Dan's Birthday!!!!!!

Today was Dan's Birhtday!! We celebrated talking to friends and family on the telephone, having a nice ham dinner and opening presents sent from my mom in America. I brought over these cupcakes to one of Dan's classes this afternoon because I felt bad that he had to work on his birhtday! He enjoyed the surprise and so did his students.

Happy Birthday!

Today was Christine's 25th Birhtday! We had a very nice relaxing day and then this evening Manami and Shota came over with some presents. Coffee and cupcakes, delivered from Christine's cousin, Lila in Tokyo. She sent cupcakes in the mail from Tokyo!! Also, she got new art materials, so she can start drawing and painting over here. She was VERY excited!

Family is a blessing

I may feel a little homesick today, so when that happens it always helps to look at pictures of family and friends. We are so blessed to have such supporting and loving families and friends.

Alpha Update!

Thank you so much to those of you that were praying for us and the Alpha program! We have some great news and an answered prayer. We WILL be starting an Alpha course here in May!! We got the approval from our Pastor and some church members. This coming Sunday, the congregation will vote on starting an Alpha course, and if all goes well...we get to begin on May 6th! Dan and I are thrilled! We feel like the Lord has opened this door and we are just following his lead. Our next prayer is that many newcomers will attend the course. I am so thankful to anyone who prayed about this matter, prayer works and it's especially fun when we all get to see the fruits of our prayer! Thanks and God bless you today!

Mount Fuji

This is a beautiful picture of Fuji-san. I didn't take it, but it's such a beautiful picture of what Japan looks like in the spring. Spring should be starting early this year, so we are really looking forward to that and to seeing the cherry blossoms!

Alpha

Dan and I are asking for a little prayer. We are in the midst of talking with our Japanese Church about starting up an Alpha course this spring. I'm not sure if you have heard of the Alpha course, but if you haven't I'd encourage you to start asking around about it. We are asking if you could pray for the churches willingness to try something new and for right timing to begin a course. Dan and I feel compelled to bring the "Good News" to the Japanese people and this is one tool that we know works for reaching the unsaved, so if you could say a quick pray for these two things, we would REALLY appreciate it!

Hiking

Sometimes I forget how adventurous boys can be and how girly I can be. Dan and I were out biking and found ourselves at the foot of a mountain today. All of a sudden his male instinct appeared and he wanted to hike...mind you I was the one who noticed the sign in the distance that said Beware of Bears!! Did that stop him....oh no! He was ready to go and I wasn't about to wait around by myself! So I followed him....all the way up to the top of the mountain. The whole time I kept on looking over my shoulder seeing if bears were following and of course there weren't. (Did I mention it's January?...and bears hiberate) Well, I was a scaredy-cat, but I made it up to the top and the view was great. These pictures aren't phenomenal, but they show Ayashi, our city, and a pretty good view.

Shrines and Temples

These are some pictures that we took today. It was a beatuiful day in Sendai today! I (Christine) am not used to having such mild winters, but I must say they are so nice; not claustrophobic! We biked around taking pictures of some different shrines and temples near our city. The first picture is of a temple. The second is of a shrine. The third is of the big archway that is typical of a shrine. Every shrine has one of these arches. The fourth is a picture of the inside of a shrine. There are the elaborate gold decorations and gods/idols that Buddhists pray to everyday. They pray to their ancestors for good health, protection and whatever else they feel like they need luck for. The last picture is of a graveyard. Graveyards are near every shrine and temple. The tomb stones are so elaborate and huge! We were intrigued by everything we saw today and we wanted to share our pictures.

Pictures of Japan

This is looking out over Tokyo from one of the higher buildings. This is just one view of the city. Tokyo is tied with Mexico City for having the largest population in the world.

This was taken up north along the Sea of Japan. It's a very rocky coast, but really beautiful!

This was taken on the Pacific side of Japan at Matsushima. These are typical Japanese style buildings. The building on the rock island is a Temple that was built a few hundred years ago by an Emperor. He built in out on this island so he could watch the moon.

A fishing boat out on the open ocean...

Our Snowman "Ralph"

We finally had a snowfall that lasted overnight! Dan and I have never made a snowman together and all he wanted to do was make a snowman, so we did! We named him Ralph and now he'll greet all of our guest. Looks pretty good, huh? I guess the show in Japan is not so different from Minnesota after all!! Happy winter!

Making Mochi

One of the traditions in the fall is to make mochi and this past Sunday, our church made a whole bunch of it! Young and old alike took part in this event and everyone enjoyed it! Mochi is pounded rice that is shaped into balls and then are usually seasoned with something. Our mochi was seasoned with soybean powder. Personally, I was not a fan of the seasoning, but it was fun to try something new! Notice the picture of Dan displayed. Do you see the crack in that hammer? Yeah....That is my wonderfully BURLY husband just about to break the handle! He's sure got some swing!! It was quite the experience!

Emma's Visit

We were so pleased to have Emma Stensvaag (next to Dan) arrive on the 2nd of January. She is Maya's (far left) younger sister. Their father is the pastor of First Lutheran church in Fergus Falls. Both girls were born in Japan and lived here until they were 6 and 10. We have all become quite the gang!

We had a dinner party the night she arrived. We also invited Manami, one of the seminary students to join us. It was a lot of English for her!! She can understand quite a bit, but we were all talking pretty fast. Thankfully, Maya is fluent in Japanese and translated some.

We have had a great time together!

Emma will be leaving on the 11th and going back to Minneapolis where she is attending college. Both girls have been staying with us while Emma's visiting.

Matsushima "Pine Island"

We were so happy to spend the day at Matsushima with some new friends from one of the two churches we serve. Their names are Christina and Masari Goto. Christina is originally from Singapore and Masari is Japanese. They both speak English, so it's very easy to spend time together and talk. Mr. Goto works for a large hotel near Matsushima and was able to use some of his connections to give us a really wonderful experience at Matsushima. We took a ferry ride around the islands and got to sit in the luxury seats. SO COOL!! We got to feed the seagulls as they followed the ferry, which was really fun and a bit scary when they got so close. We had gratis oysters during our tour and learned that there are more than 260 islands in Matsushima. We finished off the morning with a beautiful lunch at his hotel and the best part was not only was the lunch gratis, but so was the ice cream!! I was thrilled! We also learned the meaning for Matsushima. Matsu means "Pine" and Shima means "Island". Now it all makes a lot more sense to me! We really had a great day.

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!