Giving It Another Go

This week we signed our contracts for 2012.  That's right: we've decided to stay another year.  Though we are sad that we will be away from our friends and family for another year, we are really excited about sticking around for another year.  Staying for another year was what we both wanted, so we felt that such a mutual agreement was a sign that God wanted us to stay too.

For us, the decision was easy:  We are both really enjoying our jobs and have gotten positive feedback from our supervisors; living in Japan has been a fun adventure that we don't want to end yet; we've made some good friends (and I've got an AWESOME grade level partner who keeps me laughing and helps teaching be easy-peezy-lemon-squeezy) and our salaries are enough that we don't have to worry about money (though we still live frugally so that we can save up our money for a down payment on a house someday).  As I've told many of my family members, MeySen is a teacher's dream and I can't imagine teaching anywhere else (at least for the time being).  After getting used to short work days, plenty of prep time, a class size of 13, opportunities to build friendships with students, and ADORABLE kids, I may have to retire from teaching when I return to the States! haha! 

We both prayed about our decision to stay and feel that God wants us to be here.  Teaching at MeySen gives us an incredible opportunity to share the gospel with kids that come from non-Christian homes.  I get to read the Bible to my 3rd grade students every day and talk to them about God openly, though their families are not Christian and some of them are not either.  God is continuing using us to share his message of grace and forgiveness and love and redemption with the kids of Japan, so as long as He wants us to be here, we will be here.

Thank you to all our friends and family who continue to love and support us from across the ocean.  We wish we had a teleporter so that we could come and see you (and eat American food) more often.