Akiu Onsen

Getting away to relax is always a good thing, especially after a lot of Christmas preparation. Dan and I went to an onsen (hot spring hotel) for a little celebration of our 6 month anniversary and to get away a little. We did nothing except relax and enjoy the scenery. It was wonderful!
Here we are in the Japanese bath robes that everyone wears around the hotel, even to dinner! So we joined in on it too! The other picture is on the property of the hotel. There is a great pathway that runs along the river and is decorated with lots of waterfalls!

Our First Christmas!

We had our first Christmas together enjoying each others reactions to opening gifts. We had a ham meal along with lots of trimmings and an Apple pie for dessert. We also invited our friend Maya Stensvaag over to our house for Christmas dinner. Around 8pm we went Christmas caroling with about 20 people. It was my (Christine) first time ever Caroling!

Baptism on Christmas Eve Day

On Sunday, Christmas Eve day, one of my English students was baptized. She and her daughter both take English classes at one of our churches and also have been attending church services regularily. About a month ago she talked with my pastor's wife and told her that she wanted to become a Christian. She gave her heart to the Lord and took some Bible classes with the pastor. Her husband is not a believer and is not happy that she became a Christian. You can pray for her, her name is Michiyo. What a great gift to be baptized on Christmas Eve! We also had a confirmation and member initiation. It was a wonderful service!

Children's Christmas Party and Skit

This is one of those events you start preparing for at the end of October beginning of November, so that you are totally prepared for everything. Well, we were actually prepared this year and ended up having a great turn out! There were about 40 kids that showed up to the church for our annual Christmas party and about 15 of them were our English students. We were also pleased to see so many of our students' parents (both mothers and fathers) show up. Our students had all been practicing the song Away in a Manger (in English) for this event. We were glad that some of them showed up, so Dan and I didn't have to sing solo. Dan and I also played Mary and Joseph in the Christmas skit and spoke all of our lines in Japanese. Dan had a lot of lines and he did very well. I played a good, quiet Mary! I only had two lines in the whole play! The kids got to experiece a Candle Light service which was really neat. The room was actually quiet while we all sang Silent Night! Santa Claus visited everyone at the end of the program and gave all the children gifts. Everyone was really happy!

Jozeji Dori Christmas Lights

Today, Dan and I started our Christmas vacation, which we are so excited about. So, we went into Sendai city tonight. We heard that the famous street, Jozeji Dori, was lit up with Christmas lights, so we thought we would go check it out. We were so happy we did, it was beautiful!!! The whole downtown was lit up! We are so glad that we took the time to go downtown and see all the lights!

The Lawson's

Just thought you would like to see us!!

Merry Christmas!

Hanging out!

Some of my students came over to our house for a little Christmas treats! These ladies are some of my favorite, probably because they are young and have lots of energy. They love America and want to know all the "cool sayings" to use. The lady who is older, Shigeko, is great! She loves being around younger people and is pretty funny! Manami, our seminary student/friend, came over too!

BOYS, BOYS, BOYS

Can you believe I teach 5 boys that are all 7 years old and I actually enjoy it!

Dan and his fun kid's classes!! He had parties all week long! Lucky!

Women's Christmas Service

The seminary church that we work with had their annual Women's Christmas service/party. I was able to be there because it didn't conflict with any of my classes. I was so happy to be a part of this celebration. I was pleasantly surprised at how encouraged I was after the afternoon was finished, considering I could hardly understand anything!! The Pastor gave a short message to start off the party, then we went into another room for some fun mixer games and some desserts! We ate a tradional Japanese Christmas/New Year's cake which was delicious! After our dessert we had a beautiful Candle light service. I love Candle light services because they're such a good time for reflection. I was also very happy to see many of my students there, which I wasn't expecting! We finished off the afternoon with a gift exchange and all went away happy!

MYN Christmas Program

We were thoroughly delighted with the MYN Christmas play. It was a muscial version of Christ's birth. It was wonderful! There was even a talking puppet! Many of the church members were in the play and sang beautifully! We really enjoyed being uplifted in song as we watched, even though we couldn't understand a lot of the singing. It's amazing how the Lord can touch you through music even when you can't understand the words.

Dan's MYN Christmas Parties

Dan teaches two class at Minami-Yoshinari (MYN) church every Saturday night. Most of his students have been in these classes for well over 10 years studying English. (Some couldn't be at class the night this picture was taken.) His students are all quite advanced in their English skills, but of course there is always room for learning and correcting mistakes. Dan is a wonderful teacher and his students really like him, so he is a perfect fit for these classes. Zenniya Sensei has been doing the chapel times for these classes. Some of the students there are very interested and curious about Christianity, so they have had some very good dicussions along the way. We pray that each of our students hear about Christ and respond to the Lord in faith!

Christine's Artwork

I just thought it would be fun to show you some of my artwork that I did in the past. I haven't been working on anything lately, but hopefully I will find some time soon! Enjoy!

Friday Kids Christmas Parties!

Today was the day for parties! Both of us had Christmas parties in our kids classes. We played games like ping pong, Uno and others that they love. We colored Christmas trees and talked about we want for Christmas. All of the kids ate Christmas cookies and loved them! Manami did the chapel for each of the classes, so all of the kids heard the wonderful story of Jesus'
birth. And for that, we are so grateful!

Friday Ladies Christmas Party!

My Friday morning ladies class is full of engery and spunk! Today we had about 40 minutes of fun Christmas games. We played Christmas pictionary which turned out to be a hit! After class, we went out to lunch to a traditional Japanese restaurant. When you entered the restaurant, you had to take off your shoes and wear only your socks. We ate on a low table and sat on the tatami floor. It was really fun! In one of the pictures, the three ladies and me, each of the ladies are new to classes this year, so this was their first time having an English Christmas Party. They really had fun! I had a very good time too! In the picture where my student, Miho, is drawing, everyone was laughing so hard because this was her drawing of an Angel! She gave it some good effort!

Thursday Night Bible Study

Tonight we met with our Thursday Night Bible study. We have three Japanese men who come over to the house to study the Bible in English with Christine and I.

Currently we are studying The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. We are all getting alot out of our fellowship together both in studying Christianity and learning about each other, our families and our different cultures.

We have a lot of fun together and some of the guys will hang around after the study is over just to talk, have coffee or tea, and just have a fun time. On the left, Okano-san, who usually seems calm and reserved during the study time, is having some fun poking his head through the stockings and posing for the camera. This was his idea but he had me join him for the picture. You may think you know someone that you worship with and study with, but when you spend personal time together that is when our true personalities come out.

This is a picture of the three men who come to the study, and me. On the left is Keimei (Kaino-san) then me, (Daniel-san?) next is Mitsuru (Okano-san) and on the right is Yoshi (Onuki-san). Christine (Kuri-chan) is also there every Thursday night but she wanted to take the pictures of all of us handsome men.