IGSL Graduation Banquet

The end of the school year is always filled with events, all kinds of lunches and dinners and closing programs and evaluations and graduations. But I think my favorite event is the graduation banquet. It is a time of fun, of celebrating, of saying "You did it!" We eat together, sing together, laugh together, and mostly, take pictures together. Smile and say cheese!!!

Harvesting with Joy

At the end of every year, in our Partners in Ministry program, we hold a celebration luncheon to let our graduates know how proud we are of their accomplishments. Each year, a different Iron Sharpening Group (discipleship group) is in charge of the event. It's a great opportunity for the ladies in that ISG to learn about planning, setting objectives, and moving towards accomplishing goals.

This year my ISG was in charge of the luncheon. We had so much fun planning together, trying to create a program that would give glory to God and show our honor and appreciation to our graduates. It was a challenge for them to handle the various parts of the program, many of them for the first time. We called our celebration "Harvesting with Joy."

Our theme was based on Psalm 126:5,6, a passage that talks about planting seeds with tears, and later, during the harvest, bring in the sheaves with songs of joy. Some of the ladies even found the old hymn "Bringing in the Sheaves" and taught it to the audience. (If you know that song, I know you are probably over 50. Most of our students know songs from Hillsongs and Newsboys . . . but not the "oldies" like "Bringing in the Sheaves".)

The decorations were lovely, thanks to Bolyne and her crew. Bolyne has been working with me for many years now, and she loves to put her creativity to work in making beautiful memories for our dear ladies. After the program, everyone had to take turns posing for photos in front of the stage. All the ladies wore their national dresses, so that made the event even more of a great Kodak moment!

This is Boby from Bangladesh, in her role as emcee. She was wonderful!

These are the fifteen ladies who graduated from the Partners in Ministry program.

The Partners in Ministry Faculty

A Vietnamese harvest dance . . . so beautiful


This is Phailin from Thailand wearing her Hmong dress. She always has the most amazing costume.

Beth from the Philippines and Dina from Kazakhstan

Jenny from our PIM faculty with her ISG members Shova from Nepal and Trifosa from India

Ma-an from the Philippines with her ISG

Michelle from the Philippines with her ISG, looking lovely . . .

and looking wacky . . .

"Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seeds, but they sing as they return with the harvest." AMEN!

Achievers' International School

It's that time of year again, when we have to start saying goodbye. A few days ago we had the closing program at our children's school on the IGSL campus.
I am the adviser for the school, so they usually have me hand out the awards and do really important stuff like the closing prayer (smile).



It's always fun to see them do their presentations. They really are incredibly cute!

You can see that the parents think they are cute too. I think there were more photographers than performers!

These are a few of our teachers, and at the right is Vicki, who has been our principal for five years. I am so grateful to God for Vicki!

This year, a friend of one of our professors sent stuffed animals for all the kids. They lost interest in their medals once they saw the toys!

I really do love all the variety in my job! There is always something interesting, or entertaining, or inspiring. Or just cute.