Plum Splotches

Functionality

2012-01-24T07:51:00.000-06:00

Well well... One month since I've written. I will have you know that it is on my official list of resolutions to be a better blogger this year. I'd like to think I'm setting the standard high... ministry is busy. Life in Japan is fast-forward speed. Planning a wedding is insane.

But... I do love ya all. (here's the point where I wonder if anyone is listening to me...?)

This month.. Well, the last 6-8 weeks seem to have been one meeting after another. A lot of informal outreach (which has been awesome)... and a lot of meetings with people I'm training to take over roles that I've played in Fuse... as well as my regular responsibilities/meetings/work schedule, arranging everything to be organized for myself when I head back to the States, a move to the church/mission base (not our church; another couple will be staying in my apartment for the time I'm gone-- I let them move in early so they can settle in)... sharing a room with another missionary girl... (OH... and the wedding!)

I'm trying to make the most of my time that I have here before I head back to become a "we".

But, I definitely feel that God has set this all up. Interesting that last month, there were 5 people who came. 3 people are gifted in the areas that I've been working in: life group leader, admin overseer and in design (the 3rd person- Andy, is a graphic designer. He's professional... so I don't have to teach him anything-- rather he can teach me!)...

It's been cool to work in the area of trainer-- teaching "how to", being a mentor, handing over responsibilities... and overall-- as the missionary who has been here the longest so far (apart from our leaders)-- I've had the opportunity in informal settings to share vision, how to, practical ministry in the Japanese context, etc. It's been cool to be in that function.

But anyhow... I want to write a quick report on a conversation I had last week with a guy we've known for maybe over a year-- but we are still waiting to see God "take the blinder off"...

I'm going to copy and paste from an email-- because I'm too tired to write it all out again... :X

"...this evening we had an awesome dinner outreach, with around 10-12 non-Christian new friends who joined. I personally got the opportunity to share the Gospel in a way that really connected with a friend who came. Though he seems to have been staunchly against the Gospel, I think it struck a chord tonight... His demeanor definitely changed. We'll see what the coming weeks bring! :D I'm pretty excited about that."

One of the first things he said in a conversation I was standing in on was, "I don't need Jesus." We talked for it awhile; Christine, the mission head here, sharing why she did. She got called away... and he turned around and looked at me with the most sincere look-- "Why did you become a Christian?" Like the email said, what I shared (about going to church and not understanding for a good 6 months what people were talking about) really connected with him. But I said that God had changed my heart and made me understand. He could experience that too with God.

I think he is really opening up to the Gospel! THAT is exciting! After everyone left, Tim (Christine's husband, the mission head also) said that he noticed that the young guy looked a lot lighter as he left-- different.

So, be praying! And I'ma head to bed! :)

Christmas... and then Japan

2011-12-24T09:43:00.003-06:00

First, Merry Christmas... I was working on some last minute things for tomorrow's service and saw this posted by one of our team members. It's not a message or anything... just a picture of the people of Japan, and I guess-- what it's like to live in Japan... Hope you enjoy!

**Some kind of problem and the video won't load. Here's the link! Just click right below...

The People... Oh the People...

News and that...

2011-12-18T06:46:00.003-06:00

Please check out this letter I just sent out! Also, I just posted about our Christmas outreach just below, so check that out too!

Btw, you can click on this "picture" below and make it bigger to read it. (Sorry, I can't attach a pdf here!)... if you have a hard time reading it, leave a comment on this post with your email-- comments have to be approved by me, so no one will see your email address beside me-- and I will email you the pdf!)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas and then some

2011-12-18T06:41:00.000-06:00

SO. It's Christmas time. It doesn't really feel like it. Does it to you?

Here, the bigger holiday is New Year. It's the time that everyone spends with their families and eats sushi. But nonetheless, Christmas is still celebrated (albeit with KFC and Christmas cakes)... So, we did an outreach event today. It was our first ever Christmas Production.

A girl on our team wrote a play; another helped with the translation; one girl did a dance; others helped with video and technology (which was a huge feat in an of itself); special music for the band, karaoke, snacks, sewing, you name it-- we probably did it!

But it was lovely and ran remarkably smooth. My part in this day: organizing everything and making a timeline/Lighting timeline/organizing responsibilities on the whole day. My job was basically to make sure set-up, production and clean up/pack-up ran smoothly and that everyone had everything that they needed where they needed it. And I answered a million questions.

It should be mentioned, the file name for this so called timeline is: Christmas Production Timeline Masterpiece.

Because it was.

Other than that, I also played bass (including a jazz piece I just learned yesterday) and did lighting during my allotted time.

But enough about that-- we had about 30% of our crowd as newcomers and a number of "Hisashiburi" people (Hisashiburi means "long time, no see"). And many got to hear the Gospel for the first time.

So, all these questions and worksheets and rehearsed lines and technology preparation was so that Japanese people-- who are used to top-notch, high quality-- could hear the Gospel for the first time in a clear, powerful and even dramatic way. There's no better Christmas gift you can give.

And though I guarantee you that nearly everyone is exhausted tonight, we are all satisfied that what we did was done to honor God and to show God's love and our love to those who have never heard.

... Really?

2011-11-30T08:59:00.000-06:00

OH boy. More than 2 months since my last post? I would not blame you for abandoning my blog.

Let me tell you. The last 2 months... Incredibly busy.

That probably doesn't need to be stated, but it makes me feel better.

And if it makes you feel better, I already decided on a New Year's Resolution... be a better blogger. And not to let my inbox get clogged.

But it's just barely hitting December, so I still have a month to slack. ;)

So... The last two months.
Retreat, special outreaches, Seminar, lots of admin stuff, trip to America, got engaged, came back, more admin stuff, giving messages, lots of evaluations on getting things to keep accelerating at church, preparation for Christmas play and production, playing bass, reorganizing lifegroups... teaching English...

I don't think that's all, but briefly that's what's happened over the last few months and why I've been away from the blog world. All these things require a significant amount of my attention too.

Well, it's 11:57pm as I write, and this is all I've got right now. I think I'll try again next week.

Sorry my friends. Don't give up on me yet. ... :)

Updates and Origami

2011-09-18T06:56:00.000-05:00

As I sit here another night in front of the fan and drinking cold water, I'm so thankful that in TWO days, we will hit the 70s and stay there... according to the internet weather forecast. [Yukata day at Fuse!]

Bring on the autumn!

So, last week I got home from Fuse and I just sat here staring at the computer thinking... I seriously doubt I can find the energy to write a blog tonight. Today I have a bit more... but I'm not promising any cleverness.

For one awesome thing, we've been having new people. We're doing a lot of inviting. After lower numbers over the summer, we were kinda down though we continued outreaching and praying and all that. As I recently heard Becky Hrubik (director of PAZ), pray-- We do care about numbers, because every number means someone who is getting called into the Kingdom of God and being saved. But we've been seeing new people and following up on them... and praying for more breakthroughs!

I've been pretty busy with a lot of admin stuff at Fuse and trying to help things run smoothly... for it's own sake, but also to really support Mark and Yuiko and take any unnecessary pressure off of Mark. That way, he can focus on what he really needs to focus on.

We also have a team from Brazil here. They're here for 6-7 weeks. They're not here in Tokyo during the week, but are up in Iwaki helping out. But the two 20-something guys have been helping out with Friday night outreaches and at Fuse. One of them, Paul, spoke today at Fuse. So, it's been really cool to have them helping us out.

And on the side, I'm kinda starting an origami business. It's not super-serious yet, but I do plan on following through to see success with it. I've been making origami accessories (hair clips/earrings). They are cute, durable and semi-waterproof. I'm working on getting my webpage set up, and I recently found out that a friend of a friend will sell them in her beauty salon. So, I am getting them together to send over. Anyway, if you're interested, please let me know! I'll post the page later; with everything that has been going on here in Japan, I've been super busy. But I'm getting there!

Yawns and Tears...

2011-09-04T06:19:00.000-05:00

I am sitting here yawning super big. Btw, that is very rude to do at work or in meetings in Japan. You can do it like, on the train or sitting by yourself at a table or something. But don't do it anywhere else. In fact, a good sign of being adapted here is when you can "swallow your yawns"... keep your mouth closed while you yawn! I've seen lots of Japanese do it!

I prefer big yawns myself and bask in them in the privacy of my home.

That was a side note. But yes, I am tired. FUSE days are always very long (but good) days. And since I do service coordinating at FUSE, it means that I'm always answering questions, making sure everyone knows what they're doing, making last minute switches and figuring out details. I enjoy doing it, but sometimes... oftentimes I'm a bit tired after Life Group and finally making it home!

Today's FUSE covered a bit of things that have been going on this month. Mark today brought the message about having Great Friendships. He talked about the building blocks for great relationships being love, communication, trust (commitment) and grace. When he got to the part about communication, he talked about encouragement and words of hope. There he mentioned how it has been good for he and his wife to experience the comfort of great friends lately. Two weeks ago, they lost their expected baby... She was 5 months along, and it was a big blow. It was really hard for her to translate that part, and most everyone's eyes were filled with tears as Yuiko translated through her own tears about having lost her baby.

Please pray for them!

They are still recovering. It takes time, but we are praying for them and trying to support them the best we can and offer that hope that only comes through a relationship with Jesus!

Afterward, we had life group. My lifegroup was pretty great today! We continued the talk about friendships and the practicalities of it in life. We shared from journalling time together, and got to know a new girl who joined lifegroup for the first time. She still hasn't met Jesus, but we are praying that soon she will!

So, I'm sorry about this month. We thought it was supposed to be a more relaxed schedule. But it wasn't! :) My first two weeks, I took care of a lot of the responsibilities Mark take care of, since he was in New Zealand, and the last two weeks... well...

Well, I am going to get to bed!! It's only 8pm, but I'm ready!

Hope you guys have a blessed day!

July

2011-07-28T20:46:00.000-05:00

Yeah, July has been busy. Beside having 2 back-to-back teams for more than the first part of the month, we are in the nice summer heat and humidity.

I also started teaching another couple of classes on Wednesdays, which has made for a lot of preparation work.

Anyway, that's kinda the gist. We continue on, working. We've been really going at Street Live (Street Outreach). Having the break dance team here from California was a huge boost to our efforts. Not only did they draw along huge crowds, but they were each very passionate about making the most of every opportunity they had, even the ones they didn't have. In other words, they scheduled more outreach for themselves as a team. The next team, from Korea, was also very passionate, and typical of Koreans-- they were pray-ers. We really enjoyed being with them.

So, yeah, since then, we've been really going at street outreach hard, and it gave us an added boost to be more intentional with our opportunities. Even Tuesday night, I met 2 young college girls, and shared who Jesus is to them, and shared my testimony, all in Japanese. We finished and Ty asked if there was anything they wanted prayer for. Nothing specific, but we prayed for them anyhow. I've been following up with them through texting since then, and I hope to see them on Sunday.

Also, on a side note, I've been reading a book called "Not for Sale" by David B. Batstone. It's about human trafficking. I really encourage you to get it, and once you start reading, you won't be able to put it down. It's very well-written, easy to read, and with stories from those trafficked, the history and tactics of trafficking and the stories of ordinary people doing things to make a difference to stop the suffering of hundreds of thousand, maybe millions of women and children trafficked in this world today. Don't choose to keep yourself in ignorance.

Well, gotta get running... but hope you find yourself well in this summer season!

Stories

2011-06-18T10:42:00.000-05:00

There was so much to be heard this week. So much to see, so much to do, so much to hear.

On Thursday this week, I was excited to go and work hard in my awesome, borrowed bright-blue jump suit. We went to a Ramen and Hamburger Joint called the Clock Tower (Tokeidai). The owner had been running the business for 40+ years. However, the tsunami waves came in a destroyed much of what was inside and took out a few walls. I heard earlier teams cleaned out a lot of sand while taking everything outside and dividing the trash.

I never really thought about that part-- all the sand. But other teams have spent days at another restaurant trying to clean up dishes and other supplies from sand and oil and otherwise caked stuff.

Anyhow, this owner of the business, who is in his 60s, has decided to have the house destroyed and start over. When asked what will he do after that, his answer is that he doesn't know. He will figure that out once all this is taken care of...

As we were going through the piles of things to be thrown away, there were books, photo albums, stuffed animals, clothes. It was a little disconcerting to be going through someone's stuff like that-- knowing that it wasn't their plan to have all this stuff disposed of in this manner. However, a few things were salvaged. Among those things was the deed to the land. The owner could not find it, and that was one of the things he seemed to be worried about. However, someone was going through the piles as we were bagging things up to carry to the dumpsters, and found an old, flimsy deed. Sure enough, it was the deed to his land, and the owner was very happy about that.

On Friday, I was going to finish some painting for the church cabinets housing tools and other manly things. I had found out on Wednesday that they wanted one done, and on Friday, I planned to do the other cabinet. Anyhow, while I was finishing the first one, Ijima-san came up to me. Ijima-san is a man about in his 50s or 60s, I would guess. He communicated with me that he wanted a sign made for a family that had a fishing business-- for bate. Anyhow, their house was destroyed, but they are still in business.

So, I got to work on it. I was really excited to make something for a family. Ijima-san later told me that he would take me to the family to give it to them. That was even cooler, because I wasn't expecting it. Anyway, I finished in the afternoon, full of paint everywhere on me, but happy to have finished something (and with limited paint and brushes (amazingly expensive here, let me tell you... I shouldn't be surprised though) that would bless a family in need.

Later, Benjamin and Ijima-san and I went to the family's house and delivered the sign. They were happy to receive it, and we had the chance to chat for a bit about their experience. They are now living in the addition that they had built on their house. The original part was built some 100 years ago, in the traditional Japanese style. Because it would cost so much to rebuild it, they tore it down and are now living in the addition, which has a tarp for a wall and a half.

Their next door neighbor received work from some of the team. He owns a rice factory, and his machinery was also destroyed. Only some 5% of it was insured. He will receive some money from the government and some from the insurance company, but he will have to borrow much in order to restart. It seems to be the case for many businesses and families.

But the Japanese people go on, and Global Mission Center and the volunteers that all work with them continue to offer hope not only for the current situation, but that hope you need on the inside-- the kind that comes from God. It is truly amazing to see all the opportunities to serve through this church. See earlier blogs for more..

Since the beginning, when the earthquake and tsunami first took place, I was impressed by the world's reaction to and support of Japan. It really touched me. But on my first night, I stood in a room with people from all over. From around Japan, from the States, from Canada, from Korea. From all different churches and backgrounds.

We stood in a circle, and Mori-sensei (the pastor) said, you know-- we come from all over and from different churches, but together we are the church of Jesus here.

And it's true. We are the church, the body of Jesus. And we carry the hope with us-- and the knowledge that we do not face the world alone-- God, who created us, loves us and is with us.

It's easy as time goes by to forget the tragedies that have passed. Or at least the ones that we don't see everyday. I probably tend to think that because I don't see it on the news anymore, that everything must be fine.

