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.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Looking Ahead to April
This April we will be in need of prayer. There are a lot of changes in our daily routine. With the lose of a fulltime teacher (to a new teaching job at her home church) Kazumi and I will be on our own. It will be too much for us to handle without a lot of grace. Our English school is still quite large, Bianca at two is more demanding, Cherry will be home schooled from April, and I (John) always have some new idea to work on.
We will be cooperating with a new ministry. I was orginally going to start a new outreach center, and talked to Kazumi's uncle about using a store front building in front of the station. We painted the walls and cleaned it up when my mother was here last September to open this spring. However we just could not find someone to replace the teacher we were losing and I was not going to have enough time to make a go of it.
As we were getting the new location ready I was networking with the only other pastor in Mizunami (a town of 45,000). Pastor Inoguchi's church has an after school ministry that opened about two years ago. They have worked really hard but it has been a struggle for them. Last year's enrollment was at about the break even level. So we worked out an agreement of cooperation; involving us using a room as an office/homeschool resource center and providing 30 English lessons to their after school program a year. Pre-enrollment has finished, and they have full enrollment at 25 students during the school year and 40 over summer vacation. They do a great job at children's ministry and I thank God for being able to work with them this coming year.
Pastor Inoguchi told me that a new after school center had opened in the same area as the church and expected it to be a difficult year, but that God has blessed the work of our hands. God knows the plans he has for us and they are gracious.
We will be cooperating with a new ministry. I was orginally going to start a new outreach center, and talked to Kazumi's uncle about using a store front building in front of the station. We painted the walls and cleaned it up when my mother was here last September to open this spring. However we just could not find someone to replace the teacher we were losing and I was not going to have enough time to make a go of it.
As we were getting the new location ready I was networking with the only other pastor in Mizunami (a town of 45,000). Pastor Inoguchi's church has an after school ministry that opened about two years ago. They have worked really hard but it has been a struggle for them. Last year's enrollment was at about the break even level. So we worked out an agreement of cooperation; involving us using a room as an office/homeschool resource center and providing 30 English lessons to their after school program a year. Pre-enrollment has finished, and they have full enrollment at 25 students during the school year and 40 over summer vacation. They do a great job at children's ministry and I thank God for being able to work with them this coming year.
Pastor Inoguchi told me that a new after school center had opened in the same area as the church and expected it to be a difficult year, but that God has blessed the work of our hands. God knows the plans he has for us and they are gracious.
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