A good shoulder

Yesterday, I had my annual Christmas breakdown. Every year I get emotional over being far away from my family and friends. Sparing the details, it was time to cry. And so I did... I called my  mom at 3am (her time) and cried it out with her. I love my mom. My amazing and loving husband walked into the house with me in the floor crying to my mom over skype. He came in, sat on the floor with me and gave me his shoulder. It's a really good shoulder. I'm thankful.

Date Night

Date Night!

Times Square, South Korea

YES! Mexican Food!

This was only some of what we ate! We went on a food marathon!

 
Friday night, Derek and I had our bi-weekly date night! We journeyed into Seoul for some yummy and much needed Mexican food! YES! On the Border is here in Seoul! We salivated for hours over the menu...(preoccupied at work)...and planned our a food marathon! We decided we would start with an appetizer and drinks, wait a while and order an entree, then maybe even another appetizer. Our eyes were larger than our stomachs...sad day. We have immediate plans to go back and try again!
We walked around the mall and took pictures with the huge Christmas tree outside.

Times Square Mall is a really innovative and streamlined building. We enjoyed walking around the mall, window shopping in Tiffany and Company, Gap and Starbucks. Unfortunately, the only thing we could ever afford here would be coffee or a smoothie! IMPORTS!

 Date night with the hubby is one of my favorite nights! Its great to relax together, to anticipate hanging out with each other and to spend some time catching up after the exhausting week!

Saturday we spent almost 5 hours cleaning our house! It is now ready for our second annual "Foreigner's in Korea Christmas Eve Extravaganza!"

 We are hosting 12 delightful friends at our house for fun, games and food!

Starbucks with a a Smoothie King on top!

Times Square

Happy Holidays!

Hey, it's the husband.

Hey all who frequent our blog. It's Derek. Anlee's really good at being a consistent blogger. I'm not, as those of you who've looked at my other blog can attest. I guess I just doubt that people really read these things (maybe cause I don't really read these things) and if nobody's gonna read it then why write it? But here I am, blogging. So, what interesting thing can I share with all you invisible bloggy (bloggery?) people? Hmmm...

Marriage is awesome! Really! I love being married to Anlee. The last four months have been awesome! I've told a lot of people that in many ways, I am the most content, free, and confident that I've ever been. It's not perfect (nothing is) and it has its challenges, but it is wonderful. Anlee and I are having a great time. Being here has some perks for a newlywedded couple. Mostly, we don't have to worry about too many bills, such as rent or car stuff. That is really nice. I would say we don't have as many responsibilities to fill up our time, but that's not exactly true. Somehow, we've got ourselves involved in a lot of stuff and find ourselves actually quite busy. Not really sure how that happened living in Korea.

Being here has been much better than we were expecting this year. After the wedding, we both were really wishing we were not coming back for another year. But there has been a lot of blessings so far this year. We've developed deeper relationships with some of the people in our lives. This has been really encouraging and life-giving. We have a Bible study group that meets at our place every tuesday. This has been a good time to grow closer to others here.

Personally, I've been on a reading and writing kick as of late. I've been tearing through books. It's been great. Recently finished The Great Divorce and The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis and The Language of God by Francis Collins. Anlee and I both got each other some books for Christmas and I'm really excited to start those. It's kinda ridiculous, but we have a pretty decent-sized library going here. Gonna cost a bit to get it all home.

As for writing, my friend Tripp and I were talking several months ago about our desire to attend seminary, yet our uncertainty if it would ever happen, and we came up with the idea to give each other writing assignments in the meantime. And it's been awesome. We give each other a prompt, a page length and a due date. And when we finish, we comment on and critique each other's paper. We've each written two papers now. I've found it very rewarding. It's been a great opportunity for me to get out some of the mass of thoughts that I've aquired over these past 5 years of what I'll call spiritual wrestling. This past paper especially gave me the opportunity to flesh out in words much of the realizations and understanding that I've come in this journey of faith. I just posted the paper if you want to check it out. Comments or critiques are welcome.

