Check out our 4-minute video, Impact Japan for Jesus.

Thanks for praying:

• Praise God that we've finished a draft of training materials designed to help teachers use assessment to help students connect God's world and Word.
• Ask God to help CAJ staff and students to finish the school year well. Classes end on June 8, and staff meetings end on June 11.

—Michael & Kim
P.S. Don't forget to watch our 4-minute video.

I’m sitting at my computer. I’m reading my 10th graders’ essays. An American student writes, “The US is not my home because I have barely lived there.”
 
A Japanese student writes, “Growing up in a Japanese society and attending an American school, I was too outspoken for a Japanese but too timid for an American.” And a Korean student writes, “I was an American in school, a Japanese outside of school, and a Korean at home.”
 
How would you feel if you read these essays? My heart goes out to my students. They’re wrestling with who they are and where they belong. How will my American students deal with living in the foreign land of America? How do my Japanese students slip back into using honorific language with their elders at home after being at an American-style school all day?
 
I keep reading, hoping my students will move beyond who they are culturally to whose they are spiritually. And they do! A Korean students writes, “I am the loved one of my God, and therefore I can overcome the cultural problems I face.”
 
An American student writes, “Although I had found my own ways to define myself in a Japanese culture, God was behind all my confidence in being proud of who I was.” And a Japanese student writes, “Knowing that I am precious in the eyes of the Almighty then allows me to serve my neighbors in humility.”

Please keep praying:

• Praise God that Kim’s students are focusing on the security found in belonging to God.
• Praise God for travel safety from MI to OH, TN, GA, IN, IL, and AK.
• Praise God that our family is together again.
• Ask God to help CAJ staff and students to finish the school year well. Classes end on June 8, and staff meetings end on June 11.

Thanks for your prayers, gifts, and friendship.
—Kim

Want to learn more about God’s work in Japan? If so, then check out our 4-minute video!

The Holocaust memoir Night grabs my 10th graders. Maybe because the narrator is their age when he suffers such horrific cruelty. Maybe because it’s real—my students are face to face with the Fall, with how people can degrade one another.

Then they begin to make connections. To the way South Koreans view North Koreans. To the way laughing at another can make them feel better about themselves. To what the Bible teaches about who people are and how we are to treat them. Here are some of their connections:

• “Whether it is in the form of murder, bullying, or stealing, people are being treated with less dignity than they deserve....as Christians, we must honor one another as created in God's image and love both our neighbors and our oppressors.”
• “People always say that they want to make the world a better place, but they think too big or they don’t think at all or say that’s awful and sit and do nothing. But...one specific thing that I can do is to stop criticizing people...and…‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Mark 12.31, Matt. 22.39).”

Please continue to pray:

• Praise God that my English 10 students are applying God's truth to their lives.
• Praise God for providing teachers (band, science) for next year.
• Ask God to provide a full staff for next year. CAJ needs teachers (elementary, English, science) and a technology coordinator.

I've had a good first week in the US. Had helpful mission meetings, enjoyed seeing my folks, got to visit with Caitlin (who was at my folks' house during her school vacation), and saw a lot of snow (don't really get much snow in Tokyo).

Meanwhile, Kim graded her English 10 students' poetry tests. On the test Kim was pleased to see her students connecting class and life, for example: "I like to now go and listen to my favorite songs and catch different musical devices besides rhyming." Wednesday-Friday, Kim's students wrote a paper analyzing favorite song lyrics as poetry and giving a biblical perspective of the lyrics.

Please continue to pray:

• Praise God that Michael had a safe trip to the US on Feb. 11 for a 6-month home assignment.
• Ask God to provide teachers (band, math/science, middle school) and a technology coordinator.

Michael, how did you see God working in 2009? Students at Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ) continued applying a biblical perspective. Our mission’s church plants at Higashi Kawaguchi and Hitachinaka became independent churches. And 8 Japanese were baptized at Kurume Bible Fellowship. Thanks for praying.
 
Kim, what did you and Michael do in 2009? At CAJ in English 10, I taught 105 students from 13 countries. During class, my students reflected on questions like “What’s wrong with the world?” and “Who is my neighbor?” I also served as chair of the English Department and chair of a school improvement group that focused on curriculum.
 
