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In early February we will celebrate the year of the Rooster!!! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We spent each day of the school holiday at our kindergarten (Moon Lok) trying to finish up our painting project that we started during the summer school holiday! It was wonderful to get so much accomplished and it will be fun to see the children’s reaction when they go back to school and have a bright, inviting, new room! You will have to check out our web site for photos, www.abmhk.org.hk Katelyn was a real trooper and entertained herself most of the time! She helped the teachers when they were around---she even told them how to paint! | ||||
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John has stayed busy as director of the kindergarten and our other social service programs. And finally after many years, this agency became a “local agency” in September. The churches have agreed to fully own and run these services. They no longer belong to the mission. John was the organizer of the renovation of the kindergarten and all around fix it man, in addition to preaching and traveling to the states for four weeks this Fall for the WMO Blitz. There is so much that goes on in a year that it is hard to remember. Right now, the tsunami is most on our minds. We were just in Phuket the first week of December. We have made friends with some of the hotel staff. It is just overwhelming to think of all the loss and destruction in this part of the world. We just continue to pray for the survivors and those who have lost loved ones. We always love hearing from you,thank-you for the wonderful Christmas wishes. May God richly Bless You and bring us all Peace! | ||
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Happy New Year!
Now, for a little up date of the happenings of the Gravleys! First we will start with the head of the house and that would be Katelyn, or should I say Princess Katelyn! She will be turning 5 in February and is in her second year of kindergarten—children start school at age 3 here. She loves school and comes homes with stories of everyone’s behavior. She is always “playing” school at home and both of us get to be her students. We even get sent to the “thinking chair” if we are not paying attention!!! She is into Barbie and My Little Pony!!! The little girls compare which ponies they have---I was hoping this behavior would come later---anyway, she is also still very serious about her ballet! She is always on her toes and as she walks she twirls! It is VERY important that her dresses twirl!! She does not like wearing pants, even on PE day, because she says she looks like a boy!!! What can I say! She does keep us on our toes and holds us accountable to what we tell her.
Janine has been busy helping supervise the kindergarten. She volunteers teaching English once a week to all the classes. Last year she just taught the older students. It has been a challenge to teach the 3 yr. olds, but it is a good challenge. The teachers asked her to teach them English and so after the school day is done she does a conversational class with the teachers. This has been a great way to get to know them better. She was also asked to start an English play group at our Children and Youth Center. There were 10, 2 1/2 year old children and it was a great success. What was interesting was that the parents would stay for the playgroup! I think they were curious and they also wanted to hear English. Some of the parents wanted more “lecture” time for the children! Our staff at the center helped and so there was a 1/1 ratio of children and adults!
