Late One Night Worshiping Next to the Arakawa

Last Saturday was one of the best nights I've had here in Japan. . . I met up with some good friends, Noel and Keisuke, to go bowling. We ended up playing pool and playing random games but it was fun. Later we met up with Noel's future roommate Hideyuki and headed down to the Arakawa to worship. It was great. Afterwards these amazing men walked me home which is really far by foot!!!! It took us probably an hour to walk home!!! I had a bike but these guys wanted to make sure I'd get home okay. . . Crazy boys!!!!

Noel . . .it was his second time playing pool.

For some strange reason we were forced to order some food each. . .so the boys ordered icecream. . here is Keisuke looking really creepy.

Okay, so I ordered Gingerale and for 40 yen more you could make it bigger. . in Japanese sizes I thought it would be more like a 16 oz cup . . .it was more like a SUPER gulp.

Keisuke giving Noel tips

I have no idea. . .

Me being a Samurai. . .but later corrected. . ."that's not how Samurai hold a sword". mmmm. . .

Noel was too excited to play race car games. . he likes F1. . .but I didn't want to and Keisuke wasn't tooo thrilled at the idea either. Later we all played Mario Cart. . I sucked.

Us being dangerous. . ..sorry mom

mmm. . . it's actually pretty common to see people riding tandom. . maybe not standing up.

I tried to stnad up but Keisuke scared me too much and I ended up just sitting on the back.

weirdo

We had soo much fun

I got thirsty. . hehehehe

It was soooo nice

I got sleepy though. . but not really

maybe a little hungry

Hideyuki is sooo funny.

Noel is soo mean to me. . .he's always kicking and beating me.

they couldn't get their legs up high enough ;)

Yeah, I'm pretty lucky to have such hot, kind, amazing, etc friends ;)

Hope you enjoyed. Love you all.

Raise

Hello,


Sorry, it's been soooooo long since I've updated my blog :( I've been pretty busy with work and getting the magazine up by the 30th and I've just been blog lazy. Nothing huge to update except that our second issue of "Raise" will be up on the 30th of this month!!! I'm pretty excited since I contributed a lot more this time with photography and graphics. I hope that you guys enjoy it. Please again let me know what you think of the images and the graphics. Our magazine wants to grow spiritually but also competitively. The website is at www.jlhraise.com Please check it out.

Other then the magazine. . .I'm going to be home in less then 2 months!!! A month and 8 days!!! I'm really excited. . I'm excited too because I found tickets from Oregon to California for only 200 dollars on Yahoo Travel. Maybe God will make it possible for me to come down for a few days. . . but I really can't afford 200 dollars so pray for provision :) I know He can provide a simple ticket.

School in America has finished for the summer but in Japan we still have another 3 weeks of school but it will zoom by.

Oh, a prayer request. . .so I've started to see if it's possible to start my business here targeting the foreigners here. There is a HUGE number of expats here and I will see if it's possible to start my business here but I am also checking out my choices in Oregon too. I have written my families family photographer who just went all digital and I've heard he's a bit swamped to see if I could get a job with him while starting up my business. He's in my parent's town, Silverton, and I want to start my business in Portland/ Portland greater area if possible. So it shouldn't be conflicting. But the editor at the online magazine I"m working for really would like to get all of us who are the team paid jobs if possible. . . . but I'd still like to have my own business if possible.

Please pray :) I know that teaching English isn't my life calling but I'm still enjoying it for now. Yayyayay!


Love you all,

Melody

Kamihira Jr. High School Update

Last Wednesday and Thursday all the jr. high schools in Ageo (8) competed against each other in sports. I was able to see tennis, soccer, and baseball compete which was pretty fun. Here are some pics from those days.





These are the 2nd year students in the baseball club cheering on the 3rd year players. They lost this game 1-2.



Tennis boys. . .second year students too.



Here are some 3rd year girl tennis players.

It was interesting to see all the different students play and to be able to see students from other schools. I've decided that blue is the color of choice for Ageo becuase everyone had a different version of blue for their track suits. Ours are a deep blue with gold strips down the side.

I think that over all a school called Oishi (large stone) won. Oishi is different then other jr. high schools because they have more credentials and have international credentials or something like that . . . sooo a lot of students study abroad and vise versa. In jr. high most students go to the school nearest them but students all over Saitama come to Ageo to go to Oishi. Their teams were always 2 or 3 times the size of our school and our school isn't too small.

I had a lot of fun at the sports event.


Another day. . .




I teach a special eds class here in Japan too. . . which is my FAVORITE class of all. I LOVE these students. Such kind souls and are almost always joyful and energetic. Here they are making spagetti for home ec. class. I was able to join in with them and also partake in eating it too :)





Yuto is s sweetheart.



Toshimasa speaks really good english and enjoyed class.


I hope you enjoyed my little update of school life. I am soooo blessed with such a good school. God is good.

Jesus Lifehouse

Hello Friends and Family,

How are you all doing? Sorry it has taken me awhile to update my blog but here we go.

Recently I've been helping out with my church's magazine and helping get it started. We've finally gotten it up and it's online. It is an online magazine called "Raise" and it's pretty cool. :) You should check it out at www.jlhraise.com . if you have problems with uploading it let me know but you may need to try more then once or refresh it. I think we got all the bugs taken care of but maybe not. We'll see. . it's a learning process.

I'm pretty proud of all the amazing people who worked on it. Please pray for us because we are headed onto the next issue and are wanting to start getting more stuff submitted and start filing stuff away for other issues. Please pray for people to step up and write :) Also pray for the leadership of this magazine. . most if not all of us have never really done much leadership and haven't really started a magazine so. . . . we are trusting in God a lot.

Please pray for me with photography and graphic design. . . . I didn't do much the first issue but I have more repsonsibilities this next issue and am scared!! :) But I'll do my best and trust in God to step up.

Here are some photos





worship



Assistant pastor Ryuta



People worshiping



More band shots