Goodbye, Bito!

Today was my last day of work at Bito JHS. I started there on November 22, 2005 - less than a month after I arrived in Okinawa without a home, job, or car. The school has been an amazing blessing to me. There were 671 students there this year, and I think by the end of the year, I knew about 600 of them by name. The reason? Well, as I told them this morning, it's because love begins when you name someone. I wanted to call them by name because I love them. Why do I love them? Because God made them each individually! Anyways, today was a shocker for the students, who were so surprised that I could speak their language! Imagine that, I kept this secret hidden from them for 16 months - that's a LONG time! Some were initially angry today, but not really... they all seemed so happy that they could say more to me than "hi" or "how are you?"

Here are a few pictures of me with students today. The one picture is me and Shino - she's a really sweet girl who always smiles and brings a smile to my face - she always told her friends that *I* was her best friend. It was funny. The other picture is of me and Yuki and Natsuna. Yuki went by the nickname "Aflac" (named after the duck from the insurance company), and Natsuna was probably either my best or second best student, as far as English ability goes. She did an incredible job at the Okinawa City English Story Contest back on January 30th. She told me I should never speak Japanese, because it doesn't suit me! She also insisted that we keep in touch.

Bito is such a wonderful school - I want to say more but I don't want to write too much. Maybe I'll post some more thoughts on my journal. Please join me in praying for the students of Bito.