The week began with a half day on Monday and our annual Boo Hoo Breakfast for kindergarten cherubs and their parents! This is always a great time and I love watching the interaction between Dads, Moms, and their kinder angels!
Ms. McGinnis, on the left, getting information from
parents in her KB Class. Seated on her mother's lap
is Haven, who has been waiting for this day for a
long time. Haven LOVES to talk and she cracks me
up. She is 5 years old - going on 30! :-)
Ms. Wheat (standing on the right) talking with some of her KC parents!
And our KA teacher, Ms. Regnier enjoying some
special moments with several of her parents!
J & J Catering always has a yummy breakfast prepared for our Boo Hoo Breakfast!
This is Mr. Rho and two of his children. The one
with the red shirt is Jeremiah, who will be in kinder.
Mr. Rho is a famous singer in Korea and his wife
is a famous actress! (I also like Mr. Rho's hat!) :-)
Some more of our Kinder families enjoying fellowship and breakfast. You might be able to see one little girl "boo hooing" on her mother's shoulder! :-)
More of the families enjoying breakfast!
The Kindergarten B class in the Courtyard for pictures after breakfast!
Kindergarten C class in the Courtyard!
And Kindergarten A class in the Courtyard!
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The week was full of many activities including tryouts for our Advanced Elementary Soccer Club! On Wednesday afternoon Mr. Resende, one of our Elementary P.E. teachers conducted tryouts for this new after school activity. Over 35 boys in grades 4 and 5 came out in the heat to show their skills. On Monday girls from Grades 4 and 5 will come out to try out for the Girls' Advanced Soccer Club. I also received good news that the instructor for Scratch Computer Programming (a class set up through M.I.T.) was able to offer this class after school for 4th and 5th grade students. He set a limit of 14 students and within 6 hours of posting this opportunity, I had over 20 parents contact me to enroll their child. I contacted the instructor and told him that he would be using our new Elementary Computer Lab that has 24 student stations. He said that we should go to 24 as the limit. I still had to close it since we had 35 students desiring to be in the class! Such fun! Your prayers are appreciated as online registration for our regular after school activities will begin on Tuesday, August 20th.
It is always exciting to see the new students arrive and transition to YISS. But there is also a down side to YISS, and most international schools. Students come and then have to leave too soon - all the time! :-( Tuesday was such a day. The Montalvo family had become very close friends in their too brief time at YISS. They had recently learned that the father had to return to Mexico for his work. On Tuesday, Mother brought the two children to YISS at lunch to say "hasta la vista" to friends. Please pray for the Montalvos as they leave some very close friends and return and transition to Mexico. I will miss them so much!
Above are my dear friends, the Montalvos, in the YISS cafeteria on Tuesday. Please pray especially for Sofia and Paulo as they return to Mexico. They are going to be missed soooo much!
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In the middle of a very hectic week, we did get a day off to refresh! I say hectic week because of so many new things happening at YISS. YISS uses 23 buses to transport students to and from school. The first week the bus situation is always a very hectic situation. Some parents have forgotten to register for the bus but they tell their students to go hoe on the bus any way. Many new students are crying because they are on the wrong bus at first and are not sure what bus they are to ride. I am thankful we were able to get every child home safely during this first hectic week. By Friday things were much better and ran more smoothly during bus dismissal.
Oh, the day off! Yes, the staff and students at YISS had off on Thursday, August 15th. I was going to ask if you knew why, but I will just tell you. August 15 is National Liberation Day in Korea. What is National Liberation Day, you ask? A website, Korea.net, writes the following:
“Korea gained its independence from Japanese colonial rule on August 15, 1945, and the Republic of Korea was established three years later. Every August 15, South Korea commemorates the nation’s liberation from Japanese occupation and the formation of the Republic of Korea. Known as National Liberation Day, this public holiday is celebrated with festivities, ceremonies, and parades nationwide. The Taegeukgi, South Korea’s national flag, is hoisted to honor the heroes who fought for the nation’s freedom.”
On Friday morning, my phone alarm rang at its usual 4:50 AM time. I had a restless night in the heat - even with the air conditioner on - and did NOT want to get out of bed. I turned off the alarm and noticed there was a Kakao text message from my friends in Choir, Rebecca and Joseph Lee. They had sent the following:
Just what I needed! Keep praying for me as I seek to meet the Lord in the early morning splendor to be renewed and to continue to work on embracing change and being in the palm of His hand! One of the things that I have to be careful with in apartment living is the desire I have to sing my self to sleep and sing myself awake! :-) I have had to learn to sing with my soul and not my voice! Thanks for continuing to pray for me to make time to meet Him daily in the morning!
At this year's Picnic we could not use the Soccer Field
since it is still being renovated. So we had close quarters
in the YISS Courtyard! Some of the folks gathering
for the picnic.
One of the favorite eating places at the Picnic - Outback Steakhouse. They were making Ribs, veggies and Cole Slaw + their yummy Strawberry Ade drinks!!
One of the Outback servers grilling ribs!!
Another Outback server preparing one of the plates with ribs, veggies and Cole Slaw!
This was my plate prior to devouring the perfectly
prepared ribs!! Oh, they were sooooo tasty!!
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Saturday I enjoyed a special lunch with my wonderful "son" and dear friend, JiSang! He continues to be very busy with his studies to complete his degree at Liberty University. JiSang is quite a thinker! This is a good thing and sometimes can be a bad thing! :-) Sometimes he thinks too much. He so wants to follow the Lord and it often becomes very complicated as he thinks through many things. I know he would value your prayers very much!
Here I am at Suji's with JiSang! We had a wonderful
time together sharing our many thoughts and talking
about accountability and just having fun! Thank you
for praying for JiSang as he seeks to follow the Lord!
JiSang has the greatest facial expressions!
My sister, Julee, thinks he should be an actor
because of the many wonderful facial
expressions he can show. Here he is just
after his Suji's burger was delivered! It was
huge, but he cleaned up everything on his plate!
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Thanks, once again, for being so faithful with your notes, encouragement, prayers, love and support. I really appreciate you! I hope you enjoy a great week!
Love, Gregg
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