Michael coached CAJ staff and missionaries, trained CAJ staff in how to increase personal productivity and in how to teach from a biblical perspective, and helped CAJ and 2 missions with organizational improvement by providing consulting and web-based resources, including 19 tutorials.
 
What has God been teaching you?

• Kim: Thankfulness for His blessings—family, friends, colleagues, students, and so much more.
• Michael: To pray—particularly for family and for the leaders I help.

Please continue to pray:

• Ask God to help us prepare effectively for home assignment.
• Ask God for a full staff for next year. CAJ needs a technology coordinator and teachers (band, elementary, 8th grade, and home ec).

Listen as Michael shares. Or keep reading:

We celebrated New Year's with Caitlin (she's now back in Canada at college). And our first week back to school at CAJ went pretty well—Kim's English 10 students studied grammar, and Michael focused on school improvement. How did your first full week of 2010 go?

We've been working on our home assignment. We're looking forward to being in the US to share about how God is at work in Japan. And we'll be in the US both earlier and longer than we had anticipated. We were planning be in the US in the summer. But we need to comply with the US/Japan social security regulations, so...

1. Michael will be in the US February 11 - August 14.
2. Kim will continue teaching at CAJ, visit me for 2 weeks in March, and then return to Japan to teach through April 23. 
3. On April 24, Kim and Anneke will fly to the US to join Michael. Anneke will finish out her CAJ year through independent study. 
4. And about a week later, Caitlin will finish college and join us. It'll be good to be together as a family.

Please continue to pray:

• Praise God that we already have our tickets to the US and housing for home assignment.
• Praise God for good family time with Caitlin.
• Ask God to provide staff for next year. CAJ needs teachers (band, home ec, elementary, and 8th grade) and a technology coordinator.

We're grateful for your prayers, gifts, and friendship.

Help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Ask open-ended questions.

We're looking forward to celebrating Christ's birth, having Caitlin back from college, being together as a family, and eating Christmas pudding! Next week, Kim's students will be giving presentations. I'll be learning about a new standardized test that CAJ might give. What are you doing next week?

Please keep praying:

1. Praise God that we continue to have good health.
2. Ask God for good family time with Caitlin.
3. Ask God to draw Japanese non-Christians to Himself through the Christmas-related events CAJ parents are doing.
4. Ask God to provide staff for next year. CAJ needs teachers (band, home ec, elementary) and a technology coordinator.

We're grateful for your prayers, gifts, and friendship.

It’s 8:20 on a Thursday morning, 10 minutes before class begins. Four 10th graders (an Indian, a Japanese, a Korean, and an American) are talking loudly. So loudly that I’m getting distracted from writing my lesson outline on the board. They are discussing (in Japanese) how to say “9:45 a.m.” (in Spanish). There must be a Spanish test today....
 
I love seeing these diverse students working together. It reminds me that God calls us to have right relationships with Him, others, ourselves, and creation.

Such “right” relationships, of course, don’t always happen. For example, my students sometimes fragment into groups based on language (English, Japanese, or Korean). To encourage my students to value and to have “right” relationships, I had them read Cry, the Beloved Country and focus on God’s peace (shalom). Here’s what they learned:

1. “From now on, I will be quick to forgive....”
2. “In Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country there are characters from all walks of life—rich, poor, important, and unknown. However, they each do what is in their power to help restore the brokenness around them, and this is a powerful message for us today.”
3. “Each person’s actions lay a brick in the bridge we’re trying to build, the bridge we call shalom.”
4. “God is the ultimate source of shalom and without Him, nothing can be restored.... Jesus was crucified…to restore shalom, and He is the first Restorer. After He ascended to heaven, who was going to carry on His mission to restore shalom?…Christians.”

Please pray with me that my students will apply what they learned about peace (shalom) to their relationships.

Thanks for praying about last week's 10th grade leadership camp! Students learned about leadership, cooked outdoors, enjoyed hiking near Mt. Fuji, and stayed safe from the typhoon! 

