Pictures of October

What a month! Multiple sports tournaments for my kids, a benefit concert, and a huge bike festival all amidst settling into our new apartment and keeping up with our usual responsibilities. Enjoy the pictures!

On Thursday, October 3rd (a holiday) my boys played in the annual Seoul Orphanage Soccer Tournament. It was the preliminary rounds and my boys won their two games that day 5 – 0 and 2 – 0. My boys are in the red jerseys in this picture.

On Saturday, October 5th, my boys played in the annual Seoul Orphanage Basketball Tournament. We won it all last year and all my boys returned from last year. Sadly, this time around we ended up losing to a huge Catholic orphanage that has 700 kids. My home has only 70 kids. We beat that orphanage last year, but this year we actually played the tournament at their home with all their kids cheering and their boys having vastly improved. We won our first two games before losing to them. They would go on to win the tournament. Here is a shot from one of the games. My boys are in white.

I love these boys! Dorm dad Dong Min (worker from the home) is also in the picture. He and I really encourage the kids in sports and building them up.

Sky enjoys connecting with them as well. This picture was taken in between games.

On Friday, October 11th, we had our third annual concert to raise funds for Oak Tree Project, our scholarship/mentoring program for orphans who want to go to college. We don’t like calling it a benefit concert because the performers are all top notch. This year we had La Ventana and Park Ju Won perform for us.

Here is Park Ju Won’s band doing their thing…

The audience loved it! Praise God for a successful concert!

We had fun taking pictures with the scholarship kids after the concert. This is a family shot with our four recipients all in the back, Jee in the middle, and Sky and me on the sides.

We are becoming more and more like family with the kids. I’m thankful God has opened the doors for this program to grow.

The very next day Sky and I woke up early to attend my boys semifinal and championship game in the Seoul Orphanage Soccer Tournament. We won the first game 3 – 0 but then had to face a super intimidating all boys home in the final. They had beaten the previous champion (the 700 kid home) 1 – 0, then demolished their other two opponents 12 – 0 and 6 – 0. My boys were super nervous and some didn’t even want to try, but we encouraged them and they played their hardest. We ended up winning 4 – 2 with two of our goals really being miracle goals (one goal was from the other half of the field). Sky and I were so proud of them! My home had only won the championship once before back in 2007.

If that wasn’t enough for one month, we had a “Bike Festival: Cycle For Hope” on Saturday, October 25th with about 700 people attending to bike and raise funds for Oak Tree Project and for House of Hope (a rehabilitation center for victims of sex trafficking). It was a huge event and I was so thankful that a bunch of my kids were able to attend for free. There were about 50 kids from different orphanages that we gathered along with 17 North Korean defectors we were also able to sponsor to attend. We raised at least $23,000 and likely a good amount more.

Here is Sky with Kyung Mee, both overseeing our Oak Tree Project information table at the event.

Jee with a few of her girls from her children’s home enjoying some cotton candy

Here I’m with a bunch of my kids about to go biking. I originally signed us up for 16 kilometers, but when they heard that the more you bike the more money is raised a bunch of them called out for us to do 40 kilometers (about 25 miles). So that’s what we ended up doing. I was proud of them!

Here is Jee with the scholarship recipient she is mentoring, Ji Hwi

As soon as I returned from biking 40 kilometers, the event coordinator ran to me and told me there was a change in the order of the events and that I would need to immediately go up on stage to receive a $10,000 check for the ministries. Much to Sky’s horror I didn’t have time to change and had to go up in my biking clothes with bike helmet hair. I think I looked fine, but that was probably because Sky had disallowed my previous exercise clothes and gotten me some newer ones. Even my kids at the children’s home were ashamed of my old exercise pants. =)

After a BBQ dinner, some presentations and mini concerts, I had to go up and receive another check with Pastor Eddie who helps oversee House of Hope.

Here I’m with Pastor Eddie and Pastor Peter, who helped coordinate with the Korea Tourist Organization to help make this event happen. Mighty men of God!

October was powerful! But I am thankful it is finally coming to an end. I’m looking forward to life getting back to a normal schedule.

Blessings!