Week 9 & 10

Greetings,

I send you greetings from the church here in Tomobe. Everything here has been really busy lately. All except for this week. Many of the people I study with were busy this week so I had some extra time on my hands this week and spent it in other ways than usual. Here is what has been going on since we last talked.

The last two Sundays have gone pretty well. I preached my first sermon last Sunday at church. I gave a lesson over Thanksgiving since we will be having a Thanksgiving dinner at the church next week. I wanted to give everyone a lesson over what it meant to be thankful and why we celebrated the holiday in America. Everyone seemed to like it and I feel that I was able to reach a lot of people and what they needed to know.

This last Monday, I attended a Preacher's meeting in Tokyo at the biggest church of Christ in Japan. I forgot how much I really dislike that city. There are so many people and it is so busy. At the Preacher's meeting I was able to meet some new preachers from Japan and get to know them. After the meeting, I spent some time looking around Tokyo while waiting on the people I rode with to finish another meeting they had to have before we left. I attended the church in Tokyo's first service a couple of years ago. It was crazy to me that it had been two years since I had last gone there. It was great though to go and be encouraged by the other ministers of Japan. I was also asked to speak there someday soon by their preacher. I am looking forward to doing this.

The past couple of Tuesdays I have gone to Ibaraki Christian to continue my Bible studies rather than going on Wednesdays. I decided to go on Tuesdays because there are more people who can meet and have studies on Tuesdays rather than Wednesdays. To my surprise, this last Wednesday my class jumped from having four people to about 10 people. I was so amazed to have so many people. At the end of our study somebody said, Christianity is way too positive. I thought it was interesting someone might say such a thing. I guess we haven't gotten through all the bad parts yet either that it holds. It was great though to have so many people. After the OC students left, they left me with 30 more students who wanted to continue studying. While it is most likely for the English, it is still a great opportunity that could lead to great things. I may have to start going a couple days a week just so I can get more of the 40 people who want to study a chance than just about 25% of them. I also studied with another girl this week who told me that the tsunami helped her to believe there was a God. She said she grew up going to a English Christian School like Tomobe has and felt that was also part of the plan God had for her to believe someday. I hope that I can continue to study with her very deeply. She is very interested and has such a strong desire to know more.

Everyone who showed up to my study that surprised me Tuesday.

On Wednesdays the past couple weeks I have had spare time. I spent last Wednesday preparing for my Sunday this last week and I spent this last Wednesday hanging out with the guys I told you I go to the ocean with to just discuss religion rather than going into the religious building. This week, I hung out with them an had Mexican food at the Mexican restaurant and also went to the mall with them. Afterwards, we came back to my house and they stayed the night and the next morning I made them biscuits and gravy. A couple of them came to my house a couple of years ago and loved my moms biscuits and gravy so I told them if they stayed the night I would make it for them. Overall I think they had a great time and even though it is hard for them to accept religion, I hope that someday my friendship and kindness may make them wonder. I always try to stand out in some way when I am with them. After they left Thursday, I had my classes on Thursday night with my elementary student and Toru and came on home to sleep and get rest because I caught a cold and was having a hard time overcoming it.

After stuffing ourselves with biscuits and gravy!

On Friday the past couple of weeks I have continued my classes still. Last Friday night, I went with Toru and Benjamin the young people at Tomobe church to the mall and did our activity. We didn't stay long since my cold was making me so tired and ready to go to bed. I also had my afternoon classes. The class I started with the man who wants to know more to life went really well. We read a chapter of Purpose Driven Life together. After reading that together, he seemed to get it but had a hard time accepting that in order to go further in the study about knowing the purpose of life, he had to forget thinking about himself. He didn't seem to think he could do that at the time. I hope as time goes by that he will forget himself and want to move forward with the study. Please continue to pray for him. His name is Tamio.

Dinner when I went to the mall with Toru and Benjamin. This is Benjamin

After this paragraph I will leave you some prayer requests that you can pray for from the things I mentioned in this post. Please continue to pray for me and my mission here. May God bless you all and don't hesitate to contact me if you want to know anything at jared.scism@alumni.oc.edu and I will respond to you. Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Jared

Prayer Requests

1. We have a successful turnout and accomplished mission for our Thanksgiving dinner. We have invited the whole community and hope that many will come.

2. My Bible studies at Ibaraki Christian are a success and that I can find a way to teach more students who are willing to learn

3. Pray especially for the girl who is interested in Christianity to stay eager in wanting to learn more about God and that I can find a way to help her to become confident in wanting to be a Christian. Her nami is Saki.

