"Bonenkai"

On Dec. 16th, we had a Christmas/end-of-the-year "nabe" (nah-bay) party at the Center for the people who worship there (that is where we mainly minister from). In Japan, most companies, school teachers, etc. have a party in Dec. called a "Bonenkai" ("Forget the year party." Taka & I wanted to have our own version of that for our Center family in appreciation & prefer to call it a "give thanks for the year's blessings" party. Oh, nabe is when you put an electric (or earthenware) bowl in the middle of the table and boil veggies & meat, fish, etc. Then everyone just takes out what they want. We had a kimchi one. It was yummy!

Christmas Int'l Cafe

About 40 people came out for International Cafe last Saturday. The majority were there for the first time. I ran into one lady at the mall last week who used to come to Int'l Cafe but hadn't in a while, so I invited her to our Christmas one. She didn't show up, but apparently she'd told 3 of her friends about the Cafe & they came without her! In these shots you'll see MC Taka (yes, he is not wearing shoes...no one is), and some of the people & the cake:) Oh, & instead of having a Santa for kids to sit on, kids were happy to sit on Taka's lap as we acted as receptionists:)

Special Greeting From Taka & Aki

12/17 UPDATE: I just noticed that this link only goes to the homepage of elfyourself. Has anyone been able to see us when clicking on it?

Please go to this link to see a special greeting we've made for you.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1275793005

Bible Study

This is Hamasaki-san. Taka is doing a weekly Bible study with him in prep for his baptism. (We also decorated the church for Christmas 2 Sundays ago, thus the nice tree to study by:) The 2nd picture is of the window of Taka's "office". He decorated it with messages that passersby can read while waiting for the crosswalk signal to change. (There's a crosswalk right in front...maybe you can see it in the reflection...)

Thankful for Our Daily Bread

Had to take a picture of this slice of bread Taka came home with the other day. A man from our church gave it to him. It's huge! Can you imagine how big the whole baguette must've been? Hope this picture does it justice. (BTW, that's about the extent of our kitchen counter space!)