Beginning of March (Possibly The Last Post!)

Hello Everyone!

Hope you are all doing well! Things are going pretty well here! There is quite a bit to tell so I am going to go ahead and get with it.

For the past month we have had a LST team here with us. They have been averaging about 35-40 English Bible Studies every week. A couple of weeks ago during their off day, we went and spent some time with the a couple of the people they have been studying with. We ended up having Tenpura which is like a fried fish and fried vegetables. You can see a picture of what it looks like below. This is one of the LST readers named Maria Laura. She got the Sky Tree Tenpura. Sky Tree is the new tower that is being built in Tokyo now to make the tallest tower in the world!

Maria and her Tenpura Sky Tower

A couple of pics with the LST team in Ibaraki

On the 3rd, Cassie and I held a Spring Sing party for all the old exchange students and people who love OC at Cassie's Apartment. We had a few people show up. In the picture below you can see the two girls who came earlier with Cassie and me. After the party was over, we returned to Tomobe to have one of LST's weekly parties. On the 3rd we had an American Breakfast Party. We had pancakes and sausage. Japanese people normally eat fish and rice for breakfast. These parties are used as an outreach to have fun and show that Christians can also have a good time as well. Altogether there were 25 to 30 of us.

Spring SIng Watch Party!

LST Party!

As of this month, every first Sunday of the month I am responsible for leading worship. For some people this may seem difficult enough just to lead worship. However, I also had to lead it in all Japanese. While my Japanese is not horrible, I have still have yet to improve a whole lot more. However, I lead a prayer, did communion and contribution, led singing, and gave the announcements all in Japanese! I am not sure how I did but I got an applause afterwards so I guess I did alright. After worship we had our monthly church meeting in the afternoon and then guitar class later that night along with evening worship. Because part of the LST team is from Argentina and one of their friends came to visit the church from Argentina and he only knows Spanish, we ended up having a trilingual service. Also, to my surprise, one of the students I had been studying with at the college, who lives an hour away by car also ended up coming to worship. He not only came on the 4th at night but also on the 11th, this last Sunday. This last Sunday marked the tragedy for the one year anniversary since last year's big earthquake. I wanted so bad to be a part of a group that might have done something that day. However, I ended up staying home sick. Please continue to pray for all the family and victims and the troubles some of them are still having!

Leading Worship!

The following Monday, I decided to go to eat lunch with the student who came to church on Sunday. We had curry together and I talked with him some about why is not a Christian yet if he believes in God. He was telling me that he is responsible for the family grave which is Buddhist. While he still believes, he has a long way to go. Please pray that he can find a way to explain to his family that this is not necessary for him. Also this last Monday we had our monthly preachers meeting and camp meeting. Cassie and I also presented our design for the poster for this spring's camp. When I returned from the camp meeting, I had the surprise and pleasure to see a guy I studied the Bible with at Ibaraki Christian a few years ago. I have been trying to get in touch with him to start studying again since I arrived, but he always told me he was too busy. However, I am hoping after some talking that we had this last week and spending some time together that we can get back to studying again. Please pray that this person can see that God wants what is best for him and that he keeps looking towards the right path. His name is Keiichi!

Keiichi and Me!

On Mondays I have continued to attend the church Bible classes. As of now, we are studying the book of John. Also on Mondays, I study with Masako. Last week Masako and I talked about how the reason we have many races and languages is because of the Tower of Babel. This week we talked about Cain and Abel. While I am not sure how she is starting to feel, she has been very open about talking about being a Christian. Please pray that Masako's heart can be changed and that she wants to know more about the gospel.

This last Tuesday, Cassie and I went to have dinner with a girl who went to OC as an exchange student for the past 8 months. We had a really good time and got some good Italian Food.

For the most part, Tuesdays and Wednesdays have been slow recently because Saki (The girl I hope to baptize) returned home. As of right now, I have not heard from Saki as to whether she has talked to her dad or not if she can be baptized. Please pray that God will help her with the confidence to as her dad and that he will be understanding and allow for me to baptize her.

Lately, things with Toru have been crazy. Toru has had many people to spend a lot of time with so we have not got to study as much lately. As of right now, Toru will go to OC in June. Please pray that Toru will get the funds to be able to attend college there. Right now, things are quite tight with him going. Please pray that God blesses this effort.

On Thursdays I have not been able to study with Setsuko because she has been having problems with her shoulders. The other lady, Hiromi,whom I have been studying with has also began to have a hard time wanting to come. Please pray that they can regain health.

On Fridays, I have been able to finally begin to study with another lady after the church cooking class is over. However, she is not a Christian. The first week she was begging to not study the Bible with me. Nevertheless, this week we were able to get some talking about Christianity in rather than only speaking English. Last week I also promised my elementary class that if they averaged a 70% on their test that we would play games the entire last class period and I would get them cake. After taking a book comprehensive final, most of of them got High B's and Low C's. Therefore we will have a fun class with games and food this Friday. Last Friday after my elementary class was over we had a youth group activity and went to play pool. Over all we had quite a group come opposed to the small group of 4 we had on our first youth group activity night of playing pool.

At Cybex!

Having a Devo before Pool!

Last Saturday, we had another LST party and had cookies and tea/milk. Overall there was quite a group that came. Everyone enjoyed playing cards and eating cookies. However, I ended up getting a stomach ache and ended up not being able to participate. By the looks of everyones faces, it looked like everyone had a good time.

