My Japanese lunchbox (obento)

Please pray for Japan

News of disaster travels fast, so you probably already know about the disastrous tsunami and earthquake that hit Japan. I know that no disaster is insignificant to God and that every human life is precious to him. I just want to urge you to remember to pray for Japan and the people of Japan. And continue to have hope in our God who is the only one able to bring about anything redemptive in such a tragedy. Thank you for your hopeful prayers to our faithful Creator. Here is a link to a video if you want: http://video.foxnews.com/v/4580245/massive-earthquake-and-tsunami-hit-japan

Okinawa: A Brief Photo shoot

Visiting the Pandas (in China)

While I was in China over Christmas, I went to visit a research facility that's working on preventing the extinction of the Giant Pandas of China. Here are some pictures from my great panda adventure:

I wonder how well it pays being the person who gets to play with baby pandas all day?

How many baby pandas can you find?

This is called a Red Panda, it looks like a mix between a fox and a raccoon.

Sweet sorrow

November 30th was the last day for one of my kindergarten students. He is moving back to Osaka (mainland Japan) to live with his Dad. He and his Mom were living here in Okinawa just so he could attend our school. It is the only Christian Japanese School there is. In a way it is good that the family will be reunited, but it is always hard to say goodbye. I only knew Kousho for 3 months, but I enjoyed him so much. He is such a bright boy with so much energy. He loves to laugh and have fun and make his friends laugh. He wasn't always the easiest student to manage, but he is such a loving boy and has a very infectious smile. I miss him so much and our class is not the same without him. There is a certain level of life and energy that is missing in our class now and no one can quite replace it. You always feel a special connection to your first class as a teacher, and losing one student, even after only a short time of teaching them, leaves it's mark. Kousho, 大好き! (I love you!)