My summer

I had a wonderful summer in the States. I flew home on May 24th, just in time to get ready for my brother's wedding on the 26th. I was forced to stay awake and got over jet lag fairly quickly because we were so busy those first few days I was home. Ben and Becca's wedding was beautiful!




Just a few weeks after Ben and Becca's wedding, we traveled down to South Carolina for Nate and Jessica's wedding on June 23rd. It was also a very special wedding!





For much of the summer I was at home reading for fun and in preparation for school, taking walks/runs through the hills of VT, and spending time with family and friends. At the beginning of the summer, I went to a choral festival with my friends Natasha and Dawn. Here are a few pictures from the Trapp Family Lodge where the festival was held.




I also taught the preschool class during Neighborhood Bible Time.


And here are a couple of pictures of the view from Trinity.
I live near the base of Camel's Hump:


Mount Mansfield:


Then, at the beginning of July, I went back down to Greenville to visit my friends Dave and Desiree Talbert, who were home from China, and to see my brother Nate and my new sister-in-law Jessica.

We got these amazingly huge ice cream cones from Bruster's. It was raining, so we got a free scoop, and Nate had buy one get one free coupons, and he paid with a gift certificate! A great deal for some great ice cream.


While I was visiting down south, I had the great pleasure of attending Medieval Times in Georgia. It was a thrilling experience. We all had a great time cheering on the Red Knight!

Harvest Baptist Bible Institute Graduation 2007

During the Sunday evening service on May 19th, Harvest held the HBBI graduation. This year my campus "daughter" Sinser graduated. I'm going to miss her!

Me and Sinser

Our campus family included Sinser, Youleen (not pictured), the Borchardts (Jessica, Jeff, and Jeffrey III), and me.

Another HBBI friend of mine is leaving this year, too. Betty Obed was an HBBI GA last year and she is going to be heading to International Baptist College in the fall. She is such a sweet, godly young lady. I'm going to miss chatting with her in the cafeteria when I go get water during my prep hour and seeing her at church and around campus.

HCA Graduation 2007

School is finally done! I can hardly believe that I am finished my second year of teaching!

After turning in my last grades on Wednesday morning, I spent Thursday and Friday helping with graduation prep (checking grades, folding programs, etc.)and trying to start neatening up my classroom. HCA graduation was Friday night (pictures posted below) and HBBI graduation was on Sunday (see next post--whenever I get to it!). On Monday and Tuesday we had projects to do around campus and we were able to finish getting our classrooms ready for the summer and next school year. I rearranged my classroom so my desk is in a better spot and I have started to organize my files. On Wednesday we had our final staff meeting (I was given the "Kangaroo Award" for always bounding forward for success--especially with the yearbook staff) and then we were dismissed for the year! Anyway, you probably don't care about the minutiae of my life, so I'll just go ahead and post some pictures of graduation.

Senior group picture before heading up the stairs to the auditorium.

Some of the excited graduates before the ceremony started.

Johnny getting laden down with leis from his friends and family. After the graduates receive their diplomas, they go down to give their mom a rose and then their family and friends put flower, candy, and even money leis around their necks. Some of the students even carry balloons and bouquets of flowers back to the stage. After the students exit the building, they're given more leis and gifts during the picture taking time.

Erik displaying his diploma before going back on stage to move his tassel and officially graduate.

Gizela Ho after receiving her diploma and greeting her family.

Brothers Keith and Sean Yanase graduated together this year. I was privileged to have them as students for both their junior and senior years.

After graduation I took pictures with several of my students and of faculty and friends with the graduates. (I was actually one of the official photographers for the night, which is how I got pictures of my students during the ceremony. Otherwise, I would have been up in the choir loft watching the procedings.)
Charles Wan and me

Chong Fang and Mr. Jared Skeens

High school principal Mr. Doug Abels, his wife Karen Abels, and Alexis Gonzales (one of my honors English students and the best copy editor a yearbook adviser could ask for)

Edward Kim and me

Janet Lee and me

Lead principal Mr. John McGrew with Quilla Espinoza

Yearbook editor Joanna Lanuza with Kallen Perez, the People section editor. I am proud of both of them for their hard work and dedication to the project. They did an excellent job and far exceeded my expectations!

Kai Ying Zhang, me, and Angel Li (unfortunately a branch got in the way and I haven't had time to photoshop it out)

Me with Leif Andres and Tae Hwa Lee. Both of these guys were on yearbook staff for two years. I'll miss having them in class and on staff next year!


Me and Victoria Paulino (Sadly, Victoria moved to Arizona shortly after graduation.)

Linda Wu, Regina Fong, Beili Li, and Edward Kim

Some of the senior guys tackle each other in a group hug celebrating the end of their high school careers.

Angela Lim and Jenifer Song

Jodi Harrison and I coordinated, so we had to get a picture. This was the second time that we ended up wearing these matching outfits!

