Iron Chef meets Cooking Mama

For Dinner today, me, I, 'manda Drew, cooked a meal. Yes, praise the Lord, i cooked.

Yay!! So today, Sosimo offered to teach me how to make fried rice (bokumbap). So we headed to the little convience store right by my house, and searched for some great ingredients. (we found my favorite thing to eat in Korea besides popsicles, Korean Sausage!!!).
Dean took the photos, and consumed the meal. Thanks Dean, i appreciate you eating my cooking!

(washing hands, that's important)




(LOOK AT THE KOREAN SAUSAGE!! SO GOOD!)

(look mom, one handed!)




(first yoke broke, but the transfer to the pan was succesful)

So we cooked, and cooked, and AMAZING!! a meal came forth!

Ta-Da!!!


After the feast, i studied my Korean. I'm not very good at it, and i don't practice a lot. But i'm going to start too. So i studied!!

Then, Kailey came over for her guitar lesson!! She is doing very well, she catches on fast. I taught her "Jesus Lord of Heaven", and she had the verse and chorus by the end of the night! I'm very proud of her, pray that she keeps growing in her skill, and will play for the Lord with all she's got!

Thus, the night of another great day was finished.

EXCEPT FOR A PRAYER REQUEST!!!!
On Sunday, we are starting new services at the church in Daejeon. There is a morning service translated, and the same evening service we have been having. There is also a childrens english sunday school, and i ask for your prayers. We really want to bless the people around us, and to teach them God's Word. Pray for boldness in sharing in these kids lives, and that their parents would see the love Jesus is going to fill them with. Because He will fill them, and work great things in their lives.

Thanks in advance,

-'manda

Walk to Church

Here's a few pictures of the things around me on my way to the Church, and what i see every morning.

This is the first thing i wake up too.




Then it's our rice cooker. i call it "blessing".

Then it's my fridge, because i'm hungry.

Then, if i make it past family mart without buying triangle kimbop, i see the girl's junior highschool(i think thats what it is) that i live behind, as i wait for the light to tell me to cross.

This is the street it tells me to cross. red means stop, not go. (those are some buildings)

Then i walk down this pretty road in the shade, its my favorite part.

Well, hello building-that-the-church-is-in!

That's our sign! (korean stores/businesses are entered from the inside, isntead of the out).

And that's the cool person on the drink machine i pass by before going up the stairs (i didn't take pictures of the stairs, because i dont really like them).

Anyways, thats my walk to church every morning.

This Sunday, were changing things up at CCDaejeon. We are having THREE services, instead of the one we usually have at night. The room is starting to get packed out as the Lord is bringing more and more of His children to learn every week. Please pray for us, and especially for past Mike. Pray that God would bless His church here, and show us just how He wants to have it be.

Praise Him for this opportunity though!

-'manda

I do not live,

Galations 2, verses 20 and 21.

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain."

If you are dead, you cannot be bothered.
i read in a commentary today on the book of Hebrews (we are studying that right now, just the five of us), and it gave an example. I don't remember which verse it was talking about, but it reffered to the verse in the Gospel where Jesus says "Deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me". It gave the picture of going into all the visitor rooms in a funeral home, and whispering in the corpses ears "your marriage won't work out, the money for the bills won't come, you can't make it better, you messed up", whispering all these things that we let Satan tell us, that we believe. And Jesus said "die". When i first read it, i was like whoa hey, but then that verse is telling us to die to self. Death to self, no to self, and follow Jesus. If we are dead, we have no concern with the problems of life. We trust in Jesus more completely, when He is the one living in us. When He is the one being our strength.

I don't know, it was a cool thought to me. Jesus knows how much we need Him, He knows it more than we know ourselves. We gotta come to that point when we say "Jesus we need You to dwell among us, we need Your help. Jesus we need You."

I live by faith in Jesus, I put my trust in Him because none other can help me. I have so much life in Him, my faith in Him makes me alive.


