With Thanksgiving approaching in the States (but not in Korea), it's only natural that I comment on how blessed I am this past year and how thankful I am. Indeed, Thanksgiving is most likely my favorite holiday, so I'll miss the celebrations in USA, but there was a little get-together Thanksgiving party with an assortment of food made by the group of churchgoers at the English serivce that I go to at Jeil Church here in Suncheon, Korea. But, that's beside the point except for to serve as an illustration of a blessing--the blessing of being able to feel at home many miles away from home becaues of good people and friends.

What I really want to say in the short time I have to write tonight is to describe a brief story that happed today to serve as an example of the many, many small blessings that I keep experiencing and can only conclude that God is really and truly looking out for me here in Korea because of said blessed happenings. But, anyhoo, the first half of this day, I was wrestling with negativity, bitterness, and some anger, because of graduate applications becoming difficult and because of relationship problems with one of my friends. I really tries not to think negative things, even though some evil spirit kept telling me I deserved to take offense over this and an unloving attitude. I begged God to protect me from such anger, which worked. Later that day, as I was walking to the Thanksgiving dinner, I perchance ran into one of my 3 favorite students at the school, Jake, who was just a joy to see on the streets. I never see our students in public, like on the streets. Jake is always such a joy and fun to have in class; he's a really cool kid. And seeing him on the sidewalk walking home instantly made me smile and forget my worries completely. We didn't talk long (actually he was super surprised to see his teacher walking the streets himself). But it still made my day.

I'm thankful.