2 weeks down, 10 to go

The nice thing about our base is, when you leave, you feel like you have never left. Not too much changes around here and you always feel like you have been here a long time even if it has only been a week.....or two weeks. I Love It!

The first week we where here was an orientation week. We went over a lot of what happened during the lecture phase of the school, basic rules, and basic class sessions. The second week we had a teacher named Larry Allen speaking on the Atonement of Christ and God revealing his character to us. Larry Allen is the teacher of another school called the School of the Bible at our Dayspring campus in Tyler, Texas.

I have enjoyed getting into the swing of things again. I am trying to not use my car very much, so I went to the dump pile in the back of the base and picked up about 5 bikes, and built my own to ride around the base, and get some exercise. We have some professional mountain bike courses in the back of the base, so I have been hitting those after dinner on some nights. I got all muddy the other day after it rained.

After getting muddy on the trail, I went to the girls dorm to wash off the bike and myself. When I went to spray the bike I stepped on a board that was laying on the ground and realized it had nails sticking up out of it.......after stepping on one of them and putting it about a half inch into my foot. It ended up being a fun night, I had to go to the hospital, get and x-ray, and get a tetanus shot. So please keep that in prayer that it heals well.

For my DTS I paid for the tuition, and God has provided for all that was owed so far, and will provide for the rest of what is needed. It cost $3,345 for the tuition on both of the schools, $2,200 for South Korea and over $2,400 estimated cost for the trip to Germany. God provided for the costs in the past and will for the future. There is still $955 due for the school tuition and another $2,400+ for the Germany outreach.

Three years ago when I was wanting to go to the Summer of Service and Training program here in Texas God provided for that and more, he provided enough for me and two other people. I paid for the tuition of the Discipleship training school, but God provided for the outreach. God as provided enough for me to get into the School of Evangelism, and I know that he will provide for the rest of what is needed.

If God calls you to something, he will provide for what is needed, that is where you come in. I'm not just talking about money, which is a big need, but I am also talking about prayer. A ministry bathed in prayer is the most successful. I need your support in keeping my ministry focused, wise and fruitful. I am also in need of your help financially, your help and support is what keeps me doing this, without you I would not be here. God doesn't supply a money tree, he supplies others to support you. I don't consider you my supporters, I consider you my partners. You partner with me in what God is doing in and through this ministry. I would like to to thank you for your past, present and future support, may God bless you and keep you

-Ben

Back in TX

Headed back to Texas for my School of Evangelism. Two of my friends driving from Rhode Island came to our house on the night of the 25th, We left on Wednesday the 26th from Delaware. The first day of traveling we left Delaware at 7 in the morning and drove 3 hours to Virginia Beach to pick up two other people going into our school. From Virginia Beach we drove another 3.5 hours to Durham, NC to pick up another person going into our school. Last we traveled to Asheville, NC to pick up the last person for the trip and spend the night. We got there and they had dinner for us, then took us out on a quick tour of the city. We went up on one of the mountains and took pictures. This is one of me Standing by a cliff looking over the city.

The next morning we left on our 909 mile, 14 hour drive to Texas. We rented a trailer to take all of our stuff. We got about 400 miles into the trip and the second car(not mine) broke down. had no oil in it and got a bad batch of gas with water in it, so it took up a while to get it running again.....about 7 hours worth of fixing and tinkering. With a lot of work and prayer we got back on the road at about 8 and drove the rest of the trip. We arrived at the base at 3 in the morning Central time (4 in the morning Eastern time). So it was quite a long trip and I am glad to be in TX again. Thank you for all your prayers and support. I still need your support, so please keep me in prayer especially for finances, I am still in need of more for tuition and outreach.

God Bless
-Ben

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My month between schools

I now have a month before the School of Evangelism begins, and I am currently back in Ohio trying to raise support for it. It will cost another $3,350 for the school and another $2,000 for the outreach, which I am pretty sure that I am supposed to go to Germany. So I am telling what has happened these last 5 months and trying to raise funds for the next five. It is not by my power that the money will come in, but by God. So please keep me in prayer as I do what God has called me to and that the supply would come in.

