JandJinJapan's Xanga

Why Do They Keep After Her?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:10:22 GMT

Liberals have been telling me ever since the end of the 2008 Presidential election last year that Gov. Sarah Palin is "irrelevant" and how she was more aof a detriment to McCain's chances for victory than a true help (despite the fact that Republicans were energized by her). I've heard Democrats and liberals of every stripe since the end of the election last year talk about how Gov. Sarah Palin would fade in to the black, and how she would become just another governor of a Red State; hoe her importance would decrease and basicaly decease among the media, the victorious Obama-Biden Administration, and all peopel and things liberal, Democrat, or both.

It is interesting to see what a difference a year makes. Actually, it is interesting to see what a difference this past year hasn't made: Democrats, the liberal mainstream media, and the White House are still drawing attention to Sarah Palin, even though she is now a private citizen, not in public office (having resigned earlier this year form the Alaska Governor's Office). Time and time again in her facebook blog she has criticized President Obama's decisions, proposals, and plans to great effect. It continues to be interesting to see how the GOP and Conservative Base has been energized once again. How about the liberal side? Is Sarah Palin as "irrelevant" as they said she'd be?

Its also interesting to note that Vice-President Biden in a speech just within the last couple of weeks, erroneously called out Gov. Palin concerning her stances on the energy issues. It is further interesting that as Gov. Palin endorsed Doug Hoffman, a conservative candidate for the New York 23rd Congressional District Special Election, which took place this past Tuesday. Though Gov. Palin did endorse Mr. Hoffman, she never set foot in New York to stump for him, and her endorsement came as a note written on facebook. On the flip side of this race, Hoffman's Democrat opponent, Bill Owens, received not only the endorsement of both the President and Vice-President of the United States, but both Obama and Biden campaigned in the district for him, Biden visiting the 23rd District the week before the election. What was that, again, about Sarah Palin being "irrelevant"?

Now comes this article. In it, David Axelrod, one of Obama's chief advisors, gloats about how the White House is "2-0 against Palin". Whoa! What about Sarah Palin being irelevant? Why such a gloat over a woman who typed out an endorsement of a Conservative who lost and election to a Democrat by less than 5% in the face of months of planning by the White House to try and capture this seat, after its former representative was chosen to be Secretary fo the Army? Further, Sarah Palin never set foot in NY-CD 23, yet Both the President and Vice-President campaigned heavily there, and this is supposed to be some sort of victory over Sarah Palin? Wait a second: isn't Gove. Palin supposed to be "irrelevant"? If such is the case, why all the blowback towards her about this race? Why the mocking from the Vice-President in a speech concerning her energy policies...a year after Bidan won wth his running mate, Barack Obama?

Instead of beng irrelevant, Governor Palin seems more like to be the problem that just won't go away! Could this be true? If not, why, then, the attention? It isn't like she's out there looking for it....yes, really.

As with my earlier question about the racist photos, and the double-standards set by an easily recognizable liberal slant in the mainstream media of the USA, I so ask any Democrats and/or Liberals to answer these questions:

If Sarah Palin is so "irrelevant", why the continued sniping at her? If she really is an "attention whore" as a liberal told me some months back, why doesn't the White House, Democrats and Liberals, and the Press leave her alone? If she really isn't legitimate, or a threat, why doesn't the press just let her fade? Why does the left and the liberal press continue to blaze away at her with both barrels?

Prove my earlier assertion wrong, if you will:

The reason Sarah Palin is so assaulted and attacked by the Media and everyone who wears a "D" by their name, or is liberal in general, is because she is the one candidate that can defeat Barack Obama in 2012. The White House knows it; Democrats know it; liberals know it; and the MSM knows it, which is why they are all continuing to snipe, attack, and all-but slander her at every opportunity.

If I'm wrong about this, prove me so; so far, nobody has offered any kind of explanation that seems to square with the facts...

