"New Thing"

"Remember not the former things,

nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I am doing a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.

The wild beasts will honor me, 

the jackals and the ostriches,

for I give water in the wilderness,

rivers in the desert, 

to give drink to my chosen people,

the people whom I formed for myself

that they might declare my praise."

Isaiah 43:18-21

It's so easy to think about the former things and find joy, satisfaction, and sometimes even self-glory in our past "successes." But life goes on, and every day is a new day. I am currently in Vietnam, not America; manager at Donut's Donuts, not a student at UCSD; at Bethel, not GCC. Church, ministry, God's work. It's not about the place or the building, but it's about the people, God's chosen people. God has placed me in a new place with new people - God's definitely gonna do a new thing(s). 

--

"젖과 꿀이 흐르는 땅이 아니면 젖소와 벌꿀을 치면 젖과 꿀이 흐르는 땅이 되도록 하나님을 의지하고 순종하면서 행동하면 돼는 것입니다."

Soup

Vietnamese Soup

In the afternoon, a man on a moto drives by with a big bucket of soup.

Vietnamese workers run out of their shops to buy it.

My employees eat it from time to time.

They asked me if I wanted one so I said, "Sure!"(Gotta try new things y'know~)

It's 10,000VND, so 50 cents. Cheap & delicious!

I was actually quite surprised that it had pieces of crab meat and quail eggs inside.

But it comes down to the fact that it's "street food." 

Who knows what they really make it out of. But........ who cares? 

Gotta enjoy it while I can :)

Baby Step

Gave my first Korean sermon.

GG.

Had my manuscript, but the problem is... I can't find my place when I'm lost.

I just can't read Korean as fast as I read English. 

It doesn't come into my eyes. I look... and it just looks like a blob of characters.

There were moments (to my surprise) when words that weren't even on my manuscript just popped out of my mouth. (That wasn't me. That had to be God! PTL!)

But there were also moments when I couldn't spit out the word I was thinking of, so I just went with English.

It wasn't as bad as I had expected..

I didn't faint or have a heart-attack.

But... it's still nerve-wrecking thinking that there are many more sundays to come.. many more Korean sermons to be preached.

Definitely out of my comfort zone,

but I guess this is all a part of the training process.

.. slowly taking my baby steps.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2012.

4th Thanksgiving with the Choi Family.

Thought it would be a bit depressing to be spending Thanksgiving sitting at Donut's Donuts while everyone back at home is getting fat off of turkey, so I decided to take a trip to Hanoi to spend Thanksgiving with 

GCC Family.

Arrived mid-day on Wednesday and left Friday before noon, so I only had one full day.

But it was good. Short & sweet :)

Restful.

Insightful.

Words of advice.

Words of wisdom.

Encouragements.

Came back feeling well-rested and well-fed, both with food and with spiritual wisdom.

It always feels nice to get a little push, a little slap, and a little wake-up call :)

--

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

- 1 Corinthians 10:31

Dog Meat

"Dog Meat Soup"

Yea yea, I ate dog meat. Don't judge.

First (and only) time I ate this was in Korea when I was in elementary or middle school. 

Never really had the chance to eat it again. 

If I had the choice, I guess I wouldn't go choose to eat it.

(It feels a bit different, now that I have a dog.)

Deacon Man Sik took me to go eat this for lunch.

It tastes just like goat meat!

I guess there's no need to eat dog, if I can eat goat instead and get the same taste!

I love goat meat, so yea... it was actually pretty delicious. 

Koreans...... what do we not eat?

Introducing: Hae Yeon

This is Hae Yeon Park.

She is a member of Saigon Bethel Church, Young Adults Group.

Same age, twenty-one.

Lives one minute away from Donut's Donuts.

Moved to Vietnam a little over 4 years ago.

Parents live in Korea, so home-stays at a church member's house.

Attends a Vietnamese College! (So cool!)

There's no one at Bethel that's our age, so she was very happy to meet a "friend".

It's due to the Korean culture, where you can't call or even consider someone younger or older a friend.

(So different from America. At GCC we're all friends! Even from ages 20 to 50! 

I miss my friends.. QQ)

But I'm thankful that she makes an effort to spend time and build a relationship with me 

cus knowing me, I wouldn't.

This is the first time I did anything outside of Donut's Donut's & Bethel Church activities.

We went to go eat Soon Dae Gook and chilled at a Vietnamese Cafe.

