Monday January 31, 2011
New Year, New Experiences
Dear co-laborer in the Lord,
We are honored to be your partners in the Gospel here in Japan. We hope you will be excited and encouraged by what you see and hear God is doing through us in Japan. May we be faithful in clearly communicating our experiences so that you may be blessed through His story through us.
The picture above shows Juhee's first experience getting her fingernails painted. She was hanging out with the girls, and later came downstairs with nail polish on. Here she is showing us her newly painted nails. We were hoping this wouldn't happen until she was at least ten. Oh well. *sigh* :)
Blessings!
Peter, Jenny, Juhee, and Sungjae Oh
Osechi
On New Years' Eve, Jenny took a small container of kimchi fried rice (김치볶음밥) and a sweet and slightly spicy Korean radish side dish (무생채) as a thank you to our neighbors who gave us radish, spinach and cabbage a couple of weeks after we arrived. As Jenny was chatting with the neighbors, they asked if we'd ever tried "Osechi" (we didn't even know what "Osechi" was!) and when Jenny said no, they asked what time we usually have breakfast. After some discussion between the husband and wife, the husband said that they would bring some over early the next day. It turns out that "Osechi" is traditional Japanese New Years' food. Sure enough, the next morning, on New Year's Day, our neighbors came over together with lots of yummy food (Juhee with plate of food in pic)! Our favorite was the black beans and chestnuts. It even had gold flakes on it! Jenny showed a picture of it to one of our friends, and she said that only rich people put gold flakes on it. Another friend said that the size of the black bean was also a sign of prosperity. Bigger black beans are more expensive. Ours were pretty big! Everything was a bit crazy this year, and we didn't even read up on how they celebrate the New Year in Japan until afterwards. Next year, we'll know better.
Please pray that a good friendship would grow between us and our neighbors, and that opportunities for spiritual conversation would arise.
Read about our New Year's in more detail here. You can see more pictures too!
First Tea Ceremony (well, kind of)
Every Friday, ladies from each church - Koyo Chapel and Kabe Chapel - meet to have their weekly Bible study at their respective churches. On Friday, January 14th, they had their New Years' celebration together at Koyo Chapel and they invited us to attend. There were performances from individual ladies as well as a group performance from the ladies of each church. They ended the celebration by serving all of the attendees traditional Tea Ceremony sweets and tea that was whisked to a froth with bamboo whisks pictured above . It wasn't a "real" Tea Ceremony with all the formalities and rituals, but hopefully we'll be able to experience a real full-blown Tea Ceremony soon.
You can read more about this event and also see pictures of the food, the tea and, as it was a New Years' party, Juhee wearing her hanbok (Korean traditional dress) here.
Teaching English and the Bible
Peter subbed in for Scott's (Team Leader) English classes while he was away at a conference. It's been quite some time since Peter taught English, and was a bit rusty, but the students were all very gracious. All the students are middle-aged women wanting to learn English as a hobby. Some students are members of the Koyo and Kabe Chapels, but most of the students are not. The best part of the English class is that after the English lesson, a Bible story is shared (also in English) from the Read with Me Bible (pictured above). During the last class, Peter shared the story of Elijah challenging the prophets of Baal to determine which god was the one and true God. This story sparked many questions from the non-Christians in the class and a lot of discussion (in Japanese). Peter was very glad one of the students was a member of Koyo Chapel, and was able to answer many questions. However, some questions seemed to be too difficult to answer, and so they were encouraged to ask Pastor Haitaka. Because everyone was participating in the discussion (in Japanese), at one point one student asked another student, "Are you Christian?", to which she replied, "No, are you?", to which the first student replied, "me neither" (all in Japanese). They both seemed to be a little surprised the other wasn't a Christian. This was a great segue in reminding them of an English ladies-only Bible Study that Susan (Team Leader's wife) will be teaching from February. Some of the students seemed very interested in the class. Please pray these students would continue asking questions and seeking truth to know that our God is the one and true God.
Ministry Opportunities for You?!
We are hearing of ministry opportunities through the pipeline and would like to share them with you. They are requests for English teachers to help existing churches in their outreach ministries. One such request comes from a church near Nagoya; they offer housing and help with other expenses for someone willing to come out in October and to stay for one year. There is another, almost identical opportunity for an English teacher in Miyazaki, which is on the east coast of the island of Kyushu . We wanted to let you all know, in case you or someone you know might be interested. Just let us know if you do, and we’ll provide you with the rest of the details.
Pastor Haitaka, pictured above, is pointing at you and asking you to prayerfully consider these ministry opportunities. ;)
More Stories...
We have so much to share with you, but don't want the newsletter to get longer than it already is. Click on the links below to read more about...
Banking in Japan Trying to figure out the best way to get our money here and why we now have more than one bank account.
Playdate with the Kitano kids Juhee had so much fun! :)
Baby Things Learning and getting used to Japanese-y baby things.
Big Snow We've had lots of snow - again!
MaryLou's Visit Our first visit from the US by a friend and a visit to the Hiroshima Castle - double yay!
Kid's Update Our kids are growing so fast.
Prayer Partner Calendar
February Prayer Calendar
We are joyful to have our friends, mostly from Dallas Chinese Bible Church and Binnerri Presbyterian Church support us in prayer this month. As always, our prayer requests are in the left hand column of our newsletter. Even if your name's not here, please continue to pray for us! We covet your prayers. :)
February
1 Amy Hung 15 Yee Fun Olsen
2 Darrell and Leota Buhler 16 Yow-Yi Amstutz
3 David and Eileen Ng 17 Pat Lee
4 Gordon Ngo 18 Richard Lim
5 James Cheng 19 Roger Ginnett
6 Silas and Denise Chan 20 김태중 목사님
7 Stephen Tin 21 Kathleen Wu
8 Joseph Swanson 22 윤미정 자매님
9 Kathy Dees 23 성만군 집사님
10 이영진 집사님, 홍성애 집사님 24 민경열 집사님
11 곽연태 집사님, 이향숙 집사님 25 Jon and Jade Chia
12 한동식 장로님, 한경자 집사님 26 조원호 장로님
13 Jeff and Shari Jongejan 27 Lucy Chang
14 지정인 장로님, 지정란 집사님 28 유정남 집사님
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