Past Week and Coming Week

Noelle and I have had a pretty busy first month of school.

Last week was an exceptional time for the school. We invited two staff members from our sister school in Seoul to come and speak at our Middle/High School Spiritual Emphasis Week. they did an excellent job in helping our students remember that life is not about us, but rather is about God's Story. They also brought 5 students with them. This was a real treat as these 5 students led us in music and worship.

This current week has been busy, but it was only 3 days of work. Monday was Hari Raya (celebration of the end of Ramadan) and Friday the 25th Noelle and I lead 13 students and a guest speaker to Indonesia on a Leadership Retreat. Of the 13 students 6 are seniors and 10 are males. This brings to mind the fact that more than 2/3 of the high school students praying this morning for See You At the Pole were male. I am praying that the young men at our school continue to stand up and be spiritual leaders among their peers.

This next week is going to be pretty exciting too. Wednesday the 30th will be the ICS soccer team's 2 league game. We tied today 3-3. Thursday will be the High School's first Week Without Walls meeting. I am leading a team to the Philippines in April, Noelle will probably not be able to attend due to Middle School Principal Responsibilities. Friday will be the High School's first annual ICS Career Day. 8 Professionals will come and share about real life work experiences and our students will have a chance to ask all sorts of important questions.

Saturday I will lead the new staff at ICS in a group discussion to discuss some of the transition issues affecting them through their move to Singapore.

Busyness seems to be commonplace these days for Noelle and I. Please pray for us and our school.

Noelle Bhangra

The moment you all have been waiting for..... dandadandaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..... Noelle has been dancing Bhangra for 3 years now. She has danced for the S.R. Nathan, the President of Singapore at The Istana on Orchard Road. She has danced at weddings, schools and at community events.

October is Racial Harmony Month in Singapore. Two weeks ago she danced 20 minutes after Mentor Minister Lee Kuan Yew spoke about Singapore as a nation.

Yesterday she danced at Graffiti Expression, a Singapore sponsored event to increase racial harmony through friendship and art.

If you would like to see her teams website click here Singapore Bhangra

Here are some pictures from yesterdays performance. The old man is known as Funny Singapore Man on Youtube. He spoke with me for about 10 minutes before the performance began. If you would like to see a video of him you can check him out at youtube.

Fun game in Singapore

We have been blessed with the opportunity to own a car in Singapore. Although it is very expensive it is definitely a blessing. This is one of the fun game's my buddy Greg and I play together.



NO CAR!!

NOELLE and MY CAR (little cute blue fuel efficient beast)

WELL, LOOK AT THAT. I AM A CAR!!

WELL, LOOK AT THAT. GREG IS A Car!!

Wish we were better at this

Noelle and I apologize for not being better at this blog thing.

So, here is the just of what has been going on in the past three months.

-Spring Break in the Philippines with my sister and mother. We helped with an orphanage in Mindanao.
- Cultural service trip to Indonesia with 5 students. We lived with a village of Muslims and learned about their culture through eating their food and living how they lived.
- I led a father son retreat to Indonesia...No we don't have kids, but it was a great time to help men and their sons grow in appreciation for manhood and biblical character development.
- Noelle and her Bhangra team had an awesome opportunity to go to the President of Singapore's house and dance for him, his family and his friends.


Now we are planning our summer break. Noelle will spend three weeks in Indonesia working on her acquisition of the Indonesian language.

While she is in Indoneisa I will go to Vancouver and spend some time with family and friends. I fly in on June 18th and fly out on June 29th.

Please pray for the school and enrollment.

Valentines Day Weekend

This past weekend was full of fun, although it did not start out that way. Noelle was not feeling well, so she stayed home from school. However, that night she was feeling better, so we got together with our friends Verne and Rachel Ward who were in town (Verne was a housemate of mine from University). They recently returned from PNG, after spending 6 weeks filming for the Church of the Nazarene. We had dinner with the Hane family and thoroughly enjoyed our time together over some great food.

