Life continues to fly by as we adjust to becoming a family of four. Felicity is now more than a month old, and is already a rather large 11 pound baby who just loves to be held. Many have commented about how content and peaceful she always seems, which she is as long as she’s not hungry and being cradled in someone’s arms. We’ve managed to catch a few smiles here and there, more often than not directed at her big brother. The kids seem to be getting along pretty well so far.
After taking a month off of English Cafe I was a little concerned that we wouldn’t have many people show up at our last one, however it ended up being one of our biggest turnouts in months. One girl from our church invited 5 non Christian friends, including her boss at work, who all attended. In addition a number of college students who are involved in the a Christian Club at Iwate University also attended. I was talking to the leader of the club who was excited to see that we were continuing the English Cafe as there were other students who also were interested in practicing English that he was planning to invite. Many of the members of the club are not Christians (yet) but are interested in Christianity. Please continue to pray for open hearts and the building of good relationships through this monthly outreach. Our next English Cafe will be November 21st.
Christmas is also fast approaching and even now preparations for Christmas events and outreaches are beginning. Our family got cast in starring roles in the Church Christmas pagent, with Tomo playing Mary, me Joseph and Felicity Baby Jesus. Titus is content to be a sheep (although he’s a little disappointed he couldn’t be a solider), and has been practicing his lines: “Meh Meh, Mow, Mow” which is Japanese for “Baa Baa”.
I’m still studying hard for the N2 Japanese Proficiency test in a little over a month. This is looking to be the most difficult one for me to pass, particularity as the number of Kanji I need to know has jumped dramatically compared to the N3 test. I’m studying lots of flash cards and running through a couple of Japanese learning apps on my smart phone. It’s hard to believe that in 4 and a half months I’ll be graduating from language school and starting out into full time church ministry. I’m excited and nervous to finally be reaching this stage of ministry after so many years of preperation. Please pray for my remaining time of full time language learning to be productive and for preparation for serving the church here in Morioka and throughout Iwate.