September Begins with Many Delightful Happenings!

September began with so many exciting and beautiful events!  I am not sure where to begin except to say that many of you were praying and many at YISS were praying and our wonderful Elementary School Administrative Assistant, Mrs. Yoo, was praying, and I was praying about the weather!  After School Activities began in full force and the Elementary Gym had already been scheduled for five days of the week, but as you know, we are not able to use the gym while they are correcting a flooring problem.  So I had to make necessary arrangements every day last week early in the morning to reserve suitable rooms to conduct these basketball and sports activities.  Each of the instructors were so flexible and understanding.  Each morning I woke up and checked the weather app on my phone.  Rain was called for every day!  The only day it did not rain was Thursday!  However, even though it was pouring down rain all of the other days, when it came to about 2:45 - 2:50, the rain stopped and allowed our activities to take place outside in the Courtyard and on the Soccer Field!  It was truly beautiful!  There were very few problems with all of the logistics of getting children to their correct Waiting Room for an ASA or on one of the 22 the buses if they did not have an ASA.

One of my Korean friends, Terry Jung, who works at Sweet East, a great little dessert and coffee place, knew about my situation with not having rain during After School Activities.  He loves taking photos and he sent this one to me during last week.  The picture shows a little of what happened most days this past week around 2:45 - 3:00 PM.  I love it!

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One of the other responsibilities I have is the block of time between 3:00 and 3:18 when we dismiss our elementary cherubs to go home by bus.  We use 22 buses and have a teacher responsible for a bus to make sure the right children are on the bus and that none are missing.  It is a very crazy time as I am in the Elementary Office with my cell phone and a walkie talkie and 3-4 papers with information that shows who is staying for an ASA, who is absent, who is "Not Riding Bus" on that day, who is being picked up, etc.  We have almost 460 elementary children and usually parents come to ask questions in the office at this prime time as well.  It can get very crazy making sure everyone is where they are supposed to be and we don't lose any children.  Our Elementary Principal, Mrs. Sara Willetts, sent this cartoon to me via email in the middle of this week.  She has observing a lot and has sen what goes on between 3:00 and 3:18 PM.  This is what it looks like in the Elementary Office many days as we have to call parents who have forgotten to inform us that their child will NOT ride the bus or for other reasons.  It struck me as funny.  Enjoy! :-)

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During the many meetings of this past week involving updates in technology for YISS, Grade Level Team meetings, Elementary Administrative meetings, parent meetings, etc., I had the joy to participate in our Elementary Chapel as Noah in the skit Ms. Johnson has prepared.  This year in Chapel she is going through a little walk through of the Bible with an emphasis on three trees.  I am sure most of you will figure what those three trees are.  One of the Kindergarten teachers took a couple photos of me performing as Noah in this mini-skit.  So much fun!

      GGG as Noah in Chapel on Tuesday!

Another pic of Noah in Chapel.  I wish I had some    

pictures of the fifth grade students who were the    

news reporters, the neighbors, and two of Noah's sons.

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I also had the opportunity to go in Ms. Buster's Grade 2B classroom for their Bible lesson on Thursday morning.  Ms. Buster had lost her voice and I took her place for the telling of the story of Abraham and Sarah giving birth to Isaac centering in on the omniscience of God.  I was so impressed that several of these cherubs were able to come up with the definition of "omni" and "scient" during the introduction.  I needed this on Thursday and wanted to stay all day with these delightful and intelligent and interactive children!

Here we are introducing the concept that God is omniscient.  Such a great interactive discussion and lots of thinkers in this classroom!!

Telling/reading the story of the birth of Isaac.  The kids loved the story as well as real life stories from my life and others in my life to show God's omniscience!

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Friday morning I awoke at my usual waking time of 4:28 AM with a scratchy throat. :-(  It continued to get more sore throughout the day and I knew it was going to head south to my chest and soon I would be speaking in my very strange raspy voice.  I went home, took more vitamins and my Nyquil, and woke up to no voice and a very sore throat, but no fever!  I showered and dressed and headed to my good doctor, Dr. Kim in Itaewon.  His diagnosis: Acute Pharyngitis.  He gave some probiotics and then ordered some medications from the local pharmacy.  I wen to the pharmacy I usually go to in Itaewon and the owner-pharmacist was there as usual.  She is always so nice and kind and explains everything in detail to me.  On Saturday while I was waiting for the prescriptions to be filled (usually takes about 5 minutes to fill three prescriptions, all sorted in strips of little bags with the medicines you are to take; no bottles), I noticed for the first time a sign behind the counter. I guess today I was more observant since I have missed it in many previous trips.  Here is what is on a sign above the pharmacy check in station!

Love this!

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I then spent the rest of Saturday in bed resting and drinking lots of water.  I had been invited to the family of one of our YISS elementary parents for a Korean dinner on Saturday evening at 7:00.  I knew the son, Max, would be very unhappy if I called and canceled.  So I asked Dr. Kim if I was contagious and if I could go to a dinner a family had prepared for me.  He said that would be no problem except that your voice might scare them. :-)  So Saturday evening I had a fantastic time with the delightful parents of Max from our 4th Grade class.  He had invited a friend from his grade to come for a sleepover so Liam joined us too.  The food was amazing!  The fellowship with this wonderful family was so great.  I did frighten them at first with my voice, but they understood and we had a very delightful evening on their 30th floor apartment overlooking Seoul!

GGG with Mr. Park, Max and Liam preparing to eat a most amazing Korean feast!  Mother was taking the photo.

Of course I had to take a picture of the yummy food!  :-)

I love this picture of Liam and Max!  Max always has this great   

smile!  We found out that Liam loves shrimp.  His eyes are bulging

as he prepares to reach for some shrimp right in front of him!  :-)

Here I am with this beautiful family in the living room.  Would love to have had better pic of the city of Seoul in the background!  It was a very delightful evening!!

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I, of course, would appreciate your prayers so that this sore throat, cough, etc. leaves me as quickly as possible! :-)  Thank you so much for your continued encouragement, love, care, notes, packages, prayers, and support!  I trust that each of you will enjoy a wonderful September!

Love, Gregg