K O N I C H I W A.

Today Chiaki and I had our last lesson together. It's hard to tell...but she's actually 8.5 months pregnant in this photo so thats why she has to stop tutoring for now!  Japanese moms are seriously amazing. They always look so youthful and cute despite a huge belly or crazy kids running around. I feel lucky to learn from them and help their adjustment to the states! Chiaki is such a sweet and easygoing lady who loves when I recommend new restaurants to try out (Chick-fil-A, Snow Monster, Roscoes, Aloha pizzza...etc) and just received her pregnancy yoga certification, which I learned is totally a thing.

Anyway, i'm so thankful to work with such genuinely nice people who are all so unique in their own right. The extrovert in me really has a field day when I can talk to clients about how they spent their weekend, or what their favorite travel destinations have been, or how their toddler is doing in preschool. And what's even crazier is that all of my clients were born and raised in Japan so they've really never been exposed to church, or God, or really any Christians...ever. Because the style of tutoring I do is very conversational, I find myself bringing up topics like Christmas traditions, my Bible study on Wednesday nights, praying for good health, or finding a Christian husband (which all the ladies get a good laugh out of). But even the basic things like the symbol of the cross is new to them. One of my clients wears a cross necklace so I asked her about it and she said, "oh I have no idea what it means! My sister just got me this as a gift so I wear it."

Helping these clients learn English is great and rewarding...but the real kicker is knowing that for the first time in their lives they have a Christian friend...someone talking to them who knows the stories and the love of Jesus Christ - that really gets me. And to top it off my dear friend and sister in Christ, Kelcie, was recently hired to work at the same tutoring center so we are doubling the Kingdom work there! AMEN!