Well, I could say more, but nobody likes a super long blog post. I miss everybody back home. Anybody is welcome to come visit us. We have an extra room (with a piano in it!). Seriously, we would love it if any of you came to visit us. Flights run anywhere from about 900. You'd have free lodging and free, knowledgeable tour guides. When else are you gonna visit Seoul? Or Asia? Just know the invitation is open. OK. Peace out homies, derek

Derek's Faith Paper

On Faith

Faith is simple

On one level, faith appears to be a simple thing. According the writer of Hebrews, it is confidence in the reality of something we do not see, or something that we are looking forward to. Similarly, Mirriam-Webster’s definition includes the words “firm belief in something for which there is no proof.“ This seems plain enough. Isn’t such faith apart of our everyday existence? We have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow morning. We can be fairly confident in this faith, because we’ve seen it happen thousands of times, and have been told that it’s happened thousands of more times (which we believe by faith), but it’s faith nonetheless because it hasn’t happened yet. We also show faith when our friend agrees to meet us at a certain time and place and we show up at the agreed upon time and expect him to be there. The level of confidence that we place in our friend may be slightly less than in the sun rising because we have not witnessed the consistency of our friend’s promises as much as the sun, and besides that, we can think of several excuses that would cause him to break his promise. In both of these situations, we place our trust in something that is not certain. This is faith at its simplest, most fundamental level.
Faith is risky

When it comes to faith in a god or as a basis for determining our worldview, faith doesn’t always show itself to be so simple. One reason for this is that faith is risky. By its very nature, it carries with it an element of risk. While the risks may not be all that apparent in small, everyday matters, they are more obvious in matters of beliefs about life. All faith involves placing our trust in something that is not certain. Whether we are trusting in the ability of the government to rule rightly or in the historicity of the Bible’s claims, we place our hope in something we cannot prove. We can be confident in the object of our faith but not certain. We always risk being wrong. We always risk being made the fool. When we are talking about our friend meeting us, the risks are nothing more than the time it takes to get there and feeling slightly foolish when he doesn’t show up. However, when it comes to a worldview, the risks are much greater. Here we are choosing to base our whole existence on faith. If we are wrong, we are living by a lie and it has eternal implications. We also leave ourselves open to ridicule and critique by those who don’t share our faith.
Faith is not emotions

Before we go any further, we must note two things that faith is not. First, faith is not a feeling or emotion. Faith of any value will be much deeper than our emotions. Emotions change unexpectedly and not necessarily due to a change in our knowledge of the facts. You may have a feeling that something bad is going to happen to you today, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you believe that feeling. C.S. Lewis says, “Faith...is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods” (Mere Christianity 138-139). If we based our faith and beliefs on emotions or moods that can shift by the minute, we’d be exceedingly confusing creatures and would make little progress in life. There are times, and lots of them for certain types of people, when faith seems to be driven by the roller-coaster of emotions, but I think what we are looking at in these times is mostly emotion and hardly faith. We hold our faith beliefs at a deeper level; they are more consistent and not likely to be changed simply by an emotion. In fact, emotions are more likely to be changed by faith. Emotions may affect faith to a degree, but if they were the sole basis for faith, faith wouldn’t be anything worth talking about.
Faith is not illogical by nature

One other thing that must be stated is that faith is not by nature illogical or against reason. Faith is not necessarily logical or illogical. It may be either one of these terms, but it can be defined by neither. It is more logical for me to place my faith in the sun rising tomorrow than in it not rising because all the evidence suggests that it will rise. It is logic that leads me to believe that my wife loves me because I see signs of it in what she does for me. Reason can lead us to faith and it can lead us away from it. While reason can carry us only so far in matters of faith, faith rarely works without some degree of reason. Marxist scholar Terry Eagleton, in his review of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion, writes, "Reason, to be sure, doesn't go all the way down for believers, but it doesn't for most sensitive, civilized, non-religious types either. Even Richard Dawkins lives more by faith than by reason. We hold many beliefs that have no unimpeachably rational justification, but are nonetheless reasonable to entertain" (Timothy Keller, The Reason For God, 120).
Faith is based on evidence

Faith is always by nature without certainty, but it is hardly ever without some evidence. It is a fool who chooses faith apart from any evidence. Everybody lives by faith in some aspects of their lives. In most cases where there is an opportunity for faith, it is usually a choice between faith in this or faith in that, or faith in an event happening or faith in it not happening. Rarely are we presented with faith as one option and complete certainty or fact as the other. We all use logic to compile the evidence and choose where to place our faith. When it comes to matters of faith, people may disagree on the weight to give certain evidence, but they can rarely argue that there is no evidence whatsoever.
Much evidence for faith is relational

