Good evening to you! Thanksgiving was good here, we had a good time of food, fellowship, and games at the Bailey's house (friends from church) they also had our Singaporean pastors over. We got to watch a recorded Monday night football game (Patriots vs. Chiefs), Bible Trivia, and Hoopla! We got home rather late.

Then on Saturday we had basketball games to play. The girls won the consolation championship (3rd place). While both of the guys teams lost the championship games and got second. We played well, but were simply up against a better team (especially the older boys). The younger team made a couple of runs that brought us within 1 or 2 points, but would follow it up by letting UWC score 6 or 7 to pull ahead again. It was fun though!

On Sunday I went to a chess tournament to watch one of my students. 2 or 3 years ago he won the Singapore National Chess Title. It was incredible to watch this caliber of play. There were 2 grand masters, an olympean, as well as Ino and a bunch of other really good players! It was incredible how fast their minds worked. This was especially evident when they would analyze the games after completing them! Ino ended up getting 3rd place. Ino has been a great asset to have at chess club each week!

Wow, the last day of November! I can't believe Christmas is almost here! We end the semester before Christmas, so we have two weeks of normal school, than a week of exams. Pray for me as I finish up different subjects before the break.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't believe it is already Thanksgiving! This past month has just flown by!

Two weeks ago we had a five-day weekend and were able to spend some time with fellow teachers in Malaysia. It was a much needed rest as the first days off since the year started.

The past couple of weeks have been full of basketball! Both the U16 and the Open teams have been finishing regular seasons, and then having playoff games. Last week the U16 team won the semi-final match to qualify for the finals this coming Saturday. Monday the Open boys played a tough Quarterfinal game and won with four points in the last 10 seconds. The semi-finals were scheduled for Tuesday, but the game was rained out! So we found a place that we could use a gym and played Wednesday. It was another close game, and this time we won on a jump shot with 2 seconds on the clock! So, both of the boys teams will be playing in the finals on Saturday, and the Girls team will be playing in the Consolation Championship. So Saturday will be another full basketball day. But, then the season is over, and there will be a little more free time!

It is hard to think of this as Thanksgiving, not only is it warm out, but it isn't a holiday here. Everyone is working like normal. But I do have the day off! This morning I went with Betsy to the RDA to watch her work with the horses and the kids. I took a few pictures and will post some later.

This evening we will be going to some friends from church to celebrate Thanksgiving. He recorded some football games, so we'll watch football and eat turkey and pumpkin pie! It won't be the Thanksgiving we are used to, but it will be fun. We will definitely be missing our family though.

Please be praying for us in this holiday season as we are spending this time away from family. Most times it isn't too bad, but occasionally it hits us.

We love you all!

Raining in Singapore

Well, the rainy season has arrived. For the past few days there have been around two hours of pouring rain, thunder, and lightning. Early this week as I was leaving school I got to the exit from the school to find a small pond, about 20 feet across, and as deep as 5 inches. I didn't want to go all the way back to the other side of the campus, so I took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pants and waded across. It is nice to have a warm rain and be able to do that.

Thanks for your love and prayers!

Bush for 4 more years!

It has been a crazy week here. Betsy and I have been tracking the race by listening to Rush Limbaugh online in the evenings. We actually sent our ballots in a couple of weeks ago, so it was just a matter of watching what would happen. It was weird not being able to see any results til Wednesday morning, but it also meant I didn't have to stay up late to see the results! By Wednesday night when we went to bed, it wasn't official. But this morning the first place I went was the news page and saw the great headline of Kerry's concession! We continue to pray that God will be working in President Bush and in our great country!

Update in Pictures!

OK, here they are, some more pictures for you all! The first couple are from our International Night, a great time of food and fun! All the families were to bring two dishes from their home culture. There was food from EVERYWHERE! America, Italy, Sweden, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, etc! It was great, we love to eat and try new things. I couldn't believe how many people were there for this thing. It is really a pretty large community of people when you get all the parents and students and staff together.

After the food, we had a show with performances dealing with different areas of the world, I have pictures from a couple of our favorites included. More about them later.

Yesterday we went to Sentosa island with our small group from school. We played some MiniGolf, and hung out at the beach, it was a beautiful day! We hadn't been to Sentosa yet, but it is only a ten minute walk away from our house. We will be going often!

Thank you for all your support, love, and emails, we love getting them! Feel free to leave comments here as well, though you won't necessarily get responses then!

Baseball at International Night

The program started out with a tribute to America's great pasttime with "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" I loved joining in the second time!

As a side note, we had a couple of great series this year. Was great to see the Yanks blow the lead! (Sorry Grandma, couldn't resist one more jab!)

Korean Drumming

The show ended with a group of Korean students doing a drumming concert, they drummed on the tables, and on overturned garbage cans! It was a great performance, and it was neat to see these normally quiet students get out in front and show off their culture!

Danny & Andrew

This is Andrew, the Computer guy at ICS. I'm enjoying having him around to do all the computer things so I don't have to and teaching me some things I don't know yet, and he enjoys (I think) having me around to help occasionally.

Aaaaah, nice to be in the ocean again!

Need I say more?

The Southernmost point in Continental Asia

We find it interesting that this little island is considered the southernmost point in continental Asia. It is connected to the island of Sentosa by a bridge, which is connected to Singapore by a bridge, which is connected to Malaysia and mainland Asia by a bridge!

