Korea Foundation Day

Last Monday (October 3rd) was a holiday for us here. National Foundation Day doesn't really mean anything to us except a day off work. And we made good use of our 4-day weekend.

On Saturday, after a nice morning of sleeping in we took the dog and headed for the mountain. 

She fit nicely in Taylor's backpack.

We stopped in Gangnam (where Dr. Fish is)  for breakfast at Butterfinger Pancakes- delish! There was a 45 minute wait, so we go the dog out of the bag to walk her around but it was kind of chilly and she started shivering. Good thing we brought her blanket.

Previous to this day, I (Ashley) had been on a detox/cleanse. No wheat, no gluten, no dairy. Pretty much just fruits, vegetables, rice, olive oil, vinegar, and chicken or fish. I really could live by that lifestyle- except for my love/addiction of sweets. I had already been doing my cleanse for almost 2 weeks and decided to reintroduce some things. So we ordered the chocolate chocolate chip pancake with cookies and cream and vanilla ice cream and fudge on top. Wow. Bad idea right before you go on a hike and right after your body has been cleansed of all that filth. I quickly began to regret that decision.

We made it to the mountain and began our hike. Mount Umyeonsan is a nice retreat from the business of Seoul. It's nestled right in the heart of the city, but there are plenty of trees and greenery to block the sight/noise of all the busyness.

As always, the stairs for hiking.

 We stopped halfway up- Taylor to play on the exercise equipment, me to lay down because I was starting to feel sick.

 The whole reason I started this detox is because I've been having problems with my health since last Spring. I began doing research into gluten intolerance and thought that might be what I was suffering from. It was worth a try. So I went off everything gluten for awhile. I should not so quickly have reintroduced it into my life. Maybe it was the gluten in the pancakes; maybe it was a sugar overload- I'm not sure, but I do know the pain was intense!

no more gluten for me :(

We finally made it to the top and got a nice view of the city. Check out the intense excercisers in the video above. This is not unusual to find in Korea!

 

I felt sick the whole way down and pretty much the rest of the night. Note to all: when going off a fast/detox/cleanse, do it slowly. Don't quickly reintroduce all the bad stuff. In fact, continue to avoid if possible. Otherwise, your body will hate you and strongly react. 

feeling sick

Moral of the day: treat your body right so it will be nice to you.

Banpo Bridge at sunset.

dirty puppy got a bath

On Monday, the actual holiday, we went to the Han River Park, which is about a 5-10 minute walk from our apartment. We love being so close to the river. We had a picnic and read our books by the water. People were flying kites, we had our books, lattes from Starbucks, all was well. 'Twas a beautiful day!

Our God is greater! Our God is stronger!

Yes Yes Yes!!!! God is so faithful.
Psalm 9:10
"And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You."

We just got AWESOME news from Chris, the guy who has been helping us with the whole car situation.

Hello, Hankins... How are you doing? Hope and pray you are doing well. Great news! GVCS is going to pay all the expenses caused by the car accident. You do not have to worry about any fixing cost. Hooray ^^
This is approved by President Nam, which means it is a done deal. ^^ I hope this will help you not only financially but also mentally too.
Again, sorry... and thank you...

Love in Christ,

By the meekness and gentleness of Christ...
School Administration
Director

We are SO RELIEVED. That was going to be close to $1000 out of our pocket.

That takes away a huge burden. It came at just the right time too. As I mentioned in the previous post, there is nothing seriously wrong with me- just some inflammation in my stomach caused by stress. So the Dr. prescribed 7 different medications to take 3x a day for the next 7 days. One of them is for anxiety. By the way, they don't use pill bottles in Korea. Everything goes into little packets- 1 for each dose you are to take.


I really liked the Dr. He's a Christian man. He spent some time counseling me not to worry but just "be happy." I honestly don't know why I am so stressed out. I've had other major stressors in my life like college, planning and paying for a wedding with my fiance halfway around the world..those are pretty stressful things.

I guess it is just the compilation of dealing with so many unknowns and transitions/changes that are constantly being thrown at us, living in a completely different culture where I don't understand the language, being away from my support system of friends and family, and obviously the car accident situation.

We are moving away from the stressors of this school. The car accident is taken care of-thank you Lord. And we are moving to Seoul! We're so excited about this for more reasons than one. I'm excited to be back in church and have that support group. We've been missing that for the past 10 months. We've found a great church in Seoul but it is really difficult to commute there...Now we'll be living there!!!



God has proved himself faithful over and over and over again in my life. Everything I've ever worried about has always been taken care of. This is a good reminder from Matthew 6:31-34

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Amen!

What a month this has been. We've been taken out to eat or other things like bowling for free- paid for by groups like the Bowling Club, or the PTC fund, etc. We've got a teacher's appreciation dinner coming up tonight, and next weekend we're going to an ancient village for a 2-day trip that is completely paid for by the school. All this free stuff happened in the perfect month.

The Dr. also really blessed us. Even though I have insurance, it doesn't cover under age 50 for an endoscopy, so I was going to have to pay out of pocket. The entire dr. visit was going to be $150,000 Won, but the Dr. only charged me $48,000! Also, all of my medication at the pharmacy only cost $6,000 Won because the pharmacist said he gave us a discount. (I wonder if there was something on my file that said "this girl is stressed and broke....give her a discount!) haha....

In conclusion.....GOD IS FAITHFUL. ALWAYS, ALWAYS....He can turn bad situations into good. Thank you for your prayers and your words of encouragement. I hope this is an encouragement to you to trust in the Lord, because He has your best in mind. He cares for us. In the words of John Mark McMillan...."He loves us, Oh how He loves us!"

Check out this video of the song by Chris Tomlin called "Our God." It's a great song.