Spring Teachers' Retreat (...workshop)

April 10th-13th was the second teachers' retreat we'd been to since coming to Korea. This one was mandatory and so there were a lot more teachers. On our way to the retreat we got to stop at Costco for lunch. This was a big deal, you see, because there they have American pizza and ice cream at a decent price and it's mmm mmm good.





The escalators here are great. They are made for people and carts. Since Costco is built on several floors the escalators are extra long. The sped up video above gives you an idea of how long.

This time for the retreat Matthew and I didn't have to sleep on bunk beds! Last teachers' retreat we had a room with four bunk beds and were supposed to share it with another couple. Luckily we didn't have another couple that time. However, this time we were to share an apartment with another couple, but we got our own bedroom, and no bunk beds! Instead we had "yo"s. I don't know how it's spelled but it sounds like "yo".




The "yo"s are the colorful mats and then they gave us tons of comforters and pillows. Much more than we needed.





The spring blossoms were opening up and we felt our lungs expand as we drank in the fresher air. This picture is of the apartments we stayed at during the retreat. They were very nice.




Here Matthew is taking advantage of all the cushion and relaxin'.




I made the bed and we sunk into the thick layers of bedding. It was really nice.






The apartments are named after birds, at least where we stayed. Other places have flower names, etc. In the following pictures Matthew will help you to understand the names by acting out.




We stayed in Turkey Vulture.




Our neighbors were in Laughing Gull. They probably got funnier over the weekend.

Most of our weekend was spent in meetings and seminars. The main speaker, Pastor Jim Park was a huge blessing. He is teaching at AIIS in the Philippines currently but is from the USA. This website Disciple Tree has more information about his ministry.

The seminars were to help unify and reorient us to different aspects of our program here. I think it was a good idea to have the seminars, but I still have to admit that I didn't want to sit through them all. =)



But there were a few spots where we could hang out and enjoy being with other teachers.



This is Kelly Ann and I Sabbath afternoon, just chillin' around waiting for supper.

There was this old Ford and just because its old and America I took a picture with it. I'm still partial to my beautiful Hyundai Elantra (made in Korea) back at home.

Saturday night a bunch of our orientation group, plus some new friends, got together to play games. The other couple that we stayed with, Daria and Bill, were from our orientation group and they'd brought Cranium and decided to invite people over.



We had so much fun. We stayed up late humming, drawing, molding clay, and guess random trivia.



These are some of our Term 5 orientation group. Term 5 was the best. Not that I'm biased or anything. Left to Right: Bill, Daria, Matt, Beth-Anne, Mary, Sarah, Will, Andy, Jazz, Makeeya, Zach, and Moises.

Sunday was the day that we had the largest time off. They were going to take a group hiking (the place we had hiked up part-way the first time) but we hadn't signed up. I was sad but thought it'd be okay. But God knew best and things were changed and so we got to go! The second best part was that instead of making us hike UP the trail, they drove us up so we could have more time at the top and let us walk down.

Matthew and I laughed when we recognized the spot we had stopped. We had been about 10 minutes walk from the top last time.

At the top is a Buddhist Temple. So on Easter Sunday most people went to church and we went to a Buddhist Temple.



There was actually an English (from England) monk there. He explain a few things about Buddhism and I found it interesting and yet very sad. He said that last time he spoke English was when the SDA group had been there six months ago. It's a very secluded and quiet lifestyle from what we saw.



Buddha's birthday is May 2nd so that's what the colorful lanterns are about.





One of the teachers asked the monk if when the people bow down to Buddha if they are worshiping or what exactly they are doing. The monk told us that they are meditating and that it's not so much bowing down to Buddha as bowing down to yourself. Buddhists believe each person can attain that high status of perfection and so in a sense they are bowing to themselves.





We were asked if we had any religion and so we said that we were Seventh-day Adventists. He said, "Ah, you are Christians." Then he said, "Jesus said, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.' What we are trying to find out is, who is the 'I'. " Basically, the "I" could be you or me.







The quietness of the place, with the wind blowing the chimes attached to the temple made it seem surreal.



It was incredibly sad to think that all you have is yourself to become perfect. I praise God that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.



On our walk down we were able to walk with Harry and Connie, the teachers who use to teach at Incheon before we did. We had some really great spiritual talks with them. We talked about nature, our students, home, city/country life and all types of things.



Cleopatra, our coordinator says that we are a younger version of Harry and Connie. =) So it's no surprise when Harry saw a pool of water and commented about jumping in it. Matthew too eagerly looked at the water

As Matthew says, "We only live once



Don't worry mothers, he did check the depth with a long stick before he jumped in.



I love Matthew's adventurous spirit.



As we continued to walk and talk we were inspired and blessed to see spring: God's handiwork.





We new that being in the city wasn't what we wanted but being out in the mountain and seeing the beauty of nature and speaking about how amazing God is filled our souls in indescribable ways.






All too soon we were at the end of the trail and had to wait to be picked up to go back to English Village.



These rocks and others like them are made from people building up wishes. Each rock is a wish. You pile them up as you wish for things. These were fairly small but some are much taller, as you saw in the pictures above.



This is the statue at the beginning of the trail.



I want to write the feeling we had as we arrived back at English Village but I am sure I won't do it justice. It was as if we had been through detox and all the toxins were out of our body. We felt free, light, euphoria, blissful, clear...as if we had experienced God. It was God's gift to us.

The hike was the best part of the weekend but soon we had to prepare to leave.



This is our blue van that we go places in and us packing ourselves in.

On the way back we stopped by Costco again for lunch =) and Matthew, still in the jumping mood, jumped over the road block.



And so concludes our last visit to English Village.