Sunday, 20 June 2010

Today is Father's Day. I miss my dad, Joe Prescott, and Marilyn's dad, Jerry Stowers, and seeing Candi's dad, Howard Eddings. I miss my Grandpas Ted Prescott and Sherman Grissom also.

Had a very, nice quiet day today. I didn't go to fellowship because I really didn't want to climb the six sets of stairs to the auditorium. We watched an old Gaither video. Marilyn made lunch and babied me all day.
Murphy and Nicole came over for dinner and we talked for a while and looked at Romans 6.

I haven't been doing much since we returned from Hong Kong on Thursday evening. I'm only using one crutch around the apartment, exercising my leg, taking my pills, watching live World Cup matches, reading, staying up with fantasy baseball and relaxing.
The staples won't come out for another 2-3 weeks. That slows me down, what with the bandages and all. But, as Dr Kong promised, the knee is not painful ... just the muscles which were detached and reattached. I am very pleased. We go to Beijing on Wednesday to see him and find out what he thinks.

I was thinking some of my brother, David, today. He would have been 59. I wonder ...

I really missed not being able to go to Barbara's memorial service. I reckon it's no big deal to her now. ;-) But I still would have liked to be with family under the circumstances.

Marilyn and I will have our 13th anniversary on Tuesday, the 22d. She is an absolute doll. I love her very much ... more all the time.

If I didn't know who was orchestrating all life events, the things which have happened these last 14-15 years would easily overwhelm me. The news during the past week about a grandson (#14) from Dan and Danielle in November (shopping soon for Christmas flights) and another grandchild (#15) from Tim and Allyson in February are such rich blessings. Other family circumstances, outside of my control, continue to tear at my heart. Yet I will not despair. He has continually proven himself faithful in all things. I trust him.

Later y'all,

Monday, 7 June 2010

Well, last week was ... let's see:
Working with my classes to help them study for final exams;
Proctored two other finals, in addition to giving my own;
Hurrying to grade finals and have all academic grades, behavior grades and comments finished by 1700hrs on Friday evening;
Completely packing up my classroom so that the painters can re-paint without ruining anything;
High school graduation Friday evening (invited to sit at the Pollocks' table for dinner and then the ceremony until 9 or so);
Told my brother, Tim, happy 50th birthday on Skype on Saturday morning;
Talked to my brother-in-law, Jeff, about Barbara, my sister-in-law. The doctors stopped trying to intervene a month ago. Failing rapidly. As she leaned on him, he passed the last thing we would hear from her in this life, one word at a time: "I am living testimony that God's grace is sufficient for all things.";
Passed the good/bad news on to Dan and Craig;
Went to our last faculty meeting until 2pm;
Fellowship Sunday morning, met Nicodemus (you had to be there), watched little girls dance for the Lord, took the Lord's Supper;
Ate lunch at ShaGuoLi (the Rib place) with four of my favorite ladies: Holly Hendricks (college classmate heading back to Texas) and Jodi Chee (Cambodia) have been my two favorite Middle School recruiters (that means 5th grade teachers), Molly Neumann (taking a year away from teaching to study Chinese full-time) is the girl next door (to my classroom) and my beautiful wife, Marilyn (my personal favorite);
Met with two of our local "kids" to talk about important matters relating to assemblying together and seeking wisdom from the Lord;
Woke up this morning to an e-mail that Barbara had entered into Jesus' presence during the night - Praise His Holy Name! ;
Plus odds and ends ...
Got to leave now and pickup tickets for Wednesday's flight to Hong Kong for my knee surgery;
Later ...

Leavers

Marilyn and I attended a ceremony this evening for staff leaving our school. I am always amazed at how fluid the population of staff and students is in an international school. I am even more amazed at how the Lord brings in new staff which almost always melds effectively with the remaining staff. Perhaps He has a plan or something ... you think?

Spring Trip May 2010

27 seventh graders, 6 teachers, 5 cities, 6 days and nights, 4 bus rides (4-6 hours each), 2 ferry rides, one 13-1/2 hr overnight train ... what a blast!
The kids were great. No one was really late for anything. There were no complaints, although it rained for the first two days.
Going up Taishan (allegedly 4,085 steps) a couple of our students saw a very old woman struggling with a large bag. They offered to carry it up the mountain for her. As they waited at the top, they saw her begin the last (and the steepest) 400 steps. They left the bag with me (full of nothing but empty water bottles she was collecting for money) and went down to help her finish her climb. She stopped every 5-10 steps and sat down. They would let her rest for a minute and then help her to her feet ... although she could not stand up straight. When she got to the top, she thanked them and then sat down and started singing. Here's a picture of them on the last few steps.