Warmer weather brings some delightful flowers; 2 HS students accept Jesus Christ; Awesome Visits with Friends!

Yes, the warmer weather continued this week!  It was a busy week with a lot going on at school.  The real exciting news is that two high school students accepted Christ as their Savior this past week!!  Please pray for these two students to have the courage to share this with family and friends.  I also had the privilege of talking with one of our first-grade boys about his concern about his grandmother who was discovered to have a tumor on the brain and it is very scary for him.  His first name is Charles and I enjoyed a wonderful conversation with him.  He asked some great questions about God and sin.  I was impressed with his great questions at such a young age.  Please pray for him as he continues to worry about his grandmother and that he would come to know Christ as his Savior.

With the warmer weather, the flowers have begun to burst forth with color and beauty.  Here are a few pictures.  They really don't show how beautiful this time of year is in South Korea.  Enjoy!

The two photos above were taken on my brisk walk last Monday evening!

The two photos above were taken right outside the front of our main academic building at ICS-P!

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Thursday Evening!

I was invited to the apartment of our HS Science teacher, Mr. Febus and his wife, HaYoung, along with two of our elementary teachers, Ms. Hunter (Grade 1), Ms. Colgain (Grade 3), and Ms. Emily Flaget (Student Teacher in Kindergarten).  It was a special farewell dinner for Emily.  Her last day of Student Teaching in kindergarten was Friday.  We had an enjoyable and fun time on Thursday evening.  Lots of fun stories and great conversations!  Ms. Flaget had told me on Monday that she has fallen in love with South Korea and was hoping to find a teaching position for 2018-19.  It just so happened that I knew that Yongsan International School of Seoul was looking for three elementary teachers.  I contacted Mr. Ray Johnson, Headmaster at YISS, and asked if YISS would be interested in interviewing our wonderful student teacher.  He was very excited and said, "YES!"  On Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Flaget traveled to YISS and was interviewed by Mr. Johnson and the elementary administrators.  She was all excited on Wednesday morning!  They offered her the Kindergarten Teacher position!  I am pretty sure she will accept the position!

Thursday evening dinner group: (left to right) Ms. Colgain, Ms. Flaget, Ms. Hunter, GGG, HaYoung Febus, and Ray Febus!

I forgot to get a photo of my first plate,

  so this is Ms. Hunter's second plate!

Dessert: Cheese Cake and Cream Puffs!

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Saturday!!

I left early Saturday morning to head to Itaewon to meet my dear friend and former colleague at YISS, Ms. Shauna Weir.  Shauna was in Seoul for about 8 days on a break from her ministry at an elementary school in Cambodia.  The school is involved in helping young girls get a job and education to free them from the massive sex trafficking industry in Cambodia.  Shauna and I enjoyed a wonderful time together catching up on each other's ministry and enjoying a delicious lunch together.  She left on Saturday to return to direct the program in Cambodia.  I know she would value your prayers!

Shauna Weir and GGG preparing to eat our yummy salads at La Grilla Restaurant in Itaewon!

 I chose the Cobb Salad!  Very yummy!

Shauna chose the Crispy Chicken Salad!

Also, quite tasty!                 

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After lunch with Shauna, I met two of my very dear friends from SYME days, JiSang and ChangYong.  We met at a coffee shop near Nambu Bus Terminal and had such a great time together.  These two young men are two of about four or five Korean young men who would do almost anything for me.  I will miss them dearly.  They are starting to think about a visit to the USA and I hope to return to visit them.  JiSang was also celebrating my belated birthday and I was celebrating his early birthday, which is next week.  He has already blocked off the day I will leave for the airport to return to the USA so that he can drive me to the airport and help me with luggage, etc.  He is taking off work to take care of me.

At Tom N Toms Coffee Shop with ChangYong and JiSang!!

        ChangYong with his coffee!

JiSang opening the card and gift from his 

PA Mother, my sister- Julee Huss.  He loved

his early birthday present!            

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Sunday!

After enjoying a wonderful morning at Dae Kwang Church, Pastor Mike Nicholes and his wife Alicia invited me to their new apartment for Sunday lunch and a fantastic time of fellowship.  I always enjoy my time with Mike and Alicia and their four children.  Sunday was no exception.  I know they would value your prayers as they will be leaving in May to return to the USA for a one year furlough from their ministry in South Korea through Word of Life.  This year will be the first Christmas they will celebrate in America together with their families in 30 years!

Pastor Mike and Alicia Nicholes in their new apartment preparing to enjoy a very delicious Chicken Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwich!

My bowl of Chicken Soup!!! Soooooo good!!

