By the time I send this post, you in the USA will be "falling back" an hour and the days will seem to get shorter. Hopefully you turned your clock back an hour Saturday night! I still am having a hard time believing it is November already!
I am not sure I sent this picture or not, but if I have, forgive me. If not, I hope you will use this picture to pray for our wonderful group of teachers and staff at YISS as they teach the 985+ cherubs (young and old) at YISS this year.
Last week was another busy one! As you may remember, I was busy working on getting everything ready for the beginning of Quarter Two After School Activities. The first activity began on Tuesday. Scratch Computer Programming is one of the 4th and 5th grade students' favorite activity and it started on Tuesday. It is a great program from M.I.T. where students learn to program. They build creative games and then practice playing them with each other as well as finding out the bugs and going back and making their game better. Such fun to watch them! Our first full schedule of activities began on Friday with the following activities: Quilting and Sewing Made Easy, Sports, String Performance Ensemble, Taekwondo, Swimming, Elementary Beginning Orchestra, and Elementary Advanced Orchestra. This coming week the remainder of our Quarter Two activities will begin. Thanks for praying.
Tuesday at lunch I took the winner of my FunFest Raffle and his three friends off campus to enjoy lunch together. The winner, Taehoon, had placed MANY raffle tickets in my Raffle Bag at the FunFest. He told his mother that he wanted so much to win Mr. Garman's raffle. He is such a great student and always has such a great smile. I treated Taehoon and his friends to McDonald's (Taehoon's choice) and then ice cream at Baskin Robbins! We had such a great time together! Enjoy some pictures of this special fun lunch. Then on Wednesday Taehoon came to my office with a bag and an envelope. I am glad I didn't read his note when he was in my office; I know I would have starting tearing up. Take a look at his nice note and gift.
Here are four wonderful young men at McDonald's. Left to right: Jayden, Ansu, Ethan, and the winner, Taehoon!
Ethan enjoying his Quarter Pounder without cheese!
Taehoon enjoying his McChicken!!
Ansu drinking and eating!
Jayden being crazy! :-)
Taehoon trying to keep Ansu from licking
his Baskin Robbins Cookies & Cream cone!
All of us being silly at Baskin Robbins! :-)
This is the first tray in the box of chocolates Taehoon
brought to me on Wednesday morning!
This is the card with the special note from Taehoon! I loved it and it will be one of my treasures.
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Wednesday was also a Fun Day in Elementary. We have one of these a month where the kids have a theme and can dress appropriately for that theme. October's theme was "Crazy Hair Day." So many of the classes had 100% participation - including their teacher! It was so much fun! Enjoy some pictures from that special day!
GGG and one of our great Teaching Assistants, Ms. Lee. Ms. Lee also teaches the Quilting & Sewing Made Easy After School Activity + several others. I loved her orange hair!!
The Elementary Administrative Team: Principal, Beverly Birmingham; Secretary, Jane Kim Yoo; Assistant Principal, Krista Roll; and GGG.
Music teacher, Ms. Shauna Weir with two cherubs!
I love this 5th grader's hair!!
3C Teacher, Ms. Everett and two cherubs! Ms. Everett's hair was
amazing!
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Thursday was a day that I continued to work on everything for After School Activities! Mrs. Williamson, who has been helping me since Quarter One, has been having some stomach issues and she had to be out two days this past week in order to visit doctors to try and discover the problem. I miss her! Please pray that she will be able to receive answers soon and be able to feel better.
Friday was a busy day! I was involved in 2 of the 3 Chapels with the Guardian Way material. We recognized those students (one from each grade and section) who earned the distinction of being the Guardian of the Quarter for his/her classroom. Since this program was developed, we have seen so many of our students seeking to uphold the Guardian Honor Code. In addition, I was sharing in OASIS on the character traits of creativity and gratitude. I love sharing in Chapels and OASIS and Friday was no exception. I would ask you to pray for me as I prepare to speak in the 3 Chapels on November 7.
You can also be in prayer for several issues related to some of our children in grades 3 through 5 particularly. One of the issues has to do with bullying among some girls and another has to do with inappropriate use of the computer by a student. We have two issues with two boys who are not responding to teachers, bus drivers, and other students appropriately. There have been, and will be more, meetings with parents and students. These can be very exhausting as well as very rewarding. Your prayers are greatly appreciated as we seek God's direction in helping these students.
I also received three wonderful packages in the mail on Friday! I love receiving mail the "old fashioned" way! One package included a new book about Derek Jeter. Another package was the first shipment of knitted hats and scarves for our Compassion Club in the After School Activities. My sister, Gae, is a knitter and reader! When she reads, she knits! She has been sending some of her creations the last several years for our Compassion Club's "Bundle Up" Christmas outreach. The kids go to Seoul Station and distribute warm clothing to the homeless who make cardboard homes in the tunnels underneath Seoul Station in the winter. (I have another friend, Judy, who sends scarves and caps, too!) In my sister's package were two containers of yummy breakfast cereals! (See the picture.)
On the right is Honey Almond cereal from Bear Naked. They make some of my favorite cereals! Gae sent me a new kind to try: Peanut Butter Whole Grain Clusters from KIND. I am really looking forward to trying that tasty one!
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The third package came from my friend in Texas (originally from Chambersburg, PA), Diane Prokop. Diane loves to write and she just completed her first children's book, The Baiji. It is actually a short story about a little girl, Ai Bao, and river dolphins in China. I was so happy to receive autographed copies of Diane's book. She sent one for our YISS Elementary Library and one for me!
My two copies of The Baiji from Diane in Texas!
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Saturday I spent a good chunk of the day resting, reading, and writing. I am attempting to keep a cold from becoming a big cold! But I did take time for a late lunch with my wonderful friend and former SYME student, Yeongmin Baek. Yeongmin met me in Ichon and took me to another new eating establishment. This time it was a Korean restaurant and we enjoyed a special lunch and some excellent conversation. Yeongmin had just returned this past week from a vacation in Barcelona, Spain and surrounding cities. It was a great time of refreshment for him. I was delighted to be able to spend some time Saturday catching up with him and finding out what he has been thinking. Keep praying for this wonderful young man.
Yeongmin and I finishing our very tasty lunches in Ichon. Also enjoying some excellent conversation together!
I chose (with Yeongmin's recommendation) the spicy
Japanese mackerel!! Oh, it was soooo yummy!!
Yeongmin selected the dried fish, which was also quite
tasty! I know, some of you are saying that you couldn't
eat this while that fish was staring at you, but it still is
quite good!!
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Thanks so much for continuing to love me, pray for me, encourage me, and support me. You are very special. Enjoy a great month of November!!
Love, Gregg
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