TwoCooks: Plus Two: Last Saturday Pre-School Trial Class

Today was the last of 14 Saturday morning trial classes to give the community an opportunity to see the type of school we are planning on opening in April of 2013. (The Japanese school year runs from April to March with various breaks in between; unlike the American school year running from August to June with a long summer break.)

Today we had 2 students and in the past Saturday's as many as 8 or 9 students. We spent the three Saturday's in December teaching the Christmas story and playing various Christmas games. One of the students that came today had never come before and is actually a year too young to begin with us in April. They enjoyed the trial class and will keep us in mind for signing up in April 2014 when he is older. We are meeting with a family next week that has questions about our Pre-School that have come a few different times to the Saturday classes. It would be wonderful if at this meeting they would sign up for April. We also have another family that has 2 students that have attend once or twice that is moving to Shimonoseki and they have expressed interest and will hopefully sign up as well.

We had some students come that want to register but are unable to due to transportation, however, these 2 students are going to try David's classes and hopefully sign up for one of them.

We had a great success in presenting our Pre-School these past 14 Saturdays and as you have read above there are many 'potential' students that we are waiting on to either sign up for the Pre-School or David's classes. Please pray with us that we will have parents sign up their students and that more families will show interest. We have 2 newspaper ads that will run and 3 radio spot interviews for January 2013. It would be wonderful if we could recruit more students from these 2 advertisements.

Below are various pictures taken during the Saturday classes and of the classroom.

This is one of the first newspaper advertisements.

Our little 'Newbe' caterpillar , he's our mascot.

In Japan when you enter a home and some places of business you have to remove your shoes. School is no different. Marcia painted these cute animal feet for the students to leave their shoes when they enter the classroom. There are small benches for them to sit on also, but they are not pictured.

The main entry door into the classroom.

As you can see, we have a huge space to work with.

Bible time in the reading area.

We have a dress up area which is not common in Japan.

I was surprised to see all of the donations that have been made and sent over from the United States. Many churches and supporters have sent over materials and toys for the classroom.

This is in the back of the classroom where the parents and observers sat during the Saturday classes. This will not be here when we begin in April, it will be set up for a different area of the classroom.