The above photo was taken by Mylene Haselman, the CFO at ICS-Pyeongtaek near her home in Pyeongtaek at the beginning of last week! I love sunsets and sunrises and this was a great reminder of the beauty that God displays each and every day. It was a wonderful to begin the final week of September at ICS-P! It was especially good since I had to take a sick day on Monday of last week because of a sore throat. I stayed home and rested, read, and reflected on His love for me and how I need to display that love daily in a world that is full of hate these days.
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Tuesday began a busy week with which to end September! (Can't believe it's October already!) The day was filled with quite a few meetings - all were profitable. Students were finishing MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) Testing sessions. MS and HS enjoyed Chapel times. And one of our new teachers, Mrs. Dale Amos, became 50 years old! Her husband wanted to give her a surprise 50th birthday party after school with all of our staff! It was a bit difficult to keep it a surprise from Dale, but we all did it! After students had departed for the day, the teachers' lounge was set up with decorations and all kinds of yummy food that Mr. Amos had brought from the Osan AFB. He is retired from the military and has been volunteering with several projects at ICS-P along with one of their sons, Quincy, who is living with them for a little while. Everyone had a great time of fellowship and Dale was wonderfully surprised!
Mrs. Amos arriving in the Teachers'
Lounge on Tuesday afternoon to be
surprised on her 50th!
We are so happy to have this family at ICS-P! Left to right: Mr. Joe Amos, Quincy Amos, and the birthday girl, Mrs. Dale Amos!
The Birthday Spread provided by Mr.
Amos and decorations by Mylene and
her staff!
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On Wednesday, our School Principal, Mr. Charlie Mooney, our CFO, Mrs. Haselman, and I traveled to the Osan Air Force Base for the first ever Joint Employment and Resource Fair. Camp Humphreys and Osan AFB went together to sponsor this fair and we had numerous persons stop by our table to find out about substitute teaching possibilities as well as full-time teaching position possibilities. Some even stopped by to ask about admissions at ICS-P. It was a great time and I hope you will pray that some of the contacts will bring good results for ICS-P!
GGG, Mrs. Haselman, and Mr. Mooney representing ICS-P at the Joint Employment and Resource Fair at Osan AFB.
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Thursday was another special day for me in Elementary School Chapel. I have received official word from Walk Thru the Bible that I can conduct the Walk Thru the Bible Kids' Seminar in our ES Chapels this year. The children are enjoying it very much and we continue to hear of children deciding to accept the Lord. After talking with the Dean of Faculty at Walk Thru the Bible, he is going to send me enough Kids' Walk Thru Workbooks and some adult resources books for teachers. Please pray as I continue to lead these sessions almost every week with our ES cherubs.
Our teacher of Grade 2, Ms. Dather, shared a little assignment she had been doing with her children on Wednesday evening and I shared some of these with our staff and then with the ES Chapel students. I am going to type some of the responses to the project here. I am going to type them with the spelling that the children had on their papers. :-) So please know that I have not completely forgotten how to spell. :-) I just wanted you to see some of what our little ones are learning through their teachers and the Chapel times. Ms. Dather's writing project was simply to finish the following prompt into a sentence. Some children had written up to 10 sentences as they finished this prompt: God is... Here is a sampling of the children's responses:
God is...
* slow to anger.
* unstopable.
* the father of us.
* amazing!
* marvelous!
* over the moon! (This is in one of the songs we sing and dance to in ES Chapel.)
* the King above all false god.
* has a clean heart.
* the fruit of the spirit.
* the Holy Spirit.
* my Super Harro!
* my best friend.
* powerful!
* a leader.
* Jeses!
* a Saveyer.
* love, joy, peace, patints, kindness, geniness, and self control.
* creator.
* always good.
* the king of all gods.
* smart and clever.
* the king more powerful.
* my Lord and your Lord to.
* the everyday king.
* the champyon of champyons!
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On Friday at ICS-P, we celebrated the holiday in Korea known as Chuseok. It is a harvest festival in Korea and many refer to it as "Korean Thanksgiving." It is very family-oriented and is one of the busiest travel times in South Korea. At ICS-P, we encouraged elementary children and teachers to dress in Hanboks or Taekwondo outfits or Korean Sports' teams. It was a fun day and got everyone in the mood for the week off this week. Enjoy some of the photos from the day!
