School Field Trip

A lot happened this week!

Where to start?? I guess I'll just start out by saying that this week at GIS International School we went on a three day two night kickoff excursion. I think it was a really smart of my employer to plan this bonding/team building time before the school year got underway. I'll tell you what happened in order from the least important to the most important. First, the trip entailed paintball, ATV riding, and whitewater rafting. I could talk at length for each of those events but for sake of time I will just say it was a good time. I will say that the whitewater rafting was absolutely gorgeous, high stone bluffs on either side of the river with hanging vines and water trickling down the sides. Basically it would be like if pocahauntus and lord of the rings had a baby....it would look like this! Very nice views: aparently kings from the old dynasties used to visit there often.

Anyways, we stayed in American style housing, except for the minute fact that there were no beds and we had to sleep on a hard wood floor. So obviously that was great fun. Between the snoring of an undisclosed person and the hard wood floors I didn't get much sleep.

We played BASKETBALL!!! So there was this ghetto outdoor basketball court, you know the kind where the court is made of dirt and there are random natural obstacles. Unfortunately, breaking a sweat and the concept of basketball was the closest thing I could get to the real thing. I wouldn't describe my students as the most athletic peas in the pod. Anyways, I pretty much enjoyed dominating them.

We stayed in Northeastern South Korea, about 10 minutes from the DMZ. It was really cool to see patrols throughout the weekend. There was constant shell blasts and machine gun fire which was kind of ominous though it was obviously just for practice not the real thing. The last day we actually visited the DMZ. Our bus driver had to navigate through about 3 checkpoint stations with armed guards holding machine guns...that was pretty cool. We finally got to the wall and descended on foot down through one of two North Korean infiltration tunnels built in the 1970's. Apparently the one we trekked was discovered in 1975. Basically the north tunnelled underneath the DMZ in an attempt to invade. It's now heavily guarded and patrolled by the south. So the really cool thing is the tunnel took me under the DMZ and within 500 meters of the nothern entrance. I will say that this tunnel was not dug with North Americans in mind. I had walk the whole mile or so pretty much hunched over to avoid the ceiling.

And finally, the best part of this entire trip was the food. And when I say food I don't mean actual physical food, although it was delicious and in abundance. I feel like I had a huge breakthrough spiritually this weekend. I have always followed John Piper and Chuck Swindoll. I love what they have to say and I really enjoy their preaching. So one thing that has really helped me is listening to their free podcasts through itunes. Before I left for the field trip I downloaded about 8 new sermons and I listened to every one! It was weird, but I just couldn't get enough and I can only describe it as that I was just hungry for the word of God and couldn't get enough. Which is always a good thing, of course, because sometimes one does not always feel so inclined to get in the word, am I right??? So that is a huge praise. And I'm thinking I will need Jesus in abundance as I'm planning this school year and all its' unforseen obstacles. Anyways, listen to John Piper and Chuck Swindoll! "Do it NOWWWW!!!" (in reference to arnold shwarzenegger in predator)