In other news, today will be my last day of classes at the church. My contract with the schools in Mito will begin on April 1st therefore I will move to Mito on April 2nd. I will use the next couple weeks to relax and begin packing to move from Kasama to Mito which is about 45 minutes away by car. I will also be able to get my car on the 31st of this month. Last but not least and MOST IMPORTANT, I asked Cassie, to marry me yesterday. We will be getting married December 29th this year in Oklahoma City. As of right now, LIFE IS GOOD! I hope to keep you updated when I can as a teacher but it won't be near as frequent. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me. May God Bless each of you! Thank you all for your support and prayers you have given me during my time as a missionary. I pray that I can be an effective vocational missionary once I began teaching. Thank you all once again.

Cassie said Yes after asking her to marry me and reading 1 Corinthians 13

The End of February

Hello Everyone,

First of all, I would like to apologize because this may not be a very good update. Things have been very busy recently, and it is about 11:00 p.m. on Thursday night. There has been a lot of stuff going on lately, and I have yet another crazy weekend. It has also been very cold and we have also had some snow this last week. Anyways, I will go ahead and get on with what has gone on the past couple of weeks. I will start out by talking about my classes, then talking about other things that have been going on.

Picture of some snow from the kitchen window!

Sundays:

1. On Sundays we have our normal worship service. The past two Sundays we have had meals at the church afterwards. One of them was a lunch for welcoming LST and the other one was our 4th Sunday curry day.

2. Due to being very busy lately, we have been unable to have guitar learning class.

3. A couple of Sunday nights ago, instead of worship LST had an information meeting to meet with people about the times they could study. Last Sunday however, we had normal worship service and with everyone there, there was about 15 people. It was the most I had ever seen at worship on Sunday night. One of LST's friends has been in Japan touring for the past couple of weeks so he was also there meaning that he only knew Spanish. Therefore we were translating things into English for worship that night, then Spanish. It ended up being quite crazy but really cool to have have a trilingual worship service.

Yasuki singing Jesus Loves Me out of the side of his mouth after Sunday night worship! Yasuki is also going to preachers training school in Japan starting in April.

Mondays

1. On Mondays we have our Tomobe Church Bible Studies. Once a month we have them at Toru's house. When we have them at Toru's it makes things much better because his father ends up coming and seems to enjoy them. Please pray that Toru's dad might also become interested in Christianity.

2. In the afternoon, I have been studying with Masako. I recently got her to realize that Christianity and Shintoism can not possibly both be right. However, she wants to know more about the beginning of the world from a Christian perspective so we have been studying Genesis together. Last week was the first time she had come in a while because her son came home from Italy to visit and her daughter just had a baby so she has been taking care of them. We ended up talking about the Tower of Babel which led to good discussion because she never knew how people got into different parts of the world with different languages.

Having the Tomobe Church Bible Study at Toru's House

Tuesdays and Wednesdays

1. On Tuesday and Wednesday I normally go to Ibaraki Christian to study with Saki to prepare her for baptism. However, two weeks ago I was at the driving center taking my test and this week it ended up snowing really bad so we ended up having our study on Skype instead. After having all of our studies, Saki still seems confident that she is ready to take this step to be a Christian. After our Skype study last week, she left to go back home to Ishinomaki which is where all the stuff from the earthquake happened last year which is a few hours away. While she is gone, she is going to be talking to her dad about wanting to be baptized. Please pray that this goes smoothly and that her father will say yes. If he does, I will be able to baptize her in May.

2. On Wednesdays, I also continue to teach Toru things about the Bible.

Thursdays:

1. Last Thursday I began to study with a new woman named Hiromi. However, after LST decided they wanted to take a trip to another city, she decided she wanted to go with them yesterday because our study was too difficult. Hopefully she will still be able to come next week.

2. I have also been unable to study with Setsuko the past couple of weeks because she has been sick and also had some other things that she has been busy with. We will begin to study again next week.

3. On Thursday nights, I have also been continuing to help Toru improve his English.

Fridays:

1. On Fridays twice a month, I attend the minister's wife, Jeanne's cooking class. I attended the one last week which consisted of the LST team teaching the ladys how to cook Argentine food.

2. I also picked up another new woman to start studying English/Bible with on Friday named Kaori. Every time I tried to start talking about Christianity though, she would always change the subject. Please pray that Kaori will be more open to talk about Christianity.

3. At night, I continue to teach my elementary students who are just crazy all the time. They really aren't interested in Christianity at all, but I hope that the seeds will at least be planted in their mind.

4. We also continue to have activities with Toru and his friends every other Friday. Last Friday we went to Karaoke.

Teaching my elementary students!

Me waiting to start Karaoke!

A few days before the 16th, a group of the students I study with at the college all decided that they wanted to get together to have a Bible Study. We ended up going to the church in Omika and having a study there with some other members of the Omika Church and spent time in fellowship, prayer, and encouragement. Before going to the church, we all went to have dinner together at a popular restaurant here in Japan known as Coco's. It is so encouraging to see how eager some of these students are to want to know more about God.

On the 17th, I went with Sayaka, the assistant to the Mito Board of Education to apply for my teaching visa. They said that I should receive it by next month some time if it processed. Please pray that this process will work out because it is very important that I get this visa to get my new job. That night, I was invited to come to an all Ibaraki college student youth lock in at Omika Church. However, I had previously been invited to go to an Oklahoma Christian Exchange Student Reunion type thing with the exchange students who went to OC last year. It was difficult for me to choose which one to attend, but I ended up attending the event with the exchange students and had dinner with them. While we were there, I discovered that they all paid for the option of being able to drink as much as they wanted. I ended up drinking water the whole night except for a glass of Calpis. Calpis is a fruity drink that is popular in Japan for kids to drink. However this lead to a lot of good conversation for ministry to tell them why I wasn't interested in drinking with them. However, after the amount of food I ate dinner and water I drank, it was definitely not worth $40. However, it was great to see everyone.

