Mission Accomplished

I sat in my classroom this morning watching my kids play during their playtime. I was reminded of my first day with these same kids. The first day, I walked into the classroom and I turned into mad woman, trying to tame the zoo in my class. One boy was standing on a chair, one was hiding under the table, one was hitting another, another was throwing a tantrum and biting. Complete chaos! They often fought with each other and spoke Korean regularly. Today as I watched them they shared and helped each other and enjoy playing together. This year these monster students have become respectful little people (Well most of the time anyway!) They have all grown up so much in a year.

At first I thought being called Sara Teacher or more commonly, Teacher, was the most impersonal thing ever, but now I think I'm going to miss hearing "Sara Teacher" 143 times a day! These kids have taught me how to understand unconditional love.

I will never know what will happen to them as they grow up. I won't be there to help them anymore with the little problems that to them seem enormous. I pray for each of them, that they would one day find their worth in God. I pray that God will do something through my love for them. I feel like their proud Mama.

They each have such strong and unique personalities already. They will be used in such influencial ways. Who knows, my Luke who fights for justice in the classroom during playtime saying, "Don't do that! That's not fair!" might be the very same man someday who will fight for justice in the modern day slavery realm.

Today I was reading Sally's sentence that she'd written. It said, "I give mother a mooma toy." I asked her what that word "mooma" is. She told me, "Teacher, it says necklace!!" Haha! Oh, of course it does...in her head anyway :)

I didn't really know what my mission was when I came to Korea. Though it wasn't clear at the time, I'm confident that it has been accomplished. Whether it was teaching the girls to be feminine and not tackle the boys, or teaching the boys not to slam doors in girls' faces, each lesson was heard. I watch in wonder as even little girls know how to play house and have dreams of being a mother. I still laugh when Ace gives me his guilty smile. I wish I could capture that on camera!

Goodbyes are hard. At my last small group, they bought a cake and sang me a farewell song in Korean. I cried not only because I'm really sad to leave, but because I'm so thankful for all the blessings that were given to me here. Sunday night I had a going away dinner. These last few days I've been hanging out with friends any spare minute I have, staying up way to late and doing way to many random and funny things, trying to savor each moment.

I'm glad I have Thailand to look forward to. This Thursday I am going to Thailand for a week! The plan was originally to go to an orphanage there, but plans recently changed and now for a couple days I will be meeting new sponsored children through Compassion International, going to a safe house for rescued human trafficking victims, visiting a school, staying with a Thai family and hopefully riding an elephant! I hope I'll get a chance to blog from there.

I honestly don't know who reads this blog anymore, considering its been almost a year and a half. I thank you so much for your prayers. I truly am on cloud nine thinking about how much of blessing my time here has been. I am bursting with both sadness and joy at the same time. This step is to go home. Please pray that God would reveal the next step in His plan.