4. The guys I spent time with eating dinner and having over at the house will be more receptive to Christianity

5. Toru can continue to learn English well enough for OC and that he can find the funds to go to Oklahoma Christian next year as a Bible major.

6. Tamio will be able to forget about himself so that he can learn the purpose of his life like he is wanting to know and so we can move forward in our study about what his purpose in life is.

7. I am pretty sure that I have decided that I want to stay as a missionary rather than becoming a teacher. Please pray that I can find the funds to stay next year and if any of you would like to support me please email me and let me know so that I can tell you how you can get the money to me.

Thanks again. God bless you all.

Week 7 & 8 Update

Hello Everyone,

I hope that this update finds each and every one of you well. Things here in Japan have been rather crazy lately. It seems as if there have been many earthquakes recently. I also hear that you guys in Oklahoma had one tonight. Don't be too afraid! They aren't all that bad. Well I suppose I will get into an update for you guys to read.

The past two Sundays have been pretty good overall. The attendance at church has maintained pretty steady with about 15 people every Sunday for worship. Last Sunday was extra special however. One of the ladies that I have started to study with came to church last Sunday. It was so exciting to see her come to a service so soon. Her name is Masako san! I will try to post a picture of her soon. Also, after church last Sunday, almost everyone in the congregation drove about an hour away to go eat lunch at a Mexican restaurant together. It felt good to finally get a taste of my favorite food.

At the Mexican Restaurant

On Monday, the 24th, we went to Toru's parent house to have a Tomobe Church Home Bible Study. Toru's parents generally take off on Monday's because they make good money on Saturday and Sunday with their sushi restaurant they own. Toru's mom is a Christian however, Toru's dad is not. At the end of the study, Toru's father said that he liked the study. That was a very encouraging moment.

My Tuesday's generally consist of having two English Bible studies with people who are from Marlin and Jeanne's. One of the readers I have told you I have had the studies with is known as Kawasaki san. After our study this week, I learned that Kawasaki san believes in the miracles of Jesus and all the things Jesus did, he is just not sur what is holding him back from being a Christian is the vibe that I got from him. He never fully opened up and said. The other woman I am working with doesn't seem all that interested in the Bible right now, but English. Hopefully with time she will see how great it would be and may become more interested.

On Wednesdays, I have normally gone to Ibaraki Christian University for Bible studies. While I still went to the college the past two weeks, it was hard to do any Bible studies because of the school hosting a festival this week. The week before, everyone was busy trying to prepare for the school festival. However, the Pac Rim students from Oklahoma Christian left this week and left me with 30 different English Bible Studies to continue. It is likely many of the students are not interested in the Bible portion, but the English portion. However, that is 30 more great opportunities right. I will start next week to try and revise a schedule to where I can work with these 30 students along with the 8-10 I am already working with.

At the school festival with a Pac Rim student (Jose Cruz) who is helping sell tacos with English majors

The last two Thursdays have been also interesting. This past Thursday was a holiday so I spent time with the young people from Tomobe Church having lunch and helping one of them who is an American get a cell phone. The Thursday before consisted of my elementary class and English class with Toru. While there is only about a strong group of four people in the young people group now, it has been an encouragement and helped everyone grow stronger I think spiritually and is great for everyone.

I am not sure if I have ever posted a picture of Toru but here is Toru and I before eating lunch at the church for a potluck.

In fact, a couple of Fridays ago, the young people group held our third activity together and went to sing Kareoke together. All together we had five people show up. While it was a drop from the past couple of events will still had a great time. Also, this past Friday I started a new English class with a new person. During the Bible portion of our study, he openly told me that he was tired of not knowing what the purpose of life was. I told him that if he stuck with me, we would be able to answer that very shortly. I am hoping that I can reach to this man in a way that he sees that there is a purpose in his life that he has been given.

Kareoke with Tomobe Church young people

Generally, I like to do nothing on Saturday and just relax because that is the only day I really have to do absolutely nothing most of the time. The past two Saturdays have been busy however. Last Saturday, I went with Omika Church students to go to a restaurant where you catch your own fish in a little pond and then when you have enough fish for everyone you take it to the restaurant up the hill and they cook it for you and you eat it fresh within minutes at the restaurant on the hill. It was a pretty awesome experience. Today, I also with Omika Church went to an orphanage. We ended up putting sweet potatoes underneath a fire and cooking them with the kids. It was also a great time to show these kids the love of Jesus because they do not have parents who are there to show it to them.