A picture we took before dinner. This is popular for Japanese girls to do before an event! They are called purikura!

The morning of the 18th, I held a Bible Study with a couple of girls at Starbucks with Cassie. One of the girls is a Christian, and the other one is not. My main purpose was to encourage the girl who is not a Christian because she is very active in the church. However, since she started working and finished college, she has found it more difficult to want to become a Christian. I ended up studying with her how great God's love was and that no matter how difficult things get, God will always still be there with his love. By the end of the study, she seemed to feel much happier and excited about things, however she still needs much more encouragement. Please pray that Miki may come to have the spark that she did when she was a student and that she can see God's love. After our study at Starbucks, the four of us walked around Mito and had lunch together. That night, Cassie and I came home to welcome our new Let's Start Talking team to Japan. It made for a long day, but it was still a lot of fun.

On the 20th, Cassie and I met with a couple of new friends Chip and Elise for dinner. Our main purpose was to start transferring the car I will be getting over into my name. It is a very tedious process because I have to fill out a lot of paperwork for it to submit to the police station. One of the most annoying parts of it is getting a parking place for your car. In Japan, when getting a car, you have to prove to the police that you have a place to park your car because people have such small property and they don't want any cars in the road. Once you find a parking space, you have to draw 2 detailed maps, showing where it is. The first map is a general map showing the the location of the property you will park it and the second one is a detailed map of where the parking spot is on the property you will park it. Then you have to draw that and give all of the measurements of the property and the parking space and all. I will be glad when this part is over.

On the 22nd, I went to take my driving test again after failing it and spending the entire day taking tests on the 15th. I ended up only having to stay at the driving place until 2 the second day I took it. Luckily, the guy that gave me the driving test this time was much nicer. I actually almost went into the right side of the road because in America thats how we drive. However in Japan, they drive on the left side of the road. However, I think he let it slide because I remembered to turn into the correct side of the road the whole test except for the last turn. I was so glad to finally get my license. I ended up taking a driving and written test to get it. The written part was in English and the driving was in Japanese. However, the English test was worded so weird that sometimes it was hard to know what they were asking. I am just thankful that I have my license in Japan now.

After getting my license in front of the test center!

Last Saturday, the 25th, we were supposed to have a work day at the church for repairing some stuff on the building. However, it ended up raining so we were not able to do anything. Nevertheless, it was just nice to relax and enjoy the rain. It also allowed me to talk to my parents some. That night, Cassie and I went out to dinner with one of my good friends Kota and his girlfriend. I believe I wrote about him in a previous post about being interested in Christianity because he thought it would help him get higher level job at Ibaraki Christian. We ended up going to El Toritos, which is the only Mexican restaurant in Ibaraki. Once we got our dinner, Kota asked if I would pray for it. I was so excited to know that he wanted me to do that. Before I came here, Kota had never really expressed any desire whatsoever in Christianity, but now it seems like he wants to know more. Please pray that I can reach him in some way to become a Christian.

On the 27th and 28th, Cassie and I had dinner with our friends Allen and Laura Thompson and Chip and Elise Riley. Because they are leaving Japan in April and returning back home after teaching English here for a few years, they are trying to get rid of some stuff from their apartments. Cassie and I have been more than helpful trying to get stuff from them for our own apartments so that we don't have to pay as much for stuff. Chip and Elise are actually the couple I am getting my car from that I mentioned earlier. While I cannot get the car until next month, I was still able to get a scooter from Chip on Monday so that I don't have to make the 35 minute bike ride to church.

The scooter I got!

Yesterday, I went to Toru's high school graduation. It was a lot different than an American graduation. They do the presentation of the diplomas at the beginning of the ceremony by calling at each students name and the student stands and says, "Yes Sir" after their name is called. They call each student's name based on the homeroom class that they are in. After each student's name is called, they have speeches just like we do that take a long time. After the ceremony is over, the students go back to their homeroom classes and then they are each presented with their diploma and diploma case. Overall, it takes about three hours for the whole thing to take place. After the ceremony, I went with Toru and some of his friends to eat lunch and Karaoke. It ended up being a lot of fun and then I came back to prepare for some stuff that I will be doing on Saturday. On Saturday, Cassie and I will host a Spring Sing party for all the students who have gone to OC and will watch Spring Sing together.

Toru and his friends!

Toru and I with his diploma!

Tomobe Church Minister Marlin Ray far right, Toru and Me after graduation!

Well thats what has been going on the past couple of weeks. Things have been getting crazy trying to get things ready for my new job and preparing to make the switch for that. Please pray that everything goes smoothly for me in this process. Also please pray for the LST team and the work they are doing for us in Tomobe and that it will be successful. Once again, please feel free to email me at jared.scism@alumni.oc.edu if you have any questions. I love to hear from people. Thank you all for your support once again. May God Bless you all.

The Beginning of February

Hello Everyone,

I hope all of you are doing well. Well it is Thursday morning at 12:22 A.M. and I am not sure when I will be update you again. It may be another couple of weeks before I wrote you so I thought I would go ahead and stay up late and write this post for you tonight. I was unable to write it this afternoon because I went to take my driving test today. I ended up passing the written test, but failed the driving test. However, I have been told that every foreigner fails 1 or 2 times before he actually passes it. I have only met one person who has passed it on their first time. I wasn't too concerned, and I will be retaking the driving test again next Wednesday. Well quite a bit has happened the past couple of weeks so I will try to keep this as short as possible.

