Sunday night at midnight marked the beginning of the Chinese New Year — The Year of the Dragon. We enjoyed a fantastic display of fireworks right outside out 8th floor kitchen and bedroom windows. Fireworks go off all evening and culminate in the midnight hour from 12 AM to 1 AM.
From our kitchen window
Across the courtyard
See courtyard below with fireworks exploding
The girls helped to unpack books in our new school library. They also spent two nights sleeping over in the new building with Sean. Teachers and staff were asked to volunteer to stay to prevent theft, since construction workers were still present round the clock.
Girls pushed couches together to make a bed to sleep on.
Maddie had an ambitious new years goal for 2011. She wanted to read the entire Bible. She decided to use the internet to help her stay on track. Go to http://www.youversion.com/ and you can set up your own Bible reading plan. One reason she chose youversion.com is because she could sync it with her iTouch so she could read on the go!
Hugs to Maddie!
Each year at Advent we read one of a series of books by Arnold Ytreeide. This year it was Jotham’s Journey.Written as a devotional for parents to read to their children during Advent, Jotham’s Journey unfolds day by day until the exciting climax on Christmas Day. Each day’s installment of the story, with cliffhanger endings, is followed by a short devotional which will challenge your family to share in Jotham’s discoveries. Other stories in the series are entitled Tabitha’s Travels and Bartholomew’s Passage.Singing a favorite Christmas carol before dad’s reading, with a little help from Christine and her ukulele.
Over the past six months work has been steadily progressing at our new campus. Now our combined Christmas and Chinese New Year break is here and it’s time to move. Our school has been in its current building for over 10 years…so the move is bitter sweet to many. All the staff on our team have been given assignments to help with the moving process. Our family volunteered to pack the library. The girls and Sean (with the generous help of our guest, Christine Orsini) did an amazing job on their first day of packing!
Empty book shelves
Our final exams are FINALLY over! It is such a relief to wake up in the morning and know that you don’t have to rush off to school or to pleasantly realize that for the next four weeks you have break! However it is not all fun and play; during this break our school is moving to a new campus (what a job!). To pull it all off schedules were made and we were “drafted” onto work lists to pack, unpack, clean, and all the other jobs included in a move. My dad volunteered to pack the library (because he has no classroom to pack). So, of course, if he signs up we are automatically “on the list” as well. Though some may think of this as a spoiler to their break, I am actually enjoying the work of packing Library books. We have the Library all to ourselves and we can listen to music or audio books as we pack. Additionally I always enjoy jobs where your progress is visually measurable. In two days we have already packed almost the whole Library and it is so satisfying for me to see all the boxes of books being slowly stacked and creating “walls” in the Library. Over this break I am expecting some work cut out for me in the packing business, but I am joyfully looking forward to peaceful hours packing and stacking.
Our final exams are FINALLY over! It is such a relief to wake up in the morning and know that you don’t have to rush off to school or to pleasantly realize that for the next four weeks you have break! However it is not all fun and play; during this break our school is moving to a new campus (what a job!). To pull it all off schedules were made and we were “drafted” onto work lists to pack, unpack, clean, and all the other jobs included in a move. My dad volunteered to pack the library (because he has no classroom to pack). So, of course, if he signs up we are automatically “on the list” as well. Though some may think of this as a spoiler to their break, I am actually enjoying the work of packing Library books. We have the Library all to ourselves and we can listen to music or audio books as we pack. Additionally I always enjoy jobs where your progress is visually measurable. In two days we have already packed almost the whole Library and it is so satisfying for me to see all the boxes of books being slowly stacked and creating “walls” in the Library. Over this break I am expecting some work cut out for me in the packing business, but I am joyfully looking forward to peaceful hours packing and stacking.
We are so excited about the increasing impact our company is having here as we provide basic training and materials to fellowships. Here’s an update:
From the Headrick family…we wish you a Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year
Michael finished his first semester at Hong Kong University this week and returned home for his Christmas break. All of us are so excited to have him home with us for one month. He will return for his second semester on January 13th.
