trip home

Today went well. We had a lot of people come to the last party. Everyone took lots of pictures and then we went out to dinner with Roxanna and Tomoko. We exchanged presents with Sugao and then practiced Mr. Saito's song that we adapted to the tune of "Jesus is Lord" We will sing it tomorrow for the congregation after I am finished preaching. We still have to finish packing tonight among other things...so I have to go get busy, but I wanted to let everyone know that we are expecting to be in Texas on Monday at midnight, but we won't be back in Longview until the next Saturday, around July 31st? We are so excited to see everyone again and to catch up on everything we missed.

I hope you are all well...
Signing off...

Jeff


P.S. Mike and Tomoko's new teacher was supposed to arrive today from Texas, but she was denied entrance to Japan because she apparently answered questions incorrectly at immigration. She was sent on a plane back to Texas...until she gets another passport or something...If you could pray for her...She has had a rough time... She had just gotten this passport because her dog ate her last one a day before she was coming. Also please pray for the readers, and church members here.

Who wants to do LST next summer?

Hello again...

This will be one of the last e-mails that you will recieve from us about our project...I have enjoyed keeping up with everyone, even though I am halfway around the world...Thank you.

Our last reading day went very well. More goodbyes, more gifts, more laughter... Kristina and Julie met tonight with Sugao to discuss their readers' progress and interests. I prepared much of my sermon. Tomorrow Jake and I will meet with Sugao to discuss our readers. There is so much left to do before we go home, and time is going by so quickly...please pray for our trip home.

Tomorrow, Mike and Tomoko have offered to do something with us. We might get together to play some games, and eat dinner. Many of our readers have decided to come to the last party on Saturday. More and more have been signing up for English Bible lessons online too. It is going to be hard for us to only pick 2 readers each to continue working with online. We are very very speepy...and we get to sleep in tomorrow!!!

Jake and I went to play pool with one of his readers tonight. We had a great time together.
We are already beginning our planning for training a team/teams for next year from Alpine. We are excited about helping others have a similar opportunity to do God's work. It has been amazing. Please let us know if you are interested, or you think someone else may be interested.

If anyone missed any of my e-mails this summer, you can see most of them at: sims2japan@blogspot.com

I hope your day goes great!

Good night,

Jeff

Do you have a tongue?

Another great day!

Tomorrow is our last reading day. We recieved many more wonderful gifts from our readers, and it is difficult to say goodbye. It is hard to stay focused in our "free" time, and to not worry about the to do lists that are waiting for us when we return to America. I am preaching on Sunday, so the preparations for that will take up most of my spare time tomorrow.

It rained a little tonight, and the heat continues...also, I forgot to mention that we had another earthquake yesterday. We thouroughly enjoyed it... :) Even Kristina.

Tonight I didn't get through with reading until 9:15, so afterward we rode our bikes to Mos Burger. It is a Japanese version of a fast food restaurant. Their food and service was great. They had very cool rubber coasters for their drinks, and Kristina and I tried to buy them...but to no avail. They finally got it across that the boss would be there tomorrow night, so if we go back, maybe we can buy them. There was a lot of laughing on both sides on the conversation.

One of Jake's readers invited us to lunch tomorrow, so we are going to eat at her house. It should be interesting...I am going to miss our food adventures (but not the food) when we return home.

Here is another excerpt from a conversation with a reader for your enjoyment...
He was talking about different tastes...salty, bitter, sour, sweet... and was trying to get me to understand by prefacing his comment with "maybe you have a tongue." We couldn't help but laugh.

Until tomorrow, good night, and good morning,

Jeff

Jumping for Christ

Ohio Gozaimas,

Today the heat came back...It was so bad, we had to turn on the air conditioner in the auditorium for the second time of the project. Our readers appreciated it. This is the beginning of the end...at least for this trip. We all had some of our last meetings with some readers, but many of them are trying to schedule reading sessions everyday this week just to keep going. Many of mine are interested in the online classes, and in the Let's keep talking program. It is encouraging to see them continuing their study of English and the Bible.

