Monday, December 15, 2008

FYI our newsletters

Just a note to say I will be adding our monthly newsletters here. We cancelled our website since my ability to keep it any kind of up-to-date was missing in action! Don't know if there's anyone who read it on the website that doesn't receive it, but just in case we decided to post it here as well.
We are so blessed and thankful to be His vessels and we cherish every prayer on our behalf.
May God richly bless each of you with His peace. love, joy and grace this Christmas!

News of November

Greetings Dear Loved Ones & Prayer Partners!
YUCK! It’s getting colder! This is probably the time of year that we miss the creature comforts of America the most! Now, don’t get me wrong, Japan is a very modern country, but when it comes to heating and air conditioning they are RIDICULOUS! Usually they heat only the rooms that are being used and now the government is asking everyone to set their thermostats at 18C or 64F. That’s pretty cold, but that’s in the room that you will be using, such as where we teach, but the rest of the building is left completely COLD! Like in our church, soon the water in the toilets will all be FROZEN! Luckily the toilets all have heated seats, but when we wake up in the morning inside our house will be somewhere between 28 and 36 degrees! It takes a little time to get use to it, but after a while, you learn to live with it! Right now we are still in the adjustment period. We use an electric blanket at night, but then there is no other heat, so when you slip out of the covers it is really COLD! Remember that our town was the host city for the 1998 Winter Olympics so yes it does GET COLD! We always feel sorry for the students, the schools are so cold, none of the hallways are temperature controlled and the class room usually has one kerosene heater. It’s not unusual for the teacher to heat the room only to open all the windows shortly after to get in fresh air to get rid of the kerosene smell.
October has just ended, and I always enjoy sharing some of the local culture with you. October is called the ‘Kannazuki’, translated the month of no gods! This is a short story of what happens to the near 800,000 gods that many Japanese people believe dwell in the country. Izumo Taisha, in Shimane-ken on the Sea of Japan, is considered one of the two oldest shrines in Japan. The land of Izumo has a long history and extensive mythology, but there is no definitive date of origin for the shrine. The importance of Izumo as a religio-political center is established by the two main collections of myths, the Kojiki (712) and Nihon Shoki (722), as well as by the Izumo Fudoki (733) an ancient gazetteer and catalogue of resources of the different regions of Izumo mandated in the early Nara period. The shrine now called Izumo Taisha located in Taisha Town is referred to as Kizuki or Kiduki shrine in the Fudoki. Myths describe the land of Izumo as another realm, the underworld, called Yomi and the place to which Susano-no-mikoto, the unruly brother of the sun kami (god), was banished to remove him from the upper land of Yamato ruled by the descendent of the sun kami Amaterasu.
Kami are generally divided into earth kami and sky or heavenly kami. The ceremonial life at Izumo Taisha today includes the annual Kamiari-sai or Kamiari-tsuki, the month (October) when all the kami of Japan come to Izumo to take part in discussions, communion, and planning for the coming year. The Kamiari-sai is thought to be very ancient. It begins with the Kohjin Matsuri that is performed on Inasahama, a beach ten minute’s walk from the shrine. At dusk the 800,000 kami (a totality linked to the special number 8-ya) are led to the shore from the horizon by the Ryujajin, the snake or dragon god who lives in the depths of the sea.
At shrines other than Izumo Taisha, this festival is called “the month of the absence of kami.” Generally, October was referred to as kannazuki (the month when kami are not present).
With all the other troubles missionaries face in this country, we are also facing a belief in 800,000 different gods. They literally have a god for EVERYTHING! Just the other day, November 23rd our city had our annual Ebisu festival. Ebisu is one of the gods of commerce. Here they have a two hour fireworks display from 6 – 8 pm. They have built a large area along the river levees, where people can sit and watch. This year it was 28 degrees, but still over 300,000 people turned out to watch the display. Because our area was originally a farming community, the festival is timed with the harvest of apples, one of our prefectures best crops. Now these are just the Shinto gods, (800,000) then we are also faced with the large Buddhism Temple in our town. I guess it’s not too surprising that only 0.35% of our prefecture are Christians! That’s only 35 people for every 10,000!!!!!
We do have lots going on, especially during the Christmas season. Because of economic reasons, Christmas is everywhere. All of the major stores have Christmas decorations, and you can hear Christmas music often throughout our town. It is one of the few times during the year that it is pretty easy to tell people about Jesus. We will be working with the local churches for two annual events that are held each year. On Nov. 30th the annual Christmas Party and Pagent will be held. It will be at one of the local hotels and will start with a small buffet followed by the Christmas play performed by local Christians. One of our church members will be the narrator and another Joseph. Special music will be provided throughout the evening. On December 23rd we all gather at our main train station and sing Christmas Carols for an hour.
Our church will be co-hosting with Mako and I, the annual Christmas Party for the children. We are anticipating more than 125 people. We will be performing the Christmas play using my(John) students and they have all been practicing singing some English Christmas songs. I’ve enlisted the mom’s of the students to sing as well. It should be a wonderful time. Each family will be receiving a free New Testament in both English and Japanese thanks to our local Gideon group. In total we hope to pass out about 200 bibles to our students, and classmates and parents of Zack’s school. On December 24th Nagano Bible Church will host its annual Christmas Eve program. We usually have a wonderful turnout with 40 or so non-Christians, so please pray for His Spirit to open the hearts of all those in attendance.
Kim is doing really well on the blog, so please check it out to enjoy what’s going on in our lives.
http://theraven4god.blogspot.com/

