For the past five months, I have been seeking God's guidance concerning my future. What follows is a letter that I wrote and presented earlier this week to the chairman of Handong's School of Law faculty.
Dear Prof. Chi,
At the end of the 2009 fall semester, you extended to me the University’s invitation to apply for a full-time professorship. At that time, I stated that I believed it would be wise for me to wait until near the end of the spring semester to make a decision in response to the University’s invitation. I wanted to have additional time to learn more about Handong and to seek God’s guidance concerning my future academic service. I also wanted to give my wife the opportunity to come here to Handong so that she might experience life with me on the campus and meet both my fellow faculty members and students.
Throughout this semester, my wife and I have been praying for God’s direction and wisdom regarding our future. We have had many long talks about my service at Handong. We have also talked about the needs of our children and grand children back in the United States. During my visit to the United States during the Christmas holiday break, I also had the opportunity to meet with members of the administration of Fontbonne University where I have been teaching for the past five years prior to my visiting professorship at Handong this year. Lastly, I met with my Doktorvater at Concordia Seminary where I am currently working on PhD studies.
Based upon these extended times of prayer and conversation, as well as my meetings with both Fontbonne University and Concordia Seminary in January, I have decided to accept an offer from Fontbonne University to return to my teaching post in St. Louis, Missouri, this coming fall term. I will also be returning to complete my PhD studies at Concordia Seminary. I believe that this is the best course for me to follow in serving God’s purpose according to His call upon my life as a teacher, husband, father and grandfather at this time in my life. As a result of this decision, I will be concluding my service as a visiting professor at Handong at the end of the current spring semester.
My teaching experiences here at Handong these past two semesters have been wonderful. I am very thankful that the Lord has given me the privilege of serving together with you and my other esteemed colleagues on the faculty of the School of Law. I am very interested in maintaining an on-going working relationship with Handong Global University. I would look forward to opportunities to return in the future for additional terms of teaching should the occasion arise for the University to request my service again in a visiting professorship capacity.
Please accept my most grateful thanks for your leadership and for the opportunity to serve the students of Handong Global University as we together seek the will of God and His Kingdom.
Yours in the service of Christ,
Cordell P. Schulten
01 May 2010
29 April 2010
Bodily Exercise Profiteth (a) Little
One of the benefits of living on a campus with nearly 4000 young people is the constant motivation you sense to be active and even a feeling of guilt for being so out-of-shape. This impression comes home to you when you get up at 6:30am each morning to set out on your daily "walk-about" the campus only to find that teams of students have already been up for almost an hour (since the sunrise) and are vigorously engaged in battle upon the soccer pitch that occupies the better part of the center of campus. If only I had the energy and stamina to be out there running around and kicking that ball!
Well, Sandy must have picked-up on those unspoken expressions by means of her feminine intuition. How do I know? She hired one of the seniors on campus to be our personal trainer! His name is Aleksey. He's a national judo champion from Uzbekistan. Not only is he in spectacular physical shape, he also speaks four languages -- Uzbek, Russian, Korean and English -- so his mind is as fit as his body! Now, every Wednesday and Friday evenings, we meet Aleksey in the campus health club -- located on the basement level of Shalom Dormitory -- for our training sessions.
They begin with warm-ups and a series of stretches. We then proceed to running on the treadmill for about 12-15 minutes at various levels of speed. Aleksey is working us up to 8 km/h, but at this point -- three weeks into our training -- we're doing well to make it to 6 km/h -- a nice jogging pace. Then comes the squats. Three sets of 10 rep's each by the end of which the tops of my thighs are beginning to burn with pain. But, we're only about half-way through our program.
Next, Aleksey demonstrates three floor exercises. The first one requires us to lie on our backs, pull our heads up at 30 degrees, fix our eyes on a point on the wall, and then lift our legs up and then lower them down -- sloooooowwwwwly -- until they are about two inches off the floor, and then lift them back up again. We repeat this exercise 6 to 8 rep's for two sets. Now, lie back and bring your heels toward your bottom so that your knees are raised up about 12-14 inches; extend your arms placing your hands on the tops of your thighs and then raise up siding your hands up toward your knee caps and hold it there! Gently, lie back and repeat this exercise now 6 to 8 times for two sets.
