Commencement 2012

All ten seniors at the reception

Jayson and Asyncrite

Mikaylah and Asyncrite

We had ten young people graduate today, four of them live with us in the dorm.

Deborah, Beth, DaeYoen and Griffi

Deborah

Beth and Mikaylah

The "twins" Mi-yoen and Ruth

Final Assembly

Kinder-first grade started off the assembly with a song.

Amy received the science award

The character awards were selected by the students' peers

Marette was awarded the servant award

Beth earned the English award and was selected by her peers for the Integrity Award

Many awards were given out during our final assembly...  since some of our parents couldn't be there, here are some pictures for you to enjoy... We are very proud!

Backyard Baptism

Yesterday ten young people followed the Lord in believer's baptism in our dorm pool including our own Yunin and Mikaylah.  What a testimony to God's faithfulness.  Yunin's parents were able to make the long journey by car from Ghana, which took them two days.  It was so precious to witness this important step of obedience these young people took. 

What a fantastic testimony to the Lord's work in our kids' lives.  Praise the Lord with us over these precious lives and pray that they will continue to honour Him in all they do.

Pastor Dave prayed with the candidates before the service

Yunin gave his testimony

Mikaylah listens to Pastor Dave

Room-Mates

We have sixteen kids in the dorm this year, plus our own two.  That makes eight rooms of kids to say good night to.  At 7:30 we say good-night to our own kids, Mikaylah and Jayson.

Mikaylah and Jayson

The seventh and eighth graders are next and their bed time is nine o'clock.  Sometimes we have group bed times as there are two boys, Daeyoen and Yeonhoo and one girl, Amelia.

Yeon Hoo and Dae Yoen are both South Korean

Amelia rooms with two girls in grade ten, Cora and Amy, who get to stay up until 9:30, so often they are next.

Amy is a Kiwi, Amelia is British and Cora is American

Chung Hyun is from South Korea and Zeb is American/Canadian

Joshua and Joshua share a room, a name and even initials, so we call the British one Gibbo and the New Zealander Griffi

The Big girls get tucked in between ten and ten thirty

MiYoen and Marette are South Korean and American

Beth and Deborah are both American

The last group to tuck in is the big boys, or the "men" of the dorm, usually we turn off the lights by eleven.

Yunin, Asyncrite and John are the 'men' in the dorm

They love each other!

Aunt Ruth's birthday with Karaoke

Since Ruth's birthday is in two weeks and we will all be gone we decided to celebrate early.  We had BBQ chicken and Fries, Chinese green beans and corn.  For dessert Ruth made her special apple cake and we had coffee icecream to top it off!

the birthday hat!  (and Beth)

yummy apple cakes!

happy birthday Ruth!

two on one cake 7 on the other

Everyone singing together

Zeb singing Marry You

After dinner we played with the Karaoke machine until bedtime!  A very fun evening!

Elementary swim competition

 The children all listened to Miss Shengraw and did well in their races.

Starke Sandstorm Sisters

Marette and Cora

Yes, we had a sandstorm on Thursday, and no we didn't get any pictures of the sand rolling in, though many of our friends did, however we did capture a couple of sisters before they showered off the reddish sand...

Quilts for Seniors

Our four seniors: Miyoen, Asyncrite, Deborah and Beth at the Indian Restaurant in Niamey, Niger

 No, not for senior citizens, but for the grade twelve students (seniors) who will graduate next week.  Last year I learned how to quilt and made a quilt using African fabrics for our two seniors, Spencer and Elisheva.  This year's seniors were hoping for a similar gift, so I asked them what design and colours they would like.  They all chose beautiful designs and I really enjoyed making their quilts, I kind of got busy during 3rd quarter and then had a lot of work to do to get the quilts finished before we gave them to the kids.  My friend Cathy blessed me by sewing on two of the bindings and I finished the fourth quilt one hour before we presented them to the kids.  Here are some photos of our four seniors and the quilts they chose and received:

Asyncrite and his log cabin quilt, he wanted a Blue and brown quilt with a "little bit of pink, please".

Our exuberant Deborah and her Gem Stone Quilt

Our Gentle Beth and her string quilt, I think it looks like a stained glass window.

MiYoen wanted green stars! So this is what she got!  It actually turned out better than I thought.

Miyoen chose this camouflage pagne for the back of her quilt.

Wii Just Dance

Amy and Deborah have a dance off!

The kids love playing on the wii. Lately they have been playing "JustDance".  It is great entertainment for them , and for all of the rest of us watching!  I tried to upload a video, but our internet is too slow.. so a photo will have to suffice

Wii Just Dance

Many of the kids love playing with the Wii.  One of their favourite group activities is the JUST DANCE game, even our little ones get into it, it is very entertaining to watch, too!