Dear Friends and Family,
Thank you for praying for the Christmas events at the Komyo Christian Church. We have so much to be thankful for and praise God for each event that happened during the month of December, starting with our movie night/kids Christmas. Since we showed “The Christmas Story,” which has the opening scene of the Roman 
soldiers killing the babies of Bethlehem, we had a Kids Christmas party happening at the same time. It is always an encouragement when kids come and enjoy the event. We were so happy to have about seven children, two being grandchildren of one English student! We played pin the ornament on the tree, Christmas origami, and used nativity hand puppets to tell the story of Jesus’ birth. It was a great time! December continued to be busy as we celebrated Jesus with a ladies tea and Christmas card making event, caroling at the nursing home and praising His name at our Gospel Café. Our momentum continued up until December 19. Noah and Jonah had their Christmas production at KCS, which was wonderful, 
but also began the progression of each of the boys contracting influenza. Paul fought it as long as possible but alas by Sunday morning his fever was blazing and Shan Reed needed to pinch hit for Sunday services and Christmas Eve. Our family was down for the count. We spent the week of Christmas sleeping. As no one wanted to be around us for fear of catching influenza, we had a quiet week spent sleeping and playing games as a family.
We were happy to have recovered
by the following week to keep our yearly gathering with dear friends of ours. It was so much fun being able to spend time with these dear friends as our kids are all close in age. So much fun seeing how the kids have grown, and talk together as parents about our challenges and hopes for our kids. Please pray for the Haranosono and Kubo family as we find time to spend with one another. Pray that we show them the differences in our lives are not because we are American but because we have Jesus as our guide.
Happy 2015! It is the year of the sheep here in Japan. A great opportunity to share that we have a great Shepherd who loves and cares for us. The New Year 
began with Paul heading off to the States for meetings, celebrating the completion of a new church building with our Japanese brothers and sisters, hosting dear friends while they began preparation for returning to Japan for ministry, on top of weekly Bible study, English teaching and overall events of church and family life.
As an NAB representative for the KCS school board, I have a desire to hear and help the teachers as much as possible. Since the commute to the school is 1 1/2 hours one way, this doesn’t allow me opportunity to be on campus very much but I have started a Bible study once a month with teachers who are interested. I also offer to be a resource by helping to find various needed information, even if that means being the other half to help brainstorm ideas. KCS has openings for the 2015-2016 school year. KCS is a first through twelfth grade school. It is a small community where the students are multi-aged and active in making decisions about school life. The student population is a combination of missionary kids, Japanese pastors’ kids, and kids from the Christian and non-Christian community. We are an international school, with many countries represented. Many of our students are ESL. Our school is a family and Jesus is the center of our family. If you would be interested in teaching at KCS or know someone, please contact me. We are in need of a 5/6-classroom teacher for the coming school year.
This next month will be a month of preparation as we prepare for a ladies’ lunch time, Gospel Café, and Yuri Nakano’s return to Japan! Thank you all for your prayers and support. Knowing that we have our family of believers is our reminder why we are here, to be Jesus’ hands and feet. Praying for you as you live where Jesus has asked you to serve as His hands and feet. May God’s blessings be with you as you follow our loving Shepherd.
Paul and Melissa