Well, It has been several months since we last posted. If you have been following us we are sorry for the lack of posts. If not then you won't read this.
Here is our update:
We are living with Sarah's parents right now. We do not have any jobs as of yet but we have been applying to many different places. Sarah's signed up for classes at Sinclair and I am taking nursing classes at a local Career Tech School.
We have been helping out at our church with music and I preached last week. Sarah also watches our nephew often.
So that is a little bit about what we are doing now.
If you wish to contact us send an email to mikensarahriley@gmail.com for our new cell phone number.
thank you,
-Mic
Monday, February 22, 2010
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Heavy Load
This week was a little crazier than normal. One of our students has the swine flu and has to be quarantined for a week. This usually wouldn’t be a problem, however her sister also attends MICS and her mother is a teacher. So Mike and I were the only ones on staff all week. I took most of her classes and incorporated them into mine. Mike gave up his breaks and taught her Listening and Science class. Our bodies are tired and our patience is wearing thin. I am so happy that it is Friday. God never left our side. He gave us the strength and endurance to push through this week. I am excited to rest this weekend and have lighter classes next week.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
lack of Wisdom
The past several weeks I’ve had quite a bit of dental work. Since I’ve already had a minor surgery earlier this year here in Korea I wasn’t really nervous. It turned out that I needed a root canal for my bottom right molar, which would also require surgery to remove my wisdom tooth. Mike also has had 2 root canals with the same dentist and survived so I felt ok about my very near future.
The root canal went very well with little pain. But next was my surgery. I started getting a little anxious because I wasn’t sure if I would be put to sleep or not. So I arrive at the dentist’s office prepared to endure whatever was thrown my way. She checks the tooth with the root canal.
Next thing I knew she put a cloth over my face and said that she will begin the surgery. AHHH!!! I frantically waved my hands and closed my numbed mouth. “You aren’t going to put me to sleep?!” I tried to say as clearly as I could. She looked puzzled and unsure of what I meant. So I pretended to be asleep and then asked again. “Please, you must give me drugs!”
“No, no, no.” she replied. “Just relax.” She tipped the chair back, covered my face and began to cut into my gum. I couldn’t take it! My heart was pounding so hard that I could hear it! I closed my eyes and tried to think of a happy place. Maybe I’ll be so traumatized that I’ll just pass out. This was the happiest thought I could muster up.
One hand was gripping the handle of the chair and the other clawing at my stomach! I felt like I was in a horror movie and she was torturing me for fun. After a few minutes of terrifying cuts the tooth was ready to come out. Oh wait…it had to be sawed apart and broken into three pieces before it would come out. And she proceeded to do just so.
First was the saw. The noise sent my body into uncontrollable jolting, for which I just clawed harder into my stomach and somehow didn’t cry! I felt blood and cold water splash my face. Next was the breaking of the tooth. She put so much force on that tooth that other parts of my head began to hurt. CRACK! The sound of that tooth breaking will forever make me cringe. Saw once more. Break again.
The worst part was finally over. She closed the wound and began to sew me up. Sewing is pretty simple, but feeling the entire thing made me nauseas. My whole body was so tense that it took a couple minutes to realize that it was finally finished. Thank you God!
They sent me out to the waiting room. I sat, somehow still not crying, waiting to pay. I felt beat and wronged in someway. It’s been a week since the surgery and I feel much better. I feel so thankful that the USA will put me to sleep for the other 3 wisdom teeth.
The root canal went very well with little pain. But next was my surgery. I started getting a little anxious because I wasn’t sure if I would be put to sleep or not. So I arrive at the dentist’s office prepared to endure whatever was thrown my way. She checks the tooth with the root canal.
Next thing I knew she put a cloth over my face and said that she will begin the surgery. AHHH!!! I frantically waved my hands and closed my numbed mouth. “You aren’t going to put me to sleep?!” I tried to say as clearly as I could. She looked puzzled and unsure of what I meant. So I pretended to be asleep and then asked again. “Please, you must give me drugs!”
“No, no, no.” she replied. “Just relax.” She tipped the chair back, covered my face and began to cut into my gum. I couldn’t take it! My heart was pounding so hard that I could hear it! I closed my eyes and tried to think of a happy place. Maybe I’ll be so traumatized that I’ll just pass out. This was the happiest thought I could muster up.
One hand was gripping the handle of the chair and the other clawing at my stomach! I felt like I was in a horror movie and she was torturing me for fun. After a few minutes of terrifying cuts the tooth was ready to come out. Oh wait…it had to be sawed apart and broken into three pieces before it would come out. And she proceeded to do just so.