But, the people of Japan still hurt and still are affected by the events of March 2011. There are still families without homes, without jobs, trying to rebuild. There are still those grieving for lost loved ones and friends. There are still some very, very difficult situations.

If you are able to, you can volunteer to help. Please contact me for more info. You can pray, because prayer is powerful, even from across the world. And you can do your part from where you are by offering the hope you have and can find in Christ to the people around you. You don't have to wait for disaster to strike your area. You, if you believe in Jesus as your Savior, are the church and you have the hope for all situations of life.

Thank you for your prayers for Japan and encouragement. The Japanese people need it.

Tsunami Damage

2011-06-18T09:31:00.000-05:00

I leave it to this video to tell the story.

More to come, I'm sure.

Global Mission Center

2011-06-17T21:42:00.000-05:00

One of the things that I was really impressed with on this trip was the organization of the staff up in Iwaki. There was so much stuff going on, so many people doing so many things. And, like I was discussing with a guy from Hawaii that I met there, it was pretty organized but not in the strict, rigid way-- rules, rules, rules!

Instead, after 3 months of doing stuff everyday (except Sundays), the staff who works amazing hard is joyful and can definitely multitask. The meeting room has signs everywhere, and sheets of things so that they can simply understand what's going on. The schedule for the day is written on the white board (ha, but only in Japanese-- there's an English version on the board on a piece of paper). The first thing I did when I got there was sign in, was asked about insurance, and quickly found a room among a few... At night, the house becomes a maze of places where people are sleeping. Tim said there are usually 25-60 people there at a time.

At the meeting in the morning, what things are going on that day are discussed and leaders let the volunteers know about how many they will need. Volunteers decide where they want to participate that day.

Here are some of the opportunities to serve:

-"Gareki" (rubble- new Japanese word for the week)-- there are different projects going on that day. Each day that I went, there were 2 or 3 opportunities. Sometimes only carpenters are needed. Sometimes they say that at a particular place there will be hard labor. But basically, you go and do whatever is needed there. While I was there, one team was putting up temporary walls at a house/rice factory. Another was washing dishes and supplies at a traditional Japanese Inn. The water brought in sand and mixed oil with it. In order to reopen, all the supplies had to be cleaned-- which was pretty hard work. And then there are teams that clean out houses and divide the trash into burnable, glass, wood, etc. and throw it all away.

-Cafe-- Downstairs at the church, there is a center where those in need can get supplies-- anything from clothes, shoes, diapers, milk, blankets, etc. But they have to let the people know what they need. So, while the workers arrange stuff so that the people can come get what they need, there are other workers in the cafe. Those waiting for supplies for their families sit there and can have some free coffee/tea/cake. The workers sit down and have conversation with those waiting and listen to them. This is a great opportunity to share the Gospel and to minister to them. This is also an important part of disaster relief. I think another girl who is a hair stylist came in, and gave free hair cuts to people, which is another opportunity to talk.

- Kitchen/Clean Up-- There are also those who stay at the church to make breakfast, lunch and dinner for staff and volunteers. They also help clean up the bathrooms, living room, and other things. This is a very daily job!!

-Foot washing-- A couple of times a week (?), people go up in the afternoon to the refugee centers and wash feet, give foot massages to those living there. This is another opportunity to listen and minister.

-Takidashi-- ...which means giving out food. So teams will go to some shelter at dinner time, give out food, clean up and sit down to converse with people. Yup, more opportunities.

-There is more, I think but I can't seem to remember...

So, in case you're wondering-- here's what the day looks like

6am- Devotional (not required, but it's good!)

8am- Breakfast

9am- Morning Meeting (a bit of music, day's events and short prayer time)

10am- Teams head out

4:30pm- ish-- If there's foot washing, you go there...

6pm- Dinner

8pm- Evening Meeting

More blogs to come...

Tsunami damage

Impressions and Stories from Iwaki

Up to Iwaki

2011-06-17T20:58:00.000-05:00

Well... I just arrived home less than 12 hours ago from a trip up to Iwaki City to help with relief efforts. It was an amazing trip, in all aspects. From watching how the staff works, to meetings that we have everyday, the focus and joy that everyone maintain, cleaning houses and meeting and serving the Japanese people whose houses we were cleaning up.

My alarm was set for 3:50am on Wednesday, and I went by foot (ok, only 20 minutes), train, bus and car to get to Global Mission Center in Iwaki. Unfortunately, by the time that we (I met up with another couple going up there) made it to the Center, the different teams going out were already leaving for the day.

Anyhow, I got my stuff situated in the building, finding a room to sleep in with about 5 girls, I believe. (I was later moved to another room holding the same). I kinda looked around and figured out that floor by myself. It holds like a large living room with tables around, and a few bathrooms and places where people can sleep. Downstairs is the church room, some storage place for food, another place for supplies for people in need to come and a little cafe area where ministry takes place all day long for those waiting for supplies.

Anyway, I spent a while trying to figure out what I could do to help since I wasn't able to go out with the teams. I was a little disappointed. However, at lunch I spotted the two Canadian boys who were with us at FUSE last week. I sat around and chatted with them (since I didn't have that chance at FUSE). They came for 2 weeks, and are doing carpentry work. That day, they were building shoe storage units (since we take our shoes off before entering houses and I promise-- at that church, it can be hard to find yours in the sea of shoes at the entrance).

After lunch, I was outside where they were working and asked if there was anything I could do. I found out that someone wanted some mural thing on some cabinets that housed tools and other supplies of that sort. So, I volunteered, got some paint and got busy. It was cool to be able to use my skills in that way.

That night we all had dinner and the evening meeting at 8pm. We began and finished the 45 minute meeting with music and prayer, and at the end a 2 minute encouraging note from the pastor. New workers arriving that day were introduced, people talked about the day's work, what got done, impressions, stories about the family and testimonies. At 9, I was getting ready for bed... I was tired!

More blogs to come!!

Tacos and Sushi

2011-06-09T06:46:00.000-05:00

As always, I am still alive and still here. If you're not hearing from me, it's because there are so many things on my to-get accomplished list. It's not because I don't love you.

We are gearing up for the 2nd anniversary event of FUSE. We're really looking forward to it!! In fact, I designed a flier (or flyer, which sounds better to me... I recently had a friendly debate on which is correct) for it. I won't tell you how many hours I spent on it, because I just don't know. I only know: many. But it looks good, and today I held the printed version in my hands.

Today also arrived a helper in human form. He'll be here for a year helping us out. His name is Jeremy, and it'll be nice to have him with us, but I'm adding "more girls" to my list of prayer requests. ;)

Sunday I shared the message. Saki again translated for me, which was pretty awesome. It was a message about fear (freedom from it), and what effect trusting God produces in our lives... I think it went really well, and a lot of people seemed to be touched by it. SO, praise God. That's what's important!
Also, Chris Briles, my trainer from Mexico, was here with us. It was the first time for "WIM" and "PAZ" to meet, and I think the meeting was great! So, I think this will open more doors in the future. And beside, it was cool to be with my old trainer (and his son-- Aaron is here helping out for a month)... only this time not in cold mountainous region of Mexico, but in a huge city-city area of Tokyo. A bit of a difference...think tacos and sushi.

But the catching up was great, as well as discussions about the future, etc.

Well, tonight I need to work on a few more things... and get some rest!!
I'll try to get back here in a few days... :X

Here's to Opportunities

2011-05-25T08:04:00.000-05:00

Sooo.... I had this really long to-do list for today, and not a whole lot on it got done. Doesn't make me feel super-accomplished.

However, I did spend a few hours with one of the girls from my lifegroup today that was very productive. On Sunday we had a great lifegroup time. Though we didn't do the study that I had planned for us to continue, it was a really good time of sharing and this particular girl opened up and shared some stuff. So, it ended up being a good time of ministry and encouragement.

Today I met up with her for some coffee, which turned into walking around Machida, doing lots of window shopping and great conversation. She shared about her journalling time and we talked more in depth about that. Then she's getting some vision and on track with God for her life. She had been reflecting a lot on a question I brought up in Lifegroup about a month ago maybe-- What are the dreams we have in life? For whom are we using them and how can we glorify God with them? How do we use the opportunities that we have now? What are the opportunities that we have now?

Well, a couple of questions I brought up, I guess.

But we talked about getting into the Word of God, having friendship with God, relationships... it was a really really good time. I felt like it was definitely God-given and God had a chance to minister through it. And! It was in Japanese!

So, anyhow, that is my day. It seems like the last 72 hours, things have really picked up and seemed to get busier. Every 12 hours it feels like I hear about something new. :) But that's good! However, I'm going to be smarter than I was last year and not overwork myself, but find balance. Overworking and overstressing yourself is not a good thing.

Well, looking forward to what the future holds... and enjoying the "now" moments too. How about you?

Food for Thought

2011-05-10T21:37:00.000-05:00

It's raining, and I'm afraid for the moment being, there isn't too much super exciting news.

I was supposed to go visit my friend's Uni(versity) today, but she woke up not feeling well, and so... well, lunch plans cancelled. That's ok, I got a head start on stuff so that I don't have to do it tomorrow, which is my day off.

Sunday's FUSE was good. It was a great message about living your best and what you're using to build your life out of-- things that last or things that don't. Mark shared the story of John and David Livingstone. Did you know David Livingstone had a brother? I didn't. They both grew up in a fairly wealthy household, and John went on to build a business and focus on making money, etc. David felt God was calling him to do a couple of things-- explore Africa, which was his dream, and take the Gospel with him. John thought David was crazy, but he took the risk anyway and went to follow his dreams-- but with a purpose behind it.

David died in Africa. However, on John's gravestone when he died was written: the brother of David Livingstone. Who remembers John Livingstone? Who remembers David?

It was really interesting I thought. It doesn't mean that you can't have a business and make money, etc., but whatever your dream in life is-- what are you going to use it for? You only get one shot at life-- you can choose to live a mediocre life, or you can choose to follow your dreams and live the life and have all the God wants you to have and use it to build into and impact people's lives. You choose now what you want.

I have been thinking a lot about that, and about something Mark said yesterday as well-- Let's not be people who live by rules and make rules, but people who live with vision and wanting what God wants for us.

It's kinda the difference between being legalistic/living by a set of rules/ways of doing things the Christian way and having a great relationship with God and an amazing life that can leave a legacy.

It's all about having that relationship with God in your life all the time.

Anyway... that's my blurb today. I'm going to go work on a few not-so-exciting projects that are a part of life anyway. :)

Have a great day people.

It's MAY! You know what that means!!....

2011-05-02T09:10:00.001-05:00

So it's Golden Week here in Japan. Golden Week is like a series of back-to-back holidays here in Japan. Everyone seems to be off work and school, there are sales everywhere and it's a lovely time as we are getting into the really beautiful weather here in Japan. (team JS- Janine and Saki!)

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to share the message. I shared on the freedom we have in Christ. Freedom from what oppresses, freedom for the future, how to protect and use your freedom. Saki also had her first time translating a "full" message (she did a 10 minute one right after the earthquake). She did a great job!!

I sent her my notes ahead of time and then we got together on Saturday evening to go over any questions she may have had. It was cool to be a part of her doing something new and to encourage her in the moment. I had complete confidence that she was going to be able to do it!

Afterward, Manami joined us for lifegroup at our normal restaurant we head to. It seemed most of the lifegroups decided to do the same study on freedom, since that was our topic at FUSE. Anyway, we were reading a section of Scripture in Romans. Saki shared some, I shared a bit, and then I asked Manami about the verses.

She paused for a minute, and she goes, beforehand, if I had read this, I wouldn't have been able to understand it. But now, after the message, I understand what this means.

She went on to comment about it, but really I was blessed. I was like, you know, that's the best thing that you can say. If no one had received anything else (which I know wasn't the case), but it's worth it to know you are helping others grow and understand God's Word.

Well, I'm off to bed for the evening... I have a lot of projects to get to in the morning!!

Wind, rain and broken umbrellas

2011-04-25T05:09:00.000-05:00

BUT... a totally awesome day!

I'll get to that in a minute.

Friday, we went to Machida to do street outreach in the evening like we usually do. Before we could even get started though, we were stopped by the police which often happens. So, we went to another place and decided it wasn't going to be a good location, so we headed to Sagamiono.

At Sagamiono, we had lots of opportunities to talk to people. I approached one girl and then realized that she was on the phone, but I gave her a flyer anyway and stood a couple of feet away so that when she got off the phone, I could talk to her. She told the person on the phone that she had just received a flyer, and then she looks at the special note we have stapled to it that says- special performance for Sakura Easter Sunday by MIS, Airi Shigemizu....

She goes-- Ah! Airi-chan!

I said, yeah! You know her?

She says in the phone-- Airi-chan! I just saw a picture of you!

She was talking on the phone with Airi-- who happens to be in my lifegroup. The girl ended up coming on Sunday and we were able to have more good conversation, and I hope to see her again! And as for Airi, that night she sent me a message asking if it was too late because she wanted to get baptized also on Saturday. I was like, no! Not too late! :)

At the beginning of the week, we had one confirmed person that wanted to get baptized. By the end of the week, we baptized 4 girls in the ocean on a cold, rainy, very windy day. So windy, in fact, that two of my umbrellas blew inside out and completely broke. (to the right, our 4 girls getting baptized, XiPei, Kaori, Airi and Manami)

But that couldn't steal our joy! It was an awesome day, despite the horizontal falling rain, as we ran out into the ocean hand-in-hand, baptized these girls, hugged, and then ran back and laid hands on each one and prayed for them.

Easter Sunday saw many people attend FUSE for the first time, and many get to hear about Jesus likely for the first time. What an awesome day to have that opportunity on! Our friend Airi gave a special performance. Below is a video of the last song in which she was accompanied by Yuiko. The song is called Anata no Ai wa (Your Love is...) and talks about the greatness of God's love. Totally beautiful! Enjoy!

Shaking with Joy

2011-04-16T07:08:00.000-05:00

Well, it would seem that Japan is so excited to see me that she shakes with joy. Or at least, that's what I keep telling myself. (Incidentally, Mark's message tomorrow is about the joy of the Lord...)

It hasn't been that bad. Actually, I think there were like 3 days in a row this week where I didn't feel one. And then today we had another earthquake early in the afternoon. This week, there was one while I was at work, teaching my first English class of the new school year (the school year starts in April here). The students jumped under the desk, and I stood, waiting to gauge it with my boss who was in the doorway. We both paused, watching the walls. We looked like we were listening for something.

"I think it's calming down..."

"Nope, it's getting stronger again..."

Then I happened to be on the rush hour train for another one. All I heard was sirens above my music and then the train stopped, but only for like 5-7 minutes to check something. We couldn't feel it, since we were moving.

I did hear from one of my team teachers this week that she was on a bridge when the big one happened (March 11). Everyone panicked and no one moved. But she was screaming in her car. I hadn't thought of what people must experience in a place like on a bridge. I'd thought of what happens when people are in surgery, or giving birth, or in tall, sight-seeing buildings and then an earthquake happens....

I'm glad I was in none of those situations, but that God took me to a place where I was safe for the evening and not stranded...

