December Newsletter

 Anyang haseyo! (Hello, how are you?)  Wow, the last few months have been incredibly busy! I hope you’ve been keeping up with our blog, thelantzlife.blogspot.com, but for those who haven’t, here is what has been going on over the past semester.

School Activity

In September our city held a Korean-American Friendship Festival to celebrate and highlight the differences of each other. The school had a booth manned by students, parents and teachers and raised money for our playground renovation project.

October brought about 2 huge events for our school: one planned and one not! On October 1^st we got an emergency call to come help bail the school out of water. It turns out that a faucet had been leaking overnight and was discovered Saturday afternoon. Teachers dropped what they were doing and sprung into action to recover the school. Most people have forgotten about it by now but it was an unexpected hiccup in the day. Second was our school’s annual picnic at a local park. Parents donated food and we had a huge feast on a bright and sunny day. This was a fellowship time and a great way to interact with students and families. Everyone looks forward to this picnic each year!

The first week of November saw our annual Fall Festival, which is our biggest fundraising event. Each classroom sets up a game, and our students, families, and members of the community come and enjoy a night of fun and fellowship. Even though our student enrollment is the lowest it has been in over a decade, this year’s Fall Festival raised over $900, the largest amount we’ve ever raised! This is just another testament to the power of God, using the small and the weak to show his Glory.

This year we are also doing a school-wide donation drive for the local food bank. Though we have done this every year for quite some time, this year Gail really pushed to make it a true community effort, and the results have been pretty spectacular. You can see for yourself the results of her efforts by checking out our blog entries, complete with pictures: here and here!

    

Spiritual Activity

God continues to reveal his glory to us by making our “wisdom” foolishness. Because of the financial struggles our school faces this year, we did not plan for a Spiritual Emphasis Week as we have had in past years. Yet because of the persistence of one of our seniors, we decided in October to look into the unlikely possibility of being able to put on a Spiritual Emphasis Week using our limited resources. And God showed up again. Several local pastors and youth pastors were all available during the same week in November, and they were all eager to participate, and they were all in agreement about the messages that needed to be brought to our students. Our teachers formed the worship band, and we held our sessions in our own cafeteria.

God worked through one of our students to make this week happen, and through these talks, seven of our students committed/recommitted their lives to Christ. PRAISE GOD for how He works, not through our wisdom, but through His grace.

Elementary Chapel

Outreach

In December, our elementary students performed the musical, The First Leon, at the local community center in Pyeongtaek. This is a great opportunity for our school to share the true meaning of Christmas with the families of our students, many of whom are non-believers, as well as with members of our community. The students and teachers have worked really hard on the musical, and we are really excited to see God work through them.

Our school is also beginning preparations for our mission trip in March. Ten of our students and three of our teachers will be traveling to the Philippines over spring break to team with Kids’ Hope International. They will be participating in construction work, as well has sharing the gospel in the community where they are staying. Because of your financial support, Gail and I will be helping to sponsor two of our students on this trip (more to come about them later). While they both profess to believe Christ, they also face many struggles in their faith and in their home. Please be in prayer for them; that God would move in them, that they would see His power through this trip, and that they would build a deeper relationship with Him.

MS/HS choirs

Jason's PE class with 1-2 grade

Family and Church

Isaac is now 8 months old. It’s hard to believe how much he has grown! He is very popular among the ICS students. He gets to interact with them quite regularly because Gail has been intentionally seeking ways to remain involved in school life through Elementary Chapel, the Donation Drive, and other school events. Gail has also taken a leadership role at our church here in Korea. She is the head of the women’s ministry and has spent a lot of time organizing events for the ladies in our church. She has also begun a moms’ ministry, and in January she will be starting a women’s Sunday school class. I have been actively involved with our church’s youth group, which serves a small group of students from ICS, the military base school, and a few home-schooled students.

Iz congratulates volleyball players on their win

moms' ministry at a kids cafe

Growing to new heights!

Prayer Requests

 ∙ That our students who recently committed/recommitted their lives to Christ would continue to pursue their relationship with Him

∙ That God would provide us with more students

∙ That we will remain faithful to consistently live and teach the Gospel

∙ That the unbelieving students in our school would come to know the saving grace of Christ

                                                             Merry Christmas!

Love, The Lantzes