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.
2 comments:
Kathy, that is a great use of that movie! It is amazing how many, even in the world of instant news and media, have never heard the simple story of Jesus. I'm so glad you were able to discuss it with these high school age girls.
Thanks, Lydia! It's true that there are still many people in the world who have never heard the story of Jesus. I am very thankful that I had this opportunity and am praying for the seed to take root and bear fruit.
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