Internet at Last!

At last, I have Internet at my apartment and am able to be in communication with the outside world. It wasn't all bad though, and gave me the opportunity to get to know my site partner, Haidee, better as the only place I could check email and such was her apartment. So many things have happened here since my last post, so I'll catch you up in brief:

I have moved to Shirone and begun teaching at 4 different sites!

I am officially driving on the other side of the road (yes, a big answer to prayer came when my driving permit arrived)

Some of the missionaries came up from Tokyo for a house blessing for myself and Cindy, the other new Ver.

Wakabyashi Sensei, after close to 17 years of waiting, studying, etc. was finally ordained on my first Sunday at the church. I felt so blessed to be able to participate in this long anticipated celebration of God's work in his life.

The congregation's president's wife was very suddenly taken ill and in a coma at the age of 55 when her bowl erupted. The whole church prayed, but she never woke up and died a week and a half later. She was not baptized, but had begun to come to church and praise hour events with her husband. This same man lost his father this past January, and his mother was hospitalized with a broken hip the same week his wife died. All of this, after he discovered a new passion in his life for reading the Bible. He's read it through 12 times now in under 4 years; it reminds me a lot of Job, being spiritually attacked because of his faithfulness to God. But many church members attended the wake and God blessed us with many opportunities to share Christ's love! The son has started going to church and the daughter is more open now than ever before. Please pray for this family as they morn this loss and for the love of Christ to be realized in their lives.

I started teaching at Niigata University, and I have only one female student, the rest are males! The classrooms have windows, so when the students were deciding whose class to be in, they looked in and stared at me for a while, then decided to come in. It felt weird, like they were window shopping or something. They are really fun students though, and all very unique.

I got really sick again... this time with a cold that lasted two weeks. I have never had such a bad cold and am realizing that my immune system is not used to these foreign viruses and i have no immunity built up against them. For three full days I completely lost my voice, and the rest of the time I was hoarse and weak with a sore throat and a headache. But I am starting to feel recovered.

I have done some hiking, seen the cherry blossoms, played basketball with some community people, and befriended a young Japanese woman who is struggling with severe depression. God has blessed us with many opportunities to spend time together, and she has opened up and shared a lot of the hurt on her heart. Please pray for her too, that she would continue to seek and ask questions, and that the Holy Spirit would work faith in her life.

I love driving, love the mountains, and am loving (although painful at times) the way God is challenging me and causing me to grow. Thank you all so much for your prayers. Their importance cannot be understated!