last day in kyrgyzstan

hello all!

i just came back from my mini vacation. we went to san kol and issy kol (i'm horrible with spelling btw). san kol is a lake way up in the mountains and issy kol is a huge lake that most people go to for vacation (it's their equivalent to a beach). we took two students with us who could speak kyrgyz as well as the son of one of the long-termers here, so he could hang out with us.

san kol was amazing. it was so peaceful and relaxing. there was almost nothing there lol but a beautiful lake, mountains, yurts (little hut houses that kyrgyz people used to live in), horses, sheep, and cows. i think i was able to get a lot of reflection time there because there was nothing to do except sit and think and just be in God's creation.

issy kol was different because it was more touristy but it was still fun nonetheless! i met a girl gildis who heard me speaking english when i was wading in the water and so we talked a little bit. she was so pretty! but yeah that was more fun than reflective.

ok anyway that was a great way to relax but today is my last day in kyrgyzstan, and i am so sad. i really don't want to leave because my time here has been so great. i was just discussing with the girls of my team how much i'm going to miss it here because it feels like we've been able to make friendships with a lot of people. surprisingly these relationships are with the children of long-termers, long-termers, or other Christians here. many of us feel as if we weren't able to really reach out to the non-believers, but i think that i've been feeling a lot of peace about the work we've done because we've been able to help and support those who are here long-term so that they may be able to continue in the relationships with the non-believers and support them...long term! i feel like i've been so blessed with these relationships that i have formed with m-workers or mk's or Christians especially since i've felt such a connection to them after such a short amount of time. bahhh i'm getting sad :[

but yeah so i'm really sad and i dont want to leave and i'm half looking forward to coming home and half dreading it because i know that right when i come home, i wont have much time (especially since i'll be getting my wisdom teeth taken out...sad) before i have to go back to cornell and i know i need to do a lot of stuff

OH YEAH
and one of the students we took on the trip was the only non-Christian on the trip, and on the marshuka ride back, she said that she wanted to accept Christ because one of my teammates spent a lot of time with her sharing about the Word, so pleaseplease pray for her and that she understood the fullness of what she said! but remember also that it's God's will if she is to be His child or not. ok that was kind of a reminder for us than for you but yeah

OK

i will see you guys in less than a week!

probably no more updates after this one because i wont have internet until i come home...don't miss them too much!

van-kim

short update

there are so many things i want to tell you guys, but i don't have time right now! btw if you have been emailing me and haven't gotten a response, i'm so sorry! i've been able to quickly read emails and send supersuper short emails, but i haven't had time to respond in depth with anyone so bear with me!

in short here are some highlights:
-one of my students invited me over to her house and i was able to talk to her about God and shared my testimony. it was so surprising because she asked me about it, and i was so off guard. it was very slow because everything had to be translated (she invited the translator over as well so we could understand each other) and i didn't get to say a lot of the things that i wanted to say, but it's okay because i know that God will work in His way.
-today was the last day of classes and we went to Ala Archa, a state park kind of place in the mountains. by far one of the most beautiful areas i've ever been to. i didn't want to leave!!!
-because today was the last day of classes, we had to say bye to all of our students, and that was really sad because my camera ran out of batteries and i wasnt able to take pictures with my students. i also couldn't take pictures yesterday (the last day of classes when we actually taught stuff) because i went home since i wasn't feeling well and so it was disappointing. but yeah i feel like we were so rushed in getting of the bus and getting to the other buses that i didnt get to say a proper goodbye to my students or to the other students that i was able to bond with. hopefully i'll see them on monday because we're having a picnic for any students who want to say a last goodbye to us.
-on that note, we have to wait for monday because our team is going on vacation tomorrow until sunday. we'll be going to the mountains again (a different area from today) and staying in a yurt! it's like a hut almost. and then we'll be going to issykul (again i dont know how to spell it. which is sad since ive say it a lot), which is the lake that everyone vacations.

