Welcome to the VERY Busy Month of May!!

It seems like we just celebrated Christmas, and yet we begin the very busy month of May on Monday!  May is filled with many events at the school as we bring the 2016-17 school year to a close.  This last week of April was also very busy for all of our students and staff.  Our seniors are preparing for their presentations for the Senior Exit Interview in front of a faculty committee and me. Graduation is June 3 and I know they are very excited about that.  I know they would appreciate your prayers.

The week was a warmer week with a nice breeze in the afternoon making it quite enjoyable for being outside.  When I arrived at school early on Monday morning, and almost every day this past week, you could see the village farmers preparing the soil in the fields surrounding ICS-P for the planting of rice. It is so much fun to observe the various stages of the rice planting process all the way through the harvesting process.  I took some pictures of the workers right across from the entrance to ICS-P. Hope you enjoy!

The view from the front of the main building at ICS-P as rice planting begins!  The soccer field we are permitted to use is up on the hill where you can see the fencing and lights behind the buildings.

                     Another view of the rice planting activities.

And another view of the rice planting!                      

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It was also the culminating week of our two soccer teams at ICS-P.  They play their home matches on the community field in the area right behind the rice fields pictured above.  It is a great benefit for us as the village allows us to play our games there without charging any fee.  ICS-P hosted the final tournament for our Division's girls' teams on Friday.  It was  beautiful day and we encouraged teachers to take their classes over to cheer our girls on.  Our Athletics Director, Mr. Greener, and his student assistants did a great job of organizing a wonderful tournament.  Our girls have been improving all season and their coach, Mrs. Hannings, was excited for the tournament with the opportunity to win the championship.  The girls were excited as well, but were a bit concerned when they learned that the 11th player on their team had withdrawn from the school the day before.  We all were sad about that, but I was very proud of our 10 young ladies who played so hard in their games. They were so exhausted, especially after their final game that would have then play another game.  In their final match of the day, they played so hard.  The match against Korea Kent Foreign School ended after the regulation time in a tie.  There was an Overtime period and then it had to be decided on penalty kicks which finally ended in KKFS's favor after the eighth penalty kick.  We were very proud of our girls.

   Some of our students and teachers as well as the opposing team.

Another view prior to the start of one of the matches.  ICS-P was selling snacks and drinks in the raised section.  There were also some of our students up there cheering.

The officials checking the girls' shoes, etc. prior to the match.   

After the officials' checks, the girls greeted each other and shook hands before the match.

      Coach Hannings giving a little pep talk prior to the match.

Coach Hannings praying with the ICS-P girls prior to their match!

A few of our girls during the match!                     

Coach Hannings watching from the sideline as our girls brought the ball in play and then went on to score a goal.

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The KAIAC Boys' Soccer Tournament was held at Cheongna Dalton School in Incheon on Saturday. ICS-P's coach, Mr. Thornton, also saw great improvement in the Boys' team this year.  It was a growing season for the young men.  I was not able to travel to the tournament, but I have heard the final report that our young men played very well and on penalty kicks defeated Korea Kent Foreign School, a school that had beaten ICS-P during the regular season.  That moved them into the match for Third Place against ICS-Uijeongbu.  ICS-P defeated ICS-U to take home 3rd Place in the Conference!  Congratulations to our Boys' Soccer team!  Coach Thornton posted this photo of our ICS-P Soccer young men after their 3rd place finish with a game winning block by Hansol, the young man they are holding!

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On Wednesday this past week, the Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Cho,  asked me to come into Kindergarten to read to her cherubs after Lunch recess time.  Mrs. Cho has done a great job of getting the Kinder cherubs reading and writing this year.  I love reading to any age group, but it is always so much fun reading to Kindergarten students!  My problem is that I always have difficulty selecting just one or two books to read! :-)  I took four books, but ended up reading two of my favorites to read to young children: A Big Guy Took My Ball! by Mo Willems and A Giraffe and a Half by Shel Silverstein.  Both authors are a couple of my favorites for children.  I was so excited about reading that I didn't get any photos. :-(  Later Mrs. Cho brought me to handmade "Thank You" notes from her cherubs; one from the girls and one from the boys!  She said they didn't have a lot of time but they wanted to send me some thank you notes.  They didn't have time to make them in color so these are in black and white.  I hope you can read them. :-)

The front of the Girls' Thank You note for me!  I believe it is supposed to be their likeness of me. :-)

The inside of their note to me! :-)  They crack me up!

The outside of the Boys' Thank You note.

The inside of their little note! :-)

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OK, that's about it for this week.  I do have some items of praise and prayer for you though:

1 - It appears that PowerSchool, our school management system, is almost ready to be functional for teachers, parents, and students!  A number of staff have been instrumental in getting this accomplished.  A big thank you to Mr. Richards, Mr. Coyner, Mr. Mooney + all of the teachers who have been so patient and helpful!

2 - This past week I received an email from the NICS Home Office indicating that one of the people who attended our promotional dinner at Camp Humphreys on April 12 had completed an application on the NICS website for our Grade 3 Teacher position!  We were so excited about this!  This lady has 14+ years of teaching experience as well as the following degrees in education: B.A., M. Ed, and Ed. D!  She said she was very impressed with our presentation and she is interested in being interviewed for our Grade 3 position!  One of her strengths is in Reading and Reading Literacy as well as Teacher Leadership.  Would you please pray with us for this lady as we set up an interview with her this coming week?

As always, thank you very much for your faithful love, care, encouragement, emails, mail, prayers, and support.  Please enjoy a great month of May!

Love, Gregg