Another Very Busy and Exciting Week to Begin Quarter Two!

Where do I begin?  The beginning of Quarter Two was so busy!  Monday morning Elementary teachers' grades were entered into a grading system we use called PowerSchool.  Middle School and High School teachers had a deadline of Tuesday morning for grades.  I was expecting a glitch or two because when we moved everything over to PowerSchool at YISS, there were a number of problems. At ICS-P we encountered no problems with Grades 3 through 12!  In Kindergarten through Grade 2, it was discovered that there was a problem with some of the strands used for assessing standards. After several attempts to rectify the problem, we found that it was not possible with such a short time frame.  So those teachers had to enter by hand the grades for about 15 - 20 strands for each student in her grade.  It was a bit frantic as teachers were doing this and also preparing their rooms for our Parent-Teacher Conferences on Thursday.  I love all of our teachers at ICS-P and they were troopers, correcting this last minute glitch in time for distribution of report cards to students and parents.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday teachers were quite busy teaching a full load of classes while making necessary preparations for the conferences on Thursday.  It was great to see so much of the students' works being displayed in the classrooms as well as in the school hallways.  Our Art teacher, Ms. Lee, was busy this past week as well as the week before posting pieces of art work that students in grades K - 12 had accomplished.  Parents enjoyed seeing the works of their students on display.  I shared some of the HS pieces last week and this week I was able to get a few pictures of our Kinder art.  There were many other pieces on display; I just didn't have time to get pictures of all of them. Here are some of the Kindergarten cherubs' art work.

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I have had the joy and privilege of getting to know a number of our students - one of the things I simply love doing!  Early in this past week, one of our seniors, Steve Choi, came to chat with me about some ideas he has for our ICS website and social media outlets.  Our HS Principal, Mr. Mooney, has Steve as a student Teaching Assistant and has asked Steve to work closely with him in getting the message about ICS-P out to the community.  Steve came to my office to check with me about various ideas he had.  They were great.  Then he asked me some questions about me and I was able to share about my faith in Jesus Christ.  I discovered that Steve is a delightful Christian with normal high school struggles.  I began hearing his passion for becoming a medical doctor who would go to care for those throughout the world who did not have access to affordable medical assistance.  I loved finding out about his passion and his desire to follow the Lord.  Please pray with me for this fine young man as he continues to prepare for university and then wherever God leads him.

Here I am with Steve in my office following our delightful conversation this week.

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Thursday I was asked to be the Elementary Chapel speaker in place of my friend and ES/MS Assistant Principal, Tony Kuhn.  Tony forgot that he agreed to teach Mr. Mooney's first period Bible class on Thursday.  (Mr. Mooney was participating in an educators' conference in Malaysia this past week.)  So he asked me to share in Elementary Chapel about a part of the armor of God from Ephesians 6.  I was delighted to share concerning putting on the "sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."  I had several students and teachers come to me after Chapel to thank me for my encouragement about memorizing God's Word and using some real life examples and objects to keep the kids' attention.

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Parent-Teacher Conferences began at 12:30 PM on Thursday.  Students were dismissed at 12:00 Noon and teachers enjoyed a quick lunch and then they began meeting with parents concerning the progress of ICS-P students.  We had a great attendance.  Elementary conferences are required, but MS and HS parents can choose to come to a conference or not.  Most of the MS and HS teachers told me that there were many more parents who came to the conferences this year.  Conferences ended at 7:00 PM except for Ms. Hunter in grade 1.  She has the most students and was going strong from 12:30 PM to around 7:30.  Then she had work to prepare for Friday.  Mr. Kuhn and I decided to give her a professional day off on Friday because she was just plain exhausted after a very fruitful day of conferences.  I am so proud to work with the great caring teachers at ICS-P!  Please pray for them as you think of us.  A special note:  If you would like to have a listing of teachers in order to pray for them from time to time, please email me and ask.  I will send a listing to you.

     Mother and Dad of Dennis with Mr. Coyner.

