Hello friends and family,
What a year we had in 2012! It was quite eventful! We experienced a large earthquake in Japan, and because of that made some dear friends who came down to Mito as evacuees. Our priorities changed as a result of the natural disaster, and so Allen made several trips to Fukushima to do volunteer work. I (Laura) went one time last June, but then just couldn't keep up the momentum and ended up getting pneumonia at the end of the summer. I was in the hospital for 2 weeks at the end of July and beginning of August.
Allen and I both had good experience with the doctors in Japan. They extracted Allen's tailbone tumor and saw him for several follow-up visits, and they treated me with kindness and patience for a whole 2 weeks, giving me antibiotics by IV twice a day until the hole in my right lung disappeared.
We really appreciated the health care we recieved in Japan.
God really blessed us with many great experiences during our three years in Japan. We have many fond memories:
1) working at our elementary schools
2) becoming part of the Mito Church of Christ family (and will always have that family in our hearts)
3) making many great friends (who we will always cherish)
4) learning and practicing Japanese culture
5) traveling throughout Japan and Asia
6) eating and learning to cook yummy, healthy Japanese food!
7) and more!
So, we ended our time in Japan last month and left for the U.S. on April 8th, Easter Sunday. We enjoyed our end of the year, goodbye parties with our coworkers and friends. And then we spent the last week traveling to Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Osaka. We really enjoyed Hiroshima. It's a beautiful city and we met up with a preacher and his wife, who Allen had met in Sendai at a Christian event. We met up with them and they took us to Maijima Island, where we saw a famous temple and lots of cute dear! We also ate the famous Hiroshima okanomiyaki (Japanese style pancake), and we visited their church on Sunday morning. It was really a nice time. They are such nice people.
We stayed with some friends throughout the last week and ended the week with a dinner at our neighbor's house, which was so fun and delicious. Kawasumi-san and her daughter are great cooks! And then on Easter Sunday, our friend Yoko gave her testimony about how she became a Christian. She did such a good job. It was so encouraging to hear her story.
Now, we have been back in the States for 3 weeks and have visited our families in Denver and Texas. We are blessed to be able to stay with our friends, the Tindles, in Oklahoma as we try to settle in. We are so exicted to start our new job as house parents at a Christian children's home in Tipton, OK.
God is good! We are also 4 months pregnant! The baby is due in October! We are looking forward to the new challenges this year has in store.
God be with us and also with you! God bless!
Love,
Allen and Laura
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Fall Approaching
Hello Everyone,
It's been a hot and humid summer! Laura got pneumonia and was in the hospital on antibiotics for 2 and 1/2 weeks. She's back to 100% now and feeling well. Thanks to all who prayed!
We took a trip to Nikko, which has a famous temple and waterfall. It was really beautiful! It's a 3-hour trip by train. We stayed at a Christian hostel. It was really nice and the people were so nice.
We went on a trip to Ishinomaki to help with the disaster by cleaning up an apartment complex - that was in June. Allen will go back to Ishinomaki this weekend. Laura will stay in Mito and attend her small school's sports festival and go to some singing concerts at the famous Mito art tower wth some of her English Bible Class readers.
We are so ready for fall to come and bring some more comfortable weather. But we are a little nervous as November approaches, which is is when we are to make our decision to stay another year or not. Please pray for us as we are still trying to decide which is better. Our minds just keep going back and forth as we weigh the advantages and disadvantages. But we are leaning towards one direction. We'll let you know our decision when when we make our minds up for sure.
Take care and God bless you all!
Love,
Allen and Laura
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Summer's Going Fast!
Hello Friends and Family!
Be full of joy in the Lord always. I will say again, be full of joy.
Let everyone see that you are gentle and kind.
The Lord is coming soon.
Do not worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need,
always giving thanks.
Philippians 4:4-6
Our Daily Lives
It's been a while. How are you all? We had our 3rd year anniversary on July 12th, this past Tuesday. Yeah! Wow, it's amazing that it's already been three years. Time really goes fast. It's been a busy and adventurous three years too. We've lived in Japan for almost 2 1/2 years now. God has blessed us with a lot of great relationships here.
We're surviving through a very hot and humid summer. Granted it's not as hot as Oklahoma right now (over 100 F). It's been like 34 C and very humid, like 60% humidity, which means everyone is just wet with sweat. After a while you get used to it, especially when we have to live with it outside and inside. I was so happy when my vice principle decided to turn on the air conditioner in the teacher's room today at about 4:00 pm. The Japanese people think it's unhealthy to go from hot to cold or vice versa, so they like to keep the outside and inside about the same temperature. Which, I do see the truth in it - going from one extreme to the other, but surely there's a happy medium... But most places, including people's homes, do have air conditioners, but they are only for one room. They don't have central air and heating like in the states. The schools have windows for every room, which they keep open in the summer and run fans in each room, so that does help a lot.
We have our AET summer training the last week of this month and another 3 days in August. This first term's classes are almost finished. Most of us have finished teaching English for this term, so next week and anytime that we're at work during August, we'll be preparing for the fall term.
We are planning to visit a few places in Japan this Summer break - Osaka, and possibly Kyoto and Hiroshima. We also plan to help with the August camp session for Hitachi Bible Camp. And we will get together with one of my co-workers at her house. She's going to show me how to cook some Japanese food. I went to her house once before and we had tea and talked (using English and Japanese). She's very kind to me at school. She's a teacher's assistant for one of the 2nd grade teachers.
Recent Happenings
Two special ed students got lost at Allen's school and Allen found them by himself! They had wondered off the school grounds and Allen found them across the street. All the other teachers were looking farther away, but Allen decided to look around the school grounds. One of the boys popped out from a bush or something and cried out to Allen, so Allen jumped the fence and calmed the boys. Then he called his school, and they sent another teacher to go pick them up in a car. I was so proud of Allen, and when I saw the boys reunite and cry with a teacher, it made me cry too! I had gone to meet Allen to go out for our anniversary, and there he was, my man, rescuing people. That's just what he's good at. :)
I (Laura) got an intestine/stomach infection and had a high temperature this past Monday. The doctor said it's been going around. I got medicine and I'm ok now, but now I have a cold, which is making my asthma act up, so I'm struggling to breathe a little, which is really irritating. So please pray that it won't lead to anything bad, but that it will pass. I'm trying to just trust God with my health and not worry, but I tend to get paranoid and worry too much! It's better to be safe than sorry: I've been to the doctor twice this week! Maybe I'll go again tomorrow just to say "hi." :)
Disaster Relief Work in Ishinomaki
Allen has been to Ishinomaki two times now - once for a week and then another time for a weekend. I've (Laura) been once so far (for the weekend trip). The church as sent out several groups on relief work starting in June. There's a team of 4 people who are leading the groups out each time - usually one or two of them go with the group. They know all the information for who we need to visit and where to meet for the next work site and how to get there. And this team of 4 also organizes the donations given to the church. Volunteers also help them with organizing and packing those donations. They've taken food, clothes, toilettries, vitamins, and things like that.
My (Laura's) experience for that weekend was really amazing. Allen was with me too. There was 9 of us - some of us AETs and some of us Japanese people from the Mito church. We met up with a relief team living in Ishinomaki, and we all went to this apartment complex to clean out all the stuff that got destroyed from the tsunami. The upper rooms looked like they had been cleared out already and maybe not as bad as the ones below. But this apartment complex was right there by the water, so it really got plowed into by that tidal wave. The building was not leveled, but it was destroyed enough that everything was a complete mess - dead fish, sea weed everywhere, furnature and refrigerators filled up with sea water, tons of broken glass everywhere.
So, we shoveled everything out - into organized piles of glass, wood, clothes, and trying to save valuable things like pictures and children's school certificates and things that were still in tact. It was really sad to see some of those things - the pictures of who lived there. I wondered if they were still alive, if they were able to escape, or happend to be in a safer place at the time. I sure hoped so. The apartment owner needed everything cleared out so that he could clean up his property and give valuables back to the people who lived there. He really looked overwhelmed and sad as he walked around to watch us and help keep the valuables organized. We ended up finishing the job in one day, which really surprized us! We thought we wouldn't finish that fast. The owner seemed really appreciative. The two teams circled up and we prayed together after we were finished. By that point though, some of our people had gone to another place to do a barbeque in a town where everything was pretty much leveled and completely destroyed. Allen went to help and socialize with people at the barbeque, and I stayed to finish the job at the aparment complex.
