Two Months in Korea

Well, it has been over two months since we came to Korea. Time really flies. We have taught at two Winter English Camps and have had two full weeks of school. You can see our Winter English Camp performance on Google video.

The school officially started on February 12th. There are a total of 6 students in the school. Three of those students are our children. So we have three students outside of our family. One of those students will be starting Korean public school beginning in March. His English name is Andrew. He just came back from America and the Korean school said that he should just start when their new school year starts in March. He is a very bright kid. His family is non-christian; His mother is Buddhist and his father has no religion. Please pray that God will continue to work in this family's life.

We have another student signed up that will start in March, so that will leave us with the same number. We have several potential students, but we aren't sure who, if any, will attend. Please pray that God will send more students. We are basically a mission school and church, so we need more students to be able to make this endeavor work. The pastor hasn't had the funds to pay all of the bills and all of the salaries. We haven't had a paycheck since we arrived. The pastor/principal wants to pay us, but he hasn't been able with so few students. God has supplied all of our needs so far and we know he will continue. When we were almost out of money, our car in America sold and helped us to make it another month. When that money was almost gone, our tax refund came through and we have enough to make it for a while longer. Please pray that God will grow this school, and will provide for our finances.

God has been blessing the church with new visitors each week. We have one lady, Gillian, and her two sons that have been attending since before new years. She has no Christian background at all. Everything she knows about the Bible she has learned from movies. Andrew's family has also attended once. Two weeks ago, we had a couple attend. It was the husband's first time at church, and the wife's second time. Last week, we had a lady from New Zealand join us. She is a teacher at a public school nearby.

We have divided the preaching time up into two services. We all sing bilingual songs together then the English speakers and the kids go to another room where I preach in English. We have been doing this for two weeks. The first week, I mainly had children so we did more of a children's service. Last week, we had more of a sermon.

After church, we have lunch with everyone who came. We then have Bible studies starting around 1pm. There are three studies: Korean, English, and Children. I have about 3-4 people in the English Bible study. One of the people is Gillian. We started going through the Gospel of John, but she had no foundation to understand some of the concept so I started last week doing a Bible survey class that gives her a basic overview of the Bible. It went very well and we are continuing it this week. I will start back on the Gospel of John when we are done. Please pray that I will be able to faithfully share the glorious gospel with these people who have little knowledge of what Jesus has done for them.

Serving in Korea,

Derek (for the Woods)