Orientation Retreat, Day 3

Here's my log from the last day of the retreat:

Well, I am on the plane back home. I’m pretty tired, but doing alright. I have to fly to Atlanta, and then I’ll be on the way back to Dulles. I’m still not sure why I booked my flight out of Dulles. Anyways…

The day started with breakfast, and then we went to the prayer chapel for service. Worship was us singing ‘Jesus Loves Me’ a couple times, and then trying to learn some of the body worship for it. Apparently, we’re going to have to perform the body worship for the churches in Korea. I’m not too excited about that. After, Pastor Park shared a brief message about a verse… Guess which one? Jeremiah 29:11. Some of us shared a small bit about what we know of God’s plan for us, and Pastor Park challenged the others to look for God’s plan in their lives.

We took a small break, and then went back to our cabin and we discussed the impressions that we had of KAMC when applying for the scholarship. We pretty much all agreed on the same thing: that it was an organization dedicated to serving Korean adoptees in Christ so that adoptees can grow spiritually and culturally. After, Pastor Park gave us some scriptures to meditate on (Jer. 29:11, Prov. 3:4-6, 1 John 4:12 and Matt. 25:40) and then a list of books to read. Somewhere around this time, Andy came back along with Michelle, Susan and her daughter, China. Michelle and Susan both went on the trip previously, but have been serving with KAMC in excess of ten years. Michelle and Susan are both very lively, very loud people. They seemed quite excited for us.

 We revisted our expectations for the trip... Tried to pick our top five.

Pastor Park wanted to try some statistical things with our expectations... Ended up being kind of confusing... 

...But, we all pretty much agreed on the same things. 

Pastor Park's 'box' about what is known about us...

Our Korean lessons got hung up around the room. 

Relational triangle... Adoptive mothers end up being pretty protective about their adopted kids and in some way, try to prevent adoptees from meeting their biological parents, mostly out of fear of losing their place in the adoptee's life. 

Some of us needed some coffee by now... 

 SMN showing us one of the books we're supposed to read...

We tried to all recap our impression of what KAMC is. 

The book list we were supposed to read before the trip...

We all ate lunch together. We had bulgolgi wraps, and it was kind of funny seeing SMN’s lesson to the Korean food noobs, but I have to remember that that was me being taught back in freshman year at ABSK. We asked Michelle, Susan and Andy some more questions about the trip preparations and chatted some about finding and reconnecting with our biological parents.

Lunch finished and we took some group pictures together. We cleaned up and then all split up to head home. Nick drove Merikim, David and I to the airport. We chatted a bit more about our excitement for the trip and just about some general things about our lives.

Kind of a funny looking bunch, eh? But, I don't think any of us care at this point... We're all in this together.

And well, here I am, all caught up with my journals. There’s a lot to think about and a lot to prepare for, and this retreat was definitely an important part of this journey. I feel like we’ve all bonded quite well, and that this trip to Korea is going to be quite the life-changing experience for us all. We’re all determined and incredibly grateful for the opportunity to go on this trip, for Pastor Park and SMN, and for even the existence of KAMC.