Saturday, August 10, 2013

And we Begin a New Year: 2013-14!!

It is still raining in Seoul!  But the rain did not stop our final week of Teacher Orientation and the New Student/Parent Orientation.  The New Student Orientation sessions on Friday marked the beginning of another year at YISS!  Hard to believe that all students will return begin classes on Monday, August 12th!  Thank you for praying for us as we make final preparations for another excellent year!

This past Monday our Elementary School staff met for orientation as well as our first lunch together as a staff!  It was so good to get everyone together and enjoy a yummy Chinese lunch together!  Next week I will try to get a good photo of all of the elementary staff.  Just to keep everyone up to date, we added a third section to kindergarten and a new section to Grade 2, 3 and 4.  90% of the new staff are staff for new positions.  This year we will have about 415 in the Elementary School.  I will try to have an official count next week.  Thank you for praying for this group of dedicated and creative and caring women and men!

To the left is the very efficient and wonderful Elementary Secretary, Mrs. Yoo, explaining the process for securing lunch at the Elementary Staff Luncheon on Monday!




The three pictures above show some of our amazing Elementary Staff enjoying their Chinese lunch and the great fellowship on Monday!


Some of the tasty Chinese food we enjoyed!

Some more of the delicious food!

And one more picture of the abundant Chinese food!!
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A highlight this week for me was on Thursday morning in the YISS auditorium with all of the YISS staff.  Our Elementary Chaplain had placed signs throughout the auditorium and on the stage.  Each sign gave the name and location and prayer concerns for each of the NICS/OASIS schools located throughout the world!  We could go in groups or as individuals to as many of the locations as possible and spend time praying for these schools!  Mrs. Franck would play some music indicating when we should move to another location.  What a wonderful time of prayer of remembering our brothers and sisters ministering at the various schools of NICS/OASIS!!


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New students and parents to YISS were invited to attend the appropriate orientation sessions (including tours, etc.) for each of the schools.  Middle School began the afternoon, then High School and finally at 4:30 the Elementary School.  The auditorium was filled to capacity with new students and parents for the Elementary School.  40 seats were left vacant when the YISS Elementary Staff made its way to the stage and then to their classrooms to greet parents.  I love this time of year!  I love meeting the new families!  It was an exciting evening as we introduced our new families to their new family at YISS!

I took this picture from the area just vacated by the
Elementary Teachers.  You can see part of the crowd!

Another shot of the group of new students and their parents at the Orientation!

I will have a better picture next week, but here are 
the wonderful YISS Elementary teachers as they are
being introduced by Mr. Lazor to the new parents
 and students!
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As I took some families around the school, I captured a few shots of some of our brand new classrooms.  It was so delightful to see how teachers had prepared their new rooms so quickly!

This is what greets students as they enter
Ms. Bulkeley's 1B classroom!

The inside of Ms. Bulkeley's 1B classroom!

This is Ms. Stair's 2C classroom.  You wouldn't have 
recognized any of these classrooms 2 weeks ago.  They
were just piled with boxes and furniture in the center of
the classroom!  

This is one of my favorite new classrooms!  It is Ms. Ku's 1A classroom and the kids are going to love the view from this delightful classroom!
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One thing that you can praying for is the situation with our new music classrooms located on the B1 level (bottom floor) of the new wing.  I am going to show you two of these rooms from several weeks ago.  Last May and June before the music teachers left for vacation, they had taken all of the instruments, furniture, cabinets, etc. to these new rooms and that is what you will see in the pictures.  When these music teachers returned, they found mold that had collected on the walls and many instruments.  They began cleaning themselves and then suddenly on Thursday evening (the day before new student orientation) the Facilities Department at YISS informed them that they would need to move all instruments and supplies they needed for the first two or three weeks of school to the 3rd floor in the new wing.  Needless to say, they were very disappointed and frustrated.  BUT I was thrilled to see how everyone at YISS jumped in and moved (in the tremendous heat and humidity) heavy furniture and instruments to the very top floor on Friday morning!  In a few weeks all of this will need to be returned to the music rooms on the B1 level. I know these teachers would value your prayers.



Above are two of the music rooms (the orchestra room and band room) with some of the instruments and cabinets and other material that had to be moved to the top floor because of the mold situation.  Please pray that the Facilities' Team will be able to rectify the problem so it will not continue.
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I would continue to value your prayers as I make the final changes to the Elementary After School Activities website so that I can send out the information to our elementary families.  The kids get very excited about these activities and I am hoping that we have sufficient activities to accommodate the many new students we have added to the Elementary School.

Friday evening I had a late dinner (after a long day of orientations) with my friend and former SYME student, Yeongmin.  He called and asked if he could meet me for dinner.  I said yes and we had a delightful time of sharing while enjoying a very tasty dinner at Holee Chow!  I am sorry but I forgot to get the usual pics of food. :-(  Keep praying for my wonderful friend, Yeongmin.

Saturday morning I was finally able to meet up with another of my wonderful friends, Gunmo!  We had not been able to meet since I returned on July 16th so we had a lot to talk about.  We had a very yummy brunch at Tartine's.  Please pray for Gunmo as he plans a retreat with his Young Adult Singles' Group from his church.  He is also planning to take a very important exam for his graduation.  That will be in October and he really wants to get a high enough score this time.  I know he would value your prayers as he seeks to follow the Lord!

Here I am with my awesome friend and brother, Gunmo!  It was so great to finally see him again!  Thanks for praying for this wonderful young man with a heart for God!
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Thank you for your many prayers, your love, your encouragement, and your support.  Please continue to pray for the sale of my home!  Over 30 showings, but still no offers.  You are very special to me!

Love, Gregg


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