Salutations everyone!
I apologize to the lateness of this post. (I guess it is still better late than never.)
This is Catherine writing the updates for the last two days of the American Day Camp. Despite our
weekend adventures to Nasu, Nikko, Chuzenji Lake it barely seemed like
we were away from the kids. When we restarted the camp on Monday, some of our kids told us that they missed us also with was encouraging since I did not initially think I would be able to build such close relationships in such a short period of time. I noticed that some of the kids would sing some of the songs that they learned during singspiration; most of the time it was just the tune with different words though.
One of our last crafts were sock octopuses The socktopus' were fairly easy for all the kids (even the kindergartens) to make and personalize. The kids were very creative; it did not even occur to me to use the polyfill for hair. They seemed to really enjoy playing with the polyfill, but much of it ended up on the ground. The snack was decorating sugar cookies with frosting. So something that we did not anticipate was having problems with ingredients. The night before we baked probably around 80 cookies, of which the consistency was more bready rather than cookie-like. The consistency of the frosting was very very liquidous. Later, we realised that we had been using butter spread (which is mostly vegetable oil based) rather than butter. Fortunately, the kids seemed to really enjoy the snack even though it had not turned out as we wanted it to. For one of the games, we tried teaching the kids duck-duck-goose, which surprisingly turned out a lot better than expected. Most of the kids got the hang of it after watching a few rounds. We also had an outside day for bubble blowing! It was an activity that both young and older kids enjoyed. (Both blowing and popping bubbles).
Our last day was a blur to me as we quickly cycled through our schedule for the last time. We started the day off with board games instead of the usual large group running around being active game. Noticing that the kids really enjoyed playing them made me think that we should have introduced these games earlier. Even though a handful of kids were just playing with the pieces (think building train tracks out of Jenga blocks or stacking Connect 4 discs) they had a lot of fun doing so. Teaching the English lessons for me have always been a bit daunting not because it is particularly difficult to teach the kindergartners--they are all very smart--it is getting their attention. \this is not something I am usually actively thing about. Our last craft was Play-doh. Ironically, our Play-doh craft also turned out to rather liquidous so it became goo-in-a-bag instead, which I think confused some of the kids, but more so the parents. I think this outcome flustered me more than anyone else, but because of it I do not really remember the kids' reception to the parfait without fruit. Japanese yogurt is much lighter, smoother, and liquidous than American yogurt. For our activity, we went outside and did some water relay games and then a large game of jump rope. The older kids (5 and 6 graders) were really good. Some of them could also double-dutch!
At the end of the camp some of the parents wanted to throw us a thank you party for teaching and spending time with their kids so the camp ended half and hour early. It was very elaborately decorated and they gave us all a bag of green tea Kit-Kats as a gift. Many of the kids and their families also wrote cards and gave us little gifts to thank us. To me this gesture seemed almost overwhelming because from my point of view, we were happy to be here to teach their kids and play with them. Later it was explained that there is not anything really like this in Japan, especially in the more suburban area. They were taken aback that we would give up our vacations to teach English in Japan instead of doing other things. Pastor Tomio had the opportunity to share with/explain to some of the mothers about it and explained that we were coming because we had Christ in our lives and we wanted to share His love with others.
Our last day was a blur to me as we quickly cycled through our schedule for the last time. We started the day off with board games instead of the usual large group running around being active game. Noticing that the kids really enjoyed playing them made me think that we should have introduced these games earlier. Even though a handful of kids were just playing with the pieces (think building train tracks out of Jenga blocks or stacking Connect 4 discs) they had a lot of fun doing so. Teaching the English lessons for me have always been a bit daunting not because it is particularly difficult to teach the kindergartners--they are all very smart--it is getting their attention. \this is not something I am usually actively thing about. Our last craft was Play-doh. Ironically, our Play-doh craft also turned out to rather liquidous so it became goo-in-a-bag instead, which I think confused some of the kids, but more so the parents. I think this outcome flustered me more than anyone else, but because of it I do not really remember the kids' reception to the parfait without fruit. Japanese yogurt is much lighter, smoother, and liquidous than American yogurt. For our activity, we went outside and did some water relay games and then a large game of jump rope. The older kids (5 and 6 graders) were really good. Some of them could also double-dutch!
At the end of the camp some of the parents wanted to throw us a thank you party for teaching and spending time with their kids so the camp ended half and hour early. It was very elaborately decorated and they gave us all a bag of green tea Kit-Kats as a gift. Many of the kids and their families also wrote cards and gave us little gifts to thank us. To me this gesture seemed almost overwhelming because from my point of view, we were happy to be here to teach their kids and play with them. Later it was explained that there is not anything really like this in Japan, especially in the more suburban area. They were taken aback that we would give up our vacations to teach English in Japan instead of doing other things. Pastor Tomio had the opportunity to share with/explain to some of the mothers about it and explained that we were coming because we had Christ in our lives and we wanted to share His love with others.
All in all, this experience has been amazing in so many ways that I had not anticipated.
PRAISES
PRAISES
-
Despite all the business and sleeplessness during the childrens' day camp God provided the team with so much patience ____ I believe that it was
- The children's parents were very receptive to the program
-
Pastor Tomio, Pat, and Paula's support and help throughout the entire program. It was great
seeing how God had worked in their lives and revealed possible plans to
come (please see prayer section). Even though the Otawara church is
small, the members have really taken steps of faith and were very
gracious/ hospitable to us along the way.
- Many of the Otawara church members and parents of the kids at camp helped prepare the lunches every single day
PRAYER
OTAWARA CHURCH
-
To continue their ministries and finish the program for the upcoming
week with passion and faith. We will be doing a one-day program in Nasu
on Wednesday.
TEAM
-
God will allow us to rest spiritually, mentally, and physically over
the weekend and wrap up the program on Monday and Tuesday.
-
Tea Ceremony after church service. Plese pray that we will appreciate
this lesson by the Nasu church member who mastered the tea ceremony and
enjoy the fellowship with the members at Nasu Church.
- Love and patience for one another in spite of our differences, and see the good that God has done in us and through us.
The rest of the details are located here: harvest-ikimashou.blogspot.
In Christ,
Catherine, Jonny, Karen, Megan, Will, and Xin Xin
Catherine, Jonny, Karen, Megan, Will, and Xin Xin
Sent from my iPad
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