It's still weird that I'm most free on sundays and that I have this kind of leisure to go out, eat dinner, and chit-chat at a cafe.

Enjoy it while I can? :)

Dragon Fruit

i love.

Plunge

I dived into the pool.

Not sure if I can swim. 

I had a meeting with Deacon Man Sik from Bethel Church.

So glad he's back from Hanoi. Things are getting more settled, and I'm glad to have someone here that understands my position and supports me. 

"Thank you, Lord."

"Who's going to preach on sundays for Bethel Youth" is a secondary issue.

The primary issue is.. "Who's going to take charge of the Youth Ministry."

I had a choice: (1) Take charge (2) Be an active teacher

I took the first choice.

-- 

"God? I don't know. I'm not sure what I just got myself into. I mean.... I know... but I don't. LEAD a youth group? TAKE CHARGE?! Speak Korean 24/7?! I'm scared. I've never even taught a bible study in Korean before. No, I've never even opened a Korean bible before. I don't even own a Korean bible! I was preparing for sunday bible study, and I had to look up words in google translate. That's sad. I don't know why I made that decision. Something just told me to.. so I did. My confidence level dropped under zero. Don't know where to start. Don't know what to do. Don't even know if I can do it. 

하나님? 저 못해요. 그러니까 하나님이 하세요."

Pizza Hut

Supreme Pizza

I haven't had anything American in the past 2 weeks.

(Oh, besides some Spaghetti things I ate at a Vietnamese restaurant..)

Took a lifetime to get this pizza delivered to my house.

The lady got my address wrong, so the delivery man went to the wrong house.

He called me, but the man only spoke Vietnamese.

No communication whatsoever.

But finally, after about 20 minutes, the pizza was safely delivered to my house.

The smell, the looks, the taste..... all wonderful.

It was soooo delicious I devoured that thing in about 5 minutes.

I'm sure it doesn't taste nearly as good as Pizza Hut in America, but after eating noodles and rice for the past 2 weeks, nothing can taste better.

Pizza? Coke? Oh how I love thee ~

Sharing is caring.

"뻥튀기"

Yeah yeah.... I usually don't take pictures on my own, but I realized I never put up pictures of myself so I gave it a shot. (Don't stone me...^^)

--

One of my employees came and handed me 6 of these things.

I didn't know what to expect when I bit into it...

but it was 뻥튀기! 

Usually comes in a circle form, but I guess they make it like this here.

The same girl took me to some ghetto Vietnamese stand and bought me lunch last week too!

The meal came out to be $1.00 !

You pick a meat and they give you rice, vegetables, and a small soup. 

I'm not a fan of fish, but it was actually pretty good!

$1.00 meal? Definitely worth it :)

$1.00 Vietnamese Meal

(gasp)

On the way home from a  LONG sunday of going around to all three churches to introduce myself, one of the deacons asked me to join them for dinner.

I was so tired that I "kindly" rejected. 

When I got home around 5pm, she Kakao-ed me saying that Pastor Paul Han personally invited me to come. Alright..... how can I say no now? So I got off my lazy butt and went to church by 6pm.

When the van had come to pick us up, the deacon told me that Pastor Paul had called 10 minutes before six saying that he can't come because SMN was too fatigued. 

I thought in my head: "Are you kidding me?!" But no.. she was not kidding me. Pastor Paul did not come. 

When I got in the van, the deacon that was supposed to buy had brought his wife and 2 kids. 

She was Vietnamese! (gasp) Which would make the kids half Vietnamese, half Korean.

I've heard a lot about how Korean men marrying Vietnamese women and that a lot of Vietnamese girls' dreams are to marry a Korean man (simply because no matter how little money they make, they probably make more than an average Vietnamese man), but I've never actually met a Korean/Vietnamese couple. 

As we were eating dinner, the deacons asked the Vietnamese lady how old she was.

She definitely looked younger than the man, but I didn't expect her to be that young. 

She's 23............. (gasp) born in 1989. That makes her TWO years older than me. 

Her daughter is five (gasp) and her son is 19 months. 

She married at the age of 18 to a man older than double her age.

gasp.