We have had countless examples of things that didn't translate well, or were misinterpreted, but here is one from today that was pretty good: One of Jake's readers was on the lesson from Luke about people hoping for the Christ to come, and some thinking that maybe John was the Christ...
Jake's reader said "I understand that they thought John might be the Christ, but why were they all jumping (hopping). Jake said he could hardly contain himself as he was trying to explain the difference. The same reader was also trying to distinguish between heaven and hell, and drew a picture. When Jake asked about it, he said "It is a picture of my grandson... when awake...Hell, When asleep...Heaven. :) Thought you all would enjoy just a taste of the average conversation...It has been great to be laughing so much while we work.

Tonight, Mike and Tomoko Mclain and family invited us out to go to Karaoke with them. They wanted to treat their children since today is the first day of summer vacation for them. We had a wonderful time (I got some good pictures Maggie :) and they paid our way as a gift for all of our service for their congregation. It was very nice of them...They are wonderful people.

After Karaoke, Kristina had not eaten dinner because she had worked straight through, so we decided to ride our bikes to McDonald's for a late night meal. It was great. (we had Yaki Soba for lunch made from Cabbage that had been given to us...It has cabbage, noodles, ginger, soy sauce, etc... It was great too, and Judith got to eat with us.)

We are trying to arrange our train and bus trip to the end meeting that is coming up on Sunday and Monday in Tokyo. We are also trying to find times to meet with Sugao to discuss our project before we go.

We have been giving our gifts to our readers on their last visit, and they seem to really enjoy them (we are giving them a Texas post card, a texas quarter, tabasco sauce, and American candy bars). We have also been recieving a number of gifts as well. For instance, I was given a beautiful wind bell today that is supposedly unique from a specific part of Japan.

I hope your Tuesday goes as well as mine did,

Oyasumi Nasai,

Tsuyoshi

God goes to camp

We are back...

Camp went really well this weekend despite the rain. It was a record number of readers for the Taga church at an LST camp. The accomodations were great, but the rules about the campsite were very strict in an odd, and sometimes frustrating and humorous way. The LST camp team did a fabulous job at running the camp. The readers had an excellent time, and really learned, discussed, and thought about God and Jesus. Kristina said eating the camp food (which was very interesting) was worth hearing her readers helping each other answer questions that they had about the Bible and about Christians. The talent show went great...Many of the readers participated, and everyone had a blast. Contestants did everything from stuffing their mouths full of marshmallows, to family singing ensembles. I got some great pictures, and some great memories too. :)

Today we had a day off before our last week here. We spent the day in Mito. We went to a famous garden, toured a famous Shogun-family house, and went to a Tokugawa (the first Shogun) family museum. We also got a little shopping done while we were out. It was an exhausting weekend, and day. I have excercised more here in a month than all year at home I think. We should all sleep very well tonight.

Have a great day, and I'll talk to you tomorrow,

Jeff

Goin' campin'

Well, we are getting packed, and washing our tennis shoes, so that we can use them in the gym tonight...(a very strange country for shoes). We will be leaving in about 15 minutes, and will not be back until Sunday night. I will not have e-mail access there, so I will have to write again when we return. I had an interesting experience at the post office this morning...I am getting better at communicating, even if I can't understand everything that is said to me. I also was able to get a haircut the other day...it was the first time my head had been vacuumed...Very interesting.

I hope you have a great weekend. We are going to be in a talent show at camp this weekend and are singing "God is bigger than the boogey man" in English and Japanese. Wish us luck...


I've got to go for now, but I'll write as soon as I can,

Tsuyoshi

Bean Burritos: the 5th food group?

Gooooood Moooorninnnnn from Japan,

Here is an update: Jake went surfing with me, and he rode one wave (not standing) and then had trouble fighting the current, so he basically swam in place for an hour. He has a lot more respect for surfers now. I was successful again. I got up a number of times...It's too bad the surfing isn't great in Texas.

The camp team has arrived. I know two of the six members already. They seem like wonderful people. Last night we invited two of them out for Karaoke so that we could get to know each other a little better before this weekend. It was a lot of fun as usual, and we sang so much, that most of us were losing our voices by the time we left. :)

Another one of my readers is going to come to camp now. She has been asking a lot of searching questions. She is an amazing person. I feel so close to all of my readers...I can't believe that I have only been here for 4 1/2 weeks. It is going to be bittersweet leaving Japan. We are getting a growing craving for mexican food, but man cannot live by bean burritos alone...

