Happy Holidays and See You Next Year!

Happy Holidays, Friends.

I hope that you have a warm, safe, and joyous holiday. This week is the last time we will officially see each other until next year (that joke never gets old for me; not since second grade when I first heard it!).

Be sure to get out and enjoy the beautiful lights on these cold evenings like our Conversation class did on Wednesday evening. Take at drive to 4830 Greenspire Drive, Carmel and tune your radio to 90.7 and watch the light show! Check out the Japanese park, the gazebo and the fountain at Carmel's City Hall, One Civic Square, Carmel. There are many other beautiful places to see the Christmas lights. I hope that you take a drive and see the show!

Medical Professional Week:
A very big thanks to all the medical professionals that met with us to talk about health care in the United States and other countries. Dr Heather Schumman (family practice), Dr. Motoko Kataoka (dentistry/endodontist), Dr. Gonz Chua (general medicine and more!), Masami Yamamoto (pharmacist), Dr. Felicia (Fang Ling) Chang (opthamologist), Alan Wang (surgical), Joette Morris (OB GYN neonatal).Carla van Eyk (public health), and Melanie Guzzi (nurse who developed our handouts).

Top advice:

• Write down your questions; write down the answers to your questions.
• Present your written questions to the healthcare provider; you can even give them to the nurse during the prescreening so the doctor can see them before seeing you.
• Interpreters are available by phone at most medical facilities. You can request the doctor to call one and you can use the translator via phone conversation to help you.
• Talking to your healthcare providers is intimidating no matter what your language (even if it is English).
• Take a friend to help you with asking questions and listening to answers.
• Expired medicines should be disposed of even if it hasn't been opened; the chemicals change and are not effective and can be dangerous.
• Cranberry juice is great for urinary symptoms; you will still need antibiotics.
• Antibiotics must be taken the way they are directed. Take the full amount for the full time.
• If you forget to take a dose of medicine, take it as soon as you remember. If it is close to the next dose, then wait and take it then to stay on schedule.
• Common over the counter drugs with their product and ingredient name: Advil=ibuprofen; Tylenol=acetaminophen; Mucinex and Robitussin=guaifenesin. Choose drugs with only one ingredient. Check prescription medicines and do not overdose with over the counter medicines. Check over the counter medicines to make sure you aren't overdosing.

We enjoyed our holiday party at my house. It was so nice to get together and sing traditional Christmas carols and exchange white elephant gifts. If we didn't win a good elephant, we have our white elephant for next year!

We read the story of Jesus' birth (Luke 2:1-21, and Matthew 2: 1-12) that includes the figures in the nativity. We talked about the meaning of this story for all of us and for each of us at International Bible Study on December 16. While this was the first time for a few of us to hear and read this story, we found that the story is new to us every time we read it. After a year of living, we find that our lives are renewed by the astonishing story of a God who loves this world to come as a tiny baby to be familiar to us and to love us so that we can living relationship with Him. We are the reason for this amazing story.

We will resume classes and meetings the first full week in January beginning with our International Friends Meetings on January 6, 2015 with Bible Study at 9:00. Masami will bring her Mochi Maker and we will enjoy fresh Mochi and talk about our holiday experiences beginning at 10:30.

I hope that you have peace and joy this holiday and look forward to seeing you again next year.

Carolyn

Cookies, Nativities, and looking forward to our Health Care visitors

Hello, Friends.

Friday was a dreary December day! A great day to be baking cookies and addressing cards and preparing for the holidays. What are your plans? Are you going out of town? Don't forget to stop your mail! If you are leaving town, don't turn off your furnace. You can turn it down to a lower temperature, but if you turn it off, and the weather should turn, your pipes can freeze and burst causing your house to flood while your are gone. What a mess!

Since we are rolling into flu season, we will be having medical professional guests at our meetings and classes December 9 and 11. Bring your questions for advice for talking to you healthcare professionals and learn more about how to communicate about your health needs no matter what the country!

