January Focus

Happy New Year! :)

You know those times when you think about doing something so often you end up getting confused as to whether or not you actually did it and then you end up thinking that you did? Well, that's what happened with "December Focus"... Sorry!

December was a super crazy month and so we were grateful for less craziness towards the end. Well, it was less craziness in terms of church-ministry but was more craziness in terms of family-ministry as the kids were at home for winter break. We had fun doing stuff together and just relaxing sometimes. It's great that the kids are a little bit older and so they sometimes sleep in till 8:30 or 9am and they can go downstairs, turn on the heater, and play by themselves / read before I follow them downstairs. It was so nice to have a few relaxed, slow mornings!!! It was really nice to be at home with the kids too! :)

Well, the kids started back at kindergarten / daycare today, so I started prepping last week and this morning was still a crazy one! I love my kids but it was nice to have a bit of alone time this morning. :P

Juhee finishes kindergarten in March. Please pray that shewill enjoy her last three months! I can't believe it's been almost three years since she started and she could only say a couple of words in Japanese. And now, she's one of her class's leaders and the teacher often asks her to help the new kids that come in during the year, like the new girl who started today. Pray that fights / bullying will be kept to a minimum and that she'll graduate kindergarten with lots of memories of fun and laughter!

I received a whole bunch of paperwork today that I need to fill in for Sungjae's daycare application. All of it is due by the end of the month. It requires help from other people, so pray that everything will be done smoothly and on time too. There should be no problems in Sungjae continuing at his daycare but just in case, please pray!

Peter starts back at his Friday morning 3-hour Japanese lessons this Friday after their winter break. Pray that he'll be able to build relationships with the people there and that it'll give him the listening & speaking practice he needs to supplement his book-learning at home.

This Friday I'll be teaching English for the babies & toddlers' "Smile Club" in the morning and then my two "Kids Brown" classes in the afternoon. I still need to do a lot of prep for the new book and materials, so pray that I'll becomfortably ready (do you know what I mean?) by Thursday evening.

Peter's preaching on Saturday, 25th during the Asaminami Bilingual Chapel service, so pray for his sermon prep and the interpreter.

During January, I'll be focusing my "English Time" at the four classes I volunteer at at Juhee's preschool, on the song "Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah, praise ye the Lord". It's part of their curriculum for this month. I'll be singing it with them in three languages - Japanese, Korean, and English. I sing the language specific parts and they sing the "hallelu, hallelujah" parts. I did it two years ago and it was a hit. Hopefully it'll be a hit this month too! And hopefully, the kids will remember "hallelujah" and that God is a God of all nations and understands all languages!

This might seem like a bit of a trivial one, but we would appreciate your prayers... There's a Japanese kids' game using a stick and a ball called "kendama". The oldest kids at Juhee's preschool all have kendama lessons every month and will be tested on it next month. Juhee's the only one in her class who can't do it and her parents aren't of much help! Peter's been trying to learn it and he's getting the hang of it, but isn't at a level yet where he can really teach her how to do it. Juhee's classmates are pretty good at it! Pray that Juhee will at least be able to do enough to pass her kendama test next month. :/

Here are some BIG prayer requests for 2014:

1. That we finish our first term well. We are expecting it to finish in March 2015.

2. That we will remain open to following God's leading in terms of where He wants us to be during our next term (2016~2020ish), who we will be partnering with, and what ministry He wants us to be focusing on. This will probably involve traveling, lots of talking with lots of people, and LOTS of prayer so please join us in prayer!

2. That we are able to prepare for our furlough well. In addition to trying to live a normal life here during the next year, taking part in our various ministries, and trying to discern our next steps, we will also be needing to prepare video presentations, ppt presentations, marketing material (magnets, brochures), scheduling with churches / small groups, scheduling with PI HQ, trying to find out where we'll be staying, what we'll be driving, where Juhee will be attending Elementary School and ballet classes (if at all?), where Sungjae will be going to daycare (if at all?), etc, lots of logistics. And this is in Seoul and San Jose as we'll be in Seoul for a couple of months before flying to the US. So much to coordinate... Sigh... Praise God for friends like you who constantly intercede on our behalf! :)