We get paid this Wednesday. Our first pay cheques plus our air fares into Korea. We’ve been budgeting and praying, because although it’s a lot of money, it could easily go quickly! We want to use it wisely, especially since God has already been so awesome in providing us here! Two weeks into our time at our schools and our three bedroom apartment was almost fully NICELY furnished! In ways that surpass what expected from our contracts or even thought to want! The only things we still need to get are a big chest of drawers for the majority of our clothes, a shower rail and shower curtain and air conditioning for when summer hits. We haven’t yet been told if there’s any school budget left for those things. We’d also like (at some time) to get for ourselves a small oven for baking/roasting (Korean apartments come with only a gas range and we want everyone to try pavlova), some bookshelves for the practice room/study and a new computer.
Another example of how God has provided for us is the new church home we’ve found through a married couple who were at our EPIK orientation.
Firstly, we haven’t found any bilingual churches here yet, which is a little sad for language learning. Ich vermisse unsere kleine aber kreative zweisprachige Gottesdienst!
On our third afternoon in Busan we visited the foreigners’ service (AIM) at the huge Korean church we can now see from our balcony (Soo Young’s the 2nd or 3rd biggest church in Korea) and we met some lovely people. Although this church is practically in our backyard, the format of the service just didn’t resonate with me. The worship team was good, the sermon was fine… Although I found the additional choir items to be a bit old fashioned and stilted in the context of the service, the people were friendly - but I was hoping for something more. We’ve made some good contacts that we’re maintaining there though. We still visit every few weeks and we’re participating in their married couple’s group.
For our second weekend in Busan we visited ICC (International Community Church). ICC started almost 2 years ago because some foreigners at the AIM service were frustrated that the service had to be in a certain format to please its Korean mother church. ICC’s a lot smaller with more native English speakers there, but it was the service that I really enjoyed. And what was surreal was that we already knew so many people there from our EPIK orientation and as we introduced ourselves to people we hadn’t yet met, we were handed new roles! No one was really in charge of the Mac for service production – they were looking for someone to really learn how to do it. Well Rob and I have been looking at buying a Mac, as well as the fact that Rob used to create the powerpoints for worship and announcements at Jesus Rockt. (We’re praying someone new has stepped forward to do that there!) At the same time I spoke to the worship team and found out that they have a bass guitar that no one’s been using, so they offered it to me to take away and practise with! So now our apartment has a huge iMac and an electric bass on loan, which we are learning how to use! It looks like this will give us more time to save money and more experience to use when purchasing our own ones.
Rob’s already taken on the role as main tech guy, so last Sunday he started doing the worship powerpoints and today he was given the church video camera too. I only got a bass shoulder strap today, so I’ll start rehearsals/services next Sunday. Rob’s been going to the mens' small group on Thursday nights. A new couple’s group (fortnightly) is starting up next Sunday, and we’re hosting it. I’ll visit a women’s small group this Wednesday night.
With free Korean lessons from a local university club on Mondays (both of us) and Thursdays (me only), that leaves our schedules really full already. But we still have time together because we both work 40 hours Mon – Fri. We travel to and from school together. Most of those evenings we have stuff together or some time together before and after the other things. Working in separate workplaces has definitely been a blessing, I reckon. God has really blessed us, with a new life situation that pulls us together as a family team, a home which we can open up to others, a clear idea which church family we should join, a big support network and already help to overcome my biggest cultural barrier currently – the language.
So with our first pay cheque, apart from general living and internet set up costs, some things we have to do are:
- get Rob his dream camera, especially since our old one broke as soon as we arrived in Auckland at the end of January.
You should all know how important this is to him. THE Canon 50D! It’s been sometimes difficult to hang out with him without a “good camera”, but to be fair, considering how important it is to him, he’s coped really well in these last two months with substitutes or ideas to sidetrack him.
- get me some decent music library accessories, since I could benefit from the tools for inspiration as much as Rob needs his.
I’m getting (maybe a second-hand) iPod with a lot of GB, new decent earphones and speakers for it and then I’m going to be spending a LOT of time organising (we have iTunes on the church iMac!!!), listening and using music every day. I’m especially excited about using this stuff for personal worship time, inspiration to practise bassoon or learn by ear/transcribe bass lines and piano parts and for motivation to exercise more.
- I’m also going to buy a new sturdy music stand and if there’s money for it, maybe a small second hand portable mini-amp. If I can find an English speaking bass teacher and time, I’ll have at least one lesson sooner.
- get our multitude of boxes sent from Karlsruhe, Michigan, Auckland and Wellington to here!
If you can remember, it was snowing when we arrived in mid February and it’s been around 20 degrees celsius for the last week now. It’s already too warm on the subway! Although it’s colder inside the schools than the outside temperature, we need summer clothes and more work clothes sent to us ASAP. Remember, they’ll take a while to get here and although we can buy tops here no problem, pants and skirts are a major problem to purchase here (unless you’re capable of ordering through the internet in Korean). I also want my bassoon stand and some bassoon music and we are looking forward to having some key books – all things that were too heavy to bring in our 20kg max suitcases.
- put money on my credit card and in our German bank account, since we drained them during our 2 month holiday.
- invest in a well-padded external hard drive, as this lap top is starting to crap out on us. We need to back up our data fast!
- invest a small amount of money in redecorating our EOZs, since our English departments don’t have fantastic budgets for that this year. It’s all about motivating the students.
I don’t know if I’ve made it clear yet: God is so good. The ultimate provider! We are so thankful. Really, this point is driven home to us time and time again when we talk to other couples and singles about their experiences to date in the EPIK program. We are so blessed here already. We are unworthy and wish to share all of these blessings with you. So I hope you’ll keep in touch and come and visit, if you can!
I miss you all, at the same time as making the most out of our new lives here! Aroha nui.
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