it's your turn to blog...

Here is a random picture from our Nepal trip.  Can you come up with a story behind it????? Leave a comment with what you think it going on.  In a couple of days we'll tell the real deal.

Easter surprise

When we got back from Nepal we had this waiting for us at school:Thanks Dad and Jean for the great Easter care package!

What a week in Nepal does to my face...

We're Back

We will for sure write more about Nepal in the coming days, but we wanted to let everyone know that we made it home safely. We flew through the night (yuck) and got into Korea early this morning. It's great to be home.

Our trip was amazing. It exceeded our expectations on many different levels. We're excited to share with you all our experiences via the blog once we've caught up on school/sleep. If you get a chance pray for our tiredness. We're pretty exhausted from the trip (a good kind of exhausted...but exhausted none the less) and we start back at school early tomorrow morning. Transitioning from a under-developed physical environment but spiritually rich environment back to a very developed location and lots of work can be challenging. Please pray that in this transition we can have grateful hearts for our home and jobs, and that the work God did in Nepal would continue on even after we have left. Thanks, also, for all the prayers for our trip. It truly was a great experience, lives were changed, and God moved in powerful ways. We can't wait to share more...!

Prayers for Nepal

Like Tom said, we're headed off to Nepal! Yeah! Some people have asked how they can help support/pray for our trip, so here are a few prayer requests:

1. Safety! We're going to be on some interesting bus rides and hikes around Nepal. We should be just fine (everything was great last year), but its something that's important to pray for.

2. Physical well-being. Last year I (Bonnie) got pretty sick upon our return after the trip. Pray for our health (especially our stomachs) as we interact with a new environment. Any prayers for spiritual and physical protection would be awesome.

3. Trip leading. Like Tom said, trip leading is nerve wracking! Really Tom has been the trip leader and I've been his little helper, and he's done a great job so far. Pray for all the little decisions we need to make along the way and that we'd lead, serve, and love well.

4. Our students. Pray that that their eyes and hearts would be open to whatever God has for them. I hope its a powerful trip for all involved.

5. The people of Nepal. From the RANCH (Remote Areas of Nepal Children's home) kids to the locals we'll meet along the way to the Every Mountain Child staff (the organization we're going through), we hope that they will be physically, emotionally, and spiritually served.

6. Joy and adventure. It's our hope that this trip would be life giving and full of joy.

Thanks! Much Love!!!

Off to Nepal

Well Bonnie and I are headed off to Nepal in about 12 hours. We are taking a total of 7 staff and 13 students on our mission/service trip. We are leading the trip and I have never been personally responsible for the safety and well-being of so many people before. It is kind of nerve racking.

We have an overnight layover in Thailand which is like 9 hours long so that makes things all the more interesting. I will feel much better when we get to Nepal and get to behold some of these things:

Weekend Adventures

This past weekend our friends, Andy and Lindsey from the other side of Korea, came to visit us. We always love spending time with them, and due to our overworked schedules we don't spend as much time with them as we'd like! But we were blessed to have them stay with us in Suwon. While they were in town we went on a few adventures.

Adventure 1: Visit the Inca Exhibit. I have a dream to hike the Inca Trail in Peru and see Machu Picchu with my own eyes. So I was PUMPED to see this exhibit, as you can tell...
I got extra excited when I saw Machu Picchu in the stairs outside the exhibit!
Alas, the exhibit was lame. Everything was explained in Korean and the only cool artifact was Pizzaro's (the explorer) sword. Otherwise it was little pots and this:
One day I'll have a legit picture of this from the real Machu Picchu.
Adventure 2: Middle Eastern Food. It was my first time! We got humus and shish kabobs (which I didn't even know what a real shish kabob was). So good!

Adventure 3: Going to the super shady looking "Red Door" foreigner market. It literally was this hidden store with no signage that sold foreign foods (like poptarts). I felt like we were doing something illegal...and the door wasn't red.
Adventure 4: Have a Co-Mo (Columbia, Missouri) love fest with the Patton's and the Stewarts. We ate good food and had a great time hanging out.

The Stewart Kids...Meet Lia and Zach. We celebrated Zach's bday with a Cold Stone cake!

beef burgers

Growing up I loved when Grammy Jo made us beef burgers! Okay...the rest of the world calls them "sloppy joes" but we've always called them "beef burgers" which I think is a way cooler name. Anyway, I wanted to continue to celebrate my Grammy Jo this week, so I decided to make one of my all time favorite Grammy Jo meals from when I was younger...beef burgers (my mom can make an awesome beef burger too). I know it looks kind of gross in the picture, but man...they're so good!!! Grammy Jo style beef burgers would be on a hot dog bun, but those are harder to find here so I just used a flat piece of bread. Here's an action shot:
Grammy Jo, I promise that my future children and grandchildren will eat the "Grammy Jo Beef Burger" recipe. My mom and I will keep the tradition of goodness going.