Parents of a MS student with Mrs. Kim, Music Teacher.

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Friday was another very busy day at ICS-P!  Our Boys' Volleyball coach, Mr. Kuhn, and the ICSP Athletic Director, Mr. Greener, had a sleepover at school for all of the boys on the volleyball team on Thursday.  They had an early departure on Friday morning at 6:00 to arrive in time for the first game of the Boys' Volleyball Tournament for 2016.  They had a great time together and then enjoyed a good tournament.  They did not end up in first place,

Coach Kuhn with his Boys' Volleyball team for 2016!

A fun pose by the Boys' Volleyball team!

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Our Grade 2 teacher, Ms. Dather, asked me to come to her class of Grade 2 cherubs at 12:30 on Friday to share some of my favorite books and then read one or two of them to her class.  This is one of my very favorite things to do!  I absolutely love reading to any age group, but especially children. This group of second-grade students is amazing!  They love to get into stories and their love for reading continues to grow.  I shared a few of my favorite books and then read them one of Mo Willems' books (one not so well known) titled That is NOT a Good Idea!  The kids had read other books by Mo Willems, but not this one.  It was so much fun to interactively read with them.  They are so full of expressions and they are thinkers.  I had an amazing time with them and look forward to going back again real soon.

Above are some of the second grade students' pieces they wrote about favorite books and favorite things.

The three pictures directly above are ones of GGG interacting with Grade 2 as he read That is NOT a Good Idea!

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Saturday started early!  The church where I am fellowshipping in Pyeongtaek had its second Men's Prayer Breakfast.  We grew from 7 to 10 at this second one.  We started at 7:00 AM - enjoying a wonderful breakfast of items each man brought.  Lots of great fellowship and food and then Pastor Mike shared from the book of Joel!  Then we spent time sharing our prayer concerns and then prayed in pairs.  It was a great time together!  A few of the men left to go on a Bike Ride following the breakfast.  Two of the three young men I have been building relationships with at the church came to the Prayer Breakfast.  I was so happy that both Uriah and Chris came out Saturday morning!  Uriah is teaching English and Bible at SYME (the program I taught at when I first came to South Korea in August 2008).  Chris is a graduate of ICS-Pyeongtaek a few years back and has gone to Word of Life Bible Institute.  He is living in Pyeongtaek with his mother currently and plans to return to the USA next year to study.  He became a Christian just a few years back and is so eager to serve the Lord. Please pray for these two wonderful young men.

Here I am after the Men's Prayer Breakfast with Uriah (on my right) and Chris.

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After the Prayer Breakfast, I headed to ICS-P where we were hosting the Girls' Volleyball Tournament for our division.  I was there helping at the refreshment area for the PTA and was also able to cheer on our girls as they played.  Their regular coach is our Grade 4 teacher, Ms. Laura Johnson.  She had asked Tony Kuhn to coach the girls today because she has been having some problems with her stomach and was scheduled to have a procedure at the local hospital to try to determine what the problem is.  She thought it would take only a half hour, but we all knew it would be longer.  She did arrive to see the girls play in their last two matches.  The girls did not win first place, but did a great job ending near the top.  Please pray for Ms. Johnson as you you think of her.

Mr. Greener, our ICS-P Athletic Director with a couple students who helped with the scoreboard and stats during the Girls' Volleyball Tournament!

One of the refs at the tournament during a substitution

                                     for ICS-P.

This one is really blurry but I was trying to capture      

an action shot of our girls playing against ICS-Uijeongbu

in Saturday's tournament.                     

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Sunday morning was the Sunday when we featured the children at Dae Kwang Church during the worship service.  Some handed out bulletins, one offered the prayer with her Daddy, some collected the offering, and some sang a special worship song.  It was great to see the kids involved in the service!  Following the worship service, message, and our small group meeting, I enjoyed a wonderful lunch with my new friend, Chris Haynes.  Chris is studying right now to take the TOEFL exam on November 5.  We had a great time of getting to know each other and sharing prayer requests.  Chris is 22 years old and suffers with a disease called Hirschsprung's Disease, a relatively rare disease.  He has had this since birth.  I am still learning about this disease.  Would you please pray for Chris as he seeks to find relief from a number of the problems that arise from having this disease?  I know he would really appreciate it.