Carolyn

Tuesday's International Bible Study read John 5:16-30. Jesus is being persecuted (for healing on the Sabbath) by the Jewish leaders: this was mainly for his teaching and popularity among the people, but the Jewish leaders were afraid of Him. He made them look foolish and uneducated with His teaching. This is a wonderful lesson: Jesus teaches that God, His Father is always at work and ... [Jesus] too is working on our behalf (John 5:17). This is a comfort to us. Jesus goes on to explain how He knows what to do and what His work is. He tells the Jewish religious leaders to honor Him, just as they honor the Father...and warns that God has given Jesus the responsibility to judge us (a good reason to respect someone!) and that that judgment can lead to a death penalty, but Jesus assures us (and them) that if we believe what He says about God (that He is always at work on our behalf  because He loves us as as His children) and about Himself (that He is God's Son who has come to save us and give us life), then we have a good relationship with Jesus and with God. He is reliable!

We made traditional cookies at International Friends. We made gingerbread, sugar and shortbread and decorated them. We practiced having a cookie walk (not really!). I ended up with a lot of gingerbread...this is a good thing: I love it! I was told that they weren't to Asian taste. I also brought persimmon pudding to taste to our meeting. I misquoted the review for this: it was the same recipe that was in one reviewer's family for 130 years (not 300!). This is a very traditional Indiana style recipe. I hope that you have a chance to try it with your family.

Conversation on Wednesday, I brought the game of Jacks and we all tried this old fashioned game. The style that I have is difficult to find in the United States, because the jacks are small and metal and may be a dangerous hazard to very small children. We also made some traditional Indian cookies:
Nankhatai. We decided that these cookies are the same as the Japanese cookies Snowballs! I wonder where these cookies originated?

After classes on Thursday we painted our Nativities. Our pictures are posted as a private group on Facebook. To see this page, you need to be my "friend". Please "friend" me and let me know you want to be added to this group.

dreary: drab, uninteresting, boring
dreary December day: multiple words in a row in a sentence that begin with the same sound are called an alliteration. Alliterations call attention to what is being said and creates a musical effect, they make information easier to remember. When people choose a name or marketing people
weather should turn: the weather changes
[Jesus}: when reading and there are brackets [] around a word; it means that the writer is inserting a word to better explain what is being said when repeating a quote
persecuted: to annoy, trouble or harass someone
behalf: in the interest of someone, to speak for and support someone else
death penalty: put to death by law because of a behavior
taste: in this case the word taste is used to mean whether someone likes the way something tastes or
misquoted: repeated a fact or something that someone had said incorrectly
originated: started; where something began

Happy Black Friday, Friends.

I hope you are recovering from your feast and enjoying spending your bread!

I was just noticing that I made a mistake in the summary of our Bible study, and I wanted to make sure that you have the whole story. I left out the most human interest part: what was the guy's sin?!!

So, once again:

We met Tuesday at International Bible Study to talk about the story of the man who was healed by Jesus at a pool (that was said to heal people) on the Sabbath (the Jewish Holy Day). The man offers excuses/blames for his actions or inactions: we discovered that the man tells him to, "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you (John 5:14)." This is great advice because if we don't recognize and stop acting in a way that hurts ourselves or others, something worse could always happen! In this case the man's sin was not recognizing that his actions were causing his problems. He was not admitting to himself or other people when he was at fault. Jesus found the man at the temple (he could only go there if he were healthy, according to the laws). Jesus was showing by example that to reach out in kindness and help each other is NEVER against God's law. At the end of the day, the man told the Jewish religious leaders that Jesus healed him telling them that Jesus is God. We were reminded of the 1 John 1:8-9: if we say we have no sin we are lying to ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we recognize and admit to our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from that sin and make us new! All we have to do is say the word!

Thank you for your time today and allowing me to correct my mistake and finish the story.

Carolyn

spending your bread: bread is slang for money!
the whole story: all of the story; a complete message
human interest: what people are interested in, not just currentnews
Holy Day: look! guess where the word "holiday" comes from
at fault: responsible for an undesirable event
1 John: another book of the Bible, a letter by John to Christians everywhere that tells people to love each other and God, who loves us first and foremost
cleanse: a good, old fashioned word for clean
say the word: admit to something; a good pun! in the

Happy Thanksgiving; Now On To Christmas

Happy Thanksgiving, Friends!