Fishing Trip with Omika Church Students

Listening to a Story at the Orphanage

Well that is about all I have. Once again I know it is a lot of information but I hope that it is helpful to each and every one of you to know what I am doing. If you would like to know anything else, please don't hesitate to email me at jared.scism@alumni.oc.edu if you have any more questions. Please continue to pray for the items below. Thanks to all of you for keeping up with me and praying for me in this journey.

Weeks 5 & 6 Update

Hello Everyone,

Sorry that it has taken me a couple of weeks since I last updated my blog. Things have began to really pick up and start to become very busy. Once again, I will only be explaining most of the things that you have not heard before in previous updates and small pieces of information from things you have already heard.

On the 9th, the one month exchange students from OC who are on their study abroad trip known as Pac Rim started their time here in Ibaraki. In the group there are about 22 students plus the teacher and his wife and children. I ended up going to Omika Church where I attended when I was an exchange student to try and meet some of them. After church was over, I headed back to Tomobe where we had the memorial for Usami san's one year mark since her death at the cemetery. This is very common in Japan to do for Buddhists funerals but we had a Christian one for her. You can read more about Kimiko Usami in the previous post.

Everyone who showed up for Kimiko's 1 Year Memorial

On the 10th, I went with a couple of members from the Tomobe church to have lunch because it was a holiday. It was a couple of the younger members which turned out to be a great time of encouragement for one another and resulted in me getting a cheap $30 used guitar so that I can connect with some people who are really into it and try to learn how to play. We will began the guitar classes next week.

On the 11th, I began had a Bible study again with the man I mentioned in the previous post. He had already answered all of the questions from the text book we use and didn't take long to get through. I don't think he is all to interested in the Bible so hopefully we can get him more into the Bible part. I also started to study with a new woman. It is very difficult to teach her the Bible through English but I hope gradually things will become more interesting for her.

On the 12th and 18th I went to IC again to do my normal Bible Studies. With the Pac Rim students being here, they have also started about 30 more English Bible studies with new students. I am hoping to pick some of those students up when they leave next month. I also tried to get a couple of guys to come with me on the 12th, but they are scared of the religious building on campus so I decided to go out with them to the ocean and just try to not study the Bible, but question them about why they hate Christianity so much. By the time I had finished they both said they may consider coming to one of my Bible studies. However, this past Wednesday, without even asking, one of them said they planned on joining it. I am hoping that I can reach to him really well and give him a better idea about how great Christianity is and also get his friend to come with him. In Japan, it is harder to convert a man more than a woman.

The guys I talk about Christianity with at the ocean!

Over the past couple of Thursdays and Fridays, my elementary classes have become much easier and my students are finally starting to cooperate and try to learn. They have really been more of a joy to work with than they were before. After my elementary classes on Thursday and Friday, Toru and I did our normal learning about the Bible class on Thursday. However, after one of the other members claimed they wanted to learn more about the Bible too, I decided to make Toru's English classes on Thursday and Bible classes on Tuesday so that we can have more of a Bible type study with more people and the Christians have a better idea about what Christianity is about.

On the 14th, we had our second youth group activity at the church building which was ping pong. It was the best turn out we have had yet when we went from having 4 young people at the activity to 6. Toru invited a couple of his friends to come and he ended up talking about the existence of God. Toru is the teen who wants to go to OC that I have been telling each of you about. The friends he invited are not Christian and I was impressed that he decided to talk about the topic he did. After Toru spoke the guys ended up staying around for another 2 hours hanging out at the church and playing different games which turned out to be a great time. We also have a few other people who have started to become interested in the community and I hope that next time even more people will come.

Pictures of the people who came to play Ping Pong and our Bible Study for our 2nd youth group activity!

On the 14th, the minister and his wife and I went with Toru and his mom to the Oklahoma Christian Eagle Bash which is the way the International Office at OC promotes the college for International Students. Its also kind of a way for all the people who have been involved with Japan/Oklahoma Christian/Ibaraki Christian to kind of have a reunion together which allowed me to see some old friends of mine who came to OC as exchange students when I was at OC. While it was a great time, after seeing the price of OC, it kind of made a lot of people feel that Toru does not have a chance to go to Oklahoma Christian because it is so expensive. If any of you have any way that you could help Toru, or know a way that he could get to OC, please let me know.

Pictures with some old exchange students and OC Pac Rim students.

