Another Year, Another Batch

Another "catch up" post....

Coming in early this year on June 20 to July 1st is the annual Pioneer Service School which is a two week training program for our new and long-time full time ministers. Usually, we don't get to have this until after our District Convention but this time, its actually went on prior to.  Quite frequently our congregation gets the privilege of hosting and this year we get to do it again.  I've made a vow to drop everything for this school when we're hosting and even now with two little ones in tow, I still look forward to it and consider it as one of the highlights of my summer.

This years' class were mostly locals though their one of their instructors was not.  31 students with a balance number of both old and young and as usual more women than men.  The defining characteristic of this year's class is "healthy."  They requested to have green salad and already revamped the regular menu, removing most rice dishes in the morning after just 3 days on the regular menu.  And it wasn't just the older ones lining up in the salad area, the young ones were there as well.  I had fun trying out different green salad recipes and most were absolute hits but my favorite was the asparagus, avocado combination that was purely veggies only...no salad greens!  It was fabulous!!!

Other salads we tried were:

- Strawberry Spinach Salad

- Roquefort Pear Salad

- My classic salad with lemon juice dressing

- Spring salad with fennel and orange

As usual, there were lots of treats and sweets to supposedly keep our students sugared up and awake.

The menu was designed so that the food varied from day to day and most stick to their theme but still included some Filipino food favorites in their selection.  

The best presentation was saved for graduation day - Korean and it was indeed authentic all the way thanks to the awesome work of our Alameda brothers and sisters.

 It's also the first year that my cousin Kuya Rommel is missing as the instructor.  But we had a blast with our visiting instructor, Bro. Moses Castro who brought in his own personal touch to the class.

It was tiring work but definitely well worth it!

So another year, another class.....looking forward to next years!

Congratulations PSS Class 2011!