Victory Christian Fellowship

Our small church fellowship here in Songtan recently acquired our own space. In the past, we'd been using a Korean Methodist church, which was a really nice facility. It's nice, though, to be in our own place and have full access whenever we want or need. Here are some pictures of our first Sunday there, Thanksgiving Sunday. We had a big luncheon afterward (we usually have a small one). Take a look.

Here's Russ waving sheepishly in the empty sanctuary before the service started. We attend bible study at 11:30 before the service, which starts at 1:00 PM. The forest on stage are all plants given as a sort of house-warming gifts from all sorts of friends of church members. They took up the whole stage!

Here's the little foyer area where we will have meals and possibly Sunday School and Bible Studies. We eat a meal together as a congregation every Sunday after the worship service. It's nice.

Here's Merline, one of our Filipino friends. She's manning the controls of the soundbooth, making sure everything is sounding OK, and keeping the worship powerpoints rolling on time. She's married to one of the Iranian guys in the church, Andy.

Here's a peak at the first service in the new building. There were a lot of people there that don't usually go. They were Korean or Filipino family members who came to show their support.

Here's just a handful of our friends from the church who gathered for a photo.

Back Row: Harahm, Yazdan, Habbas (three totally cool Iranian guys), Russ

Middle Row: Iraj (Iranian guy who was imprisoned in Korea for a minor thing. He accepted Christ in prison, and the Iranian government came for him and told him he could get out if he would just denounce Christ. He refused and spent 3 years and 8 months in prison, often being tortured and treated badly. He just got out days ago and this is the first time we met him. He's cool) and Mara (one of our Filipino friends)

Front Row: Irene (Filipino friend), Jess, Mandie (Filipino friend)

We're really excited to have this opportunity to be part of a fellowship of believers here. It took us a while to actually feel like part of the body here, but this church has welcomed us in and plugged us into their family. We feel we belong and it will be hard to leave in June.

Boy or Girl... You be the Judge

We had another ultrasound today, and were hoping to find the gender of the baby. We even had a survey posted outside our doors at school where students and teachers could cast their vote for if they thought it was a girl or boy. We thought we would definitely get a 3D ultrasound, but apparently, you have to make reservations for those. On top of that, we had a new doctor that we haven't had yet, and the ultrasound quality wasn't as good as usual because we were on a different machine.

Sooooo, we couldn't tell the gender. It stinks, but we DID get to see our wonderful little son or daughter swimming around and being very healthy. Also, Jess got blood taken for a down syndrome test. The doctor said if everything was normal, they wouldn't call us, but if there were any problems, they would call. PLEASE PRAY THEY DON'T CALL US!

We go back in on December 15 to have another ultrasound and find out the gender. We hope to share it with you then!

Basketball Season, Here We Go!

It's that time of year again.. basketball. Last year, Russell was head coaching the boys team, and Jess was his assistant. This year, however, as our school is understaffed, Jess is coaching the girls team- while pregnant.

Our first game was last night, after a total of 5 practices- 4 in a gym. For the majority of our players, this is the first time they've ever played organized basketball. It can feel like coaching elementary sometimes. Last night in the game, Russell had to "remind" some of our players of some very basic rules. It's easy to take that kind of thing for granted in high school basketball.

The games went fairly well. The girls won 19-15, but the boys got trounced 18-56. For the guys, the team we played was the best team in the league, so starting off with them wasn't exactly ideal. To top it off, we play them again on Saturday- our schedule is goofy. To top THAT off, two of our starting forwards are out with leg injuries. Flexibility is the name of the game for us now, which isn't that bad of a thing because the real reason we are here is not to play or coach basketball- it's to set an example for our players to emulate. We have been striving this year to make our coaching position more of a discipler position- pouring into our kids spiritually. Some of them respond very well, and deep bonds are formed.

We look forward to the rest of the season. Keep checking back for updates on how we're doing as a team, and how the ministry is going!