Grade 1 teacher, Ms. Hunter with one of our elementary cherubs!
Middle School teacher, Mr. Greener, with his son and daughter wearing their Hanboks!
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I had one other very special treat and surprise on Friday! Ms. Dather brought her Grade 2 class to my office in the afternoon to bring some of the applesauce they made for Chuseok! It was soooo tasty! I told them that my mother would have been so proud of them. It reminded me so much of her applesauce! They were sooo excited to be able to come and share what they had made in their class!
Here is Ms. Dather's Grade 2 class in my office on Friday treating me to some of their homemade applesauce! What a beautiful surprise!
Here is the Grade 2 class with their "silly" pose! :-)
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I went home Friday evening to make final preparations for my message at the Dae Kwang Church's Mens' Prayer Breakfast on Saturday morning and to pack for my three day trip with my dear friend and former SYME student, Yeongmin. He had invited me to go with him and his Middle School friend, WookJae Lee, to Tongyeong, a beautiful city at the very south of South Korea - below Busan even. We had a great time together! We did a lot of walking up and down the hills of Tongyeong. We enjoyed some great fellowship and conversations! We enjoyed a beautiful resort, Club - ES! Through a friend, Yeongmin was able to secure a reservation here. You can't get one unless you know someone who is already a member. It was a gorgeous resort in the hills overlooking one of the many inlets surrounding the hills of Tongyeong. Oh, yes...we ate some very delicious food as well! :-) I was happy to meet WookJae. He was a bit nervous because of his English. I thought his English was fine and we enjoyed some good conversations. I hope you will continue to pray for both of these young men. I want so much for both of them to come to know Jesus Christ! Here are some photos from our weekend. I have posted more on Facebook, but am putting a few here.
Some have asked already where Tongyeong is located. Here is a map showing its location at the very southern tip of South Korea. Pyeongtaek (not shown on this portion of the map) is north of Daegu. I met Yeongmin and WookJae at the Express Bus terminal in the south of Seoul for a four-hour journey to Tongyeong! It is a great place!
The next five photos are views of some of the beautiful city of Tongyeong! It only gives a little of the flavor of the area. You really have to experience it!
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The next pictures show some of the delightful places we were able to explore and enjoy while in Tongyeong! Lots of great food and so many hills - great for walking! It was a special weekend!
WookJae, Yeongmin, and GGG eating our first meal after the long journey by bus in Tongyeong. Fresh fish and a Bi Bim Bap type of Korean meal! Very tasty! Loved the fish!
At the very top of the one hill was the main entrance and dining room to Club-ES!
The three travelers to Tongyeong this past weekend at Club-ES at one of the stopping places on the many walking trails on the resort!
This young man gave a great musical
concert by the outdoor pool the first
night we were there.
The dining room at Club-ES ready for the breakfast buffet on
Sunday morning - even with a white grand piano!
A view from the dining room!
At first, we were seated outside until a spot opened up inside the main dining room. WookJae was hungry and Yeongmin didn't want his photo taken! :-)
A view from our table through the window where we were seated.
Another picture of the beautiful setting at Club-ES.
At the Dongpirang Wall Painting Village in Tongyeong!
Another wall painting.
Another painting showing one of Korea's heroes, General (or admiral) Yi!
A wall painting of one of the Turtle Ships general Yi used to win
the battle against the many Japanese ships in the late 1500's!
A wall painting of The Little Prince!
This delightful angel showed up! :-)
GGG at the Seopirang (West Village)
in Tongyeong. This is at the bottom
of the "99 Steps". I was just sitting as
a conqueror with my teacher's glare.
At Admiral (General) Yi Memorial Park! A statue of Admiral Yi!
One of the beautiful sights as we walked through the Yi Memorial Park.
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I opened this post with a photo of a gorgeous sunset in Pyeongtaek. I want to close this post with another sunset photo. This one is from our weekend trip to Tongyeong. It was actually the sunset that was taking shape as we arrived at Club-ES. I was happy to get there in time to capture a couple photos of the beautiful sunset! As we begin the month of October, Perhaps it will remind you to take some time to just sit and reflect on all that God has given us and done for us!
As always, thank you so much for continuing to be so faithful with your love, care, encouragement, emails, regular mail, prayers, and gifts! I trust you will enjoy a fantastic and beautiful October!
Love, Gregg
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