Back from Haiti as of Friday
Miss the kids at the orphanage
My Haitian friends
Talking in Creole
The pure cornflower-blue eastern sunset sky
My feelings for Haiti, they're overwhelming
Need to get a lot of things done before med school
Send out my newsletter
Get new prescription for my glasses
Move in to my new apartment
Things I need to do, they're overwhelming
Thankful for the experiences I had in Haiti and Africa
For getting into med school and finding housing at UCSD
For my dad's new position as a senior pastor at a church in Cypress
God's grace and mercy, they're overwhelming
Incredible what just happened in the past thirteen months
Dedicated these post-college months to God
He made all the difference
So much more than I had ever imagined
Things that God does in my life, they're overwhelming
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Haitian Courier #3.3: Thank You!
Wow, I came back one day after I sent the e-mail and now I have more than enough to buy my ticket back home!
Thank you so much for to all of you who contributed! I received about $765 from 16 generous donors. Thank you!
Ok, so what am I going to do with the extra money? God willing, I am praying to come back to Haiti next summer, if not, to some other developing country. So whatever I received from this will go toward it.
If for any reason, you wish to withdraw your donation, let me know, since I now have double of what I originally needed. Be assured, however, that what you contributed will either help bring me back to Haiti (or Africa again or another place) where I would continue to do God's work, or will go towards another charitable work (if I'm not able to do them myself next summer).
Thanks once again to everyone who contributed! And thank you all for your prayers.
I'll send personal thank you e-mail soon, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I have enough to get back to the States now.
God Bless,
SunMin
Thank you so much for to all of you who contributed! I received about $765 from 16 generous donors. Thank you!
Ok, so what am I going to do with the extra money? God willing, I am praying to come back to Haiti next summer, if not, to some other developing country. So whatever I received from this will go toward it.
If for any reason, you wish to withdraw your donation, let me know, since I now have double of what I originally needed. Be assured, however, that what you contributed will either help bring me back to Haiti (or Africa again or another place) where I would continue to do God's work, or will go towards another charitable work (if I'm not able to do them myself next summer).
Thanks once again to everyone who contributed! And thank you all for your prayers.
I'll send personal thank you e-mail soon, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I have enough to get back to the States now.
God Bless,
SunMin
Friday, June 29, 2007
Haitian Courier #3.2: Bring Me Home
I hate to flood your inboxes with my newsletters, but I wanted to let you know that I have now officially missed my flight back to the States. So there is no turning back.
So far I've received $180 from 4 generous contributors. That's basically halfway done!
If you can help at all, even $10 or $20 would go a long way. I would appreciate anything you can give.
After all, I do need to get back to the States sometime... Please help!
Visit here to donate:
http://doxahaiti.blogspot.com/
So why did I miss my flight? (I see you didn’t read my other newsletters...) I’m staying here another month to help out with the orphanage while the president is in Korea raising fund for a new and permanent orphanage. I can’t just leave here right now.
Thanks!
SunMin
So far I've received $180 from 4 generous contributors. That's basically halfway done!
If you can help at all, even $10 or $20 would go a long way. I would appreciate anything you can give.
After all, I do need to get back to the States sometime... Please help!
Visit here to donate:
http://doxahaiti.blogspot.com/
So why did I miss my flight? (I see you didn’t read my other newsletters...) I’m staying here another month to help out with the orphanage while the president is in Korea raising fund for a new and permanent orphanage. I can’t just leave here right now.
Thanks!
SunMin
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Haitian Courier #3.1: Help Me Stay in Haiti
As I mentioned in my last newsletter (#3), I’ll be staying in Haiti a little longer than I had originally planned.
If you’d like to help me stay longer in Haiti, please visit:
http://doxahaiti.blogspot.com/
Thanks!
SunMin
If you’d like to help me stay longer in Haiti, please visit:
http://doxahaiti.blogspot.com/
Thanks!
SunMin
Haitian Courier #3: With Creole Comes Power...
...and you know what comes with power.
Bonjou Mezanmi! Kòman nou ye? (i.e. how are you [plural].)
Once again it's that time of the month when I must take a break and update you on what I’ve been doing in Haiti.
As you can guess from the subject line, I’ve been given more and more responsibilities as I continue to sharpen my Creole skills. Every morning except on Sundays, we have a Bible study with the workers at the orphanage. I read from a devotional book in Korean, translate it out loud in English, and then explain everything in Creole. Then every evening except on Fridays, I prepare and give a short sermon in Korean. After the service, I give the sermon again in Creole to Jude. Jude, a native here, is studying to become a pastor. On Sunday mornings, I emcee the Creole service (in Creole, of course), which involves leading French/Creole hymns. On Friday evenings, we have a late night prayer meetings, where I lead the prayer session, explaining each prayer topics in Creole. All these activities have helped me to learn a lot of Biblically relevant phrases in Creole.