At the end of the day, we had dinner and went to wash up at an onsen - which is a bath house. Those are everywhere in Japan. It felt really good on my muscles after all the hard physical work.
We spent two nights at the Sendai Church of Christ building, and we had Sunday morning worship with the team that we had worked with on that Saturday. There's a family that lives across the street from the church, who the relief teams have made friends with. I was so glad I got to meet the mother and her 3 adorable children. They are not Christians. They are a kind and beautiful family. The children actually go to the church Bible class/worship sometimes. I think they will become Christians one day - I just feel it.
Also, speaking of people I met there, I also met an older woman named Suzuki. She lives near those apartments we cleaned up. She was so kind to us - serving us food and drinks when we went to visit her. She's a widow and a woman who our church has made a relationship with. I think it's really interesting our our teams have made relationships with at least a couple widows from Ishinomaki, that I know of. God tells us it's very, very important that we take care of the widows and the orphans. God's been telling us that since Moses' time. There's something about it that really shows God's love. People who are so vulnerable and don't have anyone to care for them.
The day after we got back - that Monday, June 27th, I had a break down after school and just cried and felt down. I talked with Allen about how I just felt strange and exhausted. But after that day, I started feeling back to my normal self again.
Prayer Requests
*Please pray hard for the orphans and widows who live in Ishinomaki and other close by cities and that they will recieve love and care.
* Please pray that Allen and I continue going back to that area to encourage our new friends there and help in the way God leads us.
*Please pray that we will also be open to God showing us how to reach out to the people at our schools, at church, our friends, and to our own community.
Thank you for reading our blog. May you all be filled with God's richest blessings of peace, joy, and love, the greatest being love.
Love,
Allen and Laura
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Since the Earthquake...
Hello Everyone,
Very short update of the year up until now:
It's been a good school year and almost over. The new school year starts next month, April.
This second year has been better for us in the sense that we've become more accustomed to culture and life here. We have many friends and feel comfortable in our jobs and enjoy the church work and Bible studies. There's been a lot of good things happening. We also enjoyed our trip to visit our friends Brianna and Tracy and Kayla in Korea over Christmas break.
Since the Earthquake...
So, the earthquake and tsunami have brought big changes in our daily lives here. Thankfully, we are south of all the really hard hit areas. We live in the Ibaraki prefecture, around 100 km from the huge disaster areas in the Fukushima prefecture. We are doing our best to take precautions and be safe, but we also feel safe enough to stay in our home here and continue working this week until the closing ceremony at our schools. We will take some days off for our spring break during the last week of this month (March). We want to be helpful to our neighbors, friends, church family, and coworkers.
The Japanese people have been so cooperative during this time. That night of the earthquake, Allen went to look for another AET at a nearby school and to check up on his school. There were people from the community staying at the schools because their houses were dangerous to stay in. One of the people at Allen's school was his Australian friend and her mother and father, who had come to visit. On his way back he fell off his bicycle and cut up his fingers. When he came back, our neighbor helped patch up his hand and fed him some food. Then Allen told his wife what happend. She had been resting in the car with Heather.
Friday, March 11
Allen was teaching his 6th graders and I was teaching my 4th graders when he earthquake started here in Mito.
Allen's story:
"I was just finishing up with my 6th graders on the 3rd floor. I was telling them how wonderful they are and how they are excited about English and make my job easy. I was finishing my goodbye speach to them, since they'll be going to Jr. High School. They surprised me and the teacher by performing a very good skit that day. I said goodbye and right as I was talking, we all felt this shake and I thought, oh this is the same as a normal little earthquake we get sometimes here in Japan. But...it kept shaking slightly for about a minute and then everybody started going under their desks and the teacher was telling everyone to get under a table and that everything would be ok. That's when I realized this was more serious. I watched everything just shake like crazy and felt like the building was going to crumble on top of me. Then the thought came to my mind that this might be the end of my life. The quake just got worse and worse and lasted about 5 minutes. We stayed there until the shaking stopped and I resisted going outside to be there for my studdents and teacher. After the shaking stopped, we all went outside to the playground. I saw a bunch of students just hugging each other and crying and even some teachers as well. Some parents were coming to get their children. I walked over to the first graders and saw one of my favorite students crying and yelling "onichan, onichan, onichan!" Her friends and I were asking her, "You mean, ojisan (grandfather)?" She said, "no, no, onichan!" So, she was calling for her older brother, who is in the 4th grade and was a distance away. I took her hand to go look for her brother. When we found him, she ran and gave him a hug and held his hand. It shocked me to see this emotion because usually Japanese people don't show there emotions like this, but I saw how much she loved and looked up to her brother, at least when there's a scary earthquake! As I watched her love for her brother, it made me cry as I thought about how important the people in our lives are. Those children taught me a good lesson. There was a lot of aftershock earthquakes and I just stayed and helped get the children safely to their parents and helped clean up and making sure the school was safe. Then my wife came early to pick me up. We had to wait a long time in traffic because the traffic lights stopped working. It took us about 2 hours to get home. It usually takes us about 10 minutes!"
Laura's story:
"I was just finishing up with my 4th graders and was supposed to have another class there in the English room on the 3rd floor of the school. As we were saying goodbye to end the year together, one of the windows started shaking and kind of suprised us all and then before we new it, everything started shaking and got more and more scary as things started falling off the walls and the building was swaying back and forth. Their teacher was really great about staying calm and telling them to just get down on the floor and stay away from the ceiling lights, which I proceeded to turn off and then got on the floor with them. I felt tears coming to my eyes as I feared the worst and then started praying as I realized I needed to trust in God to take care of me and everyone else. I prayed for safety and God's deliverance of the worst that could happen. The shaking stopped and there was an announcement saying to go out the playground and line up in classes. I went out with them and soon after there was another kind of big shaking, but not as strong and it stopped after less than a minute. I stayed there with the students and didn't really know what to think about what just happened. I went to talk with my school secretary, who said I should go pick up Allen. I felt bad leaving them and the mess that the inside of the school builidng. The traffic was bad, and we ended up getting home at about 6:45 pm. It was dark and we waited together with Heather in her and Brett's car, becuase our neighbors said it wasn't safe to go into our apartments yet. That night we did some clean up, mainly in the kitchen. Then later, our neighbors said it was safe to go inside, so we all ended up sleeping in our apartments that night. Some of the AETs drove around checking on everyone that night, which we were so glad to see them and find out how other AETs were doing.
Getting home after the earthquake:
When we got home it was dark, and our neighbor, Heather, was sitting in her car in a neighboring parking lot. She told us it was too dangerous to be in the apartment or in the parking lot with pieces from the roof laying everywhere. So, we waited there for a while in the car. When we entered our house, our dishes from the drying rack had fallen in front of the entrance and some dishes had broken. Almost everything had fallen out of our cuppords from the kitchen and the bathroom. Fortunately, our dish cabinet and our bookshelf didn't fall over or break. We stayed positive by saying that at least we don't have as many dishes to wash now! :)
Our Daily Lives Now:
So, the day after the earthquake, Saturday morning, we went to see the shape of the church building, which was a bit messy inside but fine on the outside. The central Mito area seemed to be ok and we ended up standing in a line for 2 hours at the grocery store to buy whatever we could, becuase we didn't know how easy it would be to get food from this point. We were able to get just some juice, tea, water, bread and ramen up to just 1000 yen, which is around $10. Our friend from the homeless ministry, Ebisawa, was walking around and we found each other. He actually has an apartment in Mito now, but he comes around and finds us at our apartment or in central Mito and we hang out together. He also has started coming to church weekly, and we are so glad about that. He was with us most of Saturday and visiting other AETs with Allen. We gave him some food to help him out. Then he came to visit us and helped Laura one day with her bicycle last week and then we gave him some food again that day. We love how we help him out and he helps us out - its a giving and recieving relationship we have with him and we pray for him to know God and that we can help him know Jesus through our actions and through the church.
Also, the gasoline supply is being rationed and there are long lines every day at the gas stations. Allen stayed in a line from 3:00 am to 9:30 am and got 3000 yen worth of gas.