Prayer Request

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:47:42 GMT

Please pray for my Dad, if you read this. He had a "heart 'event'" (his words; he, Mom, and his doctor all said it wasn't an attack) this past Saturday, and goes to see the doctor for the second time about it this coming Friday. It's hard to have things like this happen to family when I'm halfway around the world, especially in these recent days. Please pray for my Dad.

A Response to SerenaDante - Abstinence Only Education is Thankfully Dying

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:23:49 GMT

Below is a response to this article, Abstinence Only Education is Thankfully Dying

Now we come to it, don’t we? In this lies the fulcrum to this whole argument. Teens and Young Adults are being taught to thumb their noses, shake their fists, and mock, taunt, and turn against parental authority, all the while, parents are supposed to sit back, eat their childrens' consequences, and be "open-minded" and "understanding", with not a hint of anger, disappointment, nor sadness to be directed at the disobedient children and their acts of disobedience (kinda' reminds me of the movie "Juno"), and be loving and caring without any displeasure being shown. SerenaDante, you have labeled me similarly to an Islamic Militant. Why? Is it for loving my daughter and son enough to encourage them to remain sexually pure (just as my Dad did) and warning them of the consequences of having sex while (a.) living under my roof, and (b.) before they are married? And if such a situation arises where the daughter or son produces a child form premarital sex, and I, as their father, choose to help them take on the responsibility of an adult that they themselves chose to take by (1.) doing something that is best reserved for marriage, and (2.) breaking a very simple rule (don’t have sex until you choose to move out from under my roof), why am I labeled, tarred, and feathered as the bad guy? Is it for helping my children face up to the consequences of their disobedient actions, or because I’m not letting them have “fun” and letting them have what they want right now? Why is my Dad’s house rule mocked as being outdated? Is it too hard to understand? What part of “Don’t have sex while you live in my house” is misunderstood? Is that such a hard rule to follow? Should we treat our children like dogs, letting them run free to screw whomever and wherever they choose, or do we, as parents, teach them that there’s a better way, treating them like people?

You say, SerenaDante, that you live in the real world, and you say the “real world” slaps a negative stigma on those who have sex before marriage, yet, in trying to explain my reasoning for staying sexually pure until marriage, you have slapped a stigma on me, and you aren’t the only one: fatal_is_life, LifeIsAnSTD, whitetrashpoet, and sweeterdownfall have all done the exact same thing. What was that about the sexually active getting a negative stigma? You also say, SereneDante, that your facts are covered concerning your assertion that 99.99% of the time, abstinence fails. Name one incident where it has. I can name for you dozens of cases where it hasn’t, where it has proven to be 100% effective, my life being but one example. No, I’m not saying that anyone should get hurt or have misfortune thrust upon their door for having sex prior to marriage; what I am saying is that why should others bear the consequences of your mistakes or my mistakes? Why are we throwing off responsibility, laughing at consequences? Why is it that if parents make a simple rule (Don’t have sex while you live in our house), they are chastised as being heartless, cruel, and no different than an Islamist? And if that child goes and breaks that rule, has sex with whomever and wherever, why should the parents be “understanding” and not righteously upset? Why do the parents of the child who broke their rules have to set aside their anger, their disappointment, their sadness, and their common sense response to a totally rebellious act and shoulder the consequences they didn’t ask for?

You see, this is where the problem lies. People today are not willing to take responsibility for their actions, and laugh and mock in the face of consequences. Just so you know, SerenaDante (and anyone else who cares to read this), when my wife and I have children, we will never stop loving them. Never! We will never stop because they are our children. However, if they choose to make a wholly senseless and stupid choice to have sex before marriage, and the consequences of that action come home to roost, they will know of our displeasure, anger, disappointment, and sadness….but again, we will never stop loving them. If we have a daughter, and she gets pregnant before she is married, while she is still living in our house, we won’t “kick her out and let her fend for herself”, but she will be reminded of the consequences of her choice. She will have our love, and as much aid as we can render, but she will know that disobedience comes with a price. Is this hard or rigid? If so, please explain why. The problem with Bristol Palin is that she made a bad choice, and her Mom and Dad are awesome for reminding her of that choice and its consequences. Too bad her former beau is such a knucklehead. She would have done well to heed her parents' advice...

