December BBQ

So this Wednesday my classmates, teachers and I had a BBQ along a river! James had been planning this since the beginning of the semester so he was pretty excited. He is from California, so he didn't think December was a crazy time to have an outdoor BBQ like all us Midwesterner's did. It was a a little chilly, but really fun.

We ate slowly as things got made from about 3-5. We had hamburgers, steak, salmon, grilled eggplant, grilled lettuce with olive oil and pepper, fried mochi, baked potatoes, miso soup, onigiri (rice balls), senbae (crackers), apples, nikon (like mandarin orange) and more! It took a little while for Eric to get the charcoal going.

Soo...I've been in a squatter toilet, and a porta-potty toilet, but never before now a squatter porta-potty toilet!

It was a really fun relaxing time for our two language classes and two sense's after our classes were out. They taught us about the Japanese food, and we taught them about the American food. Miyazawa Sense kept asking me how you make a hamburger. After that I stopped by tokyo tower on my way home!


And, today Lindsey and I opened up Christmas presents from each other and my family since we are leaving for Nigata tomorrow morning. It was a lot of fun. We put the presents under the cute little tree my parents mailed me!
I didn't open my presents labeled "Stocking" yet, I will bring them so I can open something on Christmas day. Hmm, I wonder what it is?

Have a blessed Christmas everyone!

Christmas Break

I have now completed my first "semester" of Japanese! For our last day of language class on Friday we had a Speech Day. Everyone in our class prepared speeches and presented them memorized to the audience. It was a lot of fun. Here I am by my speech title sign. It says my name on the right side, and song of joy on the left side.

In my speech I talked about my family, what I like to do, Minnesota and I read my confirmation verse in Japanese at the end! People were very impressed and interested in our speeches. I attended a church on Sunday, and the pastor there had been at our speech day wanted me to give my speech again for their congregation! The people who came will know a lot more about Minnesota now because so many of the people in our class are from MN and talked about it in their speeches. Here is everyone who came and was involved. After our speeches I played guitar with another missionary so we could sing some Christmas songs and then we enjoyed some treats.

Here is everyone in our class, plus two boys who are in a more advanced class since they had previously studied Japanese. We have soo much fun together! We are really looking forward to our last day of class in March when we will have a Skit day. The skits are bound to be hilarious.

People here in Japan ask me if I get lonely and homesick. But, I haven't at all. It's so easy to stay in communication now with the internet. And, I get to see wonderful friends every day! They are such a blessing.

This will be my first Christmas away from home which will be strange, but it is sure to still be a joyous time. I actually won't be home here in Kawasaki for it either. I will be in more Northern Japan, in Nigata, where there are currently three other missionaries serving there staying with two different families. I am so excited to see what a Japanese home is like and really put my Japanese to practice! It is colder there so I might even get to see some snow!

Here are some of the other things I've been up to recently:

Friday = Speech Day and Candlelight service at ELCA Hongo Church
Saturday = singing and playing guitar for Candlelight service at LCMS Center Church
Sunday = Ikegami Church, tea shopping with my prayer partner Becky, and a Christmas party at Eric and Christie's house (ELCA mission pastor in our language class)
Monday = Handel's Messiah at Suntory Hall in Roppongi!!
Tuesday (today) = Christmas light ceremony in Takenotsuka with Cassie's junior high english class
Wednesday = BBQ with my classmates and Sense in Hatogaya
Thursday = possibly seeing an art exhibit in Ginza with Buddhist and Christian artists
Friday = going to Nigata on Shinkansen the Bullet Train!

So, don't worry everyone, I am being kept plenty busy and having fun this holiday season. Blessings!

First Sunday in Advent

I love Advent! Today was the first Sunday of Advent, and the first candle was lit. I love light and talking about it in regard to faith (thus my blog name and verse dealing with light). I love evening Advent services where in the still peaceful darkness we focus on the light which shines and the hope of our blessed savior soon to be born. I spent a lot of time today putting up Christmas lights and wanted to share the reason why with you.

Today I went to church at Suginami. After church they always eat a curry lunch together! I wouldn't mind getting to eat curry after every church service! After that Jenae (the VYM missionary there) and I helped Linda, a VYM missionary of long ago who still lives in Japan and teachers, decorate her house for Christmas. It is a tradition for the orientation missionaries to help Linda decorate each year. I hung lights all around her house and on the tree. I also put up garland and a lot of ornaments. She has a whole cabinent full of nativity scenes, nick-nacks all over her shelves, and things hanging all over on her walls. Outside she has a lot of snowflake and colored lights and banners as well. A young member of the church in Suginami who played the organ this Sunday named Aki was also helping so it was really fun to get to know her better. She is studying music and currently writing a 100 page paper!

Christmas is the time Linda chooses to really focus on being a witness. New people every year will come by and get tours of her house and she gets to explain the meaning behind things. Taxi drivers, people jogging by, neighbors and more will stop by. She also has about three parties a week starting now before Christmas for various students, friends and guests! I guess some people have started coming to their church because of it so it's worth her outrageous electric bill she says haha. She had to get her house rewired specially so it would be able to handle all her lights, because Japanese houses cannot usually handle that much electric load! She really loves Christmas and literally lets her light shine! She spends hours and hours baking, decorating, playing Christmas music and cleaning. However, she does not do it to spread holiday cheer, she does it because she wants to spread the gospel message for everyone to hear. Pray that many would be led to the light this year.

Christmas Preparation

A voice of one calling:
"In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD [a] ;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God. [b]
Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken." - Isaiah 40:3-5
This week has involved a lot of Christmas decorating! Last night all the new orientation missionaries worked on decorating the lounge of the LLI (Lutheran Language Institute). Charity is very happy with the pretty tree! We listened to Christmas music while we decorated and enjoyed cookies and cocoa.

I also made some decorations for our house. I used origami paper and a patterns to make the wreath and bells. It was kind of fun to not have anything Christmas with me since it forced me to get creative! We do have some Christmas lights which I strung around our living room today.

There are lots of Christmas decorations all around Tokyo that are really pretty. When I went to Shibuya to see the world's busiest intersection the trees were all wrapped in lights.
It's funny to see the KFC's all have Colonel Sanders outside dressed as Santa. I don't know these two cute Japanese kids in my picture with me, but they were just hanging out by this tree and they seemed interested so I said "Ichi tatsu ichi wa?" which means one plus one is? and they say "ni!" which means two...and that's why everyone here has two fingers up in their pictures! I always thought it was for peace. Its what they do to get people to smile instead of saying cheese! But they will do that too, "Cheezu!".

Christmas is coming so quickly! It will be a really busy time with lots of parties and gatherings here among the VYM community for me. I'm really looking forward to spending some time in more northern Japan up in Nigata right before Christmas. Nigata is the other site there are VYM missionaries so we will get to visit the three that are there. However, we will be staying at Japanese homestays! This means that I will get to see what a traditional Japanese house life is like and see how well I can communicate with my little learned Japanese for four nights with two different families.
May you find time to prepare your heart for Christmas this season among the business of preparing food, decorations and gifts. God's Peace.