First was the saw. The noise sent my body into uncontrollable jolting, for which I just clawed harder into my stomach and somehow didn’t cry! I felt blood and cold water splash my face. Next was the breaking of the tooth. She put so much force on that tooth that other parts of my head began to hurt. CRACK! The sound of that tooth breaking will forever make me cringe. Saw once more. Break again.
The worst part was finally over. She closed the wound and began to sew me up. Sewing is pretty simple, but feeling the entire thing made me nauseas. My whole body was so tense that it took a couple minutes to realize that it was finally finished. Thank you God!
They sent me out to the waiting room. I sat, somehow still not crying, waiting to pay. I felt beat and wronged in someway. It’s been a week since the surgery and I feel much better. I feel so thankful that the USA will put me to sleep for the other 3 wisdom teeth.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Prayer Requests
Mike and I are getting head colds again. The pollution here is sometimes overwhelming. I've gotten 5 migraines this year alone and we can’t seem to shake our sinus problems.
I have a few cavities that need to be taken care of. It’s a little tough to trust Korean doctors since my last adventure…please keep that in your prayers. Mike is also having his second root canal. (They don’t really believe that he has pain when they drill.)
It's been rough with our growing class schedule. There’s not much time to prepare for classes and my break doesn’t really exist anymore.
I've also been more stressed since we got our new Pastor. He tries to help us out with things but usually makes it worse. I feel like it’s getting too crazy. Please pray for our strength and health!
Ok here’s some wonderful news for ya. We have our flight booked and we'll be home by New Years :). Our last day of school is the 24th of December. Our boss surprised us yesterday with an offer to pay for my ticket in addition to Mikes! That's around $1000 lifted off our shoulders! Talk about HUGE blessing!
Thank you for all of your prayers
Sarah Riley
I have a few cavities that need to be taken care of. It’s a little tough to trust Korean doctors since my last adventure…please keep that in your prayers. Mike is also having his second root canal. (They don’t really believe that he has pain when they drill.)
It's been rough with our growing class schedule. There’s not much time to prepare for classes and my break doesn’t really exist anymore.
I've also been more stressed since we got our new Pastor. He tries to help us out with things but usually makes it worse. I feel like it’s getting too crazy. Please pray for our strength and health!
Ok here’s some wonderful news for ya. We have our flight booked and we'll be home by New Years :). Our last day of school is the 24th of December. Our boss surprised us yesterday with an offer to pay for my ticket in addition to Mikes! That's around $1000 lifted off our shoulders! Talk about HUGE blessing!
Thank you for all of your prayers
Sarah Riley
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Jenn
Monday, August 17, 2009.
The day started like any other. A bell rang out, Korean children rush to the main room to start worship. They scramble to find their own special chair while gibber jabbering in that fun little language. The countdown begins. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 0. A silence comes over the room as they stare at the tall teacher with a large beard. “Good afternoon students how are you?” utters Mr. Riley with his classic smirk. The students reply as if they were robots, “Good afternoon Mr. Riley, I’m fine, thank you. How are you?” Worship begins with reciting of verses and songs.
I sit and listen to our children singing and praising God when Mrs. Kim walks in with a beaming little girl. “This is Jennifer,” said the overjoyed teacher, “she’s our new student.” I greeted Jenn with a basic hello. She replied with a smile and nothing more. The realization of my new student’s English level intrigued me and sent ideas bursting through my brain like fireworks. She didn’t know any English whatsoever! It was too late for to talk myself out of it. She became my new project… my English baby.
Who know that adding 3 extra classes to my already overwhelming and often painful schedule would actually sooth my mind and give me tons of energy and joy? It has been 2 weeks and she now knows the alphabet and each letter’s wonderful sounds, a few songs and nursery rhymes, a bit of sentence structure and several phrases. She is the most passionate student I have ever had! Our remaining months here in Korea couldn’t be more blessed!
The day started like any other. A bell rang out, Korean children rush to the main room to start worship. They scramble to find their own special chair while gibber jabbering in that fun little language. The countdown begins. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 0. A silence comes over the room as they stare at the tall teacher with a large beard. “Good afternoon students how are you?” utters Mr. Riley with his classic smirk. The students reply as if they were robots, “Good afternoon Mr. Riley, I’m fine, thank you. How are you?” Worship begins with reciting of verses and songs.
I sit and listen to our children singing and praising God when Mrs. Kim walks in with a beaming little girl. “This is Jennifer,” said the overjoyed teacher, “she’s our new student.” I greeted Jenn with a basic hello. She replied with a smile and nothing more. The realization of my new student’s English level intrigued me and sent ideas bursting through my brain like fireworks. She didn’t know any English whatsoever! It was too late for to talk myself out of it. She became my new project… my English baby.
