Anti-Adieu

Well guys, as it turns out, it was not God's will for me to be in the JSYO. That's okay though, because I am now going to pursue my dreams in musical theater. (Think Sharpay and Ryan.) But, I figured it'd be a fun extra-curricular activity this fall.

Right now, I'm at Korean camp(Synod '09, Epworth by the Sea) with my dad's Korean youth group. Let me tell you...culture shock. Not only is EVERYONE Korean, but they speak fluent Korean and use their Korean names and do Korean things. It's all Korean.

I'm in a small group with 10 other girls and they're all nice. It's just different because they tell jokes in Korean and then wonder why I'm not laughing. So far (Monday-Tuesday-halfofWednesday), they've assumed that I'm Korean. The secret's out though, at least for one girl who asked me if I spoke Korean and I told her that I don't. I haven't gotten up the nerve to just tell everyone that I'm not Korean...which is kind of a "duh" moment, because, in all actuality, I don't look like any of them. Then again, our leader is half Korean, but she doesn't look it at all, so I guess they assume that I am too. The other thing is, I don't think it really matters that I'm not Korean. Jesus loves everyone regardless of culture. It's just weird because I guess it feels like I've successfully infiltrated a Korean camp. (ie. I feel like I'm pretending to be Korean and everyone believes me, so why rock the boat?)

The other thing that's different about Synod...their worship services literally last for hours (sermon not included). Then they have another 45 minutes of sermon. I don't want to sound like I'm putting everyone down, because that's not what I'm meaning to do at all. But their worship style isn't my worship style. Yesterday, someone was praying behind me in "tongues" (which I don't personally believe is a gift that people have today). And in my small group, our leader prayed that one of our girls would be able to speak/read in tongues. It was just kind of awkward.

The preacher is a woman, which I thought was kind of sketch in the beginning, but before the first sermon started, I was praying and God just told me "Think about Deborah. Maybe she needed to stand up because there weren't any men standing up for Me." So I really listened to her first sermon, and she was GOOD. I mean, really. The theme is "Face the Book" - reading the Bible and recognizing it for what it is. I've learned so much about the Bible from such a different perspective than I'm used to. Remind me to blog about the incubator later. It was a really awesome illustration.

All in all, this camp has been a really good learning experience for me. Oh, and I wanna give a shout out to Reppling, since he's here checking out the campus for High School camp next week. (Personally, I really like Lake Yale better.)

FACE THE BOOK!
LIVIN' BY THE WORD!