Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire

Dear Everyone,

So when I was complaining about the food at our seminar I had no idea that soon fishy food would be the least of my problems. Trev and I moved into Seoul from the retreat on last Friday. So, so, so much has happened since then.

First, we were greeted by our Korean co-teachers and were each taken around our new schools. We met the staff and we both got a glimpse of our classrooms, and consequently lives, for the next year. This part was great, it is what follows that has caused so much drama. The night before leaving the retreat we were told that our housing money had been dismissed and that we were going to be staying in school housing. There was nothing that we could do about the problem at that time as we were not in Seoul and were secluded at the center in Suwon. So we arrived in Seoul expecting to come to some agreement with our schools about our provided housing. We were secretly hoping that the house that they would be providing would be sufficient and that they would let Kimchi live with us. We could not have been more wrong. My teachers dropped me off at the Co-op, the school housing, after our brief introduction. We were greeted at the door by a man who told me that Trevor and I could not have people stay in our room, there could be no "outside" food in our room (whatever that means) and that we could under no circumstances have a dog. My kind and generous teachers who were as baffled as I was helped me carry my bags to our room and watched as I opened the door and burst into tears. Our accommodations were no larger than a small hotel room. My staff voiced their disgust and left us for the weekend to get some rest.

This is when we phoned Pastor Bill. He had been looking around for apartments for us the week before and when we had heard that we HAD to stay in school accommodations (no exceptions we were told) we had asked him to hold on the searching. He came right over and within 24 hours he had moved us out of the Co-op and helped us sign a contract on a very spacious three bedroom apartment that was in a neighborhood close to two subway lines and right smack in the middle of both of our schools. Not to mention he helped us find furniture from people in the church, obtain a cell phone (free of charge), buy new appliances and move all of our belongings from one end of the city to the other. God really does care for his children. I have never seen life move so quickly and smoothly as it did last weekend. We thank Pastor Bill and his family for all of their help, but the real miracles came from God.

So our struggle is not over right now we are praying that the government will give us funding for our housing like it says they will in our contract. We are in negotiations right now and as of today it looks as if we will get our funding. This is not for sure yet, but this is just another step where we have to trust that God will provide. He has brought us this far and I am sure that he is not going to drop us now.

We are happy in our apartment, it is a good fit for us. We have a few too many rooms but it is a welcome change from last year when we were so cramped. And now we have room and time to spend with anyone who may happen to pop into Korea. We love our new schools and although it will be a challenge to teach 700 plus students, who have a level 0 in English, how to speak it will be exactly what we both want to be doing.

Thank you for your prayers. God is faithful.
Rachel and Trevor