Winter's Greetings

Winter's Greetings
It has been a good year and now that the winter is come I'm finishing up grading before the Christmas break and am looking forward to sitting in the cabin at Nojiri over a mug of cocoa and a good book while the snow lies on the ground outside. Apparently, there is already snow in Nojiri and I can't wait to use the wood stove and enjoy the beauty of winter!

I always forget how busy the winter season is but the spring seems to be all the more! So, I hope to get away for a time in order to come back fully prepared for the latter half of the school year. The Lord is good and He is faithful!

Field Hockey
Field Hockey is now begun! We have 19 ladies on the team and though we are a young team we have already played two varsity games, coming away with a tie and a win! Our YCAC varsity match against YIS ended in 1-1 draw and the JV lost with a score of 0-1. Our home game this last Friday against ASIJ was a 5-0 win and the lady knights played marvelously! Below is a short clip of one of their goals.

KCC Youth Group

The KCC youth group has been going through the book of James little by little and we are now in chapter 4. Today we had some sushi as part of Connor Caughlan's farewell party. He hopes to return to Japan Lord willing as a fully supported missionary with YWAM but is still raising funds. It has been a real blessing to be a part of the students' lives in this capacity.

Eating out at the local ramen shop

COETAIL
I am now finishing up Course 4 of my COETAIL class which is discussing technology as a "catalyst for learning." I need to do one more blog post by tomorrow and then I will be done with Course 4. My final course will be the most difficult and is entitled "Alive in the Classroom: Applied Web 2.0 Technology for Learning." After Course 5 I will need to make a decision about how I want to proceed with the rest of my graduate level classes since most of them will be online in nature and they will be more weighty than these first 5 courses. Thus far, it has been a good experience and I feel that what has been most valuable is the contact that I have made with teachers from other schools.

Romans Bible Study
Every Monday evening I meet from 7-9PM with Donnie Schaeffer and his cousin Joel Herman for a Bible study on Romans. It has been REALLY good and I have been gleaning much from Paul's writings.

Donnie and his wife Rachel at whose house we have our study.

Personal Reading
I've been trying to make a point of doing personal reading in the midst of my busy teaching/coaching schedule and my recent reads have been Sitka, Flint, and Kilkenny by wester writer Louis L'Amour. However, this Christmas I look forward to more time for reading and have picked up Great Christian Thinkers: Kierkegaard by Peter Vardy and am still working through Eugene Peterson's commentary on the Psalms of Ascents entitled A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. As a form of devotional I've also been gleaning from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions Edited by Arthur Bennett which I will take up on occasion and read a page or two when my day is busy.

Our Town 2014 Calendar
I was taking taking pictures at a CAJ Basketball about a month ago and Mr. Bello, who is a part of the CAJ community, invited me to submit a photo into a photo contest. They didn't have too many participants so he said that they were trying to get as many participants as they could and it was to raise awareness for suicide prevention within our town of Higashi Kurume. To do this they would award prizes for best photos and make them into calendar to distribute to Higashi Kurume residents. I figured it was worth a shot (no pun intended!) and I ended up winning 1st prize for the macro photography category!

The prize was initially going to be a tripod but I requested a secondhand Nikon 55-200mm lens instead and it arrived 2 days ago! All that to say I am absolutely amazed at how the Lord provided in this way since I had been wanting to hone my photography skills and was lacking a zoom lens. 

Praises:

• New camera lens!
• Being able to coach field hockey for my 3rd year now
• This is now 1.5 years into teaching at CAJ
• God has kept me healthy this year thus far and it has been a tremendous blessing!
• I was able to join my parents in a meal with Steve Hall's parents at a restaurant and enjoyed the time of fellowship with them. 
• At the CAJ Christmas concert I was able to meet up with classmate Ben Clark and talk for a time
• On a couple of occasions I joined the CAJ Chambers ensemble during their morning practice. It was great to sing again!

