Here are the three main ones for this year.

Saturday, December 14, 2002
This was the day I went to the Christmas party at one of the schools where I work. This is the one I’m quitting. One of the teachers likes to turn the music up really loud, every year, so to talk to the person next to you, you had to shout your head off. There was a lot of food everywhere and I was really hungry before I went in, but I suddenly had absolutely no appetite. I did get to spend time with some of my students and met/saw some interesting people. Everybody was eating and drinking a lot. Nobody got drunk, but everyone was … “merry.”

• An Australian who is 25% English, 25% Indian, 25% Dutch, 25% Zulu. He came to Japan to study martial arts and teaches English for a living. He wants to meet with Papa to talk about demonology.
• A young Japanese who just came back from Scotland and spoke with an extremely thick Scottish accent. It was totally bizzarre. He was back in Japan to work for 2 years, then planned to head back to Scotland to get an MBA and settle down there. He asked me for his my phone number, but didn’t get it.
• A nice American English teacher with his Japanese wife who spoke perfect English. He will be taking over 2 of my classes. I was very relieved they would be in good hands. I liked those 2 classes very much.
• An English teacher from Seattle named Elijah. From his conversation with the 25% guy, it was obvious he didn’t believe in God. I wanted to ask him how he got his name, but didn’t get to. I mean, that’s not a common name in secular circles, is it?
• Another English teacher looking for a job. He somehow showed up at the party complaining loudly that my boss would not give him an interview, then proceeded to eat and drink a lot, trying to pick up girls the entire time. All the other teachers were disgusted, but somehow nobody kicked him out.

I went home with my brains whirring with a slight headache and teetering on the brink of vowing to myself there was absolutely no way I was going to go to a secular school.

Saturday, December 21, 2002
My church had its annual Christmas service/Christmas party. On this day, church members invite friends and relatives to hear the Gospel and the true meaning of Christmas. This year, we had comparatively few visitors compared to the last couple years because the weather was pretty bad all day, at least by Tokyo standards: sleet and a bit of snow. Still there were more than 60 non-Christians who attended the service. Papa gave a short sermon (about 15 minutes, as opposed to the 60-80 minutes on Sundays) and all the Sunday School classes sang songs and recited the Bible. Afterwards, everyone sat around talking and eating the goodies the church mothers stayed up the night before making.

I invited all my students and their families to the party, passing out 65 invitations and inviting about 100 people. A lot of them were going to come, but only 12 showed up. The others cancelled because of the weather.

Everyone who came seemed to be quite happy to come and listen. Naturally, they are more open to hearing about Christ around Christmastime than at other times of the year. I had a chance to talk to them a bit afterwards about the Gospel, but no matter what they are told, people seem to tend to treat it as a “Christmas story” that doesn’t pertain to the rest of the year.

All in all, though, it was very blessed and I hope God will work in the hearts of those who came that day.

Tuesday, December 24, 2002
Tomorrow, I’ll be having the party for my private students, about three-fourths church kids, one-fourth non-Christian kids. This year, some of the older church kids in the advanced class prepared short stories in English and Japanese to read to the rest of the kids who are a lot younger, mostly ages 5 to 8.

The Kanno sisters, Mikuni (10) and Miwaza (12) are writing about the Creation and the Fall, Shou (13) about the Birth of Christ, and Kento (13) about the Cross and the Resurrection. They will read the stories in English and Japanese, alternating one sentence at a time.

Before each class or class gathering, we always sing the Lord’s Prayer, recite the 10 Commandments (Deuteronomy 5:6-21, “King James” Version), and sing the Apostle’s Creed. I hope and pray these words will strengthen the faith of the children who believe, and the seeds of the Gospel sown in the hearts of the little children who do not yet believe will be gathered sometime in the future.