Chinese Christmas, in an American's apt., in Japan

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Its been a while since I've blogged, and I have a lot to share. I'll work my way from the present, backwards.

For Christmas this year I hosted two parties in my apartment. The first was on Christmas day, and 8 Chinese college students came over. Adeng, of course, was my co-host.

These were students who have been coming to the Chinese Bible study Adeng started, and are either new believers, or interested "pre-believers!" We had a great time! They sang Christmas songs in Chinese, just beautiful. Then we ordered Pizza, from "Pizza-La" on the first floor of my apartment building. We cleaned up 2 larges and 3 mediums, two pans of brownies, and an immeasurable amount of chocolate!

Have you ever heard of the game "telephone charades?" Well we played, and since it's a charades game; no speaking, only passing of actions, I could play too! I laughed so hard, harder than I have for a long time! It was wonderful. Below, he's acting out "whining."

At the end of the evening we got ride of extra drinks, cookies, and other miscellaneous items by playing "janken," the Japanese version of "rock-paper-scissors." But then it turned into the Chinese version, the name of which I'm uncertain. It was sweet!

At the beginning and end of the party we (ok, they!) sang Christmas carols in Chinese. Here's a sample of "Joy to the World." If you understand Chinese, I'm sure this will be very meaningful. If you don't, please enjoy the beauty of an unknown language praising the Known, True God!

Merry Christmas!