Thursday, March 22, 2012

Spring Vacation

Kazumi and the children have been in Tokyo for 5 days this spring break. Kazumi is attending the school administrators conference for Accelerated Christian Education. Bianca and Cherry are staying with Kazumi's uncle and mother who currently live in Tokyo. Down here toward Nagoya, I have been covering the last few days of classes at the English school in our house. I think I taught 8 classes yesterday. Until about 3 a.m. in the morning I was moving school supplies and furniture out of our school space into our living space. Next week the school area will be remodeled with new wall board and wall paper along with wall paper on the ceiling. The room is currently very dark and has a mortar based wall common in Japanese homes 30 years ago. Our house in about 40 years old.

Well when the kids get bored in our classes, some boys will take out their school compass with the needle on it and pick holes in the mortar based wall. Students in Japan carry compasses for math class from elementary 3rd grade or so. One class last year, I became angry with a young boy about elementary school 4th grade and took his compass away. I told him I would give it back to him after class. He began to weep uncontrollably, he loved his compass so much. He sat through the whole class weeping and I was not going to reward his crying by giving it back until when I said I would.

Well this boy is an incredible student and I enjoy teaching him. He is rather strong willed and has a personality similar to my own. With boundaries and structure he excells. However with boundaries and structure he also does not get to do what he pleases. As I have cleaned the room and look at the small holes in the wall about to get replaced, I am reminded of how much God has been with us. One of my favorite passages from the Bible is Pslam 84:11. "The Lord God is a sun and sheild. He bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is upright." More so than new wall paper or wall board, God has blessed us with young boys who pick at mortar walls with school compasses.

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