All Work and Some Play

Part of my goal to become a better neighbor involves learning Korean. So I dusted off my brain, liguistically speaking, got out my calendar, and decided to take up Korean classes with one of our teachers again. She teaches Korean and calculus at our school. I think she was teaching me Korean, but since they're both foreign to me, I can never be too sure.

After establishing I don't retain past lessons well, we settled on verbs and using them to make sentences. I did okay enough with past and present, but it soon became apparent I hadn't learned the future tense and we decided to work on that.

I hate the future tense. Passionately.

That weekend, a group of teachers and students went to In Su Won Grandma House for more cleaning and singing. We made good time, so we were able to clean and visit without that pesky rushing thing. Students surprised us by explaining the songs we sang in Korean, and helping us communicate what we should do in the future. There's plenty to look forward to.

At some point that week I saw a video online talking about how kids and teens will do kingdom work not now, but someday when they're all grown up. I respectfully disagreed and went back to my online quiz or whatever I was doing. I must be going senile in my old age.

Sunday, twenty adults, children and teens met together in a church parking lot to help with a BBQ at a local orphanage. Our pastor said we expected to visit with between sixty to eighty of the one hundred kids. No one ran away after he said that, so that was a good sign we were somewhat ready.

The number turned out to be twenty, while food was brought to the rest of the kids. We played a variation of Simon Says, and then Hot Potato before we munched burgers and hot dogs. Thanks to all the adults and teens who translated and kept repeating "you're out, please sit down" or"circle" as needed. You helped put the "organized" in "organized chaos."

At the end we broke into small groups, and practiced simple English conversation. I was surpised when we translated "What do you like to do" and didn't hear the usual student answers I get of "play computer games." "Skating" and "playing catch" were two answers we got. Others were no less active. Of course, active was the best word to describe this group.

Again, we relied heavily on translation, so thank you. You know who you are.

In the end, we told the kids why we were there, to share His love. We said goodbye a dozen times, played around some more, and then left.

Before we went I asked several kids if they had fun. They looked puzzled. I asked again in Korean. "Yes", they grinned as they answered in English.

I'm glad the lessons went as well as they did. Thankfully, I kept the conversations in the present tense. I'll save the future for later. Much later.