The Last Two Weeks

Our last two weeks were spent in Asan, and this is how it went.
On Sunday the first we left from our hostel in Seoul to Asan at 3:30. We arrived at the Asan city hall at about 5, then unloaded all of our things. 6 o'clock we gathered in the main meeting room of the city hall and had an introduction video we watched, were greeted, and introduced to our host homes. We left to our host homes for the night. Going home with my host family, they didn't speak a lick of English, so when I got to the house and their son was home from college and he spoke English I was relieved.
Monday We went to the Taeckmin methodist church for a service. We didn't do anything during that service, we were mostly there for appearances. When the service was finished we ate snacks with the kids and played with them a little. For lunch we went to a very nice restaurant (complements of the city) and had an interesting dining experience. In the afternoon we went to the Habitat for humanity village outside of town, a part of the jimmy carter work project. It was a dump community until HfH came in and built a small community of houses in that land. During that time we took a tour of the area, then went back and played games with the kids and ate with them, just a time to show people love.
Tuesday we went to Samil Presbyterian Church. We did worship, gave a few testimonies, and did one of our drama's. Samil is the church that the Korean "English as a second language" students from are base are from and the home church of my former roommate. In the afternoon we went to an Orphanage in the city. We were told about the orphanage and then we played with the kids, danced with them, karaoke with them and just did our best to show them the love of Christ.
Wednesday we packed up and left our host homes (Chinese new year is a big holiday so we left so they could celebrate it) and went to the city hall. We dropped off our stuff and headed out for a hike up the beautiful mountain outside the city. after going up and coming back down we went back the the city hall and got our belongings and headed to a Condo outside of the city. In the afternoon we went to a Korean history Museum an General Yi's memorial shrine and museum. It was cool to learn about the history of the country that we were in.
Thursday we had the morning to sleep in because the church that we were supposed to visit canceled on us. so we had a meeting at 11 and then we went to a historic replica village to learn more about Korea's past.
Friday we got up and went to some kind of bible museum. it was strange to me because we had to dress up in these white robes (just imagine what that looked like) and it had the life up Jesus in clay models, and a replica of what a temple would be like. it was kind of strange. The Afternoon we spent at a nursing home, doing worship, talking and socializing with the people there, and then serving them dinner and feeding it to some of them. It was a different experience.
On Sat. we met in the meeting room of the building next door, and had a "dwell" time. We spent time as a group seeking God and spending time with him in his presence. It was nice to do that alone together for the first time since we got to Korea. For lunch we went out to Pizza Hut (complements of the city of Asan) and had pizza for the first time in a while. After lunch we went out to E-mart for people who needed to shop, I jsut got batteries and hair wax(like gel). Later that afternoon we went back to our host homes.
Sunday we spent the day with out host homes. I went to church with them in the morning and then spent the rest of the day off resting at the apartment.
Monday we started teaching English in the schools and it was quite interesting. it was hard to get the kids to talk, and when they did, they weren't as advanced as we were led to believe. It was hard to get them to do anything and they were too embarrassed. In the afternoon we went to the salvation army children's center and spent time with the kids there and served them dinner and cleaned up afterwards.
Tuesday we were teaching English in the schools. In the afternoon we spent time at a daycare playing with the kids and doing activities with them.
Wednesday we started teaching English in an all girls school. we had classes of 30 and had one class for 3 hours, it was quite fun. In the afternoon we went to a daycare and played with the children, then went to a church and taught English to the kids there.
Thursday we we back in the all girls middle school teaching English with a different class for another three hours. In the afternoon we visited the Hyundai plant just outside the city. It was cool to see how they make their cars with so many machines. We left the Hyundai plant and went to the Samsung LCD plant. they showed us how they made LCD screens and what they were used for.
With the help of our base director the city of Asan signed an agreement of sisterhood with the city of Tyler, to share economical ideas and trade students and education. We are the first Americans from Tyler to come to Asan since that happened. It didn't hit us until we were here but we are representing a lot being in this city. We are representing; YWAM, Tyler, Texas, and America for God.....WoW that is a lot! Its amazing what God will do with you if you just obey his call.
So that is up till now in a nutshell. Miss you all and am looking forward to heading back up north.

I Love South Korea

Good Lord the Lord is Good.
I am having a great time here in SK. The flight was long and fairly boring, the movies weren't that great (but luckily the return flight will have better movies like rush hour 3 and ratatiulli?) We arrived at the Icheon/Seoul Airport on Thursday night and went right to the Seshin Methodist church in a suburb city of Seoul at about 10. The next morning we got up at 5 because of the jet lag, got ready then went to breakfast at 7 (24/7 Mcdonalds across the street, just as crappy as they are in America). 8 o'clock we left for the church's brand new retreat center.
We worked with a weekend youth event happening there with youth from that church, about 130 of them. When we got there we went right into doing worship (barely had time to tune and make a set list), we had activities with the kids as a whole, and did some teachings. Then we had lunch, my first time with Chop Sticks in SK, I had several kids show me how to properly hold them. Then in the afternoon we had more worship, then we split the kids up into 4 different groups and had them go to different activities/games that would help them work on their English and have fun. I helped work with one activity where we gave them all a picture and they had to make up a story about the picture and what they thought was happening. Then we had dinner, pork cutlets, it was good. After dinner we had one more worship time, a teaching and then a time of ministry. That night we had 5 come to Christ for the first time, 13 rededicated their lives and many other we prayed over, but those are Just statistics, we are praying that was really what was in their heart. we finally went to bed at about 10 that night......a.k.a. 8 in the morning back home......bla!
Saturday we had some more worship then broke off into small groups and talked with them in smaller groups(9 people) about what they thought about the weekend and what God had done with them. Then the program ended. That afternoon we went back to the church and stayed there for a little while until we split up and want to host homes.
It was amazing to me getting close with these kids really quick, usually outsiders are not as welcome into such groups. The kids/youth were amazing and fun to hang around with, and very cute. One kid kept calling me Chris Jericho, a WWF wrestler who has a pony tail and goatee like mine. There were a bunch of people who were calling me Legolas.......it took me a day and a half to figure that one out.
Last night I spent my first night in a host home. I got there and used the Internet, then took a shower. That night we spent 2 hours sitting in their living room talking and working on English.
Today we went to the church and participated in the services. at the Youth (high school/college) service I gave my testimony(last minute idea), which was great because it fit right in with Josh's (our leader)message. then we played one of our worship songs for them, my whole group finds it funny because I get so into the music and I start moving around to the music. We went to the park after the youth service and gave out traks and did our skits......I hate doing tracks.....its lame.....and NEVER WORKS!!
Tonight for dinner we had Pizza...........it was not like the usual Za.....it had a TON of toppings on it includig slices of potato. We had some time off before going back to our host homes for the night so a bunch of us went to a local coffee shop (Seven Monkeys Cofee) and chilled there for a bit.
We worked with a DTS this week, and now we are working at one of the churches in Icheon for an English camp. It is kind of like a VBS.
I am loving this country, the people, the city, the culture. I think I might come back after college to teach English.




God Bless
-Ben Collins

We Have Arrived!

We arrived last night at the Youth Center in Morris, IL after an 18 hour trip. we are settling in and preparing for the work ahead. tonight we will be going to a bible study at someones house and leading worship and prayer. I will keep you updated on what we will be doing, when I know.

Thank You
Keep us in your prayers
-Ben