Not quite dead!

Wow. I really have to appologize. It's been a super busy fall with lots of surprises thrown in. (Like my computer suffering a mental breakdown...)

Lets see. I had a birthday. It was good. Because of my schedule, I kinda ended up celebrating for almost two weeks straight. Haha. Then started the long haul of big events, meetings and celebrations.

Halloween is a big event for my school here. This year we tried to do a more "Harvest Festival" style with booths and stuff. It went pretty well, and next year I hope it can get a bit bigger. That was followed by Thanksgiving, (with barely enough time to prepare another big event). This year I tried a pot luck thanksgiving. There weren't as many people, but I think it went well for the first time.

Somewhere in there was also Fall Retreat. This is one of the two yearly meetings where all the missionaries come together. It's fun, but it's stressful as well. Good news is this year we went to the beach! It was really great.

Then came super big event. Christmas. Wow. This year I had a big Christmas event. I spent three weeks teaching all my kids classes to sing "Away in a Manger." This song is not so well known in Japan, but I thought it would be good to introduce it. They sang at the event. It was really super cute. I'll post a video of them singing it later. Then the drama class performed an English Christmas drama. There was carol singing and a message. Then we played some games and of course a present exchange. Now, here is some important info. I wanted to reach a large variety of people, so this was "family style" so my kids came and so did the adults. (this way parents can also hear the Christmas message) But the big addition this year was... Trash Box Jam! Yep, the band came and played at the end of the party. This was amazing! I thought maybe we would have 50 or 60 people. (my events average 20-30 for a good event, although I have gotten up to 50 before.) But somewhere between 80-90 people came!!! I was shocked. Some of the fans from the band came, and this was the first time in a church or in a sancuary for some of them. And this was the first Church Christmas event for most. It was a great chance for the seed of God's word to be planted in them. I was really really excited. I was also really exausted. haha. But it was all worth it.

I'm always so amazed at God's grace. I know there are so many things I fail at. So many things I can be doing better. But God continues to amaze me with His awesome love and grace. Especially at this time of year, when I'm reflecting on what has happened. It's so easy for me to be negative and find all the faults in myself and what I did wrong in the past year. But more and more I can see all the things that God has done instead. It's amazing. It's good to put things in the proper perspective. Or at least a closer perspetive. I guess it's like being a character in a book. When I was a kid (and maybe even still now) I'd imagine I was a character in a book. Of course, I always thought I was a main character. The book was about me. But recently, I'm realizing how the book is not about me. I'm not the main character. At most I can be a supporting character. Maybe the friend who doesn't understand everything that's going on, but still follows and supports the main character. (ok, maybe that is more stereotypical of manga and anime...) When I first realized that, I was a bit sad. Yeah, everyone wants to be the main character. But really, the main character is Jesus. It's amazing that I even get to be included in the story! The more I can let go of my pride and desire to be reconized or in the spotlight, the more I can enjoy watching what God is doing around me. eh, I hope that made sense to someone other than me. Hahaha.

Anyway. Those are my thoughts for now. There are still things to do, but hopefully things will calm down in January. I'll be sure to post more pictures later.