Beginning of English classes and Pre-School

David had a great start back teaching his English conversation classes. Many students will take a break for the month of April as it is the beginning of a new school year here in Japan, however despite this he has 4 new students this semester and a few trial students have come to try out the classes. When someone is a trial students, they get to attend an English class one time for free and see if they want to sign up. This is a great way to give people an opportunity to see what the classes are all about and to make them more aware of the church. He is still teaching in the evenings except for his Saturday afternoon classes. 

We wanted to begin the Pre-School with 3-5 year olds but have not had as much interest from this age group because of the hours of the Pre-School or transportation issues. We have had some interest from mom's of 2 year olds so we decided to begin with this age group. 

The children in my class are under the age of 2 and around 1 and 1/2 years old. The moms want them to be around the English language, songs, activities, and games. I am teaching  this class on Wednesday mornings for 1 hour. There are currently 5 children in this class. 

Please continue to pray that more families will show interest in our school and inquire about enrolling. 

Our English classes are a great way to share the Gospel with both the students and the parents.

English Language Camp

On Saturday, April 6, we hosted a free English language camp. David had the idea to offer free classes for one day. This would introduce people to the English teachers, the classes we offer, and get people into the church. 

The new Japanese school year begins in April and ends the following March, so we decided to do the camp the last Saturday of their break in between school years. This way the students would have no homework and no special programs. It would be a Saturday that they would potentially have free.

 We had 20 people register ranging in ages from 3 to 70, and 19 showed up for a class. It was awful weather that day, so we were thankful to have only 1 person not show up. So far a few of the students have come for a trial class with either David or Hilary, which is great. We consider the day a success and hopefully students from the camp will join an already existing English class. 

Just a few photos of the day:

The flyer we passed out to advertise the camp

Schedule for the day

NaokoSan, NorikoSan, and KitaniSan. We could not have done the camp without these ladies!!

Mr. Shimoda, helping with parking, in his rain gear.

The younger students waiting to go into their class.  

David caught a snapshot of me teaching the youngest age group. 

Thank you for praying, we will let everyone know in our April newsletter if any students signed up for an English class from the camp.

Children's Easter Program 2013

On Saturday, March 30, Shimonoseki Christ Bible Church held an Easter Egg hunt for children. There were about 30 students total. Many neighborhood children as well as students from the English conversation classes attended.

The children registered at the church. 

When everyone had registered we lined up and got ready to go.

Then we all walked down the street to a local park. 

This is one view of the park, behind me is an area with swings and a picnic area. The cherry blossoms bloomed early this year, they were beautiful. 

When we arrived at the park, the children lined up and were taught some easter songs with motions. 

These lovely ladies from the church taught the songs to the students. 

Pastor Tony presented the Gospel and the wordless book. 

Getting lined up by their teams to play some games. 

For this game the students threw eggs onto the mat and tried to score the highest number, they were like little bouncy balls in the shape of eggs. Each team went one time and their score was recorded. 

This was part of the obstacle course. 

Watching the obstacle course race. 

When the students found an egg they would bring it to the table, turn it in for a prize, and then go to find another egg. I thought this was a great idea because then everyone gets a chance to find eggs and gets prizes. 

2 brothers from one of David's classes. Ren was so very excited about his mini tennis racket game!!

View of the park after the activities. All of the students are sitting down to enjoy a lunch.

Easter morning at church. Pastor Tony spoke one more time before heading back to the states for a summer Furlough.

Samuel in his Easter outfit from David's parents :)

The children's program is just one of the many outreaches done by Shimonoseki Christ Bible Church and we are happy to be apart of the ministry here and excited to work with fellow Christians here in Japan.

Cooking Chronicles: Part 3

This post is of various food items we have seen and various foods we have made at home.

Banana cream filled cakes that looked sorta like Twinkies. 

Green Tea KitKat's.

David cooking

When I hosted the Ladies Bible study, I made a recipe of my mom's. Rice Florentine. It's ground meat, white rice, and spinach with parmesan cheese on top. My mom would usually put tomatoes on top too!!!

One of our favorite things is to make popcorn on the stove. David is very good at making popcorn.

Yummy!!!

When shopping one day we came across a cookie press!!!

We thought we would try it out.

Using David's mom's sugar cookie recipe, we were ready to go.

Christmas Trees!!!

But it broke, it cracked the 3rd time I used it and the dough just started oozing out :(

At least I got one more batch of Christmas trees before it cracked.

A yummy sauce we use to cook chicken and if you put a little on your rice, it's super good!!!

Marcia Haug gave me a few boxes of Jiffy corn bread. I always add sugar to mine, it was yummy.

We went to supper at one of the couples that is very involved in the church.  The husband grilled this awesome meat that had been marinated in a special sauce. We loved it and she gave us a bottle and we have been using it at home. We are loving our rice cooker and incorporating more and more Japanese ingredients to our food. David is using chopsticks with this meal :)

100th anniversary of Oreo's!!! 

Peanut Butter Cookies made from scratch....

They were so good!!!

Chicken cooked in the skillet then topped with pasta sauce. 

Did this make anybody hungry? I know it seems like we make a lot of 'American' foods, which we do, but hopefully as we learn the Japanese language we will learn how to use and cook with things in the grocery that we can't read right now. I am also hoping to be able to learn how to cook some Japanese dishes from some ladies at church, but I have to learn more of the language first :)