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
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| Eating out at the local ramen shop |
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.
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| Donnie and his wife Rachel at whose house we have our study. |
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.