Anyway. Enough of that. I've been trying to get back into schedule this week. I've been getting back into my normal responsibilities, back to figuring out life here, and will be catching up more with people from this point on. You have to schedule in advance here in Japan because people are so busy. So that means an easy first week to settle in.

So, I'm excited for that. And beside, next weekend is the Baptism Party. I'm excited for it! Let's be praying for lots of people to get baptized!!
Well... I'm going to get rest before FUSE tomorrow. FUSE days are always very long days.... and I am, as of today, filling in on bass tomorrow... So... Well, write later!

Back

2011-04-08T19:37:00.000-05:00

Welp. I'm back in Japan. How crazy does life seem lately?

After a great trip back to St. Louis and time spent with lots of lovely people, I am back in Japan. Also in America happened to be lots of crazy weather, which gave me a nasty cold my last couple of days. However, that made it nice in that because of a delayed flight to Chicago, I missed my connection to Tokyo. So, they put me up in a hotel and I was able to get over the cold a little more before boarding a 13 hour flight.

So I'm back in Japan. Since coming back, I've gotten things straightened out with my work schedule for teaching English this year and went to a seminar. I've had like 3 different meetings and set up a schedule for this year now that I'm not in school anymore. After talking with Mark and Yuiko yesterday morning, I'll be doing more admin stuff at FUSE and also be getting connected in to this Girls College like a five minute walk from my house. I have one connection in there and I'm going to try to form more. I'm pretty excited about that. I'll keep studying in the mornings, though not at school. And of course, the other stuff that I normally do and participate in, I'll continue doing. So, I think it'll be good.

I do miss America (ha, Miss America) and the good times that I had there and I wish I could have been able to spend more time with people individually-- first and foremost my family.

But it was cool to be able to share about Japan in such an oportune time when the whole world's eyes were on Japan. Keep praying for us guys! Even since I've been home, my second night, I was woken up as I had just fallen asleep by the largest aftershock (I keep hearing 7.1 and 7.4) since the one a half hour after the big one on March 11. This new one left us rocking and shaking for a good one-two minutes.

But there is still lots to be done, so help me in spreading the message about how we need more missionaries here in Japan and more people to help! Short-term people and definitely long-term people! This is the opportune time to share about the message of the cross to a hurting Japanese people!

Missions in Japan

2011-03-30T10:54:00.002-05:00

Support Promo from Fuse Jesus Community on Vimeo.

Here's the video we made about FJC! Please check it out and share!

Nothing Is Impossible

2011-03-30T10:52:00.002-05:00

I've had this song stuck in my head in both Japanese and English the last few weeks. Our FJC band is awesome!

Earthquake Update

2011-03-13T10:02:00.000-05:00

Dear friends, I thank you for your many emails and notes of concern and prayer. We here in Japan are thankful for that, and to know that you stand with us as we can only lift this up to God.

Where we were, no real damage was done. We were badly shaken, as was shown in the video below. A few things fell in my apartment. In the last couple of days, the train systems have slowly been being brought back tomorrow and I am told that tomorrow area by area, power will be shut off for 3 hours. For what reason, I don't know. Also, there's no bread in any of the stores-- as I'm guess Tokyo's providers are stuck or were based up north. Department stores have been closed, and upper floors of some stores in the area taped off. I imagine their products all came crashing down.

The aftershocks are numerous. There have been hundreds and I feel like I've been on a boat for days. Even now, my lamp is slightly rocking to and fro. I've taken precautions and keep things like my computer and printer on the floor, in case of larger aftershocks.

But these things are nothing compared to the horrors of northern Japan. I can't stand to watch much of the videos about it. Reports are saying that the death tolls will likely be above 10,000 in one state alone. And when you consider that only 0.5% of them knew Jesus...

Please pray for those who are still missing, for the rescue operations going on-- that they can quickly locate those who are still alive and trapped. I read about one man who was found 9 MILES off shore-- clinging to the roof of his house. 9 MILES. Please pray for Jesus' message of what He's done to capture and soothe the hearts of those who, as I write, are passing a cold night without food or shelter, having watched their worlds fall apart and be swept away with the sea. Jesus wants to be with them tonight, but they need to hear.

Please also pray for the nuclear power plants to stabilize. I have no idea what will be the results if they cannot. One has already exploded and some have radiation poisoning.

And in this moment, take the opportunity to really consider your life as well. You never know when such an thing may occur. The day of the earthquake, I spent hours in a government building, filing taxes and getting my re-entry visa to Japan, as I plan to make a visit home this week, actually. Everything should be fine for the flight, and things are on schedule as originally planned.

But, obviously, experiencing a historical earthquake was not in my plans for that day. But while we were fine and God protected us, you never know when something will happen. So, consider your life and what are your priorities in life. Where are you with God, and were something to happen to those you love around you, don't leave room for regrets of not having shared with the eternal security that they can find only in Christ.

We cannot guarantee tomorrow for ourselves, nor the rest of today. So, leave no room for regrets in your relationships, fix and mend and love liberally. Love those around you who you don't know because you don't know when it's their last moment either.

Thank you for your prayers for Japan. Keep praying for us.
See many of you soon. :)

Us in the earthquake

2011-03-11T05:48:00.000-06:00

Http://vimeo.com/20911022

Here is a video of us experiencing the first earthquake.

Please be praying for Japan!!

Pray that in these traumatic, shaking experiences that their hearts will turn to God!

Why not Japan??

2011-03-08T07:56:00.003-06:00

Ty showed me this vid on Youtube... Check it out!

Still kickin'

2011-03-08T07:54:00.000-06:00

Horrible, horrible!

I know. I probably don't deserve to live.

But, it's been SOOOO crazy in the last few weeks. I know, I know, it's been busy for you too.

But, let me tell you. Let's see... I moved... on a rainy, windy... turned snowy day. Not exaggerating. I went to work from moving that same day. I went to school in general. I fnished school and got my certificate from completing the intermediate level of Japanese! I set up a new apartment, got things like electricity, gas, water and internet turned on. I went to government offices a number of times (by myself), trying to get documents for moving to another city and getting paperwork to file my taxes.

In fact, today I spent another hour in the gov't building doing just that. And today, I walked out with something in my hands...a LOT of something intimidating in my hands...

Oh, I also got my taxes info ready for next year-- stateside, anyhow.

Hmm... I figured out a new area... registered at the post office, by myself.

I keep saying "by myself", not because I "had" to do it by myself (though somethings I did), but I say it because I'm proud of the fact that I can go to official places and get things accomplished in another language that is not English or Spanish.

Oh! Oh! I'm working on an awesome video too that will be used in the US of A.

Yeah, so I am REALLY sorry that I haven't posted.

BUT, I will get to see you soon!

PS- awesome news! Manami's gettin' baptized in April! Woo-hoo!

One Shot

2011-02-14T06:12:00.000-06:00

Love love love... Happy Valentines Day to you!

Well, nothing particularly super special has happened on this day of love... I overslept, but still made it on time to school, went to work, and walked home in the heavily falling snow. Exciting, right?

Yesterday was a pretty cool day though! Sunday is FUSE day, and a lot of cool things took place. First, we had the last time that Lizzie led worship. She is moving back to the states in March with her family, and we are really sad to see her go! Beside being an awesome girl, she is a very talented worship leader. The music was pretty awesome yesterday... not just that the quality of the music was awesome, but God was really moving during the music.

Afterward, I gave the message at FUSE about... of course-- love. But instead of a Valentines Day message, I gave a message about living a life of love. We looked at the media's messages of love and what God, who is love, has to say about it. I thought it went pretty ok, but there was a good response to the message. I remembered Mark saying that some of the messages that he was not happy about were some of them that he got some of the best responses about people being touched by it... I guess it's the same.

Also awesome yesterday was that two girls that we met a couple of weeks ago at McDonalds came to FUSE! We were having a meeting and Yuiko gave the 2 girls flyers as we were leaving and we all said bye. None of us recognized them by face on Sunday, but Yuiko said that when she saw them coming up, she felt like God said that those were the two girls from McDonalds. So, she asked them, "Are you from McDonalds?" They were surprised and answered yeah.

Afterward, they joined Yuiko's lifegroup and one of them really seemed like she wanted to come back. She said that she was really happy to have received the flyer and the opportunity to come to a group meeting like ours. She said that if she hadn't received it, she didn't know if she'd ever have another opportunity for the rest of her life to attend a meeting.

It was really cool to hear that. We really see God moving in people's lives. And we never know when the opportunity will present itself-- out on the streets, at McDonalds or wherever you may be-- God can use you to be the unique opportunity in that person's life to lead them to Jesus.

So, awesome! (Here with my the new trainee from WIM... she's doing great!! Looking forward to seeing what God's going to do with her in the next few months!)

Kimono Day!

2011-02-07T05:38:00.000-06:00

Wow, what times. How it flies! (We did kimono day at school! Wow, those things are tight around you and take time to put on! But they are so pretty!)

Even though I had two days off school last week, it's Monday and I feel as if I need a day off. :) So, this last week has involved everything from signing papers and paying for my new apartment, welcoming in 2 new girls from America and helping them get settled in and see the area, preparing for a message, practicing bass and doing an extra large lifegroup last night!

So, usually we don't do this but, last night my lifegroup was 11 girls. I know. We like to keep it to about 6 maximum, but I have about 3 or 4 regulars and then another 4 or so girls who come once or twice a month. Well, last night, one of my girls invited 3 friends, and then the 2 American girls and another English speaker and a straggler came as well.

But, it actually came out to be a good idea. At one table, we ended up splitting into 2 groups-- English speakers and Japanese speakers... and of course, I led the English group and then Saki led the Japanese group. It was a good opportunity for training, since she will lead the group while I am in America next month. It turned out really well!

Apart from that, things seem to be going pretty well! I'm busy getting things set up for the move in 3 weeks weeks (wow!) and set up in America for my visit home to do some visiting and support raising and then also just in general, I feel like God is blessing many areas.

Well, I have homework and stuff to get to before another long day of tomorrow!

Catch ya'll later!!

And.... POST!

2011-01-26T04:30:00.000-06:00

Dear wonderful friends, please forgive me for my lack of posting lately. There is a lot going on in my little world here on this island of Japan. Let me give you the a la carte version:

-It is ridiculously exciting to watch Manami as she is learning about Jesus. She is SO excited about know Him more, growing and participating in worship! Though she participates in the band, she also worships while in the crowd. When she first came to FUSE, and even in December, she still just kinda stood there during worship time... but now, she is singing and I saw herself really expressing herself during the songs with her hands. It was really cool... People are all around noticing she is just a changed girl!

-We had an awesome lifegroup this last Sunday. We have been talking about faith lately, and so I decided that we were going to journal Hebrews 11 and then share together what we got out of it. So, as we we're sitting there in the restaurant, it was too long to do then, so we divided it up randomly. We all got so much out of it, and so much of what each of us needed to hear. We learned from God, and then also from each other. It was a great evening.

-I went to Fuji-san today! Mt. Fuji, the highest spot in Japan (we didn't climb it-- you can only climb it 2 months of the year), is one of the symbols of Japan. It was a really chilly day, but we had a good time. It was a school trip.

-I sat down last night to do what I always have to do this time of the year: figured out numbers for last year. There was some concern from WIM about my not getting what I budgetted that I needed. And after many, many hours of figuring out things and going over papers and deposits... You know... I don't know how I made it last year. But thank God I did. He is always faithful. Please do pray for me though for this coming year. And please pray as I am getting ready to doing some support raising States-side in March. I am praying for many opportunities to share the vision, and people to be on-board and supporting the vision to reach Japan with the Gospel.

-One last thing: I'm moving! CRAZY. I know. But, it's something we've been talking about for a while, and I found a great deal on a really nice apartment (and people when they hear here are like: really? that's so cheap!)... and all the furnishings (from fridge to curtains) given to me. It's kinda crazy how it's all working out. I admit, it's all a little intimidating for me. But I feel like God has opened doors that don't get opened like this. But I am going to trust God in this.

Well, it's going to be a really busy next few months, but please stay tuned~ I'll still be here. :)

New Lessons for a New Year

2011-01-18T06:36:00.000-06:00

Well, soooo much has been going on in the last few weeks... As I look at this coming year though, I think it will get even crazier. Also, with returning to school and a regular schedule with FUSE things and work, it's been a bit of working at getting back into the groove. (Kaori and Maki, after the first FUSE of 2011... this last FUSE, they invited me out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant! It was fun to spend time with them!!)

For one thing, I am looking at now moving in this next month. There are many different factors that I am trying to balance all at the same time and make a decision that will be where I live for the next two years. So, it's kinda big. :)

But one really encouraging thing has been to watch Manami this week as recently she is posting so many things-- like Bible verses, and how she wants to praise Jesus more and read the Bible more and grow more. How exciting is that?!?! For real. How privileged I feel to be a part of the work God is doing in her life!! She played bass this week for FUSE on the band, and she did an awesome job. (At dinner the other night (mentioned in the caption above... this is okonomiyaki, and it's on a grill at our table, with noodles and all kinds of stuff in there... a bunch of deliciousness... Yoshi and Ty also came along for the ride... by the way, this is all cut into pieces and shared between us).

Oh, it just reminded me hearing this.... I am hearing the "clanking" of 2 pieces of wood together (kinda a higher pitch). Here in Japan, a tradition started a long time ago, every night in winter they walk around banging this pieces of wood together. The sound helps remind you to check your fires (of course, I don't have any)-- but rather to be careful of fire. Winter time here is pretty dry, and many times in the past Tokyo has had great fires. So, it's a warning to be careful. Kinda like Smokey the Bear, but with a more eastern/mystical feel.

But yes, it DOES get cold. When I checked the temp the other morning, at 7am, it was 25°F and I had not used heat the night before (I sleep under a million blankets and don't feel it- but yes, getting up- it's painful, ha!). Since I sleep by the window (which comes down to face level, since I sleep like 10 inches off the floor), and thus keep my alarm (ipod) by the window sill by my face, I awoke to a start the other morning... My ipod got so cold it turned off and the battery died.

Moral of the story: if not for yourself- for your electronics, use a bit of heat at night. :)

Oops! Wrong Blog

2011-01-11T06:09:00.000-06:00

So, I was writing the FUSE blog (because that's something I do every week), and I didn't realize that I was signed into my own blog, since I opened the FUSE page... Anyway, the post below was meant to show up on another page and not this one... Well, you can read what I was going to write for that, and then check out the FUSE blog if you want... :)

FUSE Jesus Community's Blog <-- Click there

Ha, I still find that amusing. Well, I'm going to head on over there and post!

Happy New Year FJC***

2011-01-11T06:04:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year!! Welcome to the first blog of 2011!! We are super excited about this year at FUSE Jesus Community, and are looking forward to amazing things happening all throughout this year!! Be there, so you don't miss out!!
On this first FUSE Jesus Community of 2011, we had a great time with the FUSE band, hearing awesome music about Jesus. Also, the last message of 2010 suggested, we looked back at the story of FJC until now. What a journey it's been! And in many ways, so unexpected! However, we are looking forward and pushing on to a future with BIG vision! Check out the awesome story and learn to be sure to build a great 2011 on vimeo!