Prayer Requests:

• COETAIL graduate classes: that I will work diligently and shine the light of Christ in the class
• National Honor Society responsibilities: The spring is fairly busy with NHS applications and helping with pancake breakfasts for Middle schoolers doing homeless outreach in Jan/Feb
• Bible Teaching: That I will continue to improve as a teacher and meet my students learning needs
• KCC Youth Group: That we will see growth in our youth group and put what we are learning from God's word into practice
• Romans Bible Study: That Donnie, Joel and I will sharpen each other as "iron sharpens iron" as we study Romans together
• Personal Devotions/Prayer: I am now in Psalms 33 and am making my way slowly through the Psalms. Continue to pray that I will grow in my relationship with the Lord so that I can be fed spiritually.
• Rina Tamakoshi's Family: Rina is a girl on my Field Hockey team and is also in my Bible class. Her mom went to be with the Lord this last Monday after having struggled with cancer. Pray for the Lord's comfort for them at this time.
• My family: As it was Ethan's 20th birthday on December 13th. It has now been about 2.5 years since Ethan's passing. I eagerly look forward to what the Lord has in store for me here but I do also look forward to seeing Ethan again.

Matsuri

KCC:

A few weeks back I invited the Kurume Christ Church (KCC) youth group over to my place for homemade pizzas. It was quite the baking endeavor: 8 pizzas! It went well and we ended our time by praying in small groups for each other. 

Getting the dough ready on Saturday evening

Homemade pizza sauce with lots of basil! 

Working in the kitchen!

Our musician :)

CAJ Teaching:

Lots has been going on at CAJ recently. About 2 weeks ago we had our Parent Teacher conferences and it was a great opportunity for me to meet some of the parents of my students that I had never met before. Some parents I had seen but had not actually had opportunity to get to speak with them. Lots of conversations made for some long days but it was worth it!

During on Thrift Shop day many of the students had Science projects and so I became a photographer sort of last minute and was thrilled to be able to put my photography skills back into practice since it had been awhile. Many of the students in the pictures are currently in my classes this semester.

The three amigas

Welcome!

Scientist at work

Disappearing formula

Melon soda?!

 

Volleyball Game:

I was trying to decide whether I should go to the volleyball game that night and decided to make a time of it. I even brought my camera and got some great shots. Here's the CAJ guys cheering on the girls as they battled ASIJ.

Keimei Gakuen Subbing:

Before I was hired at CAJ I applied to Global Partners which is an English teaching organization. Every so often they will contact me to sub for the school on a Saturday which is only English teaching. They pay well and it is a great opportunity to get to meet people out of the CAJ community. This last time I was supposed to grade journals in the afternoon and because so few students turned them in there was nothing for me to do so I joined the cooking class where they were making pumpkin butterscotch cookies.

Higashi Kurume Matsuri:

There was a Matsuri in town so I went out to take a look around and gets some good photos. I also found some delicious hachimitsu umeboshi! 最高だよう！

まんじゅう

焼きそば

お好み焼き

バナナ 

Field Hockey:

The field hockey season is beginning and I'll know by Friday how many have joined the team. Currently 23 girls have shown interest in playing and I'm curious to see how many join for the 203-2014 season. We had a great season last year but we had 6 veteran seniors graduate. We'll have a young team this year with a sharp learning curve but I'm excited to see what God has in store.

2012-2013 Field Hockey Season Championship

Chapel Message:

On Wednesday November 6th I had the privilege of speaking in CAJ chapel about how the Lord does not break his promises. The passage we looked at was that of 1 Samuel 14:1-23 where Jonathan and his armor bearer travel into Michmash and the Lord brings about a great victory for the people of Israel. The message went well and I was very thankful that the Lord was able to give me the right words to say that morning. 

Wilderness Camp:

And for those of you who didn't see my group wilderness camp photo…Here it is!