God is working here...and in new and exciting ways every day! Kristina's readers have been asking more and more questions about baptism and what it means to be a Christian. Be Encouraged! God is alive!

We are going to have an opportunity to continue our relationships with some of our readers throughout the year through a program called EBC4U (English Bible Class 4 U). Throught this program, readers will read, and hear a bible story online, will answer questions, and will e-mail them to a Christian who will in turn respond to them. It seems like a wonderful program, and it was created by one of the camp staff members that lives in Japan. If any of you are interested in helping Japanese people continue to learn about the bible, this would be a wonderful opportunity for you. Let me know if you are interested, and I can give you the information. Kristina and I will be taking on about 2 readers each for the duration of the year.

We will be back in Texas before we know it... I am looking forward to seeing everyone there again. I hope you are all doing well.

Walk in His footsteps,

Tsuyoshi

Shark guts

We had another great day in Japan...

This morning I woke up early to go surfing before our devotional. It is great excercise. The waves were bigger today, and we had to work pretty hard to swim out. I did much better this time. I got up several times. Jake is going to go surfing for the first time ever tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it.

After our devotional, or reading sessions went very well. Kristina had a breakthrough of sorts with one of her readers, and one of mine today seems very close to making the decision to become a Christian.

After lunch, the Mito LST team dropped by, and Jake and I walked with them down to the beach. They had their children with them, and they had a lot of fun. Some of them will be at our camp this weekend. (an interesting side note is that a peice of a shark carcas came up onto the beach when we were there...it must have been a very large shark...This happened just after the children's parents assured them that the water was safe...It was pretty funny)

Tonight, after our last reading sessions, one of Jake's readers taught Kristina how to play some Japanese board games. Jake, Julie, and I set up the ping pong table and played for awhile. Jake and I even had a tournament playing left handed. He won barely...It was a lot of fun, and a good way to relax after our day.

Have a wonderful day, and remember what is really important,

Tsuyoshi

Easter in July

Hello,

yesterday I went surfing for the first time. It was great! I even got up a few times. I'm planning on going back again in the morning. Jake, Kristina, and I also went to a Japanese class yesterday too. It was a lot of fun, and we learned some new phrases and things. We went out to eat Yaki Niku (grilled meat that you cook by yourself). I also had sashimi (raw fish slices) and some nato (fermented beans). I even tried the tongue at the Yaki Niku place. We came back and made pizza for the first time, watched a movie, and made cookies for the party.

Today Jake preached at church, and he did a great job. I am going to preach in two weeks (The day we are leaving for our end-meeting). Our reading went well today, and we hurried to get ready for the party. We had 60 eggs to boil, and had to decorate. The party went very well. We had everyone dye eggs. They loved it. Then I read the Easter story, and Sugao translated for me. It took a long time because of the translation, but it seemed like everyone was interested. (Thank you so much for the Easter stuff Terry and Virginia!!) Then we had an easter egg hunt. The eggs contained American candy and coins, and the kids loved it. Everyone had a great time, and people were able to get to know each other better. Tonight, everyone went out to eat together at Coco's. They have all kinds of food. It was some of the best food we've had since we've been here.

Jake is preparing to cook Japanese curry again tomorrow. We are trying to get all of the camp stuff taken care of now so we don't have to do anything at the last minute. It sounds like there are going to be a lot of people coming to camp! It's wonderful.

Have a great day!

Jeff

I'll have the tofu please

It's me again...

We were able to sleep in late this morning. It was wonderful! Kristina and I made luch for ourselves, and then caught the train to Hitachi. We then figured out how to ride the bus, and which one to ride. We ended up at the zoo with no problems. The zoo was very nice. It was not busy at all, but the animals were interesting. We saw some that we had never seen before like a red panda (it looked like a small red raccoon bear), some very acrobatic singing monkeys, and a civet cat. After the zoo, we had a little trouble finding the right bus, but ended up at the station, and we hung out in Hitachi for a little while, until it was time for our train to take us back to Taga.

Tonight we went over to Kei's house (one of Kristina's readers) for a tea ceremony. It was a wonderful experience, and they even taught us how to make tea (tea ceremony style). Then she brought us into the next room and had dinner prepared for us. We weren't expecting dinner, so it was quite a suprise. We were served tofu soup, sushi, pumkin, vegetables in mayonaise sauce, some kind of purple beans, cucumber salad, buckwheat tea, apples, and Japanese cherries. I thought most of it was very good. Kristina had a hard time with some of the dishes, but ate admirably. Kei was a wonderful hostess.

