久しぶりですね〜

For those of you who still check this page periodically, I give you a huge thumbs up. I can't believe it has been 6 months since I last made a post, but at the same time I can believe it.

The busiest time of year is always our first semester which in Japan runs from April through July. We had many surprises thrown at us this year when it came to our Freshman recruiting. As a result we only had 7 students show up to our callout when we normally have around 40. Because of having only a couple Freshman, two Sophomores decided to have another callout at the beginning of this winter semester.

They worked very hard putting together videos and pictures and gathered other BEST club students to explain about Bible, English, Sports, and Travel. When all was said and done we had 8 Freshman come to our callout on Friday (all of which were girls). Afterward we had taco rice together for dinner made by Ruth Ann.

I can't say how many of those Freshman will start coming to BEST Club but one thing I have enjoyed in the meantime are the relationships that were formed over our America Trip. We have had two Friday BEST so far since coming back and most of the students who have come were on our America Trip this year. I desire to see these relationships go even deeper having spent 17 days with them in America.

Some other news:
- I will be taking the Level 3 Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) in December. I was hoping to take it last year but I still had a lot more to study. I definitely think I can pass so I am studying harder to hopefully take the next level in July. There are currently 4 levels with level 1 being the hardest but starting next year they are adding a 5th level. It will be placed between levels 2 and 3 because there has always been such a huge gap between them. So hopefully then next year I will take the N3.

- We will also be having our first camp of the new semester this weekend (16-17) at Kodomo no Mori. Also the university has a sports tournament each semester where students create teams and play a single elimination tournament. That is also this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. There will be two teams of BEST students playing in the volleyball tournament. I enjoy this time a lot as they will be practicing this week in preparation for the tournament. This means more time to hang out with them and build deeper relationships.