Gys Olivier
- Nov 30, 2020
- 1 min
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OLIVIERS IN JAPAN
THY WILL BE DONE
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BLESSED IN JAPAN
Welcome to the OLIVIERS IN JAPAN site. We are truly thankful to serve God at work, home and in our hearts. We trust that God will guide us to showcase his divine glory.
Please pray for-
our students to be saved,
our teachers for wisdom and patience,
our church and new pastor,
my family; Linie changing primary schools, our health.
for language challenges.
the year 2021.
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NEWS
Covid 19 Here in Rural Kochi
We here in Kochi have also been affected by the coronavirus. Our students at Seiwa have been on and off the last few months with occasional visits to school, and most homework was sent and returned via post. As of this week, we have half-day school. Next week we will commence with full lessons and hopefully, we can start our school year.
Linie and Johan have not been attending school. Linie only went for 3 days and then she got homework for the rest of the time. Things are still confusing, but we hope that all will calm down by next week.
We trust that God will give those in need and comfort them, and we pray for all who suffer.
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LINIE GRADUATES FROM MYOUKEN KINDERGARTEN
After 6 years of diligently attending kindergarten Linie will enroll in grade1. She will attend the biggest elementary school in the prefecture with over a thousand students. We pray that she will succeed and meet every challenge head-on.
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GRADUATION PARTY
Linie and Johan at school gate for the last time. Linda and Gys dressed for graduation performance.
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AS THE SUN SETS IN THE EAST...
As the sun sets in the east we are reminded that our time on earth is slowly running out. Gladly we know our heavenly father is waiting for us to mature, to take up our place in his heavenly home. Having a family is as close as it gets experiencing heaven on earth. We are truly blessed and thank God for his precious gifts and abundance of love. Remember each and every day is a gift.
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BUSY TIMES
#Organic farming where I will take up a much larger role as organizer. #Lindavolenteering at a kindergarten. #Johan filling the car #Ollie playing along.# Johan & Linie take out sweet potatoes in our garden.# Hanging with friends.
Oraganic farming at Seiwa
Linda volunteering at Kindy
Filling it up
Ollie playing along
Harvesting sweet potatoes
Hanging with friends.
Hanging in the park with friends
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Thy will be done.
We have been through a rough, but blessed time the last two years, filled with many new challenges and opportunities. We are glad to report that our son Johan (2) has totally recovered from his illness and we are filled with gratitude and awe at God’s grace. Linie (5) is also doing well; she joined an acrobatic dance group and enjoys her kindergarten very much. Linda and I have been busy raising our kids, teaching, and we have started new English classes to help increase the dwindling numbers here at Seiwa. Linda has a class for 3-5 year old kids, and Gys has two classes for 6-9 and 10-12 year old outside students. These classes run weekly after school in the evenings. God has also provided our church with a kindhearted new minister, he has a wonderful open heart for our children. Please enjoy our pictures and videos. Thank you for all your prayers, wishes of wellbeing and support.
From Gys, Linda, Linie and Johan…..and Ollie
Renovation at Seiwa
We had a busy summer holiday, we cleaned, renovated and painted old furniture, walls and classrooms. Mr. Konishi (principal) has a neck for carpentry and DIY, so he and his wife alongside the staff worked very hard. We imbedded beautiful tiles into old desks and painted them; reviving them for another 10 years, we also painted the East Building, installed book-shelves in the library. Well done Seiwa staff, it all looks awesome.
Pizza Oven > Organic Cooking
In our Organic learning area, we added a new pizza oven to our grounds. This pizza oven is extra special because our Mr. Horiuchi and Mr. Shibata built it. I was lucky enough to be a part of the tasting team, and believe me it was good. The students and staff are very excited about this, helping organics go full circle.
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THE STORY OF ANNIE DOWD
① Seiwa School was founded 120 years ago by a missionary called Miss Annie Dowd. This is a tribute to her life.
② Miss Dowd was born in Mississippi on November 6, 1861. After turning 26 years old, her heart longed to teach the gospel abroad. In 1886 she came to rural Kochi.
③ She visited remote places to share the gospel. Here she met girls in poverty and without any schooling, this had a profound impact on her, she just couldn’t forget about them and constantly prayed for them, so God made them her calling.
④In 1901 she took in two girls, educating and teaching them basic life skills. After a while even more girls found refuge in her, some were thought to be rescued from being sold.
⑤ Dowd gave them schooling, taught them life skills and values from the gospel.
⑥ It was not easy to sustain them financially, but students had enough to survive, this also meant Dowd herself had to live a very simple life.
⑦ As the students numbers increase management became difficult. The management moved under control of the mission in 1915. She had received offerings from American churches, and a new school building was built in 1924. However, three years after completion disaster struck and it burnt down. Now Dowd was 66 years old and it must have been a devastating ordeal.
⑧ The burnt school building was hard for Dowd to take, but the event was short lived; and people gave generously to rebuilt the school.
⑨ Dowd had deferred retirement, but she decided to return home at last in 1937. She was seen off by many people and left Kochi at the age of 76. Her work spanned over 50 years contributing to children’s lives and spreading the gospel.
⑩ Dowd lived in a nursery home in Mississippi after returning home. Although her eyes, ears and legs were weakened, she opened the Bible class and visited bedridden old people at the nursery homes. She had served God throughout her life until she passed away in 1960, reaching 100 years.
⑪ After Dowd’s returning home, the school which Dowd founded was named Seiwa Jogakko. As the atmosphere of the war thickened, the school building was removed, and enrolments ceased. A government order was given to stop worship services, but students persisted throughout this crisis.
