Christmas Blessing @ Soya Island, Incheon.
I feel Christmas when I hear familiar Christmas carols on the street and see gigantic and extravagant Christmas trees in middle of the road. My Christmas was, always, with my dear family. I go to worship in the morning with attires with color red. And have good and warm family dinner. I thought that was how I should spend for Christmas. But, this time, I spent Christmas in Soya Island with nineteen Hub friends who decided to go to Soya Island.
When we arrived, we straightly went to the town center-- so-called 마을회관 in order to prepare for what we prepared for elders. It was happy to meet elders whom I saw last summer. They were all the same. We ate lunch together, we did small biblical drama (Birth of Jesus story), we danced and we sang together. I do not expect that we delivered the core meaning of Christmas. But I was happy to see people enjoying the small Christmas celebration and feeling gratified with what we prepared. 
Another thing we prepared was for children. We practiced a short but entertaining skit based on recently famous gag corner: 두근두근.
I gave them the idea and they made it so good!
They are great actors God prepared. :) Hope children enjoyed it. (I could not watch it because I was washing dishes.:P)
Aside from the skit, we prepared art class! Before coming to Soya Island, on a brown paper, we made a christmas tree with our hands painted in green painting, stamped and amassed one another. Children were to write letters to Jesus. And, some of teachers wrote it too :) I think this idea is cute. :)
Also, Hm, how shall I explain this? we bought some kits for making candles. It's like clays. I was a bit anxious if children would feel bored doing this. But this time, they were very amenable while instruction was given. :) Happy to see they were all concentrated on making these.
They were all engrossed with making their own candles. It was an amazing time to see their creativity and cooperation with teachers.
Children and we played several games too; One card, and Hali-Gali.
In fact, I really love this picture.
I drew this when coming to this place; Children and teachers playing games together :)
Look at them, they look intimate and fun :)
We also gave them Christmas gifts: a warm blanket with a ring candy.
Two nights and three days are short yet long days. Compared to other Christmas blessings, works are tougher and we all need to stay for one extra day.
Aside from the Christmas feast preparation, special choir presentation and Christmas recreation, guys need to do lumb works a lot. Lumbs soaked with rain and snow are very heavy. so it is very exhausting.
To make matters worse, we heard the news that weather would be bad that ships would not embark on 26th. BAD. VERY BAD.
We prayed desperately for the weather from the moment we decided to come to Soya Island and until before we leave the island.
Thank God, we were able to get on the ship at noon, even earlier than we expected. (we boarded earlier because the news warned that the weather would get worse in the afternoon.)
On 25th night, we wrote spiritual diary. We wrote a letter to God, and from the perspective of God, we wrote to ourselves. We shared our letters and unveiled our 'manito.' My manito is, in effect, in the picture on the right. She is the one wearing black shirt, with red candy ring!
I could not understand why God had put me in the leadership. I was afraid of leading nineteen unfamilir and new people. I even am fearful of becoming a leader among people I know. I circumvent such opportunities as much as possible because I do not want to be responsible for something big and I do not want to be judged.
But on friday 20th, four days before leaving to Soya Island, I laid everything on God's feet. I showed him how I am insecure. I was not ready to become their leader because I, for myself, was unclear about my sprituality. I was still struggling from the relationship with God. Feeling of loss, feeling of emptiness and feeling of insecurity all accumulated in me. I grabbed everything to solve them all on my own. But I could not resist myself to collapse in front of God. I cried so hard because I knew I could not solve them on my own. Instead of praying for what I wanted for this blessing, I did prayer of confession. I laid everyting down on Him.
Then I realized I was recovering. I saw nineteen mates who were on different lanes but aiming for the same ultimate goal of life: living the life of God's love.
Do I know of God's love? I don't know. I am still figuring out because God has shown me tons and tons of different types of love. And yet, he still has more to show. So I say, I don't know yet.
But, one thing for sure, after this blessing, I am so grateful that I have gained nineteen trustworthy mates in Hub. I consider them as my Christmas gift. I am like, "God, you are really trying hard to fill up the empty part in me. :)"
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