Sweeterdownfall, I would hope that my children would be able to come to me and talk to me openly about anything under the sun, as I have been able to talk to my own parents. I would hope that they would respect the rules of the house, respect my authority, and simply do as I ask them. “Don’t have sex while you live under my roof” is a pretty easy rule to follow. Not rigid, not narrow; just pretty plain and straight (kinda’ like God’s first rule to Adam and Eve: “Eat from every tree you want except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”).

Fatal is_life, no, I won’t shut up. Sorry to disappoint you. And I ask you the same question: What is so difficult with “Don’t have sex until you are married”? Why is that so hard to understand? Why is “inaccuracy” associated with such a request? If people knew how to be safe, would that really solve the emotional baggage that comes along with wonton sex before marriage? Really? How so? Please explain…

LifeIsAnSTD, how is “Don’t have sex until you’re married” not protection? We have similar rules in the USA today: Don’t rob banks. Don’t drive above the speed limit. Don’t kill other people. Don’t steal cars. Don’t get involved with gangs or organized crime. Why are these rules easy to follow and “Don’t have sex until you’re married” so difficult?

Whitetrashpoet, nice to hear. Hope and pray your marriage is a beautiful, wonderful one, and I mean that with all sincerity. However, in my life and experience, your marriage situation is the exception, not the rule.

Chaospet, where did that quote come from? Did you make it up? If it is a for real quote, please list the link or resource. Thank you.

Some Questions

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:08:42 GMT

Can someone tell me why these photos...

are labeled as "racist", and these...

are not?

Anyone (liberals, leftists, Democrats?) care to explain?

On Going Home, Part V

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:52:31 GMT

On Going Home, Part V

When I worked for Thorntons, Seven-Eleven, worked for Fry-Wagner Moving and Storage, and was going to College, I thought I was burned out. Japan has taken "burnout" to a whole `nother level.

We all have experienced it at one time or another: being or feeling burned (or burnt) out and it goes by many names: stressed out, tension, fatigue, exhaustion, etc. Whatever the case, many of us have faced this, experienced it, and felt the difficulties surrounding it. I first experienced burn out when I was working for Thorntons. For those of you who may not know, Thorntons is a convenience store/gas station chain located in six states in the United States of America. My neighbor, when I was growing up in Central Kentucky, was the store manager of a Thorntons in Northern Lexington, and for one entire Summer, I worked for him as his night clerk. For the first three weeks, I was working more hours than Mike was (around or over 50 hours a week). Though things settled down for the balance of the Summer, I again pulled between 50 and 55 hours a week for the last three weeks I worked for Mike prior to returning for classes at MidAmerica Nazarene University. It was during this time I really got a good idea for what I though burn out was. I would later experience burn out as a student at MidAmerica Nazarene, primarily because I spent a long time there studying (seven years), and as an employee at Fry-Wagner, Moving and Storage. Anyone who's worked for Fry-Wagner - or any other moving company, for that matter - during the Summer months already knows that the hours pile up. It isn't impossible to work nearly 100 hours in a week during some of the busier times in the Summer. I happened to work for Fry-Wagner for about three years, starting off as a lumper (the guys that basically bring everything to the truck and take it all off later are generally called "lumpers"), and later ending my time there as a box-truck deliveryman for US Sprint (prior to their building a huge campus in Southeastern Kansas, Sprint was renting warehouse space from Fry-Wagner in Lenexa, Kansas). By the time I finished at Fry-Wagner in the late-Summer of 1998, I was really burned out about working there and doing the furniture moving thing as I had done.