If faith is almost always accompanied by evidence, then a look at the characteristics of that evidence will help shed some light on our understanding of faith. It seems to me that quite often the evidence we base our faith on is relational. What I mean is that it is affected by whether or not we deem another person, group, or entity trustworthy. We will take the risk of putting our faith in another if we trust their character. Our faith is a recognition of their faithfulness or goodness. When I open a history or science book to learn something about the subject, I am showing that I trust the character of it’s authors, or maybe the publishers of the book. When a little boy obeys his parents when they tell him not to play in the road, he is trusting in the goodness of his parents. The faithfulness of the parents is the evidence for the faith of the child. There may be other evidence that influences the child not to play in the road, but his confidence in his parents’ goodness certainly plays a major role. When faith is affected by the character of its object in this way, there exists a relationship between the possessor of the faith and its object. In such instances, faith is not simply an intellectual, cognitive belief but becomes synonymous with trust. Not trust that a certain belief is true, but trust in a person. It is a decision to trust a source. Furthermore, when faith is embedded in trust in another individual our source, when it has this relational component, it is hardly ever a one time decision to have faith, but is usually part of an enduring confidence in the faithfulness of that particular individual or source. We see this in most cases of learning.

A faithful source leads to confident faith

Much of what we “know” we learned from teachers or reading up on a subject. In both cases, for any learning to happen, we must make a decision to trust in the source. Lesslie Newbigin, in his book The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, has the following observation: “If we consider what is involved in learning to know anything, we will see that knowing has to begin with an act of faith. We have to trust the evidence of our eyes and ears, or, if we are learning a language, or learning science or history or any other branch of knowledge, we have to begin by trusting those who undertake to teach us” (19). Learning in this sense is rarely a matter of trusting individual bits of information, again and again, at each and every point, but is most often an enduring decision about the trustworthiness, or faithfulness, of the source. In fact, Mirriam-Webster’s definition of faith also includes the words: “steadfast in affection or allegiance.” It is in this understanding of faith that we say things like, “I have faith in my friends,” or “I have faith in the government.” In saying these things we profess something of an obedience or allegiance on our part. Such statements reveal the relational aspect of faith, and how the faithfulness, trustworthiness, or goodness of an individual or source leads to confident faith.
Faith according to Christianity

We now turn to faith as it relates to Christianity in particular. That faith is central to Christianity and the Bible is clear. The Bible says things such as, “The righteous will live by faith” (Rom. 1:17), faith “is of greater worth than gold” (1 Pet. 1:7), and even “everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23). Jesus commands and commends faith. “Have faith in God,” (Mark 11:22) he tells his disciples, and to the crowds, “Repent and believe” (Mark 1:15). To some degree, faith of the Christian kind is just like the faith we find in everyday situations. As with any faith, faith in the Christian God is faith in something we do not see and that cannot be proved. Because of this, faith in the Christian God is risky. A Christian can be confident in his/her beliefs and hopes but not certain. But just like most faiths that people hold, Christian faith is not necessarily illogical, and is usually accompanied by much evidence. The nature of the evidence, and the weight given to each piece of evidence, varies from person to person, but no one makes a decision of this magnitude, no one chooses their worldview, without some evidence. Finally, Christian faith shares a likeness with many other types of faith in that much of its evidence is relational. Faith in the Christian God means trust in the goodness, faithfulness, and dependability of God Himself. And it is with this idea that we shall spend the rest of this paper.
Christian faith has a relational component

Faith, as presented in Christianity, is relational. The ideas and claims of Christianity are presented within a relational dynamic. They pertain not just to morality or a way of life, but speak of how one can have a relationship with God. Jesus, in addition to commanding faith, preached a message of obedience, trust, love and worship. “Trust in God, trust also in me,” he tells his disciples in John 14:1. And later on, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching” (John 14:23). The claims of Christianity are inextricably linked with the ultimate source of those claims. Biblical faith is much more than a cognitive, intellectual decision to agree with certain beliefs. If that was all it was, the Bible’s commands for faith and belief would be empty. Apart from a relational component, apart from the existence of a trustworthy source, a command for belief and faith is utterly ridiculous. Unless their exists a trustworthy being or source, we arrive at faith by a weighing of the evidence and reason, not because of a command. A command only makes sense in a relational dynamic.
Faith in God as revealed in the Bible