On the 2nd, Toru Hirosawa, the guy who plans to go to OC next year to major in Bible and Ministry turned 18. On the 18th, I took him out to lunch for his birthday. However, what he didn't know was that there was a surprise party for him on Friday. I got his mom to invite all his friends and they all came to the church and I grilled hamburgers for everyone. Overall it was really tasty and Toru was very surprised. If you would like more information about Toru, please let me know. He needs more money so that he can go to Oklahoma Christian next year. Japan desperately needs ministers, especially young ones because so many here are very old. Also, last Saturday Toru took his TOEFL test to see if he could improve his score in order to enter Oklahoma Christian. The last two weeks also consisted of studying with Toru quite a bit so he could do better last Saturday. We studied for about 5 hours two days before his big test. Overall, I think he did very well on the test. We will know more results in the next week or so.

This is Toru!

Toru and his friends!

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays this month, the campus minister at Ibaraki Christian and I started to have Personal Bible Studies with Saki, the girl who wants to be baptized. As of right now, the campus minister, Uzawa san is teaching her basic Bible information. At the end of next week or the following week, I will begin teaching Saki what it means to be baptized and how you should live your life after becoming a Christian. So far, the studies are going very well. However, Saki is very nervous about talking to her dad. Please pray that everything will go smoothly and when she talks to her dad everything will work out. In Japan, younger people have a harder time becoming Christians because of their parents opinion. Please pray that Saki's father will soften his heart and it can all go well. I was also informed this week that I will be the one who will get to baptize her.

On the 6th, we had a lot of the guy English Teachers over at the house so that we could watch the Super Bowl. Although it aired live here in Japan on Monday morning, they replayed it again at night about 8. It was a great time to spend with the English Teachers and good to watch the Super Bowl even though we were unable to see the Super Bowl commercials! Go Giants!

Everyone watching the game!

Last Sunday, we had our monthly church meeting. At the meeting we discussed some of the future things going on at the Tomobe Church. Also during the meeting we discussed getting more people to do worship. I volunteered to lead the worship service every first Sunday of the month. I will have to do a majority of it in Japanese. This will help make me more confident to start preaching when the time comes. I am looking forward to this incredible opportunity. We have also continued to have our Guitar Learning Class before worship on Sundays. While I am far from being good, I am beginning to make some good progress. Of course, we also have worship every Sunday morning that I have been attending.

Last Friday, I had a Mexican party for my students that I study with at Ibaraki Christian. Overall, we had about 10 people show up in all. I made enchilladas, tacos, queso, guacamole, refried beans, rice, hard and soft tacos, quesadillas, and also had chips and salsa. For dessert I also made a sopapilla cheesecake. Many of the students said they felt like they were in Heaven after eating it all. After we ate, we had a Bible study over how even though all that food tasted great, and seemed like we were in Heaven, Heaven is going to be an even better place than the food we ate. Once we finished the Bible study, we did some exercising to burn of all the calories we had eaten.

All the Food I Made!

The guys being crazy on the couch!

Our Bible Study!

Everyone that came minus a few!

Trying to shed all the calories we gained!

This last Monday, the 13th, consisted of my monthly meetings. In the morning, we had our preachers meeting and discussed who could preach at a congregation where one of the ministers died a few weeks ago. After discussing that among relief work topics and camp information, we all had lunch together and actually finished our meeting before lunch for the first time in a long while. Later that night, we headed to Hitachi for our monthly camp meeting. At the meeting we discussed the theme for Spring Camp which I came up with. Working for God with the scripture Colossians 3:23 in mind. Cassie, my girlfriend and I will also be responsible for designing the camp poster by next month.

This was before the camp meeting! The chain was too funny to pass up posting on here!

Overall, my weekly classes have been going well. I have been unable to meet with Masako, the lady I recently began to start reading Genesis with because her daughter just had a baby. She has been very busy staying at home trying to help her daughter so I have not been able to study with her lately. The other lady I study with Setsuko, continues to come every week. However, as I mentioned earlier, she is much more interested in learning English than the Bible. I hope that eventually our studies together will soon begin help her to realize its not all about English. Please pray that her heart will also soften and she can gain fore than English from our studies. I also continue to have my elementary class on Friday nights. Those students are also there for English only and our really crazy. As of now they are not interested either. I hope that I can show them a love and patience that they may want to know more of what Christianity is all about.

As far as my teaching plans, I met with the Mito Board of Education a couple weeks ago. It is not currently official that I have a job yet. Please pray that this all goes smoothly and that the transition for my visa is a smooth process. I have been told sometimes it can be kind of difficult process to go through.

Some of the things that are coming up in the next couple weeks are as followed:

-This week, we have been preparing for an LST group to come. A group from Argentina and America will be coming to Tomobe Church to do a Let's Start Talking mission trip. Let's Start Talking is a program that sends people out all over the world to churches to give free English lessons by using the Bible to teach English! Because of the high demand of English being learned around the world, many people end up coming. Please pray that their trip will be a blessing to the church here and that they can bring more people to the church and help us grow.

-Marlin Ray, the missionary at Tomobe Church will be returning home this summer to take Toru to Oklahoma Christian and go back home to try and raise more support. While he is gone, I will be preaching a time or two every month from June to July. I will be doing this while I am a teacher.

-Once a month, we have been meeting at Toru's house to have a Church Home Bible Study. Although, Toru's mother is a Christian, Toru's father is not. I have talked about him previously coming to church, however he has not been in a while. Pray that these Bible Studies will reach him in some way or another.

-At the end of April or the beginning of May most likely, I have been asked to come speak at the Ochanomizu Church of Christ in Tokyo. Ochanomizu is probably the biggest Church of Christ in Japan ranging from 150-200 most likely. I am looking forward to this incredible opportunity. On the day that I go, there will be a bilingual service for both Japanese and foreigners. They are normally separated on Sunday mornings.