On Monday and Tuesday, I went to the Ibaraki Preacher's (and some of their wives) Retreat. We spent time learning about the different ways people have been helping with relief work up north, and praying for them as well. We also spent time in worship together as well. On Tuesday we spent time planning for the National Japan Preacher's Retreat that takes place every year in Japan. Next year, it is the Ibaraki Preacher's job to plan the retreat so we spent a lot of time planning for that as well. It was another great experience for me to have a chance to become better friends with some of the preachers in the area.

If you look in the picture however, you can notice something. About 60-70% of the men in the picture are probably going to be unable to be minsters in the next 15 years and Toru is the only one who is in high school interested in becoming a minister that anyone is aware of. This percentage makes up most of the ministers in Japan which makes it vital that people like Toru can go to OC next year so that the church will not die in Japan. This is also why if I plan to stay as a long term missionary next year that I am going to need as much support as I can get. I want you to consider contributing to this great cause as I close this post. Japan really does need missionaries and Japanese ministers even more so because they can connect with their own people better.

Well, that is a look at what has been taking place over the past couple of weeks. If you have any questions about things that are taking place, please don't hesitate to email me at jared.scism@alumni.oc.edu so that I can answer any questions you might have. Please continue to pray for the prayer request below. Thank you all for your support and may God bless all of you.!

1. That Toru and I will be able to work together well enough to get him prepared to go to OC and that he will get the funds to go.

2. My Bible studies at Ibaraki Christian will be a success.

3. The Tomobe Church will find more ways to grow spiritually and numerically.

4. I am considering wanting to stay longer as a missionary rather than becoming a teacher and need to make sure that it is what I need to do. Last night I read about Abraham having a strong faith in God and was rewarded and I feel that as long as I trust in God he will provide the funds I need, however I need to make sure that I am spiritually willing and financially able to do these things.

5. Kimiko's husband may come to know God.

6. Kawasaki san may become more interested in Christianity. (The man I studied with on Tuesday) as well as the woman I started to study with.

7. The woman's husband who comes to special worship may become interested in Christianity and have the desire to become a Christian

8. The guys I go to the ocean with will be more open to Christianity

One Month Anniversary in Japan!

Good evening everyone!

I hope this letter finds you well and each of you are all doing just fine and dandy. This week has been a pretty good busy week overall and I can't express to you how ready I am to hit the bed and get to sleep tonight. Before I get into detail about the week, I had lots of great experiences this week. I think overall one of my favorite things was to help a person quit smoking tobacco. I won't go into heavy detail about them, however I wanted to express my joy about this first and it being one of my favorite things about the week.

Anyways, overall this week has been the same as any other normal week. I feel like overall, each of you have an idea of what my daily routine is on a weekly basis from the past couple of posts and I don't want to keep giving you the same information to always read. Therefore, I am going to just put things that have been progressing from here on out. I will give you a little information about each day but not near as much.

Sunday-We had our church service in the morning, evening English worship, Japanese worship, and our special worship. During the special worship, the woman who normally comes brought her husband again for the third time.

Monday-We had our normal members Japanese Bible study. I continued to learn many new Japanese words. After the meeting we headed to Hitachi Taga church for a camp meeting which was an encouraging and uplifting time through worship and talking about camp.

Tuesday-I started to have a one on one Bible study with a man who has been coming to Tomobe church for years to learn English. He is a very smart man and I hope that he will continue to be interested in these one on one Bible studies. He retired as a school teacher some time ago where he taught English but never thought he knew it well enough as a teacher so came to the church to know more after he retired. Tuesday night, Toru and I did our normal night of learning more things about the TOEFL and I taught him how to write a 5 paragraph essay. We will see how that goes and hopefully I can teach him to be a better writer. It is amazing so many of the mistakes he makes in English that I learned in my Teaching English as a Foreign Language class called Structures of the English Language. Hopefully I can use the tools I learned from that class to help him.

