Hey y'all, this site is awesome. It got its name from Romans 10:17, and it offers free downloads of the New Testament on mp3. Without registering, you can get one download for free. If you register (which costs nothing), you can download up to 5 versions! So on my iPod now, I have the New King James (non-dramatized) and the Japanese version! It's such a blessing to be able to listen to the Word of God while stuck in traffic! Makes it worthwhile!
A few weeks ago, Calvary Chapel Ginowan was privileged to be able to baptize 8 believers into the family of Christ! There was still one guy who could not make it that day, so we scheduled more baptisms for yesterday. Well after Ryota took the plunge, four more people joined in (two of them got baptized for the second time)!
It was such a blessed day - God brought out just the right amount of sun to keep us all warm. Daniel and Jessica and Eder led worship as Pastor Tim and Dan Pallmann performed the baptisms. As Tim explained to the guys and gals what baptism meant, they made a public confession of their love relationship with Jesus Christ.
Then people gathered around them and prayed that they would continue to grow in the Lord with each passing day. There was also another church doing baptisms next to us, but they finished up just as we got there. Some of them stuck around and worshiped with us, though, so that was a blessing.
Baptisms remind me of weddings. You see, the Lord has loved us all along. We just didn't realize it, or we did realize it but rejected His love. Finally one day we recognized that His love is the best we will ever get, and we accept Him into our hearts. Thus starts the courtship. Then, in front of many people who are beaming and excited for the "couple", we are joined in holy matrimony before everyone as we die to our old lives, and choose to commit ourselves 100% to the ways of the Lord.
So I remember the day of my own baptism, some 7 years ago. What a day. And I remembered that I made vows to my Lord, but have been guilty countless times of being unfaithful. Oh what a wretched man I am! Who can save me? I thank God through the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 7:24-25 - paraphrase)
This year, as many of you know, I am a homeroom teacher in a Japanese school. The school year is just over half finished, and I have to say there have been a LOT of challenges! Without my sub-homeroom teacher, I would not be where I'm at now. This is Yukiko Higa. She graduated from Okisho and is now in her 4th year teaching at the school. She brings a lot of energy and her smile and pleasant demeanor make her a favorite among the students. I am so thankful to be able to work alongside her.
It only comes once every three years, so the kids make sure they enjoy it! Classes race against classes, clubs race against clubs, kids show off their karate form, boys dance with girls (and pretend not to enjoy it even though they do)... and then of course, there's the infamous "rajio taiso" - a stretching routine that is unique to Japan. The Sports Day held at Okisho on Saturday, October 25, was a day to remember.
It all started with stretching. Imagine, nearly 900 students standing a few feet apart on a field that had never felt so many feet on its surface at once before. So the sound of a 40-something guy on a CD, leading the kids in stretching, blares on the speakers. Everyone stretches in unison in preparation for a day of much running.
Then, we're off to the races! First came the individual sprints. The Uehara sisters took the girls' 11th and 12th grade titles, whereas the athletic program boys dominated on the male side of things. Then came the homeroom relay for 10th graders, followed by various relay races. The 10th graders showed everyone how to do "kata" when 300 people are involved, and then just before lunch, the baton club combined with the judo boys to perform a cute li'l dance number.
After lunch, the fun continued. Each club at Okisho (and there are a lot of them) took part of the field and did little performances of what goes on during their club activities. After this, they had fun relay races against each other, in which the "baton" was some prop used in their club. For example, the volleyball club used a volleyball, the English listening club used a ghetto blaster, the art club used a statue bust, etc. So fun!
Finally, the 12th graders did a "folk dance". This in particular is a mystery to me, as it does not make sense to me how this shows Japanese culture in any way, shape or form. Boys and girls do NOT mix here, let alone dance together. The songs were NOT Japanese, either. I guess it was "Japanese" in that it was an entirely awkward 15 minutes, and though neither the boys nor the girls would show it, I'm sure deep down inside they enjoyed every minute of it!
All in all, it was a fun day. Oh yeah, during the 11th grade homeroom relay, I was the anchor for my class. We were in last for nearly the entire race, due to some unfortunate circumstances. Each person (20 plus the homeroom teacher as anchor) would run 100 meters, so it was a 2050 meter run. When I got the baton, I was about 40 meters behind the 9th place runner. I poured all my remaining energy into the run, ignoring the fact that my legs were already killing me (I sprinted a few times Thursday and once earlier that day), and passed my rival in the final 5 meters, putting our class proudly in 9th place.