ok sorry this was a poor update but yeah
lots of things on my mind and not enough time to think about it or process it :[
please pray for my student!! oh yeah she became Muslim because she married a Muslim guy but her sister is Christian and she was kind of orthodox before but not really (as is the story for most russians in kyrgyzstan)

ok i'll try to update when i come back from vacation-ish

miss you all!

van-kim

p.s. the two best students in my class are both Muslims and i think that's God's way of telling me something because they constantly come to us asking questions and therefore we get to spend a lot of time with them so yeah...thankful for that.
p.p.s. the day i was sick, i was actually supposed to go visit one of my students who was hospitalized for kidney issues, but i couldn't go. my other student informed me that he was fine and was very excited to see visitors! i'm sad i missed it. please pray for him. i believe he's Christian, but he got sick the day after he asked my teaching partner if we "had Jesus in our hearts" so i don't know too many other details

i can't sleep

Hmmm so updates since the last time I wrote!

Rollerskating on Saturday:
My teaching partner and I wanted to do something fun with our students during the weekend, so we voted in class, and guess what they chose?? Rollerskating! (Yes I know the title of this section gives it away) Anyway, we decided to invite the elementary class because many of the students in our class and their class hang out, so it just made sense. Plus, we knew that we would have a low percentage of turn out, so we wanted to increase our numbers hehe. Three students from each class showed up, and that happened to be a good number because the rink was pretty small. They played a bunch of American music, which made me feel like I had a little piece of home with me in Kyrgyzstan :]

Afterwards we went to get ice cream and then walked to the park. My teammate and I invited two girls to come over, and we got Begemot! For those of you who don’t know, Begemot is a gamburger place. Yes a GAMBURGER with a G. It’s pretty much the same as a hamburger but everything slightly different. We pass Begemot every morning when we walk to the boys’ place and every afternoon when we come home from school, and our students tell us that it’s the best gamburger place. And sure enough, it was pretty good! But I would still choose a burger at home over a gamburger anytime.

Church on Sunday:
Warning: This entry might make some CBS-ers a little jealous.

Tim, another teammate, and I went to the church in the morning, and guess who happened to be there?? ALEXANDER SPOCK LEE. Ok that sounds like we just coincidentally bumped into him, but I actually called him the day before and decided to meet him there since I had to give him something from Richard Yan, and Tim had to pass on something from Dave Smith. We also got to meet the VSET team which was encouraging! I met two of Faith’s disciplees and Caleb’s student from two years ago, so it felt like a super small world, but a wonderfully small world! Tim and I instantly warmed up to Spock, and I showed him a picture of the most recent camping trip that Janice had given me for my birthday. He was so excited to see how everyone changed, and I could see in his eyes how much it meant for him to see everyone grown up or different. Right then, God convicted me that he probably needed the picture more than I did, so I found myself offering him the picture. He seemed pretty excited, so I hope he enjoys it as much as I did during the first part of my trip! Yeah…that was really an act of God because I don’t think that I would’ve naturally decided to give him one of the pictures that has brought me the most comfort on this trip.

