5 am

Yes! I got up at 5 am today, left the apartment at 5:30, and made it to a prayer group called no more walls (on the other side of Seoul) right on time at 6:30. There were three older guys there, one of whom was American. The other two were Korean. I expected it to be a bigger group. Honestly, I was a little disappointed at first, but as the hour and a half of prayer went on, I was really glad I was there. I wasn't glad I was there because of how inspiring the prayers were, but because I was joining in lifting up North Korea with Koreans. As I have been sharing my heart for North Korea with some of my Korean friends in the past few weeks, most of them have told me they don't think all that much about North Korea. Some of them are scared of what will happen when the walls come down. A few have thanked me for wanting to go there and just simply having concern and love for the country. Anyhow, I loved lifting that country up for more than an hour this morning. What an incredible thing prayer is! There are very few things I can do for (much less in) North Korea right now, but still I have the avenue of prayer, and that is the most powerful tool there is! We even got a full page list of the government leaders in North Korea, and prayed for them by name. That's an incredible thing...to be asking for the salvation of a page full of leaders of North Korea. As we were praying, I read from Nehemiah 9 - first, proclaiming the greatness of God, and then recounting some amazing things He did for the Israelites. I know that God wants to free North Koreans from under their oppressors, too. Lord, we wait on You to move! We pray that Your deliverance will come soon!

After prayer, I needed to be downtown to interview for placement in a Korean class at 11, so I went to Dunkin Donuts (yeah, we have those here, and they are excellent!) and read and journaled for almost two hours. I interviewed at 11 and found out (from not too much talking, but enough I suppose) that I am at high beginner level in Korean. He was impressed with my ability to read, but I guess not so impressed with my speaking. Well, at least I'm not beginner. Anyway, I found out they don't offer the time I was hoping to take classes (7-9am) because it's too hard to find a teacher for it. :( I need to be better about studying on my own, but I also really just need some structure that a class would provide. Oh, what to do....