The End of the Beginning - final post (for now!)

March 16, 2007 - August 22, 2007



This is short and my last post as I’m too emotional to really believe I’m leaving and cannot bring myself to close out this blog.

Thanks to all of you who have been so encouraging to me while I’ve been in S. Korea. I have so cherished your prayers, posted comments, our emails, skype and iChat ‘chats’, and letters. I admit I’ve been lonely and homesick on occasion but knowing your friendship and my eventual homecoming kept our hearts knitted as one through Jesus Christ (this is what my dad and mom always tells us when we get down!).

To Dahae -- you are our sister in Christ and adopted into our family. You have been so encouraging to me and Iryna. We pray for your 'homestay' in America soon!! We will miss you but know we also will think of you often. Thanks for all that you did for our family.

Words cannot express our families love and the fellowship we've experienced with the Willing family. We'll always be connected as ONE in Christ. I could take up pages of how you have blessed our family! WE LOVE YOU!!!

The scripture verses Dad suggested I close with are the following;

“And they said to Him, ‘We have here only five loaves and two fish… and He took the five loaves and he two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave to the disciples; so they all ate … now those who had eaten were about 5,000 men …’ ” Matthew 14:17-21

We came here with nothing but our experience as a homeschool family and we gave all that we had, believing it to be very meager at times, and left the results to Him; This sustained us when we constantly struggled with ‘are we doing enough?’

“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ.” Colossians 3:23-24

And we were reminded over and over – including while Mr. Wakefield was here – that we serve an Audience of One ;


An nyong he Kaysayoh South Korea – You will always be in our heart and God willing, we will all be back soon.

This may be the end of the beginning ... but I pray it is also TO BE CONTINUED ...

In Christ,

Sarah

Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield visit from Texas

Wow – time has flown by since our return from vacation August 5th. We leave on august 22nd and this is really difficult as we reflect on our time here yet we are excited to see how God will use this experience when we return to Texas.

Mr. and Mrs. Wakefield arrived on August 9th for a series of conferences. My dad asked to add the following comments;

“It’s been over 1 year since I have been able to hear Norm teach. I will never let that much time pass in the future. I have been blessed to attend 11 sessions and over ~15 hrs. of teaching. Some new, some I’ve heard before – all were tremendously impacting. As I told John Willing and others, hearing Norm speak is like listening to wonderful classical music – you want to listen over and over and the melody just stays in your head and heart.

It is rare I don’t get emotional reflecting on my self centered and sinful life when I listen to Norm. I am not alone. There is not a single session where people, men and women alike, don’t come to Norm with tears in their eyes as God’s spirit has touched their lives to reveal His Son, the Cross, and His blood.

There are too many stories to mention, but I have to share one; A new family was considering homeschooling. The mother was a Christian but the father was not and had all the typical reasons not to homeschool. Many parents had witnessed to this father to no avail. There was an all day session with Norm on Korean Independence day, so this family came, as did the father since this was a holiday. Actually many fathers were in the SRO crowd of over 300 people. At the end the mother came to one of the homeschool pastors with tears in her eyes saying that her husband has agreed to allow her to homeschool. His comment (as translated to me) “I am not sure what is going on, but something different is happening in homeschooling”. Praise the Lord!

In addition to this all day session, Norm spoke to over 1,500 at a church Seoul, then to a church service (the church where Brad is getting married September 15th), to John Willing’s men’s group going through Walking Worthy, and to our high school co op families.

As I type this he is in southern Korea where he has a very demanding schedule over 4 days.

God willing, we will have one last visit on the Wednesday morning as we are scheduled to return (22nd) and they leave the next day.

Norm Wakefield (his 5th trip I believe) will be written into the history of Korean homeschooling as the Spirit of Elijah brought to the people and for generations they will be praising his name. I am so blessed to have just been a witness to God’s power in full display through Norm. ” /ap

Well, it’s hard to add much only that I agree!

I have also been blessed to hear Mr. Wakefield’s messages as I sat in on almost all of them. One of the most impactful to me personally was Mr. Wakefield’s application of “do unto others …” with respect to my relationship with boys: I should see them as the future husband of another sister and act accordingly, and pray my fellow sisters will do the same in the presence of my future husband.

Now I have to pray about my final post. I still cannot believe it!

Farewell to Krissy

We had our final (among many! :-) ) farewell dinner with Krissy last night. We all wrote special personal notes to Krissy about how we valued our time with her. Here are some excerpts ...

Krissy,

“We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand” Isaiah 64:8b.

You have been so moldable in His hands and such a willing vessel, how great a servant you have been. To God be the glory!

... Thank you for all that you did by just being ‘Krissy’ ... we value every minute that you would choose to share with us in the future...

“God controlled life is beautiful and useful, but self controlled life is ugly and useless” Pastor Bob Kim, Global English Ministry July 1, 2007 ...

Mission accomplished Krissy!