-Due to Ibaraki Christian being on Spring Break, I am going to continue to have my Bible Studies with my students. Starting this Saturday, we will meet in the capital city of Mito at Starbucks and start having Bible Studies there on Saturday mornings.

-I hope to start posting some videos soon!

Well that is all I have for right now. 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 talk to you more about anything. I love you guys and I thank God for you and your love and support.

The End of January

Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well. I pray for all of you back at home daily and pray that the Lord has been each of you richly in the way you have blessed me.

The past couple of weeks have been great. Most of all it has been going about the same routine. I have continued to have my classes with all of my students. Altogether I currently have about 20 students and about 8 classes every week.

For those of you who didn't know, I will become an English teacher starting in April rather than missionary. After April, I will no longer have the support to stay. Therefore I recently started to prepare for that. I had a health check up a couple weeks ago on Friday and so far I am still in good and excellent condition. I was also able to figure out my blood type! In Japan, it is a big deal to know your blood type because it determines your personality. I ended up being type O which means I am a agreeable, sociable, and optimistic. However, my worst traits are that I am rude, jealous, vain an arrogant according to the blood type traits. Below is a picture of the city flag, the country flag of Japan, and the prefecture flag (a prefecture is like a state). I took this when taking care of stuff at the city hall.

On the 22nd, Cassie and I went to visit Omika Church of Christ, the church I used to attend when I was an exchange student. Afterwards there was a potluck and we did some singing with a few of the young people. You can see a couple of them in the picture below. The one on the far right is Saki, the girl who is interested in becoming baptized and the girl to my right is Maki. Maki is also not a Christian yet. I hope that she can become one soon. Maki recently just graduated from Ibaraki Christian. I went to school with her when I was an exchange student there.

On the 23rd, Cassie and I went to dinner with one of my students named Setsuko. Setsuko is very hard to teach the Bible too. She is more interested in the English aspect rather than the Bible aspect. After dinner, I had to return home because we got our first snowfall for the year. The pictures below are a couple pictures I took the next morning while walking.

For those of you who have been praying for Saki, I appreciate it. I have not been able to study with Saki the past couple of weeks because she has had final exams and reports to write for college. However, starting next Tuesday, the campus minister and I will have Bible studies with her for the month of February over baptism and what it means to be a Christian. Pray that these studies will be a success and that Saki's dad will allow for her to be a Christian. While it is not illegal in Japan to be a Christian, people look at it as very strange. Pray that this will all go smoothly and Saki can be a Christian soon. Once again you can see her picture above on the far right.

In one of my other classes, I am studying with a lady named Masako. Masako is the lady who believes that the Christian God created the Earth, but also that everything around us is a God. I think I may have come to the point where she sees how there can not be a Christian God and everything being a God. Last week, she decided she wanted to start from the beginning of the Bible to learn more about the Christian God. I feel like I am making some progress, but still have a long way to go! Please pray that Masako's heart will open up and that she will believe in the ONE and ONLY God!

Recently, another one of my friends said that he wanted to be a Christian so that he could be one of the big leaders of Ibaraki Christian one day. He thought that all the leaders had to be Christian. While that is not the case, it is the case for a couple of the positions only. However, I told him that also meant being a real Christian and not just a Christian to be leader. After a while we got to where he said he was interested in studying the Bible. It blew me out of the water. He is one of the last people I would ever expect to want to study the Bible. I will leave his name unknown for now, but please pray that I could also reach to my friend as well.

Last week, another one of my students who comes to my Bible studies at the college, spoke in chapel. I normally do not go to the school on Wednesday, but I decided last week would be a good idea to go and support him. He talked about how he really wanted to go to a big school in Tokyo but ended up at a Christian university. Before college, he was not a Christian or interested in Christianity. Since going to Ibaraki Christian, he has become interested in Christianity however. His speech talked about his plan and then God's plan for him. It was really well done. While Naoi is not a Christian, I hope that someday enough people can help him become one. Please pray that Naoi will also become a Christian soon and that people can say the right things to him to make him want to become a Christian.

Last night, I had a couple of the same guys and one new guy come over to the house again so that I could make them biscuits and gravy and eggs for breakfast. This is not in any way close to a Japanese breakfast. Most of the time a Japanese breakfast consist of fish, rice, nattou (fermitted soy beans) and tofu. Sounds healthy right? It probably is about 10 times more healthy than the biscuits and gravy we had this morning for breakfast. Last night we had dinner together as well before they came over and also went shopping for a little while at a used store.

I have also finally decided to give in and get a car. I really was not wanting one but it seems to becoming more of a necessity at times. After I become a teacher, it will be useful for a lot of things. I got the car for free but I am going to have to pay about $1500 for the every two year car inspection Japan requires on most cars. However, I am just thankful I will have a car. I have recently started to study for the driving test. You can see a picture of the car below. The car is a 2002 Toyota Raum

Well that is about all for now. I will update again here in a few weeks. I pray that this reaches each of you. If you have any questions, please contact me at jared.scism@alumni.oc.edu anytime. I would love to hear from you!

The First Two Weeks of the Year: READ IT ALL! TRUST ME, YOU WILL WANT TO KNOW!

皆さんこんにちは

Hello Everyone,

Well it has become a crazy past couple of weeks! After having such a long holiday, it was quite difficult to get back in the swing of things. However, things are starting to get on a roll again and things are really starting to pick back up. I recently started the Bible in a Year read and have been staying at it very well. I also have a goal to lose 1 kilogram a week this year which is 2.2 pounds. Pray that I can accomplish these things and can stay encouraged and not give up.