After dinner, Kristina and I rode our bikes to get some Dr. Peppers from a vending machine...It was a nice ride. Tomorrow morning I am going to go surfing with Tomoko's husband. He is the one that owns the surf shop, so I am excited to get a lesson from him. Wish me luck! :)

Please let me know how you are doing,

Jeff

Karaoke for twenty?

Good morning to you...

Jake didn't have any readers this morning, so he took the opportunity to meet his friend in Tokyo... Or so he thought. He arrived at their meeting place and could not find her. He looked for about 4 hours, and then ate at the hard rock cafe, and came back. We felt pretty bad for him. He found out that she had waited at another place for an hour, and then she left. Part of the problem was that they were meeting in the busiest train station in the world...literally.

After our devotional, Kristina found the grocery store and the foreign foods store too. She made spaghetti with meat sauce, salad, with rolls. Jake missed out on a great lunch. One of my readers stayed after her session to eat dinner at the church so that she could go to Karaoke with us. It was nice to get to hang out with our readers as friends tonight, and to get to know them a little better. We had five readers come with us, and the Takahagi team met us there along with some other friends of ours. Altogether, we had about twenty people in the room singing Karaoke together. It was incredibly fun. Our readers have some great voices. (Kristina tried to help them sing in Japanese too...She got a lot of laughs)

After Karaoke we talked on the street for a long time with Jake, Mike, and one of Mike's friends named Nolan. Then we came back to the church building and talked with Jake some more. We are all very ready for our off days this week. This week went unbelievably fast. We will be home before we know it.

If anyone has a good idea for a drink to serve at our Easter party on Sunday, let me know...

Good night,

Jeff

Bugs in the shower

Konichiwa,

The heat continued last night and through the morning. I almost felt at home. :) We were all trying to get in to use the shower this morning to get cool before our devotional. Every other day or so there has been a centipede/caterpiller type creature with long feelers all over its body in the shower. Yesterday Kristina had to deal with it, and today it was my turn again. The locals say that they may be poisonous, or could sting. We'll try to be careful...

My Cinnibon roll was excellent today! And, for luch, it was my turn to cook again. Once again, we had macaroni and cheese, but this time hot dogs and soy beans too. Between readers today, Kristina and I made it back to Omika to the dollar store. The selection was amazing...much better than our dollar stores.

We are talking about going to the zoo on Friday before we attend the tea ceremony perfomed by Kristina's reader. It should be interesting to see their selection of animals.

Our reading sessions went well again today. I feel like I am really connecting with Shunji. We get along very well, and he is still interested in learning more about Jesus. Two of my readers might go with us to Karaoke (Yoko and Megumi). I'm sure it will be entertaining for both them and us.

Kristina and I have been practicing our skills with my kendama today. A kendama is a japanese toy made of wood with a woodent ball attached with a string. It is great practice for hand-eye coordination, but can be a little dangerous in the wrong hands... (Kristina keeps hitting herself in the head with it) We are both getting better though.

The temperature outside right now is great...I am looking forward to sleeping in the cool breeze tonight.

Love one another,


Tsuyoshi

Making a difference

Once upon a time in Japan...

Today it was very hot...and it is much different without air conditioning. We all had many readers today. Mr. Okabe came back. We continued Romans, and he is very interested in learning about the bible. He has read it many times, but doesn't understand everything. When I told him that studying with him has increased my faith he seemed very suprised. He said that he has learned things from me and that he goes home and thinks about what we talk about and reads some more. I told him that I hope that this studying can renew his faith. We need your prayers. He brought us some more cucumbers today that he picked from his garden this morning.

Ohtsu (another one of my readers) was very interested in learning about Jesus. As he was leaving he met Kristina and told her that "Jeff is teaching me about Christ" and he smiled. This seems very promising.

We ate tacos for lunch today, and we ate ice cream that one of Kristina's readers brought for us. :)

After reading tonight we all rode the train to Mito and we found a really great Japanese restaurant with english picture menus. We also stopped at Cinnibon and picked up breakfast for tomorrow. Yesterday at the train station we saw someone wearing a shirt that said "touch me I'm sick." We have seen so many t-shirts that don't make any sense... They are hilarious.