Who know that adding 3 extra classes to my already overwhelming and often painful schedule would actually sooth my mind and give me tons of energy and joy? It has been 2 weeks and she now knows the alphabet and each letter’s wonderful sounds, a few songs and nursery rhymes, a bit of sentence structure and several phrases. She is the most passionate student I have ever had! Our remaining months here in Korea couldn’t be more blessed!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Changes
A change is going to come because that's just the way it is and things will never change.... (guess who said that?)
Yes changes are happening.
Here at our school our principal/pastor has left. Sarah and I are still a bit confused. Things don't seem to make sense and we are not told everything that is going on.
Now that our Pastor has left though we have been told things we were waiting to hear about for a while. We are sad that he has left but we are excited about the changes that are occurring. For once we know who our boss is which helps us with dealing with separate points of view. Also we have been given freedoms we were lacking before such as a choice for what forms of beverage we could drink in our free time and what church we could go to. As we have been told here and many have told us, they can't tell you to do that. well we agreed to it because God called us here so not following it would be not following God. But now our leadership has changed and we have been given permission to change ourselves.
This is all a little confusing and welcome to our fun life.
The Changes:
We have an open choice on where to attend church. We have chosen a church across the street from our house. They have a good English service and they have many ties with our school already. The pastor of the English service is a very good man and we like him and his wife very much.
They have a very good Bible study and many opportunities for us to get involved with their English service. We are free to join their worship team and I have been asked to speak at a service about missions.
We both are very happy about these changes and we feel many of the frustrations of working here are actually going away.
Praise God for His blessings...
-mike
Yes changes are happening.
Here at our school our principal/pastor has left. Sarah and I are still a bit confused. Things don't seem to make sense and we are not told everything that is going on.
Now that our Pastor has left though we have been told things we were waiting to hear about for a while. We are sad that he has left but we are excited about the changes that are occurring. For once we know who our boss is which helps us with dealing with separate points of view. Also we have been given freedoms we were lacking before such as a choice for what forms of beverage we could drink in our free time and what church we could go to. As we have been told here and many have told us, they can't tell you to do that. well we agreed to it because God called us here so not following it would be not following God. But now our leadership has changed and we have been given permission to change ourselves.
This is all a little confusing and welcome to our fun life.
The Changes:
We have an open choice on where to attend church. We have chosen a church across the street from our house. They have a good English service and they have many ties with our school already. The pastor of the English service is a very good man and we like him and his wife very much.
They have a very good Bible study and many opportunities for us to get involved with their English service. We are free to join their worship team and I have been asked to speak at a service about missions.
We both are very happy about these changes and we feel many of the frustrations of working here are actually going away.
Praise God for His blessings...
-mike
Sunday, March 15, 2009
For all those who wonder
Korea:
Crime: at night you can walk down a dark alley and be afraid of nothing. I feel much safer here than most places in the states.
Walking: if your walking on the street you need to watch out for the following:
people talking on their cell phones, texting, watching tv, or playing a game (they don't look, they will walk right into you. Bikes, you need to watch out for bicycles, they get right of way, motorbikes, they are bigger and they also get right of way or well they take right of way, scooters, they will zoom right past you so watch out!
Transportation: Walking. you walk everywhere. or you can buy a cheap car and drive. You can get a motorcycle scooter or bike to ride.
or use the public transportation.
public transportation, you can use buses for short distances, the subway for across town and taxis for places you don't know how to get to by the bus, oh and you have to walk between all of these!
The T card, this card can be loaded with money and you just touch it to a pad that is found at the gates to the subway, on the bus and on taxis, it pays all of them! and if you use the bus then the subway the cost is decreased sometimes its free, this system makes so much since you will learn to love it after you get it!
Restrooms: Koreans do have American toilets, but they also have squatty toilets and some places if your lucky have these super cool ones that spray you clean with a jet of water then blow dry you, with a heated seat! it then changes the cover when you walk away. They have some high tech toilets! (warning the control pad is in Korean, one should use caution if you do not wish to have your whole body washed! also the one button in the back is suspect for who knows what, i don't entirely trust it!_
also alot of toilets have a sink in the top, so when the back part fills up you can wash your hands with the water before it goes to the tank saving water!
sometimes you have to bring your own tp, sometimes there is one big despenser in the main room and other times its in every stall.
bathrooms are not very well separated between men and women, sometimes all you get is a separate stall. fun stuff!
