Yes, I Am A Foreigner
Yes, I am a Foreigner (for HGU student paper)
If I passed you on the street in my hometown, Millersburg, OH, you would not stop or stare or even think twice about my existence in that place in time. That town, however, is my territory; my family has lived there for ages. When I first told my parents that I wanted to spend a semester abroad in South Korea, my mother was so shocked she asked me to repeat myself three times. My family could not understand why I would want to leave my comfortable American life; I had an education to finish and I did not even speak Korean. So why did I come?
I spent my first year of undergraduate studies at a public university that left me feeling empty and vulnerable. I wanted so badly to hear God again that I prayed for months and, by his grace, I found myself at LeTourneau University, a small Christian college nestled deep in the East Texas pines. My greatest memory of that first semester at LeTourneau is not related to my studies; my roommate, a Handong Global exchange student, changed my faith and opened my mind to the world by being herself. Through my roommates stories, food, and passion for life, I learned a lot about Korea. I remember asking God what the purpose of this new knowledge was and not receiving an answer. I did, however, promise my roommate I would visit her in her country one day and secretly wished it would be very soon.
One year later, after more prayer and signing several official documents, I held a plane ticket to Seoul with my name on it. Since arriving in Seoul, Korea, there have been moments of doubt and frustration, but they are lost in the joy of discovering Korea and all that God has done in his people at Handong University. The moral of this story is that God knows what we need, so listen to his call, even if it means leaving behind everything you have ever known. Someone somewhere is watching and your obedience just might change their life.
If I passed you on the street in my hometown, Millersburg, OH, you would not stop or stare or even think twice about my existence in that place in time. That town, however, is my territory; my family has lived there for ages. When I first told my parents that I wanted to spend a semester abroad in South Korea, my mother was so shocked she asked me to repeat myself three times. My family could not understand why I would want to leave my comfortable American life; I had an education to finish and I did not even speak Korean. So why did I come?
I spent my first year of undergraduate studies at a public university that left me feeling empty and vulnerable. I wanted so badly to hear God again that I prayed for months and, by his grace, I found myself at LeTourneau University, a small Christian college nestled deep in the East Texas pines. My greatest memory of that first semester at LeTourneau is not related to my studies; my roommate, a Handong Global exchange student, changed my faith and opened my mind to the world by being herself. Through my roommates stories, food, and passion for life, I learned a lot about Korea. I remember asking God what the purpose of this new knowledge was and not receiving an answer. I did, however, promise my roommate I would visit her in her country one day and secretly wished it would be very soon.
One year later, after more prayer and signing several official documents, I held a plane ticket to Seoul with my name on it. Since arriving in Seoul, Korea, there have been moments of doubt and frustration, but they are lost in the joy of discovering Korea and all that God has done in his people at Handong University. The moral of this story is that God knows what we need, so listen to his call, even if it means leaving behind everything you have ever known. Someone somewhere is watching and your obedience just might change their life.
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