"Praising the Lord, wherever we go.
Humming a tune not fit of His love.
Our burden is falling, down past our feet
We lift up our eyes; we are full of His peace.
"He's all that we need, and gives us just that
if we seek; He will give, and pour out of His grace.
The love is a fire, alight in our eyes
a window unleashing the shadows inside.
we walk in the light of His radiant face
Abounding, abounding! Oh Joy, oh grace."


-'manda

Birthday!

Today is Rusty's birthday!!


Happy Birthday Rusty!!
"Dude, your 21." (That's what i would say to you if i were in Okinawa still).

So it's pretty neat that you get a birthday in Japan, and to celebrate it with everyone in Oki.
Just wanted you to know i'm celebrating it with you here in Korea. love you a lot dude, you are always going to be in my life.

So, we made you a picture.




It spells your name!! (you prolly can tell though...)
Hope you had a great day dude, happy birthday Rusty.

-'manda (and the Korea gang)

Daejeon Days

That's a catchy title. it sounds like a sitcom, or an album name.

Anyways,
So on Sundays we have a lot of fun doing ministry together.
This past sunday, we had our normal things, but just little things about each place was funny and a blessing.
At the church that me and Sosimo go to, we are planning a big water even at the park for the kids. Please pray that a lot of kids will come, we are doing the wordless color Bible, and playing games and eating with the kids at the park. it is very hot now, so the Lord blessed us with water balloons!! These kids are going to have a blast!

This past week, we brought Dean along with us, and he joined in the sword warm with the children. But alas, he got a battle wound! One of the kids hit him in the nose and it started bleeding! It was a lot of fun, and he recovered well with honor.




Before that, at CC Cheonan, Daniel came in the back where we teach the kids after service, and brought some joy to us all. He found a magical chair hat that changes emotions. (watch the video to see what i mean).



So, everything is a lot of fun here, but a lot of work too. Please be praying for the church here, and everyone that is in the ministry God is doing here. There is lots of laughs, but there can be a lot of tough spiritual things going on at the same time. We appreciate your prayers a TON.

Living for Christ,
-'manda

Blessings come a floodin'

So, as promised, here are some more pictures!




(this is the outside of the apartment building)


God has filled our apartment so much, we almost cannot fit everything in it!




(our FULL cupboards!)




(our clothing rack)




(our sweet livingroom/diningroom!)



He has given us pots and pans,







Cups and plates,



bowles and silverware




serving plates and platers,
and food in our fridge!




(we have apples, they are good)




(yep, those are juice-sicles! i ate some...sosimo took one, i didn't eat two...)

All of this has been given to us either free, or for very good cheap prices. Everything we prayed for, has been given. And things we did not think to ask for, has been provided as well. Who ever said that money was an obstacle for God?

This is a great testimony of how rich God is, He owns everything. Praise Him, He is so big.




-'manda

The new place

So this week we got the new apartment!!

God has blessed us so much with the things needed to fill the inside, and even extra as bonus blessings.

These are the moving in pictures:

And here are the afters (continuing to expand too!):

(the bedroom)

(the office/other bedroom)

(the living room)

I will get better pictures (we have actually moved in a few more things so it looks nicer!).

praise the Lord, He provides all things we need when we need them.

-'manda

Subway, english lessons, chubbing out...

On tuesday, me, Daniel, Sosimo, and Dean all hit the Subway to go teach a bunch of crazy kids english. These kids are so crazy, but awesome. They speak english better than me! We played a game with them, called "Pepsi Cola Delicious" or something along those lines, which was really just fun to hear them say the english "Pepsi Cola Dah-ri-sash! Dah-ri-sash is numbah one!" (there are more words, but it was to hard to understand ahaha).

It is crazy to see how much they love learning english, and how fast they pick it up! Mike's daughter, Jeena, speaks both Korean and English. Her mom, Hye-young(i spelled it wrong..), says that at first she understood more english, but not she translates things so fast in her head. Amazing, God has made our minds so intriquet (i spelled that wrong too).

