Skills to pay the bills

This now New years day

ooops looks like the mochi is reeeealy sticky!
Yuya and Nozomi Kasai

Eating ozouni, oshiruko with the pounded rice while having fellowship.The rice pounding is still going on in the back.

Me and Naomi jumping again in front of our impressive looking Christmas tree in the Sanctuary

This year's Christmas was quieter compared to previous years. Usually we have a team from New Zealand or Australia come during the Christmas season to help the church with special meetings, but this year we didn't have any team. Instead my parents and our short-term worker went around several preschools to read the Christmas story and talk about Christmas to the kids. They also gave each kid a cookie and a piece of cake. Other than that we still had special Christmas meetings at most of the places we had the Rocky and Marla Concerts. We had no team, so we had to think of things to do as a family, but I think most of the meetings went well and people enjoyed it, so that was good. For the International chapel we had the Christmas service a little earlier, because a lot of people were flying out of the country for Christmas. On the Christmas Eve we had the Japanese Christmas Eve Service. Each Sunday School class either sang a song or did a Christmas play of some sort. It worked out very well. We sang Christmas songs. Heard a message with candle light. At the end church members brought out cookies and cakes, so we had fellowship with the people that came after the service. Over a hundred people came to the Christmas Eve service so that was great. Later on in the night we opened presents as a family and on Christmas day we got together with the Elliots and shared presents. It was great to remember again this year that Jesus was born on Earth for us to die on the cross to pay for the penalty of our sins and save us. It's great to know that we have hope in Jesus.

One night when our parents were away for some reason that I don't remember, Emiri who lives in the church came over for a Nabe party. We had Sukisaki. It was so good. We cut up a bunch of vegetables and a pack of meat and cooked it on top of the table while eating it with rice. There's nothing better than a hot pot of Sukiyaki on a cold winter day. After we ate, we played some games. It was nice to have Micah back from Canada with us.

Mt. Iwaki always reminds me where my help comes from.

This year during Thanksgiving season we had special guest singers come from Kitakyushu city　（北九州市）in Kyushu island. Their music was great and it was fun talking to them, especially Rocky. He's a funny guy.

Rocky is Japanese, but he went to Texas when he was young. He speaks very good English with a Texas accent, Which I think is very cool. He is almost totally blind, but he is very good in playing the guitar. Marla is American and she is from Texas. She met Rocky in Japan. She speaks Japanese quite well. She sings very well both in English and Japanese.They brought their 3 year old adopted daughter, Hana(華). I'm sure she will grow up being bilingual. It was fun playing with her. They have a website at http://www.aromaministries.org/.

They did about 5 concerts which came with a Thanksgiving turkey meal and several other concerts without a meal. They also led the worship service 2 Sundays in a row. They were great musicians and speakers. It was sad to see them leave. The picture above was taken on the day they returned back to Kitakyushu. The songs that I really liked were; "I have decided to follow Jesus around the world" in Texan, Mexican, Brazilian, Jewish, Indian and in Japanese music styles. They are surely talented to play one song in so many different ways. "Dareka"(だれか！）, "Think about his grace", "You satisfy my soul","Great is your love/主をほめたたえよ", and" たたけその手を". It was awesome having them with us.