Jolene Robertson

This is a picture of Grammy Jo at Tom and I's wedding. We all really love this picture of her.

We've been asked by a few people about Grammy Jo's funeral information and so I wanted to post a link to her obituary. Rupp Funeral Home in St. Joe, MO is handling all the arrangements. My dad's cousin, JL Robertson, is the Vice President of the funeral home and he's been great at helping my family through this process. If you go to the Rupp Funeral Home website you can click on "Jolene Robertson" to read more about Grammy Jo and the funeral arrangements.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers, emails, comments, and thoughtfulness. We really appreciate your love and support.

she kept the faith

Grammy Jo,

I just found out that you are no longer with us. I am excited when I think about you being free from suffering and that you are hanging out with Jesus. But right in this moment I'm pretty sad. It's not that I wish for you to stay here, especially considering how much you've struggled physically the last few years and considering that you are now in a far better place, but we just love you and it hurts to lose you.

It's been hard to watch you battle Alzheimers. Thank you for your courage in fighting it. It's a scary, hard disease and you fought well. I felt so inspired by you when my mom shared with me about the day you left home and moved into Garden Terrace. She told me how you would just hold your rosary and say, "When I feel sad I just pray." You always stayed positive...I'm not quite sure how you did it, but even when things were rough you continued to smile and pray. Today, my mom and I talked how much you were a woman of faith, which is something I know to be true of you but yet I never really got a chance to ask you much about it. The Bible talks about how when we love Jesus, God bears fruit in us--"the fruit of the Spirit." Galatians 5:22-23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." When I look at each of these characteristics I feel like they describe you. Your life lived well was evidence of your faith. You overflowed with patience, love, gentleness, and peace.

We will miss you Grammy Jo, but I am so thankful for all the time I did get to spend with you. You are deeply a part of who God has made me to be thus far, and I'm very thankful for that.

I am sorry I wasn't there to say goodbye in person, but I know this is how God wanted it to be for me and for you. Know that even though I will not be present at your funeral I will be mourning your absence and celebrating your life while I'm here in Korea.

I think this describes you well...
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7

Love,
Bonnie Ann

Grammy Jo

(This is a picture with me and all my grandparents in high school. From left to right: Papa, Grammy Jo, me, Grandma Bonnie. They were my cheering section when I played sports.)

I have been blessed to have some awesome grandparents! I've blogged about one of my grandma's before but I wanted to share about my Grammy Jo. We call her Grammy Jo because, as the story goes, my grandpa would always yell, "Jo!!!" to get my grandma's attention (her full name is Jolene). So when my brother was little he started to repeat my grandpa and yell, "Jo!!!" So the name Grammy Jo has stuck.

I was so blessed to live by all my grandparents when I was young, so I get to spend a lot of quality time with them growing up. These are some of my favorite memories....

1. sleepover's at Grammy Jo and Papa's house. James (my brother) and I would stay with them at least once a month and we would fight over who would get to sleep on their love seat (small sofa) in their bedroom. We would also get to sleep with Smurf bedsheets. Remember the Smurfs? The blue cartoons? I loved those sheets!!!
2. on sleepover weekends Grammy Jo would send Papa to take us to rent movies!!! Some sleepover nights we didn't get to rent movies and on those nights we got to watch either Matlock or Murder She Wrote. To this day I love watching Matlock. I know there are Matlock haters out there...but it's a good show!
3. picking cherries off the tree in their backyard. Grammy Jo would always make my dad's favorite, a cherry pie, to reward us for our hard work.

4. helping decorate at Christmas. You know those people that are really fanatical about Christmas decorations? Yeah, that's my family. I loved helping Grammy Jo decorate the Christmas tree each year! She'd also make sugar cookies and she'd let James and I use the cookie cutters to cut out the cookies and then decorate them with sprinkles.

5. her saying the phrase, "Oh, Jim..." in reference to my Grandpa. You know "Tim the tool man Taylor" from the TV show Home Improvement? Well, Tim always got hurt working on stuff and so did my grandpa! Papa was always causing trouble and Grammy Jo would just shake her head and say, Oh Jim...She is such a patient lady!

6. getting to go play at Grammy Jo's work! She managed the gift shop at a hospital and it was awesome!!!! Stuffed animals, trolls, games, and everything else a kid could envy. I don't know if we ever left there without Grammy Jo getting something for us. I had a huge troll collection because of her! I loved it.
7. the permed porcupine. One of my favorite stuffed animals growing up was "Porky" the porcupine. Porky was great because he had long soft hair that I could play with. When I got chicken pox my mom washed all my stuffed animals and Porky came out of the dryer with a perm!!!! I was crushed! But Grammy Jo to the rescue...she got me a new Porky that was perm-less.

8. dumplings. My Grammy Jo could make the best chicken and dumplings...oh man, my mouth is watering thinking about it.

9. her being at my wedding. She was so beautiful that day.

