A message from Jonathan Aird "Teen Challenge Korea's director"

There was once a young boy who went to spend the week with his grandfather on the farm. While walking around he noticed the chickens, they were scratching and playing around. The little lad said, “They ain’t got it”. Next he saw a colt in the field playing and kicking up its heel’s to which he replied, “He ain’t got it”. After examining all of the animals on his grandfather’s farm and see that none of them had “it”, this boy finally found the old donkey in the barn. When he saw the donkey’s long, frowning face and the way that the donkey just stood there he screamed for his grandfather to come quick. “I found it, I found it” the boy kept yelling. When his grandfather asked what he had found he said, “Pawpaw, I found an animal that has the same kind of religion that you have.”

The reason why I share that little humorous story with you is because the world we live in is a place that is filled with many beautiful and awe inspiring sites, with so many varieties of cultures, languages and customs that can enhance one's life and perspective about life. There is no denying that the world we live in is full of ugly spots, which is more or less the focus of peoples attention. The world is full of negatives and positives but there is more of a tendency to focus on that which is more negative. I am sure that there are people who would disagree with me but I didn't say that all people focus on that which is negative. There are optimists, pessimists, and realists in the world. Now the realist is either pessimistic or optimistic meaning one's focus is either on the problem or solution. I tend to be a realist that looks for a solution, I see the problem and I want to do something about it.

We can easily turn a blind eye to what we see, or we look at the problem and think there's no hope, or we speak in over tones of superficial care and concerns which result in nothing, or we go out and do something about it! If people focused on being the solution then life can be so much more meaningful. Perhaps it would more definition to person, more compassion, more charitable giving and more charitable volunteer work. Perhaps it may change a life that is in need of a solution. I believe that the people who read this and who genuinely care about making a difference exist to transform a life one person at a time.

Project Youngdongpo is a great organization that exists to help transform lives one person at a time. It is an organization that needs people to come and get involved in the lives of people whom the world around them think lesser of and do not care for. You can money, give of your time, or do both. So I leave you with questions only you can answer, if you have the moral courage to do so ~ Can you be that person that can make a difference? Can you make the world a more beautiful place by helping someone else? Do you care enough by making a commitment in partnering with this organization? If so contact Project Youngdongpo and get involved. Don't wait for some one else to do what you can do.

A few pictures from Project Yongdongpo

We are having a very good time learning and growing a lot

Thank you for praying for us

26-3-2013

Last Sunday was another great time
1: Somebody had pledged to donate 100.000won every month, and yesterday that person gave us the first payment
2:Lot's of people are interested in joining us, and this Sunday we will have an important meeting with a group of people who want to join Project Yongdongpo.
3: Project Yongdongpo is now officially a part of Teen Challenge Korea.

4: If you have 1 hour on a Sunday night, please contact me. We NEED people to pick up trash in Yongdongpo.

5: Yesterday we got to pray for a woman who is caught in the sex trade, yesterday she opened up for the first time in 1 year. We gave her a nice hat too.

Very nice time and we thank you all for praying and supporting us

Remember to contact me if you are interested in helping out

We have a donation coming from Denmark

A great group of people have donated clothes for the homeless people. They are from Denmark and the packages will arrive in 2 weeks.

We are SO thankful and we ask all of you to continue to donate as faithful as you have been doing.

Thank you SO much

"Time to hand out fruit" 3-3-2013

Somebody had donated 30.000 won so we could buy fruits for people. We have a lot of clothes always and that is a miracle, but we wanted to go a little deeper by handing out healthy fruits. An older woman we had been buying fruits from before is really kind to us and we bought around 5kg tangerines. "It is really awesome that we are able to buy that much fruit for that little money".

We must remember that many of these people drink all day and if they can have a little food or fruits they will be able to get some vitamins and a healthy input in they're very unhealthy nutritious life style.

A goal of helping is trying to help in all areas of peoples lives.

10.000 won = 1 pair of shoes from subway stations
10.000 won = 3 sets of warm underwear
10.000 won = Around 10-15 warm bottles of coffee or other drinks
10.000 won = 2 plastic bags of red bean bread
20.000 won = A sleeping bag
30.000 won = 5kg of Tangerines

That Sunday we had a lot of blankets and some t-shirts that we could hand out. We started early but from no one we will go out around 5pm every Sunday. We are very strong believers in being consistent, so you can always trust that Project Yongdongpo is out handing clothes and helping every Sunday.

We are every Sunday trying to find new areas where people live. This Sunday we walked around an area and one house we passed by a thousand of times suddenly "opened up" and we found so many people living there that we handed out clothes and tangerines too.
This week the weather has turned warm, and we also saw a LOT of people sitting outside, that opened up for a lot of new conversations.

Yongdongpo is an area that open's up new areas every week that we had never seen before, it is really a fascinating place to work in.
A lot of people are donating, and for that we are grateful, please continue to donate, it is really making a difference in and around Yongdongpo.

Thank You for all the help

Emil Lavsen (Project Yongdongpo)

The Call

The past few weeks in Yongdongpo have been nothing short of a blessing.
Every week we except donations from generous people from all over. We don't only receive donations from people in Korea, but also from abroad. All of the donations go toward the people of Yongdongpo.

Every week, the volunteers for project Yongdongpo start with meeting at Yongdongpo station. After meeting we go over the plan for the day, go over the giveaways for the day, then finish our preparations with a time of prayer. As we start to walk through the neighborhood of Yongdongpo, we greet new and old friends. We give clothes and other goods to hopefully help them get through these tough times. Not only do we provide some physical needs, we want to give hope to those who are in desperate need of it. We met a father of two children a couple weeks back. He was explaining to us how times are extremely tough in this economy. We did our best to do what we could to comfort him and help him somehow through this time. The most challenging point in our conversation with him was when he told us he wanted to go to heaven faster. Fallowing his statement he made his hand into a gun shape and pointed it to his head. This was all taking place with his kids by his side. I wanted to do more than just give some clothes and talk to him but, I soon realized shortly after that sincere prayer is all I could do in my current position for this father.

I am always asking the Lord for humility when I get complements for helping out in Yongdongpo. The world is full of brothers and sisters who need our help. I expected to become more discipline in my faith by helping out at Yongdongpo....I was wrong. I have learned and experienced so much more.

Thoughts from Project Yongdongpo (26-2-2013)

This week was another great trip to Yongdongpo. Somebody donated clothing and we had 100.000 won to spend on things to give to people in Yongdongpo. We spend 50.000 won on 40 pairs of socks and the rest of the money on tangerines and nuts to hand out. We will try to mix clothes with some healthy fruits or food every week when we go out on the street.

On Sunday we discovered some new areas of Yongdongpo and we met new people - this led to some good talks and we now have some people waiting for next week as we will visit them again. It is really nice getting to know people there, and hearing their story and learning about the individual person. We also had around 10 kilo of clothes that we handed out and it was all good and solid clothes that was warm and of a high quality.

That same night we received two major donations - all together around 30 kilo. Those clothes will be handed out next week and we believe for a monetary donation so we can buy fruit once again. Next week we will bring 2 people with us to clean the street of garbage. The area we move around in is very dirty and it does not look nice. But Project Yongdongpo exists for this kind of problem, so we have decided to target this in a very practical way and simply clean the area.

We are always excited for this chance to get out and serve the community in this way. If you have any questions or want to donate or contact us in any way please use our Fb page: Project Yongdongpo or contact Emil at emil.rockcity@gmail.com.