Wednesday-I went to Ibaraki Christian to start my Bible studies. You may be wondering why in the world am I going to a Christian college to have Bible studies. Well, even though it is a "Christian" college, less than 1% of the students who attend there are actually Christians. There is a chapel service on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, but it is during lunch and students are not required to attend. This is the importance of having Bible studies there. Anyways, I am so excited to see the things God has planned for my work there. In some research I have done lately, it stated that most of the people who become Christians in Japan are college students. The only drawback is keeping them interested in it once they leave college. Due to OC study abroad students coming to Ibaraki Christian this month,Chapel normally grows from about 4 or 5 Japanese people to as as many as 30 Japanese sometimes plus the OC study abroad students when they are there. The OC students also normally have a devo on Wednesday nights. This devo normally draws many Japanese people to come because they enjoy the singing. My goal is try and get to know these students who come on Wednesday night and try to get them to come to a small group I will be starting on Tuesday nights once the OC exchange students leave in November. Therefore for the month of October, I will go to Ibaraki Christian on Wednesday for this purpose but will begin going on Tuesday once they leave. Also while I am there, I will continue to have my English Bible studies. This month, our Bible studies are at weird times but once November starts and I began to go to IC again on Tuesday, I will be able to teach up to as many 8 or 9 students who are wanting to be in the classes and I still have 2 or 3 that want to join them that I will talk to tomorrow at church. It is an exciting time and I am excited to see what God has planned here just as much as I am in Tomobe. As I stated before, October is kind of a crazy month to have all the students, but I was able to have 5 in my classes this week who made time to come for a lil bit since Wednesday is not the best for them. In the pictures below you can see me having a study with one group then I had a one on one study with the girl in the second picture. Her name is Kana and she is interested in both English and the Bible. I am excited to see the plans God has for all these people.

Thursday & Friday-Thursday afternoon, I went and had lunch with some girls who went to OC as exchange students. We had a great time just catching up on life. There is also a chance I may have talked them into coming to the church in November to starting another Enlish/Bible class. However, it won't be able to happen until the OC exchange students leave because they will be busy with them. You can see them in the picture below.

On Thursday and Friday I had my classes with my elementary students as usual and my mentoring with Toru. My elementary kids have a hard time knowing how to pronounce and recognize the letters of the English alphabet so I made a bet with them last week that if they could recognize the letters lower and upper case and pronounce them all quickly and not making one mistake I would give them $10.00. Only one of them attempted to do it and he missed two so I am giving him one more chance next week.

My time with Toru also went great as usual as we studied the book of Ephesians and talked about our daily time with God. It is so encouraging to someone else's view point and the way that look at a verse that you would never think of. I really enjoy my time with Toru and learn a lot from him. On Friday, we took a break and Toru and I watched Evan Almighty so he could practice some of his English in a film and learn some slang. Overall it was hard for him to keep up but we both had a really good time watching it.

This morning, we woke up and went to the church building around 9:00 to clean up the outside of the church because tomorrow we will be having a one year memorial for one of the old members who passed away about a year ago.

The woman's name was Kimiko Usami. Kimiko was a dedicated worker for the Lord and was attending OC so that she could receive a Bible degree. However, a few years ago she was diagnosed with cancer and unable to finish her education. However, one of the OC professors, Dudley Chancey, came to Japan every summer to teach her another Bible class that would help go towards her degree. However, she was unable to finish it. While Kimiko has passed, she was a great influence to many people including myself. I was able to meet her when I came to Japan as an exchange student and her faith in God was just so powerful to me. While Kimiko is gone, there are so many people who have not forgotten how great of a woman she was and will always remember her for her strong purpose. In the picture above, you can see Kimiko and me a couple of years ago when I went to visit her at her house. You can also see Kimiko's husband too. Kimiko's husband was not a Christian but he also did not hold her back too much either from doing the things she wanted to do. As of right now, there is a minster who goes to their house to play a Japanese game with him, however he is not fully giving in.

Prayer Requests:

1. That Toru and I will be able to work together well enough to get him prepared to go to OC and that he will get the funds to go.

2. My Bible studies at Ibaraki Christian will be a success.

3. The Tomobe Church will find more ways to grow spiritually and numerically.

4. I am considering wanting to stay longer as a missionary rather than becoming a teacher and need to make sure that it is what I need to do. Last night I read about Abraham having a strong faith in God and was rewarded and I feel that as long as I trust in God he will provide the funds I need, however I need to make sure that I am spiritually willing and financially able to do these things.

Thank you all for the things you do. Keep praying and keeping in touch with what is going on in your lives. I love each and every one of you. May God bless you all abundantly.

5. Kimiko's husband may come to know God.

6. Kawasaki san may become more interested in Christianity. (The man I studied with on Tuesday)

7. The woman's husband who comes to special worship may become interested in Christianity and have the desire to become a Christian

I want to thank each and every one of you for all you do and if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be able to partake in this mission God has given me. Thank you all.

Week 3 in JAPAN!

