Fantastic Week of Many Activities Culminating with our Fun Festival!

It may be difficult for me to keep this week's post from getting too long.  I will try, but it was a week filled with one activity or event one right after the other!  Once again, it was so much fun for me to observe the great community of teachers, students, and parents with which God has blessed ICS-Pyeongtaek!  I am very happy to be part of this special group of people!

Mondays are usually very busy in the morning as I catch up on emails, talk with the Administrative Team, meet with our great administrative assistant and Business Manager to look at the week's schedule, etc.  After completing the variety of tasks on Monday morning, I welcomed our team of Directors from the NICS' schools in Korea and Japan to ICS-P.  We take turns hosting the directors in our region for a morning of prayer, encouragement, discussion, etc.  I was delighted to welcome our director from YISS, Mr. Ray Johnson, our director from the ICS-Uijeongbu, Mr. Linroy Kilgore, and via Skype, our director from International Christian Academy in Nagoya, Japan, Mr. Rebel Houston. The VP for Leadership Development from the NICS Home Office, Mr. Pete Simano, also joined us.  He had meetings all week at YISS and came down for our time together.  These meetings are always special times for all of us.

Here are the directors at our Area Directors' Meeting along with our VP of Leadership Development, Mr. Pete Simano.  L to R: GGG, Linroy Kilgore, Ray Johnson, and Pete Simano.

The Business Manager of ICS-P made some homemade apple dumplings for the directors!  So delicious.  She also made a Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cake.  Sorry, no picture of that, but it was very tasty! :-)

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Monday morning was also the beginning of the Donations' Drive sponsored by the National Honor Society at ICS-P.  Each Elementary Family Group and MS and HS classes were encouraged to bring in any of the following items all week: toilet paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste, Ramien, flour, rice, and sugar.  There was friendly competition between the family groups and classes and then all items donated will be taken to a local food bank organization for distribution to families in need.

  Lobby at the main entrance at ICS-P on Monday.  This was after 

students and teachers brought in their goods to be donated and put

     in the boxes for Family Groups or MS and HS homerooms.

This was another day's collection.  The boxes were cleaned out each day by members of the National Honor Society.

Members of the National Honor Society packing up all of the donations

after the final day of collections.  I believe they were happy with all that

was donated.                                       

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Monday afternoon during 7th period there was an assembly for all MS and HS students.  Mr. Ryan Kolbe, HS Social Studies teacher, had been working with a Speech and Debate group of students on Parliamentary Debate.  He gave them the student body an opportunity to see four young men debate the issue of Mandatory Voting in elections.  They all did a great job and sparked interest among a number of students to participate in the Speech and Forensics Club.

The four debaters at the Demonstration Parliamentary Debate for Middle School and High School Students!  Four excellent young men!

Some of the students watching the debate on Monday!  Many were 

     interested in possibly joining the Debate and Forensics Club!

Mr. Kolbe explaining to the students the process of a Parliamentary

Debate!  He then introduced one of the speakers, Mokin.       

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As most of you know, I received a large box of beautiful hand knitted scarves and caps from my friends in the States, the Kieslers.  We were going to give the scarves to the Donations' Drive that the National Honor Society was doing, but I found out that they don't take clothing.  I then found out that one of our substitute teachers volunteers for Vin Home or Life's House near Pyeongtaek.  This is a home for unwed young mothers, most of whom are escaping abuse and are in need of clothing, especially in the cold months.  On Tuesday, Carmen Gillett, one of our wonderful substitute teachers, told me she would be very excited to deliver these to the Vin Home!  Carmen will make efforts to get some pictures of the scarves/hats being distributed.

This is one of our very faithful substitute teachers, Carmen Gillett. She is very excited to be able to distribute these scarves and hats made by my friend, Judy Kiesler.  These scarves and hats will be given to women at Life's House (Vin Home).

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Wednesday, Student Council members continued to take orders before school and during lunch for the sale of Pepero.  Students and teachers could purchase a box of Pepero sticks that would then be delivered on Friday to the recipient/s that each donor wanted to receive a box.  Proceeds from the sale of Pepero would be going to Student Council projects that would benefit the entire school.

Here are the members of ICS-P's Student Council!  They certainly were very busy this week with Pepero Day and Fall Festival!  Thanks to Ms. Gaul and Mr. Hannings for their great work with this fine group!

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Wednesday was also the beginning of the annual Fall Book Fair at ICS-P.  Librarian, Mrs. April Mooney, prepared the old multipurpose room in the B1 level of the school for displaying books. Beginning on Wednesday, she would take elementary classes to the display area and help them with their "Wish Lists" - books they would love to purchase.  Then parents were invited to come in Wednesday and Thursday from 9:00 AM - 3:30 PM to purchase books.  The Book Fair was also open during our Fall Festival on Friday evening from 4:30 PM - 7:30 PM.  It was fun to see our children continue to grow in their love for reading.

