december 4th: everything's fine after the quake(s)!

The assistant teacher and I got all the kiddos under the tables for a couple of minutes during lunch, but besides being a little startled, we are just fine! Nothing fell off the shelves at all. We just had our earthquake safety drill last week, so kids were all in place in record time. :)

morioka and hachinohe

Sasha, Akiko, Yuko and I took the bus up to Morioka last month. We met Yoko and Rieko there and spent time catching up and visiting a few places on Saturday. The craft village we went to was really interesting! Yoko is also a kindergarten teacher, and I loved hearing the funny stories she she tells about the kids in her class. On Sunday, we drove up together to worship in Hachinohe. It was really good to see Chieko, Masayo (who is thinking seriously about following Jesus) and the rest of the family. We were really encouraged by our time there!

By the way...I've never seen anything as beautiful as Japan in the fall!

Please keep Yuko (second from left) in your prayers. She's getting ready to go to Canada for a year! Please pray that her job search is fruitful and that she can connect with lots of loving people in Toronto. Love you,

happy halloween!

We had a great time! We spent the morning doing fun things like costume show-and-tell, jack-o-lanterns, and frosting fall cupcakes as a class. In the afternoon, we invited another 10 or so friends in for the party, complete with a "monster mash" dance contest at the end! Yes, I know, you wish you were in my class, too. Be sure to notice Sasha in the background, wearing her hand-made jack-o-lantern shirt! She was awesome! She helped me make cupcakes the night before and helped with the party big time! Thanks, roomie!


We had a costume parade in the outdoor mall across the street from our building. Some of the kids' moms met us with trick-or-treat candy. Yatta!


Luke...I am your father...and I'm only four...

give me your walls

I'm doing the bigger-room-happy-dance at work every day!!! WE LOVE IT! We have so much room to spread out! It's an amazing coincidence, but the kids all seem to get along a little better and injure themselves less often now. It's amazing...


We said "goodbye" to our old wall by drawing like crazy all over it! It was really fun! I said it over and over again as we were coloring, but I just had to make sure, "Now, we are drawing on our wall at school because it is getting knocked down...but does this mean you should draw on the walls at your house?" "No, Miss Debi..." :) Funny how it's more fun to color on something we're usually not allowed to!


This is a picture of us making caramel (and peanut butter and chocolate) apples for cooking day. I'm standing right behind this focused little guy, but you can tell that the room got bigger in the background. The wall used to be right where Snoopy and the microwave are.

caramel apples

I led the womens Bible study at Sendai Minami church this month. Since the five of us that attended all have a pretty good relationship with each other, we were able to have a objective and open conversation about Jesus' power over the storm at sea. Our small group meditated reflected on God's purpose for us in times of fear or struggle. Why is it that the disciples were shocked at Jesus' lack of reaction to the possible destruction of the boat, but didn't look to Jesus for deliverance? Is our reaction to hardship similar to that of the disciples at times? Yumiko, a seeker who also comes to the weekly Starbucks study, was kind of quiet and thoughtful most of the time. She said that from what she's read about Jesus so far, he's a "great man that comes [through] no matter what happens."



After the study, we made caramel apples! We all tried as hard as we could, but none of us finished the entire thing. Next year, mata ganbarimasu!

random fall happennings

We met a new friend, Audrey, who lives near Ishinomaki (east of Sendai and about an hour away). She's great! She arrived in Japan about three months ago and loves her job teaching English. There are lots of opportinities for her to build relationships with Japanese people there, seeing as she is the only foreigner in her town! Audrey has come to Sendai to worship with us a couple of times and has plans to attend a young adult retreat with us in Ibaraki in a couple of weeks.


We missed you, Haruna (blue shirt)! A few weeks ago, we got to celebrate the visit of a good friend and former cell-grouper who has plans to move from Hiroshima to Africa very soon! Her plans are to teach science and math to children in schools there. Please pray for her safe travel and rewarding experience, that God will continue to reveal to her His glory!



Happy birthday, Ken, Tsubo and Yuko! We had a barbecue in our back yard to celebrate our dear friends with September birthdays. Love you guys!

where I work

My 26th Birthday Party

I think that if word got out about what an amazing job I get to have, there would be a long line of people waiting to grab it up. I don't know why I get to be so blessed, but I'm thankful!!! I work at an international kindergarten. It's a small class with only ten children, but we have a recently renovated room and hopes of having lots of new students join. The class is part of the Abroad Language Center in downtown Sendai.

Singing 'Father Abraham' (in Swedish for Culture Day)

I teach 3,4,5, and 6-year-old students. They are all really close friends and we always have a lot of fun together. They learn English using English and the progress is so rapid that I can hardly keep up with them!

