Where in the World is Jen Brown?

Things are getting worse in the Fukushima/Miyagi area. Please continue praying for those without shelter and those who are migrating. Rob and I live more than 900 miles (by car) from the disaster area and are on a completely different island. People who have family, friends or the means to do so are migrating here for safety. We're still planning to leave Kumamoto on schedule, but are looking into changing are departure location from Tokyo to another airport even though we aren't scheduled to leave Japan for another two weeks (a week after we intend to leave Kumamoto). Please pray for wisdom for us as we are making these decisions and pray for things to make a turn for the better in the northern part of the country. Thanks.

I'm okay. The tidal wave didn't hit kumamoto nor did the earthquake. Will post a longer update later. thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Breakfast in Sapporo with Hokkaido shaped eggs. Well my time in Japan is winding down. It's hard to believe it's only been two years when it seems like I've been here forever. For that same reason it's difficult imagining what life will be like when I no longer live here. While I'm excited to see family, friends, and excited about planning the next stage of my life with Rob I'm also very intent on enjoying my last few months with students, teachers and church folk. I'll begin the update with a bit of really sad news. Our soccer team which was one of the top 8 high school teams in the nation last year lost a qualifying game a couple of weeks ago. The wound is still fresh for me and it's difficult for me to even write about it without wanting to cry. I really hoped we'd go all the way this year, but this is the way of high school teams. The news came while I was attending our high school's music concert. I struggled to give my full attention to stu...

がんばる (gambaru): v. hold out, work hard; (popular translation) fight (to win). Luther High School and Junior High have been officially on summer vacation for one week now. However, most students have not had a break from school and many will not stop taking classes this summer. No, our honors/ college-prep students will take 5, 80 minute classes 4-6 days each week for the duration of the summer. For people in the States this might sound crazy, but the extra classes do help these students get into top universities. がんばれ (gambare/gambale): what one says when one is cheering for others who are working hard; this form of gambaru is more of a plea for another person/team to hold out or keep going. Our college-minded students are not the only ones working hard this summer. For our athletes, summer means game time. Our high school swim, baseball, what we translate as "Soft-baseball"--different from softball, and soccer teams all start tournaments this summer in hopes of winning the ...

*Above are pictures from our school Field Day. Hello once again from Kumamoto, Japan. The rainy season has begun and it is HUMID here. We are in the middle of midterms here at Luther which means the pressure is high. I only gave one midterm, because most of my classes have presentations instead of midterm exams. I teach the same curriculum I taught last year: high school 1st year general course English Communication, high school 1st year Sports course English Communication, high school 2nd year English Advanced course English Communication and junior high 1st year English Conversation. You may remember that Sports course students have a special curriculum because their focus is sports. Instead of taking lots of electives or heavy math and science classes they leave campus (most of them) early on Wednesday afternoons for practice. They also practice before school (some as early as 7am) and afterschool (usually until about 6:30/7pm) everyday. English Advanced course (or college pr...

Well, it has been too long since my last update and for that I apologize. In this update I want to share some highlights from the end of 2009 and some hopes for this year. 2009 New Life On his 60th birthday one member of Oe church began his life anew. By being baptized in the company of other believers this man gave his life to Christ and joined the family of faith. That day a mother and her adult daughter became members of Oe Church, it was a day of celebration for all. A few weeks later another member of the church was baptized, while across town one of Luther's graduating seniors was also baptized. The church in Japan is small, but mighty. Many of the social organizations in Japan are run by churches and many private schools (good schools) are Christian. I am proud to be a part of God's work here, but more than that I am honored to be a witness to all that God is doing in this country. Please continue to pray for the Church here in Japan. 2010 New Year same students The Fal...

The Christmas season is upon us though Thanksgiving is barely past in the States. Yet, with no Thanksgiving to celebrate, Christmas lights have been up since early November in Japan. Rob and I are doing well although I was not able to escape the cold and flu season without catching cold myself. Rob on the other hand has an immune system that is iron strong. Well this one is for all you sports fans out there. After years of defeat our high school soccer team finally beat its rival Ozu this past week to win the prefectural title. Our principal was so excited he announced in our morning staff meeting that we had won the national title. Apparently there were no dry eyes on the Luther side of the stadium. Unfortunately, I was unable to see the game in Kumamoto, because I was in Fukuoka for Rob's first Sumo match. Filled with the exciting news of Luther's first win against Ozu we climbed the steps of the arena to find our seats and watch some huge men wearing only a well wrapped pie...

What's your most important thing? For one of our students it's his Bible. In a country where Christians number less than 1% of the population, this is SUPER cool to hear. Unfortunately, I was not the one to hear the student talk about his Bible, but I was able to rejoice with his teacher Carolyn. We don't know who of our students is Christian or even interested in Christianity. It's easy to assume that none of them are, but this is just me being pessimistic and not believing that God can do big things. Recently I watched a video made by some friends and fellow missionaries from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). They are the LCMS equivalent of the ELCA's J3 program. They are called VYM(ers)--Voluntary Youth Missionaries. I got to know them during my 6 month orientation. Their video reminded me that God is bigger than I give God credit for and is capable of and already busy doing work that I think is impossible. As I was reminded to pray more fervantly for J...

