learning Engrish

Well, today we had our first English class! The teacher is from Canada, and is a Christian who works closely with the Fukuoka Navigators. The first class was English Conversations2. They watch a clip from The Truman Show, and then pair off to do interview-style questions to practice their English. The teacher integrated us into the class for the interview portion, and it was really fun! They were asking all sorts of questions about what we like to do, and we got to know a few students. The girls I met with seemed pretty excited to talk, and learn that we are very similar to them, our taste in music, food, and EC activities. After the first class, one of the girls Meg interviewed came and ate lunch with us!! Apparently over her winter break she went to Kansas to study at Washburn University, about 20 minutes away from where Kyle and Rob live. She seemed very excited to be able to hang out with us, and Naoko talked to her a little bit and we found out she was intrigued by Americans' enthusiasm for religion. The host family she stayed with went to church, and she was amazed that Americans would wake up early on their weekend just to go to church.
On our way to the second English class, we bumped into teachers from Germany and the UK, and the man from the UK just emailed me and he wants us to feel free to come help in his class Mondays, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays. We already have classes Wednesdays and Thursdays, so we'll see what happens with that.
The picture above is from our first night of BEST club, last week. They had a welcome party for us, with lots of games and fun get-to-know-you quizzes and such.
Last weekend, Mr.Shin and Jun took us to the beach (about an hour drive). We were really close to Korea, and it was beautiful!! The only bad part is that there were jellyfish about every 10 feet, washed up on the sand. There was an island about 100m away that Kyle and I swam to. There were primitive steps that lead somewhere, but we were a little anxious about exploring by ourselves and having to swim back if something happened.
The rainy season officially started today! It has been raining steadily since at least 5am, and looks like it might continue until around Sunday. We're expecting it to be like this until July though. I love the rain, so it's pretty beautiful, but please pray that somehow Meg would find a way to either run in the rain, or a place she can run and not ruin her shoes.
All in all, it has been an absolutely great week!
Matt leaves tomorrow morning, so please pray for his flights back to Kansas, and for the ministry there. Please continue to pray for our team's health, safety, and hearts. Please continue to pray for open minds and hearts for our team and Japanese staff and students. Please also pray for communication, and that we would be sensitive and uplifting to one another.