Coming to Japan in 1998, after studying in college, working as a convenience store clerk (I had also worked at Seven-Eleven in Olathe, Kansas for a year while in college, and prior to going to Fry-Wagner, had worked for about three years as a driver/warehouseman/deliveryman for Forty Winks Sleep Shoppe in Olathe), and as a furniture mover, felt like going on a working vacation, and indeed, over the last eleven years, it has still felt that way. Teaching here, doing what Father has called me to do, living in the center of the Will of Jesus Christ, and being immersed in a culture and a language that - until I came - was totally alien, foreign, and basically unknown has been and still is the greatest of joys. I would not trade the last eleven years and-almost-two months for all the money and gold in the world! I have loved, quite literally, every minute of living and working here, and I could not think of having done anything else in the decade-plus that I've lived here. I have made friends and family that I will never forget, have taught students who have both been troublesome and awesome at the same time, and worked with men and women of incredible ability, awesome talent, and wonderful personality. I have come to know and learn more about Japan, her people, her culture and customs, and her history - not to mention her religion - while being here in person than I ever could have in an entire lifetime from reading all the books there have ever been written.

Over the last couple of years, especially since the closing of Japan Christian Junior College (JCJC) (my employer for 10 of the eleven years I've lived here), I have experienced a pretty good level of burn out. I love to teach....but recently, I have loathed getting up early for another private lesson or part-time class. My students are wonderful and I love them....but ever increasingly there are times where I just want to stay home, under the covers, and snooze the day away. I'm beginning to really envy my wife, Jihye, because there are a couple of days in the week where her church responsibilities and piano and music classes aren't pressing and, instead of getting going at 6AM as I do, she can head back to bed after getting breakfast ready, and snooze as long as she wants. Although my attitude has been positive towards my current employer and employment, Takinogawa Private Girls Junior-Senior High School (TJ) in Tokyo, it has been getting increasingly more difficult to "get up and go". I love my students, my coworkers, my supervisors, and everyone else involved at TJ, but it is getting harder.

School, my classes, students, and teaching duties haven't been the only reason for burn out. The church in which we currently serve has been increasingly a chore to get up and go to as well. In fact, over the years that I've lived and served in Japan, there have really been only two instances where church wasn't a chore. The first was a church I attended in Funabashi City. It is a fairly large church (by Japanese Standards), and actually preaches a VERY strong Gospel and Holiness Message. I had attended this church off and on for a few years before becoming a regular attender between 2003 and 2004. The second church is a church pastored by a good, good friend of mine. My wife and I served here for two and a half years by request from this friend until we moved in December last year, and even until March, we were going once per month to conduct English Services. Every other church I have ministered in, worked in, and been a part of has had a fairly good element of burn out coming with it, and our current church, Yachiyo Onnuri Church has given us a truckload of stress, exhaustion, fatigue, and many, many headaches...basically, an economy-sized can of burnout. Jihye, my wife, actually had found this church denomination here in Japan about two years ago. She started going to one of the largest Onnuri Churches in Tokyo on Wednesdays before her piano classes on Wednesdays, and it was at this time that she first got to know the current pastor of Yachiyo Church and his wife and family. When we were in a jam with regards to our housing situation back last December, one of the ladies in the church and the Pastor's wife came through and helped us out in a huge way. We started attending Yachiyo Church regularly in January, and from then, the difficulties and problems have piled on. Both of us are pretty burned out, dreading Sundays, being horrifically tired in the mornings before church. We've experienced the bossiness of several of the members, the "power grabs" by some of the leaders, undermining of our responsibilities and work by still other teachers and leaders, and even the pastor has, starting in the Spring, been critical towards Jihye when out of my presence (which has, just this week, caused me a lot of stress, and a LOT of burnout-related problems....not to mention for the first time in my life wanting to punch the lights out of a church pastor!!!).