Praise God that several Japanese women were baptized last Saturday. One shared, "From now on I want to learn more about Jesus' teachings, and worship Him, and follow Him."

Praise God that Kim's students are responding to the questions Kim asks. Here's how 1 student responded to a short-answer test question, "What is the Cultural Mandate?": "The Cultural Mandate says, 'Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it.' We are to develop the social world (schools, governments, families, law, etc.) and use what we can from God’s creation to create culture and civilization."

Praise God that Hitachinaka, a church started by our mission, will go independent on Monday, October 12. 

Ask God to help the 10th graders grow as leaders. During their upcoming leadership unit that Michael helped design, the 10th graders will focus on 4 key questions: How can you be an effective servant leader? What do you learn about God through studying His creation? What is wrong with the world? How can you make a difference?

Reflection is powerful. Reflection helps students to understand concepts, plan projects, and apply a Biblical perspective. Reflection helps teachers to develop curriculum, engage students in learning, and apply what they learned during a Biblical perspective workshop.
 
If you worked at a Christian school, how would you provoke reflection? You could give suggestions. Suggestions provoke reflection, provided they fit the situation and the person is willing to receive them. I appreciate suggestions I receive, but I must admit that sometimes the suggestions don’t fit my situation and sometimes I’m not prepared to receive them. How about you?
 
Instead of giving suggestions, what can you do to provoke reflection? Ask questions. Why ask questions? Because questions are more likely to fit the situation. Because students and teachers are more willing to respond to questions than to suggestions. And because responding to questions involves reflection.
 
What questions do we ask CAJ students and staff? In English 10, Kim asks: Who am I? Who is my neighbor? What’s wrong with the world? What’s the significance of words?
 
When we train CAJ staff, we ask: How can you help students to think effectively? How can you help students to read better? How can you help your students to understand creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
 
When I coach CAJ staff, I ask: What does being organized look like? What helps you pay attention to your goals? What do you want to accomplish in the next month? What excites/frustrates you about your strengths?
 
Provoke reflection. Ask 1 person a good question. Today.


Thanks for praying:

1. Praise God that M, a CAJ graduate and Kim’s former student, was baptized on August 23.
2. Praise God that new staff and students have made a good transition to Japan/CAJ.
3. Ask God to help us ask questions that help CAJ students learn and CAJ staff be productive.
4. Ask God to give us the health and energy we need to serve effectively at CAJ.

Christian Academy in Japan is off to a good start this school–thanks for praying.
Kim's 54 English 10 students grappled with how an author's perspective impacts what she writes. Michael helped teachers identify the technology they need to help kids learn. We celebrated the completion of the first week of school by going out to eat.

Caitlin's had a safe flight to Toronto—thanks for praying.
Due to a typhoon on Monday, Caitlin's flight was cancelled. So, she flew on Tuesday. Since then, Caitlin's been getting ready to serve as a resident assistant. She starts classes next Wednesday, is majoring in social work, and brought back some very cool erasers to show her friends. We had good family time with her this summer, already miss her, and are looking forward to seeing her at Christmas.

Please keep praying:

• Praise God for a good start to school at Christian Academy in Japan.
• Praise God that Caitlin had a safe flight to Toronto.
• Ask God that we'd be healthy and have the energy we need to serve.

We enjoyed being together as a family, eating watermelon popsicles, going to the beach, reading a lot of books, and preparing for this school year.

What are we doing this school year?
We’re supporting the spread the Gospel by serving at Christian Academy in Japan, a K-12 school for missionary kids. Kim teaches English 10, serves as English Dept. chair, and trains teachers to help students read more effectively. Michael coordinates school improvement, trains teachers to help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, and coaches CAJ staff & missionaries.

How can you pray for us?

1. Praise God for smooth staff transition for CAJ's new staff members.
2. Ask God for a good first day of classes at CAJ. Classes begin on Wed., August 26.
3. Praise God for good family time with Caitlin.
4. Ask God for a safe trip/smooth transition back to college for Caitlin. Caitlin flies to Toronto on Mon., August 31.

What have you been doing this summer? We we've been staying cool by eating ice cream and sampling green, shiso-flavored  Pepsi (slideshow). Kim's been working on lesson plans for English 10, and Michael posted an online tutorial for CAJ teachers on making effective Biblical perspective assignments.

Thanks for praying!

1. Ask God to help Kim effectively revise her English 10 curriculum. She's working to further emphasize creation-fall-redemption.
2. Ask God to help members of a house church network to apply their July 25 training on sharing the Gospel. (Michael helped plan the training.)
3. Ask God to help new CAJ staff and students make a smooth transition to Japan/CAJ.

Help your students connect God's world, God's Word, and their lives.

On Father's Day, Cailtin and Anneke gave Michael 2 pet beetles named Mike and Bob.

• Tuesday, Michael made a 1-minute video entitled "To Close the Gap, Do 4 Things."
• Wednesday, we prepared our milk cartons for recycling.
• And on Saturday, Kim is playing in the 2nd round of the national volleyball tournament for neighborhood teams. There are 9 players on each side.

Please keep praying:

• Praise God that Kim's summer school students got better at writing persuasive essays. Thanks for praying!
• Praise God that Michael was able to help a missionary develop a workshop for a network of house church leaders. The missionary is doing the workshop on Saturday.
• Ask God to help new CAJ staff to make a smooth transition to Japan/CAJ.

Use assessment to help your students value and get proficient at connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches.

Michael, what are you feeling encouraged about?
I’m encouraged that staff members at Christian Academy in Japan are reporting that my coaching helps. A school principal told me that my coaching helped her clarify her thinking, test her ideas, and get the confidence she needed to try new things.
 
And I’m encouraged that teachers are continuing to apply the Biblical perspective training I provided in the fall. They are identifying Biblical principles they want their students to learn, documenting those principles in the curriculum, and helping students learn them.
 
Kim, what are you encouraged about?
My English 10 students wrote essays on who they are spiritually, culturally, and personally. I was encouraged by the results:

• “Being a student at Christian Academy in Japan has transformed me spiritually. Although my family is not Christian, being in a Christian environment has led me to become a Christian.”
•  “I thank God for His allowing me to live overseas; I see it as a blessing. I think it was His plan all along to reduce the shyness in me by thrusting me out into the unknown so many times.”
• “As a human, I am a reflection of God and therefore have value (Gen. 1.27, Matt. 10.31). As a Christian, I am a child of God (Eph. 5.1). These truths are liberating because they mean that I do not need to focus on obtaining value and love—I already have them.”

Michael, what can we pray about?

1. Ask God to help us finish the school year well. Classes end on June 5, and meetings end on June 12.
2. Ask God for good family time. Caitlin is back from college, and we’ll be together until August 31. 

We're doing well:

• Caitlin is home from college.
• Kim's English 10 students (including Anneke) are enjoying Shakespeare.
• No school on Monday & Tuesday (national holidays).

How can you pray?

• Praise God that Kim's students wrote effective essays on who they are spiritually.
• Ask God to provide teachers for next year (secondary science & math, elementary ESL).

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

What did Kim's students learn during the poetry unit?

• “God values poetry….the Bible is full of poetry...that uses a lot of parallelism.”—Korean student
• “Poetry is an important part of many cultures.”—Japanese student
• “Poetry can evoke unwanted and possibly harmful emotions.”—American student

How are participants in Michael's 2/27 workshop applying what they learned?

• “I am starting to reevaluate the things I am doing to see if they fit with my God-given mission.”
• “Today made me think about how to relate my day-to-day activities with God’s calling.”

Thanks for praying!

• Praise God that Mari will be baptized at a mission post on April 5.
• Praise God that the March 2-3 accreditation visit went well. The visiting team was pleased with CAJ's progress.
• Praise God for providing teachers for next year (Bible, learning resource center). Ask God to provide teachers for next year (secondary science and math; elementary classroom and ESL).

Here's lesson model that uses best practice to point students to God.

As I look out at my class, I see a roomful of kids whom I hope will understand how the Bible connects with every area of life, including the literature they read and the deep human questions the authors talk about. On my last test, I saw this happening.
 
Here are sample student answers to the final question on my English 10 short story test: What else did you learn this unit that you did not have a chance to show on the test?