Sorry for the blurry picture!  GGG and Chris at Mom's Touch Friend Chicken Restaurant after church today.

Some of our Dae Kwang kids singing during "Children's Sunday"

                         with Mr. Thornton on the guitar.

Another picture of the kids Sunday morning during worship!

Jacob Morse with his youngest and Brent Whitaker and       

his youngest during our fellowship time following unday's service!

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As November begins, your prayers are very important to me as it seems that things will get even busier at ICS-P.  It is also during this month that teachers and staff will be deciding if they will return for another year at ICS-Pyeongtaek.  Of course, I would love for them to return because that means less time searching for the right teachers to replace them.  Your prayers are very important!  We are interviewing a candidate this next week via Skype for the Librarian position that will be left vacant in January due to the expected arrival of a little baby.  Our current Librarian,  Mrs. Mooney

Thank you for your love, care, encouragement, mail, prayers, and support.  Happy November to you!

Love, Gregg

Frantic Finish to Quarter One!!

Yeppers, Quarter One at ICS-Pyeongtaek came to a frantic finish on Friday!  What a busy week!  So many events happening at school + teachers were frantically preparing final grades and comments for the Quarter + getting ready for Parent-Teacher Conferences that will happen on Thursday, October 27.

I knew it was going to be a very crazy week when I woke up a week ago on Saturday with a painful attack of Gout in the big toe on my left foot.  I have been taking medicine for this for a number of years and usually the attack lasts for an hour or so, but NOT this time.  The pain continued all weekend and continued to move from the big toe downward and then to the left side of my foot and then my left ankle.  It continued throughout the week and finally, the ladies in the ICS-P office told me that I MUST see a doctor.  So, on Wednesday, an appointment was made for me to meet with a "Dr. Kim" in Songtan on Thursday morning.  I had built a great relationship with my "Dr. Kim" in Itaewon when I was at YISS, but this was a new one.  It was a very interesting appointment.  Dr. Kim took some X-rays and some blood work to check my uric acid, CRP (inflammation level), and RA Factor (having to do with arthritis).  I was given an injection on my bottom (the favorite place for Korean medical professionals to give injections!  (I think I scared the nurse a little with my strange humor - barking like a dog, fake crying when she injected my bottom, etc.)  I was given a prescription and orders to return on Friday. Thursday night I had a great sleep and woke up and the pain was nearly gone!  I went to see Dr. Kim on Friday at lunch time and as I came to his office, I did some barking and I wish I could have taken a video of his expressions and responses.  He loved it!  I greeted him with a gift.  I brought him a shoe horn.  On Thursday, he could not understand that I needed a shoe horn to get my shoe back on my foot.  When I gave him the shoe horn, he was delighted to find out what it was!  My levels were all good except the one that checks arthritis and it was in the higher level.  He wanted to give me another injection and I began to fake cry again.  He laughed and said, "OK, I don't need to give you that, but I will give you a prescription for medicine for the next five days.  Then you need to come see me again after five days."  The pain has almost departed.  I now just have the crazy corn/callous (or something) on the toe right beside the little toe on my left foot.  I would love to be able to get complete relief from that.  Thanks for listening to all of that.  Thank you for your prayers.  I am going to try and get a pair of custom-made shoes to see if that will help my toes.  We shall see.