In my time here in Japan, I've had no longer than five weeks of break and vacation away at any one time. The longest was in the Summer of 2001, after my first contract with JCJC had expired and they'd let me go, and before my time in Hokkaido began. I went home at that time and spent a good deal of time with family and friends. It was a time of celebration because my brother was ordained as an Elder in the Church of the Nazarene at the District Assembly for the Kansas City District, along with a few of my old MidAmerica Nazarene friends. This year, thanks to us moving home at the end of March, my wife, Jihye, and I won't be going home for Christmas, and this will actually be the longest time I've gone without going home (my average is about once every year-and-a-half; the last time we were home as Christmas Vacation 2007-`08), which has only increased the burn out, the fatigue. I've experienced some pretty annoying physical problems, such as tired, worn-out muscles, aches and pains, and being tired both when I rise from and go to bed. Mondays (when I teach at the Kindergarten and have Private Lessons with my Japanese Mom) I really would rather just stay in bed than get up at 6:30AM and go. Sundays, as I mentioned before, are becoming more and more loathsome. Its becoming harder and harder to get up and go to school to teach. Add to all of this that my allergies have been nagging at me for the better part of a month and a half, and it all starts to break at the body and mind and soul.

The Spiritual element cannot be overlooked. Japan is dark, Dark, DARK spiritually!!!! Fry-Wagner was a dark place to work. I needed daily prayer and daily time in the word, day and night, really, to hold my ground there and to hold my head up. In many ways, it was good prep for Japan, because I've found in my time here that I've needed the Savior even more-so than when I worked with the guys at Fry....and Father hasn't failed. Ever. Not Even Once. Period. My time in Hokkaido was horribly dark and my work and living conditions the worst, I think, that I've ever experienced, and it was up there, during that dark, trying time (I loved the land, the people, my students, and the few friends I had, but my work situation and daily life was literally a hour-by-hour and minute-by-minute trial that seemed to never end) that I learned to listen to the LORD. It was also during that time that Bible Study and Daily Bible reading become more precious and necessary. As I mentioned in my earlier posts about going home, Japan has so few Christians. It is really a spiritual desert, with fewer oases than the Sahara. This is the reason for the proximity of Jesus Christ being all the more necessary and desired.

Though both Jihye and I know that the US of A will not be and is not the "cure all" for our burn out (only Jesus Christ is that), it will be a great time to be spiritually refreshed and to get rested. Again, we both believe that Jesus isn't done with us in Japan for good. I believe that he will bring us back in his time. However, we know that going home will be good for us both. I am personally looking forward to spending a month (at least) at Mom and Dad's place in Atchison, and Jihye has been speaking about being around our nieces and nephews.

I know I've asked in my past posts about Going Home, but I ask again this time with more emphasis: would you pray for us? As I said, Jihye and I are both feeling it (if it were just me myself, I'd've checked into a hospital long ago), and March - though it IS good that its a few months away - looks like it will never get here. Would you pray for us, please, that we'd have Father's strength to get through? My Bible Studies have been so very, very good: would you also pray that I'd continue with them? Thank you for your past prayers for us, and thank you for reading this post. We pray Father's richest blessings on you today...

Who Are They?

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:58:19 GMT

Who Are They?

Please Support and Pray for Our Troops!

The Peoples' Cube - I Gotsa' Peace Prize

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:03:12 GMT

I got this from The Peoples' Cube. Enjoy!

Exit Question: I resolved an argument between three of my students, yesterday. Should this act be enough for my nomination for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize?

Onion News Network - Launch of the Hillary

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:35:57 GMT

If you thought Jay Leno's Monologue below was funny, you may also enjoy this one...

Jay Leno - Hilarious

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:33:09 GMT

I saw this on Hot Air and it cracked me up!!! Enjoy!

On Going Home, Part IV

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:14:17 GMT

On Going Home, Part IV

The toughest part about leaving, is what (whom, rather) I'll be leaving behind...

