A Very White Christmas

What an amazing, absolutely gorgeous few days up north in Yamagata prefecture at Zao Mountain. It's hard to begin to capture the fun we had enjoying God's beautiful creation. The days were incredible, the skiing amazing, the company fun and the time.... truly blessed. What a beautiful way to spend Christmas!

Here we all are at the airport ready to head north- with Kristin's friend, Chris from Pittsburgh and our co-workers and special friends, Amy and Paul. I hope to figure out how to insert a slide show into this blogspace as there are so many pics to share.

Currently, we are back home in Osaka- Jeph and Andrew are getting ready to go to the airport to pick up Amberly. We can hardly wait for her to join the fun. I got a bit carried away with on-line shopping (ordered a bunch of games for school) thus the need to send Andrew along with Jeph as an extra luggage carrier! We remain thankful that Amberly was able to get out of both Boston and Chicago on time and that we will soon be all together.

We hope and pray that your celebrations have been filled joy-filled.

Advent... a time of waiting

We have been enjoying these four weeks of Advent- preparing our hearts to celebrate the best news the world has ever known- that God so loved the world... that He gave His son! I hope we never grow tired of the story.. nor forget it's truth and the implications on our lives.

As we wait for His return, we await Christmas and this year, we are especially waiting for the kids to arrive. Andrew was scheduled to be here tonight, however, the crazy winter storm that hit the east coast changed plans. Andrew's original flight from Boston to Washington DC was cancelled. He rebooked a flight out the following day, but after Jeph checked the weather, realized that if Andrew waited a night, he could very well be stuck in Boston. So... Andrew hopped on a plane to SanFrancisco where he spent the day. Weather permitting and God-willing, he will head out tomorrow morning and arrive in Osaka Monday night! We can hardly wait.

The next waiting phase will include watching the weather in Pittsburgh. Kristin and her friend, Chris, are scheduled to fly out Monday morning as well. Unfortunately, they are booked on a flight through Washington DC. We are hoping that the snow will have been cleared and that they can arrive and fly out as planned. We are a drop nervous however, as we have reservations to all fly out of Osaka up to Sendai on Wednesday morning.... so we are praying that all goes well.

We hope to enjoy a few days at our old, family favorite ski resort in Yamagata prefecture-Mt. Zao. We have friends from school, Paul and Amy, who will be joining us as well. We'll celebrate Christmas up north and return to Osaka in time to welcome Amberly on the 29th. We are really looking forward to having the family all together!

I will hopefully post pics and share an update once we are all together. Until then, may the good news of His coming bring you great joy! Merry Christmas!!!

Thanksgiving and the start of Advent

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving is always a hard holiday to be away from family... however, we marvel at how the Lord has provided "family" here in Osaka. We remain grateful for the opportunity to spend a day praising and thanking God for His many blessings.

playing Jenga while we waited for dinner. We may have hit a new record with 32 rows!

Phillip and Ponga carving the birds! They were delicious and Jeph was esp. excited to be able to have enough leftovers for a turkey sandwich the following day.

Here we are skype'ing with Andrew and Amberly. They spent the weekend together in Cambridge (Amberly had to work). Kristin was graciously welcomed into the Ernst family festivities in PA. Although it was sad to not be all together, it made us that much more excited for when we are all together later this month!

First week of Advent

Here's a pic of our Advent wreath-Osaka version. Advent has always been one of my favorite seasons (I love having time set aside to prepare our hearts for the celebration of the birth of our King and Savior ) and it has also become a favorite family tradition as well. Each night during the four weeks leading up to Christmas, we light a candle(s), take turns reading special Scripture passages, pray and end by singing Christmas caroles and hymns.

I have to admit, this season of Advent is the time I miss being gathered around our dining room table more than ever, yet we rejoice! Not only do we have the kids' upcoming visit to look forward to, but far greater, the time when we will celebrate His return- Come quickly, we pray!

Joy to the world.. the Lord has come!

Small World/Big News

Yesterday, Jeph and I had the pleasure of having lunch with one of Amberly's co-workers! Mutsi is originally from Osaka and she and her hubby have been living in NH for the past 17 years. She started work at Youville Hospital about 6 months before Amberly and has been such a wonderful support for Amberly-and has really been like a second mom. What a treat for J and I to see her here- made the world seem so wonderfully small!