Well the 9th ended up being another holiday known as Coming of Age Day. Whenever you turn 20 in Japan, your are looked at as an adult and you have a celebration in the city you grew up in. This also means that you start paying taxes. Anyways, I also had another holiday on the 9th. Monday night, My girlfriend Cassie and I ended up going to eat dinner with her neighbors who are also English teachers.

Once Tuesday began, I went back to start my classes at Ibaraki Christian again. After my classes and the rest of the week through Friday I continued to meet with my normal students/studiers. On Friday, one of the guys I normally study with, Tamio, the one trying to figure out the meaning of life, decided not to come. I haven't had a chance to study with him lately, but I hope that he will come back soon because it seemed like he was barely beginning to be interested in what the meaning of life was.

On Friday night, we started up our youth group activities again. Last week we decided to go bowling. After having surgery on my arm this summer, it was very difficult for me to play because my arm is still very week. Overall it was a great time and Toru brought one of his friends again named Yuya. Overall I didn't do too bad with my left hand with a bowling score of 78.

On Sunday we had services as usual and a pot luck lunch. On Sunday night, I started a guitar learning class before worship services on Sunday night so that maybe more people would come to evening worship. It added a few extra people. This year I am trying Also on Sunday, I discovered that I was chosen to be an A.E.T. starting in April. An A.E.T. is an Assistant English Teacher. It has been very difficult for me to find the funds from churches to support me so I will begin my work as a vocational missionary starting in April. While I am very excited about it, I wish that could have remained being a missionary because ministry is where my heart is. However, I look forward to seeing the plans God has for me as a vocational minister starting in April as a teacher.

On Monday we had our monthly preachers luncheon. This time it was held at Tomobe Church and it lasted from about 10-2. After the preachers meeting, there was another meeting that discussed what the Church of Christ Tsunami Relief teams plans were for this year due to the fact that they are starting to run low on money as well. After that meeting finished about 5, we drove to Hitachi for a meeting to discuss what we thought of camp last December and finished that meeting about 8:30. Overall it was a day full of meetings and my brain was fried due to the amount of Japanese that was absorbed in my brain.

THIS IS THE PART YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.... On Tuesday I went to Ibaraki Christian for my typical day of English Bible studies that I have with the students. I normally always start out class with, "Tell me the best part of your week." This week, one of my students told me she was happy because she felt like she understood Christianity more after the sermon she heard on Sunday. There were just a few questions she still did not understand. After asking me the questions, the overall question she wanted to know was if this was the right time for her to become a Christian. She felt like that she didn't know enough information about the Bible. After hearing this, I immediately got my Bible and turned to the story about the Ethiopian Eunuch and had her read it in Japanese! I then told her me or the smartest Bible scholar has yet to know about everything in the Bible. After she read it and answering a few more questions, she told me that all of her questions had been answered and she had a warm feeling inside of her and that she wanted to be baptized. However, she needed to talk to her parents first. I sent her a message this morning and asked her how that was going and she said she talked to her mom, and that her mom wasn't upset about it. However, she is very scared to talk to her dad about it. Pray that this talk with her dad will go smoothly and work out. If it does, we will have some one on one Bible classes and hope she is prepared and ready enough to be baptized within the next month. Please pray that God works in this entire process and that Saki can become a Christian soon.

Yesterday we had our weekly Wednesday night Bible study. I talked about trying to find ways to be filled with God and the Holy Spirit and how it is essential for us to do so to withstand the Devil's temptation. If we are filled with the Spirit, it is contradictory to wanting to fall into the trap of sin. When Jesus was led into the desert, he was led by the Spirit and was able to keep from sinning. Therefore if we are filled with the Spirit, we can do the same thing. We each decided that one of the ways we an do this is through fasting, so we all made a commitment to fast from something we enjoy doing this week to try and be filled with the Spirit more.

Today I had a study with Setsuko. However, she only had 30 minutes so we were unable to get into a deep study about Jesus today because she needed go clean out her mom's home who passed away recently. Tonight, I will have my English class with Toru. Recently, I have been trying to help Toru also pass his TOEFL test so that he can enter Oklahoma Christian. Continue to pray for Toru and his studies so that he can pass this test. Also pray that I teach him in the right way and effective ways so that he can pass the test also.

Well that is about all this going on for now. I will be sure to give you another update on everything here in a few weeks. Once again, if you have questions please feel free to shoot me an email at jared.scism@alumni.oc.edu and I will be happy to answer them. Thanks for your prayers and support and may God bless you all!

Sorry, AGAIN its Late!

Hey Everyone,

Once again, I am so sorry it has taken me so long to write an update. Things have been so hectic here with Christmas and the New Year. While I have had vacation for the most part since the 16th of December, there has been many things that the Tomobe church has done as Outreach since then as well that has also made it not so much a holiday completely. In Japan, New Years is the biggest holiday but at the church we try to make a big deal out of Christmas due to the fact it is a Christian holiday and Japanese people are more open to it during the Christmas season. It has been an incredible month however and I am so glad that each of you have supported me through this time. It is really incredible to me that it was over 70 years ago that the Japanese attacked America at Pearl Harbor and that I can be a missionary here today.

On the 8th-15th, I went about my normal routine having my English/Bible Classes with my students. I challenged one of my students to come back after our Holiday Break and tell me how she can believe that both God and Shinto are both real. I am looking forward to her response in the next couple of weeks. I told you about her in the previous post. Her name is Masako. Please continue to pray for her as it seems like we are making very little but some process.

