Another Busy and Exciting Week in Seoul!

Last week was our SEW (Special Emphasis Week) in the elementary school!  Mrs. Franck, our Elementary Chaplain, brought in a group of three ladies from Australia who are connected with the ministry group called Hillsong!  Since we did not have use of the auditorium (still in the process of remodeling), instead of having three large services Monday through Friday, we had four smaller ones from Tuesday through Friday.  Hillsong has some great worship songs for kids and our kids at YISS enjoyed them.  The ladies from Hillsong were so impressed with the singing of our students!  Our students loved the songs from Hillsong and loved the Australian accents of the three young ladies!  Mrs. Franck did a great job of creating a great atmosphere in a much smaller room for our kids.  Please pray that many of our children will take what they learned this past week and decide to follow Jesus!

Kindergarten and First Grade cherubs are singing with the Hillsong team!  ur YISS kids love to sing!

The Hillsong ladies brought some of the children up 

front to participate with the singing and the dance moves!

Nina in Grade 5A volunteered to do some singing and dancing during OASIS SEW assembly!

 Some of the  first grade cherubs following the lead of two

 of the Hillsong ladies as they sing and dance to the Attitude song!

A second grade boy is playing the part of the injured man in the Good Samaritan parable with the Hillsong ladies!

This is my buddy Francis in 5B performing as the 

injured man in the 4th and 5th grade version of the

same parable.

A group of 4th and 5th grade students joined the Hillsong ladies to lead the worship and dance songs in their Chapel!

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It is very hard to believe that half of November is gone and this next week will be American Thanksgiving!  I have so much for which to be grateful.  At YISS we will have a day off on Friday so a small group of us will be going to one of my favorite restaurants, Suji's, on Thursday evening after school to enjoy their annual Thanksgiving Buffet!  I am getting hungry thinking about it.

It is also hard to believe that we completed our second full week of After School Activities for Quarter Two.  That means that I will begin working with full steam on Quarter Three activities this next week.  Eight of our fifth grade students were invited to join in a Middle School After School Activity called Scratch Computer Programming.  We actually had 16 express strong interest in it, but only 8 could go because of maximum size for the group.  Our fifth graders love it and we are probably going to add Scratch Computer Programming to our Elementary After School Activities in Quarter Three.  It is a wonderful program for students 10 - 15 years old through MIT's technology department.  The instructor at YISS is a certified teacher for the MIT program.  It has been exciting to hear the kids talk about all the great things they are learning and the programming they are doing.  I am particularly excited that Danny Song, last year a fifth grader, is involved with this activity.  The instructor is so excited about Danny's growth.  This type of activity is right up Danny's alley and he has been blossoming!

In the midst of everything else this last week, teachers had to prepare Progress Reports for the middle of Quarter Two.  My administrative colleagues, Mr. Lazor and Mrs. Birmingham, and I were busy checking these reports before emailing them to parents on Friday.

A highlight for me this week was my lunch with the winner of my raffle during the YISS FunFest at the end of October.  I offered lunch at a location selected by the winner for the winner and two of her/his friends.  Josh from Grade 5A was the winner and his mother told me that it was the only raffle he put his name in to win!  After Josh selected two friends and a lunch location, we received parents' permission to have the lunch with Mr. Garman on Friday.  Josh selected Alex and Nina to come along and enjoy lunch at KFC in Itaewon.  Yes, that would be Kentucky Fried Chicken!  It was his choice; not mine! :-)  We took a taxi and had a great lunch and then I gave them a bonus and took them across the street from KFC to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream!  They were thrilled...and so was I! :-)  I had so much fun learning more about these three delightful students.

I love these three fifth graders!  Josh, in the middle, was the winner of my raffle and he got to choose 2 friends to join him for lunch.  They chose my "brother's" store KFC in Itaewon.  Here they are checking the menu and deciding what they would like. Left to right: Nina from Belgium, Josh from the USA, and Alex from Korea and America.  Nina speaks French and English.  Josh only English, and Alex is fluent in Korean and English.

You knew I would have to show a picture of the food!

The boys selected chicken strips, Nina had the Shrimp

Burger set, and we are waiting for my Bulgogi Chicken

Burger set!

We had a really wonderful conversation during lunch with these very delightful and intelligent students!

 The girl at the KFC counter took this picture of all 

of us as we were leaving to go to Baskin-Robbins!

I had already made my usual choice of ice cream, Puss N' Boots (soooo yummy) but the three students had to examine each flavor and then make their choice.  After I took this picture, I was informed that I could not take any more pictures in Baskin-Robbins or I would have shown you the yummy ice cream selections!

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Saturday I got together with one of the SYME teachers I had met back in 2010 when I was at SYME.  Her name is Bev Barner; the SYME students call her Grandma Bev.  Bev had returned to teach a term at SYME in Songtan and wanted to get together with former SYME students that we had the privilege of teaching.  We enjoyed a beautiful afternoon in the Insadong area of Seoul.  We started with 8 and ended with 10!

It was decided to go to Mr. Pizza near a famous street in Seoul called Insadong.  Here is one of the pizzas we enjoyed.  There was another pizza and a very tasty salad bar!!

Here are the eight who arrived in time for pizza and salad bar!

Clockwise: Grandma Bev, Kelly (I did not know Kelly, but Bev

did), Vicky (Kyoung Mi), GGG, Beth (Sang Mi), Joonso,

Daniel, (a student from Taiwan who will attend SYME in Songtan

for four weeks), and Kevin (Sung Jin). 

 We then walked through Insadong and finally found this unique coffee shop which was quite busy and had this great atmosphere.  You will notice that Sang Mi is to the left of my ear.  You will also notice our 9th and 10th visitors to the right of me: Jessica (Ko Eun) and Gunmo.

After our lunch and coffee time, Gunmo, Sung Jin 

and I had to leave.  As I arrived back in Itaewon, the

Hamilton Hotel had its Christmas lights up and I discovered

yet another coffee shop had opened in Itaewon - Holly's Coffee.

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My acute sinusitis is nearly gone!  I am so thankful!  I may be able to sing in choir this Sunday for the first in a couple weeks!  I miss singing with the choir.  Thank you for praying for my health.  You are very special to me and I am so thankful for each of you and your encouragement, your prayers, your emails, and your love.  Please enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends!

Love, Gregg

PS #1:  I just received a joke from Matthew, one of the three sons of some excellent friends in Yardley, PA.  I hope you enjoy it!

Q:     How do you know it's been raining cats and dogs?

A:     You know it's been raining cats and dogs...when you step in a poodle!

PS #2: I want to leave you with a picture of Gunmo and some of his family.  They were celebrating his father's birthday in Seoul.  His father arrived 3 days after his second niece's 100th day celebration.  They had a wonderful time together.  I know Gunmo would appreciate continued prayer for his father. His heart is changing, but he is still not ready to receive God's gift of salvation.