When I came to Japan more than eleven years ago, I really had no idea what I was getting into. I knew that I'd be teaching Junior College and college/university aged students. I knew that I'd be around other American Teachers, but I didn't know what my Heavenly Father had in store for me. I never knew how he would crush my heart with a love and a burden for Japanese youth and young adults. I never knew he would speak so plainly and clearly to my soul and spirit about things involving Japanese teens and tweens. I had no idea that I would literally fall in love, head-over-heels, with Japanese children and youth. I had not a clue that my heart would be broken time and time again about news, stories, and statistics concerning Japanese youth.

When I first came to Japan, I had never willingly fasted. When I was growing up, Dad would turn the television to the wall during Spring and Fall Revivals. While a University Student, I often went without food because I had little or no money. These hardly counted. After my first Semester and first year at JCJC, when I'd started studying my Bible in depth on a daily basis, Father challenged me to fast for a period of time. He designated a time during the my second Summer Vacation. I fasted and prayed for 60 days. During and following that time, Father kept drawing my attention to Junior and Senior High School students here in Japan. Whenever I'd go to Tokyo or Chiba City by train, even in the Summer, I'd see hundreds of them, literally, going to and from their respective schools, usually in groups ranging in numbers from two or three to as many as twenty or thirty. Junior and Senior High School students in Japan are pretty easy to spot: EVERY student that goes to ANY school wears a uniform. The guys wear a suit (blazer, slacks, polished shoes, button-up shirt, and ties), and the girls usually wear a skirt with any number or type of pattern (usually plaid in some color scheme or another), along with a blazer, button-up shirt, ribbon-style tie, socks (black or white, depending on the school), and penny-loafers. The colors are usually dark, ranging from dark brick red to dark old gold (my current school, Takinogawa Girls' Junior-Senior High uses a yellow-navy-pine scheme for their uniforms for Senior High, and beige-brown-tan for the Junior High students). During this time of fasting and prayer, the LORD really hit me hard with a burden for Junior and Senior High School students.

I did a lot of research that Summer and in the Fall after classes at JCJC started, and what I found out was heartbreaking. In the Church of the Nazarene's Universe, we often hear about the "10/40" window. Honestly, if I could seriously count how many times I've come home and heard this or that, read something in Holiness Today, or seen some News or Need concerning the "10/40" window, I'd need about 50 hands. In fact, to be honest, I'm quite sick of hearing about the "10/40" window, and reading about all the attention it is getting. Please understand me: I'm not saying that there aren't real and pressing needs in the "10/40" window, but the reason I'm so sick of hearing about it is because it appears that my Church has focused on this area to the neglect of everywhere else. You see, Japan lies juuuuust outside the "10/40" window. While there ar those who would argue this point to some correctness, the fact is, Japan has been neglected by the Church of the Nazarene in the entirety that I've been here, yet all the while, preaching and teaching the needs of the "10/40" window. Case in point is the recent focus across all denominations on the sex trade in Thailand. Thailand is one of the nations that is smack-dab in the midst of the "10/40" window. As many may already know, the sex trade, prostitution, and sexual enslavement are pretty much rampant all across Thailand and some of their neighbors (Cambodia and Laos come to mind). I recently read a heartbreaking story of a young American man who "sexed" his way around Bangkok and some of the other metropoli of Thailand. In this young man's description, he told of the young, teenaged girls he'd had "encounters" with. One in particular that he described was a young lady named Moon. Offering to pay her, he led her to a hotel where they...well, you get the idea. He described this young lady, Moon, as a 19-year-old barmaid being very physically beautiful with a "cute face". His last words about her were, "I loved her and left her." We hear tragic stories like this from Thailand, along with victories on how missionaries have rescued hundreds and thousands just like Moon in Thailand and other nations in the "10/40 window", but what about Japan?