みんなさんおはようございます！

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well and this update finds each and every one of you well. Things here are going great but are beginning to pick up quite a bit which is also great. I must warn you that I have had many problems writing this post with my sentences going off to different paragraphs and I think I got most of it put back together but please excuse any difficulty in trying to read this post.

Last Sunday, we had our curry and rice luncheon. Every fourth Sunday the church has curry and rice together for lunch which is prepared by a different person every month. After lunch a member of the church from Peru played us some music from Peru after we finished eating. After he finished playing, him and I talked for about 2 hours about different things in our lives and got to know each other better. He only knows Spanish and Japanese so I had to use what Spanish I remembered from elementary school and Japanese to speak to him which was kind of interesting but feel like we were able to communicate and understand each other for the most part. Sunday nights service turned into a larger group than normal and led into a great discussion which led to a couple of people being prayed for in wanting a stronger relationship with God. After the service was over, we also had our special service for the woman who has to work and her husband came once again. Overall, last Sunday was very special.

Monday the church had its own Bible study with two people. It was in all Japanese which I am still continuing to try to learn which ended up being more of a time where I learned a lot more useful words than being able to give anything to the Bible study. All in all, it was still a good time to fellowship.

On Tuesday I headed up to Ibaraki Christian to start trying to begin some Bible studies.

I was overwhelmed in a good way to have such a large amount of people interested in wanting to join the classes. At first, I only planned on about 2 or 3 people to join, but by the time I left on Wednesday I had 7 signed up and was informed last night 3 more people are also interested in coming as well. It is so amazing. God is doing such great things in this ministry and I hope it continues to grow. On Tuesday night, I stayed in the same town as Ibaraki Christian and went to onsen with one of my friends and back to IC on Wednesday to go to a meeting about Pac Rim students and to help with some CRASH work.Due to Pac Rim coming to IC next week, we cleaned out the house where CRASH, the relief group, keeps a lot of their supplies. By the way, I will go into detail about Onsen in another post for those of you do not know what it is. It is a public bath that you can find in many places in Japan. It is a lot better than it sounds. After finishing the CRASH work, I came back to Tomobe and had my English class with Toru which went incredibly well where talked about his desire to do ministry.

On Thursday I had my elementary class students first and then Toru and I met again and had his Bible class. To give you some information on Toru, he is an eager senior high school student wanting to do ministry. He is trying to study hard so that he can pass the TOEFL test(The test that proves your are good enough in English to take classes at university level) to go to Oklahoma Christian next year. He wants to go there to major in Bible and Ministry so that he can come back to Japan. Toru is probably the only Christian in his school and does not mind it one bit. He has a strong passion for ministry and hopefully he will pass the TOEFL soon and have enough money to go to Oklahoma Christian next year to get a Bible Degree. Please be praying that I can teach him English well enough that he can pass this test and receive enough money to go to OC next year. Japan needs ministers, and Toru would be a good man for the job.

On Friday, Marlin and I fixed the roof of the garage at the church because the typhoon had blown part of it off. After a long day at work, with work still to do, I held our first youth group activity. At one time, the church had quite a few young people but recently it has dropped significantly. We came to the church and had a devo and sang a few songs together and then went and played pool together. Toru also invited one of his friends which was really awesome. We plan on having an activity every other Friday and hope that we can grow the youth here at Tomobe church more.

On Saturday morning, Marlin and I woke back up and came back to the church to finish fixing the roof which took a few hours. After we finished, I came back home and got ready and went to a church about an hour away for an activity with some of the students I spent time with when I went to Ibaraki Christian and church with when I was an exchange student. There were also a few other people who came as well and it was another great time of fellowship and eating Korean food together.

All in all, things are starting to pick up and I am beginning to get very excited. However, I am looking forward to the plans God has in store for the future. Please be praying for the following things:

1. That Toru and I will be able to work together well enough to get him prepared to go to OC and that he will get the funds to go.

2. My Bible studies at Ibaraki Christian will be a success.

3. The Tomobe Church will find more ways to grow.

4. I am considering wanting to stay longer as a missionary rather than becoming a teacher and need to make sure that it is what I need to do. Last night I read about Abraham having a strong faith in God and was rewarded and I feel that as long as I trust in God he will provide the funds I need, however I need to make sure that I am spiritually willing and financially able to do these things.

Thank you all for the things you do. Keep praying and keeping in touch with what is going on in your lives. I love each and every one of you. May God bless you all abundantly.