What is this.. a culture shock? I don't know.

but on a brighter note: the meat was delicious! yummy in my tummy :)

Bethel Church

Introducing

BETHEL CHURCH

Leading Pastor: Paul Han

Assistant Pastors: Jin Jae Lee, Hyuk Kim, Seowoo Choi

Bethel's motto: "From Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi~"

There are 4 branches of Bethel Church: 

1. PhuMyHung (Ho Chi Minh City) - This church was planted in 2008. It's the church that I attend. It's about a 5-7 minute walk from my apartment and less than a minute walk from Donut's Donuts. Most members of this church live in Sky Garden, the apartment complex that I live in. The assistant pastor of this church is Pastor Hyuk Kim. He came to Vietnam about 2 months ago from Los Angeles. All his children are college and up, so they're all in the states. 
2. Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) - This church is in the city and is the original Bethel Church. I believe it started in 2004? Many members of this church travel long distances to get to the church, so the church is only able to have service on sundays. All the young adults gather at this church, so PhuMyHung church has a hard time gathering young adults. The assistant pastor of this church is Pastor Jin Jae Lee and his wife Mi Hyang Son SMN. They were missionaries in Russia for 15 years and came to Vietnam about 4 years ago. They have 2 daughters, one in elementary and one in high school. They all live in Sky Garden as well.  
3. Gong Hang (Ho Chi Minh City) - This church is very small. It was planted in 2010, so you can probably imagine how small the church is. Pastor Jin Jae Lee leads this church as well, but members of PhuMyHung come to serve.
4. Hanoi - This is the church Pastor Choi is at. It was planted this year. Hanoi is at the opposite end of Vietnam (kind of like SF and LA).

It's amazing how God is using Pastor Paul Han to plant so many churches in the land of Vietnam. More to come? :)

Free Food

*Drool*

Yun Hyuk's First Birthday 

I was walking home from Donut's Donuts and as I was passing by PhuMyHung Bethel Church, Son SMN ran out and grabbed me. She said, "Let's go to a birthday party!"

It was my first time seeing this family, but I went to their baby's first birthday party (uninvited).
It's not of my nature to go to places uninvited, but I guess I gotta get used to it because people keep dragging me everywhere to go eat. (I guess it's a blessing?^^)

Apparently the family's ballin. (I would think so.)
The baby's birthday party was at a hotel! (I don't think that's common here in Vietnam.)
So I guess I don't feel that bad.

I saw a lot of cute decorations and made sure to take pictures for future reference.
One day I'll be doing this for my kids too, no? (But probably not at a hotel....QQ)

I got a plate-FULL of food and sat down, and I kid you not, my plate was the fullest.
(I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit embarrassed.)

I wasn't too excited about going to this birthday party, but God had more in store for me than I had expected. "Expect the unexpected."
I got to meet Saigon Bethel Church's young adult group. There's not many.. maybe about 10-12? But they all seem like great people.
Met someone that's my age too! Finally a "friend" in Vietnam? :) We'll see~

Ouch

Experienced my first yelling from an angry customer.

The milk was spoiled.
The customer purchased 3 milk cartons, and two of them had gone bad.

The milk wasn't past its expiration date, but it happened to be the day it was supposed to expire.
Usually milk doesn't go bad even after the marked date,
but maybe it went bad as it was being delivered, since Vietnam is so hot.

I got yelled at for selling milk until the day of the marked expiration date.
The lady kept repeating herself that she just couldn't understand how we were still selling that milk, and that we should only sell milk up to three days before the expiration date.
Thank God she was with her friend who told her to stop and that she had done enough.

Called the Donut's Donuts office and reported what had happened.
We decided to toss all leftover milks the day before its expiration date.


Never experienced something like this before..
Getting yelled at by angry customers? Not fun.
But I guess this is all a part of the training.

Definitely NOT excited for more angry Korean Ahjummas....... (sigh)

Introducing: Zion

Baby Zion 

This is 시온. In English that would be "Zion."

(Yes.. like Zion Market.. lol)

She comes to Donut's Donuts often with her mom.

I believe she's a Bethel Church member? Didn't see her mom at the adult service, but she knows all the deacons and pastors of Bethel, so I'm assuming she's a part of the Bethel family?

She's crazy about cell phones.

(I think she would even follow a stranger home if they had a smart phone.)

Plus, she's smart! She knows how to unlock iPhones and slide through pictures!

She's super energetic. 

Walks around everywhere, going up and down the stairs.

She eats well and drinks well.

She'll down a whole donut and milk all by herself!

This is a typical day at Donut's Donuts.

There's usually some kid that bothers me or constantly peeks over at what I'm doing.