I hope that all of you enjoy a great feast with your family and friends.

I hope that you have a productive hunt at the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping (and all the shopping in between).

Yes! We have our December schedule. Be sure to read all of this Update so you are prepared!

I hope that you have begun your Christmas preparations and enjoy the Christmas decorations. Many people took advantage of the beautiful weather this past weekend to put up outdoor holiday lights (don't light them until after Thanksgiving!) There are many opportunities to enjoy the wonder of the community lights:

Circle of Lights Tree Lighting: November 28, 6:00 p.m., 1 Monument Circle
Noblesville Tree Lighting Ceremony: November 29, 7:00-8:00 p.m. at the Hamilton County Judicial Center in downtown Noblesville. Sing carols and hear Mayor John Ditslear read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.
Zionsville Christmas in the Village, November 30. The Christmas Parade steps off at 3:45 p.m., 5:00-6:00 enjoy activities. The Lighting of the Village and Tree will begin at 6:00 p.m. There are free carriage and trolley rides.

Carolyn

We met Tuesday at International Bible Study to talk about the story of the man who was healed by Jesus at by a pool (that was said to heal people) on the Sabbath  (the Jewish Holy Day). The man offers excuses/blames for his actions or inactions: we discovered that when Jesus tells him to, "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you (John 5:14) that Jesus was telling him to recognize that Jesus is God

We talked about customs in our home countries regarding aging adults and a little about our hopes for Black Friday shopping. We decided to try our luck at Christmas cookie baking next week for International Friends.

Tuesday, December 2
International Friends Bible Study, 9:00-10:30: Let's read John 5:16-30
International Friends, 10:30-12:00: Let's bake Christmas Cookies: Join us as we bake holiday classics: Gingerbread, spritz,

Wednesday, December 3: Conversation, 4:30-6:00: Don't forget your homework; bring your slang stories to share.

Thursday, December 4: English Classes, 9:30-12:00: Bring your ideas for Medical Day. If you have a copy of my daughter's survey completed, bring it. I will be bringing paper copies for you to finish. Bring your lunch if you wish to stay after and paint your Nativity scenes.

Tuesday, December 9 and Thursday, December 27: Medical Professional Day
Medical professionals will join us for the last hour of our meetings to talk with us about the best way to communicate with our doctors, nurses, and give us tips for our health.

Wednesday, December 10, 4:30-6:00: Let's bake Christmas Cookies
Wendy is bringing her family traditional cookie recipe for us to make.

Tuesday, December 16: Bible Study and Holiday Party at Carolyn's House. Details to follow.

Wednesday, December 17 and Thursday, December 18: Last classes of the year!

productive: good results, good
took advantage of: gain, use. This also has a negative meaning when someone takes advantage of you, they use you to to their own advantage and your disadvantage
try our luck: try something with questionable outcome

Happy Thanksgiving and Looking Ahead to December

Dear Friends,

I hope that you have a filling Thanksgiving and a very productive Black Friday!

Carolyn

Important Announcements:

• International Friends and International Bible Study will meet on Tuesday (11/25). All other classes and meetings on break: Happy Thanksgiving.
• If you ordered butter braids, they are in. Please pick them up on Tuesday, 9-12:00.
• Please be sure to visit our pages: http://indyinternationalfriends.blogspot.com/ There you will find all of our schedules, program information, things to do, and all of our previous Updates.
• December 2 we are hosting two tables at Advent By Candlelight. If you would like to join us for an evening of great desserts, conversation and recharge your spirit for the coming holiday season.
• We will be having Medical Professional Days Tuesday, December 9 and Thursday, December 11. Medical professionals will be visiting our program to help us understand healthcare in the United States. Do you have any questions?
• Wednesday, Conversation Class has homework! See the notes below. Your homework is due December 3!
• If you want to paint a nativity set, bring your lunch December 4. We will paint our sets and learn the story behind the nativity from 12:00-2:30.

