Reflections on My Year in Japan

What a wonderful year in Japan! When I first received the call to Japan, I had no idea the difficulties and challenges I would face. But God not only gave me the strength to serve him, but also has blessed my stay in Japan in so many ways.

Being back in the states for only a day, I feel as though I’m only on vacation and will be going back to Japan in a few weeks. I have made so many friends that I will probably never see again. That is probably one of the hardest parts of coming back to the states, leaving people behind. All the last times and goodbyes were very hard. Many people I believe I will one day see in heaven. However there are so many others who I can only trust are in God’s hands. Many people I hope to keep in contact with, especially since most people now have email.

I will miss the Stahmanns as well as the rest of the missionaries very much. It was such a blessing to have their support and guidance. They have become dear friends to me as I became part of their family for the year. I will miss teaching the Stahmann girls. It is amazing all the changes and growth I have seen in the girls in and out of the classroom. We finished off the year with some fun and excitement going on a fieldtrip to the Ueno Zoo, having Spirit Week in which the girls dressed up according to different themes, and finally having a picnic at the park on the last day.

I thoroughly enjoyed teaching the many different English classes this year. We ended the year with parties and just enjoying time together. In my Tsuchiura adult class, we went out to a place that gave cooking classes and learned to make handmade soba noodles. At my Mito preschool class, we had a party. During the party each family told me some parting words that Pastor Haga translated. I never realized how much my classes impacted the students and how much they meant to me until that day.

There are some things I won’t miss: the occasional earthquakes, not knowing the language, and Japanese drivers. But being in Japan has shown me how valuable it is to go to church every week, to be able to listen to a sermon, and to sing the hymns. Being in Japan has also taught me what to do and how to communicate without speaking the same language. Just being able to read signs and labels was difficult if not impossible. I had taken all those things for granted, but after not having them, I appreciate them so much more.

I am very excited to be back in the states, and am looking forward to my new role as a tutor at Michigan Lutheran Seminary. But I will never forget what I have learned and experienced this past year, and am sure God will use it to benefit my future ministry. Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Just a Bit of an Update

I can hardly believe it is already March. I have been rather busy recently and the time seems to have just flown by. I am doing well, through with the coming of spring, my allergies have started again. In February, I enjoyed going to Hawaiians, an indoor water park and spa, with the other missionary families as well as Rachel, the teacher in Ashikaga. It was so much fun to have her visit. Next week I hope to visit her too. I am also looking forward to my mother visiting. She will be coming the week before Easter; and I have been having fun making plans for when she will be here.

Teaching at Nozomi is going well. We have been doing many fun things in school recently. The girls sang the hymn "Were You There" in church this past Sunday. We went to an Art Day in Tokyo at the CAJ school in which the girls all learned about different fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson. We also saw the play The Emperor's New Clothes that same day. In art, we are working on paper-mache Easter eggs in which the girls are enjoying the fact they can be messy. Because the weather has been warmer, we have got to the park near the school and enjoyed playing on the playground there. Rachel is having fun learning addition and subtraction recently. I have hopscotch set up and she enjoys jumping to the different numbers we use. Rebekah and I have been discovering the different properties of matter and the interesting ways that they can be changed. Hannah is becoming very good at reading and sounding out words. I have thoroughly enjoyed having her read actual books to me. All the girls have been working with money recently. It is a bit more difficult for the girls because they don't use or see American money regularly and don't know the value of it. But I have a grocery store set up, and they all are improving rapidly as we play store. Recesses have been spent riding bikes recently. Both Hannah and Rachel want to have their training wheels taken off, but I laugh and tell them to ask their parents. Soon Hannah will graduate from yochen and I will have both her and Rebekah for the full day. I am looking forward to starting the new and more normal schedule. In April Rachel will start yochen and sadly I won't be teaching her regularly any more. I know that she will enjoy her new school immensely though.

Teaching ESL classes has also been going well. In my kids class in Tsuchiura, we are almost finished with our book as well as the teaching year. In April the new classes will start. We are having an Easter party also which will be lots of fun. The students will learn about the true meaning of Easter as well as play games and dye Easer eggs. My adult class has been going well, although recently the attendance has been rather low. I am told though that this is normal for the time of year. I always enjoy hearing what my students have been doing and how their weeks have gone. It is very interesting because it is sometimes very different from life in the states. We are about to start a new chapter on restaurants which will be lots of fun. I think I might suggest that the class all go out to dinner so they can practice. In Mito, the preschool class is very large and attendance very high. We have been working on the alphabet, colors, and numbers; and last class we read Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I have also introduced the game Red-Light, Green-Light to the class with much success. My elementary school class has been enjoying Go Fish, while working on colors, and Around the World, while working on the alphabet. Recently, I have been focusing on feelings and expressions too. My jr high class is small and I am currently trying to help get Kengo, Pastor Haga's son, ready to go to the United States. He will be touring the different WELS colleges and high schools at the end of March I believe. My adult class has been growing. I have gained two new student since the beginning of the year. For part of the class we are going through a devotion book on the book of Mark, and I am always amazed at the good and deep questions my students ask. I am also very relieved that Pastor Haga is there too because sometimes even I am unsure of the answers.