School has continued here as normal. The students were out of school for 2 to 3 days, depending on each school, but the teachers and us when back to help clean up the messes in our schools, which involved broken windows and a lot of stuff that had fallen.
Electricity and water were off for a little while, but we've had that back for over a week now. Some other places north of here still don't have water, so they are trying to get water from other places, like we did for a few days.
We are boiling our water before we drink it because it could be contaminated or something. We recently heard that the milk now may be contaminated.
Radiation problem:
We know that they are trying to fix the problem at the nuclear power plant by cooling down the nuclear reactors, so that they don't get too hot and let out radiation. We keep praying out that and will evacuate from this location if they say it's necessary. But for now, the radiation levels are not endangering our health, as far as we have heard... We might post something from a friend later about the radiation.
Prayer Requests:
Please pray for us to do God's will for us while we're here. Some people, coworkers, have asked why we are still here, why we aren't going home to America during this time. We've told them that we believe that God has a reason for us to be here at this time. Unless things get too dangerous, we will go somewhere else, but for now we are trying to hang in there and just be available for help. We don't feel the need to bolt out of here now, not when God could use us in a great way to help others. We don't judge others for leaving, but we just feel like we need to stay. Everyone has different situations and must handle things in different ways.
Please pray for those hurting the most in Fukushima and Sendai areas north of us. Please pray for their relief and comfort as they have lost so many to this disaster. We hope that when the nuclear plant gets things under control that God will allow us to go up to those areas to help. But right now is not a good time, because we could just be in the way of everything going on now.
Visiting with Kent Hartman and the Obatas in Haruna, Gunma prefecture:
We came back last night from our weekend visit with Mr. Obata, who preaches at the Haruna Church of Christ and his wife Mrs. Obata. They were taking care of Kent Hartman during his visit to see the HIM workers (Helpers in Missions). That couple, the Herringtons, who are doing the HIM program, went south to stay with some friends. Mrs. Herrington is pregnant, so they rightfully want to be extra cautious about the possible radiation problem getting worse.
We rode with the Obatas and Kent as they were on their way back to their home from visiting and helping a children's home. So, they almost ran out of gas and we even waited in line for about 5 hours. We walked with Mrs. Obata to see if we could use the toilet at the gas station and then we found out that it has closed down and would open back up for gas in the morning. So, Mrs. Obata and Laura found a dark place in a corner to do their buisiness and then we headed out, hoping to make it home. And we did!! We made it to the Herrington's house and after a few hours of sleep, Mr. Obata went out to find gas, and he was able to get some that day. We had a good visit with Kent Harman about his experiences and talking about the HIM program. Then he left to go to the airport to fly back to America. The rest of Saturday we enjoyed playing soccer and badminton with some neighborhood boys. On Sunday we worshipped with the Obatas and other members of the church there. It was really beautiful there in Haruna and we enjoyed our stay.
Today is Monday and it's a holiday here, so we're off of work. We're just doing laundry, cleaning, resting and preparing for the week. Allen's calling a lot of people and we've been checking on the news and how other AETs are doing.
Thank you for reading all of this and for your prayers. We'll try to update again soon.
Love,
Allen and Laura
Very short update of the year up until now:
It's been a good school year and almost over. The new school year starts next month, April.
This second year has been better for us in the sense that we've become more accustomed to culture and life here. We have many friends and feel comfortable in our jobs and enjoy the church work and Bible studies. There's been a lot of good things happening. We also enjoyed our trip to visit our friends Brianna and Tracy and Kayla in Korea over Christmas break.
Since the Earthquake...
So, the earthquake and tsunami have brought big changes in our daily lives here. Thankfully, we are south of all the really hard hit areas. We live in the Ibaraki prefecture, around 100 km from the huge disaster areas in the Fukushima prefecture. We are doing our best to take precautions and be safe, but we also feel safe enough to stay in our home here and continue working this week until the closing ceremony at our schools. We will take some days off for our spring break during the last week of this month (March). We want to be helpful to our neighbors, friends, church family, and coworkers.
The Japanese people have been so cooperative during this time. That night of the earthquake, Allen went to look for another AET at a nearby school and to check up on his school. There were people from the community staying at the schools because their houses were dangerous to stay in. One of the people at Allen's school was his Australian friend and her mother and father, who had come to visit. On his way back he fell off his bicycle and cut up his fingers. When he came back, our neighbor helped patch up his hand and fed him some food. Then Allen told his wife what happend. She had been resting in the car with Heather.
Friday, March 11
Allen was teaching his 6th graders and I was teaching my 4th graders when he earthquake started here in Mito.
Allen's story:
"I was just finishing up with my 6th graders on the 3rd floor. I was telling them how wonderful they are and how they are excited about English and make my job easy. I was finishing my goodbye speach to them, since they'll be going to Jr. High School. They surprised me and the teacher by performing a very good skit that day. I said goodbye and right as I was talking, we all felt this shake and I thought, oh this is the same as a normal little earthquake we get sometimes here in Japan. But...it kept shaking slightly for about a minute and then everybody started going under their desks and the teacher was telling everyone to get under a table and that everything would be ok. That's when I realized this was more serious. I watched everything just shake like crazy and felt like the building was going to crumble on top of me. Then the thought came to my mind that this might be the end of my life. The quake just got worse and worse and lasted about 5 minutes. We stayed there until the shaking stopped and I resisted going outside to be there for my studdents and teacher. After the shaking stopped, we all went outside to the playground. I saw a bunch of students just hugging each other and crying and even some teachers as well. Some parents were coming to get their children. I walked over to the first graders and saw one of my favorite students crying and yelling "onichan, onichan, onichan!" Her friends and I were asking her, "You mean, ojisan (grandfather)?" She said, "no, no, onichan!" So, she was calling for her older brother, who is in the 4th grade and was a distance away. I took her hand to go look for her brother. When we found him, she ran and gave him a hug and held his hand. It shocked me to see this emotion because usually Japanese people don't show there emotions like this, but I saw how much she loved and looked up to her brother, at least when there's a scary earthquake! As I watched her love for her brother, it made me cry as I thought about how important the people in our lives are. Those children taught me a good lesson. There was a lot of aftershock earthquakes and I just stayed and helped get the children safely to their parents and helped clean up and making sure the school was safe. Then my wife came early to pick me up. We had to wait a long time in traffic because the traffic lights stopped working. It took us about 2 hours to get home. It usually takes us about 10 minutes!"
Laura's story:
"I was just finishing up with my 4th graders and was supposed to have another class there in the English room on the 3rd floor of the school. As we were saying goodbye to end the year together, one of the windows started shaking and kind of suprised us all and then before we new it, everything started shaking and got more and more scary as things started falling off the walls and the building was swaying back and forth. Their teacher was really great about staying calm and telling them to just get down on the floor and stay away from the ceiling lights, which I proceeded to turn off and then got on the floor with them. I felt tears coming to my eyes as I feared the worst and then started praying as I realized I needed to trust in God to take care of me and everyone else. I prayed for safety and God's deliverance of the worst that could happen. The shaking stopped and there was an announcement saying to go out the playground and line up in classes. I went out with them and soon after there was another kind of big shaking, but not as strong and it stopped after less than a minute. I stayed there with the students and didn't really know what to think about what just happened. I went to talk with my school secretary, who said I should go pick up Allen. I felt bad leaving them and the mess that the inside of the school builidng. The traffic was bad, and we ended up getting home at about 6:45 pm. It was dark and we waited together with Heather in her and Brett's car, becuase our neighbors said it wasn't safe to go into our apartments yet. That night we did some clean up, mainly in the kitchen. Then later, our neighbors said it was safe to go inside, so we all ended up sleeping in our apartments that night. Some of the AETs drove around checking on everyone that night, which we were so glad to see them and find out how other AETs were doing.
Getting home after the earthquake:
When we got home it was dark, and our neighbor, Heather, was sitting in her car in a neighboring parking lot. She told us it was too dangerous to be in the apartment or in the parking lot with pieces from the roof laying everywhere. So, we waited there for a while in the car. When we entered our house, our dishes from the drying rack had fallen in front of the entrance and some dishes had broken. Almost everything had fallen out of our cuppords from the kitchen and the bathroom. Fortunately, our dish cabinet and our bookshelf didn't fall over or break. We stayed positive by saying that at least we don't have as many dishes to wash now! :)
Our Daily Lives Now:
So, the day after the earthquake, Saturday morning, we went to see the shape of the church building, which was a bit messy inside but fine on the outside. The central Mito area seemed to be ok and we ended up standing in a line for 2 hours at the grocery store to buy whatever we could, becuase we didn't know how easy it would be to get food from this point. We were able to get just some juice, tea, water, bread and ramen up to just 1000 yen, which is around $10. Our friend from the homeless ministry, Ebisawa, was walking around and we found each other. He actually has an apartment in Mito now, but he comes around and finds us at our apartment or in central Mito and we hang out together. He also has started coming to church weekly, and we are so glad about that. He was with us most of Saturday and visiting other AETs with Allen. We gave him some food to help him out. Then he came to visit us and helped Laura one day with her bicycle last week and then we gave him some food again that day. We love how we help him out and he helps us out - its a giving and recieving relationship we have with him and we pray for him to know God and that we can help him know Jesus through our actions and through the church.
Also, the gasoline supply is being rationed and there are long lines every day at the gas stations. Allen stayed in a line from 3:00 am to 9:30 am and got 3000 yen worth of gas.
School has continued here as normal. The students were out of school for 2 to 3 days, depending on each school, but the teachers and us when back to help clean up the messes in our schools, which involved broken windows and a lot of stuff that had fallen.
Electricity and water were off for a little while, but we've had that back for over a week now. Some other places north of here still don't have water, so they are trying to get water from other places, like we did for a few days.
We are boiling our water before we drink it because it could be contaminated or something. We recently heard that the milk now may be contaminated.
Radiation problem:
We know that they are trying to fix the problem at the nuclear power plant by cooling down the nuclear reactors, so that they don't get too hot and let out radiation. We keep praying out that and will evacuate from this location if they say it's necessary. But for now, the radiation levels are not endangering our health, as far as we have heard... We might post something from a friend later about the radiation.
Prayer Requests:
Please pray for us to do God's will for us while we're here. Some people, coworkers, have asked why we are still here, why we aren't going home to America during this time. We've told them that we believe that God has a reason for us to be here at this time. Unless things get too dangerous, we will go somewhere else, but for now we are trying to hang in there and just be available for help. We don't feel the need to bolt out of here now, not when God could use us in a great way to help others. We don't judge others for leaving, but we just feel like we need to stay. Everyone has different situations and must handle things in different ways.
Please pray for those hurting the most in Fukushima and Sendai areas north of us. Please pray for their relief and comfort as they have lost so many to this disaster. We hope that when the nuclear plant gets things under control that God will allow us to go up to those areas to help. But right now is not a good time, because we could just be in the way of everything going on now.
Visiting with Kent Hartman and the Obatas in Haruna, Gunma prefecture:
We came back last night from our weekend visit with Mr. Obata, who preaches at the Haruna Church of Christ and his wife Mrs. Obata. They were taking care of Kent Hartman during his visit to see the HIM workers (Helpers in Missions). That couple, the Herringtons, who are doing the HIM program, went south to stay with some friends. Mrs. Herrington is pregnant, so they rightfully want to be extra cautious about the possible radiation problem getting worse.
We rode with the Obatas and Kent as they were on their way back to their home from visiting and helping a children's home. So, they almost ran out of gas and we even waited in line for about 5 hours. We walked with Mrs. Obata to see if we could use the toilet at the gas station and then we found out that it has closed down and would open back up for gas in the morning. So, Mrs. Obata and Laura found a dark place in a corner to do their buisiness and then we headed out, hoping to make it home. And we did!! We made it to the Herrington's house and after a few hours of sleep, Mr. Obata went out to find gas, and he was able to get some that day. We had a good visit with Kent Harman about his experiences and talking about the HIM program. Then he left to go to the airport to fly back to America. The rest of Saturday we enjoyed playing soccer and badminton with some neighborhood boys. On Sunday we worshipped with the Obatas and other members of the church there. It was really beautiful there in Haruna and we enjoyed our stay.
Today is Monday and it's a holiday here, so we're off of work. We're just doing laundry, cleaning, resting and preparing for the week. Allen's calling a lot of people and we've been checking on the news and how other AETs are doing.
Thank you for reading all of this and for your prayers. We'll try to update again soon.
Love,
Allen and Laura
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Summer Break
Hello Friends and Family,
We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the summer. We have August 2nd through the 13th as vacation time and we both go back on Monday, Aug. 16th. The students don't come back to school until Friday, Aug. 27th, so we'll have lots of planning and preparing time. And we have two more training days with the other AETs as well (18th and 19th).
Yesterday, we came back from a Bible camp in Hitachi. It's in a beautiful place - forest with tall trees, a stream, and cabins to stay in. It's a 10 minute hike from a parking lot to get out there. A team of Christians from Cordova, CA, came out and facilitated the lessons, which were themed "Vitamin C." Three C's - lessons: Created, Connected, and Chosen.
The camp lasted about 3 days. We enjoyed the people, the team work - like everyone making curry and rice together, and playing games. Now, they are working on some building projects for the rest of the week and also having some Bible studies with people. We had to come back right away though, because of my need to rest (Laura). I've had a viral infection for the past 3 weeks. It's my immune system attacking my joints, causing me to feel stiff and achy in most of my major joints. So, I might have to go to the doctor again soon if this pain continues. So, please pray for my body to heal. Thank you!!
Allen's pain in his lower back is slowly getting better and better. He has the pain from the surgery, and he was taking medicine 3 x a day, but now he's down to taking it once a day, so that shows improvement. Please also pray that he continues to improve to reach 100% (no pain).
We will start EBC training soon (English Bible Class). So, if you could also keep the Mito Church and AETs in your prayers as we prepare and start reading and discussing Scripture with Japanese people who are interested in practicing their English. Last spring, Allen and I finished up on a good note with our 3 readers and we've met up with them one time since then and we look forward to seeing what God is going to do through us to reach out to these three wonderful women. Two of our readers are Japanese women and one woman is Korean. They all are able to communicate in English, but this class gives them an opportunity to use their English and make relationships. Also, they know that we are Christians and that we want to share our faith with them, which they are perfectly ok with. They share their feelings and/or experiences with us and we all talk about that and relate it with the Bible characters' experiences and our own experiences. At times we've been able to get pretty deep and really enjoy talking with each other. And Allen or I always say a prayer at the end of each class.
So, please pray for our EBC class and for our health. God bless you all and take care.
With Love,
Allen and Laura
We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the summer. We have August 2nd through the 13th as vacation time and we both go back on Monday, Aug. 16th. The students don't come back to school until Friday, Aug. 27th, so we'll have lots of planning and preparing time. And we have two more training days with the other AETs as well (18th and 19th).
Yesterday, we came back from a Bible camp in Hitachi. It's in a beautiful place - forest with tall trees, a stream, and cabins to stay in. It's a 10 minute hike from a parking lot to get out there. A team of Christians from Cordova, CA, came out and facilitated the lessons, which were themed "Vitamin C." Three C's - lessons: Created, Connected, and Chosen.
The camp lasted about 3 days. We enjoyed the people, the team work - like everyone making curry and rice together, and playing games. Now, they are working on some building projects for the rest of the week and also having some Bible studies with people. We had to come back right away though, because of my need to rest (Laura). I've had a viral infection for the past 3 weeks. It's my immune system attacking my joints, causing me to feel stiff and achy in most of my major joints. So, I might have to go to the doctor again soon if this pain continues. So, please pray for my body to heal. Thank you!!
Allen's pain in his lower back is slowly getting better and better. He has the pain from the surgery, and he was taking medicine 3 x a day, but now he's down to taking it once a day, so that shows improvement. Please also pray that he continues to improve to reach 100% (no pain).
We will start EBC training soon (English Bible Class). So, if you could also keep the Mito Church and AETs in your prayers as we prepare and start reading and discussing Scripture with Japanese people who are interested in practicing their English. Last spring, Allen and I finished up on a good note with our 3 readers and we've met up with them one time since then and we look forward to seeing what God is going to do through us to reach out to these three wonderful women. Two of our readers are Japanese women and one woman is Korean. They all are able to communicate in English, but this class gives them an opportunity to use their English and make relationships. Also, they know that we are Christians and that we want to share our faith with them, which they are perfectly ok with. They share their feelings and/or experiences with us and we all talk about that and relate it with the Bible characters' experiences and our own experiences. At times we've been able to get pretty deep and really enjoy talking with each other. And Allen or I always say a prayer at the end of each class.
So, please pray for our EBC class and for our health. God bless you all and take care.
With Love,
Allen and Laura
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Good News!
Yea!! Halleluya! Praise to God! Allen's tumor is benign! The operation to remove the tumor and supposedly leave him pain free is on May 7th from 1:00 or 1:30 to about 3:30 (one hour surgery but longer time with the anesthesia). So, Allen and I and our church family here and coworkers are very relieved about this news. Please pray that the surgery is successful and that Allen can live pain free after it's all over with.
Thank you for your friendship and prayers.
Hope you all are doing well.
Love,
Allen and Laura
Thank you for your friendship and prayers.
Hope you all are doing well.
Love,
Allen and Laura
Friday, April 16, 2010
Finally Getting Answers about Allen's Pain
Hello Everyone,
Sorry again that it's been a long time. Hope you all are having a good year so far. We're enjoying starting up a new school year, which starts in April for Japan. A lot of changes happen in March and April. People get switched to different positions in their jobs, including teachers. Teachers may not know if they'll be at a different school even until the beginning of April. It's kind of chaotic, but it's how they do things here. I've asked some teachers if they wish they could stay at the same school for many years with the same grade, but they replied, "no." They just have a different way.
So, we found out like a month ago that Allen has a tumor and that's what's been causing his pain in his lower back for the last 6 years or so. After the biopsy, we still haven't found out the final results. The doctor has even had a conference with other doctors. It's been a difficult thing to figure out. We have a lot of hope and confidence that it's benign. We'll find out hopefully next week. We'll update our blog again as soon as we find out what the doctor says.
Please pray for us and for the doctors.
Love you all.
Love,
Allen and Laura
P.S. We picked up the new AETs last night. Eleven AETs went back to America and now we have 10 new ones and 1 more coming in June. Laura's mom is still here until June to help cover for the AET who doesn't get here until then. Lots of changes happening, keeping us busy and on our toes, but God is good and things are working out well and we are staying positive. :)
Sorry again that it's been a long time. Hope you all are having a good year so far. We're enjoying starting up a new school year, which starts in April for Japan. A lot of changes happen in March and April. People get switched to different positions in their jobs, including teachers. Teachers may not know if they'll be at a different school even until the beginning of April. It's kind of chaotic, but it's how they do things here. I've asked some teachers if they wish they could stay at the same school for many years with the same grade, but they replied, "no." They just have a different way.
So, we found out like a month ago that Allen has a tumor and that's what's been causing his pain in his lower back for the last 6 years or so. After the biopsy, we still haven't found out the final results. The doctor has even had a conference with other doctors. It's been a difficult thing to figure out. We have a lot of hope and confidence that it's benign. We'll find out hopefully next week. We'll update our blog again as soon as we find out what the doctor says.
Please pray for us and for the doctors.
Love you all.
Love,
Allen and Laura
P.S. We picked up the new AETs last night. Eleven AETs went back to America and now we have 10 new ones and 1 more coming in June. Laura's mom is still here until June to help cover for the AET who doesn't get here until then. Lots of changes happening, keeping us busy and on our toes, but God is good and things are working out well and we are staying positive. :)
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Wow, it's already February!
Hello Friends and Family,
Thank you to friends Kent and Sammie for posting your comments - it was good to hear from you both. We miss you all too! And hope to stay in better contact this year. One of our goals this year is to keep better in touch with our friends and family back home. Skype is really helping us to do that! :)
Hope you all are doing well. Life here in Mito, Japan, is going just fine for us. The start of the new year has been pretty good so far. We enjoyed the holidays and hearing from friends and family. Laura's dad came and visited Japan for a month and that was really nice. Allen went to America to be in our friends' wedding and saw his family. Allen's birthday was December 4th and Laura's was January 31st, so now we're both 25! Wow, we're a quarter of a century old!!
Laura got her Japanese drivers license at the end of January and will be able to start driving to school in March when we get a car from an AET who's returning to America. That will be really nice that she won't have to ride her bike everywhere. Allen has more energy and doesn't mind riding his bicycle everyday. :)
Good news...Allen had a good observation at his school last week. He and one of his 6th grade teachers had worked hard to prepare for it and it turned out well. It was an all school observation, so the Mito educational board members were walking through each class and Allen was observed team teaching with one of his teachers in a class that he says is his most challenging class, because the students tend to act up a lot and they don't seem to care that much for English. They did skits covering different lessons they've learned over the past years in elementary school. Afterwards the educational board member who is in charge of us AETs spoke with Allen about his good and bad points. He said he was really glad to hear the good she had to say and was relieved that it went well.
We still have our challenges everyday and we're still adjusting, but it's almost been a year now and we'll be here at least another year. God is good and He's taking care of us even with the little things as we strive to put Him first everyday. We'll sure miss Mom when she leaves at the end of next month. She's looking forward to being back with Dad and Drew and she misses home, but we've sure had a good experience together here in Japan. God is so good to have blessed us with this special time together.
If you are reading this and want to pray for us, you can pray that in this new year we will be used by God to cultivate our relationships here in a way that we can share God's love and help meet people's needs. This past year we've focused so much on our own needs as foreigners in a strange land, but in this new year we need to start trying to focus more on the needs of the new AETs who will be coming and on the needs of the Japanese people and our friends here.
Thank you and may God bless you all!
Love,
Allen and Laura
Thank you to friends Kent and Sammie for posting your comments - it was good to hear from you both. We miss you all too! And hope to stay in better contact this year. One of our goals this year is to keep better in touch with our friends and family back home. Skype is really helping us to do that! :)
Hope you all are doing well. Life here in Mito, Japan, is going just fine for us. The start of the new year has been pretty good so far. We enjoyed the holidays and hearing from friends and family. Laura's dad came and visited Japan for a month and that was really nice. Allen went to America to be in our friends' wedding and saw his family. Allen's birthday was December 4th and Laura's was January 31st, so now we're both 25! Wow, we're a quarter of a century old!!
Laura got her Japanese drivers license at the end of January and will be able to start driving to school in March when we get a car from an AET who's returning to America. That will be really nice that she won't have to ride her bike everywhere. Allen has more energy and doesn't mind riding his bicycle everyday. :)
Good news...Allen had a good observation at his school last week. He and one of his 6th grade teachers had worked hard to prepare for it and it turned out well. It was an all school observation, so the Mito educational board members were walking through each class and Allen was observed team teaching with one of his teachers in a class that he says is his most challenging class, because the students tend to act up a lot and they don't seem to care that much for English. They did skits covering different lessons they've learned over the past years in elementary school. Afterwards the educational board member who is in charge of us AETs spoke with Allen about his good and bad points. He said he was really glad to hear the good she had to say and was relieved that it went well.
We still have our challenges everyday and we're still adjusting, but it's almost been a year now and we'll be here at least another year. God is good and He's taking care of us even with the little things as we strive to put Him first everyday. We'll sure miss Mom when she leaves at the end of next month. She's looking forward to being back with Dad and Drew and she misses home, but we've sure had a good experience together here in Japan. God is so good to have blessed us with this special time together.
If you are reading this and want to pray for us, you can pray that in this new year we will be used by God to cultivate our relationships here in a way that we can share God's love and help meet people's needs. This past year we've focused so much on our own needs as foreigners in a strange land, but in this new year we need to start trying to focus more on the needs of the new AETs who will be coming and on the needs of the Japanese people and our friends here.
Thank you and may God bless you all!
Love,
Allen and Laura
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Merry Christmas! Sayonara 2009!
Hello Friends and Family,
Wow, can you believe that 2009 is going to be over soon?! We are about to finish another decade. Time just flies!
We just finished the 2nd term of school and now we both have 2 weeks of vacation. We had an early Christmas together at our apartment with Laura's parents and a friend of ours who also teaches English in Japan and he is from Australia. We had a really nice time opening presents together, snacking, talking, playing with Allen's new miniature pool table (or rather, watching him play with it!) and listening to Christmas music.