Below is a picture taken from last week's West Line Dancing Bash we had at school- it's so fun having a job that allows me to play with my obsession for themes! Speaking of my job, I am humbled and grateful that the "interim" has been removed from my job title and I have been offered a permanent position! So... looks like we'll be here in Osaka for a few more years!

With much to be thankful for, we'll soon be heading off to church where we'll be celebrating an early Thanksgiving, complete with turkey (thanks to a Costco here in Osaka!), mashed potatoes and I've heard rumors of pumpkin pie!

Minoh Waterfall

This past week included a first-time visit to the Minoh Waterfall. We enjoyed a great hike and the start of seeing momoji (fall leaves).

not really sure where to go... which is the way to the road less traveled??

The waterfall!

Jeff and I at the half way mark up to the waterfallAlong the road leading up to the waterfall, there were lots of little shops selling food, souveniers, etc. Here are some "fish on a stick".... and nope, we didn't try any this time!

October Highlights

It"s hard to believe that October has come and gone.... still not sure I'll ever understand the passing of time but we do remain thankful that we know the One who holds us in His hands!

A few highlights from the month:

this pic was taken along one of J's favorite trails. It's a park bench, designed to prevent folks from sleeping on it! Guess that is one way to handle the situation!?

Here's J with his new scooter. We really do love scooting around, esp. to and from school!

Yep, pink toilet paper. A first for Japan! (and it is soft too!)
In keeping with a tradition that began long ago, J has gotten the entire math department (total of 2!) here at OIS to join in the fun of dressing up for Halloween! Here's to the world's greatest nerds!

Last week, we hosted an in-house college fair where our students were exposed to the 43 colleges/universities around the world that our faculty attended. It turned out to be a great event and I think the teachers enjoyed it as much as the students. (This is just one of the things I get to do as the counselor! It's a great job!)
Jeph contacted West Virginia University (where he got his Master's) and they sent a huge box, filled with all kinds of admissions "stuff"- pens, post-it notes, flyers, CDs, brochures, stickers, etc. His booth definitely looked the most professional and I wouldn't be surprised if a few students ended up applying as a result! Go Mountaineers!

Another big event that took place in October was Sports Day. (this is a BIG deal in Japan) As the Senior Class Advisor, J was part of the (winning!) RED team-

The Elementary School also participated in Sports Day and enjoyed some none-competitive fun games. I was a member of the Green team.

In the midst of the craziness of school, we remain grateful for our church and the fellowship that we share there. J has been leading the Sunday morning English Bible Study/Sunday School. We've been enjoying Philip Yancey's video series on The Jesus I Never Knew. It's a great study!

Below is a little "sample" of our worship here in Osaka. The song, Amazing Grace, was sung during part of an engagment ceremony (which explains the young couple standing in front of the pulpit!)

Now that our coaching duties are behind us, we hope to be more frequent bloggers and look forward to being in touch! Happy November!

Typhoon Day

I know we have a lot of updating to do, and once we get through volleyball and baseball season, we really do hope to be better bloggers, but until then... just wanted to share our typhoon day with you.

Our day began with the anticipated (and very much hoped for) 6:00 am call telling us that school was cancelled for the day due to the typhoon. The winds were crazy although we didn't have much rain. After Jeph called the five families on his phone tree list, we headed back to bed and enjoyed a few extra hours of sleep. We then joined our fellow colleagues, Amy and Paul for lunch and enjoyed what turned out to be a beautiful day!! Our thanks to this typhoon- for packing a punch strong enough to get school cancelled, but not strong enough to do much damage- and allowing the sun to break through for a wonderful day!

Here Amy and I are hanging out, in the sun, outside of the restaurant. Notice the dry pavement, flowers and sunshine! Not bad for a typhoon day!Here we are with the boys.
Look what we found at the 100 yen shop! Actually, the 100 yen shop was upstairs but we found all kinds of interesting things on this floor! Notice the size of these things... makes me even more curious why all the chocolate comes in teeny, tiny packages when clearly, super sizes do exist!

A New School Year

Greetings from Osaka- I apologize that this is going to be a quick update- we hope to add pics and stories later, but I was feeling a bit guilty that we hadn't posted any updates, so... here goes-

*Karen- is enjoying her new job as the K-12 Guidance Counselor, but it's been non-stop since day one. In addition to all the "regular" duties (counseling, meetings, playground duty, working with parents, teachers and students), she's also teaching two courses, coaching middle school girls volleyball, helping the seniors with their college applications, developing a college handbook, designing a web page, planning weekly assembly's, and initiating some school-wide traditions. The next few weeks will be busy ones as well with every Saturday being tied up with either volleyball games or standardized testing (OIS is a testing site for the PSAT, SAT and ACT tests).

