We had a missionary family over for lunch and then spent the afternoon together as a family. It's really great having Caitlin home.

God continues to work in Japan! Praise God...

• That on Dec. 21 at our Hitachinaka mission post, Hiroshi was baptized and Akiko reaffirmed her faith and joined the church.
• That on Dec. 23 at Kurume Bible Fellowship's candlelight service, the real meaning of Christmas was presented to non-Christian Japanese.
• That on Dec. 25, 6 people joined the church of Rev. Ashida, a Japanese pastor whose son is in Kim's English 10 class at CAJ.

Please ask God...

• For travel safety for Caitlin as she flies back to Toronto on January 2.
• To help Kim prepare effectively for her grammar unit (starting Jan. 6) and to help Michael prepare effectively for assisting a mission with strategic planning (Jan. 7).

Do you want to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches? To value those connections? And to get feedback you can use to modify instruction? If so, give your students a Biblical perspective assessment.

The backdrop is a snowy night at a famous Buddhist temple. There are no shepherds, no wise men, no angels. But there are Santas. Many of them. In fact, the temple is crawling with the little red-clad characters, some of them carrying paper umbrellas.
 
This Japanese advent calendar isn’t like any I’ve ever seen in the U.S. The Santa labeled the 25th seems a little more familiar, flying a sleigh across the sky. But the 25th isn’t the final date. The really big date, the date the whole calendar is leading up to, is January 1—the biggest holiday of the Japanese year.
 
Sure, the stores in Japan play up Christmas. (Anything to move more merchandise.) But it’s still a small celebration. When dad gets home from work, there might be a small Christmas cake (white sponge cake, white frosting, and strawberries on top) and a present for each of the kids. Few Japanese have any idea that Christmas is about God being born as a human baby so He could grow up and die for the world.
 
The good news? Japanese want to find out more about this “Western” holiday. This means that friends and neighbors who usually decline an invitation to church are interested in coming to a candlelight service or a Christmas party. So, missionaries put on Christmas events during which they share the Gospel.
 
We’re grateful to be a part of this Gospel presentation. We’re glad we can:

• Invite friends to our church’s candlelight service.
• Decorate our front windows with the manger scene.
• Answer any questions that come our way.
• Support the massive outreach effort by educating missionary kids and by training/coaching missionaries.

And we’re grateful for your prayers, financial support, and friendship.

We're thankful that...

• God's loves us, has saved us, and gives us opportunities to be involved in His work in Japan.
• You're involved in God's work in Japan. We appreciate your friendship, prayers, & financial support.
• Japanese are becoming Christians.
• Kim's students grappled with shalom. 
• The Nov. 3 workshop I led at CAJ resulted in teachers developing Biblical perspective lessons plans (slideshow). Thanks for praying!
• We're safe/healthy and that Caitlin continues to feel good about being at Redeemer University College.

Through coaching, you can empower others to grow. While effective coaching does involve technique, at a deeper level effective coaching is about your heart, about your beliefs, about who you are. Coach from your heart.

When I think of our neighborhood, I think of certain sounds: the cooing of pigeons, the clanking of bike stands, the clickety-clack of trains.

Here's what a garbage truck sounds like (15 seconds):




And here's what an election ad sounds like at 7:00 a.m. It's not a TV ad—because there are no election ads on TV in Japan. Instead, vans with loudspeakers go around broadcasting ads (26 seconds):

Imagine that you are a church planter in Japan. Imagine that you want your church members to think about a current challenge. What can you do? You can use the GROW process. Read More...

Thanks for praying—God is answering your prayers!

• Praise God that 3 of the 4 Japanese adults baptized on Sept. 27 have already shared during the Sunday service about God's work in their lives. Last Sunday Mr. Y said, "I really need Jesus...I would like to live every day accountable before God and keep remembering that every day is God's day."
• Praise God that Kim's students continue to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. On a recent test on Cry, the Beloved Country, one student wrote, "God gives hope to those who have none. Because of the hope, some broken things can become new.”

Read More...

5: # of slideshows & videos I posted online in Sept.

4: # Japanese adults who were baptized on 9/29 at Kurume Bible Fellowship. Before getting baptized, each person shared a testimony. Please pray these 4 Christians will continue to grow in Christ.

3: # of coaching sessions I have next Tuesday with CAJ staff.

2: # of airplanes Kim will take to fly to see Caitlin in Ancaster, Ontario (Oct. 9-15). Please pray for travel safety and a really good visit.

1: # of essays Kim's English 10 students wrote this week. Please pray that Kim's students will continue to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.

Thanks for being involved in God's work in Japan.

The point is not to have goals. The point is to achieve goals. To achieve your goals, take 4 steps: pray, put, take, and reflect.

Want to empower others? Provoke them to reflect. How? By asking open-ended questions.

What happens when you get a hole-in-one in Japan?

Kim, whose 51 English 10 students come from 12 countries, reflects on her introductory unit and what students are learning.
 
The high school chemistry/geometry teacher from Sri Lanka lights up. She sees me as I walk into the teachers’ workroom in my sari and says, “You look just like a real teacher in my country should!” Then she readjusts a few folds I haven’t done quite right. (I’m wearing a sari in recognition of Rabindranath Tagore, the first Indian Nobel Prize winner, whose short story we’re discussing today in English 10.) Read More...

Japan has a population of over 125 million in the land space of California. How crowded is Japan?

