Christmas Party

On December 17, we had a Christmas party for neighborhood kids. The YWAM Taiwan team handed out over a thousand fliers. We didn't know what kind of response to expect because a couple of young kids have been murdered in Japan recently on their way home from school, one by a foreigner. Handing out fliers outside a school is perfectly legal, but a teacher came out and asked our team to stop because of the present atmosphere of suspicion and fear. Also, while a guy from the team was handing out fliers in the neighborhood, he was approached by the police who had received a call about a suspicious person.

We prepared Christmas gifts for fifty kids just in case a big crowd showed up but when the volunteers gathered (over twenty of us) my hope was that would would have at least as many attendees as volunteers. As the party began and more and more kids turned up, I began to have the opposite worry, that we would run out of presents. When attendance passed the fifty mark, we rushed out to buy more gifts. In all, seventy children came.

The program went extremely well thanks especially to the efforts of volunteers from our teens and young adults ministries. The parents who came were pleased and the responses of the kids as they left were all along the lines of "I can't wait for your next event!"

In the past month I have been struck over and over with a sense of gratitude for the excellent people God has placed me amongst at New Hope. This event was just one more opportunity for joyful servanthood to show itself.

Taiwan Team

A short-term missionary team from Taiwan is staying at our Narimasu center. (They are on DTS outreach with YWAM Taipei if that means anything to you.) They have been helping with Oyako Club and handing out hundreds of fliers to publicize our children's Christmas party (more on the party in another post). They've also helped us in Sunday School, visited a small Christian school to encourage the students, handed out thousands of evangelistic Christmas CDs, been mistaken by the police for burglars, and made friends in the community while clothed and naked. (We don't have a shower so they use the public bath house.)

They've been a great help and a great encouragement. They head for China on December 26 to finish their outreach. Thank you Mayi, Sunny, Cindy, Chin Chen, Kuan Chi, Matt, Susanne, and Kristen.

General Update

Here's an update I just wrote up to be handed out at church tomorrow. It gives a bigger picture than just the preschool.

New Hope Community Life Center, Narimasu

The vision for our center in Narimasu is three-fold. We aim to reach the community through a Culture School, a preschool, and Fellowship. Since the Grand Opening, here are things that we have done and things that are planned for the near future.

Culture School

• English Classes: Beginning in January, English classes people from high-school age and up will be held. Watch for the announcement and a special discount for New Hopers. See Fuyuji Ota for details.

• Hula: The New Hope Halau held hula practice on November 12.

Preschool

• One Day Preschool: Beginning in September, we started a preschool class on the fourth Saturday of each month. See Jeremy Seminoff for details.

• Oyako Club: Beginning in November, we started a parents and kids club every Wednesday. Twelve different children have already come to One Day Preschool or Oyako Club, five from New Hope and seven from outside.

Fellowship

• Ladies’ Bible Study: A Bible Study for women began in October and is held monthly on Friday evenings. See Carolyn Hollands for details.

• DCAT: A two day conference was held in October.

• YWAM Team: From December 5 to 14, we will be hosting a mission team from Taiwan.

• Children’s Christmas Party: On December 17, we will have a Christmas party for children in the Narimasu community. See Jeremy Seminoff if you are interested in helping.

• Sunday Worship: Morning worship services will be held on Sundays beginning in January. Stay tuned for details.

New Hope ministries are welcome to reserve the center for meetings and special events. See Shoji Onoda.


Several other events and programs are in the works. We welcome your ideas and vision. Whether you would like to help with an existing program, start something new, or just have an idea, please let us know. Thank you for your support!

Oyako Club: Week One

A shot through the skylight of our dollhouse.

At our first Oyako Club (oyako means parent and child), we played with the dollhouse, made a city out of blocks, did puzzles, talked about the difference between real and pretend things, ate lunch together and bounced a ball around on a blanket that everyone was holding. Oyako Club will happen on most Wednesdays from 10:30 to 1:00. The target age range is two to four years old. Of course younger and older children are welcome.

A few neighborhood moms stopped by outside and asked for information. Maybe we'll see some of them next week.

Let's Weigh the Teddy Bears.

 

Hopscotch!

 

I Found an Acorn!

Craft Time

 

More Preschool Classes

I'm late in posting this but we had our second "One Day Preschool" on October 22. I feel like we're getting into a groove with the format. We spent some time in the park across the street (still too many mosquitoes!) gathering leaves, acorns, and pine cones for our fall-themed craft. One parent who was there even found some sweet potatoes growing in the park and dug them up-weird.