On the 10th, I held a Christmas party at my host family's house for students anywhere from high school age to college age. It was very incredible. We sang Christmas songs together and had lots of great fellowship. We also enjoyed many popular Christmas dishes that everyone brought that made them think of Christmas. For Japanese, they think that in America we have Christmas Chicken and Christmas cake, so some brought that. I made a ham ball that my mom makes at Christmas normally. Overall there were many traditional Christmas foods that people have for Christmas. At the end we played the Dirty Santa game. Before the night was over, everyone wanted to sing more and we ended up going into singing worship songs. Even a lot of the non Christian people there were so filled with joy. It was so powerful to see God work at such an event. In the end, about 20 people ended up coming.

A picture of everyone who came to the party

On the 12th, I went to the month Ibaraki Preacher's Meeting and Hitachi Christian Camp meeting. It always makes for a long day, especially since it is all Japanese. However, it is so great o be encouraged by such great men of God at these events. At the preachers meeting we discussed our plans for the All Japan Preachers Retreat next summer since the Ibaraki Preachers are responsible for planning it and then more about the good things going on in our lives. At the camp meeting we finished planning for our camp on the 26th-28th.

On the 14th, I was asked to speak at Ibaraki Christian University in chapel. It was more of like a series of chapels that were related to Christmas in one way or another. I talked about Eternal Life being the best gift/present that we can ever receive from God or gift to anyone.

Me speaking in chapel at IC

On the 15th-16th, we had Christmas parties for the children that come to our school at the church for English. We sang Christmas carols together, games and watched a short version video of the movie, The Christmas Carol. Afterwards, Santa (I) came out and gave all of the children gifts for Christmas. Over the entire two nights we had a little over 20 children all together.

Children's Christmas Party at Church

On the 17th, I took my girlfriend on our first date to a place in Tokyo known as Odaiba. We were able to watch Fireworks, a tree that changed colors show, eat at a nice restaurant, and take a picture with a cool background, walk on the beach while listening to some live music, and look at an amazing sky line view of Tokyo. It was an amazing night.

My girlfriend and I's first date

On the 19th, I was given tickets to go see the Japanese X-Bowl. They were given to me by one of the members who comes to the English/Bible classes at the church. At the beginning of the month, we had Christmas party for all the adults who were part of the school at church. While we were eating, a lady asked me if I had ever played American Football and if I liked it. Of course I said yes to both and she told me her husband played for a Club Team in Japan which is about as professional as they get in Japan and that the Japan version of the Super Bowl was the following week and that she would get me tickets if I wanted them. Therefore I ended up going to Tokyo the following week to watch the game and her husbands team won. It was a great time and I really enjoyed it.

Japanese Super Bowl

On the 21st, I went to a nursing home in Tomobe called Silver Village. At the nursing home, we sang Christmas carols for elderly people and showed them the shorter version of A Christmas Carol. After we finished, I was able to play Santa Claus once again and give cookies to the elderly people. It was great to see how happy they were that people came and took the time just to sing to them and spend some time with them to wish them a Merry Christmas.

Silver Village Nursing Home

Many of you may wonder how I celebrated Christmas this year. Due to the fact that Christmas was on a Sunday, I ended up celebrating Christmas with my girlfriend on the 23rd. For Christmas dinner we made Hamburgers and Velveeta and Rotel Dip for our Christmas dinner.(However on the 24th we had a traditional ham, mashed potatoes, and green bean cassrole kind of dinner with my host family.) We also shared gifts with each other and also enjoyed opening some gifts her parents sent us in the mail as well.

Our tree and the gifts

On the 24th, we had our Christmas Eve worship service at the church building. It involved a brief message from Marlin the minister as well as a couple of members from the church and Cassie and me acting out the birth of Jesus. While the play was short, we had to do it ALL in Japanese. I was Joseph and Cassie was Mary. After the lesson and the play, we had a gift exchange and fellowshipped with one another and ate a popular dish together known as Oden.

My Girlfriend and I as Joseph and Mary

On the 25th, I had the opportunity to preach again. I ended up talking about how God and Santa Claus relate again kind of like I did at Ibaraki Christian. However, I changed the meaning of the sermon to be Kamisama's coming to town which means God is coming to town. While we know when Santa comes every year, we have no idea as to when God will come back. We will judged in the Book of Life whether we have been bad or good just as Santa chooses whether we have been bad or good enough to give us coal or presents. Overall it went really well. The only problem was I did not have enough confidence to speak in Japanese completely so I had a translator again. I am hoping before long I can do it on my own though.

Preaching at Church on Christmas Day

From the 26th-28th, I attended the coldest church/retreat I have ever been on. We ended up going to Hitachi Christian Camp to have camp and work on some cabins. During the night, it got down to about 20-25 and it was very cold. There is also no form of electricity there or very much running water which meant now heaters or showers. However, by the time we ended camp, we were able to finish the cabin we were putting windows in. Also, I was asked to give a small devotional talk at the camp at the morning campfire devotional. I ended up giving my first devotional in Japanese only. While it was challenging, I felt like I got the point I wanted to get across that God gives breathe every day and we should be thankful for each morning that we are alive. After camp, it was nice to get home and have nice warm shower and feel clean again.

Just Finished Putting in a Window

Everyone who came to Camp

On the 30th, I went with some of the old students I attended Omika Church with two years ago and my girlfriend to go see the Broadway musical, The Lion King. Although it was in all Japanese, it was one of the best shows I have ever watched before. I hope that someday I can see the English version in New York City.

Everyone who went to see The Lion King

On the 31st, I went to Karaoke with one of the church members for a few hours. After Karaoke, I went with another one of the church members to have dinner. After the dinner we met up with another church member and watched a movie together at his apartment. After the movie was finished, it was time to go to the church to go and pray for the start of our New Year.

