That is my cultural lesson for this week!! Japanese toilets areextremely complicated. There are tons of different buttons to push,none of which I understand. On Sunday I thought I was pushing thebutton that flushed the toilet, and instead pushed one that sprayswater up. So I was experiencing a "I Love Lucy" moment at a very nicehotel with water spraying everywhere. I couldn:t figure out whatbutton to push. After about 30 seconds it finally stopped, buteverything was soaked. Lesson of the day: Never push buttons you can:tread!
On a more serious note....classes have been going very well. We havegained a few students in some classes and lost a few in others. A lotof our students are VERY excited about the Christmas Party on Saturdaynight, so expectations are pretty high.
If you have any ideas of simple, no-bake desserts that we could makewith the Preschoolers mothers on Thursday mornings send them our way!Today they did a neat craft with Melissa and had a good conversationabout their life goals.
Melissa had her first experience with the reality of spiritualenslavement. At one of the home:s she teaches in theya re notChristians, and spend an elaborate amount of money on food for thealtar. They are constantly trying to do good things that will bettertheir position in eternity. Very sad. They need to know the only Way,Truth and Life. Pray for that family. Pastor & Mrs. Ito and the twoof us will be having lunch with the wife and son in a few weeks.
Pray this week for creativity as we plan and clarity as we teach.
Pray for Pastor Ito and his wife as they faithfully serve the saintshere and reach out to their community in the name of Christ.
Pray for the presentation of the Gospel at the Christmas Party onSaturday, that seeds would be planted. Pray also that relationshipswould be built between church members and students from our classes.
Thank you so much for your prayers!
Anna

Thank you for your prayers this week!
Here:s a rundown on my classes:Every day 9-10am, my precious six little preschoolers. Yuma, Kokona,Koji, Riku, Rin, Miho. They are wonderful. We have learned ouralphabet, 1-15, colors, some body parts, and started on farm animalstoday. They are so precious. They ahve also learned Jesus Loves Me,Head and SHoulders, Twinkle Twinkle, and ABC in English. They aresinging in church on Sunday for a special father:s day service. I alsowill be talking about Dad, and being a godly father. Pray for that.
Kids English Tuesday/Thursday 4:30-5:30- six little kids. We are doinga lot of TPR, like touch/walk/sit/stand/open/close/pick up. They areelementary kids taht used to attend the chruch:s preschool.
Adult English Tuesday/Thursday 7-8:30 - three highschoolers and twoyounger adults from the church. The know a lot of grammer but need alot of work in pronunciation and conversation.
Wednesday Kids at Aoki Home 4:30-5:30- eight elementary kids that livein the Aoki:s neighborhood. They are such an amazing Christian coupleand are really reaching out to their neighbors. Pray that theseEnglish classes will open doors.
Wednesday Adults at Aoki Home 7-8:30- four highschool students and anolder couple that many in the church have been witnessing to. Theyinvited us to their home. Pray that they will come and hear theChristmas message on Saturday night.
Friday kids 4:30-5:30. 10-20 kids ages 4 to 2nd grade. Quite a blast!
Saturday Teachers - 2-3:30 - Five teachers from the tutoring center.This is my most academic class and each student purchased a text book.They are very serious students. They are also close to me andMelissa:s age, so we are hoping that some friendships will develop.
Melissa has her own set of classes.
Few cultural observations from this week:
We had the opportunity to go to a ten year memorial dinner for a manthat went to the church. In Japan you have a memorial service andspecial dinner on the 3rd, 7th, and 10th year after someone dies. Wealso went up the mountain to a hotel for a traditional Japanesedinner. We sat on the tatami and ate everything with chopsticks. Therewere over 15 different dishes (mostly raw fish).
Japanese do not linger when they are getting ready to leave like we doin America. We were shocked a few times when the evening was windingup and they quickly packed their bag and seemingly fled to the car.There:s no fifteen minutes of goodbyes. The first time we thought wehad done something to offend them!
So, pray for all of my students. I am loving getting to know them.Pray for Pastor and Mrs. Ito. It can be very lonely pastoring inJapan. A hard ministry. But they are faithfully serving. Pray that wewould bring many people into the church that the Ito:s can follow upwith.
PRAY ESPECIALLY FOR SATURDAY NIGHT. We are doing a big outreach night.We are inviting all of our students and we are having a themed night.This week it is Christmas in America. We are planning to tell thestory of Jesus birth and give a clear gospel presentation.
Thank you all so much for your prayers!
Anna Martin

Six days...