Foxcroft Academy Boarding Space

Living in north central Maine we get our share of snow...and we love it! Our girls who are from Korean and China have seen snow, but just not this much.

Yesterday we got our first major storm of the season which dumped about 22 inches on us with blowing wind and them temps which were -22 F, which is about -30 C, either way it was cold.

However, the snow and cold did not deter our girls from wanting to go outside and play in the white stuff. They even pitched in and helped with some of the shoveling, but like any teenager they were really more interested in playing.

We are getting ready to celebrate Christmas and the snow has certainly put us all in the mood for a wonderful Christmas celebration.

Dottie and I became Christians when we were very young and since that time our faith has been at the center of who we are and what we do. At the same time, students who have lived with us have come from a variety of religious backgrounds or no religious background at all. We have found learning of our student's faith backgrounds educational as well as fascinating. Who knew ten years ago we would have the opportunity to know and learn first hand about Islam or Buddism.

Some of the students who have lived with us have themselves been Christians and have participated from time to time in the worship life of our church or other churches in the area. Last year Seulki worked in our nursery while Hae Jin was a part of our worship team leading music during our Sunday morning service. When Hae JIn's mother visited in June she and her mother sang in Korean with us joining them in English. You can listen to this song -In Moments Like This on YouTube.

This year Ina and Myeonghoe have taken an interest in teaching the children at our church a form of body worship which is used in Korean churches. This past September Ina began teaching the children the words to a Korean children's worship song as well as the hand motions that go with the song. This past Sunday both girls led our children in singing and performing a song in Korean whose title loosely translated means - "Jesus is Growing Bigger in My Heart. "
  
Diana who lives with us is from China had never been to a Christian church prior to her arrival in our home. Her curiousity as to what the Christian faith was all about now has her running all the worship software for our worship service including the sermon PowerPoint notes from her laptop onto our large screen.

Myeonghoe has been busy helping Dottie prepare 14 pies. We are still not sure who is going to eat all 14 pies, but Myeonghoe and Dottie sure did have fun baking all of them

Last February I had written an entry entitled "Girls in the Kitchen" about how Hae Jin and the others had invited 11 girls into our home to bake cookies for Valentine's Day. This year Hae Jin, Won and Seulki are all off at college, but our girls this year seemed to have picked up right where the others had left off...inviting friends over and cooking.....which we enjoy!

This weekend our girls invited Shen, Ming and Daun, also Academy boarding students, over to watch some movies together as well as cook all of us a good Chinese meal.

We enjoyed a Chinese soup with cucumbers, mushrooms, ginger and shrimp. I cannot remember the name of the soup, but it was delicious. The girls also made several other dishes including a rice with eggs and vegetables and a two stir fried style dishes.

Our girls this year, while new to Foxcroft Academy, wasted no time jumping right into the life of the school.

In the picture of all three girls Ina (In Hwa Chung), who is on the left, took the bold step of trying out for the cheerleading squad and made it having never cheered in her life. In the video below she helps lead a cheer at the homecoming pep rally. She was also recently voted secretary of the junior class. In addition, she is learning how to play the violin with lessons after school.

 Myeonghoe Son who is pictured in the middle is playing soccer for the first time in her life as a member of the girls's junior varsity team. She was also voted secretary of the sophomore class.

Mengli Luo (Diana)who lived with us during part of last year is the manager of the football team. She as well as Ina and Myeonghoe are all members of the Key Club.

On Sunday's Diana runs the LCD projector and computer at church for the worship service while Myeonghoe and Ina have taken an interest in teaching the young children worship dance which is a regular part of many worship services in Korea.