Thursday we are going back to Cosmo World to sing Karaoke with some of our readers and with another LST team from another town. It should be great.

We are getting excited about camp...it is coming up very quickly.

I wish you much laughter today :)

Jeff

Riding the rails

Buenas dias,

This morning my schedule was light, so Jake and I rode the train (using our rail passes that expire Thursday) to Hitachi to go shopping at a large grocery store. Jake made fried chicken today and Kristina made gravy. It was all wonderful.

Friends camp is coming up on 16-18. Friends Camp is a camp that we will put on in cooperation with other North Americans who have trained specifically for the camp and will be travelling here for two weeks. We are inviting our readers and the local church members in the hopes that the bonds between them will be strenthened enough so that they will still be friends after we leave. One of my readers signed up today and is planning on bringing her son to camp too... hooray!

Tonight after reading, Kristina and I rode the train to Omika and walked to a 100 yen shop. We arrived just as they were closing, but they let us in for a minute. Then Jake, Kristina, and I went to Woody's again, (I had Spaghetti, and we all had cool drinks.)

I think we are all getting more and more tired, so we are going to try to go to sleep a little earlier tonight.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Jeff

Fruit of two varieties...

We're back...
Happy fourth of July...

Our trip was amazing... We travelled an amazing distance in a very short time riding the Shinkansen (Bullet) trains. Hiroshima was very sobering...Kyoto was very historically/culturally interesting. We also saw some of Tokyo including Asakasa. I think we saw about as much as is humanly possible in two days. :) It was unbelievable. And...We did not miss any of our trains, or get lost!

Today we were all drained...We woke up early for church. I gave my testimony/Christian story for one of the Sunday school classes this morning. They seemed very interested. We then went out to lunch at Woody's. They had Italian style pasta and specialty drinks. Kristina got melon soda with ice cream, and I got a Super Banana (Banana juice, ice cream, and whipped cream.) It was wonderful to get American sized portions for once...

After lunch we had readers. My session with Shunji (a self-proclaimed Buddhist) went very well today. He is becoming more curious about the stories we are reading. We are becoming friends. Another session was more difficult. Toshiyuki speaks very little English, but with the help of a dictionary, we made it through our lesson today. We all helped get the party stuff ready after that. Today's theme was game/craft night. We played uno, made cooperative finger paintings, and painted small bags. They seemed to enjoy it (even the smaller children). After the party we had had an invitation to eat dinner at Tomoko Ishido's house (one of our readers). She made vegetable tempura, salad, and a form of sushi which did not involve raw fish (more like a rice casserole). It was all delicious. We gave her one of the books about Texas that we had bought as gifts. She and her husband thouroughly enjoyed looking at it! Her husband goes surfing every morning, and he owns a surf shop. He said that he could teach me, so I am going to try that when the waves get a little smaller. There is a typhoon pretty close by, so there are very big waves right now. He's still going surfing in the morning though. After dinner about twelve of us headed for the beach to light a bunch of fireworks to celebrate the fourth of July. It was great! Every one enjoyed it...and one of the highlights was when Kristina lit a large firework upside down (since we couldn't read the instructions) and it exploded on the beach, and then sent sparks flying all around...(you should have seen everybody's faces) :)

We are still tired, but we are still excited to be here and to have the opportunity to share our faith and love with these people. A few of the readers have shown interest in becoming Christians and have been meeting with Sugao to discuss their decisions. God is making wonderful things happen here through your support, our work, and everyone's prayers. (Both of the girls that have been meeting with Sugao came tonight to shoot fireworks with us)...they are becoming good friends with each other, with us, and with the church members. It is wonderful to be able to see the fruit grow from seeds planted long before we arrived, and to know that we are planting seeds and nurturing growth in others. God can do anything...

Tomorrow may hold many and new exciting adventures for us all,

Tune in then...Same time... Same Channel

Tsuyoshi

going to b gone

Good day

Good reading

Good shopping

Good gifts

Good lunch

Good bye




P.S. we will be in Kyoto and Hiroshima this weekend...so I will write when I get back... hope you are all doing well. We are. Write if you get the chance...

Jeff