Happy New Year! Here in Japan, we welcome the Year of the Horse. This year may prove to be a real “work-horse” of a year with many challenges ahead. It’s time to “take the reins” and leap forward to navigate the trail ahead. We hope that you will join JOEE on our journey by volunteering or supporting us financially.
One lovely present given to JOEE this Christmas was a second beautiful, hand-stitched “I-Spy” quilt crafted with love by master quilter Julie Fukuda. It is already being put to joyful use at St. Francisco Children’s Home. These quilts are wonderful teaching tools as children learn to listen for the English words and then crawl all over the quilt with excitement, finding the object and pointing it out while practicing the correct pronunciation. “Where is the pink owl?” “Can you find the blue rabbit wearing a hat?” “Find the red firetruck!” “How many horses can you find?” Learning English using games and compelling props is a good way to motivate learners.
December saw many JOEE volunteers busy with Christmas lessons and gift distribution and many orphanages. The good people at the United School of Tokyo, after helping with the JOEE pumpkin fundraiser, stepped in to help out this Christmas by buying gifts for every child at the St. Francisco Children’s Home. Parent volunteers then helped to distribute the gifts at a Christmas party that began with an interactive performance by a funny bi-lingual comedy duo, “Franponé.” After sing-alongs and the Christmas story, it was time for presents!
At the children’s home, one brave parent dressed up as Santa and with many convincing “Ho-ho-ho’s” called the children up to receive their gifts. Afterwards, the United School of Tokyo presented the orphanage with a sizable donation. It was a very Merry Christmas, indeed, thanks to the generosity of these donors.
Christmas lessons and parties were held at all of the seven facilities where JOEE currently serves: St. Francisco Children’s Home in Ota-ku, Harukaen in Chiba, Kawasaki Aijien, ChofuGakuen, Yurikagoen in Odawara, WakamatsuRyo in Nagoya and ShionGakuen in Osaka. The children enjoyed presents, songs, games and, of course, heard the story of the birth of Jesus.
December was also busy with other JOEE-related events. We attended a ballet put on by the ABC Ballet company at Tokyo Union Church with some theater-goers from an orphanage. And JOEE gave a presentation at a Charities Fair held at Malvern College in Tokyo where students learned about many different opportunities to help others through a variety of non-profits. There was also a St. Nicholas presentation at the KaffeeHaus assisted by JOEE volunteer, Jean, who was kind enough to dress up as Santa Claus.
We are looking forward to a productive year in 2026 with many volunteers ready to teach in-person English lessons at orphanages and also provide valuable one-on-one online tutoring to motivated learners from the care facilities in Japan. Thank you to all of our volunteers and donors for making this possible.