Everyone seemed to have fun and the moms who were there said they would bring their kids again and invite friends, so we may have some momentum going here. Photos in the next post.

This week we'll be taking things to the next level and start our weekly "Oyako Club." Oyako means "parent and child" in Japanese. It's going to be similar to "One Day Preschool" except that since it's on weekday mornings, the focus will be on younger kids, two and three years old, who aren't yet in preschool. I'll be using the U of N curriculum (simplified of course) and some sensorials.

Unrelatedly, it looks like we have someone to run the evening English school. That's a big blessing, because I feel like we've been hopping on one foot with the preschool project being the only thing happening at the building.

Our Web Site Is Up

www.newhopeclc.jp. Check it out! A big thanks to Kei for his hard work.

First Day of (One-Day) Preschool

September 24 was our first "One Day Preschool" class. It's a two and a half hour program that we will do once a month on Saturdays. We had eight children show up. Four were unable to come because either they or their parents were sick. The theme was fruit, so we taught fruit vocabulary, played fruit games, read fruit stories, and made fruit crafts. The children ranged in age from three to five years old. They all had fun, although, it being the first time, some were shy.

The volunteer helpers were wonderful. Big thank yous go to Michiko, Miho, and Joko. A reporter from Japan's The Christian newspaper was there too; there will be an article in the next issue.

Our next "One Day Preschool" will be on October 22. We will be starting our Wednesday "Parents and Kids Club" soon. Check here for details.

Grand Opening

Saturday, August 20th was the big day. We worked down to the wire. The mortar in the parking area wasn't completely dry when people showed up, but what a time it was. About one hundred people came, most from New Hope Tokyo, some from New Hope Yokohama and Shiki Christian Church, and a few other folks.

We started with worship. The future Narimasu worship team led, and did a wonderful job of it. Pastor Talo introduced and thanked various people, and gave a brief message about our three-fold vision for the Narimasu project (preschool, culture center, and worship service). We watched a slide presentation that showed the renovation from beginning to end (even though we still aren't quite done). Pastor Toru dedicated the project in prayer. All this was followed by refreshments on the first floor provided by NHT's hospitality team.

Personally, I was touched by how many people came and the excitement they have for the project. A few expressed interest in being teachers or staff. Also, before Toru prayed, he talked about God's faithfulness in bringing vision to pass and related how glad he was that I hadn't decided to move back to America a couple years ago when I was going through a dry time. I had forgotten all about that time, but it's true that I was inches from a decision to pack it all up and head home. If I had done so, I am sure that God would have worked his purposes through others, but I would have been watching from afar.

Just getting to the Grand Opening was arduous but the real work has yet to begin. We now need to furnish the school, recruit and train teachers and staff, and begin gathering students. We are working on a flier and have a web domain, www.newhopeclc.jp, but if you click the link, you will see that, as of today, there is no content yet.

When I get some photos of the opening, I will post them here. Until then . . .

Grand Opening Announcement

Here is the postcard invitation to the grand opening of our community center and preschool. Everyone is welcome.

Edit: I just realized this image might be too small. Please click here to see it at a (much) higher resolution.

Study Trip to Kobe

I went to Kobe (actually Ashiya) last week for a few days to observe classes in a preschool that is very similar to the one we envision. The time there was great. Thanks to Richard and Chisa, and Jef and Aya for hospitality. Thanks to Sharon and Satoru (and Yumi) for allowing me to sit in on classes and pick your brains. I came back encouraged, inspired, and full of ideas. Check out their web site. It's in Japanese, but the pictures are great.

5 Days Left

On August 20, we are going to have our grand opening. The remodeling will go down to the wire, probably without us being finished with everything, but we're pretty close. We installed the flooring in the main classroom/hall today. Tomomi put in some carpet tiles downstairs. Most of what's left to be done is finish work, hanging some doors, touching up paint, and the like.

Our Logo

logo
Originally uploaded by Jeremy in Japan.

Here is the logo that Yuzupon (an excellent New Hope graphics guy) came up with. It's an adaptation of our church's logo. Notice that the ribbon with "Preschool" on it can easily be changed to "Elementary School," "Junior High School" or "High School."

