steelers

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Pictures from our outing with neighbors today. My neighbors -- Ken, Koji, and Mark -- are all company workers (kaishain). They work long hours during the week; but three times a month, on Saturday evenings, we study English. With no English class today, coupled with Mark (front row, right) -- an avid rugby fan -- scoring free tickets to a highly anticipated match between the Kobe Steelers and the Suntory Sun Goliaths (second place and third place, respectively, in Japan's professional league), we went to Kobe's Home Stadium to cheer on our Steelers. Despite our flag-waving, ganbatte! (keeping battling!) cheers, the Steelers were not stellar, as they were manhandled by the yellow-uniformed ballers from Tokyo. We weren't sad for too long, however; we came back to our house and had a dinner feast that would've made any Steeler's day, featuring two kinds of delicious Japanese stews (nabe): clear-broth seafood and kimchi-broth pork.
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Above: Steelers expressing appreciation to their fans with postgame bows. In case you're wondering, the opposing team, Suntory, also bowed to Steeler fans.

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Above: a hotpot (nabe) filled with vegetables, meat, oysters, and rice cakes (o-mochi) simmering in a kimchi broth. Would you eat this?

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Teaching English is one of several effective ways to connect with Japanese families, like our neighbors, the O. family (above). This ministry bridge allows Bobby to interact weekly with Koji (right); Claire will soon start teaching their daughters. As for Mrs. O., we're so thrilled that the paper abstract which we helped her write and submit several months ago has been accepted; now we're excited about helping her prepare a speech that she'll deliver in English at a conference in Switzerland (too bad we can't accompany her).

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Tonight was awesome. Though neighbors for fifteen years, Mark and Koji (and their wives) had never spent time together. They had never shared a meal together. Until today. One cool thing about being Christian workers in Japan is partnering with our church to bring people together in wonderful ways. God works in these situations.
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