I am a Christian missionary

Yes, you read that right. I am a Christian missionary in Japan.

Yes, that means that I have to teach the Christian 'Gospel'. Gospel means 'good news.' That good news is that Jesus, the guy who lived about 2000 years ago, died a really nasty death, but then came back to life. To believe that is to be a Christian. Christians believe that after we die, our bodies will also rise back to life from death. In the Bible, the main part if Christianity is stated in John 3:16:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

and in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4:

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

That is Christianity, in a nutshell.

I am a teacher in a Christian (Lutheran) private school, which has students from grades one to twelve. It is one of the only schools in Japan that has every grade from elementary school to high school in it. If I were to stay here for twelve years, I would be able to watch a young child group up into an adult; ready to face the world, head-on. What a blessing that would be. I will be teaching grades 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 11 this year. I am the head teacher (meaning that I must do lesson planes and lead the class) in every grade, except for grade 8. In that grade, the Japanese teacher is the head teacher, and I am the assistant. This is differant that most teaching jobs in Japan, where the foreign teacher is the assistant. This is more work for me, but I am also paid more in return.

In addition to teaching in school, I also will be leading a small group Bible study on Sundays, at church. During July, I will be chaperoning a group of Japanese students on a 4-week trip to America; LA and Phoenix. We will we going to places like Disneyland, Hollywood, a beach, the Grand Canyon, and other things. We will be visiting Concordia College in Irvine, and a Lutheran church in Phoenix. Also, I will help in coordinating a faculty trip for some people from my school to the USA, a trip for a group of students from America to Japan, and a trip for Concordia (Irvine) College faculty to Japan. I'll be pretty busy.

In my next few posts, I'll have pictures from my school, where I'm living, and pictures from around Tokyo. So far I've been to Akihabara (the electronics district), the Imperial Palace Gardens, the Budokan (famous for many rock concerts and Judo competitions), Yasakuni Shrine (a very contraversial place), Tokyo Tower, and I've seen a play at the Kabuki Theater.
















The last picture that I took in Korea; looking onto the north side of the Taewa river.

















...And here's a nice shot of downtown Tokyo; infront of the Imperial Palace, looking towards Tokyo Tower.