In Japan, there are thousands of girls like Moon from Thailand. In Japan, there are girls as young as 13 and 14 who will sell themselves, quite literally, to the highest bidder. This practice is called enjo kosai (meaning "compensated dating" in English). In this practice, a businessman will pay a girl a large amount of money in order to have sex with her. With this money, the girl will then go and buy designer bags, accessories, or cellular phone or other technological pieces. Parents turn a blind eye to this, never questioning where their daughter received the money to purchase the items they buy with the money. A good article about Enjo Kosai can be found here: She's Only a Little School Girl. Here, here, and here are further, more detailed articles on enjo kosai. The tragedy behind this practice is that, while we hear stories about the sex trade with girls like Moon in Thailand, we never hear anything about the same kind of practice that goes on here in Japan. This is one of the burdens that I've had for Japanese youth and young adults for more than a decade now.

Fast forward to January of this year. It was on January 9th that I started teaching fulltime for Takinogawa Girls' Private Junior-Senior High School in Northern Tokyo. Many of my friends and family may already know this, but I teach eighteen classes four days a week (Tuesday through Friday), students ages ranging from 7th grade to High School Seniors. Altogether, I probably have between 250 and 350 students in any given week. The students I teach, to a girl, are very beautiful young ladies. Many of them, when they come into my classroom, take a seat, plop their books down n their desks, and sit for the entirety of class with glazed, empty stares. Others sit with a chip on their shoulders, with eyes daring me to give them any kind of attention. Still others overact in class, coming off as very cheerful, active, and interested. I often wonder how many of these young ladies have been in the practice of, or are currently practicing, enjo kosai? Every now and again, I'll overhear conversations about their exploits with their "boyfriends" or their outings with guys they knew from Junior High School (even though I've mentioned how long I've been in Japan, they seem to forget that I can understand a lot of what they are saying). On one of my desks after class one day, I found a pretty nasty drawing, which I immediately cleaned off (fortunately it was drawn with a pencil). It made me wonder back to which students had sat at that particular desk, and what kind of state the girl that drew such a picture could be in to be so brazen as to draw it on a desk in the classroom where a guy teacher taught. Throughout the day, I often wonder a lot about my students. What kind of home lives do they have? What are their parents like? Do Mom and Dad act like Mom and Dad, or do they act more like benefactors than parents? How many of my students go home with fists to punch, hands to slap, and feet to kick waiting for them? How many come to and go from school contemplating suicide? How many are attending Takinogawa School because Mom and Dad really want a babysitter for the day, week, month, semester, and school year with some sort of prestige (Takinogawa school appears to be a mid-level school) or label so that their daughter will go on to a decent university and out of their hair after graduation? How many of them go home to verbal abuise day, after day, after endless day? How many of them are told that they are ugly, useless,worthless, hopeless, etc., etc., etc.?

You see, I was woken up to these sorts of things, issues, and problems in Japanese Society immediately after the time of prayer and fasting ended, and the beginning of the school year. One of our students at JCJC named Yumi - a beautiful and very talented young lady - had tried to kill herself, right about the same time I was praying and fasting. She had been in a car accident, her parents had gone through a nasty and near-destructive divorce, and she had been thrown out of her house for refusing to quit school. Seeing no way out, she tried to commit suicide. When all of us teachers heard this news, we were crushed! How could this happen at a Nazarene School? When Yumi came back for her final year at Japan Christian Junior College (JCJC), all of us, myself included, wrapped our arms around her (in many cases, literally), and loved her. She graduated that year with honors. At the same time, another student named Mariko was also having a terrible family crisis (I never heard any exact details) and was prescribed drugs (the usual method to psychiatric treatment here in Japan) to the extent she would come to class and arrive at school in a zombie-like state. Through a lot of prayer, love, and communication, Mariko, as well, later graduated. Still another student some years later, named Kyoko, went through a similar situation as Yumi. Her parents had divorced, and she too had been in a terrible car accident. Though she tried hard to come to school and study in order to finish with the class she entered with, she was unable to do so due to the intense pain she was undergoing, and we heard that she, too, had attempted suicide. Kyoko came back, made up the semester she missed, and again, all of us teachers loved, prayed, and welcomed her back. In recent days, one of the students in my High School Junior Class level Two, named Kasumi, has been absent for all but one week this trimester (Takinogawa School bases their school year on three trimesters: Spring, Fall, and Winter). Kasumi, last trimester, was one of my best students in class, regularly giving answers, and putting forth a great effort in class. Though she tends to be on the wild side and seems to seek more of my attention than most of the other girls in class, she has done very well this year. Again, though, she has been absent for the last five or so weeks.