Karaoke Room

As I mentioned earlier, New Years is a bigger holiday here than Christmas is and most of the Japanese people have the first week of the New Year off. That has made this first week of the New Year quite slow as it has just been a week to relax and do nothing. On the 3rd I went back to Tokyo to watch the American Football Japan Championship game between the number 1 pro/club team and the number one college team. I know that is not how it goes in America, but that is the way the Japanese do it. I think it would be quite a game to see the Super Bowl Champions face the number one college team in America. Anyways, other than that everything has been kind of chill and slow this week. Next Monday is another holiday in Japan known as the Coming of Age Day. This is for everyone who will turn 20 in Japan this year. At this time, those who turn 20 are considered adults from that day forward. It is kind of a big deal in Japan so I will not begin working again until next Tuesday. I will try to do better at keeping you updated from here on out. I am sorry for the long post. I just wanted to get you up to date on everything. If any of you have any questions about whats going on, please don't hesitate to email me at jared.scism@alumni.oc.edu anytime. I would love to hear from you. Thank you all for your prayers and support and may God bless you all.

Week 11 & 12

みんなさん、こんばんは！ Good evening everyone!

I am sorry it has been a long time since I wrote you last. Things have been somewhat busy recently and they are starting to slow down somewhat once again because of the New Year approaching. However, we still have many Christmas parties to do before the real holiday comes in. However, things have started to wind down.

The past few Saturdays have been very busy. On the 19^th, Tomobe Church hosted a night where a group from a couple of churches in Hitachi came to teach us new songs. The group is called Accapella Praise Night. The singing was great and very uplifting. Afterwards Marlin and Jeanne and I went to eat with some of the young people who were singing group.

Acappella Praise Night Team

The young people we ate with afterwards

On the 20^th we had church as usual. The 21^st we took a trip to Costco in Tokyo. For those of you who do not know what Costco is, they are supposably all over America. They are like a Sam’s Club where you have to be a member. While we were there we picked up food supplies for church camp as well as some personal supplies. It was nice to be able to get some things from America as well. After shopping we went to Omika church to plan more for church camp at the end of the month.

Costco in Tokyo Japan

On the 22^nd and 23^rd were holidays. I ended up going to Shizuoka on the 23^rd with the other young people from Tomobe church to an all church worship. It was great to see some older friends I had not seen in a while and meet some Christian brothers and sisters that I had been told to meet from people in America but had not yet had the chance to meet them. The singing was incredible as most churches in Japan have such few people that it is hard to have the same kind of singing you would hear in an American church.

Everyone who came to the all church worship

You could see Mt. Fuji from the building where we had the worship

On the way to the all church worship

I continued my normal class schedule on the 24^th and 25^th. On Friday, I generally meet with a man by the name of Tamio. Tamio is not so interested in Christianity but wants to know what his purpose in life is. I believe I told you in the last post that we are reading the book Purpose Driven Life together. The past couple of weeks he has seemed to understand the meaning of it more but still has a hard time grasping how to comprehend it and put it into action. Pray that his heart will soften and that he will understand that this is a process he cant do on his own to figure out life but that he needs God to help him understand his life more. After my classes were over that night, I had the young people over to the house for our young people activity and devo at the house. We played video games in my bedroom. We had about five or six people show up.

On Saturday the 26th, we had a Thanksgiving dinner at the church building and invited everyone in the community. All together we had about 25-35 people from the church and the community come. We had everything from Turkey and dressing to mashed potatoes to sweet potatoes. Many people were wanting to know if I still got to enjoy Thanksgiving and the answer is yes. While it was not the same as Thanksgiving at home, it was close enough. Also, while we were there, I met a few new young people and tried talking to them as much as I could since they do not know English. By the end of the night we were joking together and enjoyed talking to each other. I ended up inviting them to a Christmas party by the end of the night and they seemed very interested in coming. I hope that they will come again this week so I can try to find ways to build my relationship with them.

Everyone enjoying Thanksgiving Dinner

Everyone Who Came

The Food. Yes some people actually brought sushi

More of the food

On the 27^th, I was able to have a Bible Study with my student Masako again. Masako seems to be at a very confused state. Recently we have been studying about God. She told me that she believes that God was the one who created the Earth. However she also believes the Japanese (Shinto) way that everything that exists is a God. I told her that if God created everything and God wants no other Gods to exist then how could everything be God. She is still having a hard time grasping how to understand that. However, I feel that we have made a little progress. Pray that Masako might come to realize how it is not possible for both to happen. I gave her homework to think about it because we will have a month before we can meet again. Please be praying that she may come to a realization of some kind during this time.

One of the days I had been really looking forward to is the 28^th to come. In the morning and afternoon, I went to Ibaraki Christian to teach my classes. After I finished, the time had finally come to see my girlfriend Cassie. It had been 80 days since I had seen my girlfriend and it was becoming very difficult for us to both be so far apart and have completely different schedules. However, she finally arrived on the 28^th in Japan to become an elementary teacher assistant. It was so great to finally see her and spend some time with her. We spent the day Wednesday together and even went to Ibaraki Christian so that she could meet some of my students. Afterwards we went to the beach and then had dinner with some of my friends who are teaching in Mito. (Allen and Laura). Afterwards we came home. The rest of the week Cassie went with me to watch my classes and the things I do at work. On Saturday, we finally got her moved into her apartment and settled in.

Eating Sushi with Cassie after she arrived

Noriko and Yuuki took me to the airport to get her. These are some of Cassie's good friends.

Well I am going to stop there for now. I will write another update here in a couple weeks again rather than in the next 2 and a half weeks. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me by email at jared.scism@alumni.oc.edu

Thank you all for your support and prayers and may God continue to bless you!

Jared