Kabe Chapel's Christmas Party

Koyo Chapel had their Christmas Party on the 19th (I forgot our camera) and Kabe Chapel had theirs on the 26th. Kabe's was actually called "Christmas and giving-thanks-for-the-year Party". The two churches stagger their events whenever possible so that we can attend both events.

Koyo Chapel is about twice the size of Kabe Chapel with approx 100 and approx 50 members respectively. As with Koyo Chapel's Christmas Party, Kabe Chapel's also was plentiful in food and entertainment! Here are a few highlights...


















The food was amazing! The two Christmas Parties were both potluck style and have been the best opportunities for us so far to taste a variety of homemade Japanese food. There were also a few Western dishes like meatballs, potato wedges and I guess a Japanese take on a Western dish - mac & cheese in a bowl of lettuce garnish with slices of boiled egg on top. It wasn't really a macaroni salad... Anyway, Juhee loved it! :) I also discovered an Asian radish side-dish that I love and am going to try to make. Too bad Peter doesn't like it...


The entertainment included Ogawa-san singing with his wife playing the piano, a skit performed by us and the Murrays together, a skit by the Yamaguchi family (very impressive!), a game where 3 teams had to guess the order of the train stations from Hiroshima to Tokyo (!!!), a 6 year old girl twirling a hula-hoop around her waist more than 200 times, a group of young adults singing / playing guitar / playing piano to "You Are My All in All" in English and Japanese, and a reading of a book by Pastor Kitano's 3 kids amongst others.

Let me tell you. In Japan, reading stories out loud is definitely an art form. I knew this already, but I've had the opportunity to listen to stories here a few times already and each time, the intensity and skill of the reader and the attentiveness of the listeners just really blows me away. Even Rise-chan (pronounced "lee-seh", girl in black dress in pics), Pastor Kitano's youngest who is only 5, was amazing reading her parts in the book she read with her two brothers.

Sungjae slept through some of it, Juhee loved all of it, and everyone poured out their love on Juhee and Sungjae. It was Kabe Chapel's biggest Christmas Party ever, a great time of fellowship, an eye-opener for us in terms of getting a better understanding of the church 'culture' (Kabe is more informal than Koyo) at Kabe and the hidden talents of the church members. I'm looking forward to next year's Christmas Parties! :)