Kind of a collage of photos.  We still need to pretty it up and put more pictures on it, SO SEND US SOME!

Originally that little table was the only table we had, but our director got us the bigger table in the back (everything is hand-me-down here), so we reorganized.  The little table is leaving tomorrow.

Here's the office.  It has a showcase window in it, and it's a triangular shaped room.  Pretty weird.  On top of that, the business in the apartment below us has a big advertisement covering our window, so it's kind of pointless. 

 The kitchen is sorta small, but fantastic.  It was fully stocked when we got here.  Again, all hand-me-down stuff.

The water from the faucet isn't good to drink.  We have to buy two of these for around $11 bucks when we run out.

They told us that spices that are common in America are hard to find here.  Guess we got lucky, eh?

This is the spare bedroom.  Come visit us, and you- yes you! - could stay in this very room!

 Here is our spacious bedroom.  It's actually really nice, and we feel very blessed to have been handed down a place like this.  When we got in this room, it was pretty bare, so we bought a new comforter (for really cheap!), and a few other things to make it more homey.

 Those closets on the back wall span the whole wall.  We have LOTS of storage and hanging space.  Suffering in the name of Jesus is great.

 It's so hot in here, I mounted the wall fan in the picture to point right on me.  Likewise, Jess usually has a stand fan pointing right at her.  Also, there's a fan in the window pulling in cooler air.  Our place is soooo hot right now.

 Ladies and Gentlemen, announcing the new Martha Stewart curtain line!  Actually, these very lovely curtains were made by none other than yours truly (Russell) on a budget of $13.  I'm pretty proud of myself.

We found this really cool paper art store (they make art out of paper) near the Air Force base and we had to walk away with this really neat lamp.  Those are real flowers plastered on there.

And finally, at the rear end of the photo train (no pun intended), is the bathroom.  It's small, but nice.

Address

In case any of you were wondering,  our mailing address is:

Russell and Jessica Phillips

International Christian School

P.O. Box 24

Pyongtaek, 450-600

Republic of Korea

...and if you want to send packages, send them to:

Russell and Jessica Phillips

International Christian School

367-3 Shinae-Dong

Kyungido, Pyongtaek, 450-820

Republic of Korea

More updates and PICTURES hopefully very soon (today!)..

We Made It!

For those of you who actually read this, we're here!  Our flights went well, and we arrived safely and in one piece.  The first flight to San Fran from Pittsburgh was a little cramped, but our 11 and a half hour flight from San Fran to Seoul was actually fairly comfortable and pretty accommodating.  They fed us two meals and a few snacks in between.  Also, every seatback had a TV screen on it and we could choose to watch any movie we wanted from a list of about 20.  We both watched 3 each.

   Our first meal on the plane was kind of funny.  The Korean flight attendant asked us if we wanted the beef, or the Korean meal they were serving called bibinbap (sounds like beep and bop).  Feeling extra culturally sensitive, we both chose the bibinbap.  I (Russell) will try anything, so I wasn't worried, but as soon as Jess saw the meal we were stuck with, her face changed and she looked at me and said, "I want the beef!" with this really puppy-doggish face.  She suffered through the whole meal.. it was funny.

  

So since then we got in our apartment and have been trying to get it to feel more like home.  We were left with quite a bit of good stuff; pots, pans, beds, sheets, a TV, a slightly filled fridge, and just about everything we need to get by.  It's just up to us now to put our touch on the place.  For the first 4 days here we didn't have internet in our apartment (hence the late blog post), and thank the Lord we just got it.  We also just got our boxes of household stuff we shipped via Fedex 2 weeks ago.  It was sitting in Seoul for about a week, and we were supposed to just sign some papers to get it.  Come to find out, we had to write a letter explaining that we weren't going to sell anything in it, and that it was all personal items.  So we were supposed to get it the next day, BUT there was discrepancy with the passport numbers they had for us and our actual passport numbers.  So it was delayed another day, but we finally got it today.  

Our digital camera is in those boxes, so as soon as we open them, we can get it out and take pictures of our apartment and city, and every other little experience we can fit on this blog.  And we hope you comment, so we know that you're thinking of us and wondering how we are doing.  God bless!