Touching Lives

As I mentioned in a previous post, I went to South Korea this past Summer to help out at two English Camps. In no way do I regret that decision.

After arriving back on the mainland from Jeju, we had a period of three days to mingle with the rest of our team. We stayed in Songtan at a place called "Royal Plaza." In my opinion, it was great being able to stay there, because I pretty much lived there when my family was in Korea (one of my best friends lived in Royal Plaza, which means that I pretty much lived there, too). Inside of this apartment building, is SYME (School of Youth Ministries in English). Many of the students who attend this school end up going to WOLBI in Jeju afterwards.

Benjamin (left) and Jacob (right) playing Foosball at SYME

The guys testing some activities to do during camp.
I think they're having a bit too much fun. ;)

For me, mingling with the team meant mingling with the other teachers, JC's (Junior Counselors), and my roommates. I didn't hang out with many other people until the camps themselves. Why? Because almost the entire time I was at SYME, I was lesson planning. I went out a couple of times with the Florida team ("out" meaning, to the store or to the hair salon), but apart from that, I was at SYME planning my lessons. There were ten lessons to prepare, and I had three days in which to prepare them. Did I mention that this was the first time I had ever prepared lessons? I ended up being one of the first teachers done with the planning, which kind of surprised me. Each teacher had a JC assigned to them for the camps, to help inside the classroom. I had the pleasure of Anna Nicholes' assistance! During the prep-time, I put her to work making posters (posters we actually never really got around to using...but thanks anyway, Anna!) and thinking of games and activities. She was wonderful! I wouldn't have been able to do it all by my lonesome.

Saturday morning, the Florida team went to tour the DMZ and the rest of us cleaned up SYME and had our bags loaded into a van. We then split up into groups and headed to the subway station. About and hour and a half later, we arrived in Bucheon, the city in which camp was to be held. The camp was held in a large building of five stories. The bottom floor contained the dining room and several other rooms that were unused in the duration of camp. It also was one of the best places with wifi. The second floor had the large auditorium and the guy cabins. The third floor was where I usually went to get online, as it was closer to the fifth floor (the girl cabins were up there) and I didn't have to go as far. The third floor also had a couple of classrooms. The fourth floor was where the majority of the classrooms were located.

We spent our day getting moved into our cabins and decorating the place. After our pizza dinner, we treated ourselves to Baskin' Robbins. Hey, we deserved it after all the hard work we did! :D

Rae, me, and Anna taking a rest

Preparing wall decorations

Theme of Camp: Root of Life

While I would label Saturday as a pretty good day, it was also extremely hard. I had found out that morning, before clean-up, that my Great-Mimi (my dad's grandmother) passed away. I refrained from telling anyone else about it (except for posting one status about it on Facebook), as I didn't want to be a burden -- especially since everybody was so busy and had their minds on other things. So I went through my day, sometimes genuinely cheerful, other times forcing myself to appear cheerful. Finally I told Anna about it on the way to Baskin' Robbins, and I felt a little better. When I arrived back at the camp site, I broke down. You can ask Anna if you don't believe me. One minute, I was lying down on the mat in the auditorium, and the next, I was running from the room so that people wouldn't be around when I gave in to my tears.

After a few minutes, I went back down to the auditorium and sat on the stage with Anna. Just then, a guy from the Florida group, Thomas, came out from his room and gave me a hug. I told a few people about what had happened, and other people heard the news and came to try to comfort and cheer me up. I started to feel like I was gonna cry again, but for a different reason. Here were these people who I had only just met, and they were caring for me, loving me during this hard time. I can't tell you how much their care meant to me. I was pretty overwhelmed... So, thank you all so much!

Camp started the next day. I was on the welcome committee, which meant I had to dress up, go outside, act all crazy, and scare all of the new campers half to death. Hey, it was best they knew what they were getting themselves into from the beginning, right? :D

The camp itself was amazing. Every morning, we would start with two hours of English Class. Meaning... No Korean. No Chinese. No Japanese. Only English. Not too hard, right? Especially for the teachers. ...Yeah right. I grew up in South Korea and China, people. I forget certain words in English because I always say them in either Korean or Chinese. As you've probably already guessed, I spoke in a language other than English. I was also late to class once (shhhh... don't tell anyone!). During the first week, I co-taught my class with Benjamin Nicholes due to lack of available classrooms. If you arrived even thirty seconds late, he punished you. Yes, of course there were punishments. If a camper spoke Korean, their team (there were two teams: red and blue, and at the end of the week, whichever team had the most points, won) lost points. If they were late, we wrote on their faces with markers. When teachers were late or spoke in a different language, the punishment was simply markers. Observe:

After the first couple of days, we got creative with our drawings. Swirlies, crosses, stitches, and cat faces... Gotta love it. The campers enjoyed punishing me. :(

My students were totally and completely awesome. I had the best of both weeks, I think. They were attentive and were very good at participating. Not to mention that they were hilarious. I mean, who all can boast of having the future Iron Man in your class?? One of the boys was nicknamed Iron Man because he said that's who he wanted to be when he grew up. And besides... all my students said that I'm the better Rachel (there were three Rachels at camp), which automatically makes them my favorites. In the afternoons, there was a time called "Study Hour." At that time, I had my students journal to me. They could write about anything: stories, their day, their feelings. Then I would write back to them sometime during the day. Then, the next day, they'd write again, and so on. I really enjoyed reading what they wrote, as it gave me a glimpse into their lives. We had loads of fun in class, playing games, reading dialogs in strange voices, and having very interesting discussions.

There was also a drama class. One group of students learned a skit, and two groups learned songs with motions. The leaders of these classes were awesome.

 

Apart from classes, there were camp activities. We played various games such as water balloon toss, Prison Break, and Amazing Race. We went to the pool and one day, there was a craft time.

For the Amazing Race game, teams had to take pictures of different things

Acting like a guy

Prison Break

Trying to see how many guys can fit on the mat without feet touching the ground

The most important part, though, was that through these camps, we were able to touch these kids' lives. Each night, we had an evening message based on the theme: "The Root of Life." These messages, along with interactions between them and their counselors/teachers/JCs, challenged the campers and helped open their eyes to the Truth. I am soo happy to say that by the end the two weeks I was there, 30 campers came to know our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! 44 of the kids re-dedicated their lives to Christ during that time, too, and 15 of them dedicated their lives to full-time occupational Christian service. One camper told of his school, and how it was really bad. Drugs, smoking, and embezzlement were involved. He shared his mission: turning the trashcan (his school) into a recycling bin for God. I was and am sooo proud of him. We heard other stories and testimonies from campers throughout the camps, and each time, I was encouraged. God did mighty works throughout the course of just two weeks.

For me, one of the most encouraging things was watching the kids make decisions and grow in God. Seeing how the workers interacted with the children. Watching all of our team encourage and lift each other up. All of these are reasons why I have no regrets about going to South Korea. I wouldn't take that time back for anything!

Even now, the Florida team leaders are preparing a new team to go back to SK in 2014, to help again at these camps. Please pray for them during this process that they will grow more in Christ and that when they return to SK, many more lives will be touched through them.