After much preparation we have arrived at Christmas. Today we woke up and opened presents with M’s parents on Skype and my parents actually here visiting in Japan. It was fun to watch Tobin excited about all the new clothes he received. In the end he did have some fun toys from the grandparents/great grandparents too.

After presents we went to Church for worship. We enjoyed having Christmas on Sunday and the opportunity for regular worship. After church there was a Christmas luncheon. Ham sandwiches and pumpkin soup were served. After lunch there were various musical presentations and of course desserts. I volunteered for desserts and brought various American style desserts. I’m not sure how they were received, but most people seemed interested to at least try them.

After church we headed home and started cooking a traditional Christmas dinner. We invited some friends from language school who are partnered with other mission agencies in Japan. The cooking was challenging, but through some innovations and various substitutions we were able to create a feast. It was nice to have a taste of home and a wonderful evening of fellowship.

This was a special day for our family and a wonderful celebration. We are thankful for the Lord humbling himself and coming to earth so that we might once again have the opportunity to be in relationship with our Heavenly Father. We pray many here come to know this good news!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

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Our friends invited us to lunch on Christmas Eve. Their son wrote a Christmas drama and performed the drama with his sisters. He is only in third grade and amazed us all with the depth to the performance chronicling the birth of Christ. He included narration, scripture, hymns and drama. The costumes and set was splendid.

After the performance we all shared a wonderful strawberry cake that the mom made. Strawberry cake is the traditional Christmas dessert in Japan. What a fun time and reminder of how God provides amazing people in our lives. This family is such a blessing to us!

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This year the Nisshin Church decided to put on a Christmas outreach dinner event. The meal was a traditional American Christmas dinner. This might sound easy but rounding up all the ingredients is quite the challenge.

I, C, had the opportunity to go to Costco with our team leaders. Costco is about a 2.5 hour drive so when you go it is time to stock up on many American favorites. We were so excited to find Costco had butterball turkeys! We bought 6 turkeys for the dinner. Many people couldn’t believe how many carts we had (3) of food. They also didn’t know what the Butterball turkeys were. Our team leader’s wife used the opportunity to tell people why we were buying the food and introduced them to the church and Christ. This could very well be the first time some of the people had interacted with Christians! Beyond Costco through various import stores we were able to round up all the other traditional parts including cranberry sauce, ingredients for dressing, pumpkin, etc.

The real trick was cooking the turkeys since we only had 3 American size ovens. (The typical oven is about 1′ x 1′ x 1′.) Some were roasted and others cooked on grills. Thankfully all were cooked and turned out well.

In addition to dinner there was singing of hymns, a presentation of the Gospel, and a Japanese man gave his testimony. Pray for the many who were there and heard the Gospel. Pray for the team to be able to follow up throughout the New Year.

We were told by friends to make an effort to continue American traditions abroad. After talking about whether to buy a small Christmas tree Cathalain came up with the idea of creating our own since we have plenty of open wall space. (The reality of buying and storing a tree is difficult because of the amount of space we have in our home.) Cathalain decided if she could create a tree on the wall we could throw a decorating party to actually decorate. We invited some friends over and had a blast! We started by reading about the birth of Christ, creating ornaments (thanks to Cathalain’s mom for bringing some kits from America), decorated the tree, ate lunch and then decorated and ate Christmas cookies. The day was so much fun we think we have started a new tradition!

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Japan is interesting in the fact that even though less then 0.5% are professing Christians they LOVE to celebrate Christmas. The day after Halloween all the stores become filled with Christmas apparel and decorations. I was shocked when I walked into a local shopping center and Christmas hymns were blaring through the speakers in English. I looked around and realized most people around me had no idea these songs were professing Christ, the Son of God, let alone did these people even know who Jesus Christ is. Then the more I looked around at decorations I realized how Christless the celebration was. There were no mangers or crosses no Bibles or stories about why Christmas is celebrated. The only decorations were Santas, streamers, trees, and flowers. In a way it took the joy out of the Christmas I experienced around me. I realized as I stood in the mall this is the exact reason why we are here. We are here to profess the true meaning behind Christmas and the true meaning behind Easter. We are here to bring hope and joy into the lives of the Japanese by introducing them to Christ, the baby born in a lowly manger, Emmanuel, king of all kings…come lets us adore HIM.