Their spoken English is sounding more and more natural everyday! The other day, one boy in my class decided he was going to set up his own little restaurant at the kitchen center. He was meticulous; making sure the place settings all had the same spacing. Upon announcing to the rest of the class that his restaurant had opened, he promptly welcomed his first guest, another boy of the same age. With one swift movement, the second boy swept all the dishes off the table and onto the floor with his arm. After a brief pause, Restaurant Boy looked up at the second boy from the heap of brightly-colored plastic dishes and yelled, "Get oudda here!" I was really impressed that he new the right timing for that phrase!

Recent Ad Photo

As much as I can, I try to make the class feel like a kindergarten class you would find in Japan, keeping the same standards and preparing the kids for first grade in Japanese schools, while also taking as much as I can from what I learned about kindergarten methods when I was student teaching and working as a substitute teacher in elementary schools. Our daily schedule includes morning routine, language exploration (vocabulary and phonics), writing, math, music, physical activity, read-alouds and centers time.

Playing at the Park

It's a different setting than that of my training, the biggest difference, of course, being that I am teaching in Japan. Also, we are downtown in a city of a million, so walking to the park means descending from our 6th floor office building location and being on guard walking the crowded sidewalks next to busy streets. It would be great to have a building with a playground! A recent change in administration has brought about lots of changes for our little class; an actual (busy) event calendar, a bigger room, and LOTS more resources! The long-term plan is to find a facility that will allow our little ones more room to run like the wind. I might be witnessing the beginning of an international elementary school if all goes as planned. I'm excited!

Show and Tell

I love these children! It's such a pleasure to get to watch them grow.

Visit to Takayama ("Tall Mountain")

Sasha and I are blessed to be a part of a monthly womens Bible study hosted by a church in south Sendai. Our recently-married friend Emiko, who is also our former roommate, is member at this church and usually organizes the study. It was held at Takayama this time, a small camp in Shichigahama near the ocean.

We talked about Abraham's interaction with God through prayer about Sodom and Gomorrah, how Abraham's understanding of God was shaped and how God showed His compassion through the exchange. It was really good to discuss our reactions, insights and realizations in the group of seven. It was also a really supportive atmosphere in which to practice this kind of discussion in Japanese. They really want to help us improve!

After the study, a few more friends joined us for a barbeque lunch. A Saturday well spent!

For those wondering, I do plan to post about my travels to Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia soon! Now I really know what Joel meant when he would return to Japan from a trip like that and say, "I'm still processing..."

I'm baaaaaaack!

And hello again!

I'm sorry for the nearly year-long hiatus! Allow me to catch you up on what's going on here.

Kindergarten: The past year has been a transition to say the least! I can't believe I'm on the other side of a year of teaching! My first year at that! It was a lot more than I expected, in more ways than one. It takes more time than I thought to be all-the-way prepared for ten kindergartners to walk in the door in the morning! Blessing: I'm MUCH better at it now than I was when I started! I have a new appreciation for professionals working with this age group because I've gotten to see what a huge responsibility it is. Thank you, Lord, for equipping me. Another blessing: I never knew I could have so much love for these children! I love these kids so much that I can't help but smile at them all day long! They are my best friends. I'll post some pictures in a future entry.


Sasha: She's been doing a great job this year, helping with Cell group, having her own individual Bible studies, having a leadership role with the summer LST project and being involved in the other bible studies and activities we attend. She is now starting to organize her next term of individual classes and brainstorming ideas for a group class. Please follow the link to her blog to read more. :) Thank you, Lord, for guiding Sasha and using her for your good work.

The June/July Flurry of Activity (and visitors!): We were blessed to have Cami, Jason and Andrew from York College as the 6-week summer LST team. They did a great job relating well to their readers and running the weekly parties. We were blessed to have many visitors around the church during the summer term: Crimsen, who came for two months; The Strakers, who came to visit for almost two weeks; and the Friendscamp team from Texas that was with us for about a week. Also, our roommate, Emiko, got married in June, so we hosted three of her Australian friends at the house for a few days. It was a real good time, mate! What a blessed summer! Thank you for blessing our summer activities, Father!

Language, etc: Sasha and I continue in our respective language study programs (her with Handa sensei and through classes at the community center near our house, me with Akiko and Yukie and Saito sensei). After the last term of Cell group and taking a break because of summer programs, we are praying and brainstorming about how to continue a group devotional time. I hope to begin with that again next month. Holy Father, thank you so much for creating us in such a wonderful way, with the abilities we have. Thank you for the capacity to learn language. Please continue to motivate us with the vision of ministering to our friends in Japanese. Please give us wisdom in the planning stages of our bible study gathering.

More to come! Sorry for the wait!

In Him, Debi