Before I write anything else, I wanted to share with you the ICS-P Staff Photo for 2016-17. We took some on Thursday morning in front of our new gym (began using in 2015-16) before students arrived. On all the ones that were taken, we could not find one that was "perfect" so we chose this one. Enjoy! You might want to use it to pray for these wonderful colleagues throughout this school year. Thanks so much!
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Most of your know my friend and alum of YISS, Matthew Hahn. Many of you have been praying for Matthew for six years or more. Matthew came to visit me at ICS-P on Tuesday for lunch. Then he spent the entire afternoon with me meeting students and teachers and just seeing the school. What a great time we had! Matthew leaves on Monday, October 10, to join the South Korea's Marine Corps. I can't tell you how excited I was to see Matthew and see the changes that God has accomplished in his life! Oh, how he has grown from the 8th-grade boy I met back at YISS my first year there. It was so moving to me when I was introducing him to some of our staff. Matthew knew Mr. Ben Coyner, a former teacher from YISS. I asked Ben to share his current situation with tongue cancer. When Ben finished sharing, before I could say anything, Matthew asked him if he could pray for him. He prayed such an awesome prayer! I was in tears. This is the young man who wasn't sure what he believed when I first met him. When I asked him what he would like for me to praying about, his main prayer request was that he would be able to show Jesus Christ to all of the soldiers in the Korean Marine Corps with whom he will have relationships. Matthew has had anger issues in the past and struggled with depression - a lot having to do with his father who left for another lady and pretty much gave up on Matthew. Matthew is now an amazing young believer who has grown SOOOOOO much in his walk with the Lord. I was so thrilled! When I was taking him back to the Pyeongtaek train station, he said, "I love your school. I'm glad I came to visit you at ICS-P. The teachers and staff were so kind to me. I'm glad you are here! I see God working at this school with students and staff. At YISS I wasn't seeing that as much during my last couple years." Thank you for praying for Matthew! What a great reunion we had!
Here I am with Matthew in my office! It was so great to spend most of the afternoon with this excellent young man!
I wanted to photo of us saluting each other. Matthew said we would need to go outside! :-) Here we are outside ICS-P right beside the rice fields!
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Wednesday morning was a special morning for our cherubs in Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2. Our Kinder teacher, Mrs. Cho, had arranged an Author Visit through Skype for these students. One of her author friends, Laura Murray, visited ICS-P via Skype to share about some of our Kinder cherubs' favorite books, The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School, as well as many other "Gingerbread Man Loose" books by this author. They had a great time interacting with Ms. Murray and finding out about writing and illustrating books. They loved as she read some of her books to them. Below are some pictures that I took during the Skype visit with author, Laura Murray, with our cherubs in Kinder through Grade 2.
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We were supposed to have a fire drill on Wednesday morning at ICS-P, but because of the rain, we postponed it. Another wonderful reunion was to take place on Wednesday evening, but it was delayed! One of the sons of my dear friends from Mystic, CT - Dale and Donna Ingram, was to arrive from Ulsan, South Korea that evening. Jordan and Meredith
Wednesday afternoon, I received a text message on Facebook that Jordan and Meredith were stranded in Ulsan because of the typhoon weather right between Japan and South Korea. The trains leaving Ulsan were shut down because of severe flooding. They weren't sure when they could make it, but would not be there for filming on Thursday. On Thursday, they were finally able to get the train out of Ulsan, arriving in Pyeongtaek at about 5:00 PM. So we developed a new schedule for filming for Friday and on Friday morning at 6:00 AM, Jordan began his day of filming different events that were happening in classrooms, teachers teaching, after school events, and even some of the Volleyball games on Saturday in our new gym! He fell in love with our students and loved meeting them and staff. He also was able to get six interviews with teachers, etc. He was so fascinated by the harvesting of rice that was happening most of the day in the rice fields surrounding our school. When we got back to the apartment, he kept commenting about the great atmosphere in the school among students and staff.
After filming some of our Volleyball games this morning at ICS-P, we went back to my apartment and picked up Meredith and then I took them to the train station. They are going to Seoul and spending the week traveling there in celebration of the award Jordan received as well as celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary. It was so special to be reunited with this young man who I have known since he was a baby. And I finally got to spend time getting to know Meredith. We had some fantastic conversations and laughter. Please pray now as Jordan goes back to Rhode Island. Pray that he will be able to find some time outside of his regular work at the video company to work on putting our promo video together so that we have a rough cut by mid-December. The goal is to have all editing done and a finished product by February 1. I am grateful that Jordan is donating most of his time and editing work. We would not be able to afford it otherwise.
My awesome friend, Jordan Ingram, with his wonderful wife, Meredith, enjoying some very delicious dinners at Puffin Restaurant! Jordan and Meredith like Puffin's food just as much as I do!
One of the first events Jordan filmed was the Student Body President, Mokin, giving the morning announcements and prayer over the P.A. system. The students in the background came down to sing "Happy Birthday" to one of their classmates - a tradition at ICS-P.
This is the Middle School Cooking Class! Mrs. Haselman has
all boys in her class this quarter! They absolutely love the class!
Music teacher, Mrs. Kim, giving a private violin lesson to Brody, one of our elementary students.
Elementary Science hands-on lesson today. This
is the kindergarten class all excited about using
a pulley system they were studying about to move
Mr. Garman into the air. They had so much fun.
Grade 5 came at a later period and wanted to see
if they could lift me using only one student. They
needed two. :-)
Kinder students raising one of their own classmates!
Of course, they wanted to lift their teacher into the
air! They loved it so much. So did Mrs. Cho!
Science teacher, Mr. Sortore, supervising and
having the kids talk about how they are able to
lift Mrs. Cho into the air using pulleys.
Here are the kinder kids raising having fun raising their teacher off of the chair and into the air! Lots of squealing and laughing! :-)
Jordan was able to film some of the volleyball doubleheader in
the ICS-P gym before he and Meredith had to leave for Seoul.
Jordan captured bot some of the boys' matches as well as the girls!
The ICS-P boys during a time out getting instructions from their
coach, Mr. Kuhn.
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In the middle of all the filming on Friday, there were two field trips planned by some of our teachers. This was one of the reasons we were hoping for Jordan's filming to take place on Thursday since two elementary and two high school classes would be missing on Friday for Field Trips. It all worked out! Both groups were able to return earlier than expected so all was good. Juniors and Seniors, who had gained permission from parents, left at 7:00 AM to head to the DMZ - the Demilitarized Zone, that buffer zone between North and South Korea. They came back and everyone I spoke to really enjoyed getting to experience this trip. They were especially interested in the experience of going into the tunnels, that North Korea had been digging in order to bring troops into Seoul for a surprise attack, but they were discovered in time by South Korea in time to thwart such an attack.
Social Studies/History HS teacher, Mr. Kolbe, briefing juniors and
seniors on the DMZ trip at 6:45 AM on Friday.
Another picture of Mr. Kolbe getting students to sign the Release
From before boarding the bus for the journey to the DMZ on Friday!
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Thanks very much for your continued love, encouragement, emails, prayers, and support. I will be traveling to one of our sister schools on Monday. Please pray as I journey to the International Christian School-Uijongbu, located near the border between North and South Korea. I will be meeting with three other NICS directors from Korea and Japan. Please enjoy a great week! I thought I would tease you with one last photo. This is what my friend at BC800 Coffee Shop gave me on Foundation Day as a service gift!! Oh, so yummy + it had whipped cream on it, and I didn't even ask for any! :-) The one I enjoyed is called Honey Caramel Bread!! :-)
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