Christmas, monkeys and Bec have arrived

Bec was put to work after one day's rest. Here she is listening to the Bible talk with the elementary students.

Kindergarten would not be complete without some action songs - today was left and right - so!!! what better than 'hokey pokey'.

and in and do the hokey pokey - the kids laughed and laughed!

It's all good fun. This class has 6 boys and one girl. Bec's help was much appreciated.

Sumisan is translating the Christmas story. She is our landlady - a very gracious friend.

Now, to Christmas Sunday service. We had a visit from the mayor of Yokkaichi with his wife.No - this is not the mayor - this is our pastor acting in the sunday school play - he is a grandfather - love the hairstyle.

A couple of colourful visitors to our children's thanksgiving festival held in November.

Where do the monkeys come in? We were warned that the monkeys were around. Keep your door closed and don't approach any monkeys. Well on Christmas sunday morning we were getting ready for church and listening to our CCC sermon for the day when we heard a gunshot and almost immediately saw a monkey right outside our upstairs office window. He was moving very quickly as our neighbour was on his trail. Apparently there were four monkeys sitting on our fence happily eating persimmons off our tree when the neighbour spied them and gave chase. The monkeys have been eating the farmers' vegetables and so they are not a welcome sight. We enjoyed the experience though.

Pastor Teruo Takakuwa preached an excellent Christmas message - showing the earthly geneology of Jesus showing the typical faults in many of his families as well as ours. He finished by showing the mercy and kindness of Jesus. We are blessed because of Jesus - not the merits or demerits of our family.

This is our encouragement and reminder to all who read this. Jesus is our only hope for this life and the next.