Now, there may be debate about whether or not the God of the Bible exists in the first place. If the participants in this debate do not permit the claims of the Bible to carry any weight or truthfulness-in other words, if faith in the Bible is not accepted into the debate-then the relational dynamic of Christian faith can hardly be spoken of. In fact, I’m not sure if any significant aspect of Christian faith can be spoken of at this point. Not because Christian faith is dependent on the Bible alone, but because Christian faith is dependent on the God who is revealed in the Bible. Christian faith involves both believing in the Bible’s revelation of God and trusting in the God of the Bible. Much could be said about this dual nature of Christian faith, but all I will say here is that the two work together and are less distinct then they seem.
Trust in God is the goal of the Christian faith

Once one comes to belief in the Biblical God, he is carried along not so much by his weighing of the evidence and reasoning at each and every point, but by his trust in the faithfulness of God. Not that the weighing and reasoning don’t play a part, they’re just not the driving force. Donald Miller, in his book Searching for God Knows What, says, “I realized the gospel of Jesus, I mean the essence of God’s message to mankind...wasn’t a series of ideas we had to agree with either; rather, it was an invitation, an invitation to know God” (14). The journey towards Christian faith may begin by agreeing to certain beliefs about the world, its beginnings and purpose, but if it never gets beyond these cognitive assertions to a trust in God Himself, it never reaches Christian faith. A true Christian must move past the point of agreeing to certain truths, and begin submitting to the Being behind those truths. In conclusion, while firm belief in the validity of the objective truths of Christianity is critical, it is not the main concern or focus for the Christian. The believer is more concerned with trust, obedience, and worship. This is the nature of Christian faith. As the writer of Hebrews says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (12:2).

“There’s no arrival, but no denying

There’s something in you that is worth finding

There’s no completion with only reason

There’s no movement without believing

There’s more than these two eyes are seeing

By faith it’s finished, by faith we raise

By faith is every step alive…and this is how we rise

So a risk I will take and I’m letting it go

My need to be right and my fear of unknown

With a chance I’ll be wrong and a chance that I’ll fall

I’ll collapse in your arms, cause this is how we rise.”

White Christmas!!!

 We celebrated Nancy's birthday at women's group this week. Nancy hosts our group every other Wednesday at her home with her kids, Ana and Joseph, joining us. This is my adopted family here. Nancy was the first Christian I met in Korea. She took me to Dongsan my first Sunday in Korea. It was on that fateful day that I met Derek Fekkes...and you know the rest of the story.

She has taken me to doctor's appointments, Costco, field trips, tourist stops, taught me Korean, helped us find a piano, loved us dearly and made Korea and really great experience.

Sadly, (for me), she is moving to Canada with her family in March. Both Joseph and Ana were born in Canada. They lived in Canada for 7 years and New Jersey for 2. Song, Nancy's husband, is being transferred to Cananda again and Nancy is planning on getting her Masters in Vancouver! I'm excited that we will be 2-3 hours from each other after the Fekkes' move back to America!

 Best part: The cake I made Nancy with pudding!

We had a small birthday party for Nancy. Here are some of our Korean small group members:

Front row: Nancy, Joseph, Ana
Second row: Jennifer, Tiffany
Back row: Fiona

Could Joseph look more pleased?
:)

My favorite kids!

Charmaine made dokboki for the kids! (Korean snack food.)

Love them!

Nancy

 We woke up this morning to white streets and snowflakes. Derek is on the phone trying to call his ride to school. I'm bouncing up and down like Christmas came 8 days early!!!

I'm dreaming of a white christmas!

Guess what? We aren't that cold!

Students freezing!

Outside of my school.

My students having a snowball fight

Yay for SnowFest 2010! Oh wait, we had 13 inches of snow in one night back in January! Humm...starting the year off white and ending the same! I like it! Now, we should probably avoid mass transportation as I witnessed two wrecks on my way to school this morning. One of which the bus I was on pushed out of the way so we could keep moving! Oh Korea!!

The week in Review

We are 9 days from Christmas...I have baked an apple pie, chocolate cake, lasagna and pudding in the last week! We have our tree (12 inches tall), the 12 days of Christmas on the wall, a gift under the tree and Christmas cards on the piano. It's 10 degrees outside today, but not too cold. (This is when you know you have lived in Korea long enough!)