I’ve been teaching as well as learning. After the morning Bible study, I read couple chapters from the Bible in English, and everyone else repeats after me to practice English pronunciation. Then I teach them English conversation from a book. It’s a lot easier to teach English now that I can explain things in Creole if I had to. On Sundays, I teach English songs to the kids (they’re crazy about “Making Melodies”). Also, now that I can speak descent Creole, I can lecture the kids more effectively when they need to be disciplined.
In my last letter, I mentioned about Fontain, the land the missionaries bought for a new orphanage. While Rev. Baek is gone raising funds in Korea, I’ve been in charge of looking after the land. Once or twice a week we visit Fontain and, if needed, fix up gates and fences or hire some neighborhood boys to helps us cut grass and shrubs. The little kids who are always there also helps us by gathering grass and trash. Building a good relationship with the neighbors is also an important part of my job here. Otherwise, they would dump trash in our land, cut barb-wires, or destroy gates... All of which they have done several times already. It’s been improving, so I’m hopeful.
Originally, Rev. Baek was going to come back by early June, but it seems she won’t be back till early-mid July. The only other missionary here is Mrs. Kang, and it would be too difficult for her to manage everything by herself. I was going to stay until June 28, which is fast approaching, but I’ve decided to stay longer, at least until Rev. Baek comes back. Once she is back, we’ll start the construction of the new orphanage right away, so I could be helping with that as well.
Some other things that happened since the last update:
• Earlier this month, I visited University of Fondwa (http://www.unif2004.org and http://www.unifusa.org), which is the first university in the mountains. They had the Haitian Bleu coffee factory next to it, so I got a little tour of that too. It was all in all a really cool visit.
• May 18 is National Flag Day in Haiti, so I got to see a local parade just outside our alley.
• Sometime in May, I visited the border of Dominican Republic, only to find out that it costs $35 a head to enter (so I didn’t). I also learned that we should never ever give passports to solicitors, or they would go get exit stamps for you at the immigration and demand money for their “work”.
• One day, a team of young missionaries came from New Jersey and visited the orphanage briefly. It’s always refreshing to be able to talk with people in English!
• I cut my hair really short again, this time with a 1/8” comb all the way around. I’m beginning to really like the convenience of short hair.
Now, for medical school, I’ll be going to UCSD School of Medicine (that’s University of California, San Diego for those who are not from the States) at the end of August! I’m very grateful that God has allowed me to move forward in this path. Thanks to everyone who has helped me with the application process! Speaking of San Diego, if anyone can help me find a place to stay (any suggestions), I would really appreciate it.
As always, thanks for taking the time to read this and for keeping in touch, those of you who do. I imagine many of you have just graduated college, so let me know what your next move is. No, I’m not that lonely anymore. I have Haitian friends now! But I’m always happy to hear from friends in other parts of the globe.
Please keep me in your prayers, for my health, safety, and faith. Let me know if there’s anything I could be praying for.
Bondye Beni Nou,
SunMin
Cell: +509-441-3451
Skype: doxadeo
AIM:instantdoxa
MSN: doxadeo@hotmail.com
Yahoo!: doxadeo@yahoo.com
Bonjou Mezanmi! Kòman nou ye? (i.e. how are you [plural].)
Once again it's that time of the month when I must take a break and update you on what I’ve been doing in Haiti.
As you can guess from the subject line, I’ve been given more and more responsibilities as I continue to sharpen my Creole skills. Every morning except on Sundays, we have a Bible study with the workers at the orphanage. I read from a devotional book in Korean, translate it out loud in English, and then explain everything in Creole. Then every evening except on Fridays, I prepare and give a short sermon in Korean. After the service, I give the sermon again in Creole to Jude. Jude, a native here, is studying to become a pastor. On Sunday mornings, I emcee the Creole service (in Creole, of course), which involves leading French/Creole hymns. On Friday evenings, we have a late night prayer meetings, where I lead the prayer session, explaining each prayer topics in Creole. All these activities have helped me to learn a lot of Biblically relevant phrases in Creole.
I’ve been teaching as well as learning. After the morning Bible study, I read couple chapters from the Bible in English, and everyone else repeats after me to practice English pronunciation. Then I teach them English conversation from a book. It’s a lot easier to teach English now that I can explain things in Creole if I had to. On Sundays, I teach English songs to the kids (they’re crazy about “Making Melodies”). Also, now that I can speak descent Creole, I can lecture the kids more effectively when they need to be disciplined.
