Happy Chuseok! Remembering Family and Friends!!

This weekend begins one of the largest and most widely celebrated holidays in South Korea.  It is called Chuseok (pronounced Chew Sock).  It is a time of happiness and reconnecting as families gather, chat, and have great feasts!  The primary reason for Chuseok in South Korea is to honor ancestors and deceased relatives, but the holiday serves the purpose of keeping the family together in a time when work and other obligations may separate people.  Traditionally, Chuseok also allowed South Koreans to celebrate the Autumn harvest after a season of hard work.  This is the seventh celebration of Chuseok in Korea.  It causes me to stop and just reflect on the great importance of my family and the numerous friends God has allowed me to enjoy over many years.  I am so grateful for my loving and very supportive family!  They are the best!!  I am very thankful for the many friends scattered throughout many countries in this big world.  They also have been so loving and supportive. I am spending a lot of my time off from YISS to reflect on the many memories of family and friends and all that God has given me.  I will also be able to connect with some of my former SYME students and great friends during this special time.

While I was thinking of a nice place to eat over the Chuseok break, I received this email from one of my favorite restaurants in Itaewon.  They were giving their schedule for the Chuseok break.  Take a look at their post.  It made me smile. :-)  I love how things can be translated from one language to another!  :-)

Enjoy!

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It was a shortened week for students at YISS.  Friday began their Chuseok holiday although teachers and administrators were involved in Professional Development and Self Study Committees on Friday!  I was also working on Quarter Two After School Activities, and will be working on that throughout some of the Chuseok long weekend in between some visits with Korean friends and my very good friend Tony Kuhn from Pyeongtaek ICS.  Looking forward to some rest and refreshment and some walking throughout some of the parks near my apartment.

My Chuseok got started on Wednesday after school at YISS.  While I was making sure all of the cherubs in After School Activities were picked up by parents or drivers, a parent stopped by with her son, Daniel.  She explained that she wanted to give me a typical Korean Chuseok gift.  The mother said that she had to practice the technique of "wrapping the gift with love" and then she went on to say that she hoped I would unwrap it with love and then enjoy some of the yummy decorative rices cakes inside.  I was very grateful and enjoyed sharing some of the "love" on Thursday morning with some of my colleagues in the elementary school.

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On Tuesday, we had our final push for our Walk-A-Sock-A-Thon that will be held on October 2.  I was asked to share all of the socks I have filled for the WASAT.  I encouraged the kids to keep on saving their 100 Won coins for our walk so that we could send 11,000,000 Won to Agape International Missions for their Cambodia school project. Last year my socks weighed 9.5 kg and I asked a representative from each grade to life my bag of socks this year and guess how much I have raised.  Several got very close and I gave them some 500 Won coins and told them to be creative and think of all they could change those 500 Won coins to 100 Won coins.  They were quite amazed to learn that my socks total 14.6 kg this year!  Please pray that we will have good weather for our walk through Namsan Park on October 2.

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Tuesday evening I was able to finally celebrate the birthday (September 13) of one of my former SYME students and great friend, Jungmin.  I always love our special times together.  We enjoy some rich conversations and laughter.  Please continue to pray for Jungmin as he is thinking what it is that he should actually be doing.  I know he would very much value your prayers.

Here I am with Jungmin preparing to enjoy our delicious meals at "On The Border" Tuesday evening!

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Another big event coming up is our YISS Annual Fun Fest!  I always enjoy this event as families come together in our YISS Courtyard and Soccer Field for games, food, and activities of all sorts.  Each elementary grade comes up with a game booth to raise funds for the PTO.  Middle School and High School clubs feature booths as well in order to raise funds for their club activities - many of which are clubs that support organizations that are helping needy children and teens.  October 16 is the date and your prayers for good weather would also be appreciated.

Poster for the Fun Fest coming up on October 16!!

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I thought I would post some pictures of students enjoying some of their After School Activities this past week.  We have continued to have rain-free afternoons and trust that this will continue for the next several weeks.  The latest news concerning the use of the Elementary School Gym is that it is supposed to be ready by October 10!  I am excited about that, but not too excited since sometimes we are given a date of completion and then have to wait for the government to give the final approval after inspection.  They can often take their good old time to give final approval.  Your prayers are appreciated once again! 

The above nine photos show some of our students enjoying some of the After School Activities this week.  The top five pictures are of students enjoying the "How to Draw Comics" class led by one of our parents.  The next one is of a very happy first grader with her project from "Arts & Crafts."  And the last three are from our K-3 "Ceramics" class.  They look so intent on their pieces of work.

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I had a neat experience on Thursday with one of our third grade students, Eugene, and his mother. During the first week of school there was a communication problem concerning how Eugene would go home after school.  Someone dropped the ball at YISS and so I spent some time with Eugene while waiting for his Mom to come and pick him up.  She had to drive an hour to pick him up and was expecting him to be on the bus so she wouldn't have to pick him up.  Mom arrived and was not a happy camper.  I apologized and asked her to forgive us and that we would do better in the future. While I was waiting with Eugene, he wasn't very talkative and it was hard to get him to talk.  He is a new student at YISS and it is very difficult to understand his speech.  After my first encounter with Eugene and his mother, I was afraid things would not be good. 

I continued to try to get to know Eugene during the weeks that followed the above encounter. Slowly, I began to understand his speech better.  He still wasn't smiling, but he would respond to my questions.  Then on Thursday after school, the YISS receptionist gave me a message that Eugene's Mom had called and said she would be late picking him up after his After School Activity of Ceramics.  I asked her how late.  The receptionist said in typical Korean style, "Maybe 10 minutes." All the other students had departed and Eugene and I were still waiting at the front desk for his Mom.  While we waited, Eugene asked me out of the blue, "Do you like riddles, Mr. Garman?"  I said that I did.  He said he did as well and wanted to ask me some.  He gave me about five riddles and I answered most correctly and he smiled and laughed.  We were enjoying a great time and I said I had a question for him. 

Mr. Garman: "Eugene, do you know the word cat?"

Eugene:  "Of course I do, Mr. Garman."

Mr. Garman: "Spell it."

Eugene: "C A T."

Mr. Garman:  "I'm sorry that is incorrect."

Eugene looked at me with a strange smile thinking that I was crazy and I repeated my question again. Again he spelled "C A T."  Again I said it was incorrect.  After the third time, he looked at me with a huge smile and answered, "I T!"  I smiled and said, "Correct, Eugene!  Maybe you can catch your mother on that one."  His eyes got real big and he had another huge smile as he thought about sharing that one and others with his Mom. :-)

We continued chatting and Mom finally arrived about 45 minutes later! :-)  Mom got out of the car and bowed and said, "I am so sorry."  I bowed and smiled back at here and said that it was not a problem.  I told her it gave me a great opportunity to get to know Eugene better!  I told her we had a great time.  Mom then said, "I think now we are even." We both knew what we were remembering.  

It was a very special way to end the week and prepare for Chuseok.  I went back into the school smiling with a heart full of thanks and joy that Eugene and I had a breakthrough with our communication and I am looking forward to getting to know this little man even more.

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As always, I want to thank you for your love, care, notes, emails, packages, prayers, encouragement, and support.  I am truly thankful for my wonderful family and friends!  You all bless and encourage me so often!!

Love, Gregg