36%

WOW!

So as of today, we’ve reached 36% of our goal… this is INCREDIBLE. It’s a truly amazing thing to realize how many people love us and sincerely support us. This is us:

We’re really happy. Extremely blessed. And Excited.

We’re also still in love. Marriage rocks.

Anyway, we want to specifically thank:

Mr. and Mrs. Parker

Katie

Mr. and Mrs. Kang

Mr. and Mrs. Kim

Great Grandma Lavely

Grandma and Grandpa Lavely

Robin and Eric

Uncle Clyde and Aunt Marlyn

Stephen and Kim

YoungHoon and HyunReong

Andrew and LeAllison

MyeongHee and GeunHyeok

Uncle Bill and Aunt Henri

Melissa and Nathan

Faith Baptist Church of Missoula, MT

Also, we know that so many of you haven’t been able to support us financially but that you have been lifting us up in prayer. That is SO important to us. Maybe more important. There’s absolutely no point in us going if we are outside of God’s will. No amount of money can cover the amount of prayer we need.

^{James 5:16} Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Our prayer for all of you and for ourselves is that we will pursue righteousness (and as Jesus was the only righteous human, He is our example), that there may be great power in our prayers.

As a special request, please pray for Jordan & Marty. Their new baby, Morgan, is in the hospital and she’s likely to be there for a while. They’ve been married a little over a year and parents for less than a week.

One Month From Today

We're headed here!

 

 And then here!

 That's ridiculously exciting... even though we may not see the actual images depicted (just came from a Google search).

Answers to Questions

Thanks for coming to my blog. More than likely you came here because you know that we’re going to India and the logical question is WHY?

Well, I’d like to place the initial blame on Jeff Moody. Now, it’s not totally his fault. But he, and his lovely wife, Mandy, were super important people in the structure of Gateway Baptist Church. I say “were” because they just moved away. But that is an important aspect of the story. Jeff was in charge of the India Child Sponsorship program. He wasn’t necessarily running the whole thing, there’s a dedicated team of Gateway members who have all played a part. But Jeff was the point person and his impending move was going to leave a giant hole in this fledgling program.

When I saw this need and realized no one was really jumping up to take over, I began to feel burdened. Not in a guilty way. But in a way that I felt it was a REALLY good, important, doable program and it was sad that it wasn’t just exploding with success. I didn’t know too much about India (still don’t) or the program, but I knew that I was able and I wanted to give my time to something. I didn’t really have any fantastic ideas for how to get the proverbial ball rolling, but I knew that the ball should be rolling and maybe God would show me how to do it.

So, I joined the team and now Shin and I are going to India. Our church  views taking the trip there as part of a long-term investment in the Indian leadership and in our abilities to serve them. Our group will not just be observing and brain-storming (although that is part of it), but we will be following-up with several different organizations we work with. Gateway Baptist Church has been working with New Life Center (the orphanage) as well as other schools, church-plants, and a pastoral training network for many years. Shin is particularly interested in one of the schools our church supports- he met the leader of the school and wants to learn more about it on a really practical level. Our group will also be helping to lead a conference for church leaders and exploring some property up in the mountains for a future building site.

So, the entirety of the trip is about much more than the orphanage. The orphanage is just the part I am focused on since I am now co-leading the ICS (India Child Sponsorship) program. There is one other woman, Karen, who is co-leading the program, she is planning to take the trip and she has an amazing heart for the ministry. She and I both believe it is important for us to have a first-hand experience so that we can better understand how to best lead the ICS program. ICS is just getting started and we want to meet with the director of New Life Center so we can get a grasp of the complexity of the situation. As Karen and I try to recruit sponsors, we think it's important that we know what we're talking about and that we have a connection to the Center. We realize it's not impossible to lead the program if we don't go, but we believe we will be more effective and have a deeper understanding if we do go.