It's been about two months since I started teaching at Luther Jr. High and High School. I really enjoy teaching. I also love my new home of Kumamoto. I've been here now three months and couldn't have asked for a better place to live or work...because I can't imagine either. Luther Gakuin is an institution that holds a kindergarten, junior high, high School, and university. I teach English Communication to 1st & 2nd year high school students and 1st year middle school students. All my classes are team taught alongside a Japanese English teacher. I have three partner teachers who are all very professional and very good teachers. Japanese children spend 3 years in middle school and 3 years in high school. First year high school students in Japan would be sophomores in the U.S. Luther offers its high school students 4 tracks or course foci: Art course, English course/college prep ( Eigo Tokshin ), Math & Science College Prep ( RiSu Tokshin ), Sports, and General c...

Well, we have finished our six months of orientation and language training and are now each moving into new apartments. I mentioned in the December blog that there were two assignment locations. One at the Hongo Student Center in Tokyo working with college students and general members of the surrounding community. The other in Kumamoto at Kyushu Luther Gakuin . Carolyn and I will be heading south to Kumamoto this weekend. We will be teaching junior high and high school students English conversation. While we are both very excited it has been tough saying goodbye to our friends and churches here in Tokyo. Even Matt has found it difficult leaving his orientation church though he'll be able to visit them again and again. We are all so grateful to our respective orientation church communities.  Now the "real" work begins (I say "real" because as long as we are in Japan as missionaries we are working, but now we have institutions and people depending on us to show up...

Hello again. I apologize for taking so long to write. It seems I started writing this blog and then one thing after another came up and I never finished it. Well this lapse in time has proved useful because I am now able to share my experience celebrating Christmas and New Year's in Japan. This is a lengthy blog, but hopefully you'll find it interesting. The Christmas celebration was kicked off by a class speech day. Every year the missionaries taking Japanese lessons at the local Lutheran Learning Center have to give speeches. All of us new students shuddered in fear when we were first told we'd have to stand up in front of friends and speak Japanese. It turned out all of our fretting was for naught. We all spoke confidently about ourselves, our experience in Japan, and the things we enjoy. It was a great day. Cindy came, along with my pastor Saitou sensei, and another woman from my church Umeda-san. * I'll pause for a second and give just a little note about the use o...

This has been a very busy month. Since I last wrote we have helped lead an English language Bible camp and visited another island. We have also been amazed and excited about our progress in the Japanese language. Though we have so much more to learn about the culture, and language of Japan I thought I'd take this blog to share some of the joys of the past month. In the last post I complained about the difficulty of the Japanese language. Well a couple days after posting that blog, I was given a gift that has since helped me get through my Sunday worship services. This next story tells of the hospitality I've received here through the people of Ichigaya Lutheran Church. After  a couple weeks of sitting by myself in church I finally picked a seat next to another person late in October. This woman speaks no English, but every Sunday she arrives about 20 minutes before service and sitting always in the same seat she begins her worship in silent prayer. Well it seems the seat I had ...

This week marks the completion of one month in Japan. It's funny because while on the one hand it feels like I have been here so much longer, on the other it feels like I left the US just last week. Of course I'm way more adjusted now than I was one week after leaving the US. My first week in Japan was filled with anxiety (as well as excitement). I wondered every day whether I had made the right decision. Now my excitement and love for my host country grows more and more each day and my anxiety has left. I used to think that the Japanese custom of taking off one's shoes when entering a home was not just for the home but for entering any building. It turns out that one only takes off ones shoes when crossing a threshold. When entering a home or office, if there's a change in flooring, a raised entry, or slippers waiting these are all indicators that shoes must be removed before entering; different footwear is required beyond the threshold. This month has been about livin...

Well I've been in Japan a whole week now and I'm sure you've all been waiting to hear how I like it so far. So the following is a recounting of my initial feelings and a top 10 of things I like about Japan after 1 week. I hope you are all doing well in the US and have registered to vote. Please email me some time I'd love to hear from you. Also I hope to start a picture blog soon, unfortunately I can't do one here on this site, but I can add a link. In the mean time I hope you'll enjoy the pictures on this page. Speachless Having made my final call from inside the US I boarded the air bus headed for Tokyo's Narita airport. The ride was 10 hours from San Francisco. I sat next to a woman headed fro Taiwan, she seemed to speak limited English and slept the majority of the time. I on the other hand having stayed up late the night before so that I too would sleep the majority of the flight slept only in two hour increments. The lights remained low throughout the ...

Hello again. Well I leave on Wednesday that's less than 6 days away if you don't count the hours left in today and the hours before I leave Wednesday morning. How do I feel, you ask? Excited, anxious, sad, excited. The summer months have gone by quickly. WHat am I looking forward to? Other than the adventure of being in another country and all of the things layed out in the last blog, I'm looking forward to having my own apartment for the first time in my life. What am I nervous about? Being a horrible English teacher...okay I probably won't be horrible, but if I don't connect with my students I will most certainly feel like I'm doing a bad job. I do have a temporary address (remember the first six months will be language learning after that I get my "permanent" address and assignment). Please email me if you'd like to know that address. This summer I had the privilege of worshiping at a wonderful church in Riverside, California called Eden Luthera...