I have had many people ask where am I going to be, what will I be doing in Korea, how did this come about? So I am going to take some time to relay the story and hopefully answer all of the questions I have received in this post.
I have been having some problems with my boss since January. It is a long story so I will not bore you. It all boils down to me being placed on a written warning for complaints against my teaching. These complaints are untrue but there is nothing that can be done about it.
In January I decided to stay and try to work through the differences. I continued to do my job to the best of my ability and received nothing but great reviews from my students and my boss. However, in July my boss decided to extend my written warning for 3 more months. The reasons for the extension were not valid so I informed her I would begin looking for a new job.
I have been thinking about going to Korea for 3 years now. When I first moved here I had a roommate who had just returned from teaching at this exact place. I began looking for jobs in the city but I was unsure what I really wanted to do now. I had dinner with Erica, my friend who had gone to Korea, and I asked her about her experience. At this point I began to pray.
I contacted the University and everything progressed from there. I will probably be leaving on October 27th and be in Korea for 1 year. I will be teaching conversational English at many age levels. I will have an elementary school class, high school, and a college class. I believe I will be doing some other things as well.
This is not a mission's trip but I will have an opportunity to minister to fellow Christians that I meet in Korea. I know that there will be opportunities for Bible studies as well with my students. I am unsure of the doors the Lord will open while I am there but I am looking forward to see what he is going to do.
I will be teaching at Chonbuk National University in Jeonju, Jeonbuk South Korea. I will be about 4 hours South of Seoul, Korea. Here is the website to the university if you would like to check it out: http://cbnu.edu/
I received my passport in the mail yesterday. It only took three weeks from the time I submitted the paperwork. This is an amazing turn around time because it is suppose to take 4 weeks at the least amount of time.
I also have more good news about my plane tickets. I spoke with the Embassy today and I do not need to purchase round trip tickets in order to get my visa. This is because I will be there a year and I am unable to purchase tickets that far in advance. I was online yesterday and found tickets from San Francisco to Seoul from $481. It will cost me $130 to fly from here to San Francisco. By buying the tickets separately I save about $300. The Lord is working all things together for the good.
I am very excited to see how He continues to work all of the details for my trip out. I also want everyone to know that I will really miss my sister here in Minneapolis. I got an email because I didn't mention her in my last post!! It wasn't an oversight it was a given that it is going to be extremely hard to leave her just when we have become close friends. I love you Lydia and I will miss you tons! Thank you for your continued prayers.