First, ever since I have returned to Pyeongtaek from my vacation in the USA this summer, I have had to use either my AC or fans in my apartment each night! The temps have been around 90 Degrees F or higher almost every day! And the humidity has been nasty! Friday morning, August 26, I awoke to some rain and when I stepped outside, the weather was soooooo much cooler! It was so refreshing. This dramatic change continued through Friday night! Friday night was the FIRST time I did NOT use my AC or any fans since I have been back! I just opened the window and enjoyed a very refreshing night's sleep with some delightfully cool weather. Saturday morning I awoke for our Men's Prayer Breakfast at church and was greeted by a cool temperature and a gorgeous sky!
View from the steps of the entrance to Exciting Dae Kwang Church this morning following our Men's Prayer Breakfast!
Looking to the right from the steps of the church, this is the beautiful view this morning!
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Then I got in my new car, that our wonderful Facilities' Manager at ICS-P helped me purchase through a longtime trusted friend and car dealer, and traveled to church for our FIRST Men's Prayer Breakfast. That was a first for me, too! Shopping for a car in South Korea! I had purchased the former ICS-P headmaster's car when he left, but it was sounding very strange. So Mr. Song took it to get checked out and the mechanic said it would not pass inspection and was basically ready to be discarded. He couldn't believe there were 309,000 kilometers on the speedometer! I now have a Hyundai Avante with fairly low mileage and in great shape. I was able to get a very good deal and had sufficient saved for the transaction. It is a lot smaller, making it MUCH easier to park in the very small parking spaces in Korea. I really like it. It even came with a Black Box.
My "new" car outside my Eden Village apartment! I enjoyed driving it to the Prayer Breakfast!
This is the Exciting Dae Kwang Church in Pyeongtaek. Our English-speaking ministry meets on the second floor. Saturday was our first Men's Prayer breakfast! (Sorry, not too many food pictures, but we enjoyed eggs, thick bacon, pancakes, Grilled Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, fresh Melon, bananas, juice, and coffee!)
Here are some of the men preparing breakfast and chatting. Sorry
it is so blurry. :-(
Worship leader, Jacob Morse, preparing the yummy thick bacon!
Collin Thornton giving all of us instruction
on taking the shell off of a hard boiled egg.
Continued instruction!
Collin proudly displaying the finished egg!
After the Prayer Breakfast and clean up, these men put on their cycling outfits and prepared for a bicycle trek on this gorgeous day. A couple of us did not go along, but I heard they had a great time in the beautiful weather!
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ICS-P Girls in one of their matches! They were doing so well!
Ms. Johnson, Girls' Volleyball Coach sitting with Mr. Tony Kuhn, Boys' Volleyball Coach, watch the rest of the girls as they play on the court.
Traditional finish to each game. Each team lines up to face the
opposing team.
Then they bow to the other team. (Didn't catch a good shot of the bow.)
The ICS-P boys playing against Korea Kent Foreign
School.
Another shot of this first game!
And one more!
A little huddle by the boys with Coach Kuhn!
Preparing for the bow at the close of one of their games!
The traditional bow!
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Throughout the week at ICS-P, I enjoyed some additional "Firsts."
1 - Enrollment!! We continue to have families come to have a tour of ICS-P and then enroll their child or children into the school! Several years ago the enrollment at ICS-P had dropped below 100 students. It continues to grow! Last year ended with about 125 students. The goal for 2016-17 was to have 130 - 135. We currently have 140 enrolled with some more possibilities! This is a first in quite some time at ICS-P. Please continue to pray that we will continue to be able to enroll students and continue to provide a quality education.
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2 - New Security System - ICS-P was able to work with the current security system company they use to have them change the security system for us. This system uses each staff member's fingerprint as the key to unlock and enter the school as well as secure it at the end of the day. This is FIRST for ICS-P and we are trusting this will be a better system than the card system originally used. Here is Ms. Tia, one of our wonderful staff in the Business Office collecting fingerprints from some of our Korean staff and explaining how to use the new Secom Security System.
Ms. Tia getting fingerprints of the Korean staff and training them on the unlocking and locking of our ICS-P building.
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3 - ICS-P's Art Teacher! I had the joy of visiting for the FIRST time our Art Teacher, Ms. Sara Lim, as she taught a group of middle school students. Ms. Lim does an amazing job of teaching art to our students and it was fun to see her working with groups and individuals on this particular day! She also heads up the school yearbook class.
One of Ms. Lim's Middle School Art classes this past week.
Please note the student in the red shirt at the computer. His name
is Marcus. He is a new student who I have begun to build a
relationship with. Please pray for Marcus as he continues to
learn English. I have been working with him with his Math -
especially when there are problems with English words and not
just numbers and symbols.
Here is Ms. Lim working with one of the students one-on-one as
another student works on an art project on his iPad.
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4 - Family Groups!! One day a week our students eat together in "Family Groups." Another FIRST for me to see this happening this past week. When a student comes to ICS-P, he or she is placed in one of the Family Groups and he/she remains there throughout their attendance at ICS-P. These groups meet together as a small community and also participate in fun activities to earn points for their Family Group throughout the year. The kids enjoy it for the fun and games but also because they get to meet children outside their particular grade and make new friends. Teachers facilitate the groups and it was so fun to see elementary teachers interact with their students this past week during the FIRST Family Group time this year!
Ms. Hunter's Yellow Family Group at lunch!
Here is Ms. Johnson's Green Family Group!!
And now, Mrs. Jacobo's Red Family Group!
Ms. Dather's Purple Family Group members!
Mrs. Cho with her delightful Blue Family Group!
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5 - Kindergarten Cherubs! Our new kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Cho, is doing an awesome job with her kinder cherubs! This past week each child created a self-portrait from construction paper and then used it to introduce themselves. It was also put on a little video, which you can see on Facebook. Here is a collection of some of these self-portraits displayed outside the kindergarten classroom. I have been invited by Mrs. Cho to do my FIRST book reading to a class. I have been asked to read The Book With No Pictures by B. J. Novak! I am so excited!!
Here is part of the display in the hallway outside the Kindergarten classroom showing the self-portraits each of the students created.
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6 - FIRST PTA Meeting of 2016-17!! Friday evening parents were invited to come out to ICS-P for the first re-organizational meeting of the ICS-P PTA. Usually, they have had trouble getting sufficient parents to have a quorum to vote on new officers. Friday evening was a FIRST! I believe there were about 35 parents and teachers (most were parents) who came out! I was able to meet a number of parents and there was a great spirit among the group! I am excited about what this group will do to assist ICS-P this year in the education of their children. Thanks for praying for this.
That will do it for this week! Your continued encouragement, love, care, mail, prayers and support are so special to me. Thanks so much! It is difficult to believe that this next week we will finish the month of August already! I hope you enjoy a great week!
Love, Gregg
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