Anyway, even though that may sound super exciting to some people (and it was), the part that stood out the most for me was the trip to church that morning. I was in charge of directing my other teammates to the church since my team leader was in Tokmok with other teammates visiting old students. My senses were pretty heightened as I tried to make sure that I spotted every landmark listed on my yellow post-it note. I knew it would be a long ride, but I started to get nervous halfway through the trip thinking that we had gone the wrong way, and we wouldn’t know how to get back. Eventually we got off at the place that I figured was the right place and tried to look for a yellow building. We walked around and couldn’t find the yellow building, but at least I knew the street name. We eventually found the cross streets, but we still couldn’t find the yellow building! I started to panic a bit and then we just decided to find an internet café and try to call the lady who gave me directions. We were already late for service, and I was scared that we might not get another chance to see Spock and give him the gifts. As we were walking to the area that we thought we saw an internet café, I spotted a young boy from across the street, and I recognized him! He was the son of a missionary who came to talk to us just a few nights before (he drank A LOT of orange juice btw), and being me, I shouted his name across the street without embarrassment. I was just relieved to see a familiar face. Then I spotted his dad and also called out to him unabashedly announcing that we were lost and how thankful I was to see them. They directed us to the church, and I began to feel convicted about how little I trusted God. I didn’t even stop and think to pray and ask God to show us the way. As unfaithful as I was, God was ever faithful and provided us with a means of direction. It was such a small yet significant reminder that God is always watching out for me and providing for me, even when I fail to acknowledge Him. Apparently, I was the only person who felt panicky during this journey since the other two boys just figured that we’d eventually run into foreigners who would show us the way. I later found out they recently repainted the building pink, so there was no yellow building to be found! Sigh.

Later that evening, a few of us were able to go to the evening service. This time, we took a marshuka, and it turned before it got to our stop, so we quickly got out and tried to redirect ourselves. I didn’t panic this time since I knew that God would provide. And He did! Right after we got off, we noticed the daughter of one of the long-termers here, and she guided us to the church, and all was well! :] The sermon was pretty good too because it was given by this precious little old preacher who normally preaches at prisons. He was so honest about how nervous he was to preach to us, and it was refreshing to hear such honesty. We were also able to meet up with the Cha’s and their team. I figured it was the last time I would be able to see them, so I wanted to give them something to thank them for being so welcoming to us. I had these English workbooks and readers that I had originally bought to lesson plan for my class, but I soon realized that my class wouldn’t be able to handle these exercises quite yet. I knew that they could use it so much more than I ever did, so it was a pretty obvious choice for a gift.

Anyway that was a SUPER SUPER SUPER long entry, so maybe I won’t have to write one until I get back! Just kidding…I probably will. But yeah many things happened, so I had to update a lot. The weekdays seem too routine now for me, so I forget to update :[

van-kim

!!!

i just realized that my blog's name was spelled SO INCREDIBLY incorrectly! why didn't anyone inform me of this?? what a huge and significant typo!

Rustam

As we were leaving the school today, I found out that the first of our students was leaving. Rustam was originally in the beginners class, but I soon realized he knew too much English when he started listing out all the vocabulary before I had a chance to write it on the board. I encouraged him to move up to the elementary class, and during break, he switched classes. He even knew more than some of the students who were already placed in elementary. Since then, he has made such an effort to get to know all of the teachers as well as the other students, often acting as a translator. He has many friends, which actually proves to be a frustration for his teachers since he'd rather talk and misbehave than pay attention in class. Nonetheless, he has always had a good attitude towards school. When I realized that today was his last day of class (his family is going to Issykuhl? lake for 10 days), I found myself feeling emotional. I didnt' cry, but I almost wanted to! Our team had just had our mid-trip discussion the night before, and I shared that that day was the first day that I felt like I was going to truly miss our students after we left. I knew that he proably felt emotional as well because our team leader said that he started tearing as he was saying goodbye to him. SIGH it's amazing to see the relationships that can be formed in such a short time.

Anyway, there isn't much time to process a lot of things that are happening everyday. I hope that by the end of the trip, I'll have a lot more to share about what I learned on this trip. It doesn't seem as if I could do that now. There are many things to think through during this trip, and I hope that I can really try to meditate and not dwell and use my mental time wisely.