Long time, no write

It's been a while, but here's a short update. The remodeling work is taking much longer than expected, but we have people working almost around the clock to get things ready for our "opening ceremony" on August 20.

A big thank you to the Kona DTS team of Cliff, Chan, Mike, and Moses, who put in a week or so of very hard work ripping up old vinyl flooring and busting tiles and a concrete wall out of our parking area. Everyone here was impressed by your enthusiasm and servant hearts. (I hope you get your cho cho longs, Cliff.)

Also to the Australia team that helped for two days. The kids are going to get a lot of fun out of those blocks. And I'll think about you guys whenever I see those shiny brass edges on the stairs.

I'll be going down to Kobe on August 11 and 12 to observe Sharon in action at the preschool she started earlier this year. She and the Lord have a good thing going there and it is her vision to see schools multiplied across Japan.

Please keep the project in prayer. As we get closer to the end of the remodeling, it is time to focus more on our program, teacher recruiting and training, publicity and student recruiting. Please pray for me personally as well that I will be wise with my time. I am still on my current job until March and want to have a great transition to the next head teacher there. I have never worked on a project as big as this preschool project before and at times feel overwhelmed. I also need to be a good husband and father in the midst of the busyness. In other words, I need to listen keenly to the Lord and follow his leading.

Thank you for reading, and for your prayers.

The Work Continues

We've completed a week of work on the building. Generally, we are ahead of schedule, but rebuilding the stairs to make them less steep is turning into a bigger project than we originally thought.

Today we had a barbecue lunch out in front of the building. Several neighbors stopped by to chat including the 75-year-old man who lives across the street. He said that he went to Sunday School as a child and even played the organ in church. Fifty years ago he almost became a Christian. He didn't elaborate on why he chose not to at the time, but it is clear that Christianity has a special place in his heart. I'm sure we'll see a lot of him. What a blessing it would be if, fifty years after his initial desire to become a Christian, he finally took the plunge!

We will have a dedication service for the building on August 20, and begin holding Sunday services the next day. Since the building will not be used for classes on Sundays, we will have a satellite church that meets there. I'm excited about having a "local" church with the flavor of New Hope.

First Day of Construction for Volunteers

We began work on the building today. We tore out some rotten ceiling tiles, broke down some walls that we don't need, puttied the grooves in some paneling to smooth it out, and had a grand old time. Timothy and Rina pitched in to help fix up "their school." Tomomi was planning to take them home for afternoon naps but they refused to leave while others were still working.

Many people from the church are helping. It's going to be a fun month of renovation.

(There are some photos below. If you want to see a bigger version, click a photo, then on the next screen click "all sizes." Use your browser's back button "<-" to return to this page.)

Carpenter's helper

Carpenter's helper
Originally uploaded by New Hope Kids.

Timothy, hard at work on his school.

Rina, the supervisor

Rina, the supervisor
Originally uploaded by New Hope Kids.

Yum! Putty.

Yum! Putty.
Originally uploaded by New Hope Kids.

Removing damaged tiles

Removing damaged tiles
Originally uploaded by New Hope Kids.

Smooth.

Smooth.
Originally uploaded by New Hope Kids.

Keiya: smoothing out the wall.

Need some help, Koji?

Need some help, Koji?
Originally uploaded by New Hope Kids.

You're going to have to grow your hair a little longer there, Samson.

Gimme something to break!

Gimme something to break!
Originally uploaded by New Hope Kids.

R and R

That's renovation and remodeling, not rest and relaxation. Work on the building has begun with a handful of pros to do the skilled work like gas, water, electric and tricky carpentry. Starting Monday, volunteers will be joining them to do such grunt work as breaking down walls (my specialty), painting, laying carpet, and applying putty. We plan to finish by the end of the month.

Besides construction the other main task this month is getting our program and staff in place well enough to begin doing publicity. There are so many decisions to make. Many of them depend on other decisions, and because this is a totally new thing for us, there is less information and experience to draw on than I wish there were. We are getting excellent advice from various quarters, but the most important thing is to receive wisdom from God and be sensitive to his leading.

Please keep us in your prayers.

Key to New Hope School, Narimasu

Key to New Hope School, Narimasu
Originally uploaded by New Hope Kids.

It's official. The lease was signed today, and we've got the key. Tomomi, Guy, Shoji, and I met today on site to discuss renovation of the building and the next steps in the program.

The renovation and remodeling will take place during the month of June. Pros will do the skilled work and we are looking for lots of volunteers to do the rest.