In Tuesday's International Bible Study we read of an important man who had a very sick son. He came to Jesus to ask Him to save his son. The man believes Jesus can heal his son. Because he believes, Jesus tells him to go home!

We had a fabulous feast on Tuesday at our International Friends meeting! Don't forget to get your personal copy of our recipe book. Thank you to everyone who took pictures.

Tuesday, November 25
International Bible Study, 9:00-10:30: Let's read about how Jesus heals a man: John 5:1-15
International Friends, 10:30-12:00: Let's get ready for Black Friday Shopping!
Join us as we plan for our Black Friday shopping. What do you want? Where can you find it? Let's plan our shopping!

Wednesday, December 3 Conversation: Write a short story using at least three of these slang phrases. You will be reading them aloud. There will be fabulous gifts and prizes!

• So bummed out or totally bummed
• Psyched 
• Freaked out
• Holy mackerel
• Totally
• Happy camper
• Keep me posted

Words and Grammar
(11/25): November 25; we do month/day/year here in the States.
He, Him and his: These words can be tricky since they are not specific (being pronouns) and in this sentence are referring to two different men: He refers to the important man, Him refers to Jesus, and his refers to the son of the important man.
Nativity Set: traditional scene that displays the story of Jesus' birth. These are traditionally displayed in homes during the Christmas season.

Arctic Blast!

Brrrr! Friends!

Now it feels like winter! We get to have an Arctic Blast. Doesn't that sound like something you could get at Dairy Queen? I'd like an Arctic Blast with the Winter Mix topping, please. And speaking of the weather...The Old Farmer's Almanac is on sale for half price at Lowe's. You can plan your planting and see the weather predictions for all of 2015. This is said to be a very reliable source of information.

When the weather turns cold and it is gray, it is a good time to reflect on all the things we are thankful for because it can remind us of all of the things that make us content. At our Tuesday International Friends meeting we talked about what we are thankful for: we are all thankful for family, friends and the happiness that we have in our lives.

We celebrated Veteran's Day at International Friends. This is a great day in the United States where we honor those men and women that have served to protect our rights and freedoms in our Armed Forces. We were honored to have Cedric Davis (retired Army and husband of Saori), Tom Gambrel (retired Marine), and John Louk (retired Navy) visit us and tell us about their service. We are thankful for the work these men have done for us.

DON'T FORGET TO CLIP COUPONS and DON'T FORGET TO BRING THEM IN:

Check the fliers that come in the mail and clip the coupons. Bring them to church to put in the box to help our expat military and their families with their shopping. Our overseas stores honor these coupons even if they have expired. This little act is a great help to families.

We read how the Samaritan woman left her jar at the well and went to tell the people in her town that Jesus knew everything about her in International Bible Study. She asked, "could he be the Savior?" She did believe he was. The people came from the town to meet Jesus and to hear Him. They invite Him to stay, Jesus stays with these enemies for two days (and they were shown hospitality). At the end of the visit, they Samaritans said that they believed that Jesus was the Savior because of the testimony of the woman, but after they met Him, they became witnesses to the fact that Jesus was the Savior. In this story, Jesus also teaches His Disciples that they are reaping the benefits of others' work. Jesus' care for all people paves the way for our peaceful relationships with each other. He shows them that God loves all people and that with and through Him we can have a good relationships.

In Conversation Class on Wednesday we talked of many things: Hair cuts, parties, moving, and Preparation H. We tasted tater tots (really, they are much better when they are hot out of the oven).

Saturday, November 11, 2:30-4:30: Family Fun: Chinese Brush Painting
Tuesday, November 18: International Bible Study, 9:00-10:30: Let's read John 4:43-54: Jesus performs a second miracle.
Tuesday, November 18: International Friends, 10:30-2:00: Let's Feast!
Join us as we learn to prepare some traditional American Thanksgiving dishes and then have a feast. Bring your favorite feasting dish to share.
Wednesday, November 19:  Conversation, 4:30-6:00: On-line tips and conversation: what sites are necessary to know about and what sites are just fun.
Thursday, November 20: English Classes, 9:30-12:00

