We did it we finished a first year of English. Praise God. We had a fun day after our ESL exercises we then had some cake and played some rowdy UNO. The kids play it differently and it is more like a free for all but in the end there is always a surprise. I love these guys. Praise God they are coming back for another year. 
Today we had a Ladies Easter Tea. We invited Rutsuko Bedow to share her music with the ladies Mark comes as a extra perk since he mixes the sound and also sing; or is it mixes the singing and does sound? We also had some other men come. In fact, the men out numbered the women. But that is okay it was a blessed time to remember our Lord and his sacrifice for us. Rutsuko was a surprise as she was really a powerful singer. She is the quietest and most humble person you could meet but then there is a giant of a singer that comes out and wow we were all so blessed. The kids even loved her. We had some great fellowship and time in the Lord. Praise God for his goodness and for good friends like the Bedows. 
Jane has finished her first year at the Iruma Youchien. They had a celebration and time of fun. Afterward the mom's and kids went to the park to eat a sandwich and play. Jane will go back to School in about 3 weeks and she will be in the upper class. 
Leaving the freezing park we all headed over to Yokota where we were blessed to get signed on and we went bowling. The families all had a blast. The kids were cranking away at their games and getting all serious. The Dads were plowing through buffalo wings and chili fries and Thai Food. It was awesome. They had the "Thai Spice" No.46 dish from the restaurant in Newport Beach. It tasted awesome. The mom's were the spiritual ones. As the real meaning for us to gather together is for the mom's to engage and encourage each other in the word. They had a Bible study right there in the Bowling alley. It was such a blessing to see them just go for it amongst all the noise. There were a lot of folks checking it out too. Some people know some of the mom's and it was a great testimony. Mihoko handed out one of the Bible studies and invited a Lady to come and join them. She may next time. So we had an awesome time. Thank you to the family that blessed us all with privileges on base. That is what we do with prayer I believe. For our Non-Christian friends we bring them into the Kingdom of God in Prayer and request privileges to just bless them and minister to them to show them God's love. What a great day.
We have started to hang out with some like minded Home Schooling families and we had a blast playing at a park in Tachikawa. They had this rubber jumping thing that the kids just went crazy over. This was a small one there was supposedly a larger one on the other side of the park but it was being repaired. The kids had fun the parents froze so we went to Bowling next.
It seems like over night the seasons change here in Japan. Being from California I have never really experienced the seasonal changes that occur. We had at the beginning of the week alot of snow dumped on us and then by Friday the blossoms are blooming like crazy. I noticed birds chirping and also many bugs are back. That is one thing I love about winter is no bugs. We went to a homeschoolers meeting and met at a park. It was beautiful but there was still a very cold wind blowing. In the sun it was warm out but that wind just cut like a knife so we played a little and then went bowling. But the trees in the park are just lovely. Yes I said lovely they are really beautiful. 
We got a good bit of snow this last week. Although as I type this it has all melted. We had a warming trend and then wham a front came through with some cold temps and it was snowing and snowing and well we got about 1 to 2 inches. We had to shovel part of the church driveway. It is a steep slope and as we got to the bottom we hit a patch of snow that caused our car to momentarily slide a few inches that caused us all great concern in the car. Then, as I being the skillful California kid, over compensated with gassing the car and sliding more we had a stomach knot of panic. We did not hit anything but it was very...well fun so to speak. Like we can laugh now but we weren't laughing then. So we got out and tried to shovel snow. It wasn't as easy as we thought. We actually were successful at pushing it around but didn't clear it all the way. I tried water but that wasn't good either. So we let God help us out by using the Sun. It melted by the end of the day and everything is okay. It gave us a real good perspective on "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." 
We had a great time of fellowship with some of the other pastors as we celebrated Joseph and Amy's marriage. They not only got married but they have come to Japan to live and plant a church. Right now they are acclimating and language learning. It was such a blessing to hang out with these great men of God that the Lord is using in so many lives of the Japanese people here. God bless you Joseph and Amy.
I was asked if I wanted to go to a prayer meeting in downtown Tokyo. I said sure. The tickets were 10,000.00 Yen (100 bucks). They gave me a ticket. I didn't realize what it was until we were there sitting among 500 some Erai Christians at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku this was the national day of prayer dinner. There was the ambassador from Israel there and a Member of the House of Representatives. There were Pastors from Korea and other countries. The presidents of many organizations were there. The main speaker there was the President of a Japanese Christian University. I was so excited to be in the same room with all these dignitaries. What an honor. It was glorious as we entered the hall they were playing an instrumental song. That ole Calvary Chapel Original "In His Time." I felt like shouting for Joy to be apart of God's work here in Japan and be with all these men of God. 
My English Class kids were mauling my recliner. It was hard to maintain the class and still have a productive time. Flash card basketball always works.
