senior students - nativity story

I suppose it is hard for most of you to imagine preparing for the end of the school year in October, but that is exactly what I am doing with my Japanese seniors.  In fact, I only have a few more class periods with them in their Oral Communication class.  The girls will actually graduate in February, but they quit attending classes at the end of November so that they can turn their complete focus toward preparing for the college entrance exams which will take place in Jan and Feb.  This year we've been focusing on discussing many topics that would be of interest to teenage girls of any culture including fashion, beauty, family life, and most recently, the differences between infatuation and true love.  It has been a very interesting topic because Japanese views on this subject are quite different than those of Westerners.   As a culmination to this topic and to the school year, Mrs. Wada and I decided to show a movie in three segments to the students.  They are watching the movie in English with Japanese subtitles.  My co-teacher, Mrs. Wada and I decided that with Christmas coming, "The Nativity Story", titled "Maria" in Japanese, would be an excellent movie to show the girls.  After showing them the first segment this past Friday, I was a little surprised, but not too much, that in most of my three classes, the girls were completely unfamiliar with the story.  The movie also shows the wise men as they examine the skies, wondering at the meaning of the alignment of the planets and stars, and searching the OT scriptures for answers.  The students were completely unaware of who these men were and why they would be so interested in such a phenomena.  Please pray that as we watch this movie over the next month and discuss it in class that God will open doors for us to boldly proclaim the reason that Jesus was born here on earth.  The next 6 weeks will find us very busy in preparation for the month of December where we will have many many opportunities to share the true meaning of Christmas.  

engagement

Recently, our son, Caleb, announced his engagement to  Beth Anne Bettis.  Beth Anne and Caleb first met in 1992 when they attended Kindergarten together at Central Christian School in Hutchinson, KS while the Trim family was on Home Assignment from Japan.  Our families became friends through attending the same church that year and a pen pal friendship began.  Five years later, in the fifth grade, the two were classmates once again at Central Christian School. Their friendship as well as friendships with their other classmates continued over the course of the following years, mostly via letters and then emails.  During times that Caleb returned to the States, they occasionally spent time together.  Their friendship continued as they began attending different colleges in the Midwest. While pursuing a TESOL degree (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at Greenville (IL), Beth Anne went to Kobe, Japan and spent a summer working with the Trim's current church plant, Agape Bible Church.  Her gifts and abilities fit in extremely well with the Japanese culture, and she began to sense a call from God to seek a future in teaching English/ministry in Japan. Meanwhile, Caleb went to Mali, W. Africa for his major in Intercultural Studies at Grace (Omaha), and was praying for God's guidance regarding his future.  

  At Christmas, 2007, Caleb felt peace to seek her father's blessing to court Beth Anne and move in the direction of a possible future of ministry together in Japan.  They were engaged in early August, and the wedding date has been set for July 11, 2009 at Center Baptist Church in Omaha, NE.  Beth Anne expects to complete her degree at Greenville University in May, 2009, and Caleb will continue working towards his degree as a married student at Grace.  Please pray for God's continued blessing on them as they prepare for marriage and a future of serving Him together.