I hope everyone is doing well as I am and wish you all a blessed Easter.

100 Day Party

Well I haven't written in a while, but my Christmas and New Years were wonderful. Caleb, my boyfriend came to visit me, and we had such a fun time. I hope to eventually put up pictures from when he was here. Now I can hardly believe it is the middle of February. Everything has been fairly normal and routine since school started back up after winter vacation.

This past Saturday, we celebrated our 100th day of school with a 100 Day Party. Not only did we learn all about 100, but we had lots of fun too. On the day of the party, I had each of the girls bring in 100 items to share with the class. Rebekah brought 100 m&ms; Hannah brought 100 red hot candies; and Rachel brought 100 peanuts. We started our party after recess by reading the book Miss Bindergarten Celebrates 100 Days of Kindergarten. We then dressed up for the party by making 100 Day crowns with 100 stickers and 100 Day necklaces with 100 pieces of cereal. Next, the girls took turns presenting what they brought and why. The we played a game where they had to write down whether they thought there was 100 items in a jar. I had three jars all the same size: one with marshmellows, one with coins, and one with chocolate chips. They all had 100, but because they each filled the jar to a different level, it was fun to hear the students' guesses. Next we made posters of what we would buy with $100. The girls had some great ideas! Next we made a 100 piece puzzle and, to work up an appetite, completed 100 exercises. We then counted all the items in the jars to see who had guessed correctly and prizes were won by all. Finally we had juice and a 100 Day mix of snacks. The girls each filled a cup with the different snacks the wanted to eat and they then mixed the snacks together by shaking their cup. We had such a fun time!

My Trip to a Japanese School and Fun Other Things

December is wonderful. I love the Christmas season with all the merry lights and music. It's sad here though that in Japan Christmas is purely a commercial holiday...like Valentine's Day. But December seems to just be flying by. I have been working with the girls on their Christmas program, making Christmas cards (Japanese style), making Christmas cookies and decorating. The cards turned out great. I took pictures of them because I want to remember each one. Here's the link if you want to see them: http://ghdunn.smugmug.com/gallery/3969610#230672912.

One of the opportunities I had this month was visiting the Japanese school of Natsuki, one of my English students. It was so neat. Rebekah and I stayed Thursday night at Owada-san's (Natsuki's mother)house and then went to school with her and her mother in the morning. I also teach Owada-san English in my adult class so she stayed with me to help translate. The school was very nice. There were some interesting differences though, one of which was the rows of shoes. Japanese children wear special indoor shoes for school. The school was very beautiful and very large for an elementary school. It had a huge outdoor area for the children to play. All the classrooms have the same layout, but are decorated by the different classes. They hang their latest artwork in the hall for everyone to see. Some of the projects were very neat. The day I came was a special day for the children because Macha, the Asian Champion for jump roping was performing and then teaching the children how to jump rope. He actually is a senior at Tsukuba University, the next town over, and is studying to be a teacher. It was amazing the different things he could do. I got to talk to Macha after he performed for a bit, but then had to run off to teach Natsuki's class a American jump rope rhyme, so I taught them "Teddy bear, Teddy bear." Rebekah helped model the actions for me. Lunch was very different. They eat in the classroom, but have hot lunch brought to them, then the children take turns serving each other. It was so cute to see everyone using chopsticks. After lunch all the children brush their teeth, an idea we should use in America. Every Friday afternoon, the students clean. It is the students who take care of the school. hey clean their classroom, the halls, and also the school grounds. The kids all wear the cutest matching yellow hats so the teachers can easily see their students. I had such an interesting experience and the teacher invited me to come back when they have a more normal day! If you want to see more pictures click the following link: http://ghdunn.smugmug.com/gallery/3969728#230680972.