Tired yet? I forgot to tell you that in between each set of exercises you are to get up and walk around in order to keep yourself loose all the while controlling your breathing with long and deep inhalations followed by slow exhalations. Now, back down on the floor -- this time on your stomach. Bring your knees up under you with your palms flat on the floor in front. Gradually extend your legs back while you arch your stomach in and your head back almost forming a C with your body. Got the picture? Now do that 6 to 8 times for two sets.
We're nearly through. At this point, we move to the exercise machines. The first one requires us to sit in a chair and place our feet on a platform that is connected to a set of pulleys. The cable running through the pulleys is connected to a series of weights that allows you to increase and decrease the amount of weight that your legs will be lifting as you push the platform with your feet. We start with 20 kilos and gradually move up to 30 and then 40. Finally, we head over to the last apparatus. This one is a bit tough to describe – not because it is particularly complex, but because it requires your body to bend and stretch in ways that are not a part of the normal range of physical activities you might encounter in an ordinary day.
Here’s the scene – first you place your thighs on pads that are set at about a 45 degree angle. Then, you place your heels up against a set of rollers. This essentially locks the lower half of your body into a slanted position. Now arch your back up with your hands raised up in the surrender posture (because at this point in the training you are ready to say, “I give up!” – but you don’t). Instead, you slowly lower the upper half of your body down farther and farther until you are now making an A frame with the highest point of the A being your bottom – you feet form on base and your head is the other base of the A. Now, raise-up slowly (inhaling along the way) back up to the arching position. Repeat this movement 6 to 8 times for two sets.
Did you survive? Aleksey keeps a close watch on us so we don’t overdo it. One time last week, though, Sandy couldn’t make it to the training session, so I was working on my own with Aleksey. Another one of my international faculty colleagues, Alex from Australia, was also doing a workout in the gym on some nearby equipment. He happened to overhear me say to Aleksey that I wasn’t feeling as sore as I thought I might be this the level of training I had been through thus far. Alex, looking out for my best interests, shouted over, “Don’t say that Mate! Yaur trainer will pushya even haawrrder!”
Needless to say, that was the last time I made any comments about not feeling sore. In fact, it was the last time I've not been feeling sore as I’m finding that this bodily exercise is profiting – a little. So far, though, a very little.
Well, Sandy must have picked-up on those unspoken expressions by means of her feminine intuition. How do I know? She hired one of the seniors on campus to be our personal trainer! His name is Aleksey. He's a national judo champion from Uzbekistan. Not only is he in spectacular physical shape, he also speaks four languages -- Uzbek, Russian, Korean and English -- so his mind is as fit as his body! Now, every Wednesday and Friday evenings, we meet Aleksey in the campus health club -- located on the basement level of Shalom Dormitory -- for our training sessions.
They begin with warm-ups and a series of stretches. We then proceed to running on the treadmill for about 12-15 minutes at various levels of speed. Aleksey is working us up to 8 km/h, but at this point -- three weeks into our training -- we're doing well to make it to 6 km/h -- a nice jogging pace. Then comes the squats. Three sets of 10 rep's each by the end of which the tops of my thighs are beginning to burn with pain. But, we're only about half-way through our program.
Next, Aleksey demonstrates three floor exercises. The first one requires us to lie on our backs, pull our heads up at 30 degrees, fix our eyes on a point on the wall, and then lift our legs up and then lower them down -- sloooooowwwwwly -- until they are about two inches off the floor, and then lift them back up again. We repeat this exercise 6 to 8 rep's for two sets. Now, lie back and bring your heels toward your bottom so that your knees are raised up about 12-14 inches; extend your arms placing your hands on the tops of your thighs and then raise up siding your hands up toward your knee caps and hold it there! Gently, lie back and repeat this exercise now 6 to 8 times for two sets.
Tired yet? I forgot to tell you that in between each set of exercises you are to get up and walk around in order to keep yourself loose all the while controlling your breathing with long and deep inhalations followed by slow exhalations. Now, back down on the floor -- this time on your stomach. Bring your knees up under you with your palms flat on the floor in front. Gradually extend your legs back while you arch your stomach in and your head back almost forming a C with your body. Got the picture? Now do that 6 to 8 times for two sets.
We're nearly through. At this point, we move to the exercise machines. The first one requires us to sit in a chair and place our feet on a platform that is connected to a set of pulleys. The cable running through the pulleys is connected to a series of weights that allows you to increase and decrease the amount of weight that your legs will be lifting as you push the platform with your feet. We start with 20 kilos and gradually move up to 30 and then 40. Finally, we head over to the last apparatus. This one is a bit tough to describe – not because it is particularly complex, but because it requires your body to bend and stretch in ways that are not a part of the normal range of physical activities you might encounter in an ordinary day.
Here’s the scene – first you place your thighs on pads that are set at about a 45 degree angle. Then, you place your heels up against a set of rollers. This essentially locks the lower half of your body into a slanted position. Now arch your back up with your hands raised up in the surrender posture (because at this point in the training you are ready to say, “I give up!” – but you don’t). Instead, you slowly lower the upper half of your body down farther and farther until you are now making an A frame with the highest point of the A being your bottom – you feet form on base and your head is the other base of the A. Now, raise-up slowly (inhaling along the way) back up to the arching position. Repeat this movement 6 to 8 times for two sets.
Did you survive? Aleksey keeps a close watch on us so we don’t overdo it. One time last week, though, Sandy couldn’t make it to the training session, so I was working on my own with Aleksey. Another one of my international faculty colleagues, Alex from Australia, was also doing a workout in the gym on some nearby equipment. He happened to overhear me say to Aleksey that I wasn’t feeling as sore as I thought I might be this the level of training I had been through thus far. Alex, looking out for my best interests, shouted over, “Don’t say that Mate! Yaur trainer will pushya even haawrrder!”
Needless to say, that was the last time I made any comments about not feeling sore. In fact, it was the last time I've not been feeling sore as I’m finding that this bodily exercise is profiting – a little. So far, though, a very little.
28 April 2010
HomePlus Plus
Hopping onto the University's shuttle bus (here, though, shuttle buses are not like those you would ride from the long-term parking lot at the airport to the terminal -- they are the size of a full-scale Greyhound touring bus), Sandy rode the bus as far as its route went into downtown Pohang before turning around to head back to campus. Exiting the shuttle bus, she crossed one of the busiest streets in Pohang to catch the local 101 city bus that would take her further south passed Jukdo Market where she would get off and then walk -- a few blocks -- to HomePlus.
That was the plan, but you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men -- they often go astray. And, its extremely easy to "go astray" in downtown Pohang where the streets are configured in no particular pattern and where street signs are of very little help -- even to those who can read the language -- and of even less assistance to those who don't. In a certain way, though, Sandy did not go "astray" since she just kept walking along that same street where she had exited the 101 bus. She walked and walked. At each intersection, she looked and looked for that HomePlus sign (it at least was in English) -- but to no avail.
After nearly an hour walk about, she decided to head back toward a familiar landmark -- Joyful Church -- where we help to teach a kids Sunday School class each Sunday. Feeling quite disappointed in her efforts to locate her desired destination, she was almost at the point of giving-up. In one of those times of conversational prayer, she expressed a readiness to accept that today was not to be the day that she was to shop, but just in case the Lord had other plans, could He send along an English speaker to be her guide.
Within minutes, as Sandy was continuing her walk back toward the church, she encountered Abdul, one of my students from last semester who is now a first-year law student at Handong International Law School. What was even more interesting was the fact that she was able to recognize him and felt comfortable in approaching him because he and another of my former students, Prophete, had just -- the week before -- taken Sandy and me to dinner at the restaurant on campus. He just happened to be on his way to KBStar Bank when their paths crossed. When asked, Abdul was not only willing to show Sandy the way to HomePlus, he offered to help with the shopping too. He mentioned that he had had good practice helping his own mother do shopping in their home country of Afghanistan.
The two of them perused the aisles on each floor and ended-up filling a big cart with all sorts of groceries and household items. In many ways, Abdul reminded Sandy of our son Justin -- a young man ready to be a help in any way that he can even when it means changing his plans. So, with full bags in hand, Sandy and Abdul caught the 101 bus back to the spot where they transferred to the University shuttle and then made their return trip to campus with even more than they had both bargained for -- all in all, a real HomePlus plus!
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