In my last letter, I mentioned about Fontain, the land the missionaries bought for a new orphanage. While Rev. Baek is gone raising funds in Korea, I’ve been in charge of looking after the land. Once or twice a week we visit Fontain and, if needed, fix up gates and fences or hire some neighborhood boys to helps us cut grass and shrubs. The little kids who are always there also helps us by gathering grass and trash. Building a good relationship with the neighbors is also an important part of my job here. Otherwise, they would dump trash in our land, cut barb-wires, or destroy gates... All of which they have done several times already. It’s been improving, so I’m hopeful.
Originally, Rev. Baek was going to come back by early June, but it seems she won’t be back till early-mid July. The only other missionary here is Mrs. Kang, and it would be too difficult for her to manage everything by herself. I was going to stay until June 28, which is fast approaching, but I’ve decided to stay longer, at least until Rev. Baek comes back. Once she is back, we’ll start the construction of the new orphanage right away, so I could be helping with that as well.
Some other things that happened since the last update:
• Earlier this month, I visited University of Fondwa (http://www.unif2004.org and http://www.unifusa.org), which is the first university in the mountains. They had the Haitian Bleu coffee factory next to it, so I got a little tour of that too. It was all in all a really cool visit.
• May 18 is National Flag Day in Haiti, so I got to see a local parade just outside our alley.
• Sometime in May, I visited the border of Dominican Republic, only to find out that it costs $35 a head to enter (so I didn’t). I also learned that we should never ever give passports to solicitors, or they would go get exit stamps for you at the immigration and demand money for their “work”.
• One day, a team of young missionaries came from New Jersey and visited the orphanage briefly. It’s always refreshing to be able to talk with people in English!
• I cut my hair really short again, this time with a 1/8” comb all the way around. I’m beginning to really like the convenience of short hair.
Now, for medical school, I’ll be going to UCSD School of Medicine (that’s University of California, San Diego for those who are not from the States) at the end of August! I’m very grateful that God has allowed me to move forward in this path. Thanks to everyone who has helped me with the application process! Speaking of San Diego, if anyone can help me find a place to stay (any suggestions), I would really appreciate it.
As always, thanks for taking the time to read this and for keeping in touch, those of you who do. I imagine many of you have just graduated college, so let me know what your next move is. No, I’m not that lonely anymore. I have Haitian friends now! But I’m always happy to hear from friends in other parts of the globe.
Please keep me in your prayers, for my health, safety, and faith. Let me know if there’s anything I could be praying for.
Bondye Beni Nou,
SunMin
Cell: +509-441-3451
Skype: doxadeo
AIM:instantdoxa
MSN: doxadeo@hotmail.com
Yahoo!: doxadeo@yahoo.com
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Haitian Courier #2.1: Foto!
That's how they write “photo” in Creole. As I promised, here they are!
http://picasaweb.google.com/doxadeo
Click on “Photos from Haiti.”
Photos are scaled for faster upload. But I hope you enjoy!
SunMin
http://picasaweb.google.com/doxadeo
Click on “Photos from Haiti.”
Photos are scaled for faster upload. But I hope you enjoy!
SunMin
Monday, May 14, 2007
Haitian Courier #2: Twenty-three and Still Growing
Bonjou, Mezanmi!
It's about time I updated you all with how I'm doing in Haiti. I forgot to mention in my last newsletter that that I’m staying here until June 28. It’s already been more than 1.5 months since I came here, so I’m already halfway through.
The life here at the House of Love (orphanage) is definitely helping me grow in many ways. Every weekday we start with an early morning prayer at 4:30AM (so I go to sleep rather early). Then we have a Bible study at 8:30AM and a service after dinner around 5:30PM. No internet at home (and no electricity) means less wasting time and more Bible reading at night (under a candle light, of course). So I get to spend a lot of time with God and grow spiritually (I’m also getting very good at striking matches in the dark).
I also spend a lot of time with the orphans. Four of the older kids go to school during the morning (their school hours are very short), so I often look after the six younger kids (3 to 5 year-olds) during that time. It’s a very good learning experience for me. As much as I love children, disciplining them isn’t always easy, but I’m learning how to deal with kids in various situations. I thought we adults help the children grow, but I learned that in fact the children help the adults grow in different ways.
The missionaries bought some land a while back and are building an orphanage there (the current place is rented). Right now the project is on hold, and Rev. Baek, who is in charge, went back to Korea to raise funds for the project. She’s been gone for a week now, and I’ve been leading the daily evening service. We visit the construction site at least once a week to check up on the condition and to give out some food to the children in the neighborhood (there are many kids just hanging around because they don’t have money to go to school).
I’ve been putting a lot of effort into learning Creole. I think I understand and speak Creole better than I do French now (and I took French for 3 years, albeit many years ago). It’s a bummer I may not be using it after the 3 months is up. I hope I have the opportunity to come back to Haiti. My Korean skill is also improving because I have to talk to the missionaries in Korean. The orphans understand a bit of Korean, so I talk to them in Korean sometimes. Leading the evening service in Korean has been quite a challenge.