I've only been here a week, but God has already done so much. He has shown me so much of His grace in a deeper way to me, like what i was reminded of tonight when Sosimo taught from Genesis chapter 12. Abram disobeyed God many times, he messed up many more times too, even after obeying God. But God looked at him, and only wanted to bless him. God see's us with such great love, and we so often think He looks at our failures so much more. God see's His Son's love and blood all over us. He only see's the good He can do and wants to do in us and through us.

Our God is so, so good, and so, so big.

Please, be encouraged by this fact. Don't give up when you mess up. Learn from it, and go on.

And don't worry mom, i am well fed out here ^_^

(this is an aloe drink, it is SO GOOD. it tastes like my favorite Japanese grape jello drink!)

Christ's love,

-'manda

Satisfy Concert

This is a little late, but time has not allowed me to post sooner.

Two days ago, we did a worship concert at Danguk University. Earlier, Daniel and Sosimo put up fliers around the school, and we passed out a few tracks before we started. It was such a blessing, people came!

Daniel jammed out with some worship songs, before sharing his testimony of God's grace in his life. It was good to hear yet another life that God has changed. Hearing a Christian's testimony gives so much hope, it strengthens me when i hear it because i remember how great my God is to save us.

thanks for sharing Daniel.

(the guys preparing before the concert)

I was blessed by it, and i got to help lead in worship with back up singing, and playing the Box for them. After Daniel's testimony, Sosimo got up and shared from the Word. There was a group of guys from the school, that stayed and listened to the whole teaching. it was really cool.

Later that day, we had an english class at one of the english schools nearby the church in Daejeon, and then we headed off to an amazing dinner with some of the students. But afterwards, we hit the BATTING CAGES!!!!! (DUN DUN DUUUUNNN)

So what you do, is you exchange your paper money for change, and you go into the area with the batting cages in it, and you stay behind the net so you dont get hit in the head!

Then, when it's your turn, you go in through the net, put your money in the machine, grab some batting gloves, a bat, and step up to the plate!!

Dude, these things come fast. But it is so so much fun!

(here's Dean up to bat! yay go mister deeaaannn)

This thing is addicting! i tried two times, and i got better as i did it more.

Then, the boys took me home on the bus (i think that was my first time on the bus since being here this time). We were a little worried to find the stop in the dark, but we found it the first try! Praise the Lord for memory!!

(this is the bus.)

Psalm 16:2

-'manda

Korea

Hey everyone, i made it to Korea!!! yay!!

So me and Dean headed out on Wednesday morning (along with Megan, who went to mainland Japan) and safely made it to Daejeon with no complications at all. praise the Lord!

We will both be staying until the end of August, before heading back to Okinawa for another semester. I will be graduating!

Everything is wonderful here so far, and i think it's only going to get better. Right now, i am staying with a family that is amazing and graciously letting me live with them. Gloria is my new Korean "ohmah" (mother) and takes wonderful care of me. I had the most amazing breakfast this morning!

Her son David (they have all been given american names by friends or teachers) is realy funny, his english is very good. We played "Badmitten" with ping pong paddles last night before bed. His mom told me "we train, everynight".

The first day here, we had prayer in the morning, and then headed to Mike's (pastor) house for some delicious lunch that his wife cooked! it was soo good. I don't even know what it was, but there was dumplings!! there was a soup we had, it was so, so good.

My new Korean family i am staying with, unvited everyone over for dinner after an evening Bible study we had. They threw together an amazing meal in under an hour!





For desert, we had fruit, a TON of fruit. it was so so good. Fruit is a lot cheaper here than it is in Okinawa.

(one of the girls cut the apples into bunnies!)

Afterwards, we played some games before everyone headed home for the night. We played "Baskin Robbins 31!", they love that game here! The punishment was "Indian Bump!", which was mercifuly given out several times.




My stay so far has been amazing, and i know it's only going to get better. I will post with more photos, because we have done a lot of things in the past few days.

Tomorrow is Sunday, we go to 3 different churches to help out! Busy all day long, but with many blessings.

Thank you for your prayers, and for reading along on my blog (it's nice to share God's work with someone).

-'manda