On another note, we have a lady who cooks for us every night, and her daughter is one of the students. The other night, her daughter made some amazing oatmeal chocochip cookies (which is my favorite btw), and I got the recipe yesterday! So prepare for some awesome cookies when I come home :]

van-kim

Aizada

This past Sunday, my team went to a village about an hour away by marshuka from where we are now. Right when we got there, we visited a clinic/center (the place where three of my team mates taught English last summer). After visiting, one of the directors brought us to a Baptist Kyrgyz church. We had a translator who was an old student of my team leader, but I was sitting behind her, so her whispered voice didn’t project to my side. I took that opportunity to just soak in the whole scene. There were roughly 30 people, all sitting in pews listening to what was going on. They would pray for each other, pray for their neighbors, pray for those who didn’t believe. They sang songs from a little yellow hymnal book, and listened to the pastor preach from the pulpit. I kept wondering about how each one of them came to know Christ. From body language, I could tell that one guy had brought another lady to church, and so maybe it’s by trying to share with our friends. For others, it didn’t make sense because there were old men without wives and old women without husbands. Then there were only a few families and children. There was even a German couple who came 6 months ago, but could almost understand everything that was being preached in the service!

Anyway, those were just details, but this was the best part of the service:

I met the sweetest 11-year old girl named Aizada. She was skinny with a light brown skin tone, freckles, and long light brown hair gathered together in a ponytail topped with a blue headband, not perfectly done but as if she had fixed her hair in the morning then went out to play shortly thereafter. She wore light blue overalls with an orange and white striped shirt underneath. Unknowingly, her shoes matched her whole outfit as they seemed to be made of some denim material accented with orange and white trims. During the service, our team sat in the second pew, and she was in the first. As we introduced ourselves to the congregation, she would look back and forth between us and the translator in an attempt to connect the delayed description with the actual person. She continued to look back at us, and I would smile at her each time. Her smile was so precious because you could tell that she was excitedly fascinated by our presence. When it was time to sing praise, she turned around and shared her hymnal with me, flipped to the correct page, and pointed at the words as we sang them. When it was time to read Scripture, she turned around again and pointed at the verses in her Bible so that I would know what we were reading. Even though we couldn’t speak the same language, she still tried to make sure that I knew what was going on.

After service, I felt so touched by her kindness that I waved her over to give her some toys that I had brought. She chose a ring and a mini watergun. She could probably buy better toys in her bazaar, but I think the fact that we gave her something made her appreciate the little gifts that much more (I think it helped that they were so colorful as well). As I was being ushered outside to catch a cab to go to the next service, she came outside and hovered around me. I asked her in Russian how old she was, and she answered “11” in English! I was so surprised, and she could tell that I was surprised since her smile grew when I reacted. The cab approached, and she opened up the door for me. I proceeded to get in the cab, but I turned around, knowing she was there, and decided to get out and give her a hug. I felt like I was going to miss her so much even though I had only known her for two hours at most! We waved goodbye to each other as the cab drove away, and that was it.

I’m not sure why I felt so connected to her after such a short time. I hope that in her future, she continues to go to church and that God will continue to cultivate her kind heart. At such a young age, she already had a heart to serve, even if it was as small as showing me where the passages were and what song to sing, but I know that if she allows God to use her, He will use her in such amazing ways!

In other news, we went to a Russian home church after this service, and I was proposed to by an Uzbek guy. He has been Christian for nine years, but his Muslim family doesn’t know. Our team prayed for him and his family after service, and I hope you can pray for him too. Oh! And don’t worry. I said no :]

Van-Kim

how will i look back on this?

Last night I was invited to have dinner with a missionary family here in Kyrgyzstan, along with Tim and Eva (a few of my teammates). This family was originally in another country, but was “asked to leave” as the wife so delicately put it. They were amazingly welcoming, and I instantly felt at home, as if they were truly family and not just brothers and sisters in Christ (maybe that’s how it should feel with all believers??). They moved here and opened up an English learning center in one of the villages. I was told that we were coming over so that we could help them come up with a curriculum for their center, but I think that I learned so much more from them than I could ever teach them. Throughout the whole night, I kept finding random, simple connections between this family and my life. I can’t say now if that was God giving me subtle signs or if those things were just coincidence, but I guess you can ask me in a few years and see what I think! We were able to share our testimonies (the story of how Christ became real to us), and they gave us advice or rather things to consider strongly in terms of what to do with our future, which I still need a lot of time to think and pray about. We sang, and we prayed. Then, we went home.