Second Week in Japan

Hello Friends and Family,

I hope that each and every one of you are all doing well. I thank God for each of you every day and the blessing you have been for me in supporting me in this journey as a missionary. I can not express to you enough, how thankful I really am.

Well to start out the week last week, we went about our busy Sunday. On Sunday, we have four different services. The first one involves the normal Sunday morning service. However, Sunday night, we have an English service, a Japanese service, and then a special service for one of the members because she has to work. The best part of the entire service last Sunday was the special service. In Japan, work is very important. Therefore it is hard for some people to get off work and go to church on Sunday's. However, this woman makes time after her long day at work to come have a small service. The best part of last week was that it was her husbands 50th birthday and he decided to come with her. While he is not a Christian, it was great to have him come to visit.

Monday came and it was my first holiday in Japan. The holiday was pretty much Old People's day in a round about way. I spent a majority of the day talking with my family and friends back in the states. It was nice and try to catch up on rest too since I had a very busy week for my first week. I was even able to get a lil American football in when I didn't think I was going to get any at all.

Dallas vs. San Francisco Game

As Tuesday came, we went about our usual business teaching classes. However, I had made plans to go visit Ibaraki Christian on Wednesday to go and get a schedule worked out at the college and to see some old connections. However, we were hit with a huge typhoon that came in. While it was a strong typhoon, the only damage that caused any problems was part of the roof coming off the garage at the church which is made with plastic and will be a minor fix to repair. After the crazy typhoon had passed, we were also hit with a 5.3 earthquake. Not too big, but big enough to cause some things to move. After we had our morning class and lunch with our only student that showed up, we went home for the day which became like another holiday because no one likes to get out in typhoons. Once Thursday arrived, I was able to go to chapel at Ibaraki Christian the next day and take care of the plans I had made for Wednesday and get back in time for my night classes. During my Thursday night class, I teach an elementary school student class and a mentor class for a high school student who is trying to go to OC next year as student to get his ministry degree. This is extremely uncommon for people his age to be a Christian yet alone having the desire to be a minister. I will get a picture with him soon and tell you more of his story.

On Friday, it was the Autumn equinox which is a Buddhist holiday which also means that we got another holiday. During Friday, I spent the time with one of my old friends from America who is originally from Ethiopia but was adopted in his teenage years. He was once a Muslim but now a very devout Christian and a huge encouragement to be around. We were able to spend some time together through encouragement and prayer. During the night, we went with his wife and friends from Mito church who has been working with some girls from Fukashima who were hit when the tsunami and earthquake occurred in March. While I am not sure of their entire story, we had a great time together. I was also asked but one of women if I would be willing to study the Bible with her because she is interested in knowing more even though she is a Christian. I am also looking forward to helping follow up on this interest.

Spending time with Allen

Going to Dinner with Allen and Friends

On Saturday, we spent another pretty slow day relaxing for the most part and enjoying the weekend. Overall, the week was pretty slow and a lot of down time due to the typhoon and two holidays we had including a Saturday. It was kind of nice so that I could really get back up on my feet and kind of overcome some of the leftover jet lag I was facing from the week before. It has also been good for me so far this week as I am fully rested and ready to go.

Well thats all I have for this week. I will be back next week with another blog with many more exciting things that I have been working to try and get going. I hope to share more of this with you next week after I have been working on it for a few days. Thank you all for all you do.

First Week in Japan

こんにちは！久しぶりね！！

Hello Friends and Family and Supporters. It has been an extremely long time since I have been able to get back with you. In fact the last time was probably right after I received my visa probably. Well now that I have finally arrived,I will be using this site to give you an update about my life in Japan. I hope that it will be useful to you in knowing the work I will be doing here in Japan.

It all started about 10 in the morning on September 8th, I left my parents at the Tulsa International Airport. While my mom was really crying, what she doesn't know is that it was about to come out of me butI was really trying to stay strong. I was about to start though too. Anyways, after a flight from Tulsa to Denver, Denver to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles toTokyo, I finally made it to about 21 hours later. When I arrived in Japan, I had 5 of some of my greatest Japanese friends that I have made over the years through the IC and OC exchange program waiting for me. They were even kind enough to take me out for sushi and to Coco's restaurant for pizza. These are probably two of my favorite restaurants in Japan and I was already starting out living my life in Japan on Cloud 9.

