Sunday of Snow

        Today we slept in as we usually do on Sunday mornings.  Always a real treat(Tim that was for you if your reading this).  On Friday evening we went night snowboarding at the Prince ski resort again.  Kaitie a girl who is living here and attending language school was planning to go so Phil, Flo and I piled into her new (Very small for four people, two snowboards) vehicle and headed off for a couple of hours of fun.  A few new rails and a big new jump in the snowboard park kept Flo and I entertained for a while.  Yesterday we spent quite a while researching looking at different attractions in Japan, by the end I had an internet trail that seemed endless, and yet it felt like I had hardly accomplished anything.  This is just another joy of limited translated Japanese sites and a Canadian at the keys.  Today we were invited up to SYME after the church service.  It is a language/ Bible school that the majority of our english speaking friends from church attend.  To get there we needed to transfer into a four wheel drive Nissan van before making the trip up the mountain on snowy, icy, sharp switchbacks they call a road.  Luckily we had a driver who faces that road nearly everyday as Kevin is involved with the school.  As I was finishing eating dinner it was time to take a detour half way back down the mountian to help a lady who got stuck in the ditch.  About 9 of us piled into the van and headed down to push or dig her out.  She was on her way within about 5 minutes and we all got back into the van this time litteraly pilling in I think we had six guys in a heap on the back seat. 

Nothing like Bible school bonding for you!  Then it was back up the jill oops I mean hill to hang out for a while at SYME with students, and english teacher and Kevin(There were others there from church also but I just figured I tend to ramble and I could spare you all the minor details of who else was there and everything we did, saw and shared).  Kevin is also the leader of the english church we attend.  I plan to preach there this month.  We had a great time hanging out with some our friends from KIF the Karuizawa International Fellowship(church).  We take time to pray for a different country each week as part of the service we break into different language groups of our heritage and we take time to pray it has been quite neat attending andf getting to know some people our own age from Korea, Japan, and Germany. 

 To spend time with them now over dinner and fellowship this evening was a real blessing.  We had a great time laughing, listening and just plain old hanging out over coffee really creating some relationships with these neat people we had only known at church. 

 Tommorrow morning it is back to work for a few days before we head off with Cliff on Wed to go hang out with him and Marg in Tokyo for a few days to explore and find some adventures.  Flo and I still are searching whether each of us or both of us will end up staying a while longer.  We thank you for remaining faithfull in prayer for us we are so blessed by it.  Please feel free to pass on the blog address to anyone interested and feel free to send me an email if you have questions or would like to talk j_j_klassen@hotmail.com Oh ya and I'm almost a hairdresser now I cut Flo's hair and didn't completly destroy it!!

Joshua J