Kim is having fun reading Living the Good Life on God's Good Earth. And this week, I got to help our mission with a survey on strategic planning.

Please continue to pray:

• Thank God for providing energy for me as I developed drafts of 3 teacher training kits.
• Ask God for travel safety as we fly to LA on July 5 to visit supporters and family.

—Michael

Thanks for asking God to help CAJ finish the year well. God answered your prayers:

• On June 4, the Class of 2010 graduated.
• On June 8, students in K-11 finished their last day of classes.
• On June 10, teachers made progress on developing CAJ's curriculum.

Please continue to pray:

• Ask God to help graduating seniors make a smooth transition to college.
• Ask God for energy for Michael as he develops teacher training materials.

Michael & Kim
P.S. Don't forget to watch our 4-minute video, Impact Japan for Jesus.

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

We're glad you're involved in God's work in Japan. Want to visit a Japanese church? If so, check out this slideshow.

Thanks for praying:

• Praise God for travel safety as I drove from TN to MI last week.
• Praise God for travel safety as Kim flew from Japan to the US on April 24.
• Ask God for travel safety as Kim & I fly on April 29 to see supporters in Anchorage.

—Michael
P.S. Don't forget to check out the slideshow of a Japanese church (see sample photo below).

I'm excited about Japanese getting baptized on Easter Sunday, making a video that explains how to help students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, and sharing about God's work in Japan with supporters in OH, TN, and GA.

Please continue to pray:

• Ask God for travel safety next week as I drive from TN to MI.
• Ask God for travel safety as Kim flies from Japan to the US on April 24.
• Praise God that though we are separated, we have good family unity.

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

—Michael

Here's a framework you can you to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.

When I’m in Japan, I enjoy eating rice, sleeping on the floor, and walking along our local river. When I’m in the US, I enjoy eating cinnamon rolls, seeing ministry partners, and going to bookstores.

But wherever I am, I enjoy helping leaders. When I’m in Japan, I enjoy helping CAJ administrators improve CAJ’s program and helping church planting teams further develop ministry plans. And now that I’m in the US, I’m enjoying helping home office staff plan July strategy meetings and helping a CAJ board member (via videoconferencing) revise board policy.

Please continue to pray:

1. Ask God to use me to help leaders grow.
2. Praise God for providing staff for CAJ (technology coordinator and teachers—elementary, English, science).

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

—Michael
P.S. Check out how our mission trains Japanese Christians to lead Bible studies.

Help you students develop a Christ-centered worldview. Ask them questions about creation-fall-redemption-restoration.

The GROW process is a user-friendly process you can use to coach others (Goal • Reality • Options • Will do).  

When coaching, listen, inquire, focus, and encourage.

Christian coaching flows from the heart, from beliefs about empowering others. 

If you want to empower others, use a coaching approach.

Through the training and consulting I do at Christian Academy in Japan (CAJ), I work to help staff more effectively equip students to impact the world for Christ. What makes me smile? Seeing staff grow:
 
I’m smiling. It’s Tuesday morning on a professional day at CAJ. I’m standing outside of Room 203. I’m listening to a 7th grade math teacher animatedly talk about her Biblical perspective lesson with 10 or so CAJ teachers.
 
Her goal? To help these teachers more effectively help their students apply a Biblical perspective to what they study. She explains that in her math lesson, her students discussed and made posters on how God’s creation is orderly and has patterns.
 
The result? Her students connected math formulas with how creation is organized. Her students connected charts and graphs with how creation has patterns. And her students better understood how the organization and patterns of God’s creation help them live and what creation reveals about God.
 
I’m smiling. I’m smiling because she’s doing a good job and because the teachers are responding positively. And I’m smiling because a couple of weeks earlier on a Thursday afternoon in the staff workroom, I had collaborated with her to design her Biblical perspective math lesson.
 
Her math lesson went well, and now she’s helping her fellow teachers!

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).

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.