Monday and Tuesday were busy days at YISS! Since we were going to have three days off, much had to be done to prepare for this next week - "Celebrate Korea Days!" Each fall, YISS sets aside several school days to celebrate the culture in which we live and operate – Korea! These days, collectively called “Celebrate Korea Days,” will be held next week, September 23-27.
As
a school, we will have three events in the Elementary School promoting different
aspects of the Korean culture. On Monday, our entire ES (505 with teachers and parent chaperones) will take a
field trip to watch the popular Korean show “Nanta.” On Tuesday, we will
host a Taekwondo team and watch a demonstration of this Korean martial
art. On Wednesday, students are invited to wear traditional Korean
clothing (Hanbok) or Korean sports outfits to school.
In
addition to these events, we also welcome the participation of parents in
sharing the Korean culture with our ES classrooms. There are many
ways this happens in the various classes, and some class events led by parents include:
· Reading a folk tale to the class
· Making/sharing Korean food with the class
· Bringing in and playing Korean games
· Sharing music from Korea/playing a Korean
instrument
· Teaching the class to write in Hangul
The kids, and staff, always love these special days! Please pray that everything will fall into place and we will all learn more about the beautiful country and people of Korea!
I was also invited to a birthday party for one of our first grade teachers, Mr. Adams! The parents had made a doughnut tower cake with symbols representing those things that Mr. Adams really enjoys! It was so much fun seeing the parents and the 1C cherubs respond to this teacher they love so dearly!
Above on the left is Mr. Adams' Doughnut Tower Birthday Cake and Mr. Adams on the right enjoying a special moment with his cherubs as they sing "Happy Birthday" to him!
_____________________________________________________
On both Monday and Tuesday we still had After School Activities for the kids. My Discipleship class for 4th and 5th grade boys meets on Tuesday in Quarter One. There are Discipleship classes Monday through Thursday and 4th and 5th grade students can choose to go to one of them. They are great times of building relationships and helping these young ones grow in their relationship with the Lord. I have four delightful boys this quarter! They are so full of life + one of them has some special learning needs which has created some unique opportunities for me to rest completely on the Lord! The time goes by so quickly and the boys are full of questions, which I encourage so that we can learn more about God.
Here are my Discipleship Boys for Quarter One: (Left to right) - Henry, Owen, Timothy, and Heemin. They are enjoying some ice cream that Timothy's mother brought for our time together. Heemin ate his ice cream cone soooooooo fast!! :-) I love these boys!!
________________________________________________
During the Chuseok break I was able to meet with a couple Korean friends and enjoy some very yummy food (I know, that is nothing new.)! One new friend met with me on Wednesday for lunch and great conversation. His name is John Chu - a new tenor in New Harvest Ministry Choir. He has been studying at a university in Canada but came back to Korea to do his "Military Service" - a requirement for all Korean men before reaching the age of 30. John makes his own dark chocolate and brings a new batch each Sunday to choir! He brought some for me for our Chuseok celebration. He wanted to try Suji's so that is where we went and enjoyed a great time of food and lively conversation!
John and I enjoying our tasty treats at Suji's! John
had the Grilled Veggie sandwich. It looked quite good!
One of my favorites at Suji's - the Eggs Benedict! I
substitute the sausage patties for the slices of Canadian
Bacon! Oh, sooooo good - especially with the salad!!
___________________________________________________
On Wednesday evening, Yeongmin Baek invited me to go see a movie (I think it is titled Monsters University) at iPark Mall and then we enjoyed a yummy pasta meal at Amigo's Pasta! We had a wonderful time together!
GGG and Yeongmin enjoying our pasta dishes at Amigos!
___________________________________________________
Then Yeongmin invited me to his home on Thursday evening to enjoy, what is becoming a tradition, Chuseok together with his mother and father! I love visiting them and getting to know them better each time. Mrs. Baek is an amazing cook and always prepares a table that is FULL of Korean delicacies for Chuseok! I love each of them and want to eat them all but can't. Mrs. Baek always gives me several containers of tasty food to take home! Please pray for this dear family that they may come to believe in Jesus.
Above is the delicious spread of Chuseok goodies
Mrs. Baek had prepared. Mr. Baek always prepares
the one yummy meat at the top left.
Here is the wonderful host and hostess as we prepare to eat!
Following dinner Mrs. Baek served fresh tea
(made from fresh tea leaves) and tasty grapes,
apples, and Asian pears! So good!!
A close up of the tea and fruit!
All four of us enjoying our Chuseok together!
______________________________________________________
I would like to leave you with two items this week:
1 - Our NHM Choir is supposed to meet for rehearsal on Sunday mornings at 8:30. Usually at 8:30 there are only 3 of us in attendance. The remainder of the choir slowly comes in and eventually by 9:00 most are there. It has been something that has been bothering me as I believe this rehearsal time is actually part of our worship. So this past Sunday I asked Mr. David, the senior choir member, if I could take a few minutes to share something at our afternoon rehearsal following the worship service. I shared that we are coming into the presence of the King of kings to worship and yet we continue to come late and treat Him as not important. I shared an experience I had during my freshman year at Wheaton College and encouraged each of us to think of our rehearsals as worship and come into His presence on time, etc. I wasn't sure how this would be received in the Korean culture. Later that day on a text messaging free service on most Korean cell phones, Mr. David had written the following message to all choir members:
This Sunday morning instead of only 4 of us on time, there were 11 by 8:30 AM, and almost everyone else arrived by 8:40 - a record!! :-)
______________________
2 - Many of you have been praying for the sale of my home in Bensalem. Most of you know that the first Agreement of Sale fell through. This past Wednesday evening when I was enjoying a pasta dinner with Yeongmin, I was sharing with him about my home situation in Bensalem. He said that he was going to pray for that. We went back to eating and suddenly on my cell phone an email from the realtor popped up indicating that a cash offer had been made on the home! I have signed a new Agreement of Sale and now await the next steps. Thank you for praying that this offer may be the one! (Later, my sister, Julee indicated that she had been praying about the same time I received the email from my realtor!) Thank you for continuing to pray!
Please enjoy a wonderful week! Thank you so much for all of your encouragement, your love, your prayers, and your support!
Love, Gregg
No comments:
Post a Comment