We trust God to equip us for each and every challenge and opportunity that comes our way. Your prayers and support are vital. Please pray with and for us that God will guide us in all we do and that He will lead us to follow His purpose, wherever that may be, and use us as instruments of His love in all we do. Should God ask any of you to partner with us in our outreach for Him, please send any love offerings to: Bethlehem United Methodist Church, for Baranski John Alan Mission Fund, c/o Becky Wack, 1003 Rowan Cove, New Albany, Ms. 38652.
In His love & walking before Him, the Baranski Bunch

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Christmas Story

Today was the Christmas Story play and party for John, and Mako's, English students.
About 100 kids and parents came to hear the story of Jesus' birth,
share time together, and yes, to see Santa.

The story players were English students and church members together.
They all did a wonderful job!

It was the first time for many to see and hear the true story of Christmas.

The local Gideons donated English/Japanese New Testament Bibles and they were given as gifts to each family.

And of course the Jolly Ol' Elf himself showed up to pass out gifts to the kiddies and
wish all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

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Pink ya think?!

I just couldn't resist!
Ya think pink is her favorite color?!?
Her skirt, tights and shoes were also pink!

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"Rookie Tournament" Nov. 08


Nov. 28 - 30 was the Nagano Prefecture "Rookie Tournament"
meaning that only 1st & 2nd year members played,
remember high school in Japan is 3 years, not 4.

They also recognized and gave awards to the 12 players selected for the prefecture team for the summer tournament.
Teh team is chosen from players in the top 4 teams in the previous tournament.

This year there were 6 players from Zack's team, Tokai Third, 3 from the 2nd place team, 2 from 3rd, and 1 from 4th.
They do the same for the girls teams.

Seems the rookie teams that make the final four are almost always from the same four schools.
Year to year they shuffle position a bit but rarely does another school make it to the finals.

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Thanksgiving time together


The Hefners & Whites managed to get together to share in giving thanks this year.
With our family so spread out it's such a gift to be able to get together to keep our bonds intact.
Those of you who may live close to family and are able to pop in on each other regularly,
Please know what a special blessing that is!
Give thanks!!!!

Looks like Will thought he might do a little "harvesting" of his own.
How that grin fills my heart with joy!


Not sure - maybe Charles is making a list of all he has to be thankful for...


Our sons-in-love, Ben & Bo, obviously were not wanting to pose
as they had their minds on a little Thanksgiving hunting.


While Daeon & Heather seem happy to share their joyful smiles!
Sure do love all of you!!

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