    Titus and Josiah, the two sons of Mike

and Alicia having fun with me before lunch!

Michaela and Karis, the two daughters

of Mike and Alicia cleaning up things in

the kitchen following the delicious lunch!

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Update on positions!  We just received word on Friday from the NICS Home Office that they have a candidate for the position of Director at ICS-Pyeongtaek!  We will be interviewing him and his wife on Wednesday of this coming week.  Please pray that this gentleman is the one God has for the Director's position at ICS-P.  We will be interviewing another candidate for the Art Teacher (K-12) position this coming week as well.  I am not sure of the day, but your prayers would be appreciated.  We still need one or the other of the following two positions: Middle School Math/General Science OR Physical Ed. Teacher/Athletic Director (K-12).

Thanks, as always for your faithful love, care, encouragement, mail, emails, prayers, and gifts of support.  Enjoy a great week!

Love, Gregg

Spring Arrives in Pyeongtaek! Talent Show!! Elementary Art! Sorting and Packing Continues!

Yeppers, after an unseasonably cold February and March, Spring seems to have arrived in Pyeongtaek!  We are very grateful!  We've had a great start to April and Quarter 4 at ICS-P!  A very busy one, but a very good one!  During my Spiritual Day (April 6) off and my Personal Day (April 9) off, I was able to do a lot of reflection and walking and thinking while enjoying the beautiful Cherry Blossoms.  They were out in full force.  So glad I was able to enjoy them since this past week we had some strong spring winds that have removed most of the blossoms.  Here are two pictures right outside my apartment building (#105) showing some of the Cherry Blossoms as I returned from one of my walks.

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In last week's post, I shared that Corrie Kolbe, the wife of one of our ICS-P teachers, had offered to take five suitcases with her as she traveled with two of their children to visit Corrie's mother in North Carolina.  Her mother is doing rehab and recovering from double knee replacement surgery.  They arrived safely in the USA and proceeded to unpack the suitcases and pack them for mailing to my one sister's home in Pennsylvania.  This allowed me to save A LOT of money rather than shipping them from South Korea!  Corrie was able to pack everything in nine packing boxes and they have been mailed to my sister already!  This is such a wonderful kindness and has saved me a lot of stress and money!  Here are the boxes after Corrie packed them and prepared them to take to the post office!

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Before I share some pictures of some of the special events that happened this week at ICS-P, I want to share the latest update from Ben Coyner after his recent surgery and then a report from his surgeon.  So many of you have been praying for Ben since last school year when he was diagnosed with tongue cancer.  Thanks so much.

"Hey, ICS Community!

Praise God that the pathology test could not find any viable cancer cells in any of my lymph nodes, just dead clumps of cells.

This means that I don’t need to undergo any chemotherapy cancer treatment!

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement."

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Most of the remainder of this post will be photos from our elementary school during this past week.  Our Yearbook staff of students led by their advisor, Mrs. Kathy Lee, have been getting photos to finish our ICS-P Yearbook for this year.  They wanted to get a photo of the Elementary Family Groups this past week.  I was able to get a couple shots that included all of the family groups from Grades Kindergarten through Grade 5 + the teachers outside our academic building near one of the trees with delightful Cherry Blossoms.  I must have taken 6 different shots to get this one photo.  So difficult to get kids enjoying their recess time to hold still for a group picture! :-)  I am sure you will see that this one is not perfect, but it is what it is! :-)  They love their Family Groups on Tuesdays!

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Our Art Teacher, Mrs. Kathy Lee, continues to do a great job with all of our students with Art!  Here are some photos from some of the elementary cherubs' artwork from this past couple weeks.  They love going to Art and they do a great job!

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On Friday, our Grade 2 Teacher, Ms. Alexi Dather, had a Talent Show for her 2nd Grade cherubs.  They had been working in class on using their gifts/talents to honor the Lord.  Ms. Dather was a bit nervous about how they would do.  They had invited parents to come to see the performances.  Some teachers and some of the elementary students came as well.  Everyone was so pleased and delighted with what these young children were doing with their talents.  It was a great morning!  I was so proud of the students!  We have been working throughout the school on how to present in front of people and they did a super job.  I only wish I could have gotten some videos of the performances.  

Ms. Dather and her Grade 2 cherubs at the Talent Show!

The obligatory "Silly" pose picture! :-)

These three  did some memory verses using a soccer   

ball to dribble back and forth as they recited the verses!

This little man did an amazing job of

 dancing as a sang one of the Chapel

                   worship songs!

Using the song that uses the theme verses from last year (Ephesians 6), these guys did some of their Taekwondo moves as the song played!

