My MCS Family

Picture by Aria Morton

As I walked the familiar paths near my road to meet up with a friend for a coffee meeting, I began to think how different my life would be not living here any longer. My first thoughts were about how I wouldn’t be constantly trying to escape death when walking the streets as a random taxi tries to ram me to the next building. And I was ok with that, I mean I wouldn’t constantly be looking out for myself having to glare at each cab that passes by trying to read their minds to see whether or not their next move was to either honk their horn for me for no reason or to randomly try to drive next to me and convince me to ride in their cab even though I didn’t need it. I actually think I preferred not being honked at or attempted to be stalked all the time. Then my next thoughts moved from the streets to one of my favorite places in my town: my old school. :) MCS is a Christian school and was my school before moving on to NSA for my junior year. It honestly didn't feel like a school, I mean yeah sure I was educated there, but it was more like a family. Everyone looked out for each other, and you can just see love in everyone's eyes from the smallest kindergarten kid to our principal. It seemed unrealistic, but it's true, and it's there. If you ever have the chance to visit you should defiantly come and see it for yourself. I remember the year when I started NSA and I was saddened by the thought I would hardly see any of them throughout my year. But each time I came to visit I was always greeted by a bunch of kids running towards me yelling "Marie!" and giving me hugs. I loved all the kids there and their families as well. I have been mentored by a lot of the teachers and parents in that community that brought me closer to the Lord. I remember one day when one of the dads was going to pick me up to help them clean a few things in the new apartment they were moving in. As I stood there waiting for him, two moms in a car drove by and asked if I needed a lift. This wasn't the first time this happened, it's happened multiple times in where parents made sure I was ok or if I needed a ride to a certain place. As I thought about the love in this community I would start getting this wallow feeling in my heart, like I would be deprived from the all the love and care that this community has offered. It's weird to think that I would be leaving here so soon. I've seen most of their kids grow from being a baby to a walking, talking 5 year old! And now I won't even see them grow to be teens! It's just weird to think about it I guess, but something I do see is just how in a few short years I might get back in contact with them and seen how much they've grown and to see their achievements in life. In a way I feel privileged to be a part of their lives and have the opportunity to pray for them now, and in a few years time see what God lays out for their future. Although I will miss their warm hugs, smiles, and random stories about what happened in the art room that day, I'm a lot more excited to see what kind of people God will mold them to be in the future. I would like to thank all the moms that have poured into my life and shared a piece of yours. I will treasure your advice and thank you for all the times you have taken care of me. I also thank all the dads and the conversations we would have as you took me home from babysitting. It was always interesting to see what you opinions for certain topics. and last but not least I love you little kiddos! Be strong in the Lord and always put Him first in your life. :)

Much Love,

Marie (aka Arie or Rie)

The Girl on the Run

For most of you that know me in real life, or are any of my close online friends, ya’ll would probably know that I’m the kind of girl that plans out her week, and is always organizing her time making sure not an hour goes to waste. For some of you who have actually had the opportunity to look at my schedule book, you would see that most of my days are crammed with one meeting after another or babysitting or helping out somewhere somehow. There are even days or weeks that I barely have time for myself or enjoy a nice cup of apple tea. This isn’t something unusual to me, cuz I’ve grown up with this mentality of constantly going from one place to another making sure that my time doesn’t go to waste, and always seeking an opportunity to seek in serving God. The saying "Don't do what you can today, tomorrow." was ingrained in my mind from an early age. Society has fed this concept that I had to be busy all the time in order to “achieve greatness” or to “be successful in life”. So I was just like the energizer bunny always on the run, I always needed to do something! It's not a bad thing to always be doing something; I actually think that's one of the gifts God has given me. You know, always being active in the community, being the person that lovingly greets everyone at the door. Yet as I go through the book of Ecclesiastes this week, I can't help but dwell on chapter 3 where it talks about how there is "A Time for Everything." Most of ya'll know me for someone who never runs out of things to talk about and even per long conversations that are only suppose to take 5 mins! But, lately God seems to be putting the verse in Psalm 46:10 in my heart. It says "Be still and know that I am God." I used to think that sitting still and just knowing that God exist was all that verse meant, but God shed a whole new light to this verse in my life. It wasn't just about knowing that He was there; it was about clearing my mind to hear His soft gentle voice throughout my day. Throughout my busy bee schedule my mind would be all over the place, thinking of what to do for the next day, thinking about how to focus on this task, thinking about the week ahead and how to fit all the different things I would be doing into a week's span, thinking about who asked to be prayed for, trying to remember what they asked to be prayed for, attempting to try and remember what I read in the Bible this morning. Just these never ending thoughts that would inhabit my brain throughout the day. And having television and music wasn't much assistance either. Don't get me wrong, I love to listen to music, but like it says in Ecclesiastes there's "a time for everything." I finally knew the problem to why I'm not able to have Christ in my mind throughout the day. It's cuz my mind wouldn't just sit and stop to listen to Him! I know it takes a lot of time and effort to finally have self control with my thoughts, but I'm sure it would be the most rewarding thing. Can you just imagine being able to hear your Savior's voice throughout the day and know what He's thinking? I think that would be incredible! So I encourage you, the next time you grab for your iPod or spend an hour in front of your TV, just clear your mind from the distraction of the world around you and listen for the gentle whisper that speaks right to your heart. :)

