A great travesty befell my little domicile just moments ago – I discovered that I cannot view LOST or The Office on my laptop while i’m out of the country.  Something like they know I’m in Japan, and the shows aren’t released here yet…soooo, I’m stuck!  How terrible is that??!  I don’t think I’m going to know what to do with myself.  It’s like a whole piece of my life has just been ripped away from me. 

On a more enthusiastic note, the Bible Times went really well in my classes today…at least I think they did.  Brian handled the little kids class…but I do the ladies’ class myself.  They have a pretty good handle on English, but I also have Nakayama-san (our Anna, of Luke 2) in there to translate what little she can and explain the Bible Stories if there is any confusion.  Today, we read through the Easy Reader’s Bible story of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin.  They are small stories, but really hard for them to understand.  I remember when I was in China, the first one to come to Christ did so after going through these stories and the story of the Prodigal Son.  They have always meant something special to me and I was so excited that we were at the point to cover them.  The ladies had a hard time…one was Tomoko who had come on Saturday to International Cafe.  I found out that she works for a bank here in Shimonoseki, and lives in Chofu.  She and Reiko-san were very interested in my activities during the holiday break we’ll have in a couple weeks.  But, back to the Bible…we went through the story, connecting the dots between the characters in the parables and the events in heaven.  Nakayama-san had to do extra work in explanation, but I ended it by saying that at one time I was a lost sheep, I was a lost coin.  But I’m so happy that God cares enough about me that He went out to find me.  And he cares about you that much too.  It was really neat.  I’m praying that they think about that over the next few weeks.  I won’t see them again for three weeks.  Reiko-san will be doing a special tea ceremony in two days at a shrine near Karato and the big bridge.  It’s a beautiful shrine…but it makes me wonder how much religion is connected with the tea ceremony.  I almost wish that there wasn’t this semi-permanent ban on visiting the shrines, because I would love to see the ceremony and learn about it. 

Also, Rinka, in my Tues Super Kids class, could not keep her finger out of her nose.  You all would be proud of me, I did not freak out.  I simply motioned for her to remove it and then watched in horror as she licked her finger.  Surprisingly, I still love that kid.  🙂