This next Sunday, voting will begin for the design for the FUSE tshirt contest!! The designer of the winning shirt will get a free one.... which means, if you design one, YOU could have a free tshirt. I know you want that, right?!? So, send that design in to thefuse09@gmail.com , and then be there to vote! Voting will happen for 2 weeks, and then we'll announce the winning design!

Be there on Sunday!! We meet every week at the new CLOUD 9 Studio in Machida! Every Sunday at 3pm! Come join a great Community and meet lots of new friends at this International Church!! We look forward to meeting you!!　

毎週日曜午後3時から町田クラウド９スタジオにてフューズ・ジーザス・コミュニティはみんなを待っているよ！最高の人生を、最高の仲間と一緒に築いていこう！みんなに会えるのを楽しみにしているよ！！

For real kickin' off a New Year!!

2011-01-09T05:21:00.000-06:00

My computer is alive again!! A huge thanks to Ty, who spent a good while trying to fix it, and then eventually uninstalling and reinstalling windows and putting my file back on it! I am super happy to be able to communicate once again with my family, to listen to music when at home, and to be back on my blog.

Score!

Super happy. Oh, by the way, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! The picture to the left at midnight on 2011... we were freezing on the rooftop...! It's going to be a great 2011!

And I'll tell you why. Today was our first FJC service of 2011... Two weeks ago was our last FUSE (New Years is a big family here, so most people went to their hometowns or spent the weekend with their families, so we had a week break)... and I had the opportunity to share. I talked about Building a New Year-- building your life on the Word of God, and evaluating the year before so that you can set goals and build up the next year. The video is on vimeo.com.... http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fvimeo.com%2F18264206&h=ef393

Anyway, so this FUSE, we talked about the story of FUSE up til this point and where we're heading, etc. It was really cool. Of my life group, one had a school commitment and couldn't make it and another was sick. So, that left me and Manami for lifegroup (Manami is on my right hand side in the above pic, giving the peace sign). Even so, I was really happy to meet with her, and we did a evangelistic Bible study on Zaccheus... I told her that she could meet Jesus now. She was excited and said that she wanted to meet Jesus... So, I explained the Gospel to her and she understood-- and she prayed on her own to meet Jesus... Praise God!! I'm believing for many, many more salvations this year... it's only the beginning, and we're already starting a party in heaven!!

Christmas and Crashing

2010-12-25T07:52:00.000-06:00

Well, same as the last time... not much time to post this evening... but I thought I would because I don't know the next time that I'll get the chance to post... because...

My computer crashed. Yup. On Christmas morning as I was turning my computer on to talk to my family.

But, bless my roommate-- she let me use her computer to talk to my family as I was panickly trying to find out a way to fix my computer. As I was chatting with my fam, I sent a rather pathetic post to Ty, our short-termer-maybe-longer-termer who knows a lot about computers...

"Ty... my computer is crashing! ... :X"

And I got back... "Bring it over this afternoon..."

It's still there.

Anyway... so, it's been busy with Christmas festivities, last days of school... 125 vocabulary words in one lesson at school... and preparing for the message tomorrow at FUSE...

...which is why I don't have much time tonight to post. So, off I go to finish preparing and get to bed. Merry Christmas to everyone and safe surfing!!

And Still... Many Have Yet to Hear....

2010-12-14T08:12:00.000-06:00

Ha! Not much time to post tonight... lately, it's been late nights and lots of FUSE stuff and studying, as we are getting farther and farther ahead in Japanese class... and as one of my classmates said and I completely agree: the more I study Japanese, the more confusing I think it is.

Um, so this Sunday we had 4 new people, which is always awesome! Two were younger Christians, visiting from a church in Yokohama. Two weren't. One of them, Katsuya, was met by the group on Friday at street outreach. I didn't go that night because I have had a lingering cold and ridiculous throat for the last week and didn't think standing out in cold air was going to be helpful to that cause. (Katsuya is the guy on the right)

Anyway, he came on Sunday. He's a University Student, which really surprised me, because I thought he was way older than that (for once- I always think they are younger). We all enjoyed meeting him, and he went on to lifegroup in the evening-- which is awesome! The guys said he was really open and clearly communicated when he didn't understand something.

But he told Mark about FUSE-- You know, I'm not a Christian or anything, but seeing people like you make me want to believe.

Isn't that awesome! We're praying for him and so many others that God is speaking to during FUSE and when we meet them in other places or lifegroups. Please pray for them too!

One last word: tomorrow, Mike leaves to go back to the States. SAD times! He's been here for 6 months, and has been a great guy, super dependable and our consistent and excellent bass player. Solid guy. Anyway, he's going back to get himself married... this coming weekend! I know, crazy, right! But, though we will really miss him, we're excited for his future. (Mike is the guy in red, leading us in a game he's famous for...)

Please pray for more workers for the Japanese harvest field!!!!

And a Cool Story...

2010-12-06T07:04:00.001-06:00

Last week. Wow.

So much happened. I took off 2 days of school to do a lot of work that mostly involved thank you cards for all those supporting me financially. Of course, I'm incredibly grateful for all the prayers and encouragement that people send me too. Anyway, that took quite a bit of time. So, even though technically those were days off school, they weren't days off. (Kaori and I, last Sunday! I love Kaori-chan!!)

But last week, I did manage to get in a few "girl time" hours with Yuiko. It was so good to hang out, joke, tell stories and shop together. I really, really enjoyed myself.

Saturday, I did get a day off!!!! Imagine that!!! (there is a reason for all those exclamation points!) I did do a little bass practice, since I'll be joining the worship team once or twice a month after Mike leaves next week. But apart from that, I went to Shimokitazawa, just to walk around and check it out. It's a super cool little area, lots and all kinds of shops, narrow streets, etc. I loved it, and it reminded me of my visit last year when I did so much exploring by myself. (Manami and I~ still praying for her to meet Jesus!! I believe it's going to be soon...)

For a cool story though, Sunday, after we had finished setting up for FUSE, I felt like I needed to reply to a couple of messages from some girls, one in particular, a girl named Airi. She came for the first time about a month ago and joined my lifegroup that night and we hadn't seen her since. She had been part of another church, the Noborito Church, but has been gone for a long time. Mark and Yuiko know her. Anyway, she came on Sunday, and I was excited to see her! She also joined Lifegroup with Lizzie and Saki and I... which was again a bilingual lifegroup, and I got plenty of Japanese practice!

After Lifegroup, she told me that she got up that morning and was thinking, hmm, should I go to FUSE today? She was going back and forth on it, and was kinda unsure about going. But then she received my message and decided, "ok, I'm going to FUSE today." How cool is that? God prompted me to send a message, and it brought her to FUSE!!!! Anyway, we talked about Zaccheus and about the way to not be lost or feel lost is to meet Jesus everyday, and that if we search for Him, He promises that we will find Him. It was a superb evening!~~ Praying that she'll be finding Him everyday and that she becomes a very strong Christian, discipling others!

Well, 'tis all for the moment. Are you excited for Christmas? I am! I don't even know what I'm doing on Christmas Day, but I'm excited!

Weird, New and Goodgood Things

2010-11-27T01:30:00.001-06:00

Well, it's been quite an interesting week. Last week was really stressful and I had a big test-- a Japanese proficiency test-- the N3, which is in the middle. There are 5, 1 the highest, 5 the lowest. It was a 2 hour test involving new words/kanji, grammar, reading comprehension and listening comprehension.

I was really nervous about it, beside the fact that I was really busy with everything else, and had everything from a fever to the sole of my foot swelling up and getting really sore, a trip to the doctor... so, I'll leave last week at that. It wasn't my funnest.

But this week, there were lots of weird/new/good! happenings:

Creeeeeeepy: On Tuesday night, I had gone to meet a friend at Shimo-kitazawa, which probably means nothing to you. I returned, messaging the team and waiting for them at the meeting place. So, as I'm waiting, I'm standing there and this guy who is like 50ish, with bleach blonde hair and early 90s style sunglasses and a white leather jacket comes up to me. He was from Turkey. Anyway, he was trying to pick me up, and I was definitely like... no. Anyway, he kept talking, and tried to pinch my cheeks and touch my face and say you're beautiful, and I was like, Don't. Touch. We don't touch people a whole lot in Japan (they just don't do it), and so a 50yr creepy guy trying to touch my face was like, even worse. Anyhow, the team finally arrived and I was NEVER so happy to see them in my life.

By the way, I decided I was entirely too nice in this situation.

New: We had a group of breakdancers here! They're from California, and did a break-dance workshop and did our street band outreaches, attracting a lot of people! It was super cool, and one of them speaks Spanish which really, really confused my brain. But in a good way. ;)

Good: And these are the things I'm thankful for (since it's Thanksgiving and all)

-My brother, niece and 2 others were in a terrible, terrible accident. (wait for the good part) It's one of those that people don't walk away from [i.e. rolling the car 4 times and then landing upside down, off the side of the highway]... but the worst that happened was that with the 2, the older had a concussion and 2 black eyes, and the youngest had a bump on her head. That's it. PRAISE GOD Who had His hand on them, because He is the only One who could have let them live through it.

-I got to talk with all my family via Skype on your Thanksgiving Day, my Friday. It was lovely to talk to all them.

-And to finish, I got the results of my Japanese test. I was had been wondering about the results all week, because on 2 parts, I felt confident, on 1, I wasn't sure. You need a 60% to pass, right. On my last test, I got like a 82%, maybe? It was like 2 levels down. Anyway, my heart was beating beating beating as the teacher came by, passing out the strips of paper with the results from each section and the overall result. I got a... dundundun: 89.5% .... !!!!!!!!!!! Score! Praise God! I was so excited!

AHHHHHHHHH~ Good Things!

2010-11-14T21:19:00.000-06:00

Dundundun!! Good news everyone!

Last week, Mark met up with a guy who has been going to FUSE since September. We really felt that he was open to Jesus, and were excited to see what was going to happen. He seems to be a really popular guy, have lots of friends, and is amazing at talking to strangers, whether he's going us on street band or in FUSE. Anyway, Mark caught up with him, and explained the Gospel simply, and Tomo decided he wanted to follow Jesus!

Praise God! It's excited to see somebody take that step of belief! He apparently, a while ago, wrote a blog on one of the social networking profiles here in Japan. Yuiko read it and told us about it. He had written about how excited he was about FUSE and getting to know this Jesus. He knew that it wasn't just a religion, but really a relationship. He also was grateful for feeling a part of the community of FUSE Jesus Community. I don't remember how many, but Yuiko mentioned that he had an impressive amount of friends on there, and he wasn't afraid to post this blog even though he hadn't yet decided to follow Jesus at that point.

Also, we have a new girl (well, lots, but one in particular) coming to FUSE who joined my lifegroup last night. She does understand a lot of English, but at the same time, she can have a hard time speaking it, so mostly I spoke in Japanese. Anyway, we talked about Jesus and did a Bible study worksheet on who Jesus is. It's really simple and good. She was really into the Bible study, it seemed. Afterward, I let her keep the New Testament that I gave her to use during the study. It's bilingual. She had this look on her face of, really?? :D Lizzie and I had talked about what we learned in our journalling time this week, and I said, if you'd like to do that, please do, because I always feel great after doing it!

I told her some books to start in~ either Mark or John~ and she looked them up in the index, and looked up the page number and looked up with this huge look of joy on her face and was like, I'll do it!

I was really excited, because she seemed to understand what was going on... though there were a few things that she didn't understand (like temptation and sin). She also talked about how the words of the "Jesus Song" really touched her heart, and made this gesture of how it seemed to cut through into her heart. So, I think she will be meeting Jesus soon too!

Things are on the move here!

A Night Off

2010-11-10T05:03:00.000-06:00

Tonight is a special night off for me. Well, not special, I suppose. I usually do lifegroup on Wednesday nights with Yuiko and Naomi. But Yuiko wasn't feeling good, and I was feeling pretty terrible as I had a cough, a cold, and I think a stress rash coming up. (FUSE last Sunday)

School was a little bit like torture today, as I sat with my coat all buttoned up, super tired and wanting just to lay down, but sitting through class. I barely made it through and came home to sleep pretty solidly for 2 hours. I had been trying to decide, should I take off school tomorrow or go? And I kept going back and forth because we have a big test next week that I need to study for- particularly at school-, but this weekend is also full with a promise to take the group visiting to Kamakura or some place like that, and then a FUSE party for getting to know the team (and really, for us to form more relationships with people from FUSE and people new to FUSE), and FUSE on Sunday. I eventually stuck with going to school tomorrow...

Anyway, after some messages talking about lifegroups, Yuiko and I decided we had better spend tonight recovering. And so, I am trying to take it easy, do a little studying and then head back to bed.

If you think about it, please be praying for the dollar to go up. When I first got to Japan, it was about 91 yen to the dollar. Today, it's 81. That's a pretty significant drop, when you notice that it's about a 10% drop. So, I think if you do the math, it's like a $100 difference for every $1000. So, even though the same amounts are being given, effectively it's a drop for me when I withdraw it in yen- I have to live off less money.

Well, I don't want to talk about money, and that's not a beg for money. But, if you would pray for the dollar to increase, I would really appreciate it.

Last Sunday, we had 32 people, and 13 new people (including the team of 4 who are here from America). We were missing a few regulars, but, amazing! 9 non-American new people! A lot of them joined lifegroups afterward. My lifegroup was 7 people, 5 of whom had never been to lifegroup before. And what's more-- they spoke mostly (only) Japanese. So, we talked about the message, and it was a good introduction to what lifegroup is like, sharing life and talking about Jesus and the Bible. Saki was a great help in that, translating for me when I did need it. But as of yet, we need more Japanese leaders who are ready to lead lifegroups! So, please be praying for us! This week went well, and we want to see more growth, but we need more "ready leaders"!

I was pleased with it, and for Sunday night and Monday, the girls attending my lifegroup were all about leaving comments about how awesome FUSE was, and they had a great time and want to come back and get more involved! So, praise God! People are taking steps (among the guys too, great stories) to know God more, and we are excited!

Well, I should probably study now, but I thought I'd share this good news with you!

A Note on Fashion

2010-11-08T08:54:00.005-06:00

So... Last Saturday, I was told, "You look like a poor girl."

What?!?! Of course, this was coming from someone who was wearing at that moment a $600 coat. I was also told at the moment with a slightly contemptuous look, "Take that scarf off, you look old."

Have you seen The Devil Wears Prada? There's a moment after Andy gets her job that Meryl Streep looks her from head to toe and then says, "That's all..." If you have seen it, you will know how Andy felt in that moment, and how I also felt in that moment as I was standing on the train platform.

Granted, this wasn't a stranger that said that to me, but a person who dearly loves me as a sister and I dearly love as a brother (and there is nothing more to be read into that sentence).

But, oh my gosh. The comment about my scarf was indeed reiterated the next day by another girl, as we were joking about me looking poor.

Fashion is super important to Japanese people. I know I've said it before, but it was in that moment that I really experienced it. It's superficial, but the Japanese are used to quality. That and I've heard Japanese people say about certain styles of dress-- that person dresses like people in the cults. Thankfully, my fashion is not at that level.

Now, I haven't gone out and bought a new wardrobe, but I am thinking more and more about what I put on each day.

And it certainly won't be that scarf.

A Note on Giving

2010-11-07T06:09:00.002-06:00

Dear friends, the following communication I received from the WIM office about credit card donations, which I know some of you do. I thought you might be interested to hear about this. So, without further ado~
____________________

As many of you know there are new rules and guidelines set by congress for credit card companies to follow. This has caused an increase in the fees the credit card companies charge their customers. Therefore, effective October 1, 2010 the following changes will be made in the WIM office.

1. For donations from MasterCard or Visa the donation will be assessed a 3.1% fee plus $0.18 transaction fee. The current rate is 2.24% plus $0.18 transaction fee. For example, a $100 donation will come to you as $87.05

$100.00
- 3.10 (3.1% Credit Card fee)
96.90
- 0.18 (Transaction fee)
96.72
- 9.67 (10%)
$87.05

2. For donations from Discover Card the donation will be assessed a 2.34% fee plus $0.18 transaction fee. The current rate is 2.24% plus $0.18 transaction fee. For example, a $100 donation will come to you as $87.73

$100.00
- 2.34 (2.34% Credit Card fee)
97.66
- 0.18 (Transaction fee)
97.48
- 9.75 (10%)
$87.73

The most cost effective way to have your donors give electronically is through their bank. The donor needs to set up monthly bill pay from their bank to WIM. There is no cost to the donor and no additional cost to you. Sometimes simple communication with your donors will help them understand why this is a more effective way to give.
_____

If you have any questions about your donations or would like to learn about another way to donate, please contact me and we can figure it out! Thank you!

Birthday Blessedness!

2010-10-25T08:47:00.006-05:00

So, for my birthday, I figured I'd just list what happened, because it would be a very long blog if I wrote it all out! So here are your bites of cake!

-Saturday (23rd)- I hung out with Kengo, Mike and Ty, and Kengo bought all kinds of great snacks and we hung out together, the guys sang me Happy Birthday and we played dutch blitz! Kengo informed me, "I bought good ice cream."

The Big Day!

-Phone call on my cell from Mexico!

-Breakfast right out of bed made by my roommate, including special bread, fresh pineapple, Starbucks coffee, brownies and ice cream. The right way to start off the day.

-Happy Birthday played on my roommate's instrument that I have no idea how it's called and I'd never seen one before. It looked like it stepped out of Mongolia.

-A knock on the door and a serenade from two of my lifegroup girls-- putting my name to the Mexican hat dance tune. And my own bling bling birthday princess crown, a rose, a necklace, McDonald's coffee and pancakes.

-Talked to my family for a bit, and they sang Happy Birthday to me too!

-Happy Birthday sung to me and presents given by Yuiko, Naomi, Kaori and Maki... of which included an invitation to dinner this week!

-Happy Birthday played and sung to me by the FUSE band and all of FUSE! Can you say blush?!?

-A song written for me by Lizzie, Cynthea and Mika... to the tune of Sk8er Boi.

-Kengo didn't tease me once!! In fact, whenever he talked to me, he brightened up and said hey Birthday Girl!

-TGI Fridays for Lifegroup (the 2nd time ever in my life that I've eaten there)... I had an appetizer, and then a free giant sundae shared between 3 of us that were there! (Oh, another round of happy birthdays by complete strangers)... We talked about what God has been speaking to us in our journalling times! It was awesome!

-Encouraging notes and meaningful messages from around the world from many, many people! Wow~ by the way.

-A Haiku written for me.

Seriously, it's been one of the most happiest birthdays I've ever had... The only way to have made it any better would be able to see all my friends and family that don't live in Japan... but considering, I consider myself pretty blessed.

Ah, since we're doing a series on relationships, the topic for my birthday was: Finding Mr./Ms. Right... A sign of the year to come?!? ;) haha!

We'll see...

And Still... the Best is Yet to Come

2010-10-25T06:53:00.008-05:00

SOOO much has been happening lately in Japan. So busy and so crazy and so good. Recently, two people from FUSE got baptized!! It was so exciting!! One was a guy and the other a girl. And actually, the girl, Saki, is in my lifegroup, and she was the first girl in FUSE to be baptized. And I got to baptize her!

I've not often said this, but it was one of the most perfect days. I started by accompanying the team that was visiting to Enoshima, by the beach, where the baptisms were going to take place. We walked around, climbed up... well, it was a hill, but the amount of steps-- it felt like a mountain... and then everyone showed up in the afternoon to celebrate the baptisms.

It was a sunny, BEAUTIFUL day at the beach. There was a large number of us in attendance, and we sang in Japanese and English together, listened to the testimonies of these two, and talked about the meaning of baptism as well. Then, off into the water we went, and it seemed like joy just fell over everyone! There were shouts of joy, clapping and high fives as the two came out of the water, and lots and lots of hugs on the beach. Then, after splashing and falling around in the ocean, we came back up and everyone gathered around to pray for them.

We spent quite a bit of time fellowship around the water's edge (and some of us back in the water), and then packed up to head back just as the sun was setting over the ocean. On the way home, I had a great conversation with a new girl, and she is joining my lifegroup (discipleship group) now! Afterward, we celebrated lots of birthdays for October, though mainly focusing on 3 different guys' birthdays. We ate, talked more and more, and finally, around 12:30am, I made it back home, thinking as I walked home-- I don't know how I could have made this day any better.

Why

2010-10-04T05:11:00.004-05:00

Did you know that in Japan every year, 30,000 people commit suicide? That's approximately 82 people every day. Did you know that in Japan, you are 50 times more likely to kill yourself than to kill another person?

In fact, on the trains, there are notices everywhere to be careful to hold on in case of an emergency stop to prevent an "accident".

Depression is a major issue in Japan. With so much pressure to work as hard as possible and to do as much as you can, to the sacrifice of other values and priorities in your life, it's no wonder that people suffer from depression. With broken relationships and loneliness reigning in this crowded country, it's no wonder that hopelessness is prevalent.

Recently, there was a young man here in Japan, about 25 or 26, who was really living the life. He was popular-- had loads of friends. He was talented- an incredible musician. He always had a smile on his face. But, he took his life. And in his final words that he left for this world, he wrote about not being the kind of person he wanted to be and starting to regret who he was becoming. He felt like a burden to other people. He wanted to change, but he didn't know how. He wrote about hopelessness, about not liking himself.

And this is not an uncommon story. It was unexpected, because on the outside, you really couldn't tell how he was feeling. But, this story could easily be told be any number of people. And on this guy's page, people wrote about respecting the way he took his life, because he couldn't find any other way to live it.

These stories, along with the various other stories I hear from other people I meet, reminds me of why I'm here. There doesn't need to be this hopelessness in Japan, when we have the Hope of the world! There doesn't need to be this disliking of self, when they are dearly loved by God, and made in His image. There doesn't need to be this brokenness.

This is why I'm here. For an amazing, yet hurt and lost nation that needs to know about the love of God. Jesus is the hope of Japan! They need to hear, and for so long, they haven't heard.

The State of Things

2010-10-04T04:38:00.004-05:00

It's amazing that in the year 2010, with Japan as an open country to the Gospel, it remains as the second largest unreached people group in the world. In fact, looking at world missions, Japan, though in the 10/40 window, isn't even on most people's radar for sending the Good News of Jesus.

The Japanese say the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. Others say, the Japanese are not open to the Gospel. One Christian pastor in Japan recently found a book in a Christian book store about how a move of God is not possible in Japan and the reasons why.

It makes me angry that someone would take the time to write that about the Japanese people when they could be using that time to do something about it! Beside, that person obviously is not doing their research-- right now, the church in Japan is growing faster than it has in the history of Japan. NOW is the time for Japan!

True, we're still small. But, Japan is a great country and the Japanese are open to the Gospel! And while it may take a very long time to see someone make a decision for Christ, the Japanese make excellent and faithful disciples, many times despite persecution and pressure from their family.

It's time to start reaching the new generation of Japan! Right now, of that 0.4% of people who have heard and believed the message of Christ, 80% of those attending a church are over the age of 60. That means that in the next 10-20 years, the church is going to die away if something isn't done about it.

That's why it's so important to be reaching out to this younger generation that is looking for something real! The Japanese are open to the Gospel, it just takes time and patience to see the fruit of it. But, God is starting to do something in Japan. You can see it in FUSE-- God stirring hearts of young people... You can see it in Jesus Lifehouse, the fastest growing church in Japan with over 1000 members in its 8 year history... you can see it in conversations with new friends being made-- who is this Jesus? What is it that you believe? Why are you so nice?

They just need the opportunity to hear. How will they believe unless someone tells them? Now is the time for Japan. Now is the time to share with a searching generation. Now is the time for the church to become established and outward-looking in and all over Japan!

Now is Japan's time.

2010-10-04T04:14:00.005-05:00

I would say I'm back on track now [with blogging], but-- well, every time I say that, something comes us and goes crazy, and I get even more off schedule. So, I'm not saying that.

Anyhow, this last weekend was the FUSE retreat, and it was a great time with all FUSE members (well, most of the core ones anyway). It was only Friday and Saturday, but beside wishing it were longer, no one had any complaints. We had a good mixture of team time (journalling together from the same passage and then coming back to share it, prayer time, sharing, etc.) and free time. Friday, after we got there, we explored the beach, and it was so beautiful! (pictured: Maki and I on the beach!)

Over the weekend, I got to know Maki better. She doesn't speak much English, and for Friday, she was the only Japanese-only speaking person in the car on the way there. So, I made use of my Japanese, and also hung out with her most of all Friday and then chatted together in our bunk beds at night. It was a lot of fun getting to know her-- she's really quiet, but she'll talk. Afterward, someone said to her, oh, you were the only Japanese person in the car... And she answered, Oh, that's ok, Janine kept me company and we got to talk alot. (Pictured: team game time)

Anyway, I was very happy to get to know her more!

Sunday night, after FUSE, I met up with a girl that I met at street band a few weeks ago. We got connected via Facebook, and we have a lot of common interests. So, we got together, and talked a lot-- I had the opportunity to share a little about FUSE, and about studying the Bible, etc. I think we will get connected more, and I hope that she can get connected into the FUSE, though her work schedule says otherwise... God can do anything!

So: my good news: Saki, in my life group, is getting baptized!! She's been saved for almost a year now, and is now wanting to take the step to get baptized! We are excited for her. So, in a couple of weeks, I should be climbing into a chilly ocean! It will be a great day for her. Good thing I heard jelly fish season is over...

Balance

2010-09-30T20:06:00.002-05:00

So, my mom's visit went well! It was really nice to have her around, and meeting all the people I know, seeing places I go, how things are done, etc. It went really, really fast though. The trip that I had been so looking forward to was over and I was seeing her off at the bus stop before I knew it.

My thoughts the last few days have been on balance. Balance in everything from diet, since I've been lacking in protein and I'm starting to see some consequences of that. I'm not the hugest fan of tofu, but I've decided that that's just too bad. I'm getting over it.

Also, I've been looking for balance in the two priorities I have-- language learning and ministry. Of course, I'm here for ministry, but language learning is part of that, and really crucial to long term successfulness here. The longer I'm here, the more I see the truth of that. But, when you have two full time priorities, it's challenging to find balance between the two.

And another thing I've been looking at is the ugly word- finances. So far, since I've been in Japan, I don't know it's worked, but God has provided. When I arrived, I wasn't able to go to Japanese school, but God worked it out. This morning, looking at numbers, I said- God, You put me here for a reason. I trust You to keep me here (I'm getting better at this each month), but I don't understand how this is going to work...

I heard back, Janine, you don't have to understand it logically...

I remembered all the times and ways God has provided when I had no means of providing for myself. I've never been left hanging. But, boy, I'd like to look at it and say, ok, God, it makes sense.

Though I suppose it's a bit arrogant to demand explanations from God, huh?

Well, I need to leave in an hour for the FUSE Retreat we're having this weekend. I'm expecting God to do big things in the lives of many people. PS> I have exciting news coming up soon!

Behind Schedule

2010-09-20T08:24:00.008-05:00

Sorry about being a week late everyone! It's been a tad busy around here, and my schedule has been a bit off since I have a momma visitin' me. (me, thinking of blog ideas... Just kidding. Today's adventure in Kamakura, home to the largest Buddha statue in the world, I believe)

I feel like I've had a whole bunch of things to blog about, but at the moment my mind is blank. Let's do highlights tonight:

-Saki (right), a girl in my lifegroup, is getting baptized!!! (I wish there were more signs to interject into those exclamation points so you could hear my enthusiasm... but imagine wide eyes, a big smile and waving of the arms, and you might get close). I'm excited, she's excited, everyone's excited.

-My mom came (again, let loose your imagination). I love showing off my Japanese friends who are super awesome! So, we've done a lot from meeting people in street band, to having a party at my home for birthday girls, to walking our church area that's a major shopping area with my Japanese little brother to today-- walking a million hours seeing "traditional Japan" til we were both exhausted beyond expression. And there's more to come! (at the above-mentioned location)

-I finished 3rd level kanji!! Yay! That's a total of 284 now, and I took 5 tests in one day to finish before my mom came (no worries while she's here is my only reasoning for starting all those tests at 8am). Now, only 1716 left to go! (and that's not all of them!)

Well, for now that's all. I have school early in the a.m., and I've already got coffee in preparation for it. Here we go! (this week after FUSE, we all paused for a picture!)

Janinja

2010-09-06T01:04:00.005-05:00

Well, as some of you might have heard, last week, one of my teachers chose kanji for my name. Kanji have meaning and readings/pronunciations (yes, plural. Some kanji have multiple readings depending on how they're used/combined, etc.). I tried to talk Kengo into picking out kanji for my name a while ago, but he had a hard time finding some... as "Ja" kanji tend to have not so many good meanings. Anyway, Mori-sensei comes in last Thursday morning and goes,

Does anyone know what this means? 忍者

Ninja, some answered.

And flipped around? 者忍 Ja-nin. There ya go, Janine, kanji for your name. (Ok, not an exact translation from Japanese...)

者 is a kanji for someone/person and is usually pronounced sha, but can be ja. And 忍 means endure, bear, put up with and can also mean spy, sneak, etc. So, there ya go. I'm a person who puts up with a lot. :)

Sunday I had another opportunity to speak at FUSE. Mark asked me to speak once a month, and this time, since we're doing a series on leadership, he asked me to speak on humility/servant leadership. I was really surprised how the message came together as I gathered all my random notes I had been taking...

But, once again, while speaking, it was SO hard to read people. I wasn't sure if they were upset, angry, bored to death or what. I felt a bit like "ehh.." afterward, but I ended up getting a lot of good feedback that had provoked people to thought. Mark later said it went well too, and I was like really? I wasn't very sure. But he said he heard a lot of good feedback too from the people he talked to. All I know is that I was praying while I was giving the message, "Oh Lord, help me..."

Maybe that's my cry everyday...

Oh the Things...

2010-08-30T07:20:00.003-05:00

Do you think if I sing a song, autumn will come? I have never wanted winter this badly before; in fact, I've never ever wanted winter. But, right now, it's after 9pm, according to the web feels like it's 90 (inside my home too, windows are open!) and there's a humidity of... 79%. (Kaori-chan and I)

Yesterday's FUSE was pretty good. We had more preparation this week, because we hung sheets on the mirrors to cover them so we couldn't watch each other the whole time. I know it sounds like fun, but... Anyway, we are doing a series on leadership this month, and Mark kicked it off with- Everyone's a Leader. Everyone seemed to have a lot to think about and talk about afterward. Next week, I will be speaking on Servant Leadership. I've been putting together notes for the last week and tomorrow will finish everything up. Please pray for me!

At dinner after FUSE, I was able to talk a lot in Japanese with Kaori-chan especially, who I haven't seen since we went to Ochanomizu. She was super excited, which I thought was cute, and I was actually really impressed at the amount that I could talk to her in Japanese! I know it wasn't all correct, but I felt like I jumped over that dumb speedbump.

Yesterday, there was a discussion about my name. It's apparently a pretty difficult name, though once they figure it out, there's no problem. So, they were working on coming up with new nicknames (mostly these were guys having this talk), in the typical guy fashion. So, here is my name in Katakana: ジャニーン (Janine) They came up with:　ジャニコ (Janiko, since a lot of girls names here end in -ko, but I think there's another reason why they say this, and I'm not sure why...), ジャニンジャ (Janinja- or Ja-ninja), ジャニーさん (Jani-san, apparently a famous producer)... and drum roll please... ジャケルマイクソン (Jakeru-Maikuson)... say it fast, you'll get it... Michael Jackson, just a bit mixed up. That got a big laugh.

They nixed my US-reigning J9 nickname, and eventually some decided to endow me with a producing legacy. I'm not quite sure why the last "n" sound in Jani- makes a difference, but, hey, as the only country where my name is always pronounced correctly is in France, I'm not too picky.

Shortened

2010-08-27T10:12:00.002-05:00

So, this is my new attempt to shorten things up. I've been realising lately that my blogs always look longer than I think they are when writing them... And I assume that like me, you probably don't read long things either!

This week has been interesting in school especially... everything from a classmate calling the teacher a vegetable instead of kind (see what happens when you leave out a syllable!) to classmates doing push-ups (out of fun!) when messing up on verbs, and finishing the next level of kanji (this level has 181 kanji). Next week I study them and then the week after, test over them.

One of the highlights this week was spending an evening with Mark and Yuiko (and their 2yr old daughter) and Tatsu. Tatsu came up with an idea to make a video about FUSE, and so he's interviewed on camera a few different missionaries who came, those who are here, and a few of the Japanese Christians as well. It talks about what's done in FUSE, why it's important, why it's needed in Japan, and of course, please come to Japan!! That's the purpose.

So, Yuiko made us dinner, we ate and did our interviews. It was fun, though a bit intimidating. Afterward, we made Tatsu do one too, and hearing and seeing in his expressions why he came to FUSE, and what Jesus means to him, and why he wants to make this video so that more missionaries will come work in Japan was really cool!

Well, my friends, that's my story for today! Will be keeping things shorter in the future for your convenience, and hey, for mine too! :)

A Popping Weekend!

2010-08-23T02:47:00.012-05:00

I met Mark on Friday in Machida to see about getting my camera fixed. When we had all gone to the beach, I managed to get sand in my shutter, which is not condusive to making functionable a camera.

At the service desk, Mark explained to the customer service guy that the shutter was not working properly. He asked if I had dropped it, and I answered no. The camera itself answered for that: it was still in perfect condition. I prepared to surrender it for a week or less to have it fixed, and then return to receive it. I've heard how amazing customer service is here in Japan. (Mark preaches here and Yuiko, his wife, translates on Sunday, August 22!)

Well, I was very, very wrong. The guy walked out with a camera box, opened it, took out a brand new camera, stuck my battery in it, turned it on and handed it over to me.

That's right, folks. I got a brand new camera. It appears they will fix my camera and then resell it, because like I said, it still looked brand new with not a scratch on it.

Sunday, we had the FUSE service in the new location and with the new time (Sunday instead of Saturday)!! (Here, Kengo and our friend Akio joins us. Akio hasn't been able to come because of work for about six months, but with the change to Sundays, it looks like he be coming again! Praise God!)

Praise God we had very few problems. Things went incredibly smooth, and there was no rushing and trying to figure it out at this new place. Our biggest concern was the sound levels, and whether we would be disturbing the department store beneath us. But, praise God, there were no problems. And it seems like management liked us too!! We prayed for favor, and God showed it to us!!!

Anyway, I'm really excited, because with 3 of the 4 new people Sunday, I made a good connection with. One, I had talked to beforehand when we met at street band, and she teaches Japanese to some people and can also speak some English. The other two were friends she brought. Those two girls, Philipina/Japanese are sisters and speak English very well. With all three of them, I will be meeting this week/next week to follow up. So, I'm super stoked about that!!! (Here the girls at our table pose for a picture, Keiko, Yuiko, Maki, Naomi and I at cafe time!)

Five Months Today!

2010-08-17T06:47:00.013-05:00

It's been sweaty ones lately. Sheesh. Anyway, last weekend ended on an interesting note. Kengo and I had made plans to make some food for whoever from FUSE could come and hang out for an evening. Later, another girl, Kaori, got involved in helping make food, which was a lot of fun. (Here is Kaori, me and Kengo as we start the long process of making lasagna from scratch!)

But as it were, Kengo sent me a message last week for Thursday night-- are you free at 7? Yeah, I was. I knew it had something to do with dinner, I figured that we were going to go buy all the things. When he mentioned, let's meet at the church and "we think about what we buy", I realized, oh boy. He doesn't have a recipe.

He had told me we were going to make lasagna, and I was going to make a Mexican dessert. He had lasagna noodles, and I was really impressed that he was going to make lasagna.

Silly me, what was I thinking?

As it turned out, I looked for a recipe online, wrote it out, shopped and figured out how to make it work budget-ly (i.e. replacing half the meat with tofu still it came out expensive). (here Kaori and I work on the 3rd pan of lasagna layers)

But it was thoroughly enjoyable. Anyway, yeah, Kaori, Kengo and I got together to make food early Friday afternoon and then Yoshi, Joe and Tim joined us for dinner. Oh, and Tatsu too-- but he came late. Afterward, we played games and then went to an area by the river where we did fireworks. (my fireworks look lame next to Kaori-chan's)

It was fun, though by the end of the day, I was tired. That night, Kaori-chan stayed at my house, (Here Kengo snaps a shot of some of us at the table, Joe, me, Yoshi and Tim (L-R))

Yesterday, school began again, and yesterday evening, I met a girl from the Noborito church who speaks Japanese and English and guess what... Spanish. So, we talked for a while in Spanish, and Japanese words kept coming out of my mouth... and then when we switched to Japanese, turning the mental dial in my brain from one language to another just was like... it left my mind blank for a few minutes.

So a few things I haven't mentioned, or at least, I don't think I have.

First, my friends from school taught me a way to my train line from school via the "underground streets". For real, I walk a block up from school, cross the street and then walk below, and I can walk the whole 3 or 4 blocks it is to the station, maybe more, underground. There are exits to other train lines, stores, restaurants, and an entrance to a big department. It still astounds me that I can walk under streets, cars, sidewalks, etc. (Pictured here: Yoshi and I had a conversation about view and differences of what other countries look like-- and I really wanted to go to a park I could spot below...)

Now of course, I find that scary, but not scary enough to walk outside. But I do think about the possibility of earthquakes as I'm walking underground. Because they are common, I assume they know more about how to structure and building to avoid disaster. Please, no one debate with me on this issue.

OH- PS- Today's my 5 month anniversary in Japan!!

Summer Break!!! Fo' Real!

2010-08-11T08:48:00.011-05:00

Sunday we all took a trip to the beach! The beach was crowded, but it was a lot of fun! We played volleyball in the Pacific, threw and smeared wet sand all over one another, and dunked each other in the salty water. Of course, being FUSE, we made new friends and invited them to play in the ocean with us and to play our watermelon smashing game. At the end of the day, most people came home a little [lot] pinker, and exhausted, but we had a lot of fun. (here, that mountain trying to hide in the backgroud is Mt. Fuji... it was my first time to see Fuji-san!)

Tuesday evening... well... interesting. I went to Sagamiono at 5 to meet my roommate and another girl from FUSE for what I thought was going to be coffee. I saw my roommate, sat down to talk with her, and then the other girl picked us up in her car. There, we found out we were going to the beach to a restaurant, which neither of us were aware of. The place where we were going, was of course, an hour away. (props go out to Mike, who looks like a sure cheerleader in this picture)

Surprise was a good word for it. But anyhow, we made it to the spot, right on the coast, at sundown. There, at a Mexican restaurant (loosely categorized), we sat at a table next to wooden and rustic looking open windows overlooking the ocean, and where you could see the lights on the other side of the island that stuck out. It was very dimly lit, and overall a very cool experience. We had the opportunity to talk about relationships, things God was doing, our families, etc. (at the end of the day, our group was 7 [plus one not pictured] bigger than when we started!)

Well, if you think of it, please pray for the exchange rate. The dollar is now the lowest it's been in 15 years, which means that I'm not getting a good exchange at all. So, for me, it's as if the prices are going up, up, up. So, with everything, it makes it a little difficult, but just pray for me, if you think of it. As it were, I've been working pretty hard at pinching pennies (is it too cheesy to say "yen-nies"?... maybe.)

Will catch ya'll later!! (this is Yuiko and I, and how we felt after a long day at the beach!!)

What God has done in this last year!!!

2010-07-31T09:21:00.004-05:00

A Good Day

2010-07-31T06:42:00.008-05:00

This whole week, I've been preparing for speaking today at Fuse. I've felt this message coming on for a while, and I felt like I was supposed to speak on joy. One girl later told me that she did her devotion this morning, and it was on joy, and another girl's project in school right now is writing about happiness (which I made a lot of comparisons between joy and happiness), actually, I just got a text message from her a couple of minutes ago. (here giving the message with Yuiko translating for me... I used McDonald's "Happy Set" as an example)

Anyway, like I said, I think it went really well, and I did well on time too! We had plenty of time left over to talk in our supersmall groups, and two of the three new people this week seemed really to connect with some of the guys there. One of them, I think, speaks English.

This week, Kengo, my adopted little Japanese brother, did a type of language exchange thing with me this week also. At the end, he goes, so, do you have any problems?

It was so blunt, it made me laugh. I was like, living in Japan problems? (I knew what he meant). I was like, YES. So, Kengo took me to a cheap store to buy cockroach motels and mosquito plug in things to rescue me from the attack of mosquitoes. He was really nice to explain everything to me. It was fun, and so very helpful. But, what I most enjoyed was, So, do you have any problems?

OH and one other piece of information!! This week, FUSE received a large donation AND we found a new VENUE!! After dealing with a lot of inconviences of the current location, including a moldy atmosphere, we are going to be meeting in a great new location for a much cheaper price!!! How exciting!! More details to come later!

I will survive... the bugs.

2010-07-26T08:04:00.005-05:00

This morning, on the way to school, I Will Survive came on my ipod as I walked down semi-crowded sidewalks next to towering buildings. There isn't a more appropriate song for a Monday morning commute, I thought.

So, I'm not entirely sure the last day that I wrote. But first, a rabbit trail to get out of the way before I continue: In the world of random creatures, did you know they have ravens the size of chihuahuas here? For real, they are gigantic, and pick through trash and sit on posts, etc., and look at you, screech at you, daring you to do anything about it. I've never seen any so big... I thought you'd like to know.

As I always talk about the weather, just know that right now, everyone is sweaty at all times of the day. EXCEPT: at school. 4 hours of air-conditioning. Anyway, last week, it was supposedly in Shinjuku up to 38C, which is like 100... before humidity was added. It's been in the 90s though, with heat index at 100+. I heard from another student that four people in Tokyo died from the heat last week. Here it's really expensive to run the air conditioning, so not so many use it.

Friday night we were at street band in Shinyuri and up and running, talking to people... having a great time doing outreach as usual. About an hour into it, we see the police in the background talking to some people selling some stuff, and we decide to take a momentary "break"... alas, they came also to talk to us to let us know that they are cracking down on rules about selling things outside of the station and doing musical stuff. And there is no permission for doing it. They said if we do it again, we will be arrested... and that means problems with or loss of visas, etc. So, we were kicked out, and it being too late to go to another stop on the line and set up and do it again before others had to leave, we called it a night.

It was disappointing... we've met so many people at that spot, and out of the different locations we've used, it's the best.

Some girls from FUSE came over for a craft day, a few of them who were available anyhow, and we made scrunchies. Granted, I don't ever wear them really, but the Japanese girls like them. Kaori, who is super quiet and shy, is a craft-genius and she took did an excellent job teaching and really seemed to gain confidence. She seemed to be in her element!

There were only Japanese girls there on Sunday, so it was an opportunity for me to really practice Japanese. For the most part, I was quiet, because obviously, it wasn't all about me. But I tried to be paying attention to what all was going on around me "language-ly" and the girls tried to include me and talk to me as well. I didn't do the best job, but I tried. I generally prefer one-on-one conversation while learning and make far more attempts at conversation in that setting than in a group.

It was a good time together, and I did life group afterward with some girls, and am now deciding: it's bed time!

Sagamiono Street Band!

2010-07-21T07:40:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 Street Band that we had! One of the songs we sang-- sorry there's quite a bit of background noise!!

夏 has arrived!

2010-07-19T06:40:00.007-05:00

That's right, everyone. Summer has arrived, and it's HOT! :) Perputual stickiness is here. But, I am happy to see the sun, and to have blue blue skies. (left: Lizzie leads the band when suddenly called to at the spur of the moment... good job!)

Unfortunately coinciding with the arrival of natsu (summer), has been the arrival of bugs. I don't know what that's about, but I've been vacuuming up ants for a few days now, and I've seen the giant cockroach, twice. The first time I just stood there for a full minute afterward with a horrified look on my face as it ran into the corner of the window and then out of the house.

The second time I gave out a little yelp and then was like.... why do you exist?!?

And, I've heard that the flying rumors are true.

Last Friday I had a bit of a rough start to my day, which kinda was the story of the day and I don't want to waste your time here by complaining. But let's say that since I felt compelled to talk about joy when comes my time to speak in two weeks, my joy has been a bit challenged.

Finances have also been a bit challenged, which is one of the reasons why my early Friday morning got such a rude awakening. Anyway, I keep telling myself that God is aware of this, and that afterall, He sent me here, and He will provide.

Saturday was a good day. I had Stephanie spend the night at my house after Street Band on Friday night. Oh- and by the way, I ran into a girl as we were leaving street band on Friday that I had met about a month or so ago and made a good connection with. She had been on my mind recently, and she ran up to me and was like, oh my gosh! Do you remember me?!? I was so surprised!! So, I really feel God is connecting us again and that He wants to do something, so I'm planning on staying more in contact that we've already been.

Back to Saturday. Stephanie, who grew up in Japan, is helping us until August. We had a good prayer time on Saturday morning, preparing for the FUSE, and then we headed out. Once again, Yuiko suffered from sickness, so, please keep her in your prayers. She actually had to leave the stage after the first song. I saw her starting to gag during the song, so I ran back to get some water from the bar, but then she was trying to communicate with another girl who does singing or with one of the band members, but they weren't getting it... so she just left the stage at the start of the next song.

But, we have a great team. Stephanie, though she's never sung for FUSE before, jumped up on stage and took over. Since she speaks Japanese, she could do it, and after our ice breaker, Lizzie, who takes turns leading with Yuiko, got up and did the last 3 songs. So, it was once again a good example of team work from everyone.

Mark's message was god-- on Anpanman, a famous character here in Japan, and how Anpanman is helpful and goes around to people who aren't well, and gives them a piece of his head (he is a bread head), and his saying is that he is a hundred times full of life. Anyway, his way of getting refilled again is by going back to Uncle Jam who mkes him a new head. So, you can see the parallels. It was a good message about being filled with the life of Jesus, and what being filled is also not about (not based on study or on doing good works, etc.). (here is Mark giving the message)

Afterward, we went to the cafe where we fellowship afterward. We all started to head out around, and Mark, Joe and I had to go to a party at the Y, where we work teaching English. It was an international party, and so I met people from the Philippines, Ghana, Germany, fellow Americans, and of course, Japanese. It was a fun night, and I made it home around 10, a bit tired and with sore feet after a poor choice of flat sandals I decided to wear. (Here is Baki, really enjoying his noodles.)

Sunday morning I met for lifegroup with Yuiko and then from there I met a group of us who were planning on going to Jesus Lifehouse. It was a good visit there, and the message was good. It was based off of the story of the feeding of the 5000, but from the perspective of the little boy... who was called Bento-boy (bento being a lunch, usually bought from a convenient mart)... so it was amusing with Anpanman for Saturday and Bento-boy on Sunday.

Afterward, we took Mike out to see a little more of downtown and famous areas of Tokyo, since he hasn't had much of an opportunity to see Japan. We took him to a big shrine place, and down through Harajuku and Shibuya. I came back to do lifegroup with Saki, and came home super tired. (Here the guys pose before a statue of the dog in Shibuya)

Betta get them electrolytes!

2010-07-14T02:52:00.010-05:00

So I have a lot to talk about! It's not a lack of subjects to talk about about that I've been suffering from (are you kidding? I like in a foreign country, there are always things to talk about...), but rather, a lack of time and energy. (Pictured here are Yuiko leading the band in worship on last Saturday)

I think it was Jessi (whose comment I just saw today) who asked if I got my camera. Yes! I did. A week ago last Saturday. I went with a group of friends from FUSE who wanted to go on the adventure with me after the Fuse service and hang out time at the cafe. That sounds like a complicated sentence.

Anyway, I ended up getting a Canon, that, when all was said and done and the memory card also was bought was a bit over $200. Not too bad, it was about what I was expecting.

Last week the thing of note was that I took a day off in the middle of the week, after my long Tuesday, and I dedicated that day to......... sleeping! Yes, that's right. I'd been sooo tired, and going for so long (like... 2 months or so) on short amounts of sleep that I knew, especially after the group left, my brain and body needed a chance to recover. I'd even heard from a few different people that I was looking tired. So, I took a day off of school and a day that FUSE wasn't going to be doing anything, and the only responsibility that I had was homework. And in the end, I was only awake for 9 hours of it, and that in parts... I got up for an hour, and went back to sleep. Got up for 2 hours, went back to sleep. And got back up and then went to bed for the night.

Apparently, my body really did need sleep.

Let's jump to Saturday. It was quite an adventure. From what I understand, it was the day of the worst technical problems we've ever had. The microphones kept popping really loud, and the sound would go off... Joe's bass drum peddle's spring kept coming undone, so in the middle of the worship, all of a sudden Joe would disappear below the drum set... Yuiko, who has been regularly been getting sick on Saturdays (please pray for her), especially during the time when she's leading worship, was having a hard time breathing on Saturday with the moldy smell that was going on. All of a sudden during the middle of a song, she looked like she was going to throw up (like, you saw the gag)... At the end of the worship time, she asked Joe if he could do the Japanese translation of the message and she went to the back and sat down. We were all a bit worried for her. And at the end of the service, Lizzie, who will be leading worship like every 2 or 3 weeks, jumped in and took over worship for her... I don't know if the band did the song they were originally intending to do, but-- everyone went with the flow and it went okay. (Here, Yuiko translating for Mike, giving his life story, before that whole incident)

There were other adventures too, but those were the big ones. Along those lines though, I saw two cool things happen. First, it was a great example of team work... everyone just kinda helped each other and when we saw a need was going to happen, we worked on it. That was really cool. Also, Mark's message was on Joy despite the circumstances, which was really ironic.

But one cool thing about that is that I was telling Yuiko last Friday that I had been praying for a while about what God wanted to speak about when it was my turn to give the message. I told her that I had been feeling like I should talk about joy. So when Mark announced at the pre-meeting (?) right before FUSE that his message that day was on the power of joy, Yuiko started to translate and then was like, WHAT? And I did that too from what I was sitting. So, it looks like it's a theme.

Also, speaking of team dynamics, I think in my blog last time it sounded like there were very few of us, and yes, to a degree there are. But, I should probably just let you know who all's here... Tim and Christine (who oversee all the PAZ things going on... the Brazilian churches, FUSE, the Noborito church, etc.)... but they are gone to America right now and will be back in a few weeks. Mark and Yuiko, who oversee the Fuse church, Joe (who does a few other things, but helps out a lot with Fuse, particularly in street performances and in playing the drums on Saturdays at the FUSE), Mike (20, who came to work with FUSE) specifically, Lizzie and Cynthea (who are the daughters of some of the other missionaries who are working in the Noborito church), and they are very musical so they help with the same things Joe helps with, and the Stephanie, who we just met last month and who grew up in Japan but is helping us at the FUSE with various things... she'll be here til the middle of August. (Pictured bere: Cynthea, Lizzie and Joe, playing during street outreach. I think at that location, that was the most people we've ever gotten was the first day that Cynthea and Lizzie joined us! They have amazing talent for being so young!).

So, those are our American people, but we also have other important Japanese people on our team like Kengo (Kengo's everywhere and a very dedicated worker!, and my little brother), Tatsu (he is a great help in translation), Saki (she's great with translation and on the street, she's a natural communicator), Yoshi (ridiculously talented guitar player, for real, he's awesome and chill about it), Baki (our technical guru, and he's awesome at street outreach too), [smiley] Yasu (who does a lot of follow-up with new people, it would seem, and always has a smile on his face), and a few other who help out with things like greeting people and running power point, etc. (here pictured is Mark, me, Baki and Yoshi at the cafe we all go to after FUSE... the guys were all comparing their phones and the picture taking abilities... this one was on Baki's new Iphone 4...)

So, that's our team, and I love 'em.

Sunday, I did some homework and then in the afternoon I had a date with Yuiko! She had gotten free tickets to this all-you-can-eat buffet (where we were told we could be there for 90 minutes), and now, that may not sound fun for you, but these tickets are normally $40 apiece. So, it was cool that she took me! We're only 3 years apart, and becoming better and better friends, which is what I wanted and expected in the beginning.

So, we went to Ikebukuro, a downtown area in Tokyo and went shopping around, mostly window shopping, talking and having fun along the way. It was very refreshing. At dinner, they did not have fried chicken and mashed potatoes like you'd find at a buffet in the states, but different noodles and fish things and sushi and Japanese curry rice and.... some type of beef. I don't know what it was, I've had it before in the states, but, my oh my, was it good. I haven't had red meat I don't think since I got here. It's expensive, and I was very pleased to get some at an all-you-can-eat place.

Tuesday we had another test... this time 2 hours long, and included things like kanji, spelling (in hiragana), grammar (the hardest part), and another listening part. I don't think I did toooo bad... maybe a B or a C by American standards. I don't know when we find out how we did.

So, we finished the test and then I went back and headed toward my English class for my final class before break. Only, this was the class that the parents got to sit in on, so my nerves were a little racked (wracked? I don't know)...

2010-07-03T10:33:00.002-05:00

Hey there! I'm back (already!). I've been waiting for an install to go through, so I figured I'd put up a video that I'd been promising to. There was another one I wanted to put, but I couldn't figure out how to embed it because it wasn't on youtube. So. I send you the link.

http://www.vimeo.com/12893959

It's Mark's message from the One Year Anniversary. Also, below, be sure to check out a vid that we put up of Lead Me to the Cross from a couple of weeks ago. The song is mostly in English, but at the end there's some Japanese for ya. :)

Today was FUSE and a long day as usual. We had street band last night and quite a number of people, and then today we went out into the streets and handed out flyers for about an hour, I took the group of four from the Arizona group that's here to lunch and then we headed back to do FUSE service. It was pretty good and Mark brought a good message, based on Philippians 4:13. Afterward, we had cafe time, where we go after FUSE and hang out, eat together, and get to know one another more and talk. Tonight, afterward, a group went to karaoke with the "Americans", and then a group accompanied me (haha) to go buy a camera. One went because she was going to help me set up the point card, and well, just to help me ask any questions that I might have about different cameras. Two followed by default, because the girl who went with me was going to take them home afterward, and two more followed just because.

As it were, karaoke finished just as we were finishing (the went before the group of us even left the cafe), so we headed home.

Anyway, I kinda need to go-- I have a bit of a headache, and tomorrow, my day to sleep in, only lasts until 8am. And it's about 1 now. So I should probably go. :)

Check out the vid below!!
Peace and Happy Fourth!!

Lead Me to the Cross, FJC worship!!

2010-07-03T10:26:00.000-05:00

Eavesdropping (and) Conversations

2010-07-02T00:20:00.002-05:00

Ha-ha-ha-ha-hot! Actually, today's not too bad, but, yes, it's hot. I finally used my air conditioning for a couple hours at night and in the afternoon, after being drenched in sweat. It's the story of all us Westerners though.

So, this week has consisted of some very late nights. Tuesday night alone I didn't get home til after midnight. It was Sally's good bye party and a lot of people showed up, including these four people that we met at Shinyuri doing doing street outreach. We were excited to see them come, and they are ready for this weekend, to go back to Fuse. I'm excited to see what God's going to do with these ones!

Tuesday was sad to say goodbye to Sally. When I first came, there were 3 other missionaries. Four more have come to date, and 6 of them have left already. Which leaves 2 of us-- Mike, who is 20, and me. But there are some others who are helping out, and our Japanese people(!).

A group of 6 from Arizona have also been here this week, so that keeps us pretty busy as well.

Anyway, this week, I was told that my class was going to end, and that some of us students would be put with another class that was a couple of lessons ahead (and next week, we finish the beginner's Japanese book, which at this point, I don't think is beginner anymore), and as far as kanji, a good step ahead in the book that they are using (although I've already studied a lot of them). So, yesterday (Thursday), I changed classes. Yesterday, in my class, we numbered around 20 people, in the class, representing 13 countries. It was a bit difficult particularly today, I don't know if it's because it's been a long week and not too much sleep, or what, but I have some serious studying to do this weekend, and a lot of homework!

My Japanese is definitely improving, and I'm able to communicate a lot more with people. I talked to a girl at street performance for maybe 20 minutes, using only Japanese, because she couldn't speak English. We didn't talk about anything spiritual, you know, but still, she's a person that otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to talk to. Also, my eavesdropping is getting better, and twice yesterday, I told Mark what he was talking about to someone else. Of course, they weren't subjects of anything personal (I wouldn't eavesdrop on that), but just conversation.

Lately, I've also been able to have some good conversations about Jesus with a few people... and that's always exciting. Some of them were doubts and struggles, but I was praying for wisdom while talking to them, so I continue to pray for them that they will have experiences with Him and put the doubts away.

Well, we have prayer together in about an hour, and then we're going out to the street tonight to do street band, pass out flyers and meet new people to invite to the FUSE and to meet Jesus! So, I'll catch ya'll later! Need to run!

Fuse One YEAR!!

2010-06-27T02:22:00.002-05:00

Oh my gosh. There's been a lot going on this week, and as I lay here on my bed on this Sunday afternoon when I should be doing homework, I'm more prone to sleep for hours and hours and hours.

Let me start off by saying... maybe I have already, but... Japanese summer: HOT. HUMID. Oh. My. For real, two showers a day is becoming the norm, and even then, there are 12 hours between full of sweatiness and overall nastiness. The Japanese do not sweat like Americans or other people in general do. In fact, you can't buy anti-perspirant deodorant here. I don't even think they wear deodorant. But we gringos do! Sorry, the term here is "gaijin" (pronounced: guy-jean) and thank the Lord we do. Trying to stay fresh-feeling over this summer is going to be fun.

And so I hear, the best is yet to come. So I've heard, this ain't nuttin' compared to what's to come-- where I've heard from two people, it feels like you're on fire. Well, I had grace in Altotonga for the cold, which I despise... heat is easier for me to deal with than cold.

On that uplifting note, this week we had a birthday party for Yuiko, who turned 29. I like that she's pretty much my age, and I really appreciate and admire her. She's funny, and sometimes she's sarcastic, and I like that.

So, yeah, we had that-- and last Saturday we celebrated her birthday a little after Fuse and gave her flowers and a power point show, etc., Oh, and a cake-- and Tuesday we had brownies and ice cream after the Fuse planning meeting.

Thursday we had a group come in from Arizona. They are 6 people, and so it's not too incredibly tough. The nice thing is that we are also a group that we can take shifts in getting them here and there and doing stuff. I always enjoy sharing Japan with new people too.

Friday we had street band and were able to give away a lot of flyers... and the evening consisted of changing my email because of a possible virus sent to the other one and I want to protect my finances/identity, you know? So, you'll find my email on most of my newsletters-- it's the one I use. PLEASE, PLEASE do not send me forwards. Repeat offenders I start sending to my spam folder. While I'd be delighted to hear from you, I appreciate your consideration in not forwarding me stuff.

Also for Friday night, my camera broke. I don't know how, I don't know why, but it broke. I think one of the girls' dad is going to try to fix it, but it is a pretty old camera that I've had for a few years... so... stinky! I was pretty upset because I didn't have time to go out and get a new one (that and I didn't know the best place to go, but now someone told me where they can take me) and Saturday was going to be the Fuse One Year Anniversary... something I definitely want pictures of!

