preview into fall...

It's September.

I apologize for failing to maintain blog posts throughout the summer. It was a great summer, though, so family and friends can rest assured that I haven't dropped off the face of the internet world...I just have been staying in touch in other ways. \ (^o^) /

Let's see...

In June, I flew to MI for a weekend to surprise Nina at her graduation ceremony. Actually, everyone was surprised except Daddy and Pam. It was a whirlwind of a trip, traveling halfway across the world in a weekend, but well worth it as soon as I saw my family's surprised faces!

In July we still had school until about the 16th. Then Mom came and visited from the 30th until August 19. While she was here we went to Hakone for a day trip, then to Okinawa for a week, and ended with a three-day stay in Kyoto via shinkansen. Okinawa was fantastic. It had been almost 10 years since the last time I was there, so seeing relatives, old stomping grounds, and the ocean brought back a flood of memories. [sigh] I'm ready to go back...

Now it's back to the old routine of the school year. My schedule of classes is still the same as before break so it's nice that I don't have to adjust to anything new. In about two more weeks, we'll begin a new semester, and at that point, we switch halves of each class. I'll get a whole new set of students. That means more names to memorize, and it means starting back up from ground zero in building the girls' confidence to speak English in class. That's always rough, but by the end of the semester, I am so impressed to see how much they've improved. I want to keep going with them, but...a new semester begins and I have to start all over again.

In addition to my normal teaching at Ferris, I'm continuing with the Children's Choir at church. Our numbers have grown from three kids to FOUR kids! Keep praying...

I'm also continuing to teach the elementary Sunday school. Right now we have only two kids that come regularly because we lost lots of families that moved during the summer.

Pretty soon we are going to begin preparations for an evening Christmas program for the kids at church. This is something I will need LOTS of prayers for because as of now, it's just me putting it all together. I need helpers, or really, just another person to work with. Pray that there's also enough kids who are interested in participating. :o) That's always important.

Our Green House ministry on Thursdays has gotten off to a good start. We had a "Welcome Back to School" party for the students this past week and had about 20-30 students come. Instead of one teacher speaking, each of us gave what we called a "God-sighting" from our summer vacation. The students seemed interested to hear about our summers and at the same time, we threw in a little JESUS. Pray that this momentum and interest from the students continues this fall into the Christmas season.

I've been attending a Christian ministry called Lighthouse in Yokosuka. My first year here, I was going to the women's Bible study, but this year I am attending the service on Friday nights and playing piano during worship. It's kind of rough traveling down to Yokosuka two times a week (over an hour travel time one-way!) for rehearsal and the service, but with the Lord's strength...

Also, I now have two private English students. One student is an eight-year old girl and the other is a 25-year old female who wants to study English so she can study music in Germany. It's been fun to get to know another female vocalist.

Then aside from all this, I'm still working on my own Japanese language studies. Right now, I want to quit studying kanji, but I know I shouldn't. The speaking/conversation side of things has gotten easier, though, so that's encouraging. Especially this summer, I was able to speak a lot with Mom, and of course, relatives in Okinawa.

Well...that was just a preview into my fall festivities. I've passed the one-year mark living in Yokohama now. Time flies, but at the same time, with all that's happened, sometimes I think, "It's only been one year?!"

God is good. He continues to bless me every day in ways that are even better than what I can imagine for myself.

Love,
Katharine

the new school year in full swing

Whew! And there goes another month . . .

May was great because we had three big events: Golden Week (three consecutive national holidays), Ferris' Sports Day (体育大会= taiikutaikai), and Ferris' annual excursion (遠足= ensoku).

I'll start with pictures of Sports Day. At this event, the entire school was divided into four teams (A, B, C, and D). Each team was a different color: A = red, B = white, C = blue, and D = green. Every team had all six grades represented, so the ability levels based on age/development were represented fairly. In the end, the blue team won.

Really, I should be calling this event "Relay Games Day" because they didn't play any sports. Most of the activities were running relays, ball games, or dance-style performances. In the above picture, the girls had to throw as many of their teams' color balls into the net within a certain period of time. The team to get the most balls in the net was the winner. There were also a few gold balls for each team, worth a lot more points than the regular ones.

The video below is an impressive formation they made during the S2 students' (11th graders) fan dance. It was really awesome to see their entire class (all 188 of them) doing this dance completely in sync with each other. Their lines were ruler-straight and their motions so tight and fine-tuned that it was as if they were all one person. It was so impressive.

The next picture below is from the white team's cheer/dance. Each team prepared a cheer, then the teachers and staff had to vote on which team was the best. The judging criteria included such things as neatness of formation, uniformity, enthusiasm, creativity, etc. I can't remember who won, but I thought they were all pretty entertaining. Really, they're just cute. :o)

The next two pictures are from when I was walking around, cheering on my students. They were all so surprised to see me, as if they didn't think I'd be there. I showed them -- of course I wouldn't have missed it!! They were all excited to take pictures with me. Aren't they so cute? These are of my J1 students (middle school, first year).

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take any pictures from our "ensoku," or school excursion. I went with my S1 students (senior high, first year) to 金時山, or Mt. Kintoki. It took us a couple of hours to finally reach the summit, but when we did, the view was absolutely breathtaking. I'm so sorry I didn't take any pictures! Actually, I was designated as the photographer with the school's camera, so once the students learned that I had the yearbook camera, they kept me busy by asking me to take their pictures rather than letting me take pictures with my own camera. Bummer. That's alright. There's next year, too, right?

Anyway, on this day, we reached the top right around lunchtime, so it was planned perfectly for us to bask in a beautiful view while enjoying each other's company. The day before, I bought a TON of snacks so I could walk around to all the students and offer then some treats. It was "bonding" time . . . tee hee. I also brought some left over rice krispy treats from Green House' gathering the night before. The students loved them. Yumm. After all the excitement, it took us only about half the time to descend the mountain. Our group actually got slightly lost. The other teacher and I were having fun talking and didn't notice where the group in front of us went. Oops. We all made it back just fine, though. In the end it worked out. The poor girls were getting nervous, especially since one of the teachers leading them was a gaijin. They probably had less faith in me. At the end of the day, after the long bus ride and bathroom stops, we finally reached Landmark Tower in Yokohama around 5:00. We left that morning at 7:30. Whew...what a long day.

Well, as for the month of May, that's about it. Besides these major events, the month was all about adjusting to our new schedules and routines. I feel like the school year is off to a good start with my new students. I'm excited to see what God has in store both at school and at Green House. Thank you for your prayers~~!