What a great week we have coming up! I am looking forward to spending it with you.
Carolyn


reliable source of information: when the news comes from a source that can be trusted as being accurate
honor: show our respect
were honored: it was our privilege
content: peacefully happy, satisfied
clip coupons: cut discount coupons out of the paper
expat: a person who works and lives outside the country where they hold citizenship. Are you an expat?
honor: will follow the agreement, when stores "honor" coupons, they allow the purchaser to use the coupon as it was intended in the United States
hospitality: friendly treatment of guests
reaping the benefits: taking advantage of or getting
paves the way: makes circumstances easier for other who follow

November News

Hello, Friends:

November is a great month full of fun and excitement: We are cooking and feasting, sleeping off our feast and watching football and parades on Thanksgiving; shopping on Black Friday, and decorating for Christmas (no tree or lights before Thanksgiving, please).

We will be celebrating our Thanksgiving Feast on Tuesday, November 18. We will be demonstrating how to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving turkey and several other traditional dishes. Bring your favorite feasting dish to share. We will begin eating at 11:30 and feast until we are full!

Please RSVP to me with a copy of your recipe to put in our Thanksgiving cookbook at indyintlfriends@gmail.com by Wednesday, November 12 or bring a paper copy to our classes by Thursday, November 13 so I can get the book made in time :)

Happy November! It's a great month.

Carolyn

We studied the story of the Samaritan woman at the well found in the Bible in John 4:1-26 during International Bible Study. Samaritans are distant relatives of the Jewish people. They are very familiar with God and look for the savior that was promised to all people. The Samaritans and the Jewish people were not We also read the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37); this story

To learn a little more about Thanksgiving history, International Friends completed two crossword puzzles: one about the first Thanksgiving and the other about turkeys (the most important part of Thanksgiving). Everyone got three sheets for "homework."

• Please write what you are thankful for... 
• The Thanksgiving Fill In has many words often used when thinking about Thanksgiving.
• The answers to the Thanksgiving Challenge are: 1.a, 2.c, 3.a, 4.d, 5.b, 6.d, 7.b, 8.a, 9.b, 10.c

We are clipping coupons for the troops. We all get coupons in the mail, many that we never use. We can pass these to our military and their families to use to save their money. Saori told us that the stores that provide American products on the bases have coupons available for the shoppers to use to save money that come from people in the States who clip them and pass them along. Because of the distance, expired coupons are honored. This is a very small project for us that is a really big outcome for people far away. Please bring coupons for products. Store coupons (Bed Bath and Beyond, Michael's, etc.) and restaurant coupons can not be used.

At our Conversation class on Wednesday evening, we talked about the different terms for alcohol: booze, cordials, We talked about how to save foods or prepare new dishes from the large amounts we get from Costco. Any breads (bagels, muffins, croissants) can be frozen. Bagels can be sliced into thin circles and toasted in the oven to make chips to be stored in your pantry. Berries can be frozen whole (don't wash them and freeze them on a flat sheet; when they are frozen, store them in plastic bags) or pureed and frozen in ice cube trays. Dried fruits last forever! If you are looking for other ways to use them: you can bake cakes and muffins with them, you can stuff them into pork chops or a pork loin. You can heat them in wine with spices to make mulled wine (a traditional Christmas drink).

International Bible Study, 9:00-10:30: Let's read John 4:27-42; the rest of the story of Jesus' visit with the Samaritans.
International Friends, 10:30-12:00: Let's Talk About Veteran's Day
Join us as we talk about Veteran's Day in the United States. Why is this holiday important?
Conversation, 4:30-6:00: Let's talk about Thanksgiving, Schawans', taste tater tots, look at Pinterest, home cleaning and maintenance schedule tips, and all the other stuff we come up with!

Black Friday: the shopping day when stores finally see a profit for the year and their balance sheet move from the red column to black
RSVP: let me know if you are coming
parable: a story that is told to illustrate a lesson
clipping coupons: cut coupons out of the newspapers or circulars
troops: military
expired: past the date it is valid
honored: regarded with respect
pantry: cabinets that store dry goods