Another young man using his worship  

dance moves from one of the ES Chapel

worship songs!                  

Two more doing some of their moves to the "Armour of God" song!

This young lady played "Amazing Grace"

                    as a piano solo!

Ms. Dather is accompanying this precious little lady as she sings  

so beautifully "Go Tell it on the Mountain"!  She was amazing!   

Here she is again singing so wonderfully!  I was very impressed!

This young lady did an art drawing of

              the birth of Jesus!

Here she is in a close up as she draws!

Some of the parents, students, and teachers in the audience!      

Grade 2 students taking their bows at the close of their performances!!

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The Student Council at ICS-P has been working diligently on preparations for the Annual Spring Fling for ICS-P students and staff.  Saturday evening at 6:00 PM was the date and time for this year's grand event!  Everyone seemed to have a great time of fun, food, fellowship, laughter, and lots of joy! Thanks so much to our Student Council advisor, Ms. Gaul and all of the Student Council officers for a great evening!  Hoping the little video clip (from pictures I took) shows up in the post.  For some reason that I do not know, I have had difficulty posting videos - even those of small sizes - on the post in the past.)  If it does not allow to view it, you can check it out on facebook if desired.

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I am in the midst of making final arrangements for purchasing my ticket to return to the USA around June 20 or 21!  I need to finish many projects at school as well as sort and pack and make arrangements for getting things back to the States without paying an arm and a leg.  As always, thank you for continuing love, care, and encourage me as well as sending me emails, regular mail, prayers, and gifts of support.  I am so thankful for each one of you.  Enjoy your week!

Love, Gregg

Road Construction has Begun!! Two More Interviews! Book Tasting!! A Chronic Bronchitis Attack! :( A Respite!!

The beginning of Quarter 4 was a busy one with lots happening! When I arrived on Monday morning at school at 6:30 AM, it was obvious that the road construction has begun in full force!  We were delighted that they decided to do a lot of the heavy digging (very noisy) during our Spring Break!  Here are just a couple photos of what the road area around our academic building and gymnasium looked like on Monday.

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We were able to conduct two more interviews for two remaining positions for 2018-19.  We met with a delightful gentleman  (at ICS-P) about the MS Math/General Science position and a wonderful young lady and her husband (via Skype).  The wife is interested in our Art teacher position.  We liked both candidates and I would ask you to pray as they think about, talk and pray about God's direction for them.

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On Monday evening, I began to feel a scratchiness in my throat.  It is usually what happens first when an attack of Chronic Bronchitis is coming.  Sure enough, by Tuesday evening it was a nasty sore throat and was heading south to my chest.  My voice sounded really nasty.  I was able to take part in our "Book Tasting" (more on that later) on Wednesday, but then went home after that as well as my Lunch Duty with Kinder, Grade 1, and Grade 2 cherubs.  I wasn't able to do ES Chapel on Thursday morning but came in later to take part in the Skype interview with the prospective Art teacher and her husband.  After the interview, I went home.  I had previously scheduled a day off on Friday and one on Monday.  These days helped as I was able to get some rest and do some sorting and packing five suitcases with books, file folders, Tax Records for the past four years, etc.  God gave me good rest and then the strength to get these suitcases ready for taking to the USA on Monday, April 9!  How?

This was a direct answer to prayer.  I was doing my greeting of parents picking up their children at the close of the day on Tuesday.  I came to the yellow van with the wife of one of our teachers in it.  I asked her if she was picking up all three children and teased with their fourth child in her car seat.  Very quietly, Corrie Kolbe, the mother, said to me, "My daughter and I are going to America on Monday, April 9th to help with the rehab of my mother's double knee replacement surgery.  We don't pack very much and I have four or five suitcases you could fill with your books and I could take them and then ship them to your home in Chambersburg, PA using Media mail!"  SO I was overwhelmed and told Corrie that she is a direct answer to prayer.  It would have cost me A LOT to ship them from Korea.  So I now have 5 suitcases prepared all at or near the weight limit for Corrie to pick up on Monday morning and take to the USA!  Thank you Lord, and thank you, Corrie!!  I have also been donating a number of my books to the Library at ICS-P and have placed a number of them on a table in my office for staff to come and take if they would like any.  They can just take or leave a donation if they would like.

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One of our seniors, Jamie Park,  came to me on Tuesday with a big smile!  She had applied to attend Wheaton College.  She had been accepted several weeks ago.  She was also accepted at a couple other colleges.  She said, "Mr. Garman, I just sent in my payment to reserve my spot at Wheaton College!"  I was happy!  I congratulated her and asked if she would like a Wheaton T-Shirt.  Wheaton had sent me a couple.  One was for another person and one was for me, but I had never worn it.  It is LARGE on Jamie, but I told her she could wear it around the dorm, or it might shrink.  She loved it!  Here she is with her Wheaton T-shirt.

