October events

The sign outside the church - we can read one word - Warren.

Warren was asked to preach on 21st with the pastor interpreting. They did an excellent job between them even though the pastor said he felt like he was an interrupter rather than an interpreter.

Warren spoke from Isaiah 53 where the Bible describes what was prophesied about the Father's purpose in sending Jesus, and what His life and death accomplished for us weak sinful humans.

The Japanese people love visual aids and this one seemed to get a good Bible message across. Warren had two CD's, one in each hand. One hand represented Jesus and the other represented Warren. The label on the CDs were 'the perfect life of Jesus' and the 'life and works of Warren Myers'. He showed what Jesus did in taking all our sins on Himself and giving us His perfect righteousness, so that God now sees us in His righteousness.

Notice the first three rows are occupied by the children sitting at low tables. their Sunday School teachers give them work to do during church. They love to do writing.

On this past Saturday Jan was asked to speak at the Soai Kids Club which is held each Saturday from 9.30 - 11.30. English games were also featured on that day. Hama sensei interpreted for me as I showed pictures of Australian animals and talked about how wonderful God's creation is.

This was a race bewteen 4 teams to pick out alphabet letters and put them in order.

The children are very competitive and enjoy games.

Our next excitement will be the arrival of Ian and Pam Peters from Brisbane who are coming to visit and sightsee. We look forward to our first visitors.

I really did it this time!

We were visiting the kindergarten sports day. Some of our students were performing.

Then, there was the race for grandparents. We were encouraged to participate. We had to roll the big ball and compete against another team. All went well until at the finish line we were all given a small bottle containg yellow liquid as a thank you for participating. I made the false assumption that it was a drink - it looked like lipton's iced tea - and took a big swig.

Oh-Agghhh!!!! In front of all those people and with no place to hide...I had swallowed dishwashing detergent.

After this photo I went to clean my mouth out and ended up having to leave as I was ready to spew. My throat burned all the way down. I was quite ill. We went home and I nursed my sore throat and irritated stomach. What a fool I felt.

The next day at church, they read the label to us. It said, if ingested, drink plenty of water and go straight to the hospital. Well - I hadn't done that and it took a few days to recover.

English class at our home

Today we had our Wednesday morning English class visit our home. As you can see we enjoyed a delicious 'pot-luck' lunch together.

Some was even cooked fresh at the table.

We had a great time visiting with each other.

An enlightening visit to Nagoya

We were privileged to take a trip with Pastor Hirakoshi and his wife Hama sensei to visit the head of the Nagoya MTW team in their home. We learnt through the medium of English what some of our pastor's visions are for the future of our Soai Christian Church.

Our Pastor is in the process of seeking to procure land in Uchiyama for a new church building which will also be the site of a 'creation museum'. At the moment we are meeting on rented land ina demountable buildings. Our pastor works closely with the 'Answers in Genesis' group headed up by Ken Ham. Our Pastor is sharing this with Wayne and Amy Newsome. When Wayne first came to Japan he worked with Pastor Horikoshi at Yokkaichi church as an English teacher.

We had luch together and it was a special time for all of us as we shared what God is doing in Japan.

We meet Mary Bell who comes from Anderson South Carolina. She is a friend of Gene and Gini and also John and Sue. We have enjoyed meeting up with her for lunch in Sakoe, the shopping area of Nagoya.

Warren has the privilege of tutoring three young men for 3 hours each week. They are planning to go to College in the U.S for one year. They want to improve their English sufficiently to be able to communicate the Christian message and, in particular be able to share the significance of our God being the Creator of this world. They would like to return to Japan and help in the establishment of the 'creation museum'.

Autumn has arrived

This past week was a birthday week back at home. Happy birthday to both Chris and Jo and grandson Clay who turned 7.

Our favourite game for this past week has been hangman. From adults down to the 6 yr olds we are enjoying the guessing game. Some hold back from guessing as they can't bear the thought of picking a letter tham may not be in the word. there are lots of ooh's and ahhhs as the word unfolds.

The weather today is beautifully clear. The mountains look very inviting. The tea plantations are being harvested near our house. We need to wear our jackets at night. There are some trees in flower which give off a jasmine-like scent. I think it may also be hay fever season!

We are just finishing another week of teaching. There is good rapport building between our students and the church environs. There is also a growing understanding on our part, of how best to help our students speak and understand good English. Idioms are a mystery to them and to us when we try to explain them. Each day there is some encouragement to us of God's love and sustenance.

We have been excited to see the low airfares advertised by Jetstar from Brisbane to Nagoya. I hope this will encourage some of our friends to make the trip over here. You would truly have a Japanese experience.