Another TCIS wedding!

On Saturday, May 24th, a busload of TCISers traveled to a town located about 1 1/2 hours outside of Daejeon to attend the wedding of our middle school secretary, Pam Kang. It was such an interesting ceremony, and combined many traditional Korean wedding practices with the modern wedding hall experience. Here is a snapshot of what it was like: upon arrival at the wedding hall, we all received a ticket for a buffet lunch in the downstairs hall. The buffet was bountiful and offered many traditional Korean foods, including a special dish of cow entrails alongside kimbab, stir fries, rice and pumpkin porridge, shrimp and much more. The ceremony began at 1 p.m. in the wedding hall upstairs, which was lit with huge chandeliers and tracks of neon lights along the ceiling (as the bride came up the aisle, the chandeliers and lights flickered on and off in a disco-type pattern). During the ceremony, the pastor spoke for about 10 minutes and a group of co-workers from the school sang a beautiful song to the bride and groom. Pam and her new husband paid respect to both sets of parents by standing in front of them while the pastor spoke about family ties, and deep bows (particularly deep on the groom's part, all the way to the floor) were delivered as a sign of deep love and respect. As Pam and her husband walked back down the aisle, two attendants shot multiple streamers from trumpets and everyone gathered for photos immediately. During a typical Korean wedding, it is common for the seats to fill up quickly and for many people to stand at the back of the hall. It is completely acceptable for everyone standing to talk and interact during the ceremony, so there is a festive and chaotic feel to the whole thing. Especially when you add in the lights and some dry ice smoke at the front of the chapel, a party-like atmosphere reigns. It was a great day and the bus ride to and from the ceremony afforded beautiful views of the mountains en route.

Hiking another mountain...

One of the mountains around our city is named Gubongsan, and it is like a long ridge that spans about 6 kms. On May 18th, we hiked to a beautiful little pavilion at the top and were rewarded with beautiful views of farmland, rice paddies and a river, along with a stop at the "Sky Lounge", a little umbrella stand selling hard-boiled eggs and makoli (a homemade Korean wine). We sampled the eggs and, tempted as we were by the makoli, continued on our hike.

The Other Retreat

While LeeAnne & Rebecca were on one retreat, Hannah, Cora and Brian were on another!

The location: Sunday Beach. Sounds great, except in the Korean tradition of optimistic marketing, there was no beach. But there was a river...

Over 80 students and staff of the Middle School and the Student Life Ministry of TCIS made the nearly-5-hour journey into the interior of Korea to enjoy the great outdoors and some spiritual mentoring. As you can see from the photos, the setting was beautiful and the smiles were big.

Retreat, retreat!

On Friday and Saturday (May 10 and 11), LeeAnne and Rebecca headed to a retreat centre near the east coast of Korea with about 35 grade 11 students and a bunch of teachers. The students are all IB diploma candidates working on extended essays, and we spent the weekend alternating between work and play sessions. It was such a peaceful and beautiful setting, and Rebecca worked hard with two other grade 10 students in the kitchen, cooking and washing up after the group. It was a fun time, with rounds of bocce, sardines and capture the flag creating lots of opportunities to build a sense of community. Chief organizer of fun was a colleague of ours from Florida, John Willoughby (you'll see him in a photo above). The photo of 5 students features the 5 brilliant individuals who are writing extended essays about literature. What a great school we work at, where so many teachers volunteer to spend their weekend supporting students and working with them so intensively!

The TCIS International Festival!

On Saturday, May 3rd, our entire school community and the community at large gathered on campus for the annual International Festival. Dozens of tents filled with international food, games, activities and vendors created a large ring around the soccer field. On the field were fun things to do like human fooseball, sumo wrestling in huge padded suits, and a big stage where talent was displayed. Cora's dance team did a few numbers, and Hannah participated in the hula hoop competition, while Rebecca played volleyball with her friends all afternoon and evening. A few highlights of the day included Cora donating 10 inches of her hair to Locks of Love (a charity that donates hair to be made into wigs for cancer patients), LeeAnne getting dunked in rapid succession for 10 minutes in the dunk tank, and Brian spending several hours painting henna tattoos on people to raise money for the Beulah Home (India) booth. The day ended with a spectacular display of fireworks and the excellent feeling of being surrounded by friends in a loving community.

Standing against human trafficking...

The student chapter of Amnesty International at TCIS (which LeeAnne helps out with) had a busy week this past week. The students are running an anti-human trafficking campaign, and they have written letters to several Asian governments asking for laws to be made and enforced that would eliminate human trafficking in the region (it is a huge problem in countries like Thailand and Cambodia, and even South Korea is involved in some trafficking activity). This week there was an amazing piece of student art on our grand staircase that depicted people suffering as the result of trafficking, and students created living pieces of art around campus, sitting in squares made of tape and wearing signs with the campaign's slogan "Don't Disown Me". They also did chapel and assembly presentations to raise awareness about the issue, conducted a big poster and locker note campaign, and will be collecting signatures on petitions that will be sent to the South Korean government during our school's big International Festival today, Saturday, May 3rd. The students have done such a great job raising awareness about human trafficking this week at TCIS!

A Quiet Time of Work & Prayer

Three of us were blessed recently with an opportunity to visit Jesus Abbey, a monastic community high in the mountains of eastern Korea. As part of a TCIS Middle School service trip, Brian, Hannah and Cora joined over 20 students for a three-day visit to this peaceful community. The group witnessed first-hand the realization of the phrase "Prayer is work and work is prayer." We shoveled manure, picked stones, dug up weeds and prayed a lot. In addition, the community has some deep and meaningful connections with North Korea that were highly insightful.