Last Saturday we joined some friends volunteering at a Homeless Shelter operated by the Gangwha Homeless Ministry in Seoul. We had a good time sharing smiles and food with the men and women there. We toured around their facility, sometimes climbing up ladders into rooms that you can only sit down in. No standing room available. Derek played guitar for worship and we joined our friends in praying and serving those at the church. This is the first time we have done a service project together as a married couple. Now, I'm looking forward to many more. I was able to see Derek with new eyes as I watched him bring joy to those around him.

After, we visited the New Times Square mall in Korea. It's a huge mall where you can feel like you are home! There are not very many "malls" here, where you can find all of your shopping indoors and it's spacious with a food court, etc. Here, the malls are sky scrapers with every available inch of space taken up by some fashionable item. There aren't major stores, only small booths or stalls. Needless to say it is hard to shop in this style. Times Square was good to us. We have been looking for boots for me for a couple of months and finally found some for a great price. We enjoyed the food court, too! This is a rare ocurance! Best yet, they have an On the Border that we plan on checking out this weekend. 

This was followed by a run to Costco! Enough said!


We finished the week by taking our favorite Korean kids out to dinner for Korean BBQ. They were so excited! It was great to see them smile and enjoy a gift from friends.

Let's Help Haiti

Derek and I are blessed with a really special person in our life. His name is Jesus. Because of this really special, loving man that we call Father and Lord, we have another very special person in our life. That would be our sister, Mary Elizabeth Hooke.

Mary came into our lives when we moved to South Korea. She joined our Bible Study in 2009. The three of us became instant friends, which eventually turned into one of the most powerful friendships we have ever had. Mary and Anlee became accountability partners and created/co-lead a women's support/bible study group. They discipled each other and loved each other. Derek and Mary volunteered on the worship team together.

Mary gave all of us a picture of Jesus' servants heart back in July when she left Korea to join the volunteer network in Haiti. Mary prepared herself for what was initially going to be three months in Jacmel, Haiti, working in a displaced women's and children's refugee camp. What was three months during the rainy season has now become four with a probable extension coming soon. Mary has moved on from her first assignment and is now apart of a project to protect the people of Jacmel, Haiti from the widespread Cholera outbreak. She is working alongside other volunteers to raise funds and transport needed and easily available (to us) re-hydration salts that would quickly restore health to people who are dying needless deaths each day.

Below is some information on how you can help Mary and her team help the people of Haiti.

Cholera has finally hit here in Jacmel, and it has hit hard.  Over the course of the past three days, the hospitals and clinics here have been struggling to accommodate the growing number of cholera cases and are running short on supplies.  As a result, over a hundred people have already died unnecessary deaths. 

In order to help fight this epidemic over the coming weeks and months, Ashley Saurel, Marc Quashie (Junior) and Mary Hooke are currently working together to set up a Jacmel Cholera Prevention and Treatment Fund, in order for people to be able to donate money that will go directly to supplying the needed treatment for cholera and supplies for cholera prevention in our city. 

In the meantime, however, people in our community are dying preventable deaths every day, due to a lack of fluids and proper medication.  If you are willing and able, please consider helping us take *immediate* action against this epidemic in one of the following ways:

(1) Send donations directly to Mary through Western Union.

Due to election-related demonstrations, many parts of downtown Jacmel are shut down this week, and we unfortunately do not have access to any bank accounts.  However, Mary can still pick up money from Western Union. Sending money this way will enable Mary and Junior to go out immediately and buy IV solution, azythromycin, and doxycycline-- all essential for the treatment of cholera, and all available in and around our city.  We will then be able to deliver these materials to the appropriate medical facilities-- including but not limited to Jacmel's Saint-Michel Hospital, a nearby emergency cholera rehydration clinic, and a Cuban hospital in the neighboring city of Cayes Jacmel. 

(2) Give through PayPal. 

One of the absolute most important supplies needed for the treatment of cholera is rehydration salts.  The bacteria itself is not what kills people-- it is severe dehydration that causes death. Unfortunately, rehydration salts are not available in Jacmel, and are in short supply at the hospitals here, as they are forced to rely solely on donations from outside the country.  In order to get these materials to medical centers in Jacmel as soon as possible, Mary plans to travel to Miami next weekend (December 17th) to purchase the rehydration salts and bring them back to Haiti by December 20th.  This is the most cost effective and secure way to get medical supplies into the country and directly into the hands of the people that need them most, especially given the urgency and time-sensitive nature of the need here.  Any money sent to our PayPal account will go towards buying this precious supply and delivering it to the medical facilities in Jacmel. 