A relaxing Saturday after a hectic week

Several friends and I spent a very relaxing day together on Saturday. First, we spent several hours up at Ritidian Beach, one of the most beautiful places on Guam. Upon our return to Guahan we showered and reconvened for supper and movies. We watched last week's American Idol auditions, The Illusionist, and Facing the Giants. I know! That's a lot of movies! But after a yearbook deadline, recital practice, progress report grades, and the recital, we were all beat, so we enjoyed the chance to relax and recover a bit from the week.

Here is a picture of Kelly and Karli right before we hit the beach:

The beach:

My charming friend Jodi enjoying the sun (He, he, he! I couldn't resist posting this picture). Jodi was starting to get sunburned--a condition most of the group is suffering from right now--so she tried to cover up.

My beautiful roommate and friend, Kelly:

Me on the beach:

Elizabeth tackling me--of course, I screamed! She's been doing this to me a lot lately . . .

Faculty Recital

On Friday February 2, Harvest hosted the 8th annual Faculty Recital. Faculty and staff members worked for several weeks (or longer) to prepare piano solos, piano duets, vocal solos and duets, and instrumental numbers. There was great variety in the styles of pieces performed and a nice blend of everything from serious classical music (I sang "Mon couer s'ouvre a ta voix" from Samson et Dalila) to fiddling (Kelly played the "Orange Blossom Special") to a funny rendition of "I Need a Man" (to the tune of "Part of Your World") to the theme from the Pink Panther as performed by the music faculty on percussion instruments.

On Monday of last week I started to get a sore throat and by Wednesday, I had a full-blown cold. On Thursday during my last couple of classes I started to lose my voice and my voice only got worse on Friday. I drank several cups of tea and swallowed spoonfuls of honey and prayed! When I got up to sing I had no idea what would come out. God was so gracious! I was able to sing! I made it through my song, and although it wasn't as strong or expressive as I would have liked, my voice didn't crack and I was able to sustain the long and high notes. Many people commented that they had no idea that I had a cold. After I was done singing, my voice was pretty much shot for the evening and didn't really start to get better until today. I am so thankful to be a testimony of how God's strength and power works through us when we are weak. There was no way I could have sung that song the way I did without the grace of God.

My wonderful accompanist, Lisa Flower, and me after the recital. The piano part was very challenging, but she did a beautiful job and even covered for my mistakes!

My roommate, Kelly Schlarb, and me. Kelly dressed in-character to add to the mood of the piece. Everyone loved it and she even played it again for the encore.

The music faculty:

Yap, Part IV--Christmas Day

I am way behind on posting about my trip to Yap. After this post about Christmas morning, I still have a bunch of pictures from the days after Christmas, but I'll have to wait for another time to post those.

If you've been checking my blog waiting for me to update it, I'm very sorry. (If no one reads this and no one knows that it's been months since I posted, that's okay with me, too.) I haven't had much time for pleasures like posting to my blog. I've been trying to survive the end of the year madness at HCA and HBC.

On Christmas morning, Bob and Polly took us on a tour of the island.

This is an iguana we saw on the side of the road. It reminded April of her iguana, Monty, who has since died. :-(


I love taking pictures of palm trees. I take them from every angle and with every setting, and at every time of day. I am still trying to get the perfect shot of the shadow of a palm tree. (The hardest part is not getting your shadow in the picture!)This one came out pretty well, but I would have prefered that the shadow be over the water. Alas, the water was too far away and it was the wrong time of day.




Here's a view of the Yap airport from the top of a hill. I thought the structure of the airport was unique with its echo of traditional housing. This airport is almost as bad as one I was at in the Philippines. The one there was basically a tin box with wooden benches and no aircon (of course). We walked through a wooden gate, threw our luggage on a cart, and then got on the plane. The Yap airport is also not airconditioned (no surprise there--and by the way, I'm not complaining, I'm just trying to describe it so you have a mental picture of what Yap is like), definitely under construction (you might be able to see the scaffolding that's around the building), and we had fun watching the men carry our luggage from the back of a pickup truck to the table where we claimed it.


A road less traveled by.


A little market in the village of Kodai, where Bob and Polly used to live.


Walking down the stone path to the men's house. Polly demonstrates how big the plant leaves are. As we walked, we carried a piece of greenery as a signal that we came in peace.


April and me sitting in the chief's seat.


Polly and April


The men's house in Kodai


Scenery






To get pictures of this view, we climbed to the top of a little knoll. Climbing up wasn't too bad, but coming down was a challenge. There was a lot of swordgrass and prickerburrs, so we couldn't use our hands, so we slid down the dry loose dirt like snowboarders.






We tried to get a picture of a white egret like this for days. The little buggers kept flying off before we could get the camera out. This time we were waiting and finally got a good picture!


I loved the sign posts in Yap. So picturesque!


Bob Whitmore at Pacific Rim Grand Canyon


Grand Canyon