I could go on and on about the day, but I do not want to take up more of your precious time! Sorry Okisho kids and Japanese speakers, but this will be an all-English entry!
A while back, one of my co-workers introduced me to a cool site: http://www.freerice.com
After not checking it out for awhile (I'm busy, really I am!), I learned that now you can play other games - not just vocabulary, but now they have math, geography, and other things. You'd better believe I'm going to be all over the geography and math stuff if I ever have free time and Internet access!
Well, on my own I stumbled upon a great Japanese equivalent! Check it out!
These days, I have been doing a lot of kanji studying in my free time. I started at the beginning of April, when I made it my goal to pass the next level of the kanji proficiency test. So at first, I reviewed all the kanji I had previously studied. It took me about 3 months to plow through some sweet 100-yen study books for 4th, 5th, and 6th grade (elementary school) kanji, and then I started studying new stuff. I am about 28 characters away from being done learning all the 7th grade kanji, but then I have to review them and learn all about them (what part of the character is its 'root', how they go together with other characters to form words, how these words are formed, how they go together in sets of 4 characters to form a phrase, and so on). It's enough to make your head spin, but I really for some reason want to pass this test!
I will be taking it on November 9th, so I would appreciate your prayers as the day draws nearer. I have purchased 2 textbooks from which to study (almost done the first one), and have written the characters out a total of about 7,000 times. I will hopefully reach 10,000 by the time the test rolls around. This is perhaps why people tell me I'm "more Japanese than the Japanese" and that I "know more kanji than [they] do."
でもね、やっぱり漢字は難しいよね。今回の試験は５級の漢字プラス３００字です。部首名、熟語の構成、四字熟語、対義語、類義語、読み書きなどがあって大変です！歳をとればとるほど脳が固くなるよね。ヘンリー・フォードの名言「学ぶことをやめる人は誰でも老いてる、２０歳であれ８０歳であれ。学び続ける人はずっと若いです。若い心を保つことは一番幸いです。」が大好きです。日本語訳は正確ではないので、英語も載せます："Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young."
Some days are just meant for relaxing. Today I spent the afternoon at Josh's house. By myself. Josh is away for awhile, so I have decided that his place will make a nice weekend refuge. In any case, after sitting around for awhile just being lazy, studying kanji, and listening to music, I decided to make my way to the Okinawa Comprehensive Park, where I could do something that I haven't done in awhile: go inline skating!
Armed with my camera, i-Pod and a bit of coinage in case I got thirsty, I headed out from Josh's place. To my surprise, it took me but 2 minutes to get there on 8 wheels, and would have likely taken me as long or longer on 4.
So I stopped from time to time, just to take pictures. None of them turned out all that great, but here are a few of them, just for the sake of showing you that I actually did use my camera!
That little rock is only accessible during low tide. I remember back in my salad days, I would venture out there and sit up on the rock...
Because it was low tide, people were out looking for dinner or something... shells, anyone?
While some found food, others gave. These kids kindly shared with the ducks.
And what day would be complete without me meeting some of my former students? Kanae and Kanako were a blast back in 7th grade. Now they're a few months from completing junior high. And they have the joy of being taught by "Danipo".
and the Japanese version! It's such a blessing to be able to listen to the Word of God while stuck in traffic! Makes it worthwhile!
、主のみことばを聴くチャンスが与えられています！登録したら、なんと５回ダウンロードが可能になります！僕は今のところ、英語版一つ、日本語版一つをダウンロードしてます。通勤のとき、車の中でバイブルが聞けて本当に感謝します！
A few weeks ago, Calvary Chapel Ginowan was privileged to be able to baptize 8 believers into the family of Christ! There was still one guy who could not make it that day, so we scheduled more baptisms for yesterday. Well after Ryota took the plunge, four more people joined in (two of them got baptized for the second time)!
It was such a blessed day - God brought out just the right amount of sun to keep us all warm. Daniel and Jessica and Eder led worship as Pastor Tim and Dan Pallmann performed the baptisms. As Tim explained to the guys and gals what baptism meant, they made a public confession of their love relationship with Jesus Christ.
