A look back at the first trimester of the 2023-2024 school year!
11/20/23
I spent all of July back in the States with my family. I was able to catch up with some friends, eat some American food that I’ve been missing, and see everyone at my home church. It was such a good time.
August saw the return to Tokyo. I’m working at the same international Christian school that I was working at last year, and I’m still the 5th grade teacher. There are a few things that are very different between last year and this year though.
The students are always going to be different of course, but the biggest thing that’s different about them is how many there are. Last year, I had 12, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but for our tiny school, that was max capacity. This year, I only have 6. It’s a very different atmosphere.
Also, I actually have lesson plans now! Last year, I spent what felt like every waking moment doing lesson plans, but now I can actually be done with work once I clock out. I don’t do anything for school on the weekends at all! Praise the Lord!
The stress level between last year and this year has reduced significantly mostly due to those two factors mentioned above, and I’ve felt like I’ve actually started to be able to enjoy being in Japan now. Some of that may also be due to the fact that not everything about Japan is new for me anymore. That’s not to say that I’m fluent in Japanese or know everything about Japan now, but I’m at least not starting at square one.
Something fun is that I’ve officially joined the worship team at the church I’m attending here. That means that I’m actually getting to know people at the church, and I feel a bit more like I have a community.
It’s also been really fun to coordinate a team of prayer intercessors who are each praying for one student in the school. I’m praying that God will use those prayers in a powerful way for these kids.
I just have to brag about these students for a moment here. There are some students attending who come from Christian households, but there are a decent number of them who their parents just sent them here for English. However, regardless of age or anything, the students in our school love Bible class the most, and they really, truly enjoy learning about Jesus. There’s one student in my class who just loves Jesus so much. Her parents are not Christians, and so the only time she has ever learned about Jesus was through our school. But, when this 11-year-old girl prays, you can tell that she is talking straight to her Father, and I’m blown away by the faith this girl has. There was one time that a few of the other students in my class were talking about North Korea—how many people think that Kim Jong-Un’s sister will end up being the next dictator after him and that she might be even worse than him. It was the first time this student had heard of any of this, and she just shrugged her shoulders and said, “Well, I’ll just pray that God will change her heart.” Sometimes, I think as an adult I get too caught up in the way the world is that I forget how powerful God is. This student’s solution was so simple and so full of faith. That will always stick with me.
Anyway, I’m feeling incredibly blessed here in both this opportunity and in the Christian community that is here. Please pray that God continues to bless the students that I work with and that I would not hinder anything that God wants to say to them. Also, please pray for health as the weather changes and for the prayer intercessors so that they will continue to be faithful and pray daily for these students.
The winter trimester is going to start next week, and I’m going to be going back to the States during our Christmas break in December. I’ll try to update again during that time. In the meantime, thank you once again for all of your prayers.
The Brave, Little Ninja 