In light of the fact that the orphanage is about to lose some funding, it sounds incredibly selfish for Shin & I (and the others we’re traveling with) to be asking for $4,400. That money would support 110 children for 1 month! But in light of the bigger picture, ICS needs over 200 people to establish long-term commitments. The end goal is to grow the program to cover even more children in Dehradun and Northern India. So $4,400 is a lot of money for Shin and I to go. But our prayer is that it will enable us and inspire us to be able to come back and get many families to invest in the future of these children.

BTW- we’ve reached 17% of our goal! Woo Hoo! Thank you to everyone who has supported us already!

Not Related to India...

So, Shin and I went to Conway this past weekend. We drove 7.5 hours Friday afternoon/evening and then 7.5 hours Sunday afternoon/evening. Somewhere on the way I saw a billboard for Alabama Lifespan Respite Resource Network. I don't really remember what it said, but it caught my attention enough for me to try to google it today. I'm glad to know we have these types of resources in Alabama. This morning I read this article about a Louisiana man who cared for his disabled son and ultimately murdered him, I was horrified. I think SO MANY people are living really hard lives. They need help and they need someone to listen to them and someone to care.

*Just as a note- I don't know anything about Alabama Respite Care other than what their website tells me. I was just amazed that we have this kind of resource and I think it's good- I don't know any specifics of the organization.

Do all states have this type of network? I'm sure some states do it much better.

Life Updates

We’re going to INDIA!

Shin and I are embarking on a grand adventure to India with a group from Gateway Baptist Church. The trip is from Sept 22^nd- Oct 1^st and our specific interest is related to the work I’ve been doing with India Child Sponsorship, a program of Community Development Initiatives. It's a ministry organized for people in America to sponsor Hindu orphans in Dehradun, India.

Our church has been working with this ministry for the last 7 years and we work directly with the staff of New Life Center. Unfortunately, unless sponsors step up by September 20^th, they will lose funding that will cut 120 children from the program. Our church is taking a small group to assess the situation and find out how our money can best be used to aid the children that get to stay. For Shin and I to go, it's going to cost us $2,200 each.

I am trying to pick up some extra part time work cleaning, organizing, yard-working, errand-running (pray for people to take an interest in hiring me!)  and I may be taking a semester off from graduate school. However we also fully believe that missions is not just about us experiencing God, it’s not just about the people we will meet and share God’s love with, it’s about all of us – including you – worshipping God!  We believe that, “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t.”¹

We hope you will pray for us as we prepare to leave (for passports, Green card, and visas to process quickly), and we hope that you will let others know about what we are doing. If you are interested in prayerfully and/or financially supporting us, you can contact us by email at: Alycia.Jeong@gmail.com OR shin.d.jeong@gmail.com or use our PayPal donation button at the top right of the page.

As we prepare for our trip, I’m planning to post more on Dehradun, New Life Center, Child Sponsorship, Fundraising, and how we’re trying to figure out trusting in God on this seemingly financially ridiculous path He’s called us to. We hope you’ll follow along as we learn more about India and what God is doing there.

As an aside:

For anyone who read this post and thought the poky-grassy plants were weeds… you were wrong!  Check this beautiful flower out! Now I really wish I knew what it was because it successfully grew! All I did was water it, and one day it developed a tiny bud. Then the bud grew. And it took about two weeks. Then I thought it was never going to open and it was just going to die (the plant turned yellow-ish and was leaning over). So I repotted it Wednesday night into a larger container… and Thursday there was a BEAUTIFUL white blossom.

 It has yellow pollinator guys and they’re dusty and lovely (I’m sure anyone who knows anything about biology remembers what those are called but I don’t. Grease 2 only taught me “stamen” and “pistil” and I have no clue which is which). It also has purple veins on the outside that are perfectly impressive. (Can you tell I’m in love with this blossom?)

