Katrina Crowson has finished her first year teaching third grade at Christian Academy Japan! It's been a tough year, but rewarding nonetheless. The school year was difficult for her for several reasons. First of all, it was her first year of teaching. That is a challenge for any teacher. Secondly, her first year happened to be in a foreign country and in a new environment. But God has blessed her time at CAJ with friendships and students who love her!

Katrina had this to say in a recent update: At a glance... I have never done something that hard that lasted that long. A lot of things I enjoyed--teaching everyday especially Bible, getting students excited about learning, developing relationships with other teachers. Students here are respectful and obedient; they're also crazy and silly but are easily brought back with a little prompting. One of the other new teachers commented at the end of the year that he had never worked in a place where no one spreads rumors or talks bad about co-workers. When he said it, I realized it was true. (I haven't worked in that many places, but all of them had their share of contempt and strife between co-workers.)

We are thankful that God has blessed this first year. Please be in prayer concerning next year: Katrina is pregnant and plans to teach fulltime for the Fall semester. The baby is due in January and her schedule for the Spring semester is not yet determined.