*Jeph has been equally busy with a full teaching load in addition to being the Senior Class Advisor (which is a huge job, and somewhat of an honor as the students chose him) and coaching the Varsity Baseball team. The baseball season includes weekly games, all of them involving travel as we don't have our own field. The good news is that the team will be traveling to Nagoya which is where our dear friends, the Moody's live and Iwakuni, which is where the Lange family resides. (both are friends from our time in Sendai! It really is a small world!). Jeph's already had some funny baseball stories and the season is still young! He'll post details and pics some day.

*A few other highlights-
We are now a 2 scooter family and we're LOVING it! It's opened up a whole new world as we can both hit the road on our bikes. It's been especially wonderful to be able to ride to and from school in the heat. We are hoping that cooler weather arrives soon and we look forward to exploring the Mino hills that can see from our balcony.

We're grateful to be back worshipping with our church family at Suita Bible Church. Jeph is actually leading a 14 week study for our Sunday School class that begins on Sunday.

We are already getting excited to have the kids here for Christmas. We continue to miss them a great deal but remain grateful for the opportunities that they are experiencing.

We hope all of you in the States enjoy this Labor day- our first holiday occurs later this month!

Time Flies When We're Having Fun

It's hard to believe that August has come and is about over... it's been a busy month- full of departures, arrivals, beginnings and endings and tons of examples of God's incredible grace. We remain deeply grateful-

A quick update/catch up:

* Jeph- had a great visit with his mom and brother, Eric up in Ft. Wayne. What was originally planned to be a working weekend, ended up being more of a fun vacation where they enjoyed seeing A Chorus Line show, a Tin Cap baseball game (Ft. Wayne single A team that J had fun referring to as the Tin Cups), and sharing old memories while making new ones. Hopefully, we'll all get a chance to see Ema next summer. (sorry no pics to post)

*Karen finished up her summer employment with CIS. She felt a bit torn at the end... sad to leave but also excited about returning to Osaka as the k-12 Guidance Counselor. Thanks, CIS- it was a fun summer and an incredible six years.

*Andrew continued to see his physical therapist right up until he headed back to Gordon. He needed to move into his dorm a week early for RA training, so Karen enjoyed a chance to help him get settled AND spend time with Amberly.

The new RA- second floor Lewis! (he's going to be great!)

ringing the famous bell on campus- although you're only really suppose to ring it when you get engaged- oh well!

the Chapel - centerpiece of the campus

the car loaded up after a Target run!

we enjoyed a last lunch together before leaving Andrew at school-

Really enjoyed the opportunity to visit Amberly's workplace! here she is with one of her friends who just happens to be from Osaka!

Youville Hospital has a rich history of caring for the poor.

the night shift- angels in disguise!

Karen returned from Boston and joined Jeph in a final cleaning of the house in preparation for Brian and Madelyn and their two little ones who will be moving in on September 1st. On August 16th, we did something we hadn't done in years.... boarded a plane together and headed back to the Land of the Rising Sun!

oh, the fun of being back in Japan! Gotta love the Engrish! Pictured below- J with one of his new fellow-bald friends!

Good-Bye Ole' Girl

Great news! We sold the van! Had an 'interesting' day with two interested buyers at the house at the same time, both wanting the van, both making offers and both feeling entitled for different reasons. One was physically here first and the other had emailed me earlier, thus he thought he was first! Thankfully, everyone was gracious even if it was a bit awkward, the van's sold and we are grateful~

Good-bye ole' girl- may you enjoy many new adventures!

The fun of a full house!

What a great week! Amberly and Kristin flew in on Friday to spend a few days here in NC and what a treat it is to have the family all together! Our dear friends, the Harrills, gave us the key to their condo in Myrtle Beach for the weekend- it was wonderful to head down there for a few days of what felt like a real vacation! Although Andrew wasn't able to enjoy the water (due to his recent surgery), we all had a great time... (except for the sunburns!) We are now enjoying a few days here at home before the girls head back out on Wed. (which is going to be a sad day!) We are indeed grateful for the chance to be together-