To give through PayPal, copy and paste the following link into your web browser:

 https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=gJ0JAgRALC6o3SghWiFxOZxmdn9sqVpmeHOpm5BSRyykPyF32Pj23lrUb-u&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d9384d85353843a619606282818e091d0


(3) Invite others to help.

 If you know anyone who you think would have a desire to give, or to transport materials to Haiti, please do not hesitate to invite them to join this group, or to direct them to send us an email at jacmelcholerainitiative@gmail.com. 

If you have any questions or want more information on the situation here, feel free to email or to call anytime at 1 (919) 360 3899.  It is a US originating number, and so will be free of international charges for those of you who are US residents. 

Thank you for your support, and for your love and concern for the people of Haiti.

With appreciation and hope,

Ashley, Junior and Mary

ashley.saurel@gmail.com
junior_laf@yahoo.com
mary.hooke@gmail.com

From Derek and Anlee: We know it may be presumptous, but if any of you were planning to send anything our way, we would really like for it - instead - to be a gift to helping the people of Haiti.
Join the Facebook Group "Help Fight Cholera in Jacmel, Haiti" to learn more or visit Mary's blog at Take The World In A Love Embrace

D&A

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

We, Derek and Anlee, would really like for our family - The Fekkes', The Bozeman's, and The Rickerson's - to come visit us this Christmas. Santa, can you make this happen between the dates of December 26, 2010 and January 9th, 2011? These dates would be perfect! We can take vacation and show our lovely family around freezing cold Korea. Oh, about the weather, could you please bring a warm front with your sleigh? If not, please leave under the Christmas tree extra warm clothing, mittens and beanies for our families. We know you are hard at work making this happen Santa, and we are thankful! Oh, we've been good, so could you make sure you leave us an extra gift of friends visiting, too! 

Thanks Santa,

Derek and Anlee

1 Year Anniversary!

January - 1 month dating - Korea

February - Valentines Day - Manila, Philippines 

March - Anlee's Mom comes to visit - Korea

April - Cherry Blossom Festival - Korea

May - Hiking Gwankson - Engaged May 26 - Korea

June - Engaged 2nd Time with Ring - Korea

July 31 - Reunited in Washington State - USA

August 14, 2010 - Our Wedding - USA

September - 2010 - Reunited in Korea - Married

October - Busan International Film Festival - 2010 - Married

November - Thanksgiving - 2010 - Married

So, a year ago Derek asked me to be his significant other. We have spent the last year dating, being engaged, getting married and learning how to be married. We have been to three countries in the past 12 months are going to add two more in the next few weeks. We have shared spiritual growth, families, friends and new places with each other deepening our respect and love along the way. The past year has been amazing and we are blessed to be able to spend many more together.

Happy 1 Year Anniversary!

On the second day of Christmas my True Love gave to me...

Two Turtle Doves!

And a Partridge in a pear tree...

Happy December 2nd everyone!

First Day of Christmas

Derek's "Fist Day of Christmas" card - 2010

On the First Day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

A partridge in a pear tree!

Happy Holidays Family and Friends

Happy Holidays from the Fekkes'

Our first snow of the winter season after Thanksgiving dinner

Technically, we are on American soil right now

Our Bible Study family (L to R: Trish, Reggie, Derek, Anlee, Nikkia, Hyun Sung)

Our Table Mates for the evening

Notice the UGA pin on Anlee's sweater! Goooo Dawgs!

Christmas at Yongsan...Last year we were "just friends."

 Merry Christmas Friends and Family. We love you all and we wish you happy holidays.

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving meal this past Sunday at Yongsan Air Base in Seoul. We paid about $35.00 each, but we enjoyed two plates of dessert, Derek ate "yummy" sausage and Anlee had her turkey and "dressing."

As we walked outside after dinner, the snow was coming down hard! We have stopped checking the weather forecasts so we were not expecting snow, but we enjoyed the excitement of the year's first snowfall. It's now officially WINTER in Korea!

Last year, when we went as friends to this amazing Thanksgiving banquet. But, this year, we went as newlyweds. We are thankful for each other and for our friends and family who have encouraged us and loved us and continue to teach us how to love each other as Christ loves us. Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

His love and ours,
The Fekkes