Korean students

 YWAM Lausanne includes about 25% Korean students and staff.  Since the founding of this base more than 40 years ago, many young Korean Christians have come to take courses and in Discipleship Training Schools.  Lectures are given in both English and Korean in at least one of the quarters of the year; and even in Quarter 4, in which Terry and I are volunteering, and in which the focus is French and English, the students are helped from time to time by having the announcements and teaching translated into Korean.  There are courses in basic English given throughout the year.  The Korean students have varying levels of proficiency in English, but one thing is certain--they are all improving. 
As one of my volunteer opportunities, I was asked to tutor five students.  Four of them have individual times, and one other joins into a group discussion once a week.
JungMo wanted to improve his English because he is involved in leading the worship times.  He wanted to be able to pray aloud in English.  After our first lesson, I encouraged him, "OK, now you can pray in English!"  He was a little taken aback, but did so.  Then he was so pleased that he had overcome this hurdle.  The next step with JungMo is to pray in English before worship time, in front of the whole group.  I challenged him to write down a list of Biblical words.  We've been using our time together to discuss each word and how it is used in a sentence. 
HanSol, sometimes called Hans Solo by his friends, was interested in learning to preach in English.  We discussed the story of the Prodigal Son, and I learned a new perspective on this well known parable as he expounded on his views.
ChangGyu and I reviewed English grammar quite intensively, mostly having to do with the various past tenses, and the irregular past participles of verbs. One day he told me of his adventures with the ambulance and the insurance company, after he fell 3 metres onto some rocks at the lake.  We worked on polishing his story, and he made a speech to one of our small groups. 

ChangGyu

AeYoung and SuHyun joined in a discussion group once a week.  We drilled for a few weeks, for example, picking up slips of paper which  required an answer of more than "yes" or "no".  Then I asked their advice on restaurants in the city.  The girls said to ChangGyu, "We saw you housekeeping in your room."  They were intrigued that ChangGyu and his wife had a little fridge in their room.  "I have a fridge, too", I said.  "I just put my food on the windowsill." Laughter.
What do you want to talk about next week?" I asked them.  Their response was unanimous.  "Jesus!"
We spent the next few weeks going over the topics that had already been introduced in various meetings. I wrote down some questions to get them started, and they quickly photographed the questions with their phones! It wasn't boring, because they had to come up with personal applications to the ideas presented.  Originally they may not have understood everything that had been said. It was interesting to hear their individual stories. 
The first discussion was about hearing God's voice, then we talked about difficult times in our lives, finally we explored in more detail the ways God had provided for us.

SuHyun and AeYoung

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JungMo, HanSol, and ChangGyu

When the students realized we were actually leaving early the next morning, there was a steady stream of knocks on our bedroom door, as they came, one by one, to say goodbye, offer a box of chocolates, letters and cards, and say, " Please come back!"