Allen left for Houston yesterday. He will be in our good friends' wedding and visit his family. I'm so glad my parents are here. We all went to Disney Sea together in Tokyo last weekend. It was a lot of fun! We went with our Japanese friend who teaches with my mom.
Tonight, that same Japanese friend, named Kanaco, is coming with us to the Mito Church to sing Christmas carols and fellowship. Tomorrow, we will cook and eat Christmas dinner with a couple women friends from church.
We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season and a Happy New Year!
Please keep us in your prayers as we start our 3rd term in January. Our goals are to keep up good relationships with the teachers and students, to build on the relationships we're making inside and outside of the Church, to get our Japan driver's liscenses, etc, etc. So, we just want to keep stress to a minimum as we try to accomplish many things while keeping Christ at the center of everything. God is good. This must be basically the goal of all Christians in this coming new year. To accomplish good things while keeping Christ at the center of everything. What would we do without Him. He is the reason why we are even alive or worthy to be called God's children. Thank you Jesus, for living and for dying and then living again for all of us!
Love to you all!
~Allen and Laura
Wow, can you believe that 2009 is going to be over soon?! We are about to finish another decade. Time just flies!
We just finished the 2nd term of school and now we both have 2 weeks of vacation. We had an early Christmas together at our apartment with Laura's parents and a friend of ours who also teaches English in Japan and he is from Australia. We had a really nice time opening presents together, snacking, talking, playing with Allen's new miniature pool table (or rather, watching him play with it!) and listening to Christmas music.
Allen left for Houston yesterday. He will be in our good friends' wedding and visit his family. I'm so glad my parents are here. We all went to Disney Sea together in Tokyo last weekend. It was a lot of fun! We went with our Japanese friend who teaches with my mom.
Tonight, that same Japanese friend, named Kanaco, is coming with us to the Mito Church to sing Christmas carols and fellowship. Tomorrow, we will cook and eat Christmas dinner with a couple women friends from church.
We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season and a Happy New Year!
Please keep us in your prayers as we start our 3rd term in January. Our goals are to keep up good relationships with the teachers and students, to build on the relationships we're making inside and outside of the Church, to get our Japan driver's liscenses, etc, etc. So, we just want to keep stress to a minimum as we try to accomplish many things while keeping Christ at the center of everything. God is good. This must be basically the goal of all Christians in this coming new year. To accomplish good things while keeping Christ at the center of everything. What would we do without Him. He is the reason why we are even alive or worthy to be called God's children. Thank you Jesus, for living and for dying and then living again for all of us!
Love to you all!
~Allen and Laura
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Shisashiburi!
That's Japanese for "Long time no see!" We have a computeer virus, so that's been making our lives a bit difficult, but at least we can still use the computer. I'm updating our blog on my mom's computer now, since our's won't let us into the blog website.
Our schools asked us if we want to stay for another year and our answer was yes! We feel really blessed to have this job and it's helping us pay our school loans off. We enjoy worshipping with the church on Sundays and meeting with the AET group on Wednesdays at the church building for dinner together and a devotional. It keeps us going each week to be able to look forward to those fellowship times. We've also been going to the church retreats, which have been great times to get to know each other.
Teaching has been going well as we've gotten more adjusted to the culture and how our schools work. We make an effort to learn the language by going to the Japanese class offered by church members once a week. We have a hard time making oursleves study on our own each week though. I (Laura) was proud of myself for studying at school after my classes a couple days ago.
Allen, my mom, and I will be cooking together tomorrow night and Saturday morning for the Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday.
Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! We were recently challenged to be more active in our thankfulness, like doing something in return or using what we've been blessed with to help bless others. And we are all blessed in many ways. There are so many people who go without food, shelter, or transportation each day. Let's encourage each other to really be thankful for each little blessing we have and to realize that it's from God and that it's not just for our own pleasure but also for helping to bless others.
Take care and God bless!
Love,
Allen and Laura
Our schools asked us if we want to stay for another year and our answer was yes! We feel really blessed to have this job and it's helping us pay our school loans off. We enjoy worshipping with the church on Sundays and meeting with the AET group on Wednesdays at the church building for dinner together and a devotional. It keeps us going each week to be able to look forward to those fellowship times. We've also been going to the church retreats, which have been great times to get to know each other.
Teaching has been going well as we've gotten more adjusted to the culture and how our schools work. We make an effort to learn the language by going to the Japanese class offered by church members once a week. We have a hard time making oursleves study on our own each week though. I (Laura) was proud of myself for studying at school after my classes a couple days ago.
Allen, my mom, and I will be cooking together tomorrow night and Saturday morning for the Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday.
Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! We were recently challenged to be more active in our thankfulness, like doing something in return or using what we've been blessed with to help bless others. And we are all blessed in many ways. There are so many people who go without food, shelter, or transportation each day. Let's encourage each other to really be thankful for each little blessing we have and to realize that it's from God and that it's not just for our own pleasure but also for helping to bless others.
Take care and God bless!
Love,
Allen and Laura
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Hello from Cambodia!
Hello Friends and Family,
We are in Cambodia right now and it is raining hard. We crossed over the border earlier this afternoon and took a taxi ride to our guest house. There are tot tots here which are motor bike taxis and you sit in back on a bench under a canopy. We also rode on a tot tot today. At the guesthouse we had some really good food - fish with coconut curry (served in a coconut shell) and green curry. We will go to a Cambodian Church of Christ in the morning and then visit the Angkor Wat area tomorrow and on Monday. There is a lot of interesting things to see here and some really cute kids. Keep us in your prayers for a safe trip.
Take care everyone and God bless!
Love,
Allen and Laura
We are in Cambodia right now and it is raining hard. We crossed over the border earlier this afternoon and took a taxi ride to our guest house. There are tot tots here which are motor bike taxis and you sit in back on a bench under a canopy. We also rode on a tot tot today. At the guesthouse we had some really good food - fish with coconut curry (served in a coconut shell) and green curry. We will go to a Cambodian Church of Christ in the morning and then visit the Angkor Wat area tomorrow and on Monday. There is a lot of interesting things to see here and some really cute kids. Keep us in your prayers for a safe trip.
Take care everyone and God bless!
Love,
Allen and Laura
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia
Hello Friends and Family,
Sorry we haven't posted for a while. We were busy with the end of the term and training for a week. Now we're on vacation with our AET friends, Kristin and Hanna. We arrived in Thailand yesterday and today we're heading out to Malaysia. Our flight was cancelled so we're waiting in the airport to board at 1:15 and then we'll arrive in Malaysia at about 4:30 pm. Our time is up on the computer, so we'll update again after our trip.
Love,
Allen and Laura
Sorry we haven't posted for a while. We were busy with the end of the term and training for a week. Now we're on vacation with our AET friends, Kristin and Hanna. We arrived in Thailand yesterday and today we're heading out to Malaysia. Our flight was cancelled so we're waiting in the airport to board at 1:15 and then we'll arrive in Malaysia at about 4:30 pm. Our time is up on the computer, so we'll update again after our trip.
Love,
Allen and Laura
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
End of First Term
Hello Friends and Family,
We had our one year anniversary on the weekend of July 12th. Laura walked into the teachers' room and found a big bouquet of flowers at her desk! of-course she was surprised because I am not that often romatic when it comes to buying flowers. Then that evening we just focused on Scripture and watched the Passion of Christ together. Then the next day (Saturday) we went to the church building to help with the feeding the homeless ministry. It was fun - Allen sang with some other church members and we met a lot of people and ate with them. Then we went to Kairakuen park (biggest park in Japan) together and walked and rode a paddle boat in the Senba Lake. Then the next day we went to Tokyo with some friends. We visited the Tokyo church that morning and ate lunch with the church members, then went to the Tokyo Tower, and then to the busiest intersection in the world (literally) where we did some shopping, and then we went to the Ethiopian resteraunt called Queen of Sheba (one of two in Tokyo), which was the main reason we wanted to go that weekend. It was a really fun and memorable weekend.