Finally Graduating!

All the hard work of online schooling, social life, church, and babysitting finally paid off!! To be honest knowing that 4 years-worth of education would only be proven by a piece of paper made me feel astonishingly unsure of the worth of that education for a heartbeat, but then realized I'm finally going to college! I can't wait to go back to Korea, which I pretty much considered my home. It was a long process of deciding which college to go to, but thankfully He was with me each step of the way. My heart wouldn't have been opened to going back to Korea if it weren't for His guidance. Still unsure of what will happen in the future but at least I get to take my graduation pictures at the pyramids! 

Love living in Egypt! 

A Little Piece of Home

Being a TCK always has its advantages or disadvantages, depending on how you look at it. In my case it was a little of both. Growing up in South Korea and having a gone to an International school allowed me to have a wide network of friends from all over the world. I got to learn different kinds of cultures from a young age. Having friends with different accents from different countries was pretty normal to me. It allowed me to open my eyes to different cultures God made at an early age. I didn't feel any different from any of them because we all seemed like we were going through the same things. And plus having childlike innocence totally helped in that area ;) Like I said when there are advantages, disadvantage is lurking around the corner. If you haven't realized already being a TCK meant you had to move around. It wasn't the easiest thing in the world, but I guess you get used to it over time. I can tell you this much, there is no such thing as goodbyes, cuz even though you might say it now in the technical sense you never know what God has planned up the road on your journey. That's exactly what happened to me this week! As I remembered crying my little eyes out that day in AWANA, a day before I had to fly off to another country, I had to say "goodbye" to many friends including my little best friend Levi Miller. Although he was 4 years old at the time, he was a great pal who always apparently made me laugh. Thinking I would never see them I let them go. I knew in my heart it wasn't possible, but God had other plans. Last summer on some random occasion as I looked through facebook I found Levi's older brother Luke. I never actually talked to him growing up cuz he was a little too intimidating, at least from my point of view anyways. But for some reason we began talking and a year later we find out they are coming to Egypt! Anyways long story short they came here at the perfect time! I was slightly getting kinda homesick at the same time getting pretty worn out with having to say "goodbye" to my friends here. So having a little piece of home for a day and a half was totally awesome! Memories from the past were brought up; we looked at pictures of us as kids. Too bad Levi didn't remember us being best friends till he saw a picture of me. They were pretty random (they are guys what do you expect.) which is one thing I totally didn't expect. But at some point Levi did make me laugh really hard, I guess some things will never change. I was so glad to see them! And it was like God saying "If you are in the same family, there are no goodbyes. For one day you will all be living together." It was an assuring feeling knowing that I don't have a permanent home or that I'll eventually see people one day in Heaven. So even if I say "goodbye" and God takes me on another adventure somewhere else in the world asking me to do something totally out of my comfort zone, I can be confident in the fact that I'll see ya'll again; here on earth or our Heavenly Home. :)