Halloween, Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day and even Easter (sort of) are all holidays celebrated in Japan. Thanksgiving, however, is actually very unique to the United States. So, after introducing the Pilgrim holiday to our classes over the last several weeks, we actually worked yesterday instead of gorging ourselves on all that wonderful Thanksgiving fare. It was a little weird when we thought of our family's and friends back at home getting ready for the big meal, or the big game, or the big get-together. We took some special time on Thursday night, as a team, to worship God in thanks and meditate on all that he has done in our lives over the last year. It was pretty interesting to simply consider all that's transpired in the last 12 months, and it was great to make sometime to intentionally thank God for it all.
We have had the opportunity to talk to lots of family on Skype, these last two days, which has been wonderful. Thanks to all of you who's loved us with mail, messages, and online chats. It's so nice to feel connected, in only in this small way, to life back there.
Also, we've been blessed this weekend with some Thanksgiving of our own. A couple from the church, the Watanabe's invited the whole group over for a feast of epic proportions at their house on Friday night. It was wonderful to spend time with them, eat so much delicious food, and see their pictures of the school and teachers from years gone by.
Today, Saturday, the English teachers are all making our own traditional Thanksgiving meal. Actually, I'll have to cut my blogging short to finish preparations for that meal, but it promises to be spectacular. Then tonight, we're hosting a Thanksgiving dessert party, and hoping lots of our friends from the community will be able to come. Please pray for this as it is a, sometimes rare, opportunity to reach out to people here. New friendships are sometimes hard to build, but once built they are wonderful. Our prayer is that tonight's little "pumpkin pie party" will be a sweet time in more ways than one.
More later...