⑫ The school building was moved to Honguucho, in Kochi city in 1952 and a junior high school was started in 1965. Furthermore, the building was moved to Myouken, Nankoku-shi in 1985, and the school has continued by the grace of God. We still have worship service every morning, singing hymns and praying.
⑬ The seed that one missionary has sown, has grown into a mighty tree bearing fruit of gospel.
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NEWS AT SEIWA
Important things that happened at Seiwa.
NEW TECH
2018
We here at Seiwa are moving closer and closer to our ideal classroom set-up. We added 13 iPads to our arsenal.
Here you can see some students preparing for their presentations in the OC classroom. Some of them work individually while others work in groups, each grade with a different topic; My house, My Family, My idol’s interests, My Trip to Hawaii and My Highlights at Seiwa. Presentation day is always kind of daunting for them, but in the end it is a very rewarding process.
In the next picture you can see some of the Seiwa teachers doing Royal-Note app training on how to implement the iPads in the classroom.
This application helps teachers communicate, check answers by giving feedback in realtime and much more. As an English teacher the application also has a recording function that is vary helpful with testing reading and conversation skills. The most outstanding part is the user-friendly experience and even some of the older teachers that don’t enjoy using technology so much could easily control and enjoy the application. The teachers in the technology committee worked very hard to get the school this far, and both the teachers and the students are very excited to use this in the classroom, therefore we would like to thank them for their hard work and effort.
CHAPEL CHRISTMAS
2018 December
Chapel Christmas is a tradition that has been continuing for many years. We are always blessed to have very talented community members included it the ensemble, chorus and setup. The highlight is always the Hallelujah chorus where the whole school come together and praise God. The feeling of accomplishment and belongingness help students to feel part of the Seiwa family. The Christmas play brings great excitement among the students, were each of them has an important part to play to make the evening a success. Miss Muira, Mr. Shibata and Miss Naramoto work really hard to get the music just right. Students will perform solos, play handbells, be part of the string ensemble and or take part in the chorus. We here at Seiwa are very proud of our students and feel blessed to continue to praise God in this joyful manner in this joyful season. Merry Christmas to you all and may you have a year filled with blessings and love.
HAWAII AND SEIWA
2018 March
Senior High Trip to Hawaii
This was a blessed year both for our students and teachers visiting Hawaii. I was sent to Hawaii as a chaperone this year with our senior students. I had a wonderful busy time. I was accompanied by two senior high students who first studied English conversation with me for three weeks in preparation for this amazing trip. When we arrived in Hawaii we were greeted by Makiki Christian Church’s hosts and youth, we immediately embarked on our first adventure. We started off with a youth camp on the Northern Shore of O’hau island. Here we played games, heard inspiring messages and swam in the beautiful Hawaiian sea for the first time. After this we had a homestay experience for two days; I went snorkeling and I took an extensive tour of the world war two memorial. Then we had a church presentation and party. We moved on to stay in a hotel near Waikiki beach where we had days of sightseeing; Japanese culture museum , USS Missouri and Moanalua Gardens. After this we visited both an elementary and high school, teaching Japanese and joining an after school bible club. The student and I had a wonderful life changing experience. The Makiki hosts and youth worked so very hard for us and a mere thank you is never enough. But we would like to thank them from the bottom of our hearts.
Rainbow Connection
In July we had the rainbow connection group visiting our school for two days. The above mention youth were all part of this group, they all joined our OC lessons and ECC. They practiced English with our students and played games after teaching them a song. Thank you guys for coming all the way and sharing the word of God with our students.
Junior 3 Trip to Hawaii
The enriching experience for our students to Hawaii continues, and we can only thank God for this opportunity. The junior high students of this year had a fun time and we could see that this trip had a life changing impact. Highlights were the interactions with kindergarteners, Makiki church, Diamond Head hike, snorkeling and the wonderful fellowship and new friendships that started.
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2019 NEWS
Speech Winner, Halloween, Crazy Kids, Snake in Garden, Friends and Fun, Oats Beard, Linie and Mom Run, Worldcup celebration. Throwback photo.
Many of the things that happened throughout this eventful year. Miru won 4th place at prefectural speech contest, I dressed as a witch for Halloween, Linie and Johan surprise us with their dress-up, the second snake in our garden and the first one I killed, Johan and his friends at apple picking farm, our oats bread experiment, Linie and mom dressed for their run, celebrating the World Cup Rugby, Throwback photo of Linda, Gys and believe it or not Linie.
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Linie op Takeuma
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comfort he messiah 2018
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Gys Chapel Message (English)
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Linie’s acrobatic dancing
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ABOUT THE OLIVIERS
BALANCE BIKE RACE
SUNDAYS...
JUNGLE GYM (HOMEMADE)
2017
Linie took part in a balance bike race and did surprisingly well. She was placed 3rd. She had to compete against boys in the final; we are very proud of her. We hope to compete again next year.
2019 January
We are blessed to still be part of Yamada church. Our church numbers have stayed the same over the last few years. Our brothers and sisters at the church are always spoiling and supporting us. We thank God for this Christian family.
2018
Loving DIY I had this urge to build a jungle gym for my kids in the garden. While renovating and cleaning the school we were lucky enough to pick up some old metal bookshelves, ladders, and wooden crates. I used all these old junk and a few shops bought items to built, not a flashy, but a working jungle gym.
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Gys Olivier
Visiting ALT ( assistant language teacher)
We had a kind and warm-hearted visitor at the ECC ( English Club). She did some interviews with our students, played us a song, and...
Gys Olivier
School/Masks/Even Hard In Mask Culture
We here in Japan are very used to masks and often use them when we catch a cold or even when we want to hide a pimple... Hahaha... But...
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