Here I am with Jamie in front of the bulletin board in our lobby showing many of the colleges and universities to which our seniors have been accepted! 

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I mentioned earlier about a "Book Tasting."  Our Librarian, Mrs. Tina Lee, asked if she could have Wednesday, April 4th as a day when she would invite students in the elementary grades for three different times to enjoy the many books I donated to the Library. She had K and Grade 1 come as a group, then Grades 2 and 3, and finally Grades 4 and 5.  She had arranged the room with tables, placemats, and then had me read one of the books and share about the other books.  Her desire, and mine, was to get children READING and enjoying it!  When I finished sharing and reading with each group, Mrs. Lee had lunch trays prepared with age-appropriate books for the children to browse.  teachers were excited and so were students!  One teacher said that we should have had the "Book Tasting" all day because the kids were so excited!  I am thrilled that I was able to give may books I had collected to our Library and so happy that students are excited about reading!!

Mrs. Lee had the B1 Gym area set up like this for the children when they arrived. 

  GGG introducing the "Book Tasting" for Kinder

                        and grade 1 students.

GGG reading to a group of the students.  Mrs. Lee, 

our Librarian, is seated at the computer to work the 

PowerPoint pictures.                     

The lady standing is our student teacher, Miss Emily Flaget, from Asbury University, who is student teaching in Kindergarten.

Students reading while Ms. Hunter and

                   Mrs. Lee observe.

Several cherubs focused on their reading!!

Kinder cherub, Beckham is focused!  

Some more Book Tasters!

  Some Third Grade students intent on

                 tasting the books!

Grade 2 students enjoying their tasting time!

More Grade 3 book tasters!         

More tasting!!

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Our HS Math Teacher, Ms. Becca Gaul, was privileged to have her parents visit from the USA for two weeks.  This past week they came with her to school and were eager to help teachers and staff and me with some of our projects!  They were such a blessing to all of us.  One day Mrs. Gaul asked if she could take a photo of the director.  I said, "Yes, if you would like to break your phone camera." She smiled and took the picture.  Here it is.  I think she must have doctored it up in some manner. :-)  Please feel free to use it to pray for me or it might be good at clearing your house of mice or rats! :-)

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On Saturday morning, I woke early after a very restful sleep (Thanks, NyQuil!) and loaded my car with the suitcases and books for shipping via Corrie Kolbe.  In my office, I added some more books for teachers to take + packed, unpacked, repacked, weighed, packed some more, and so on until I had five suitcases filled!  I will check again on Sunday afternoon to see if I can put in a couple more I found.  I will be leaving a note for Corrie with some cash to help pay for the shipping in the USA.

Right after packing the suitcases, I left from Pyeongtaek Bus Terminal to travel to Itaewon to meet my dear friends (former colleagues at YISS), Roger and PamDeHart.  Roger teaches HS Science at YISS and Pam teaching Elementary Art.  Both are great friends and they had invited me to their apartment for lunch.  What a great time of remembering special times and talking about changes in education, great things that are happening, laughing, and just fellowshipping with great joy before I depart.  They have invited me to their home in Seattle, Washington once they return to the States in the USA.  I am looking forward to that.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner with one my favorite meats - SALMON!!  Such a delightful time with dear friends!!

My YISS friends, Pam and Roger DeHart.  What a great time we enjoyed!!

Pam preparing food for our great lunch!

Roger preparing the delicious salmon!!

My delicious lunch!!! :-)

Yes, the flowers on the top of this cake are real!  This was a gift to the DeHarts from a friend and they saved it to enjoy with me.  It is beautiful and the cake was very tasty. We did NOT eat the flowers! :-)

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Sunday at church, we had another packed house.  Dae Kwang Church continues to grow!  We will need to find another room soon.  I have been enjoying many new friends.  Here is a picture of one of my newest friends, Youngsol!  His Korean name is Kim Youngsol, but as a student at SYME, he goes by Sol.  Thanks for praying for this delightful young man as he studies the Bible and English.

Sol and GGG at church.

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I need to stop for now.  This is longer than expected.  So sorry.  Thank you so much for your continued care, love, encouragement, notes, mail, emails, prayers, and gifts of support.  Thank you to so many of you who sent me 69th birthday wishes via Facebook, email, or regular mail!  Please enjoy a great week!

Love, Gregg