Librarian, Mrs. Mooney, helping one of our parents complete her book order.

Two students preparing their "Wish Lists" for books they would like.

Robert was very focused on selecting his books!

Mrs. Mooney assisting some elementary students select some books.

These two cherubs were quite intent on looking through some of these books before making a decision.

      Mrs. Mooney assisting another student with book selections.

This young lady was also very intent on checking out a proper book or two for her Wish List.

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Friday came and kids and teachers were excited.  We had a half day of classes.  Students went home and teachers along with Student Council members worked on their classrooms to prepare activities and games that students and parents could participate in when the Fall Festival began on Friday evening.  Students were all excited!  They bought tickets at the door to play the games and earn prizes. Then they took their prize tickets to the Prize Room to cash them in for a prize or two.  They could also use their tickets to place their name in the four top staff members who had received the most money in their jars all week.  Then the last event on Friday evening was the "Pie Smearing" in the Gym.  It was a grand time!  Kids were so excited to see these four staff members get "pied." :-) The Student Council with their advisor, Ms. Becca Gaul, did a great job of planning a very successful Fall Festival!

On Friday, students were encouraged to dress up in a costume when they came to school.  If they forgot, they could still come on Friday evening with a costume and receive a coupon for a free ice cream.  The kids loved wearing their costumes!  So much fun!

* First, here are some pictures of some of the students and teachers wearing their costumes:

       High School Principal, Mr. Mooney!

Grade 5 teacher, Mrs. Sigler.

Three High School students enjoying their costumes! 

Love these two siblings!

  Another group of siblings in their costumes!

The daughter of one of our Business Office staff!

My buddy, Justin in his space suit!         

Sister and brother!!

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And now, some random pictures of the Fall Festival:

Poster announcing Fall Festival!

Each family group and MS and HS homeroom

  made posters for the game they had created!

Another of the posters.

Here is one Family Group all set for their "Pirate Nerf Shooters" game!

This young one was putting the finishing touches on Grade 5's game!

Another student hard at work to prepare

            for her classroom's game!

Ms. Hunter, Grade 1 teacher, practicing the game her Family Group developed!

One of the Student Council members helping this young one with 

the game his homeroom created!                       

This game was a hit because of the use of the iPad for the game! :-)

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And now, some pictures from the Pie Smearing Event:

   These were the staff members who had the most cash placed in 

   their jars during the week.  They had the delightful privilege of

 having a student smear them with a pie at the closing ceremony of

                                        our Fall Festival.  

Student Council President, Mokin Lee, announcing the four staff

members who were going to be pied on stage in the gym!     

I was one of the four and here I am after being smeared by Benjamin!  He is an elementary student and he was telling me all week that I was going to get pied, and he wanted to be the one to do it!  And his name was drawn to smear me!  Such fun!

Above are all four of us after our smearings! :-)  Left to Right: GGG, Mr. Kuhn, Mr. Hannings, and Mr. Mooney!

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Before I finish I wanted to post two special pictures I captured this past week on my walk-throughs in classrooms.

I stopped by Grade 2 and found Ms. Dather praying with her students.  I didn't want to go in and disrupt what was happening so I took the picture through the window in her door.  I love it!!

I found this in the Music Room!  I love it!  The teacher had posted it around October 31 and has left it up. Another one I really like! :-)

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Let me close this week with the most recent update from Ben Coyner about his condition with his tongue cancer.  I know he would continue to value your prayers.  Here is what he wrote on Thursday:

"Ben's Nov. 10 Medical Updates & Prayer Requests :)

Updates:

1) The most tiring first week stage of my current round of chemotherapy is hopefully ending tomorrow.

2) Praise God that my new MRI scan reveals that chemotherapy has shrunk my cancer mass to less than half of its initial size!

3) To eliminate the need for surgery, I will begin daily radiation therapy sometime within the next few weeks.

4) Very high probability that daily radiation therapy would be done at Yonsei Severance Hospital near parents' home in Seoul. This is mostly due to the stronger reputation of the Severance Hospital oral cancer team. Also, getting to/from Pyeongtaek and Severance is much easier using Korail trains.

5) On Monday, 11/14, I will have a meeting with this Severance Hospital team to learn their treatment plan recommendations.

6) If surgery is needed, it will be done sometime later in 2017.

Prayer Requests:

1) That I will not be distracted by physical disappointments, but focus on the eternal blessings that I have through Christ and my relationship with God.

2) That I will be a more dynamic encourager and effective witness to ICS

3) That my upcoming church offering songs and poem in Seoul over the next two weekends will be a blessing to not just members who have been blessing me and praying for me over the past few months, but also including visitors and others who are unaware of my cancer. I will be referencing what God has been teaching me about my experience with cancer."

Thanks for praying for Ben!

It is always a pleasure for me to write and thank you for your faithful love, care, emails, encouragement, regular mail, prayers, and support.  The next weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas are going to be very busy.  I would appreciate your prayers so much.

Love, Gregg