So... If you've been wondering why there hasn't been any new posts and curious if the Korean prodigals are even still alive. Well, have no fear. We are indeed alive and kickin! Yes, in fact, life in Korea is wonderful! Emily and I are loving married Korean living! Let me try to catch you up to speed. So we're still teaching English. Korean food has only gotten even better... but since words tend to pale in comparison to the spice and wonder that is Korean food I'll just assume that if you truly want to know the flare and flavor of exquisite Korean cuisine you'll visit us.

As far as the Korean language goes. Well, it goes. Its still amazingly challenging, but we can now at least converse with people about the weather (a bit), wish them a good weekend, small talk with the taxi drivers about their job/life (limitedly), and talk fairly endlessly about food in Korean. We're still learning from a co-worker, and our Korean books, but now we also have one of my students teaching us some Korean on about a weekly basis and we tried the introduction to Pimsleur's Korean program. Now we're anxious about continuing Pimsleur Korean one (a gift from family!). That should help a lot. I fully expect that we will never again learn a language as difficult as Korean in all our life travels nor will we ever again discover food as delicious as the food of Korea (but I said I wouldn't talk any more about the food so...).


We've also been able to deepen some relationships lately. I've been having coffee, lunch and Bible studies with a friend once or twice a week. While he doesn't call himself a Christian, his desire is to put his trust in God and to live for something more. I'll call him C.S. on this blog. I think God is calling him to something great. Pray for this realization in his heart and that C.S. would be able to throw the things in his life that are enslaving him aside and enter wholly into a relationship of trust with Christ. I've lent him the book "Blue like Jazz" and we're studying through Philippians and looking at Paul's conversion and life. Also, a student of mine, who we'll call Seven has been peering into the Christian life, investigating the scriptures and attending an English Bible Study we lead at our church. Pray for the Spirit's guidance in these relationships. Thank you.

Also, God has been laying many ministries before us. As we've already mentioned, we lead Bible Studies at our church in English. One is for mature Christian and the other for "young" Christians and non-Christians. Right now we're praying about moving the latter of the two to our apartment and changing the time to 6:30 PM on Sundays over bop (dinner/rice). Currently both studies are at 2:00 PM on Sundays. Also, the Christmas season has provided numerous opportunities to discuss the reason for the season both in class and out of class! Its been wonderful. Many have also asked us why we give at Christmas time (we made no-bake cookies, and bought some cake/ice-cream for our classes...a meal for one), and we're able to share with them in joy why we give in this season and always. Christmas is a national holiday here... though most (besides Christians) celebrate by going out and having drinks with friends on Christmas eve. We'll be sure to post pics from our Christmas day (and Eve) celebrations!

Since our last post we also celebrated Thanksgiving (though not a holiday here). Emily and I had a nice evening at home after class and ate a load of food! Emily cooked up a storm. We had Mexican tortilla soup (brought from home) with O-deng, sweet potatoes, rice pudding, and also partook of the Lord's supper. It was a great (albeit different) first Thanksgiving for our new family.

Also, since our last post we took two day-trips. One to Pal-gong San (mountain). It was organized by Global (our employer). We climbed the mountain. It was a beautiful day! You should check out the pictures. When we got to the top it was packed with parents and grandparents (all Buddhist) praying for their high school students who were preparing to take the dreaded college entrance exam (not really comparable with the lightly taken ACT/SAT). High School students do little outside of studying anyways... it borders on ridiculous before this exam.

We also took a trip to Andong. Two members of our church took us and paid for everything (they insisted!). We visited a traditional Korean village called Hahoe (not sure how to spell that with Roman letters). It was really intriguing (and cold!). But we had a wonderful meal while seated on the (as usual) heated floor. We also visited a mask museum that was absolutely fascinating. They had masks from all over the world. It was like a peek into all the world's cultures. At other times of the year they hold traditional mask dances. If we can, we hope to go back to Andong (or another town) and see the dance sometime...we've heard they're amazing. On the way back we visited a traditional Korean paper factory. We got to see the whole process for making the beautiful paper and to see all the crafts that can be made using this paper. It was a great trip!

Now, having basically finished all our Christmas preparations we are anticipating both the celebration of the Lord's coming as a babe in a manger and the Lords imminent return! We've posted picture albums of things here in Korea and also albums from this last summer on Photobucket.com if you're interested. Our account name is: theClarksons_pics or you can use this web address: http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r304/theClarksons_pics/

I suppose that is probably enough for one post. We'll try to keep the blog more updated. Hoping and praying all is well with you and yours and wishing you indeed a very Merry Christmas! God bless.