CCSI Blog #4 - Apples and Onions

Hello,

I hope that another daily update finds you well! Today, my day at CCSI was eventful and filled with much exploration. My morning started off with a devotional on Matthew 10: 1-25, where Jesus instructs His disciples on what to do as they spread the Gospel and lets them know about the persecution that they will face. I was particularly encouraged by verses 19-20: “When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of the Father speaking through you.” It shows that we do not need to be afraid when it comes to persecution because God will keep His promise and provide for us with the right words to say. He truly provides in any situation of need. Following this devotional, we chose a teacher to pray for and then went into another time of student-led worship and devotional. For the devotional, a student talked about friendships and how the friends who we spend time with influence our words and actions. He mentioned how it’s important to surround ourselves with friends who know Christ and are Christ-like. At that moment, I realized that I am surrounded by so many Christ-like friends who point me to Christ and the satisfaction in Him, and I was grateful. Through that student, it was a personal reminder that God gave me as He is sovereign even over the relationships in my life.

As I went into my usual 3 class periods, I found science to be the most eventful. The students and I did an experiment where we had a few people taste some apples and onions without smelling them so they could guess what they had just eaten. It was fun to see the reactions of the people who were experimented on, and there was lots of laughter surrounding this experiment. I then went to observe an English Language Learning class where a group of Elementary boys played a game of Uno and then went outside to play. It was fun to see their lively energy as they played, and they seemed so happy and free. The other teachers and I smiled and laughed as we saw the way that they interacted with each other so energetically.

For the rest of my day, I had the chance to observe 2 more classes. One of them was an 8th and 9th-grade Bible class. A student led the class into reading Ephesians 6 and asked the rest of the class about their observations. It was encouraging to see that many students understood what the different sections were about as they shared their observations. In meditating on this chapter together, we mostly talked about the importance of prayer and reading God’s word, which is the whole armor (v. 10-19) because when we put on His whole armor, we are protected and able to stand even in the midst of being surrounded by darkness and evil. It’s a reassuring reminder of how God protects us. Overall, today has been filled with God’s personal reminders through the students as well as much joy and laughter within the CCSI community.

Jooeun