Good Day All,

I thought I would take a few minutes and let you all know how we are doing so far. It will be 2 weeks on Monday and it seems to have gone by fast.

We got in late Monday just to find our apartment on the 5th floor with no elevator. Our "penthouse" is nice with 2 bedrooms and a very large kitchen. It is fairly new with a few exceptions but it (and all the apartments apparently) are designed for someone 5 feet tall. The sinks are at thigh level and the light fixtures can really put a knot on your head. We are right next to school and most of the teachers and some of the staff live here in the same building. Not much of a view but I think it will stay warm in the winter.

We started classes last Monday and the first day was tough. I have 6 new classes with some scattered resources but I am making due. Bets has 12 I believe in her grade 6 and it started out slow but seems to be getting better. Her computer keeps crashing on her and without being able to access the server to see her unit plans and such she is about ready to chuck it out the window.

Other than that, we are finding Korean people to be very hospitable and respectful. We don't stand out as much here as in Africa. Shopping is an adventure because many of the labels are in Korean with no pictures. We seem to be doing well so far. I have been to most of the big stores and by big I mean really big. One place called Kuomo World is about the size of a Wal-Mart but 6 stories high. You can get just about anything you would want. I bet there are at least 10,000 cell phones for sale in there. I was looking around with another teacher the other night and he mentioned that there was a KFC in the bus station so we stopped in and I brought some home for our anniversary dinner. Things are fairly expensive here so we are saving some $ to maybe go somewhere over Christmas break. Some other teachers are going to Thailand and some to Taiwan but we really haven't looked into that yet.

We are fortunate to find that there are some really good kids here. I will be boy's soccer coach starting Tuesday and girl's basketball coach starting in March. Betsy will be advising the Model UN Club starting sometime soon.

That's about it. It has been very busy and very hot. 90's with humidity and rain. It should start cooling off soon.

Take Care and God Bless,

Brian & Betsy

Greetings All

We wanted to send you all a letter letting you know how our summer is going. We arrived back in MN June 16 and it was nice to be home. Betsy went out first thing to smell her cow and I watched a Twins Game on TV. We spent the July 4 holiday with my family up north and got out to Chicago and Port Huron MI for business and to see family. Other than that, we have been running around seeing people and getting things done. We picked a lot of rock in the bean fields and painted the chicken house at the farm.

We managed to save about $400 by scoping the Internet for discount airline tickets to Korea. Our passports with our fancy visas from the Korean Consulate in Chicago just came back UPS today so we should be all set. We are getting things ready to pack today deciding what clothes to bring and all that. Gwangju gets chilly in the winter so we have to bring jackets and sweatshirts and more long pants. With the new baggage restrictions for int'l flights we have to really think ahead.

We know that a lot of you have been asking how we finished with our fundraising. We were fortunate to have many new supporters this past year and we appreciate it very much. This year we knew what to expect in terms of how things go but what we did not expect is a huge rise in living expenses mainly food prices. Combine that with the falling US dollar and we were stretched pretty thin. The exchange rate when we arrived was around 500 cfa to a $ and in May 08 it was under 400 cfa so we were living on 20% less income. We finished better than we thought we would in terms of our fundraising ending about $7,000 short. Many of you have been giving generously for some time now and we thank you for that. We are obligated to balance our account so we are asking you if you would prayerfully consider continuing to partner with us. We have around 100 supporters and 2 months worth at $30 a month each would get us very close to our final goal. If you would like to contribute financially t!
o our ministry please make checks payable to "Department of World Mission" and "Brian & Betsy – Cameroon" in the memo.

The Evangelical Covenant Church
World Mission Dept. STM Support
5101 N Francisco Ave
Chicago, IL 60625

We fly this Sunday out of MPLS through Chicago – Seoul and on to Gwangju. The 2nd leg is a real treat. We take off at noon local in Chicago and land around 4pm Monday in Seoul after a 14 hour flight. I hope the movies are good. Korean Air would not let us pay for our commuter flight to Gwangju until we got to Seoul so our reservations had better hold up.

That's about it from here. We will send another update when we settle in over there next week sometime. If you are in the area and want to see us off, come to the Trimont Covenant Church at 7pm on Friday for a fun night of stories and sharing. Dessert will be served and gifts for the kids.

Thank you all. Take Care and God Bless

Brian & Betsy