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OK, now the rest of the busy week at ICS-P! :-)  On Tuesday, the ICS-P Placement Specialist from our NICS Home Office came to the school to meet with  our new staff and especially to spend some time with me on reviewing procedures and processes for recruiting and securing staff for those positions we need to fill now or later in this year.  It was a delight to have Mrs. Rhonda Stark visit us and share with us in devotions.  Rhonda and NICS also treated all of the staff to a very delicious dinner and a great evening of fellowship at a new restaurant (for me) near the main gate at Camp Humphreys.  We all enjoyed a refreshing evening at Moti Mahal Indian Restaurant!

The Moti Mahal Indian Restaurant!

   Garlic Nan and a very yummy Indian Chicken dish!

Here I am across from our NICS host, Rhonda Stark, with some of our ICS-P staff!

Another table of our staff members enjoying the meal!

And another shot of some of our staff enjoying the evening!

            And one more group of our staff at Moti Mahal!

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Tuesday was also a special day in the elementary school at ICS-P!  It was designated as Moustache Day.  Students and teachers were encouraged to create a moustache or wear ones they had already grown on that day.  I was glad to see that no elementary students wore one that they had grown! :-) They were creative and we had a lot of fun.  Enjoy some pictures from that day!

My buddy, Robert, sporting his moustache!

        These two loved showing off their staches in the cafeteria!

This young man came to the office with his stache and "Golden Ticket."

Mother and daughter created these staches!      

Mr. Kuhn with two brothers!

       This young lady enjoying chess with her created stache!

More morning Elementary Chess players!

Love these two with their staches!        

Two more elementary stache boys!

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Our Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Cho, took advantage of the day to teach a very cool Math lesson using moustaches - live ones! :-)  Mrs. Cho invited our IT Teacher, Mr. Richards, and me to her classroom so that her children could experience estimating the length of our moustaches and then actually measuring them.  They then placed their findings on a chart/graph for comparison.  And finally were given the opportunity to feel the real moustaches!  So much fun!! The kids were learning Math and didn't even realize it!  Here are some pictures from this kinder activity!

Mrs. Cho and her Kinder cherubs with their staches ready to learn some Math!

     Estimating the length of my stache before actually measuring!

Two begin the measurement!

Recording the length of my stache on the chart!             

Oh no!  Now all of them want to feel my hair on my head!  :-)

Mr. Richards getting his stache measured!  It was 

              a very long one!  They loved it!

Then they wanted to feel and touch his stache! :-)

They really loved feeling his hairless head!! :-)   

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Things calmed down a bit on Wednesday as it was a relaxed day Rhonda Stark and then our boys' and girls' volleyball teams had games in our home gym against.  It was also a day when we were trying to work through details for a new Teacher Assistant and Elementary Korean teacher to replace Mrs. Han, our current T.A.  Mrs. Han's last day was Friday and we were able to have a nice "Hasta la Vista" party on Thursday afternoon to express our love and thanks for her very good ministry at ICSP. Please keep praying that we will be able to locate the person to replace her soon.  Actually, on Thursday, we were able to interview a young lady who has taught at ICS-P several years ago.  She has also been a T.A. at Yongsan International School of Seoul and our NICS school in Uijeongbu. Please pray that this young lady will be open to accepting our offer to be our Kinder and Grade 1 T.A. and our Elementary Korean teacher.

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On Wednesday, while I was talking with elementary students in the cafeteria, look what I found!  I hadn't seen one of these since way back!  Today they use iPads! :-)  Here is an elementary student playing with one of these oldies and other kids were having so much fun with it, too!

Yes, it is an Etch A Sketch!!  Did you ever have one? :-)

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Thursday was a very full day with an early morning appointment with my new doctor, Dr. Kim, in Songtan (after seeing Rhonda Stark off to the Bus Station for her journey to Uijoengbu).  Following my examination, x-ray, blood work, and injection, I returned to ICS-P to meet with our HS Principal, Mr. Mooney, and our ES/MS Assistant Principal, Mr. Kuhn, to interview Ms. Lee for our T.A. and Elementary Korean teacher position.  It was a very good interview and Ms. Lee was able to meet our current person in that position, enjoy an ICS-P lunch and meet with our Business Manager.  Thanks for praying.  Following lunch, our FLT (Filed Leadership Team) met for its weekly meeting to discuss numerous topics and make decisions.  In between the interview, lunch, and the FLT meeting,  I returned to the lobby to take some pictures of some of the excellent work our High School students did in two recent Art projects.  I was very impressed with these students of our Art teacher, Ms. Lim. Enjoy their creations below.