Either super cute or super annoying ;)

Farewell Party

 

Farewell Party for Missionary HaeWook 

organized by Donut's Donuts Employees 

Came to work in the morning and my employees were busy washing vegetables. Was a bit confused, but was informed that they are preparing a Farewell Lunch Party for Missionary HaeWook!

Hot pot. Spring rolls. Homemade dessert. YUM!
They went out and bought everything and prepared everything.

So sweet.. I'm super touched.

Was reminded of the Vietnamese students at Hanoi English Camp this past summer - the cake, songs, cards, and gifts they prepared for our mission team.

Seems like Vietnamese people have very warm hearts :)

Next Door

Grand Opening 

A massage center opened right next door to Donut's Donuts.

Korean owned.

I guess this is the kind of thing to do when you open a new business?

Some kind of.. um.. ritual(?) praying for success and good fortune?

(Weird that people put so much value in a.. um.. pig.)

It's so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that missions is over there, when it's actually right here. 

Let us become intercessory prayers for here, there, and everywhere! 

D onuts

Donuts @ Donut's Donuts

I MADE DONUTS TODAY! :)

Dark Chocolate . Strawberry . Vanilla

Dip it

Decorate it

Display it

(It was a lot harder than it looked. DEFINITELY need more practice. Planning to come at opening until I master making beautiful & delicious donuts. THEN! Time to become a Barista^^)

1st Sunday

"PHUMYHUNG BETHEL CHURCH"

It was my first Sunday at Bethel Church.

Strange.
Strange being at a church that's not GCC.
Strange being introduced as a Missionary.
Strange going through a whole day listening to Korean sermons. 
Strange thinking that it's not a one-time visit, but that I'll be here for the next 10 months.

How do I feel about all of this? I'm not quite sure yet.

Introducing
BETHEL YOUTH MINISTRY

30-40 Junior High & High School Students (predominately Korean-speaking)

5 Teachers (all deacons of the church)

No Pastor

What is my role at Bethel Youth? I'll be taking charge of the Youth Ministry.

Condition of the Youth Ministry? Mm, it's a mess. Not to judge, but it's exactly where GCC Youth was at 5 years ago. (If you were at GCC when Pastor Choi & Pastor David first came into Youth Ministry, you might know what I'm talking about.)

Korean? I'm good at Korean, but when it comes to speaking Korean 24/7... I don't know. 

Do I have the ability to preach in Korean? Yikes, I can barely preach in English. (But God used Moses who couldn't speak to bring the Israelites out of Egypt....)

When I'm nervous, my Korean sucks. So as of right now, the students and adults at Bethel Church think that I speak "한쿸말" (If you know what I mean) 

"God..? It's ALL You."

My First Pho

" PHO 24 "

I had my first pho today!

Walked a couple stores down from Donut's Donuts to "Pho 24".

It's the first time I ate alone in a public place. (Yes, first time.. EVER)

I am quite proud of myself ^^

Pho was alright. Could be better.

New Mission: Try every pho in this neighborhood and find the best place. 

So a little explanation of the picture above:

1. Obviously a picture of the pho I ate. The name? I don't remember. But it's the one with everything. It's 59,000VND. So, approximately $3.00. (Way cheaper than America, for Americans, but expensive for Vietnamese workers that are working under minimum wage.)

2. Water, bread, and wet wipe = NOT free. 

The waitress flipped my menu to the drinks section as soon as I ordered my pho. I told her I wanted water, and she brought me a small bottle of Aquafina. Bottled water? NOT free.

The bread and the wet wipe is brought to your table as soon as you order. This too, is NOT free. As long as you don't use it and don't eat it, you are free of charge. (Good thing I had some prior knowledge of this!)

Donut's Donuts

Donut's Donuts Menu

Cash Register 

Have I ever worked at a store? Have I ever used a cash register? The answer is "NO." 

My primary job is NOT to sell donuts and coffee behind the counter, but as the manager of Donut's Donuts, I should be familiar with all these things. (Plus, I should be helping out when the store is busy.)

So... first thing's first. I must memorize the price of each donut and master using the cash register. 

(If only it was in English..... Vietnamese? Not my first language y'know.)

After I master these two things, then maybe I can start learning how to make coffee and donuts? :)

Tạm Biệt America

Special thanks to all that came out to send me off <3

Missing you all already..

Goodbye America!

I'll be back in 10 months ;)