Saturday morning we spent at the Clementi Sand Volleyball Court. We had friends and colleagues come play volleyball for two hours. The morning was perfect, quite sunny and no rain. After Volleyball Noelle and i showered up and met Verne and Rachel for lunch at our favorite Northern Indian restaurant in Singapore. It was great food, in fact, it was plain delicious; Lime Juice, Tea Cino, Mango Lassi, Naan, Butter Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala, Palak Paneer, Aloo Mutter. We then drank coffee from Papua New Guinnea together and left their place around 7pm so that they could pack their bags for their early morning flight.

It was great to see them. It had been a little over two years since we had last seen Verne. And we might not see Verne or Rachel for a long time. We are remembering to cherish the moments that we have right now. A modest amount of time remembering the past is good, pondering the future is wise, but spending the bulk of our time living in the present, now that, that is beautiful.

Church on Sunday was good. I shared some about the importance of building solid relationships with students, about the importance of consistency; but I think my favorite moment of church (should we have favorite? sure, why not) was when I read the following quote by Charles Spurgeon: “To be laughed at is no great hardship to me. I can delight in scoffs and jeers. Caricatures, lampoons, and slanders are my glory. But that you should turn from your own mercy, this is my sorrow. Spit on me, but, oh, repent! Laugh at me, but, oh, believe in my Master! Make my body as the dirt of the streets, but damn not your own souls!”

My other favorite part of church (can I have a second favorite?) was when we sang the John Newton Song "Let us Love and Sing and Wonder". It is like my favorite song ever. If you don't know it, click the song title for a link to the lyrics..

After church I was able to get 12 friends/former students/current students to come to the school to play some soccer. It was enjoyable and some of my Malay friends are hoping that we do this every week.

Here are some pictures from this weekends volleyball fun.
This is Noelle and I with Harry. Harry is from the Philippines and works as a DJ here on Singapore's best FM radio station. I met Harry at the Tiong Bahru Food Court. Great Story! :)

Bhangra

Some of you have been asking to see Noelle dancing. Well this is a video from last school year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47aG6S2ebaM

when i get some other videos and photos i will put them on here too.

International Night

I have just returned from a trip to California. I was visiting California Lutheran University as their guest. Cal Lu is attempting to increase their enrollment of international students and overall quality of students and brought me and 25 other school counselors to campus in order for us to get a better feel of the campus. it was a great trip, not just because I was able to meet with representatives from Cal Lu, but also because I was able to get to California 4 days before the Conference at meet with four alumni from ICS. David at Point Loma, Hannah at Azusa Pacific and Sarah at USC.

Upon return I have found much work waiting for me. Noelle is also very busy with International Night, which takes place Friday night the 6th of February. Noelle is the teacher liaison with the Parent Teacher Fellowship in developing the International Night Program. She is very busy and has much work to accomplish today at school.

International Night is a time for our school community to come together and celebrate the diversity of cultures represented on our campus. We have 390 students (this # fluctuates daily) and approximately 25 different nationalities represented (primarily US, S. Korean, Indonesian, Singaporean). We eat finger foods , we watch performances and we play games from these and other countries and year after year it is an exciting time. This year we are doing it completely different, think of those makeover shows on TLC, that is what we are doing with Intl. Night. However, one thing that is not different is Noelle's involvement in the cultural performance segment of the show. For the third straight year Noelle will be performing Bhangra with her dance group. This energetic dance will surely bring much cheering from the audience.

Pray for us in this busy time of the year. After International night on Friday Noelle and I need to be at the school by 6:30 AM Saturday morning the 7th in order to administer the ACT for college bound Singaporeans.

1st week of school

Today is the second day of the second semester. Yesterday was full of students wanting to change their schedules. Noelle substituted some during the day and enjoyed her first day back as our middle school students received combination locks for their lockers. I worked in my office till 3 when soccer started and then had only 10 of my 16 players show up. I guess Christmas break is a long time to remember the soccer schedule. Anyway, when the whole team is not there, it's difficult to feel like a team. This weekend Noelle and I will be hosting 13 teenagers at our place for a 2 day 1 night leadership retreat. We will watch a movie and process through the last semesters events. This is bound to be a good time and I am excited about encouraging them to step it up a little as leaders on campus.