I can’t describe right now how I felt throughout that whole night. I wasn’t even originally supposed to go to this dinner, and then I almost decided not to go shortly before because I was tired and hot, but God knows what He’s doing. He knew that I would be challenged by this evening, so thank God that He knows what He’s doing because I certainly don’t!

Anyway, lots to think about and be thankful for :]

AND WE GOT TO EAT KOREAN FOOD MMM YUMMY!

van-kim

internet works!

i'm waiting to upload pictures and it's taking forever.
i'm really tired, but when i sleep, i know it will surely be sweet.
praise be to God who blesses me with a place to sleep and sustains me until morning!

ok i gave up on uploading pictures! takes too long, and i am pretty sleepy. maybe i'll make all of you wait until i come home...suspense!

i'll update more later when i am more awake (which will probably be super early in the morning when the sun wakes me up to the sight of the beautiful mountains!)

van-kim

first day of class

hello all!

today was the first day of classes, and it was pretty chaotic. i'm teaching the beginners class, which has proven to be pretty difficult. thankfully, masha (one of the directors) acts as a translator for our class since the students know almost nothing. we originally had 3 boys and 9 girls in the class, but the three boys switched to the elementary level. oh! for reference, we have four levels: beginner, elementary, intermediate, and advanced/upper intermediate. so now we have a class of 9 girls. because we have no set curriculum, we end up teaching a lot of stuff on the spot. i feel so bad because i think it's going so slowly, and i'm scared that the kids are bored or are unimpressed by our confusion, but they said what we taught was perfect for them.

after lessons, they have a coffee break with coffee and tea and various pastries to snack on. then we play games! we played an ice breaker so students from different levels can meet each other, the fruit game (too long to explain), and telephone charades. so fun! i got to meet a lot of different people and everyone seemed very enthusiastic. for the other days we'll be breaking up that activity time into active games, discussions, and inactive activities/crafts.

as for non-school related things:

it's pretty hot here and we walk a lot. we take the marshuka (sp?) or bus/van thing and it's always super crowded. since i'm super sensitive to motion sickness, it's not a good combination, but i'm able to pull through. i've experienced a lot of physical weakness because of dehydration and exhaustion, but i think that it's just a sign that even at my physical weakest, when i'm reaching my limits, God still provides strength to pull through and complete the tasks at hand. i've been so extremely thankful for that. i never realized how much i needed God to keep me awake and physically capable to go through the day. i've been trying to really be thankful for the little things that God blesses us with each day. i'm so oblivious to them because i take all the luxuries we have in america for granted. bah! so convicting.

as for food:

i've had a cmak (pronounced like smack) which is an ice cream bar, vanilla dipped in chocolate. ive had lagman (like spaghetti or lo mein), lepioshka (bread) almost every morning with jam and butter, pelmini (little mini fried tortellini), manty (dumplings), shashlyk (kebabs), plov (fried rice), and shoro (a salty, peanut buttery, oatmealy icky drink lol- we had a scavenger hunt and drinking that was one of the tasks ahh!).

anyway i miss everyone dearly and i look at my pictures all the time! but i'm still having a lot of fun experiencing everything here. it's been a true blessing!

hope that will satisfy you until i can write again.

paka!

van-kim

I did it!

I finally made a blog yay! I'm in an internet cafe right now, and we're trying to adjust to the time zone. My keyboard doesn't type that well. Anyway I'm really jet lagged and sleepy, so my thoughts right now are scattered and incoherent, but I wanted to at least start up my blog so that I'll have motivation to keep up with it! We'll be attending an evening service tonight and then passing out from exhaustion. OK update later!

Miss everyone back at home!

Van-Kim