The following is a letter I wrote to my church back in Canada. Also appropriate for the general viewing public.

The God of Small Things.

Hello to my Shantz Church family!

Hope y'all are well and healthy...

I have to start off by saying "I am sorry for not writing to you sooner and I have really no excuse for this, except to say that time is REALLY flying over here and I can't believe it's been four months since I left Canada". Forgiveness please.

I have to say, I miss you all. I miss the church community, the discussions, the friends, and the potlucks. I have not yet found a church here, but to be perfectly honest, I haven't looked very hard. But I've taken the opportunity to spend more time with God alone. Most Sundays I wake up, stretch a bit, and then sit on my bamboo mat floor and... do nothing. Just sit. Then I'll crack open a random page of the Bible and read it, think about it... then read a bit of The Purpose Driven Life (thanks Mom), dwell on that for a bit... then read "What Is Zen" (great book, check it out) by Allan Watts for a bit and reflect on that.

The result of this kind of prayer and meditation has been a renewed sense of gratefulness to God for all the blessings in my life, not least of which are the people back home (you) who pray for me and are supportive of me. It's really quite amazing the difference a thankful heart can produce in everyday existence. I've found myself able to appreciate each interaction more, every student that smiles and waves at me or goes out of his/her way to say something in English; every teacher that is so grateful for my proofreading their tests... little things like that. Honestly, there is nothing that exciting in my day-to-day routine in Japan, but it's all these mundane blessings that, if remembered, make for a good time. Allow me to share a few...

This week I have been giving interview tests to 9th graders and it's really fun most of the time because it's basically just me and the student chilling out and talking in English. One question I asked a bunch of times is "What do you want to be in the future?".

Normal answer: "I want to be a [profession of choice]"

Abnormal/Awesome answers:
"I want to be rich!" Why? "Big house! Lots of shoes!" - Mami
"I want to be happy" - Shizuka [this was immediately after Mami's comment].
"I want to be Ritchie Blackmore" - Taiki. I thought at first that he said "I want to be a rich black man" and I didn't quite know what to say. Turns out he was talking about the aforementioned Mr. Blackmore, former guitarist of Deep Purple!

I led a game of pictionary with one of my 7th grade classes and divided the class into two teams. I asked for team names and Natsuki volunteered "Sushi" for her team. I just have to say at this point that Natsuki is probably one of the best persons in Japan. I haven't really had any conversations with her (she can't speak English very well) but she is just so bright, bubbly, smart, gentle, and good-natured that she has become one of my favourites. There are some kids who are cheerful in a loud, obnoxious way, but Natsuki just seems full of joy... and as I watched her with her team, everyone always looked to her as their leader to consider their next move. Anyways, the other team, upon deliberation from their EXTREMELY loud leader, we'll call her Alpha Girl, decided that a good opposition to Japanese Sushi would be American Steak. Steak vs. Sushi. America vs. Japan. Interestingly, the Steak side was very rowdy, outspoken, and noisy while team Sushi was very quiet, but attentive. Sushi won 3-1.
This last story takes place at taiko practice [taiko is Japanese drumming... big drums... big sticks...]. We were learning a new piece which involved an A side and a B side and the two would call and answer, back and forth. I was really struggling with the transition from A to B because I couldn't get the timing right and was always coming in too early or too late. So I was resorting to counting out the individual beats and this was getting nowhere too... Finally, Saya, a 12-year-old girl who is really good and knows both A and B parts, turned to me and said in absolute seriousness (in Japanese), "Ken, it's no use trying to count the beats. You've got to feel the music, feel the rhythm." I didn't know 12-year-olds knew anything about groove, much less how to teach it, but I've got the part down pat now!

It's stuff like that that make my day, and I thank God for making me sensitive to them. I hope you can take the time to see these little things in a season too often overwhelmed by big spending and stress.
Blessings to all of you, Merry Christmas!

peace,
Ken