Back to Village of Peace...

On Saturday our school's service team visited the Village of Peace Orphanage that came to hold such a special place in our hearts last year. Some of the little girls were away for the day at a sports event, which meant we had mostly young (rambunctious!) boys on our hands for the afternoon. It was chaotic and crazy, and our TCIS students kept the children very busy. Today was a wonderful reminder of how God's love is so desperately needed in our world today. (I'm including a shot of a man on a bench that I think is interesting, too; it's not connected to our orphanage visit, except that it was taken while we were entertaining the children at a nearby school playground.)

Spiriual Emphasis Week

A true highlight of the year always comes in the form of the TCIS Middle School Spiritual Emphasis Week (SEW, as we call it).

This year the students were inspired by the music of Station 2, a fabulous loop band from Columbus, Ohio. Dave & Travis provided rockin' tunes as a backdrop to our games, team-building activities, study and worship. Many students responded to the call put out by Mr. Justin, our guest speaker (and former TCIS staffer) to dedicate their lives to serve God through Christ.

What a blast!

Run, Little Chickens, Run!

Ok. This is a funny one when you consider just over a year ago most of our family members were sworn vegetarians. Brian & Cora joined a band of fun-seekers and merry-makers (led by TCIS science teacher and adventurer, Mr Mac) for a unique culinary treat. Sam-gae-tang (it makes more sense written in the Korean language) is a specialty dish of Daejeon. A whole chicken arrives in a boiling iron bowl at your table. The chicken is stuffed with a whole ginseng root, plus a chestnut and a date. There's some rice in the bowl, too. The mild flavours are offest by the variety of kimchee served on the side. It was so delicious that we almost forgot to feel guilty about the chicken...

Songtan shopping...

On Saturday (Sept. 1st), two busses left our school full of teachers, and their kids, ready to shop for the day. Songtan is a shopping area just outside the Osan American military base about 1 hour north of Daejeon, and it is full of interesting little shops. Traditional Korean celadon pottery, fancy purses, clothes and a black market full of North American food items (such as Kraft Dinner, Skippy peanut butter and Quaker oatmeal) - these are just a sampling of items you can buy. The highlight of a trip to Songtan is eating lunch at the Thai restaurant there; very yummy, indeed. It was a fun day of socializing and strolling (albeit in the rain), and a nice way to end a busy week.