Along with teaching high school, Junior High, and having taught college/university students both in a formal school setting and private lesson/English School situations, I also have taught children. Most often, this teaching has been in the form of teaching weekly classes at two Nazarene Church-housed-and-based kindergartens. As with the junior-senior high school I'm teaching in, I wonder how many of the kindergarten students I've taught are brought to these kindergartens to be "baby sat" rather than educated. What has always blown me away is how these students love to be picked up. The students I teach at these kindergartens range in age from newborn (literally, several of the "students" at one of the kindergartens have been younger than 6 months old!!) to six years old. Never having taught American children of similar or the same ages, I have no idea how American children would respond to a teacher picking them (or wanting to) up and horsing around with them. What I know is, the Japanese children I teach LOVE it, and I've found that if I pick one up, I better be prepared to pick up the rest!!! All this makes me wonder, if these students have to get physical attention of such a kind from a relative stranger (after all, I see these children twice to three times per month), what must their home lives be like? Is there any physical attention between these children and their fathers and mothers? This further makes me wonder about my junior and senior high students: do their parents show them any physical affection? Did Dad and Mom horse around with them, pick them up, hug them and kiss them regularly, or were they indifferent to their children? I wonder this because when I first came to Japan, all of my students were elementary school aged and younger (my junior high girls being toddlers).

Finally, I wonder most if these young ladies have ever heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Do they know that there is a God in Heaven who loves them so much that he came down in the form of a man, suffered the shame and torture of death on a cross? Do they know that this world will chew them up, use them, abuse them, and cast them aside like so much useless garbage? These questions are a great burden to me, especially since that every one of the students I teach are very beautiful. In fact, several of them are tall, elegant, and beautiful enough to be fashion models. Two of my Freshman girls in particular are 5'9" or over, and when wearing clothes other than their school uniforms, look much older, much more beautiful, and could probably do very well as fashion models (Jihye and I had the chance to go to Takinogawa's school festival in September, and these two girls' class wore traditional kimono and performed tea ceremony). Do these girls and their classmates know that this world will take them for what they are worth, use them up, and then throw them away?

The questions and everything else listed above make it hard to contemplate leaving. I really and truly feel like my work here isn't finished. The quandary is, I know, too, that I need a break from Japan. I know I need to get away for revival, refreshment, and renewal of my spirit, soul, drive, and call. Yet, what about my students? Who will take care of them? Who will pray for them, love them, and attempt to show them the life of Jesus Christ? Perhaps Father isn't finished, and we will come back again. Jihye and I both believe that Father will bring us back to Japan. But in the intervening time? I'll certainly miss my students and Japanese loved ones and friends, but the greater burden is, "Who will help them?"

To close out this rather long blog, it is my prayer that I will be able to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to these students. I have a strong desire, and a strong urge to speak to them, but at this time, I have no idea how that will happen. I don't know how many of them are from Christian homes, if any of them are (several of my high school students have Western-style names), though my hopes for that aren't high, seeing how Japan is between 0.1% and 0.03% Christian. My prayer request is this: will you please pray that I will be able to present the Gospel to these students? Though I have shared with them and my coworkers that I am a Christian, I have yet to have the opportunity to speak to them all about the Love of Jesus Christ. Would you please pray that in the half-trimester I have left right now or in the Spring, that I would have a chance to present the Gospel to them? Thank you for reading this, and as always, I pray a special blessing for you today.