Taking Stock
27 August 2002 will make it exactly one year that I have been in Korea. So it seems like a significant time to look back and take stock. It is really quite awe-inspiring, mind-boggling, sobering and re-assuring when one can look back and see how clearly and strategically God was setting things in place without one even realizing.
When I look back over the past 12 months, what really stands out for me is how very involved in my life God is and has been. Bette Midler had a hit song many years ago – “From a Distance” where God seemed like a distant observer of human life. But when God talks about having His eyes on people in the Bible, it is clear that He is very eager to be mixed into our lives like yeast in dough – inextricably kneaded into the core of our existence.
I do not often mention God in the journals that I have been pumping out, but really He is very much at the forefront of my mind when I write about my experiences here. There is absolutely no way that I could have engineered all of this. The most creative meanderings of my mind would have never painted such an incredible experience for myself. I now understand what God means when He promises to do exceedingly above anything we could have ever dreamed or imagined.
The seeds for my adventures in Korea began many moons ago in my final semester at McGill in the earlier part of 1996. I did a course on Korean history which stirred my interest in the so-called “Hermit Nation.” Then during my 10-month stay in Taiwan I met a few Koreans, and became good friends with one. And I will never forget sitting in the huge public library in Taipei reading a Time (or was it Newsweek?) report on the famine in North Korea. Well that just wrenched my heart (probably plenty propaganda was in there, but still …). So as way back as five to six years ago, Korea was on my mind.
I knew that I wanted to continue studying, that I wanted to study in Asia and that I would need a scholarship to fund my way through. Wouldn’t you know it, my Canadian cousin (Myles) started dating a Canadian-Korean (Jenny) and in 2000 (if I remember correctly), they flew to Trinidad and Tobago for a visit. I happened to mention to Jenny that I was interested in Korea and that I would have loved to learn Korean and maybe study out this way. She promised to make enquiries with her contacts at the Korean Embassy when she flew home.
True to her word, she got back to me shortly thereafter with news of a scholarship offered by the Korean government. I called the Embassy myself and spoke with a very kind gentleman, Consul Kim. I couldn’t make it in time for the deadline for August 2000, but I was encouraged to apply again the following year. 2001 came, I got my application going, and had incredible support from Consul Kim, who remembered me from the year before. It’s not a scholarship that many Canadians seem to know about, and in fact I was told that I was the only one who applied in 2001.
The application process was a rather complicated one and there were hiccups along the way which threatened to abort the whole process. But after a while it became very clear that Korea was indeed on God’s agenda for me, and that God wanted me to trust Him and pray the whole thing through no matter how discouraging the natural circumstances seemed.
There were many encouraging factors, but one of the biggest was the people from Korea (some of whom I had never met before , but who Jenny put me on to) who were incredibly kind to me. From January to July, I went up, down, and all around trying to make things happen. But indeed it was God working behind the scenes who got the wheels oiled and worked things out in my favour. At the very last hour, I received news that I had been granted the scholarship. What elation!
But once the joy of knowing I had received the scholarship mellowed a bit, I had to start thinking of more nitty gritty issues – namely money. The scholarship does not cover accommodation and I was just barely able to scrape together enough for lodgings during my first semester. I decided that I would look for a job or extra funding when I arrived in Korea.
I was very optimistic. But lo and behold when I got here all plans for finding a job and extra funding fell through. But from the way things had been going, I realized that everything boiled down to whether I trusted God or not; and I did trust Him. Near the end of my first semester I discovered the home-stay option and the whole issue with accommodation worked itself out very nicely. I had had no clue about this alternative, but this is clearly God’s safety net for me.
For those of you who have been following my chronicles from the very start, I would like to hope that you see as clearly as I do the confidence and focus and fore-thought with which God has been making everything fall into place here. It really really blows my mind as I look back – the fun, the friendships, the provision, the opportunities to use already-existant skills and to acquire new ones. I had absolutely no clue that all of this was going to happen. It still blows my mind.
The other thing that I feel I should say, and I hope people will realize that I say it with no arrogance or conceit, is that really all the fun I’m having now did not come free. I don’t believe in a “God-bless-me!” kind of faith. However, I do believe in a God who rewards faithfulness. So in my early years as a Christian I made some investments that I think are paying off now – investments in obedience, faith, seeking after God with fierce intensity, holding onto God when the circumstances that were pounding me shouted that I should let go.
I like to think of it all in terms of gambling. Very early o’clock I decided that with God it was either going to be all or nothing. I put all my chips on God, and even when things around me were failing, I kept putting my chips on God. I had read the Word, about the incredible lives of incredible men and women like David and Abraham and Ruth. They gambled everything, and in the end they gained everything. So really I think all that has happened over the past year is God letting me reap what I have sown, cashing in on my investments so to speak.
So as I take stock of all that has transpired I’m very grateful to God for making all of this happen. There is no God like Him!
Thanks a lot to those of you who give me feedback from time to time. It’s nice to know that people enjoy the journals!
Cheers to an incredible year in the Land of the Morning Calm, and great expectations for the next upcoming period of time!
An yeung!