Allen was off work for 5 days because there was a student from his school that got the swine flu. Almost every AET hated Brett and Allen because thier school was the only one got closed. But he found out that he has to make up that time later. He also had a difficult couple of weeks at work because of some miscommunication and cultural stuff. He had a talk with some teachers and the vice principle and things are looking up now. Please pray for Allen to be more reserved at school and to try more to understand Japanese culture inside and outside work. Also, pray that we be patient with the indirect way of communication here.
We had our one year anniversary on the weekend of July 12th. Laura walked into the teachers' room and found a big bouquet of flowers at her desk! of-course she was surprised because I am not that often romatic when it comes to buying flowers. Then that evening we just focused on Scripture and watched the Passion of Christ together. Then the next day (Saturday) we went to the church building to help with the feeding the homeless ministry. It was fun - Allen sang with some other church members and we met a lot of people and ate with them. Then we went to Kairakuen park (biggest park in Japan) together and walked and rode a paddle boat in the Senba Lake. Then the next day we went to Tokyo with some friends. We visited the Tokyo church that morning and ate lunch with the church members, then went to the Tokyo Tower, and then to the busiest intersection in the world (literally) where we did some shopping, and then we went to the Ethiopian resteraunt called Queen of Sheba (one of two in Tokyo), which was the main reason we wanted to go that weekend. It was a really fun and memorable weekend.
Allen was off work for 5 days because there was a student from his school that got the swine flu. Almost every AET hated Brett and Allen because thier school was the only one got closed. But he found out that he has to make up that time later. He also had a difficult couple of weeks at work because of some miscommunication and cultural stuff. He had a talk with some teachers and the vice principle and things are looking up now. Please pray for Allen to be more reserved at school and to try more to understand Japanese culture inside and outside work. Also, pray that we be patient with the indirect way of communication here.
Allen's Health Update
Allen went to the doctor recently ( 2 visits so far) and he took him off ibuprophen and gave him some different medicines (one for stomach protections, one for muscle relaxation, and one for pain). Also, he had an MRI, and the doctor said that there is no major bone damage, but the problem is in the muscle (tight and sore) and his body has been getting used to it so it's just developed more and more. And the doctor said it doesn't help it with him being in a new place. The latest news is that he gave Allen a two weeks trial of this different medicine and daily excercise specifically for his left buttox. He has to wear a back support thing everyday except for when he sleeps and he also has to wear this thing that sticks to his left buttox. So far it seems promising. He needs your continued prayers that God will use this doctor to help heal him.School update
Our first term just ended today. Today was the closing ceremony. The students left school before lunch. We stayed at school to prepare for the next term, which starts at the end of August. Today, Laura did some decorating in her English room after lunch and Allen worked on preparing materials and talked with the teachers about how to better communicate about the lesson plans for next term.
During Allen's week off from school, Laura was of course jealous, but she had a good week. Allen also had a good week. He went to Ibaraki Christian University to visit some friends and Dr. Ives' class. He went to the beach with another AET who was also off work b/c of swine flu. He talked and prayed with the new preacher from church and he gave Allen some good cultural advice. He also had some quiet time reading his Bible.Church Re-treat
Over the weekend, the church had a retreat just 30 minutes away at a campground. It was really nice. We sayed in these cute colorful cabins and we had dinner at this onsen building. Allen went in the onsen (public bath - men and women are separate), but Laura didn't feel like it so she just got a massage instead. Then later after dinner, we had singing and prayer. Allen and Laura taught a children's Bible class and Laura's mom, Tammy led a women's discussion group about giving your worries to God. It was an uplifting weekend.
The girls are now doing a Bible study together once a month, and we've had one meeting so far. It will be a great thing for all the girls to do together so we can focus on what's most important in our lives and encourage each other.what about Japan so far?
We are at the point where we are past the "romantic" (everything is wonderful) stage of culutre change, and we are partly in the struggling and content stages ( we go back and forth depending on the day), so please pray for us that we will keep our trust in God for strength and patience and all the fruits of the spirit as we try to live and work in Japan.
Please also pray for Allen's brother Matthew, who is trying to go to preaching school. He is trying to move on from living in a refugee camp, and he's struggling with money and finding a job.
Love to all,
Allen and Laura
Sunday, June 14, 2009
We have internet!!
Hello everyone!
We are so excited that we finally have internet in our apartment! It hasn't been in the least bit convenient to use the computer at school or other places, so that's why we haven't updated our blog until now. It's been a process trying to settle into our routine here, and we just keep getting busier and busier it seems like. Now we have Japanese class every week at the Mito church with ladies from there. That's been really nice and helpful. The LST (Let's Start Talking) group has been here for 4 weeks and for 2 more weeks helping Japanese people practice their conversational English using the Bible. Allen's really excited that God has worked through him to reach out to 4 teachers from his school to come to the church for LST. We've enjoyed going to the LST parties on weekends - meeting their readers and playing English speaking games with them.
Allen has also been helping out with the children's singing ministry in the church. He's enjoyed teaching them a song he made up. We're enjoying being involved in the church on Sundays and the AET group study on Wednesday nights, which we also invite Japanese people to come to, so we usually meet someone new on Wednesday nights. It's been really cool that a few new people have come to the church recently just by heresay about the church.
I (Laura) try to mention the church every opportunity I can at school, so they have a positive picture about what the church is and that Japanese people can be Christians and still be Japanese. Here in Japan, Christianity is seen as American culture, and Japanese are very proud to be Japanese, so becoming a Christian would be like leaving their Japanese lifestyle behind.
The Japanese Christians at the church here are wonderful people and we've enjoyed getting to know them. There is a new preacher here now. He and his family came here from Abilene Christian University in Texas. I told them about my family that lives there and works at that school, but he said he doesn't recognize their names. The church here is really going to miss their preacher and his family who are leaving to move to California. The church had a goodbye party for them, and Allen put me on the spot to sing an Ethiopian song with him for them. I think they liked it. They have been are very great couple for the church here, but they feel called to go do God's work elsewhere. The new preacher and his wife have been great too. His wife, Mari, has helped many of us AETs out when we've gotten sick and needed a ride to the store or the doctor and for translation. She's such a sweet lady.
Allen's also enjoying soccer with the AET's and some young Japanese boys who have started playing with them. We've been getting stronger physically but also tired a lot because we ride our bikes to school everyday and to places we have to go to after school, like church and meetings.
School Life -
Working at Japanese elementary schools and nursery schools has been a neat and interesting experience for us. They are pretty different from American schools. The teachers are all in one room (the teachers' room) - they come back to this room before and after classes, and the students learn a lot of other responsibilities at school besides schoolwork, like gardening, cooking, cleaning the entire school almost everyday, and cleaning outside too (there's no ganitors here at the schools). And the vice-principle does a lot of the outside yard work. It's interesting and surpising sometimes. And we, as AETs, are expected to help out with all of it during specific times of the day. The day goes by pretty fast when we have classes and all these other things we help out with and playing with the kids a recess (which is a lot of fun). It's starting to get hotter and humid now though, because rainy season is here.
It's been really nice that my mom can be here. She's doing so well adjusting to the culture and life here. She loves working with her teachers at school, especially her translator who is studying to be a teacher. Her name is Konoko. She wants to take her to Tokyo and she seems interested in church because she asks mom questions about church.
Please keep the people mentioned in this message in your prayers (including us). We really want to shin Jesus's light while we're here, but many times it's hard when we have the communication barrier and we get tired and weary. So pray for our strength, health, and faith. We are going to get Skype soon, which is a way we can call people through the computer and it's really cheap! Whoever wants to talk to us please download skype onto your computer like we're about to do, and we can talk for free!
Talk to you all later!
With love,
Allen and Laura
We are so excited that we finally have internet in our apartment! It hasn't been in the least bit convenient to use the computer at school or other places, so that's why we haven't updated our blog until now. It's been a process trying to settle into our routine here, and we just keep getting busier and busier it seems like. Now we have Japanese class every week at the Mito church with ladies from there. That's been really nice and helpful. The LST (Let's Start Talking) group has been here for 4 weeks and for 2 more weeks helping Japanese people practice their conversational English using the Bible. Allen's really excited that God has worked through him to reach out to 4 teachers from his school to come to the church for LST. We've enjoyed going to the LST parties on weekends - meeting their readers and playing English speaking games with them.