God’s Blessings,

Alan


Dear Krissy,

It seems like just yesterday we were leaving at 4 am for Korea ... Leading you to go with us was no accident ... You have been such a godly example to our children ... a Proverbs 31 woman and you certainly reflect Proverbs 31:30. "Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised." ... I praise the Lord for sending you to Korea with us. We will always have a special place in our hearts for you ...

We love you very much! To God be the glory, June

Krissy, 크리시 언니,

I love you sooooooo much! ... People would tell Mom and Dad “you don’t get to know a person till you live with them so just be careful.” It is true, and this time it has been WONDERFUL! ... I never had a big sister before and you’ve shown me what a real one is ...
... We will always love you.



Love, Sarah
사랑해요.


Dear Krissy,

I am so sad that you are going ... The way you talk and act show that you love the Lord and want to do His will. That has really stood out for me and I pray that I would be that way when I grow up ... I love you and I'll miss you ...
Love, Iryna

Psalm 23:3
"He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for His name's sake.


Dear Krissy,

I really enjoyed you staying with us in Korea. I liked playing games with you. You were a good example of patience for me.

Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turneth away wrath but grievous words stir up anger.

Love, Joe


Dahae did a whole photo album for Krissy but I don't have room for all of them. Here are four:






WE ALL LOVE YOU KRISSY AND PRAY FOR YOUR SAFE JOURNEY HOME. MAY WE ALL BE REUNITED SOON!!

YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST FOR ETERNITY!!

ALAN,JUNE, SARAH, IRYNA, JOE AND DAHAE

Memories

We will always have wonderful memories of our time here. We had our last co-ops last week! Time has gone SO fast! We have learned so much not just school-wise but in other ways as well. It has drawn our family closer for one thing. Just because of that I think it has been well worth it.

Here are some pictures of random memories...

Joe and Jonathan...


the Willings...




Friends...






Field trips...


"Doctor" Hannah


Family...

When pigs fly...

We all said we would come to Korea when pigs fly. Well, here we are and here's the pig. We all had a big laugh and the vendor thought we were the usual crazy Americans

(this is a hand-carved pig that we saw at the market)

Praise Report

As I mentioned before, this year was the very first home-school high school co-op. We've watched as many struggled and found how truly hard it is forging a new trail. Many had to learn how to be self-disciplined and self-motivated. Some we weren't so sure were going to stick it out, but they did. And they amazing thing is that they said they are all going to do it again next year! EVERY one as far as I know. I know that we were an imperfect bunch and there are always issues that come up, but I praise the Lord that overall it was a good experience for everyone. Can't wait to see what God does in the lives of all these kids.




This post was copied from Krissy's blog. (www.krissylyn.blogspot.com)

the Korea homeschool symphony season finale

Last Thursday the Willing's orchestra - Heavenly Sounds Youth Orchestra (110 students)- had their last performance for the season. It was very well attended. There was testimony after testimony from families about how blessed they were to have been in this orchestra. And at the end literally 1/2 of the audience came up and hugged the Willing family (sorta like a wedding reception line). They got so many flowers they didn't have enough room in their apt and gave us some! I hope you enjoy these pictures.

some notes of encouragement

Our last two co-ops are June 25 and 26. This is a note of encouragement to us written by our pastor's 11-year-old daughter.

Hi!
I'm really thankful for your hard work. You were really helpful for all of us. I hope you will help others even at America. Everyone will miss you. Keep up on the good work and God will bless you were ever you are.
I hope you will never forget to be kind and helpful, then all people in the world will begin to like you. Hope you stay as you are,
your friend
Joyce Kim

[on the back side] Goodbye, Hope to see you again, Joyce


Here is another written by her sister.

PATTY FAMILY, goodby I will miss you


This is one to Joe from another boy about his age.


[front page] Dear Jeo
[next page] Dear Joe I'm Jason I am sad because you are going back to usa. you were my little good friend. I hope you come back.

From Jason.



I just love these notes. : ) Here is one more.


[front page] to . Joe from me (Edwin)
[next page] Dear Joe I know that you are going back to USA I hope you come back and meet me Have a good time at USA and bye bye BYE BYE ps: Don't forget to smile [then all sorts of smily faces]



The interesting thing about this note is that we don't know who this is!

These are just a few of the written encouragement notes we have received that will go in our scrap-book.

~Sarah

p.s. I did not change any of the spelling or punctuation so what you see is just how it is written.

Getting closer to home!

Time seems to fly! It seems like we just got here!

2 more weeks of co-ops! It has been great to see the students grow: exciting but sad
We'll be leaving all our new friends: so sad.
Going home and not knowing when or if we will come back: very hard but we know it is in God's hands!
The 16 hour flight home; exciting because we are coming home but very tiring!!
Living in our new house that has only been our home for 2 weeks: wonderful.
Seeing all our friend: EXTREMELY JOYOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Getting all our animals back: fun.
Being drawn closer as a family and to God: CANNOT DESCRIBE!!
All the friends and memories: PRICELESS!!!