November

I can't believe November is already almost over...and this is my first post... Well once again I have been busy. So here's an update on what I've been doing. At the end of October, I had Halloween parties for my English classes. November 3, the LECC (Lutheran Evangelical Christian Church) celebrated 50 years of being in Japan. I was quite busy cleaning and helping get everything ready for the event because there was a special service at my church in Tsuchiura. I also had many guest staying with me for the event. The Valleskys and Gurgles stayed with me the Friday night before, and then the Valleskys spent about the next week at my house. Rachel Foelske and her friend Chieko spent that Saturday night at my house. It was nice to have so many people around. November 9 was my birthday. I had lots of fun celebrating my birthday with the Stahmanns and the Kondos, and even got my birthday apple pie and flowers. Tuesday, November 13, I went on another field trip with the girls to the Ibaraki Nature Museum. It was so much nicer for me this time because the Kondos also went. So I had lots of help watching the girls. Here's a link to see pictures from the field trip: http://ghdunn.smugmug.com/gallery/3888676#225427550ugmug.com/gallery/3888676#225427550. The girls had so much fun! The next weekend I went into Tokyo and spent Sunday night at the Wordells' house. Monday, Rachel and I went Christmas shopping. It was great, I got almost all my gifts bought. I had to rush back to Tsuchiura that evening though to meet Michelle (Piske) and Derek Most who came to visit me for Thanksgiving. They stayed until Thanksgiving day and we had our Thanksgiving meal Wednesday night. I had the Missionary Thanksgiving meal the Saturday after Thanksgiving at the Wordells' house. It was good to get together with the Stahmanns, Wordells and Habbens. The food was excellent. We even had turkey! (Japanese people don't eat turkey...I don't know why.) I spent the rest of my Thanksgiving break setting up my classroom for Christmas and putting together the Christmas service. I have a feeling December is going to fly by. I have put up some other photos from things I talked about earlier in my blog, so feel free to look through the different albums: http://ghdunn.smugmug.com/Family/351064.

So Much To Do, So Little Time

I'll admit I have been terrible at keeping up my blogs lately. In my defense, I have been very, very busy. I'm sure you've be wondering what I've been up to, so I'll start by listing all the things that I've been doing recently, starting with the last weekend in September. I'll try to give more details and pictures in later entries.

Saturday, September 29, I had the privilege to see my new friend Mika be baptized at the Tokyo church. I also attended a young adult movie party and potluck before the evening service. Sunday, I took the train to Mito and attended the Sunday morning service there as well as the potluck afterward held in my honor. Monday I spent preparing for the coming school week. Tuesday through Saturday, I taught school as well as English class on Wednesday and Friday evening. I also have dinner at the Stahmann's house on Tuesdays and spend most of the evening there cooking, eating, and cleaning. On Thursday, I started Japanese classes. They are great; however, after two hours of class, my head hurts.

Saturday, October 6, was the Tsuchiura Fireworks Competition which was amazing. Sunday, I went to church in Tsuchiura and then went to a gyoza (Japanese dumplings) party, in which I learned how to make homemade gyoza. They were very good, but take forever to make. Monday, I went up to Mito for a barbecue (very different than in America). Sometime during the weekend, I got my planning in for next week. Tuesday through Friday were the same as the week before.

Saturday, October 12, I taught school in the morning then went up to Mito to teach English for the first time. I had three classes: preschool, elementary school, and jr high school. I think Saturdays will be my most tiring day of the week. Then Sunday, I went with the Stahmanns to the Chiba church and then to Costco. I love Costco, but the trip does take all afternoon and most of the evening. Finally, Monday I had nothing scheduled, except a bit of time to finish planning coming week of school. So I slept in, went to the grocery store, cleaned the house, and talked on the phone all day. Then my week started again.

Today was a bit different though. I had the worst night battling a bug (I didn't get much sleep.), then went into Tokyo for the CAJ (Christian Academy of Japan) thrift shop sale and the SSS (an association for private schools in Japan) spelling bee for Rebekah. After that was over, I had to rush back to Tsuchiura for my adult English class. Thankfully, I made it ten minutes before class started. Now that I've finished writing this, I'm going to bed (even though it's only 7:30).

Asian Giant Hornets

About a week ago, I found out my house was infested with some really big wasp looking-like bugs. When I say really big, I mean HUGE! They were flying around outside my house, and Pastor Stahmann noticed that they seemed to be going into the door to the balcony. So he did some testing and we could hear them in the walls upstairs and the ceiling of my laundry room downstairs. These hornets are very dangerous and serious. They can kill people. So we called an exterminator to get rid of them.

I left the house when the exterminator arrived because I didn't want to be around the bugs when they got angry. Pastor Stahmann thankfully oversaw the whole thing. The exterminators at first couldn't figure out where the nest was to remove it. Finally they figured it was in the ceiling of my laundry room and to get it out they would have to punch a hole in the ceiling. So they did and they found not one, not two, but three different nests. Apparently I had been housing thousands of wasps. The nests filled up three whole plastic sacks. The exterminators had never seen such an infestation. Thankfully all the hornets should be gone now, and I never got stung! Here is a link if you would like to read more information on the hornets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet.