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).

George Young is a fellow missionary who has served on the board of Christian Academy in Japan. In this video, he shares his ministry.

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.

Here’s a fascinating video by InterVarstiy on the state of Christianity around the world.

Do you want to reduce your frustrations so you can get on with what God's calling you to do? If so, reflecting on these 5 questions can help.  

Your fellow teachers want to help their students better connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. You can help your fellow teachers by asking questions to DRAW them out.  

We're praising God for the good turnout at the Wednesday night Christmas candlelight service of a church that meets at CAJ. Quite a few newcomers attended and heard the good news of Jesus Christ. Thanks for praying! 

Japanese need the good new of Jesus at Christmas. They don't understand the real celebration. They focus on New Year's, when millions and millions of Japanese go to the temple.

Thanks for praying:

• Ask God to draw Japanese non-Christians to Himself through the special events CAJ parents are doing.
• Praise God that Caitlin arrived safely and that we're having good family time.
• Ask God to provide staff for next year. CAJ needs teachers (band, home ec, and elementary) and a technology coordinator.

Merry Christmas! And thanks for being involved in God's work in Japan!

Organizational improvement can help you, those you work with, and your organization. Take steps to move organizational improvement forward.

When I think of improving my coaching, 3 areas come to mind. Those 3 areas are beliefs, skills, and process. 

If you want to get more done in less time at work, think about how you can manage yourself more effectively at work.

Before getting organized, make sure you're clear on what being organized means and how being organized can help you more effectively carry out your mission. 

Take steps to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Get started today.

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.

I tried it. To see the results of my taste test, click here.

Thankfully, my work at Christian Academy in Japan has been going much better than bean-flavored Pepsi tastes. I designed an online school improvement survey that students, parents, and staff took. And I've been preparing for 3 teacher workshops for Nov. 3. The workshops deal with helping students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches and with using assessment results to modify instruction. 

Please pray that as a result of participating in these workshops teachers will be able to more effectively help students learn.

We're grateful for your prayers, financial support, & friendship.

Michael
P.S. Don't forget to see the results of the Pepsi taste test.

How faithfully and effectively do you use your God-given strengths?

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! 

Leaders who are focused on their mission do 5 things. To what extent do you do these 5 things?

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.