Although I arrived in Japan Friday night, I was already ready to go to work on Saturday morning. I woke up on Saturday morning and decided I would go with the Crash Japan group to the north where the tsunami and earthquake caused a lot of damage. It was amazing and devastating how much this disaster had caused. There were some children there who were balding already because of the stress that this had caused on their lives. There were also many other children who were sick with various problems. It was extremely sad to see what these people were going through. While I was there, we passed out free food for the community as well as giving them supplies they could use such as laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper tow

els, soap, and those kinds of things. There were quite a bit of people that ended up showing up and it was great to see some smiling faceson these people.

You can see tsunami damage inside.(Many places looked like this) You can also see here where the entire block was probably filled with houses but are gone due to the disaster.

People getting cleaning supplies and preparing food to give to people

On Sunday, I spent my first Sunday in worship. The church has about 30 members at the most but only about 15 that come every Sunday. After morning worship we had a pot luck for me.

We then spent the afternoon at the church planning what my week would entail. After that we had an English worship service at 5:00 and another Japanese worship at 7:00.

Tomobe Church Building

Once Monday morning arrived, I had yet another busy day ahead of me. I spent the morning going to the Ibaraki (which is like a state) Preacher's Meeting with all the preachers of the Church of Christ in Ibaraki. These are generally held on the second Monday of every month. While we were there one of the ministers from the church I attended noticed I was there and decided to sing the first song I led in Japanese when I was an exchange student as the song they sang for the meeting because it was my first one. The first part of the meeting was encouragement through prayer, scripture and song and then the last part of it discussing future events that will be occurring through each of our congregations and throughout Japan within the church. After we finished the meeting, We all had a meal that was prepared by the congregation we held the meeting in. After the meeting was over, we had to then head home to prepare for our Hitachi Christian Camp meeting. During this meeting we discussed what all the people who ran camp thought what was good about camp and what things needed to be better. While I was unable to go, I was able to give some input based on when I was an exchange student. We ended up eating pizza and it was a great time for fellowship with some people I had not seen in a while.

Ibaraki Preachers Meeting & Hitachi Christian Camp Meeting

I spent the rest of my week watching Marlin and Jeanne (The missionary I am working with and his wife) teach their School of Life classes. In fact, I ended up teaching one on the fly because Marlin had a last minute meeting come up that he had to atten

d. The School of Life classes are English classes that are offered at the church building. Everyone who comes is expected to pay a small fee for books and for the electric bills at the church. This low cost helps people become more interested in coming because it is a much lower cost than any of the other English schools around town. However, as part of it being such a low price, the people also get a 30 minute Bible study at the end of each class. Some of the Bible studies are all Japanese for beginners. While some of them may not be interested in the Bible yet, they are interested in having a Bible study enough that they do not have to pay the higher price of a regular English school. These classes normally last Monday through Friday and can occur anytime from 9:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night. This helps make it convenient for people to come based off of their schedule. On average, each class has about 2-5 people and there are about 10 classes all together. Nearly everyone that comes is also not a christian.

After spending my week watching Marlin and Jeanne teach there classes and teaching a couple

myself, I spent a couple of nights this week hanging out with some old friends of mine. One of these friends of mine is that I hung out with is named Aguri as you can see in the picture. Aguri loves to ride motorcycles and he knows that I loves to ride motorcycles. Therefore every time we get together, we like to race motorcycles at the arcade place. Aguri became a Christian a few years ago but has a hard time being active in the church and doesn't attend very regularly. I am hoping that I can get him involved again very soon.

On Saturday, I went with Marlin and Yasuki, another member of Tomobe church who is about to probably go to preaching school to a cemetery to fix the Tomobe Church Family grave. In Japan, funerals are usually a big deal and are often held in the form of a Buddhist funeral. Bodies are also cremated as well. Most people are generally buried with their family but several years ago, Tomobe church decided to make a church family one. Since that time in 1993, 3 members of the church have been buried there. However, most likely due to the earthquake, the inside of it was being filled with water. Marlin, Yasuki and I went to fix it on Saturday and then came back to the church to help the ladies finish cleaning up the outside of the church building.

Trying to fix the Tomobe Church Grave to keep it from leaking

Well, I know this was a lot of information, but I wanted to give you an idea of how my first week has gone. It has been extremely busy and I have a lot more busy things coming up in the near future. I hope from here on out that I can keep it to more of a minimum but I felt like most of these things were important to share with you. If you have any questions about anything, please don't hesitate to email me at jared.scism@alumni.oc.edu and I would be happy to answer any of your questions. I thank God for each and every one of you when I pray and sharing with me in this mission. May God bless each and every one of you.