The beach was a beautiful place with a bunch of room to run and play, and plenty of sand to share! There was a group of kids there that dug a hole about 7 feet deep in the sand! And I was able to play frisbee with a couple others from the school. It was fun to be able to really throw the disc full power, though my arm was sore by the end!

A beautiful end to a fun day in Sentosa.

We ended our time in Sentosa by going to a laser and fountain show, it was pretty cool. The whole island was lit up with lights. A fun time!

Let us know when you are coming and we'll take you for a visit!

Quarter One Complete

Well, last Friday ended the first quarter of school. On Wednesday I finished turning in grades for the quarter. I can't belive the time has gone so quickly! My students did fairly well, with only a few Ds and no Fs!

These last couple days have been great as God has been working on me to better use my time. I have been able to keep up with my grading and not have a ton of work to do here at home. As a result, yesterday Betsy and I were able to go on a date!

It was exciting! We went to one of the malls and a Mail Boxes Etc. store where we were able to turn in our ballots for the election. UPS and FedEx provide free mailing of ballots back to the states! It was wonderful to be able to cast our vote from so far away and to feel comfortable that it will actually make it on time!

After dropping off our ballots we wandered the mall for a while, then went to the Pizza Hut for dinner. As we were heading home from dinner we passed by the World's Largest Fountain and a sign that said there were daily shows from 8-10 pm so we decided to wait the half hour to see the show! Unfortunately as we sat there we saw scaffolding and figured it wasn't going to be down in time for a show, but we were enjoying just relaxing from the hustle and bustle of the day and waited anyway. At 8 we heard an announcement telling everyone that there would be no show for a couple of weeks while they were doing repairs. I guess we'll have to go back later!

So, we decided to go home. That was an ordeal! We knew where we needed to go to get a bus, but we couldn't get out of the mall in that direction! And as we tried to walk around the outside we ran into construction blocking the sidewalks! Eventually we ended up a half mile away (we tried to cut through a building and ended up in an underground mall) at a mall Betsy recognized and knew where to go to get a bus. It was an adventure!

All in all a great evening, seeing God's blessings!

Thank you for your prayers!

Day 2 of consistency!

Tuesday night we were invited to go to the Young Life fundraising banquet with one of Betsy's friends from Bible Study (and the mother of one of my students). It was a great time and it was neat to learn something about this great organization. Pray for wisdom as we consider our involvement.

Last weekend we went with Stephen & Rachel to a park behind their house and were able to play a round of disc golf for the first time since moving here. (Disc golf is like frisbee golf, and a hobby that both of us have been enjoying for the last couple of years.) There are no official courses here like in the states, but we can still just pick a tree here, a sign there, the light post, picnic table, etc. It was great to be throwing our discs again!! And it was great to be out in the greenery!

Thanks again for your prayers, love you all lots! We'll try to post a couple more pictures this weekend.

Wow, where has the time gone?

OK, it has been a couple weeks now, and much has happened. First of all, I'm sorry I haven't sent anything out in the last weeks. Hopefully I will do better now, I'm trying to make this part of my morning routine.

The past two weeks have been pretty good. Though the first part of October both of us were sick. I was still able to go to school, but had a pretty tough day. Then during the weekend was able to recover.

Basketball season has continued and both our younger team and our older team have won their games. We are looking forward to continuing to win and to being about to play in the tournament at the end of the year. Last night the older boys beat the Australian International School for the first time in ICS history!

It is hard to believe, but tomorrow is already the end of the first quarter! Nine weeks of school have already passed! Please pray for me to be diligent in my grading these next few days and to be prepared to turn in grades next Wednesday.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support!

We love you lots.

A day in the Rainforest

Stephen and Rachel, our tour guides!
On Sunday the 19th we went to a national reserve with Stephen and Rachel, Steven teaches with Danny. It is a protected area with about 8 miles worth of hiking trails through the rain forest and around a reservoir. We hiked about 6 miles of the way through, it was BEAUTIFUL!!

This picture is on the top of a ranger tower about 80 feet up. We were a little nervous about going up as it was beginning to rain and we could see lightening in the distance, but Stephen is the adventurous type and dragged us up. We were glad, it was a great view in all directions.

It was nice to be able to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city and be surrounded by green. We even got far enough in that we couldn't hear the city noises!

Then at the end, trees. . . road! We walked along the road a little ways to the bus stop, looking forward to getting home and resting a little bit. . . Stephen and Rachel went to a different stop to take them home. I looked in the book and directed us to the bus we needed. We got on and I took a little nap, only to wake up in Yishun (the north part of the island) instead of HarborFront (the south, near our house). We had gotten on the correct bus, but the wrong side of the road! So, we got off, walked to the MRT (train) station, and took the 45 minute ride back home!

All in all, a great day!

Turtle

Lots of turtles were swimming around in the reservoir, not as big as the sea turtles in Hawaii, but still fun to watch.

Monkeys

There were a whole bunch of monkeys around the trail, curious about us as we were about them! (Actually, I think they see a lot of people and were more interested in the flash from my camera!)

The jungle canopy

See You at the Pole

As many of you know, "See You at the Pole" is a gathering of Christian students around the world at the flagpole of their school on a Wednesday morning in September. This is our school's version. We don't really have a flagpole, so it was just on the basketball court. In all, we probably had around 80 students K-12 at the pole. It was a great time of worship and prayer.

As you can see, the students are not in their traditional uniform. This day also happened to be picture day for the high school, so students were able to wear free dress for the day.

Algebra 2

Here is a shot of my first period Algebra 2 class hard at work. Thought I would give you a look at what the class looks like with kids in it!