Nneka
27 August 2002 will make it exactly one year that I have been in Korea. So it seems like a significant time to look back and take stock. It is really quite awe-inspiring, mind-boggling, sobering and re-assuring when one can look back and see how clearly and strategically God was setting things in place without one even realizing.
When I look back over the past 12 months, what really stands out for me is how very involved in my life God is and has been. Bette Midler had a hit song many years ago – “From a Distance” where God seemed like a distant observer of human life. But when God talks about having His eyes on people in the Bible, it is clear that He is very eager to be mixed into our lives like yeast in dough – inextricably kneaded into the core of our existence.
I do not often mention God in the journals that I have been pumping out, but really He is very much at the forefront of my mind when I write about my experiences here. There is absolutely no way that I could have engineered all of this. The most creative meanderings of my mind would have never painted such an incredible experience for myself. I now understand what God means when He promises to do exceedingly above anything we could have ever dreamed or imagined.
The seeds for my adventures in Korea began many moons ago in my final semester at McGill in the earlier part of 1996. I did a course on Korean history which stirred my interest in the so-called “Hermit Nation.” Then during my 10-month stay in Taiwan I met a few Koreans, and became good friends with one. And I will never forget sitting in the huge public library in Taipei reading a Time (or was it Newsweek?) report on the famine in North Korea. Well that just wrenched my heart (probably plenty propaganda was in there, but still …). So as way back as five to six years ago, Korea was on my mind.
I knew that I wanted to continue studying, that I wanted to study in Asia and that I would need a scholarship to fund my way through. Wouldn’t you know it, my Canadian cousin (Myles) started dating a Canadian-Korean (Jenny) and in 2000 (if I remember correctly), they flew to Trinidad and Tobago for a visit. I happened to mention to Jenny that I was interested in Korea and that I would have loved to learn Korean and maybe study out this way. She promised to make enquiries with her contacts at the Korean Embassy when she flew home.
True to her word, she got back to me shortly thereafter with news of a scholarship offered by the Korean government. I called the Embassy myself and spoke with a very kind gentleman, Consul Kim. I couldn’t make it in time for the deadline for August 2000, but I was encouraged to apply again the following year. 2001 came, I got my application going, and had incredible support from Consul Kim, who remembered me from the year before. It’s not a scholarship that many Canadians seem to know about, and in fact I was told that I was the only one who applied in 2001.
The application process was a rather complicated one and there were hiccups along the way which threatened to abort the whole process. But after a while it became very clear that Korea was indeed on God’s agenda for me, and that God wanted me to trust Him and pray the whole thing through no matter how discouraging the natural circumstances seemed.
There were many encouraging factors, but one of the biggest was the people from Korea (some of whom I had never met before , but who Jenny put me on to) who were incredibly kind to me. From January to July, I went up, down, and all around trying to make things happen. But indeed it was God working behind the scenes who got the wheels oiled and worked things out in my favour. At the very last hour, I received news that I had been granted the scholarship. What elation!
But once the joy of knowing I had received the scholarship mellowed a bit, I had to start thinking of more nitty gritty issues – namely money. The scholarship does not cover accommodation and I was just barely able to scrape together enough for lodgings during my first semester. I decided that I would look for a job or extra funding when I arrived in Korea.
I was very optimistic. But lo and behold when I got here all plans for finding a job and extra funding fell through. But from the way things had been going, I realized that everything boiled down to whether I trusted God or not; and I did trust Him. Near the end of my first semester I discovered the home-stay option and the whole issue with accommodation worked itself out very nicely. I had had no clue about this alternative, but this is clearly God’s safety net for me.
For those of you who have been following my chronicles from the very start, I would like to hope that you see as clearly as I do the confidence and focus and fore-thought with which God has been making everything fall into place here. It really really blows my mind as I look back – the fun, the friendships, the provision, the opportunities to use already-existant skills and to acquire new ones. I had absolutely no clue that all of this was going to happen. It still blows my mind.
The other thing that I feel I should say, and I hope people will realize that I say it with no arrogance or conceit, is that really all the fun I’m having now did not come free. I don’t believe in a “God-bless-me!” kind of faith. However, I do believe in a God who rewards faithfulness. So in my early years as a Christian I made some investments that I think are paying off now – investments in obedience, faith, seeking after God with fierce intensity, holding onto God when the circumstances that were pounding me shouted that I should let go.
I like to think of it all in terms of gambling. Very early o’clock I decided that with God it was either going to be all or nothing. I put all my chips on God, and even when things around me were failing, I kept putting my chips on God. I had read the Word, about the incredible lives of incredible men and women like David and Abraham and Ruth. They gambled everything, and in the end they gained everything. So really I think all that has happened over the past year is God letting me reap what I have sown, cashing in on my investments so to speak.
So as I take stock of all that has transpired I’m very grateful to God for making all of this happen. There is no God like Him!
Thanks a lot to those of you who give me feedback from time to time. It’s nice to know that people enjoy the journals!
Cheers to an incredible year in the Land of the Morning Calm, and great expectations for the next upcoming period of time!
An yeung!
Nneka
No comments:
Post a Comment