Tasting Japan in Fresno

The grill sizzled in the middle of the coffee table while hosts Yoshi and Makiko Tanaka served their guests an Osaka special.
The Tanaka's invited Yoshi's ESL classmates to their seminary apartment for lunch on Wednesday. Guests were treated to a meal of Okonomiyaki (a mixture of flour, egg, cabbage and pork) grilled and flipped like flapjacks. The Tanaka's were kind enough to share various Japanese sauces and toppings for the food.
"It's okay," said Yoshi. "We can get more at Central Fish."
The main course was followed by a salad, fruit punch, coffee and dessert.
A good time was had by all as guests learned to eat with chopsticks and pretended that we had traveled many miles to join the Tanaka family in their Osaka home.

A Cautionary Tale

While giving myself a self-guided tour of the MBBS administrative mansion the other day I noticed this bright cautionary warning barring my tour from including the office of the president.
This roving reporter has yet to ascertain the events within the humble confines of the office of the president that necessitated such dire warning to all who would enter.
Perhaps one of you, the loyal readers of SEMBITS, has the story.
Please share it with us all.

Spiritual Formation

The flickering light of candles (and an occasional photographic flash) illuminated the timeless words of scripture for MB Biblical Seminary President James Holm as he prepared his soul for the task of teaching.
Today Holm and 12 students completed the first week of a two week course in which they seek to quiet their spirits and seek the voice of God.
Each morning during the two weeks they will spend half and hour sitting in the light of candles while listening to music and the words of scripture.
"We're taking time to slow down and let the rat race run on past," commented Holm. "The hope is to allow our souls to hear what God has to say in scripture."
President Holm has been teaching his course on spiritual formation for several years. While his duties as president keep him busy, he does like to keep in tune with students by teaching the course.
"I don't imagine that too many other classes here at MBBS start with candle light and music," Holm added, "but it helps prepare students for this class."

Less Weeds, More Roses

Thanks to the hard work of several women from Evangel Home, the MBBS rose garden is weed free . Last week the ladies came on campus ready to work and in a few short hours had pulled weeds around the rose garden and from the fountain planter in the middle of the garden as well.

"We're happy to be rid of all of those pesky weeds," commented one yellow rose. "They were sucking up all the good water."
"Now Karl can give us some fertilizer so that we can grow strong," added a neighboring red rose. "I hope he gets out here and takes advantage of all the hard work from those nice women."


"It's like the Bible says," commented Karl Muniz, Director of Facilities at MBBS, "Two workers are better than one. And in this case, 10 workers are a lot better than me. In one morning the ladies did what would take me most of a week to do.
"It was a great gift that they gave us at MBBS."

Office Thief!

One never knows what they will find in their office upon return from coffee break. For example, this morning I eagerly returned to my office (yes, that big 'ol fancy office in the picture is all mine, and sorry, "job's taken") in hopes of getting right back to work chatting with my new friends who are thinking about coming to MB Biblical Seminary.
However, this morning I found that my office had been kidnapped by jokster Dr. Danny Unrau.

Upon closer review, I learned that Dr. Dan was hard at work on the phone. One of my first thoughts was, "Sweet, I'm going home. Dan has the recruitment front well in hand. He's even learned the art of the 'lean back in the chair and talk shop.'"
But before I could gather my "going home" things, I couldn't help but listen in (okay, eavesdrop, in my own office) and hear Dan say, "oh yeah, teaching is real hard work. The hours are unreal."

Of course, hearing something this good doesn't happen everyday, so I putted around acting like I wasn't listening to his conversation in hopes of a few more great quotes.
And then walked in former President Henry Schmidt.
"I see Dan's hard at work," joked Henry.
Right around this point Dan hung up the phone and cracked a joke before heading back to his "real" job for the week -- teaching.

Dan is teaching "Leadership for a New Day: Emerging from Church Dysfunction to Congregational Health" this week. Dan came down to Fresno for the week from his home in British Columbia, Canada. He's happy to have this picture showing him teaching because, according to him, some of his close friends at home think he's really just golfing this week. I haven't caught him out on the links yet, but...

POG Party

The MBBS faculty and staff partied Hawaiian style this morning thanks to the generous party goods provided by world traveler Sherri Eason.
Sherri returned from a vacation in Maui loaded with lots of great eats. (And some things she bought here in Fresno because, frankly, cartons of juice don't fly very well.)
MBBS'ers found that if you mix the Pineapple/Orange juice with the Guava, you get a nice mixture called "POG." (That's "P" for pineapple, "O" for Orange and "G" for Guava for those of you who need as much help as I needed a few minutes ago.)
One of the great traditions with faculty and staff at MBBS is that when one of us has a birthday, anniversary, travels or generally just wants an excuse to have a mini-party at work we call a coffee break and get together for things like POG.

FC MB United Dominates Enroute to Title

After cruising to a couple of early victories in the Fresno Pacific University intramural soccer league, the seminary lads found themselves targeted by the upstart university footballers.
"Oh yeah, they were out to get us," admitted striker Ben T. Schmidt. "They saw how we were dominating the opposition and made it their goal to take us down."
But the MBBS'ers rose to the challenge time and again to turn away their youthful challengers on their road of destruction to the intramural title. The lads of FC MB United finished their worthy campaign with an unblemished 9-0 record to bring the title back home to the MBBS campus.
"While there isn't actually a trophy involved, we were supposed to get T-Shirts for winning the title," Schmidt added. "But for some reason they never printed them for us."
That slight still sits in the craw of the seminary ballers.
"We'll remember that when next season rolls around," continued Schmidt.
As for next season, the hopes remain high for the seminary squad. With two open spots on the team for next year, the competition for roster spots should be keen.
"Well, actually, we'll take anybody," Schmidt admitted.
Good luck next season, FC MB United! And thanks for bringing a measure of glory back home to MBBS.
"I'm proud of the team," commented Menno Simons from his perch on canvas in the hallowed halls of a seminary named in his honour.