Hello!

Well this is my first post from Seoul! As most of you know, I'm here teaching English to refugees for 6 months, and more importantly, making relationships and sharing about Jesus. I've been here the past 2 summers and have fallen in love with the students I work with and have a heart to see them turn to the Lord.

I've officially completed my first week here. It has been quite a whirlwind. I had a day and a half to get settled in and adjusted to the time difference before I was thrown into a two week camp. We just wrapped up the first week yesterday and will start the second part Monday morning. Thankfully another team from the States is taking care of everything in the camp so I don't actually have any particular responsibilities so I can spend time with the students, catching up with the ones I've known from the past couple of summers, getting to know the new ones, and ministering in whatever way I can.

Something I learned in detail the last two summers is that one of the most important things I can do while I'm here is pray. I know that a lot of people view prayer as kind of a back burner thing to do when you've done other things first, I know I have before, but God has shown me just how vital and necessary prayer is. I've been reminded of that once again with these students. Sometimes the language barrier is too great to have a real conversation, but prayer covers all that. I have learned that a huge part of why I am here is to fight for the students in the spiritual realm of prayer. Most off these students have been through nearly unspeakable things in their lives, things you and I could not even imagine facing, and are so burdened with those things. Most have spent the majority of their lives never knowing the existence of God, much less a saving relationship with him. Because of these things, I feel like they need advocates to fight for them against the darkness that keeps them from Jesus. I feel like God has given me the task of being one of those advocates. This is not to say that I wont also be telling them about Jesus as much as I can. I am a big believer in not only praying and letting my life be an example that God can use, but also speaking the truth of the Gospel to people. I feel like the Bible explicity tells all Christians it is not good enough to just act like a good Christian. You have to speak up as well.

On another note, I want to share a few prayer requests. First, there is a young woman named Sunny here that was one of my roommates my first summer. She shared with me and a group of people about some really intense family issues she's been having. To make a long story short, she is in SK by herself and tried to have her brother from the North brought to safety in the South with her. He got caught along the way by policemen and she found out that he was killed. Now her parents, still in the North, blame her for his death. As you can imagine this has taken a horrible toll on her and has driven her to some destructive decisions. When she told us this, it was the first time she had ever shared this. Please pray for her and for healing. She is a Christian, but has had a hard time connecting with God because of these awful things and has fallen away from him.

Please pray for all the students as they go through another week of camp that God will reveal himself to them all, especially the ones that dont know him yet. Pray that those students will come to know him as their savior this week.

Please pray for me as I minister to the students. I have to admit, I was really thrown for a loop when I heard Sunny's story. I have heard a lot of stories from the students that were really hard to deal with, but I don't think I was quite prepared to start hearing them this early on. Also pray that I can do what I need to do to effectively minister to these students.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers, love and support. I couldn't do this without you all.

Also, I know some of you have asked for my address. I do have one, but I don't want to post it online for security reasons. If you'd like it, I can email it to you or you can get it from my parents. My email address is herringlj@gmail.com

Again, thanks for everything!

Lyndsey