...slight tangent... Since coming to Japan in May, this is my first experience attending a "traditional" church in Japan. Through Living Hope Baptist Church, I'm getting opportunities to be a part of ministry that I'm more familiar with (like Jr. High Sunday School, Bible Study/Prayer Meetings, and Fellowship Time with church members) and it's been really exciting! ...end tangent...
Ok...so...I had my first opportunity to teach Jr. High Sunday School this past Sunday!!! During the week, I was really excited, but was also kinda nervous about it, as one question seemed to loom over me....should I play it safe and do it in English, or go big and try for Japanese??? I went back and forth during the week, excited for the opportunity to really go for it, but fearful of what seemed like an imminent "fail."
The week seemed busier than normal, and it flew by. Next thing I knew, it was Friday. I had a solid outline and some questions down on paper, but I still needed to write out everything I wanted to say in simpler English to help the teacher who would be translating for me. Not in enough time for me to get it into Japanese...so I thought. The other teacher and I found time Saturday afternoon to meet and she worked (struggled/agonized/labored) with me to get all the things I wanted to say translated!!! I was gonna go for it!!! I spent Saturday night practicing, but there were still a lot of kinks. I knew it wasn't going to be pretty (and definitely not traditional Sunday School style), but I was hoping to gut out a win out of sheer will and determination.......
Game day rolled around and we got off to a pretty good start. I was able to rely on the other teachers a lot when I wanted to ask or say something that wasn't in my "playbook," but for the most part, I was able to keep to what was scripted in the game plan. There were definitely some fumbling of words, and it wasn't always pretty, but we gutted it out. In the end, the youth said that my slow Japanese helped them to understand what we were teaching, so I'd say we can chalk one up in the win column ;)
Ray may have been Tebowing after, but having someone take a pic of it might have been a little difficult to explain...
Ray may be missing football just a little bit.....
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| The Teachers |
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| The Students (minus 1) |
