Spring at Late Spring 늦봄의 봄

Spring is here! Ironically, spring arrives early here at Late Spring School. Whereas up north in Seoul, the trees are only just beginning to bloom, here in Jeollanam-do, many of the trees are in full bloom! The air is thick with the scent of 매화 (green plum blossoms) and 동백꽃 (camellia flowers) litter the streets.

New Year, New Classes

In Korea, the school year begins in the spring, so all of my students have moved up a grade. Many of the students graduated or chose not to return in anticipation of the one-year break that the school is taking next year. So now we are down to thirteen students from twenty-five. However, it doesn't feel small or like we're missing something. Life at the school is still full and vibrant. This semester, I have taken over the cooking class. So far, we have made brownie muffins and sweet potato "lattes" (no coffee). They've turned out great! Next week, we will try making mochi (chi chi dango)! I've never made this on my own before, so wish us luck!

Sweet Potato Lattes 🍠

D&D

I have also started playing Dungeons and Dragons with my students to help them practice their English in a more engaging way. I have never been a Dungeon Master before (led the game), so I was nervous, but it has been a huge hit with the kids! For those of you who are not familiar with the game, the premise is that the Dungeon Master (DM) crafts a story and narrates it for the players to participate in. The players each create a character with strengths, weaknesses, unique skills, and personality traits to play in the game. Then, the characters work together (usually) as a party to complete quests, solve mysteries, explore dungeons, and interact in the world that the DM has created for them. It's a joint storytelling venture that promotes creativity, teamwork, problem-solving, and role-playing! The kids are now requesting additional D&D sessions on the weekends. Because each grade is playing D&D, I am already running four separate campaigns (plotlines), so we will see if I have the capacity for more than that. 😅 But seeing their enthusiasm brings me so much joy!

Stacking dice is not an official part of the game but is a common side effect of waiting for your turn

It's funny to think that I was a Korean major minoring in Teaching English as a Foreign Language who started playing D&D in college and went on mission trips in the summer before attending seminary and now I'm here as a PCUSA Young Adult Volunteer teaching English through D&D in Korea. Starting in middle school, I lived by the mantra "Follow your heart and it will take you where you need to go," and that is how I've made all my decisions till now. It's amazing how God's plans work in God's time.

March Recap

Here are some other activities from the last month!

Soap-making!

Hiking Wolchulsan 월출산 and seeing the frost flowers at the top!

Visiting the 18th century scholar Dasan Jung Yagyong's abode on a misty day

Pruning the green plum trees 매실나무

Then they bloomed just a few days later!

Going to see a traditional Korean music performance in Haenam

Visiting the Goryeo Celadon Museum & engraving my own pottery

Attending the camellia flower festival at the local temple

Harvesting chives 쪽파 then eating them!

Freshly fermented bean paste! 된장 😋

Turning 26

I also turned 26 last week, and for the first time, my age sounds kind of old to me! HOWEVER, I promised myself that I would not FEEL old until I reached my 80s, so I stand by that. Because if I start feeling old now, I will have unnecessarily felt old for decades when/if I reach my 80s. Anyway, I am so grateful to enter the second half of my twenties with a foundation of faith, a heart filled with peace, many mistakes made and lessons learned, several nuggets of wisdom (and, finally, the capacity to apply them), and a hope that will not disappoint (Romans 5:5). Praise the Lord!

Chocopie presented by my students on my birthday

Hope That Does Not Disappoint

I have hope in God's way. Growing up with a lot of privilege as a middle-class, able-bodied, cisgender, American citizen, it has been extremely difficult to cultivate true faith when my privilege has provided all my security. I completely understand why Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24). But I see now how flimsy and fragile that kind of "security" is in this apocalyptic moment. Apocalyptic meaning "unveiling" or "exposing." And I have come to know without a shadow of doubt that our ultimate security comes from God and that love is the right way, for God is love and nothing is greater than He. Even if it seems as if money, power, and status are the way to success and that righteousness, kindness, gentleness, and generosity have no reward in the present world order, it is an order that will ultimately fail in the face of God's judgment and justice. To consider the state of things and declare that God is not working is to be myopic in perspective. God will work in God's way in God's time and that is enough for me. I know that even after great suffering in life God restores and redeems all creation in God's love, for in death, we all return to Him. This is the lesson of Jesus, and this is the hope that cannot disappoint. So I will live with great confidence a life of love, that I may walk with God even before my spirit returns to Him.

Turning 26 with faith, peace, hope and confidence!

So to all of the rich people who trust in their power and wealth alone and to those who trust in them, I would like to direct them to this speech from God:

“Have you commanded the morning since your days began

and caused the dawn to know its place,

so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,

and the wicked be shaken out of it?

It is changed like clay under the seal,

and it is dyed like a garment.

Light is withheld from the wicked,

and their uplifted arm is broken.

“Have you entered into the springs of the sea

or walked in the recesses of the deep?

Have the gates of death been revealed to you,

or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?

Declare, if you know all this.

“Where is the way to the dwelling of light,

and where is the place of darkness,

that you may take it to its territory

and that you may discern the paths to its home?

Surely you know, for you were born then,

and the number of your days is great!

—Job 38:12-21