• “Both Christianity and existentialism believe that people have the desire to find meaning. In Christianity, we find the true meaning in God and find joy, but in existentialism, people find their own meaning and find joy in that process. I thought it was sad that not all the people have hope and that not all people can feel true joy.”
• “I learned from Leo Tolstoy’s ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need?’ that if we are selfish and greedy, it might seem like you’re ‘living the life’ at the moment, but in the end you’ll lose everything (the important things) you have.”
• “I learned a lot about decision-making and finding my place here. We all get left out and feel like an outsider, but I know that I still belong to God.”
• “I learned that just like ‘The Guest’ we all have to make decisions between two things. I learned that I have to pray to God before choosing the decision by myself because without God’s power, we are all weak and cannot make a decision we won’t regret.”

Thanks for praying:

• Praise God that Kim’s English 10 students continue to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.
• Praise God that we’ve been healthy all through cold/flu season.
• Ask God to help the 24 participants in Michael’s 2/27 workshop use their learning to serve well.
• Ask God for a full staff for next year. CAJ needs teachers (secondary Bible, science, and learning resource center).

Ours went well:

• Mon-Tues: School vacation! We spent time with our mission.
• Wed: Michael worked at CAJ on curriculum and with a mission on strategic planning.
• Thurs: Kim's students studied Hebrew poetry.
• Fri: We had rainy weather.

We're grateful for your prayer support:

• Praise God that Michael's Feb. 18 work with a mission on strategic planning went well.
• Ask God to use Michael's 2/27 productivity workshop at CAJ to help the 27 participants to serve more effectively.
• Ask God to provide teachers CAJ needs for next year (science, learning resource center).

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

Here's what's going well for us:

• Kim is excited that a student wrote, "Christians know that we will face death at some point, but we should be honored to live such a life God has given us. Life has worth because we are made in the image of God."
• Michael developed 3 sets of questions CAJ teachers can use to deepen their understanding of Christian education (course, subject, and creation-fall-redemption-restoration).

Please keep praying:

• Praise God that we've been healthy all through cold/flu season. Please keep praying.
• Ask God to provide the teachers CAJ needs for next school year (science, learning resource center).
• Praise God that CAJ teachers are applying the 18 hours of Biblical perspective training Michael provided. As a result, CAJ students are better connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches. 

We're grateful for you prayers, financial support, and friendship.

Here's what a student wrote about Kim's English 10 class:

"One class that helps me think like a Christian is English class. We have a lot of group assignments. When we give out ideas people around me give opinions from a Christian prospective. Just from that, I learn something about Christianity. Also, we always pray in English since it's my first period in school."

Thanks for praying!

• Though it's cold/flu season, we've been healthy. Please keep praying.
• Kim's English 10 students did well in grammar.
• Michael’s strategic planning work for CAJ and 2 missions is going well.

Kim, how did you see God working in 2008?
Japanese were baptized, including 7 adults at Kurume Bible Fellowship and Mrs. Tanzawa (Kim’s former English conversation class student). Our mission post at Higashi Kawaguchi continued moving toward independence (scheduled for this spring). And CAJ students continued applying a biblical perspective. Thanks for praying.
 
Michael, what did you and Kim do in 2008?
I provided biblical perspective training for teachers at CAJ, coached over 20 CAJ staff and other missionaries, helped 2 missions with strategic planning, facilitated a network of cell church planters, and published articles in Christian School Teacher and Japan Harvest.
 
Kim helped her English 10 students connect the literature they studied and what the Bible teaches, further developed her curriculum, served as English Department chair, and led a CAJ teacher workshop on reading strategies.
 
What has God been teaching you?
Kim: To trust Him with my kids’ lives—especially Caitlin’s, as she has gone off to college. Caitlin’s just as much in God’s hands when she is far away from me in Canada as she was when she was near me in Japan.
 
Michael: To be patient—at times I want God to work faster, and I’m learning that God’s timing is perfect.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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...

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

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

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

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

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?

I’m in the Japan Alps, supervising CAJ 10th graders during leadership training. I’m sitting in a circle with my group of eleven 10th graders, talking about the experiences of the day. Read More...