Where in the World is Jen Brown?

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...