10. just the little moments of spending time with her. She is a wonderful woman that is gentle, patient, loving, and kind. I feel very blessed to have her in my life.

Here are some pics going from being a little kid-o to being in high school.

Boys Basketball Banquet

We didn't host the boys basketball banquet like we did for the girls. It was hosted by our head coach and his family. Essentially we got together and ate a ton of pasta, salad, and breadcrumb coated and baked chicken breast. Then we had some brownies and ice cream. After that we gave out goofy awards. Here are some pictures from the night.

Even high school guys love Jenga:
Coach Thomas and 2 of his 3 kids:
Dayeon (bottom) and Do-Hwoe (doe-hey) having fun with the camera.
Terry (left) and Josh:
It was a good night and a great final way to celebrate our conference and tournament championships.

Love Plant Update

We've blogged before about our Love Plant, and how this one little plant symbolizes the health of our marriage...kind of. I mean, we have killed at least one love plant already...

Well, it's been a while and I feel like its time give you an update on how our plant is doing:



Unfortunately, it's a sad update. We forgot to water it before we went to Guam so when we came home it looked like this! Yikes! The cool thing about this plant though is that it bounces back well from adversity. So despite its sad state in the moment of this picture it has since had a full recovery. We watered it as soon as we saw it and by the next morning it was back to being perky.

Lessons to Learn:
1. Sometimes our marriage may have its challenges but as long as we take time to invest in our marriage (aka water the plant) and stay "rooted" in Christ, then it will continue to grow.
2. Don't be dumb. Water plants before you leave on vacation.

3 on 3 Tournament

The GIN (Global Issues Network) club hosted a 3 on 3 basketball tournament this past weekend. We put the tournament on so we could share more about what the GIN club does and so we could fundraise money for Haiti. The tournament was a lot of fun! I've never helped organize/host a tournament before, and although there were some things that could have been better, it was a success. We had 10 teams participate with a total of four different schools representing from around the area. It was a low key event (as you can gather from the homemade bracket above), but we had a really fun time raising support/awareness for GIN and Haiti.

The three on the left are GIN coordinators and the three on the right were the tournament winners from TCIS, our sister school.


GIN volunteers keeping score.


Action shot.

updates

Here are a few quick updates from Team Meyer:

This past weekend we got to hang out with some Columbians (as in, from Columbia, MO). Through a mutual friend we got connected to the Stewart Family. They lived in our old hometown of Columbia for 15+ years, they moved to Kansas City for a couple of years, and now they live 20 minutes away from us in Korea. They're a great family of four and they teach at another Christian school near where they live. It was so fun to hang out with them and chat about the things we love and miss from home...Flat Branch, the Artisan (which isn't called that anymore), the Columbia Mall (haha...not. anyone that's been to Columbia knows that mall is not a Co-MO highlight unless you're meeting my mom's mall walking friends, "the entourage"). And of course, because Columbia isn't that big of a town we discovered that we have quite a few mutual acquaintances. Overall, our blind-friend date with the Stewart's was a success.

Hopefully you've also noticed that we updated our blog's appearance. I felt inspired by the Pampered Mom and Mrs. Haid's blogs. I created our new blog header using Picasa (you can download the program for free). There are still a few things I want to change, but overall I like the direction we're going with our blog's looks.

Last Meyer update: This past Monday we ate at a Brazilian restaurant for the first time, called the Rio Grill. It is a MEAT FEST! Literally, you eat tons of meat. You pay a flat rate and then you can eat an unlimited amount of beef, chicken, or pork. They bring around different cuts/types of meat and they just keep coming around to your table feeding you until you tell them to stop. Oh my goodness...my mouth is watering just thinking about it. The joke at our school is that you go to the Rio Grill to get Meat Drunk. I think that is a fitting description of what we did (unfortunately, some may also call it gluttony).

I found this picture on the internet that shows the way in which the meat is served at the tables.

Clothing Drive

As I've mentioned on the blog before, I am one of the sponsors of the GIN (Global Issues Network) club at our school. Our GIN club will be going to an international GIN conference in Hong Kong in March (I will not be attending because I will be on a mission trip to Nepal). For the conference our school needed to make a video about any global issues topic. This is what the kids put together (I really did absolutely nothing to help make this video happen). I think the video is pretty great! I'm proud of their work.

Self-Imposed Media Blackouts

One interesting thing about living in Korea is that sometimes you have to initiate self-imposed media blackouts. For instance...

Right now America is viewing the finale of the Bachelor. This is a show that Bonnie and I enjoy very much. But, if we get on Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo!, etc then the suspense and surprise that we would get from watching the show tonight would be ruined. I want to witness Jake pick Vienna or Tenley (or neither, our prediction) in person not hear about it. So for the next 8 or 9 hours Bonnie and I will have to shut out the rest of the world. We can watch the show on our Slingbox when we get home.

For the Superbowl I didn't even check my personal e-mail. Thanks to Joe Fambro post idea.