So I remember the day of my own baptism, some 7 years ago. What a day. And I remembered that I made vows to my Lord, but have been guilty countless times of being unfaithful. Oh what a wretched man I am! Who can save me? I thank God through the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 7:24-25 - paraphrase)
昨日は、良太君、一乃さん、香代さん、時斗君、そしてゴウ君が洗礼を受けました。天気が素晴らしくて主の聖霊様が私たちと共におられたことを確信しています。主に感謝ばかりです。ハレルヤ！
皆さんご存じだと思いますけど、今学年、私は初めて日本の学校で担任をもつことになりました。しかし沖尚２年目だけなので、わからないことばっかりで毎日新しい発見・問題があります。しかし、幸運にもいつも隣にいてくれるのは僕の素晴らしい副担任のユッキー（比嘉 由紀子）先生です。ユッキーの支えのおかげでここまで来られました！あと５ヶ月ぐらいありますが、これからもよろしくお願いします！
It all started with stretching. Imagine, nearly 900 students standing a few feet apart on a field that had never felt so many feet on its surface at once before. So the sound of a 40-something guy on a CD, leading the kids in stretching, blares on the speakers. Everyone stretches in unison in preparation for a day of much running.
Then, we're off to the races! First came the individual sprints. The Uehara sisters took the girls' 11th and 12th grade titles, whereas the athletic program boys dominated on the male side of things. Then came the homeroom relay for 10th graders, followed by various relay races. The 10th graders showed everyone how to do "kata" when 300 people are involved, and then just before lunch, the baton club combined with the judo boys to perform a cute li'l dance number.
After lunch, the fun continued. Each club at Okisho (and there are a lot of them) took part of the field and did little performances of what goes on during their club activities. After this, they had fun relay races against each other, in which the "baton" was some prop used in their club. For example, the volleyball club used a volleyball, the English listening club used a ghetto blaster, the art club used a statue bust, etc. So fun!
All in all, it was a fun day. Oh yeah, during the 11th grade homeroom relay, I was the anchor for my class. We were in last for nearly the entire race, due to some unfortunate circumstances. Each person (20 plus the homeroom teacher as anchor) would run 100 meters, so it was a 2050 meter run. When I got the baton, I was about 40 meters behind the 9th place runner. I poured all my remaining energy into the run, ignoring the fact that my legs were already killing me (I sprinted a few times Thursday and once earlier that day), and passed my rival in the final 5 meters, putting our class proudly in 9th place.
I could go on and on about the day, but I do not want to take up more of your precious time! Sorry Okisho kids and Japanese speakers, but this will be an all-English entry!
I will be taking it on November 9th, so I would appreciate your prayers as the day draws nearer. I have purchased 2 textbooks from which to study (almost done the first one), and have written the characters out a total of about 7,000 times. I will hopefully reach 10,000 by the time the test rolls around. This is perhaps why people tell me I'm "more Japanese than the Japanese" and that I "know more kanji than [they] do."
でもね、やっぱり漢字は難しいよね。今回の試験は５級の漢字プラス３００字です。部首名、熟語の構成、四字熟語、対義語、類義語、読み書きなどがあって大変です！歳をとればとるほど脳が固くなるよね。ヘンリー・フォードの名言「学ぶことをやめる人は誰でも老いてる、２０歳であれ８０歳であれ。学び続ける人はずっと若いです。若い心を保つことは一番幸いです。」が大好きです。日本語訳は正確ではないので、英語も載せます："Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young."
Some days are just meant for relaxing. Today I spent the afternoon at Josh's house. By myself. Josh is away for awhile, so I have decided that his place will make a nice weekend refuge. In any case, after sitting around for awhile just being lazy, studying kanji, and listening to music, I decided to make my way to the Okinawa Comprehensive Park, where I could do something that I haven't done in awhile: go inline skating!
That little rock is only accessible during low tide. I remember back in my salad days, I would venture out there and sit up on the rock...
Because it was low tide, people were out looking for dinner or something... shells, anyone?
While some found food, others gave. These kids kindly shared with the ducks.
And what day would be complete without me meeting some of my former students? Kanae and Kanako were a blast back in 7th grade. Now they're a few months from completing junior high. And they have the joy of being taught by "Danipo".