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Friday - another very full day to finish Quarter One!  After leading staff devotions in the morning, I had several meetings with teachers and principals.  I also had to make a quick trip back to Dr. Kim to receive the results of my blood work.  The uric acid level was good; the RA Factor indicated that the arthritis was negative, but the CRP (inflammation) was high.  So I was given the meds as mentioned above and will return in five days to see the good doctor.  Thanks for praying.

Friday just seemed to be non-stop with all sorts of things coming up, which needed attention.  We made it through and at 3:15, I headed to the cafeteria to do the drawings for the "Golden Ticket" recipients.  Following the Golden Ticket presentations to the kids, it was time for dismissal.  After students were dismissed, I had agreed to a meeting with the two officers from the HS Business and Economics Club.  These two young men greatly impressed me.  They had prepared a business proposal to begin a non-profit Cafe' at ICS-P.  They were very professional and had done a lot of research and work.  Our Business Manager, Mrs. Haselman, was also present for their presentation, and she was also very impressed.  I am excited about these young men and their club.  After a great discussion and a lot of Q & A, they decided to take our suggestions and recommendations and go back to work and then they will meet with us again.  I will probably have more on this later, but please pray for Kyungin and Ryan and their passion for this business project and their desire to use all proceeds to fund special projects that need to be accomplished at ICS-P.

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Friday concluded with both the Girls' and Boys' Volleyball teams winning their matches in our gym on Senior Appreciation Night.  The students are really enjoying our new gym and the teams coming to play in the gym always have great things to say about the gym and our students.  There are four senior on the two teams this year.  Mr. Kuhn recognized each of them and presented them with a rose to give to their mothers.  Unfortunately, only two mothers were able to be present, but we had a great time recognizing these seniors.

   With the visiting team looking on, Mr. Kuhn presents a rose to 

                                        Senior Jeannie.  

Jeannie and her mother embracing with Coach Kuhn and visiting

team looking on!                                   

Above are the two senior girls on the Volleyball team with their mothers. Sandra is on the left - out of uniform because of an injury to her arm.  Her mother, Mrs. Okamoto, is the cook at ICS-P.  Next to them are Jeannie and her mother!

        Mr. Kuhn presenting Justin with a rose!

And one to Mokin, a senior and President of the  

student body!                          

Here are all four seniors!  A great group of young people!

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I could write a lot more about the frantic and sometimes crazy week, but I will stop for now.  Before closing, I want to share an update on our Guidance Counselor, Mr. Coyner, and his journey with his tongue cancer.  Here is what he wrote at the end of this week.  He also included a picture of his shaved head.  He had been wearing a ball cap because of the patchiness throughout his hair, so he decided to shave it all off.  He has such a great attitude about his situation.  Thank you for praying for Ben.  I know he really appreciates it.  He has been very overwhelmed with all that our school community is doing to encourage him during this time.  Here is what Ben wrote:

"Yesterday was my first follow up appointment with my oral cancer surgeon since his diagnosis last month. He confirmed that the disappearances of the mass on the top and side of my tongue indicate that my cancer tumor has shrunk.

I won't have official X-rays to confirm exact size and shape of the cancer tumor until 10/31, so I will send an update on 11/3 after my hospital appointment to view my shrinking tumor.   :-)

Praise God for the rapid healing and the ICS community! :-)

In other news, today I have learned that I am an Egghead."  :-)

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As always, thank you very much for your continued faithful love, encouragement, emails, regular mail, prayers, and support.  Please enjoy this last full week of October.  Hard to believe November will be here before we know it.

Love, Gregg