Allen has also been helping out with the children's singing ministry in the church. He's enjoyed teaching them a song he made up. We're enjoying being involved in the church on Sundays and the AET group study on Wednesday nights, which we also invite Japanese people to come to, so we usually meet someone new on Wednesday nights. It's been really cool that a few new people have come to the church recently just by heresay about the church.
I (Laura) try to mention the church every opportunity I can at school, so they have a positive picture about what the church is and that Japanese people can be Christians and still be Japanese. Here in Japan, Christianity is seen as American culture, and Japanese are very proud to be Japanese, so becoming a Christian would be like leaving their Japanese lifestyle behind.
The Japanese Christians at the church here are wonderful people and we've enjoyed getting to know them. There is a new preacher here now. He and his family came here from Abilene Christian University in Texas. I told them about my family that lives there and works at that school, but he said he doesn't recognize their names. The church here is really going to miss their preacher and his family who are leaving to move to California. The church had a goodbye party for them, and Allen put me on the spot to sing an Ethiopian song with him for them. I think they liked it. They have been are very great couple for the church here, but they feel called to go do God's work elsewhere. The new preacher and his wife have been great too. His wife, Mari, has helped many of us AETs out when we've gotten sick and needed a ride to the store or the doctor and for translation. She's such a sweet lady.
Allen's also enjoying soccer with the AET's and some young Japanese boys who have started playing with them. We've been getting stronger physically but also tired a lot because we ride our bikes to school everyday and to places we have to go to after school, like church and meetings.
School Life -
Working at Japanese elementary schools and nursery schools has been a neat and interesting experience for us. They are pretty different from American schools. The teachers are all in one room (the teachers' room) - they come back to this room before and after classes, and the students learn a lot of other responsibilities at school besides schoolwork, like gardening, cooking, cleaning the entire school almost everyday, and cleaning outside too (there's no ganitors here at the schools). And the vice-principle does a lot of the outside yard work. It's interesting and surpising sometimes. And we, as AETs, are expected to help out with all of it during specific times of the day. The day goes by pretty fast when we have classes and all these other things we help out with and playing with the kids a recess (which is a lot of fun). It's starting to get hotter and humid now though, because rainy season is here.
It's been really nice that my mom can be here. She's doing so well adjusting to the culture and life here. She loves working with her teachers at school, especially her translator who is studying to be a teacher. Her name is Konoko. She wants to take her to Tokyo and she seems interested in church because she asks mom questions about church.
Please keep the people mentioned in this message in your prayers (including us). We really want to shin Jesus's light while we're here, but many times it's hard when we have the communication barrier and we get tired and weary. So pray for our strength, health, and faith. We are going to get Skype soon, which is a way we can call people through the computer and it's really cheap! Whoever wants to talk to us please download skype onto your computer like we're about to do, and we can talk for free!
Talk to you all later!
With love,
Allen and Laura
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Still Waiting for Internet
Hello Everyone,
We're sorry we still haven't posted pictures yet, but once we get internet at our own apartment, we will post pictures. It'll be at least a month before we get the connection at our place. Thank you to those who posted comments! It's good to hear from our friends. We're still doing well and enjoying life here, besides the random awkward moments and feeling lost, but God is good.
Just in case anyone is interested, I found a good website for free game ideas for teaching English. It's called www.teachingenglishgames.com.
So, Golden Week (a holiday) is over, and we had school last Thursday and Friday, and our next holiday is in July, so it'll be a long stretch. And it will start to get really hot soon. Keep us in your prayers that we will stay strong and appreciate each moment no matter how difficult it may seem at the time. And we will pray for you too. Let us know any prayer requests.
Time to go eat sushi!! Sushi places are actually cheaper than McDonalds here, but much, much healthier.
Talk to ya later! ~Allen and Laura
Sunday, April 26, 2009
First Week
Hello Everyone,
We're sorry we haven't posted until now, but it has been a busy past week and we won't have internet service in our apartment for a while yet. Life has been good for the most part, besides feeling sleepy a lot and disoriented being in an unfamiliar place with strange roads going every which way without road names. We're starting to learn our way around a little, at least knowing how to get to our schools and to the church building from our apartment. Our buddies here who have been helping us have been wonderful, and we are so thankful for all the furniture and stuff that the other AETs left for us. We've had some "fun" times riding on our bikes to get places. Laura got soaked riding home from school yesterday, and then afterward had a nice cup of hot chocolate and found a rain suite in a closet, so next time she will have that on hand, just in case.
The training is done and the 6 of us got certificates and are now beginning to teach. Our focus is teaching conversational English, so we have to be creative to make it fun for the kids and have activities where they use the new words and phrases we teach them. We have enjoyed our schools so far and the teachers are very nice. The school is set up differently than in the U.S. The teachers are all in one room together with their desks and with the principle, vice principle, and head teacher in the front of the office. The classrooms are more like the students' classrooms instead of belonging to the teacher. The kids are so, so cute (especially the little ones). We also have kindergarden and nursery classes that haven't started yet. The 5th and 6th graders aren't as interested in learning English because they think they're too cool, but we are going to try to keep it fun and interesting for them.
We're excited for Laura's mother to get here in May. Laura has already met lots of really sweet Japanese women from the church and who have helped us who also speak some English, and all of them are waiting to meet her mom. We should find out soon when she will arrive. I think she will enjoy her experience here and she will like her AET buddies, who will help her with transportation and finding the things she needs for her apartment.
Life is different here and it takes some getting used to, so we are so glad we have friends here who keep helping and encouraging us. We are really excited to get involved in the church activities coming up. Today they had a pizza lunch and we talked about what to do for our Bible class. After church, we went with our friend Kristin out to the countryside and saw rice fields and went to a farmers' market. It was really beautiful out there with more wide open spaces compared the compacted city life.
Ok, we are about to go each sushi for dinner. We love sushi now and realized that raw fish won't kill us, but it's actually really healthy.
Talk to ya'll later!
Love,
Allen and Laura
Monday, April 6, 2009
10 days until Japan
Hello Friends and Family,
We are leaving for Japan on Thursday, April 16th. We are excited and nervous, but we know God is in control. Pray for us that God will use us in this new journey in our lives. We will be teaching English at elementary schools and will be called "AETs" (American English Teachers). This will be our job for the next one to two years.
This has been an amazing weekend, with two of our Japanese friends, Hiroka and Hitomi, deciding to become Christians. They were baptized in the last two days. We are so happy to have these two new sisters in Christ. It is a perfect way to begin our new journey to Japan, where we hope to build new friendships and share Jesus with them in whatever way we can. God is so good and it is amazing what happens when we give Him the reigns to direct our steps.
We believe in the power of prayer, so please pray for us as we prepare to leave and nervously begin a new chapter in life. Thank you for blessing us and we want to stay in contact with you, so here are our emails: laura.thompson@alumni.oc.edu and allenshifa@yahoo.com. Let us know of any prayer requests you have and say hello now and then so we don't lose touch with each other.
God bless you all and we will be back later.
As they say in Japan, "matane!" (see you later)
We are leaving for Japan on Thursday, April 16th. We are excited and nervous, but we know God is in control. Pray for us that God will use us in this new journey in our lives. We will be teaching English at elementary schools and will be called "AETs" (American English Teachers). This will be our job for the next one to two years.
This has been an amazing weekend, with two of our Japanese friends, Hiroka and Hitomi, deciding to become Christians. They were baptized in the last two days. We are so happy to have these two new sisters in Christ. It is a perfect way to begin our new journey to Japan, where we hope to build new friendships and share Jesus with them in whatever way we can. God is so good and it is amazing what happens when we give Him the reigns to direct our steps.
We believe in the power of prayer, so please pray for us as we prepare to leave and nervously begin a new chapter in life. Thank you for blessing us and we want to stay in contact with you, so here are our emails: laura.thompson@alumni.oc.edu and allenshifa@yahoo.com. Let us know of any prayer requests you have and say hello now and then so we don't lose touch with each other.
God bless you all and we will be back later.
As they say in Japan, "matane!" (see you later)
10 Days
Hello Friends and Family,
We are leaving on Thursday, April 16th for Japan to start our new jobs there teaching English at elementary schools. We are excited and nervous about this new life
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