                             

Prayer Requests:

• Personal Bible Reading: I've just recently finished reading Luke and have now begun Psalms. Pray that I will be diligent in daily Bible intake since I need to be fed each day before I teach my classes. 
• Prayer: That I would be diligent in prayer and especially for my students
• Field Hockey Coaching: For safety of my players and that I will know how to be a good coach
• Graduate Coursework: For wisdom in how to get all my coursework done in a timely fashion
• Trip to Gifu: During Thanksgiving my family will be traveling to spend time with Caleb and the  family
• Masa: A Japanese young man who is not yet a Christian that I was able to meet with recently

Masa

Wilderness Camp Preparations

It is that time of year again at CAJ when 11th grade students are gearing up to go into the woods for a 4 day and 3 night camping trip. I began packing on Saturday and we leave on Tuesday morning bright and early. My co-leader and I have a great group of students and I'm really looking forward to not only the time in the woods but also good conversations to be had!

 

Joy Bible Camp 2013 Part 2

Boys' Pool Time

"May His beauty rest upon me

As I seek the lost to win,

And may they forget the channel,

Seeing only Him"

In camp ministry we desire that boys and girls have fun but more importantly we desire that they know the Savior. As we seek to win the lost and to share the gospel of Christ we pray that they would not see us, but rather Christ reflected in us. That is the heart of Christian camp ministry.

An Ultimate Chaos Medic

Tonight was the last night of Joy Bible Camp #1 for the summer of 2013. The kids had a blast with the theme dinner and though it was too rainy for a campfire outside we had a good "campfire" time inside the chapel with sharing and singing.

For the past 7-8 summers I have had the role of counselor but this year it's been quite the change to step back and delegate more responsibilities to others. I love to be a part of the action especially when it comes to camp activities but I'm finding a separate and equally rewarding role in being assistant director/director at JBC this summer.

Have the kids grown in the Lord? Definitely yes. Have the counseling staff grown in the Lord? Definitely yes. Have I grown in the Lord? An emphatic yes!





Prayer Requests

• Health of staff: some counselors have lost their voices and are struggling with tiredness and colds
• Prayer for safety of Camp #2 campers especially as they go rafting
• Prayer for Uncle Bob (McKemey) as he speaks at this upcoming 2nd camp

Praises

• God's protection over the campers during camp #1
• Some of the counselors have had some good 1-on-1 times

Medic

The camp speaker and his wife!

Ultimate Chaos Bombers

Ultimate Chaos Activity Stations

Ultimate Chaos Activity Stations

Medic

Bomber in action

A friendly medic 

The Can Stack activity

The pool

Waterpolo

Joy Bible Camp 2013 Part 1

In Joshua 11 the people of Israel are 'between a rock and a hard place.' They have come out of Egypt and after the 10 spies (not counting Joshua and Caleb) gave bad report at Kadesh Barnea they spent 40 years in the wilderness. Upon returning, the LORD helped them to take the city of Jericho and then Ai and then they defeated the five Amorite kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon.

This is not the best way to make friends in a foreign land. Lo and behold, a great force comes out against them in Joshua 11. Without going into great detail we can summarize the situation by what the writer says in verse 4:

"And they came out with all their troops, a great horde, in number like the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariot. And all these kings joined their forces and came and encamped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel"

By human standards, the people of Israel are outnumbered, out-skilled, and out-of-the-running. However, causes the scales of the balance to be weighted in Israel's favor is that they have the LORD. This is what the LORD says to Joshua,

"Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow at this time I will give them over all of them, slain, to Israel."

What can we learn from this? We know that our God is greater than man's greatness. His strength is greater than man's strength. And when He gives His word it is accomplished.

At this time, I am at Okutama Bible Chalet (OBC) and our first group of campers will be arriving this very afternoon. Thus far, the Lord has provided us as staff with a wonderful training time and last night we had some time for worship, testimony sharing, and prayer.

Please join with us in prayer as we seek to share the gospel with kids and as we desire to invest in kids lives.

Below are a couple of photos from our trip by train. I'll try to send some updates throughout the camp so that you can know better how to pray.

Talking on the train

Maintenance Guy: His nickname is "Microphone"

The escalator

Conversations

The teddy bear mascot "Boof"

Our mascot once again. The counselor behind is nicknamed "Teddy" 

The view from my room onto the Okutama Valley