We are planning two day-camps during the summer, once-a-month special events, weekly preschool classes beginning in September, and the full launch of the preschool in April of next year.

We also want to start afternoon and evening English conversation classes as early as July.

Please keep the project in your prayers.

Narimasu It Is.

I met today with Shoji. He's our church administrator and the one in charge of leading all church-extension projects through the incubation stage. The church-extension projects to this point have been New Hope Yokohama and New Hope Osaka (Osaka is just getting started this month). In many ways, for our purposes, this new school resembles a church plant.

The highlight of the meeting was hearing that Pastor Talo approved us renting the building in Narimasu and starting our school there! The rough plan that we came up with today is to get the remodeling done in July, run a day camp in August, have a once-a-week preschool class beginning in July with day camps maybe once a month. We hope to officially launch the preschool in April 2006. (April is when the school year begins in Japan.) Plans will surely change, but I hope that they change in ways that are more ambitious for God and more in line with his will.

There is so much to learn, so, much to decide, so much to coordinate and so much to do! I'm really grateful for the responses from so many at our dream meeting last month. People offered to help in areas that we hadn't even considered yet, like with organizing a library. Great stuff! "Doing Church As a Team" is the way to go.

The biggest prayer requests I have are for prayers of thanksgiving. God is so good and so faithful. Also please pray for our people. It is a time for leaders to rise up and teams to be formed in key areas:

• construction and remodeling
• program and curriculum development for the preschool
• program development for the culture school (more on the culture school another time)
• publicity and recruiting
• fundraising
• teaching staff

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your prayers.

Some History

Below is a letter I wrote to Toru in 1999. He and Talo were still in Hawaii, preparing to come plant new Hope Tokyo. Talo recently found it while going through some old files. Things have taken longer than I thought they would, and Tomomi and I aren't a "childless couple" any more, but it's amazing how close the letter is to what is actually happening almost six years later.

August 5 [1999]

Dear Toru,

Thanks for the phone call the other day. It’s always great to talk and pray with a bro in the Lord. I’ve been thinking a lot about the move to Tokyo and the new church. I’m interested to know what you and Talo are thinking that our (Tomomi and I) roles and responsibilities will be.

I’m doing a lot of dreaming and thinking, but I’d like to know if it fits with the overall vision of New Hope Tokyo and our roles as you see it. We are particularly interested in working with children (especially preschool age). Here is what I’m thinking so far:

• A Sunday School program for preschool children. Something fun, simple interactive, easy to understand, and especially, Christ-centered. We want to teach people from a very young age that Jesus is relevant to every area of their lives, not just Sunday mornings.

• A child-raising class/support/care group for parents with young children. Parents these days in Japan (and everywhere else) need help raising godly well-balanced children.

• Family activities for young families. I think it is important for families to fellowship together, not just adults with adults and children with children.

Out of these church activities and the experience gained from them, I believe that with God-led vision and planning, over time, a preschool (youchien or hoikuen) will develop. A preschool and Sunday School program has many advantages over a Sunday School program alone. For example:

• In a preschool we can disciple children in God’s ways five days a week throughout the whole curriculum, not just “Bible time.” This will have a much greater impact on their loves.

• A preschool will attract non-Christian families in ways that church never will. If we run an excellent international preschool and produce graduates who are well-equipped for elementary school, parents will gladly send their children to us whether they are already Christian or not.

• PTA and parenting seminars will make natural friendships between non-Christian parents, and Christian parents and teachers.

Of course all this is just dreams now. It is subject to the approval and covering of leadership, and there is no way that Tomomi and I can even begin to do all of this ourselves. (How could a childless couple teach a child-raising class?!?!) It would take a large group of people moving in unity, but at least the seeds are there in our hearts and, who knows, maybe other people's as well.

For the time being, we are planning to move to Tokyo in early November. I want to continue my Japanese studies there, and I’m thinking about starting an afternoon English [the letter continues on a second page which is lost].

First Dream Meeting

The New Hope Church School team held its first dream meeting today. About twenty people came. We opened with worship. Guy, Shoji, and I shared our vision for the project, and Shoji also presented what we've done so far and proposed beginning with the Narimasu site. I'll post my vision notes below and summarize the rest here.

Guy talked about the school being a bridge between the church and the community and detailed ways in which the school building could be used as a community outreach center. He focused on ways in which each New Hope member can use his or her gifts and on how we will be able to reach different groups in the community: children of all ages, mothers, fathers, and university students.

