We're Home

Just to let everyone know, we made it home today. After a very short night of sleep before departure and a long day of traveling, everyone is in bed now except me.  One of our bags didn't make it but should be delivered shortly, after which I will be going to bed too.  We will update this post with more information about our last days in Japan in the next day or two. - Terence

A Sunday Blessing

This Sunday we had a wonderful experience at church.  The church at Nishi Kunitachi is not a big church.  There are usually about 6 people from 4 families who come.  Over these past few weeks we have been inviting some of the children from the preschool who don't usually come to church to a children's program.  We have been working on a short musical, half in English and half in Japanese. Several families with elementary and preschool aged children have been coming and having a lot of fun playing and learning together.  We were very happy too when some of the families would stay for the service after the children's program.  We also encouraged the children to invite friends and family to the program, which we had this Sunday. 

What a wonderful surprise we had when we discovered we had set up too few chairs for the service.  In all we had about 30 adults and 15 children at church yesterday.  The children had a great service, and Christy ended with a short message.  After the service a large group of us (over 3o people), including some of the new families, went to a large park for a picnic lunch and a chance to enjoy the beautiful spring weather. It was such a sight to see a big group of us traveling by train to one stop and transfering to another stop and then getting to the large park. There were several strollers and a number of Americans. I now understand why when Japanese people travel they usually go on an organized tour. Getting everyone on the train together was a bit of a challenge. But the result was well worth it.

This was our last Sunday with the church, and it was a wonderful ending to our time here in Japan.

Willem's Journal 2-28-09

Today we were home most of the day, but then around dinner we met Sela and Reo near Sanrio Puroland and we ate at a Korean restaurant.  Sela and Reo's mom is from Arizona and their dad is from Japan, so Sela and Reo can speak pretty good English.  After we ate there we went outside and daddy, Xavier and their dad both went home in their car.  Then, while we were walking to the Mister Donuts near Sanrio Puroland, Reo was teaching me how you do a top with a string.  The string basically spins it.  After we ate our donuts we played outside while thier mom (whose name was Holly) and our mom chatted.  After that we rode the train to Wakabadai station.  Then Tai, Mommy and I rode the bus home while they walked home.  Once we got home we went to bed.

Fast Fact: Koreans eat spicy food.

Why We Don't Blog Every Day

For some reason I had this idea that life in Japan would be less busy than life in the United States.  What was I thinking? We find that our days and evenings are very full.

Our work here involves teaching 9 preschool classes each week with classes ranging from 8 to 40 students.  We also have 17 elementary school classes we teach each week, and 3 adult classes.  Some weeks we have an additional craft class for the preschoolers.  We travel to 4 different schools to do this. We are also responsible for the message 3 Sundays of the month, and we are leading the children who come to Sunday school, trying to put on an English musical with mostly non-English speaking children.  We also attend special activities at the preschools, from graduation dances to teacher outings to graduation ceremonies.  In addition we have a Bible study in our home every couple of weeks.  Add to all this being parents of three, trying to keep up on homeschooling, and trying to get together with old friends in this area, in Tokyo (1 hr. away where Christy used to go to church) and Chiba (where we used to live, 2 hrs away).  We are also working on organizing some Bible English camps for our final week here and writing curriculum for a children’s program this summer.

And of course while we love Japan, the lifestyle and the culture, we forgot about the time consuming aspects of grocery shopping every couple of days because everything has to be carried up the hill so we can’t stock up, and finding creative ways to get the laundry dried when it won’t stop raining. In addition, because we take buses and trains everywhere, transportation takes more time and planning too.  

In our free time we try to help the boys experience as much of Japan as possible.  They’ve gotten really great at eating with chopsticks (except Xavier, but he still insists on having them at the meal). They are learning some Japanese language and how to play Japanese games, how to do origami, and how to act when 20 preschoolers descend on them as they enter the preschool. They also are discovering ways to not be crushed on the train at rush hour.

We tell you all of this not to complain about our schedule, but to let you know all that we are doing and to explain why we haven’t been better at keeping in touch.