So overall, it’s been a great learning experience. Here are some other stuff that I’ve done during the past month: I went to Cange again to take a couple patients to the hospital (Zanmi Lasante, which I mentioned last time). Last week I went to a festival called Chan Mass, which is like a big farmers market held once a year. A friend was playing for the marching band at a football game (or soccer as most of you know it), so we got to go and watch it. I got a hair cut at a barber shop by a barber who’s never cut a blan’s hair (i.e. white people. Asians are white in Haiti). It was short and ugly, so I used a clipper to cut it even shorter but neater (I used 1/2” comb on the top and 1/8” on the side, so you can imagine how short).
As for med school is concerned, I’ll let you know when a final decision is made.
Thanks again for everyone who responded to my last e-mail and especially to those who called me (or at least tried to). It really makes a world of difference. I would be happy to hear about what you’ve been doing if you haven’t told me already. It would be nice to hear about what’s going on in the rest of the world as well, since I don’t have much exposure to media these days (no power means no TV).
I’m organizing my photos, so you can expect to see some soon (probably within a week).
Please keep me in your prayers! Specifically for my health.
Bondye Beni-W (you can guess what that means),
SunMin
Cell phone: +509-441-3451
Skype: doxadeo
AIM: instantdoxa
MSN: doxadeo@hotmail.com
Yahoo!: doxadeo@yahoo.com
It's about time I updated you all with how I'm doing in Haiti. I forgot to mention in my last newsletter that that I’m staying here until June 28. It’s already been more than 1.5 months since I came here, so I’m already halfway through.
The life here at the House of Love (orphanage) is definitely helping me grow in many ways. Every weekday we start with an early morning prayer at 4:30AM (so I go to sleep rather early). Then we have a Bible study at 8:30AM and a service after dinner around 5:30PM. No internet at home (and no electricity) means less wasting time and more Bible reading at night (under a candle light, of course). So I get to spend a lot of time with God and grow spiritually (I’m also getting very good at striking matches in the dark).
I also spend a lot of time with the orphans. Four of the older kids go to school during the morning (their school hours are very short), so I often look after the six younger kids (3 to 5 year-olds) during that time. It’s a very good learning experience for me. As much as I love children, disciplining them isn’t always easy, but I’m learning how to deal with kids in various situations. I thought we adults help the children grow, but I learned that in fact the children help the adults grow in different ways.
The missionaries bought some land a while back and are building an orphanage there (the current place is rented). Right now the project is on hold, and Rev. Baek, who is in charge, went back to Korea to raise funds for the project. She’s been gone for a week now, and I’ve been leading the daily evening service. We visit the construction site at least once a week to check up on the condition and to give out some food to the children in the neighborhood (there are many kids just hanging around because they don’t have money to go to school).
I’ve been putting a lot of effort into learning Creole. I think I understand and speak Creole better than I do French now (and I took French for 3 years, albeit many years ago). It’s a bummer I may not be using it after the 3 months is up. I hope I have the opportunity to come back to Haiti. My Korean skill is also improving because I have to talk to the missionaries in Korean. The orphans understand a bit of Korean, so I talk to them in Korean sometimes. Leading the evening service in Korean has been quite a challenge.
So overall, it’s been a great learning experience. Here are some other stuff that I’ve done during the past month: I went to Cange again to take a couple patients to the hospital (Zanmi Lasante, which I mentioned last time). Last week I went to a festival called Chan Mass, which is like a big farmers market held once a year. A friend was playing for the marching band at a football game (or soccer as most of you know it), so we got to go and watch it. I got a hair cut at a barber shop by a barber who’s never cut a blan’s hair (i.e. white people. Asians are white in Haiti). It was short and ugly, so I used a clipper to cut it even shorter but neater (I used 1/2” comb on the top and 1/8” on the side, so you can imagine how short).
As for med school is concerned, I’ll let you know when a final decision is made.
Thanks again for everyone who responded to my last e-mail and especially to those who called me (or at least tried to). It really makes a world of difference. I would be happy to hear about what you’ve been doing if you haven’t told me already. It would be nice to hear about what’s going on in the rest of the world as well, since I don’t have much exposure to media these days (no power means no TV).
I’m organizing my photos, so you can expect to see some soon (probably within a week).
Please keep me in your prayers! Specifically for my health.
Bondye Beni-W (you can guess what that means),
SunMin
Cell phone: +509-441-3451
Skype: doxadeo
AIM: instantdoxa
MSN: doxadeo@hotmail.com
Yahoo!: doxadeo@yahoo.com
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