Shoji talked more about the big picture. He talked about how this has been a dream of New Hope Tokyo since the beginning. How he sees the church school project as an expression of our first core value (that Christians and non-Christians are equally loved by God and that we are committed to evangelism and discipleship). He said that the project will not end with the establishment of the first preschool, but that in the first five years we would like to start five or ten preschools in various local communities around Tokyo. Then an elementary school, junior high, high school and Bible college.

My perspective was that of the Sunday School director. Here are my notes:

Vision for New Hope School

Why New Hope School? Because Jesus loves children and wants to be with them every day, not just Sunday. Much of the ministry to which we are called cannot be accomplished in one hour a week. Jesus didn’t have a weekly one-hour meeting with his disciples; he spent time with them every day. Some children learn best in ways other than the worship/story/craft approach that we use in Sunday School. By integrating biblical principles throughout the curriculum, we can reach children whose learning styles are different and create natural opportunities not only to learn, but also to apply what has been learned.

In addition to serving our own children better, we will be able to reach children who would not otherwise hear the gospel. Many families would never come to a worship service, but part of being a church without walls is to step outside of the sanctuary and reach people where they are. Our school will not be a place to hide and protect our children from the world, but one more way of reaching out to the world.

Parents of young children are in a unique place of openness to the gospel. They feel a huge weight of responsibility, and though we are not perfect at raising and educating children, we can do our best and point them to the perfect God who will give them the wisdom and strength they need.

We had good feedback. People asked questions about student recruitment, whether we have teachers lined up, and our timeline for an elementary school. The next step is to put teams together to tackle specific issues like office work, curriculum development, recruiting, a building-use plan, and many more. We closed with prayer, and refreshments.

実感してきました！ It's beginning to feel real!

Getting a feel for it

I've started teaching English once a week at the small Christian school in my city. I team-teach with a Japanese woman who went to college in the US. She had been doing a wonderful job teaching English conversation by herself for the first year and a half of the school's existence. I'm glad she's let me in on the class. It's wonderful to be free to discuss God in the classroom. The kids are enthusiatic in their love for the Lord and for studying. I'm getting a feel for what a small Christian school feels like from the teacher's perspective (already been there as a student).

Shalom School

A couple years ago, Tomomi started taking our children to Shalom Kindergaten's Moms-and-Kids class once a week. Through it, Tomomi and the kids have made some very good friends and had lots of fun. The church that runs the kindergarten started an elementary through high school a year and a half ago. At present they have fewer than ten students, but I'm sure that will change. I spent a day in the class last year and was very impressed. The teachers are all volunteers. They obviously love the children and are devoted to their education and to raising them in God's ways. The kids interact so well with one another. It's a one-room school so the younger kids have good role models in the classroom and the older kids have opportunities to serve and teach. Since we won't be doing much with the New Hope School this year, I offered to help teach English at Shalom. It's a small way to pay back the kindess that they've shown to my family, and it will also be a good chance for me to get experience in a pioneering school before we start our own. For now, I'll be going once a week.

The entrance ceremony was held today (Japanese institutions have a lot of ceremonies). They introduced the new students and welcomed them. The principal/pastor gave a message about the triumphant entry with outstanding animal sound effects. The older kids sang a couple songs, one of which was the Lord's Prayer in English. I'm really excited about working there.

"Goliath"

"Goliath"
Originally uploaded by New Hope Kids.

Even though I don't really like my kids to have toy weapons or violent toys, we bowed to peer pressure last week after church and got Timothy a happy meal at McDonalds that came with this toy.

Timothy took it out of the package, set it down on the table, looked it straight in the eye and said, "You come at me with a sword and a spear, but I come at you in the name of the Lord!"

New Preschool?

New Preschool?
Originally uploaded by New Hope Kids.

This is the building in Narimasu that we are considering. We need to decide on it by the end of April.

First Post

Starting a Christian preschool in Japan has been a dream of mine since 1997. Now that it looks like it's getting closer to reality, I want to keep a record of how it comes about step by step. Some posts will be historical, how we got to this point. Others will be the latest news.

Now we have a small team of church members who are commited to the project and it looks like we will launch a pilot program in September. The place we are currently considering is in Narimasu, Itabashi Ward in Tokyo. I'll try to upload a photo of the building.