Trash:
Koreans recycle everything! I mean everything
most apartments have trash day once a week where you come down with your trash but it has to be separated by you.
plastic, plain paper (tissues), printed paper and wrappers, metal, Styrofoam, boxes, and food all are separate items to be separated...
fun stuff! we have about 10 cans in our apartment
TV:
we have tv cable actually with 4 movie channels that always play american movies mainly action.
internet: we have an internet connection in our building but we do not have wireless until i buy a router:-)
Church: Korea is by some sources 70% christian. so there churches everywhere.
Some churches are very fundamental and require only hymns because of their claimed value, while other churches allow the use of CCM music (if you don't know what that means, come here you will, it means contemporary Christian music, and to be honest i don't know what it means other than they are songs the churches have chosen to use for praise but their not hymns so there...)
Most churches here that i have seen are much like those in the states, especially mega churches, there are alot of those here, a good sized church here is about 500-1000 people.
oh and a good christian wears a suit. they also like to have throne like chairs up on the stage where the pastors sit, some of the churches are big into missions and homeless ministry, while others have such a large congregation one wonders when they will have time for those outside the church..... (please note im not judging im just trying to understand, i could be wrong in which case ill inform you as the time goes on)....
Pizza.
Pizza school is the best pizza place ever! it is super cheap and really good.
but warning most pizza places are ok, but they love tons of toppings from shrimp, to sweet potatoes to corn to whatever. think of it and they have a special for that pizza!
thats about all i have for now, ask me and ill tell you more about the things here.
-mic
Crime: at night you can walk down a dark alley and be afraid of nothing. I feel much safer here than most places in the states.
Walking: if your walking on the street you need to watch out for the following:
people talking on their cell phones, texting, watching tv, or playing a game (they don't look, they will walk right into you. Bikes, you need to watch out for bicycles, they get right of way, motorbikes, they are bigger and they also get right of way or well they take right of way, scooters, they will zoom right past you so watch out!
Transportation: Walking. you walk everywhere. or you can buy a cheap car and drive. You can get a motorcycle scooter or bike to ride.
or use the public transportation.
public transportation, you can use buses for short distances, the subway for across town and taxis for places you don't know how to get to by the bus, oh and you have to walk between all of these!
The T card, this card can be loaded with money and you just touch it to a pad that is found at the gates to the subway, on the bus and on taxis, it pays all of them! and if you use the bus then the subway the cost is decreased sometimes its free, this system makes so much since you will learn to love it after you get it!
Restrooms: Koreans do have American toilets, but they also have squatty toilets and some places if your lucky have these super cool ones that spray you clean with a jet of water then blow dry you, with a heated seat! it then changes the cover when you walk away. They have some high tech toilets! (warning the control pad is in Korean, one should use caution if you do not wish to have your whole body washed! also the one button in the back is suspect for who knows what, i don't entirely trust it!_
also alot of toilets have a sink in the top, so when the back part fills up you can wash your hands with the water before it goes to the tank saving water!
sometimes you have to bring your own tp, sometimes there is one big despenser in the main room and other times its in every stall.
bathrooms are not very well separated between men and women, sometimes all you get is a separate stall. fun stuff!
Trash:
Koreans recycle everything! I mean everything
most apartments have trash day once a week where you come down with your trash but it has to be separated by you.
plastic, plain paper (tissues), printed paper and wrappers, metal, Styrofoam, boxes, and food all are separate items to be separated...
fun stuff! we have about 10 cans in our apartment
TV:
we have tv cable actually with 4 movie channels that always play american movies mainly action.
internet: we have an internet connection in our building but we do not have wireless until i buy a router:-)
Church: Korea is by some sources 70% christian. so there churches everywhere.
Some churches are very fundamental and require only hymns because of their claimed value, while other churches allow the use of CCM music (if you don't know what that means, come here you will, it means contemporary Christian music, and to be honest i don't know what it means other than they are songs the churches have chosen to use for praise but their not hymns so there...)
Most churches here that i have seen are much like those in the states, especially mega churches, there are alot of those here, a good sized church here is about 500-1000 people.
oh and a good christian wears a suit. they also like to have throne like chairs up on the stage where the pastors sit, some of the churches are big into missions and homeless ministry, while others have such a large congregation one wonders when they will have time for those outside the church..... (please note im not judging im just trying to understand, i could be wrong in which case ill inform you as the time goes on)....
Pizza.
Pizza school is the best pizza place ever! it is super cheap and really good.
but warning most pizza places are ok, but they love tons of toppings from shrimp, to sweet potatoes to corn to whatever. think of it and they have a special for that pizza!
thats about all i have for now, ask me and ill tell you more about the things here.
-mic
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