Mega Christmas Update Part Two

Merry Christmas!

It's 1:48am, Christmas Day, so it's Christmas here in Japan, but not yet in America. I suppose never before have the time zone implications for Santa been so real to me until now. Anyway, I should be off to bed, but.... MUST..... UPDATE.... BLOG....


Doesn't everyone look so lovely?! Last week, we had the end of the year Christmas party. This semi-formal event is the last event of the year, and in my opinion, one of the best. Here there were all the making of a good Christmas party; Christmas dinner, singing carols, games, gift exchange, and a Christmas message. Except here, the food was Japanese, the songs are sung in another language, and I couldn't understand most of the message. But hey, what do you expect?!

Although, I could only understand very little, I really enjoyed the message at the end. It is a tradition for Nagai-san to speak at the Christmas party about Christmas. While most of us don't have to think twice, for some of the students, this was the first time that they had ever heard that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, or made the connection that "Christ" is found in the word Christmas.

And I got a cool clock as my white elephant gift! Score!!!

Mega Christmas Update Part One

Ok, so I haven't updated in a while, so now I have a lot to say, but I don't want to write too much, so I'll try and break it down into a couple entries. Things have been quite busy, so sorry for the lack of updates, but I'll try and make up for it.


So, here it is! The first ever Penn State reunion photo! All the students you see in this picture are every student that has studied at Penn State University, not including the ones that are there right now. Never have all these Japanese students been in one place at one time. It was pretty exciting. The event that this historical moment took place was a Christmas party that happened on the first of December. So, yeah, that's early for a Christmas party, and I am 19 days late to talk about it, but what can you do?

The party was a get together for Seniors and Alumni, and it was the first time I was able to see many of these students since I arrived in Japan. There were about 20 people that came, which was pretty impressive, since we all had to fit in Lighthouse, which is probably not designed to accommodate more than 10 comfortably. But we all fit, and we had a great time.

Later in the evening, we did a small group Bible discussion on the story of Christmas. Many Japanese have never heard about the true meaning of Christmas, and how it's actually a celebration of the birth of Jesus. In my small group of about 6, our discussion lead into the gospel message of Jesus, and talking about salvation through Christ. The thing that surprised me the most was it seemed that it was the first time that the people in my group had ever heard an explanation of the gospel. Since, these were all upperclassmen and alumni, I assumed that this wouldn't be the first time for them to hear this, but my impression was that it was... Perhaps, it was just the first time to go into detail. My hope is that it will open the door for further discussion down the road.

It was a very positive evening, and a great time that I got to spend with friends that I had not seen in a long time.