2nd Semester 2008-2009

And now the second half of this past year in picture highlights....

Elementary "cheerleaders" joining in at an all-school pep rally for basketball.

Basketball!

Mission trip fundraiser dinner for Valentine's....




Mission teams - Spring Break and Summer....
Kindergarten Easter Egg-hunt!

Over spring break, a small group of teachers traveled to Cambodia to visit some ministries. We saw many things that made our hearts ache for this country, including people bowing to Buddha and children begging in the streets.

Over Children's Day weekend (a Korean holiday), we took a group of girls from several discipleship groups on a Young Women's Jubilee at the beach. It was cold, but we enjoyed hanging out and investing in each others' lives!

Our director addressing the seniors in one of their last chapels with us....

Every year we have a Korean Awareness Week that includes two all-school field trips. For the first, I helped chaperone Kindergarten. (Notice the kimchi pots in the background....)

For the second field trip, Aftan and I chaperoned a group of 6th grade boys at Everland, a Korean amusement park.

"Our" boys!

Kindergarten graduation! (Unfortunately, I don't have any clear pictures of it, but we DID have a high school graduation, too.)

One final lunch outing with my discipleship group of junior and senior girls. I'll miss these seniors! (Thankfully, the juniors have another year....) They've been an awesome group to work with this year, one of the highlights of every week for me. I love these girls!

A final look before we say "good-bye!"

That's all for now - hope you enjoyed your whirlwind tour of life at ICS this previous year!

1st Semester 2008-2009

Just a quick pictorial overview of the events in the fall semester this past year....

Singing at the school picnic which we held in combination with our Spiritual Emphasis Week.... And of course, our PE teacher making random faces at the camera.

Volleyball!

7th Grade preparing to man their booth for the annual Fall Festival.

High school choir decorated my door for the Christmas Door-Decorating Contest....
Elementary Christmas Program!

High school choir at the elementary Christmas program....

School lock-in Gingerbread House Contest....

Contest Winners - 10th Grade!

The school lock-in wrapped up our first semester. It was a busy, eventful half of the year - and in my personal life, included the wedding of my youngest brother over Christmas break!

Congratulations, Tim and Nicole!

Lessons from this past year....

Normally, this is when I would apologize for the fact that I have not updated my blog since last September. But as I've thought about it, I've realized that for once, being busy has been a fact and not an excuse (even though it sounds like one), and so instead of apologizing, I'm just going to move on to writing this update. Other things have been higher on my to-do list this past year, and I'm learning to be okay with that.

To say that this year has been busy is an understatement. It has been overwhelming, stressful, exhausting, draining - enough said, I think. And yet, the Lord continues to do good things in our lives at ICS; as He has reminded me throughout this difficult year, He is good, and He is faithful - and He is faithfully good.

So what has happened this year? Well, as far as events go, I'll be putting up another post with pictures from the school year. So I won't focus on that for this particular post. Instead, I want to share some of the lessons He is teaching me through the stress and struggle of this year.

An uphill climb is the image that has most often come to mind this year. It seems that nothing has come easily - everything has been difficult in some aspect, whether emotionally, physically or relationally speaking. The thing about difficult times, however, is that we know that God can use them - and does use them - for good in our lives according to His purposes. These thoughts then are some of the good that He is working out in me through things I have experienced this year:

• When God is silent, it's not because He is not present; He is waiting to see if I really believe what He's taught me thus far and if I will act in obedience to what I claim to already know.


• Some things are worth getting in trouble for, because some things have more eternal value than others. The key is in knowing God's priorities, not my own.


• Relationships are important. They are worth working on.


• Restoring relationships takes time, humility and grace.


• Many relationship issues are resolved by assuming the best intentions on the other person's part and your own selfishness on yours. Or by simply letting go of any assumptions whatsoever, and dealing with the truth.


• There is a time and place for admitting your weakness to the Body and allowing others to step in to help and care for you.


• Unity doesn't just happen because we know it needs to happen. Not everyone knows what unity looks like; if you know what it looks like, then teach it by modeling it, not by complaining about the lack of it.


• Prayer changes things - but prayer is hard work and not many of us are willing to go the distance or to persevere in prayer.


• God brings His best at all times, whether or not we see it as such.


• The lessons I think God is giving me to teach others are most likely the lessons I need to learn the most.


• Not everything God teaches me needs to be shared with others right away. Often, He brings a season of tempering in my life first, a time of waiting and watching before the time is right to speak. And just as often, it is not my lesson to teach, but belongs to another, and my place is to encourage them to speak up in the right timing or to affirm them in speaking the truth.


• Everything in the Christian walk comes back to love, but sometimes the most loving thing to do is to NOT rescue others from their difficulties because God is using those hard things in their lives. This includes not offering sympathy that may lead them to self-pity, but rather watching and praying, and loving them through it.