Our Master Bathroom

Our Bathroom

So, we spent a ridiculous amount of time working on our bathroom. I think we started in April… and finished July 4^th!!! That’s three months on one regular bathroom. We had to strip the horrible wallpaper. That’s what took so long. The first layer came off WONDERFULLY. It just “shhhhhhhhrp” came right off with one pull. From the top all the way down to the bottom. “Shhhhhhhhhhhhrp” “shhhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrp” “shhhhrrrrpppp.” But it was that second layer that killed us. We rolled remover liquid on those walls. We scraped them. We sponged them. We picked at them. We grunted. We quit. My lovely husband finally picked a scraper up again and got the job almost finished for me. But it took forever. Then I patched scrapes and chunks that were taken out of the wall by the crappy scraper and the weak dry wall. Several parts of the dry wall just really crumbled when we went to remove that second layer. So the spackel began. And then the priming. And then the edging with the primer. And we had to pick out the color. First sample was too bland and brown-ish, second sample too bright and just screamed “I’M YELLOW!”, combination of them was good but not enough paint and still a little yellow. So I went to SW and they matched the color on some high quality paint and made it a little lighter. Our bathroom is now the perfect shade of yellow after only one layer of paint. I love it. I want to paint everything yellow now… but never remove wallpaper ever again.

Before:

 After:

Anyone know a good, cheap home remedy for getting rid of rust stains? 

The Cost of Higher Education

School

It’s difficult to explain my feelings about school. But lately I’ve had a lot of homework and assignments and it’s been taking up significantly more time than just the four hours sitting in class. So I will attempt to explain my brain about school (I’m sitting in class, so it’s kind of fitting).

-I like school. I like learning. I like understanding how systems work. I like that I’m capable in Excel when one year ago I had never used a spreadsheet. Ever.

-I’m unmotivated to do homework. I don’t want to write a paper or do research. I just want to magically know it and get a degree.

-My class is boring. My teacher is super nice and he loves public administration. But he’s really not a good lecturer. He doesn’t ask a lot of engaging questions and doesn’t allow for discussion.

-I really want my masters. I want to have a Masters of Public Administration with a focus on Nonprofit Management. I want to be super qualified to do something. Something with nonprofits.

-I want to be an educated, ready person. I can tell that I am more able to edit and critique than my coworkers and it’s because of my schooling (note: not smarter than them, just better at catching mistakes).

-I like being around smart people. It’s good to surround myself with people who want to keep learning about the world and understand it better.

-I really don’t have a specific goal upon obtaining the masters. I just know I will have a degree and I can do more stuff with it (I would be lying if I said I didn’t care about the money, but it’s not all about the money- I’m going into nonprofit so my goals aren’t really to be a trillionaire). This lack of a clear vision leaves me feeling like I’m not in a hurry.

-I like all of my extracurriculars. I work 40 hours a week. I go to church on Sundays and Wednesday nights. I have Korean lessons on Monday nights. I have Life Group on Friday nights. I want to be even more involved in my church. I don’t WANT to be cramming my degree in right now.

-It IS cheaper to do it faster. But even if I took 9 hours per semester instead of 3 hours, it would only be $1,000 cheaper. (If I took 6 hours/semester it would save $800). I know I shouldn’t say “only” when we’re talking about $1,000 but in comparison to the cost of my entire education, it’s the cost of one class. And if I took more classes I would be more tired or I would have to get rid of doing something else I like to do. At some point I might make that decision and want to do that- but right now, I’m just fine with being in school for three more years. Even though I don’t LURVE it right now.

-I think a lot of this back and forth between my feelings about school comes from pride. I want people to think I’m smart. I want them to believe I’m capable. But I also like the feeling when I’m presented with a challenge to create/write something and I know I can do it and do it well because of my continuing education. I like knowing that I am capable and I can serve others well. It’s not JUST about me but it is also about my ability to do a job well to create a change I believe in. I want to help people in this world and to do that I have to have a full understanding of systemic problems instead of just offering a band-aid to cover a gash.

- I have decided to take two classes in the fall. We'll see how this goes...

AND I'm sure this budget final on Tuesday is going to spank me. I just hope I don't cry too hard when it's all over.