Visit a 7-11 to get the feel of what it's like go shopping in a crowded store (16 seconds).

Read More...

Classes start at CAJ in 15 minutes!

• Last week, Kim attended teacher meetings, put up bulletin boards, and planned lessons. I led biblical perspective workshops at CAJ and team building activities in Manila at our mission's EurAsia Team meeting.
• Today, Kim will be teaching English 10, and I'll be helping new staff get off to a good start.

I like summer! I'll bet you do, too.

Japanese like summer. Like North Americans, Japanese eat watermelon. But the watermelons are smaller and round (like the watermelon beach ball I'm holding). And Japanese watermelons are sometimes square—that's right, Japanese watermelons are sometimes square.

To see a square watermelon, watch this 27-second video:


Read More...

Our vision is to equip students to impact the world for Christ and to empower Christian leaders to pursue God’s calling.

Now, imagine. Imagine that…

You’re a Japanese mother. You and your husband became Christians 2 years ago; none of your relatives are Christians. Your daughter Tomoko is 4. You want her to love Jesus. You go to church and Sunday school. You want more Christian influence for Tomoko and for her to think Christianly. You want to send her to a Christian school. We serve at CAJ, which provides a Christian education for over 150 Japanese students. Read More...

During the past 2 weeks, we:

• Shared with supporters/churches about God's work in Japan. We showed a short video of square watermelons!
• Planned some curriculum and worked on some school improvement projects.
• Visited with family—we stayed with my folks/sister and visited aunts/uncles.
• Got Caitlin her Canadian study permit.

Kim, how’s your summer going?
We’re having a good time. So far, we’ve shared with supporters and churches in Georgia, Tennessee, and Michigan. We’ve talked with family and friends. And we made a special cake to celebrate July 4. Read More...

Help your students develop a Christ-centered worldview during class by teaching Biblical perspective lessons and giving Biblical perspective assessments.

Read More...

Michael, what changes have you noticed at CAJ since you started in 1987? The student body has grown from 280 to 460, the curriculum now includes Advanced Placement courses, and buildings (constructed in the 1960s) have been refurbished or replaced. What’s stayed the same is CAJ’s commitment to providing Christ-centered education. Read More...

Our weekly forecst is cool, rainy weather, with sunny progress.

Cool, rainy weather: We've been having unusually cool, rainy weather. Rainy weather poses problems for the many people here who use bikes to get around (slideshow). Today's low is 48, and today's high is only 61. Feels like October. How's your weather/

With sunny progress: 

• Tuesday: I'm looking forward to this afternoon's workshop where CAJ teachers will be discussing "How can you increasingly target Biblical perspective?" Last week, the group discussed "How does your Christian worldview affect your educational practice?"

• Friday: Kim's English 10 students will be writing movie reviews.

As teachers, we ask questions. This strategy doesn't always work, as this video shows.

Here's what's gone well for us:

• Monday: Kim talked with 2 students about books they'd been reading.
  
• Tuesday: I got to facilitate an hour-long discussion about Christian worldview education. Fifteen teachers participated.
  
• Thursday: Kim read an essay in which a non-Christian student reflected on a Christian worldview.

Praise God for providing a band director and a home economics teachers. Ask God to provide a middle school English/social studies teacher.

Thanks for praying for us:

(1) Praise God for  Easter baptisms, including that of Mrs. T at Kurume Christ Church and 3 Japanese at Kurume Bible Fellowship. Read More...

Spring has arrived in Japan—cherry blossoms, good weather, and 6 baptisms on Easter Sunday!

I was deep in the mundane stuff of everyday life—insurance forms, to be precise—when the doorbell rang.

“Congratulations!”

It was the pastor and his wife from the church where I used to teach an English Bible class.

But what were they congratulating me for? Read More...

Here's how ours went:

• Mon: No school!
  
• Tues: Michael attended an all-day meeting of 70+ mission leaders, where he gave a 10-minute presentation on ways to encourage missionaries.
  
• Wed: Kim's students did well on a poetry reading quiz. 
  
• Thurs: Michael submitted a workshop proposal for a Nov. conference in Hong Kong.
  
• Fri: Kim's students listened to Noah Pashapa, a Zimbabwean pastor, speak.

Kim just got done teaching English 10, and now we're off to Starbucks! 

Recent highlights for us include:

• Having one of Kim's CAJ students write on a test that he's grateful he's learning how to apply a Biblical perspective.
  
• Getting snow.
  
• Finding an English web site that gives a local weather forecast.
  
• Publishing a set of Biblical perspective teacher training standards. CAJ adopted them yesterday.

Want to help your students better understand and apply a Biblical perspective? Ask questions!

God calls us to manage ourselves within the time He gives us, not to manage time.

By targeting Biblical perspective, teachers can help student apply a Biblical perspective to what they study.

If you want to achieve your goals, get a coach. Your coach will listen, ask questions, and provide the support, encouragement, and accountability you need to achieve your goals.

Tokyo is on roughly the same latitude as Atlanta. We have 4 seasons, and we rarely get snow. To see the local weather forecast, click here.

CAJ needs teachers, including elementary teachers and secondary teachers (Bible, ESL, science, home economics).

What are 10 reasons to serve at CAJ?

Kim's students are really enjoying their grammar unit.

Yes, you read that statement correctly—Kim's 10th graders really like doing grammar. Might be hard to believe. I mean, we're coming off of Christmas break and grammar wasn't something I particularly liked.

How about you?