But, So-chan, my roommate, let me borrow her camera. Saturday was awesome! I left my house around noon after a lot of communication between team members via text messages for all we needed to do and get down in our various places in the morning to be ready for the afternoon. I went and had lunch/life group with Saki-chan, and that went really well. Afterward, we went to Machida, and everyone met up and we went to have street outreach. Normally we would do street band, but since it was raining, we couldn't.

Sally and I, who were kinda in charge, decided to take the group to one of the train stations and we passed out about... oh, I don't know... maybe about 500 or so flyers in just an hour. It was pretty amazing! We never get that many out!

Afterward, we went to the Livezone Z to set up and get everything ready. Everyone worked really hard and we were a bit concerned because the guest band that we had playing-- the drummer didn't show up until like right when it was starting! Anyway, people started showing up like crazy, and we had a lot of people who hadn't come in a long time-- but also around 10 or more new people! 4 we had met the night before at street band, and Mike said that he saw a guy that he gave a flyer to at the station. It was pretty amazing! We were around 50 people, and while the couches sat outlining the room, most people were sitting together all on the ground, including myself. And some of our very-regulars were not even able to make it! So, they had been able to, we would have been even more!

Our special group ImariTones was GREAT and the leader is quite a little preacher, and I think he was specifically an encouragement to one of our core guys. Mark gave a great message of encouragement and moving forward, and it was just an excellent evening. Some of our regular people invited their friends, and it was just a great, great evening and all went well, from the video we did to announcements and organization, etc.

After it ended (around 8:30pm), we went to the local cafe place and had dinner, and just enjoyed talking together, with the band, and some of our guests, and all that. I helped Sally, Joe and Mike carry stuff back to the Noborito church and we got there around 11pm. Afterward, I left with Kengo and along the way, we met up with some of the guys coming back, and so, in the end, I made it home around 12, took another shower and went to bed!

Today was lifegroup, and the last one for Sally who is leaving on Wednesday. I'm sad, she'll be our last girl... so it's me and Yuiko representin' the females now.

Well, that's all I got for now. I think I might try a power nap and then I need to restore some order to my house for the week and STUDY for Japanese class this week... SO much to do!

Catch ya'll later!

Yasumimashou

2010-06-17T09:00:00.003-05:00

Beautiful, beautiful! Tonight, I'm chillin, it's 12 and though I'm tired, I'm savoring not setting my alarm for 5:15am.

And while decked out in shorts and a tshirt, I am not currently sweating on every square inch of my body, and I've only take ONE shower today (I really came close to taking the second one, but ran out of time).

So tomorrow I'm going to 休みます... or, take a break from school. The particular teacher that I have on Fridays (well, Thursdays and Fridays), I don't feel like I learn much from and usually feel frustrated in that class. So, I decided to call off school for tomorrow and extend my "days paid". Does that make sense? So, I'll study at home and practice here and have my paid days count toward the ones where I feel like I'm getting somewhere (however, I don't want to miss 2 days of school).

Also, just to let you know, I took the test over the kanji, and passed it. 103 kanji, but many had multiple ways to read them. I made a few minor mistakes, but it was just ones that were dumb mistakes, you know? Anyway, now I'm on to level 3 kanji and this book is a lot thicker. I don't think passing this one was too impressive... in the grand scheme of things, it's like 5% of what I need to accomplish.

Still, that 5% requires about 150 hours of study and getting up to the top level requires about 900 hours of study (I guess, in addition).... I'm not quite sure how that works, but it's a lot, let's just put it that way. Anyway, I want to work hard to get further... the more I talk to my Japanese friends, and the more I can't talk to them inspires me to work harder.

So most mornings on my way to school, I come out of the ticket gates where I swipe my card to get through, and then to get to the doors to leave the station which are about maybe a 100 feet in front of me, I have to cut across people traffic going back and forth. It's a bit of a rush, wondering if I can do it without stopping. Almost always, I can. Mark once told me the key is to watch the gaps and not the people. It works, and as I have people coming at me from both sides at different paces and I need to cross through them, I wonder what it looks like from above and if you could paint everyone's path a different color and somehow animate it all, what it be like. Amazing, I'm sure.

I have this same thought every morning.

The mornings before I make that people-plaid adventure, I try to get some rest on the train and in the station. Yesterday morning, as I was telling some of the guys here, I leaned into the corner of the train, where the seats end (since they were all taken) and the foot or so before the sliding doors of the train begin, and I stuck my shoulder in there, leaned my head against the wall, and yup- I fell asleep with my bag hanging down across my body, umbrella hanging down from that, arms crossed my chest and headphones in my ears.

And I'm pretty sure EVERY Japanese person in that train was impressed.

Ok, maybe not, but I was pretty happy with this new found ability that was birthed out of sleep depravation. Normally I can catch about 15 or 20 minutes of sleep also on the station bench in an out-of-the-way spot with my bags on my lap. Haha, I sound so pathetic. Anyway, when I am awake, usually I'm studying or reading, and I like to watch the various trains that come through-- not the trains, but the sudden rush of people that come through-- some of them at full on sprints, I imagine, to connect with their next train.

Before I forget, I've been meaning to mention that a couple of weeks ago, Sally asked for prayer from Aaron, Mark and I while we praying before going to hand out flyers and do street outreach. She is gluten-intolerant (which means she can't eat anything with wheat), and one of the symptoms that I guess goes with it is that there is numbness in the "extremities"... hands and feet, etc. Her feet had been numb for a few days. So we laid hands on her, and I really believed she was going to be healed. And, you know, her feeling came back and she hasn't had any problems since then.

Praise Jesus! We wanna see more of those stories with Japanese people as well, and with some of our own Japanese core members, who are struggling with some pain and other things happening.

Tonight I had life-group with Saki, and it went really well. I had been praying for it and that God would lead us as I wanted to talk about some specific things, but in a natural way that it could come up. It did, and I was really excited as even I was speaking I knew that God was directing me in what to say and I was happy that I wasn't the person who came to the conclusions, you know. Anyway, I still can't get over watching when that look of sudden understanding comes across in her face that "Oh, I get it!" You know, that moment when it comes alive, and it's so exciting to be a part of that. I'm excited to see what God is doing in her life.

In casual conversation tonight, I was mentioning to her that as I've been studying Japanese and just observing and eavesdropping on people and knowing some of the cultural differences in communication, I was thinking about English. In your native language, there are so many things you take for granted. When you communicate with someone in your language, you know what they really mean by the particular choice of words or tense of the verb, etc. By phrases and slang and everything, you get the feel for the flow of the language and you can read much more into what's going on and what's being said that's not being said. Certain choices of words make something more or less funny. There's just so much you take for granted.

Anyway, now I'm talking with my mom, so I'll finish this sometime else... but I'll catch ya'll later!

Retro Fuse, Rain and Quotes

2010-06-14T06:42:00.012-05:00

It's the first day of the rainy season here in Japan! My teacher this morning informed me that from today on, there will be 40 days of rainy season and then the hot summer will come. I was under the impression that the hot humid summer was already here. (left: Tom, Kaori and Yuki)

Oh no, my friends.

So for the next month and some, I will be wearing my crocs and carrying an umbrella with me as if it were my best friend. And it will be.

This weekend was Retro FUSE. We had outreach on Friday night and then I stayed the night with Sally at the church so that we could 'fro my hair and then laugh at me in the morning. It happened as such, though I didn't get too much of a 'fro so much as a big ball of curls, that, had I had a big polka-dotted '50s style dress, I could have pulled off Lucille Ball. (right: Yoshi, Saki, me and Kengo hanging out before start)

As I took the tiny curlers out of my hair in the morning and had them bounce right back to my head, I kept saying... I don't know about this... Ok, all for Jesus.

Kengo, later in the morning, walked in the room and gave a SERIOUS start back. It was pretty funny. Anyway, we went to Machida a little later than usual since the start was later and then did Street Band in what is known as the smoker's plaza. Even though we didn't have too many great conversations, we were able to hand out some flyers, while some people did not want them. It got easier as more of our people showed up to hand out flyers. (left: Yuiko, Kaori and Saki hanging out afterward. Yuiko and Kaori were nominated for best-dressed Retro fashion)

Afterward, we had FUSE. It was good, though not as many people as we expected turned up. So, pray for us as we keep working and meeting new people that God will clear schedules and give boldness to go! Anyway, it was a good time. It was more relaxed and cafe-style... and we gave a "Kampai" (cheers!) to Jesus to celebrate Him at the end. (right: Mark giving a short message and Yuiko, his wife, doing the Japanese)

I got home around 10pm that night with lots of stuff being carried with me. After sweating so much during the day with all the humidity and stuffiness even inside houses, all I wanted to do it get myself clean! There have been a few times where I have felt dirtier than I did that night, but all I could want that evening was a good shower.

Sunday, I slept in... till 8:30. I could really sleep any longer, though I laid there for an hour, trying. I don't remember what all I got done Sunday morning, but it was enough. Laundry, for one (since I knew the rain was coming). In the afternoon, I had leader's lifegroup with Yuiko, but Sally couldn't make it. So, Yuiko and I caught up at a cafe in Shinyurigaoka that overlooked the station and served GIANT mugs of coffee and ice creams. We shared one, and just spent about an hour or so talking about everything from the FUSE and different situations going on to how my first few months have been and if my schedule is ok or too intense. Afterward, we walked around the shopping mall and just kinda looked around, and I found a few things that I needed for work, etc. (left: Yuiko and I with our matching Vision rings)

As a joke, Yuiko said that Debbie used to say that Fashion was part of the ministry. And being that here in Japan, the outside package is SOOO important (you'll see it in every facet), it definitely applies to fashion and it's true-- if you look like you're in fashion, Japanese young people will especially want to be your friend. It's not an excuse to follow die-hard after fashion, (I certainly don't!) but it's always very important to look your best here. (right: I told you they were big! I certainly couldn't finish mine, and we didn't finish that ice cream together!)

Perhaps it seems superficial, but what the Japanese think is this: if the outside looks good, what it has to offer is good too.

Anyway, like I said, I had a great time with her and felt refreshed on my fairly relaxed Sunday. I came home and got some stuff done and then studied Japanese and went to bed early as a way to start off my week with a full night of sleep. (left: Harajuku, on a crazy Sunday afternoon)

Unfortunately, I was still wide awake three hours later. Eventually, I fell asleep, and when I got up today, I was like, Lord, I'd like a seat on the train on the way to school. And, what do you know-- when I got on my train, I stood there for like 10 seconds, and then a guy got up and I got his seat!! A stop later, the guy next to me who was on the end got off, so I switched and got an end seat (the best seat, really).

At the station, I hung out and studied some more and then went on to school to do even more learning! I found out I had to buy a couple of more books (shoganai-- remember that? whatcha gonna do?)...

This afternoon, I came home and slept for a while and then went back to studying for my kanji test that I have the day after tomorrow. I think I will do pretty well, but I continue studying, because there are a few words that I mess up on sometimes. (right: I pass this road everyday on the way to school)

Speaking of which, I learned a phrase but then somewhere over the course of time, it got messed up, and so for the last week or so, I've been saying it wrong. I always feel dumb, and sometimes they don't correct you, so you go on saying it wrong. Anyway, I'll learn someday. Hopefully soon.

Well, this week is obviously more studying and then meeting and then an English class, and an outreach Wednesday night in Machida, and lifegroup with Saki-chan... With the rainy season, I don't know how much street band we'll get to do. Next week, we have a group coming for about 10 days too... So, never a dull moment! (right: I took Aaron to this busy but quiet temple in Harajuku, a five minute walk from the photo 2 ones above... Japan is a land of contrasts!)

Ending this, I'd like to quote a few observations that our newbie Mike (he's here for 6 months) made in his blog, which made me chuckle.

And I quote:

"...Since my last writing I have made a few observations:

...2) It is also acceptable for a man to carry a purse
I am a man. I carry a very very black leather manly man wallet. The unfortunate part is that the Japanese do not have bill until up around $10. This requires the carrying of coins...which has never been something that I've enjoyed doing. I'm still working on a practical solution to this problem, none of which contains carrying a purse.

3) You must look your best always
Again, something that is hard for me. Perhaps going to ICC with bedhead everyday for two years was not the best practice for living in Japan. Also, in my walkings and travelings I've maybe seen three
overweight people...and I'm in a city of millions. This custom, as opposed to the first two, I will conform to. It does not nullify my ingrained statutes for manhood and is probably good practice for when I am employed at some point in the future.

4) The toilets here are wonderful
Two words. Heated seat. Never again will I be able to do the cold-porcelain cringe without
thinking... "Oh Japan..how I miss your toilets." Whoever decided to make that feature standard to the toilets here should win an award. I can't even express to you how wonderful it is to be woken up so gently in the morning.

Those are the main ones, but there are other minor discoveries that have been made as well. Such as: don't leave your bread out on the table Sunday morning or it will be chopped up and used for communion. Or just because something looks like a snickerdoodle doesn't mean that it is, and that it is instead a salty snack. My tastebuds were a little surprised on that one."

Welcome to Japan, Mike.

Uppa-datin you

2010-06-11T08:28:00.002-05:00

OHHHHH so busy. I know, story of my life, right?

So, this evening I'm at the church, which I will explain in a bit, but I'm sitting on a chair, at a desk... and I said to Sally, but more just thinking out loud-- I really like having a chair. :) You see, normally I sit on the floor, at a table that is about a foot or so high.

So, school. You know that I've been doing that. Actually, next week I'm going to take a test to pass level four kanji (4 levels, with four being the lowest)-- which is only reading and writing 103 kanji. I think I should be able to do it. And I think at the end of this month, I finish beginner's Japanese class and get to move up... but I'm excited to have the opportunity to practice with my friends here and they're always so excited and smile big whenever I try out things with them.

Of course, what I'm learning in school is polite Japanese and not casual, so I have the basis for talking to them, I just have to drop words or change the verbs a little when talking to friends.

Hmm... what else... also, Aaron left this week. I was sad to see him go, but he had a good time here and we really enjoyed having him! He really clicked in quickly... and we hope he'll be back soon. And a couple of hours later, we got Mike, who's 20 and from Illinois (I think) who will be here til the end of December. I'm excited about that! Someone I don't have to say goodbye to for a while... and after Sally leaves in about 3 weeks, it'll be him and I, beside Mark and Yuiko.

We've been doing our street performances and I continue doing lifegroup with Saki-chan... English classes, a couple of meetings and all that make up my basic schedule for the week.

This weekend we are having Retro Fuse. We weren't able to book the place that we rent for the regular time, so we scheduled it later and decided to do a special event... so it's going to be pretty awesome, and we've done an extra flyer for this event and the First Anniversary of FUSE... so we've been handing them out lately. But anyhow, I've been working on things to do with that... and trying to figure out how to make my wardrobe retro for tomorrow.

Tonight, Sally is putting curlers in my hair tonight and I'm doing a 'fro. We'll see how it turns out, but I know I'll attract a lot of attention at street outreach before FUSE tomorrow.

Speaking of which, since we're starting late (wow, I get to sleep in!!... on a side note, the other night, I was setting my alarm, and it was definitely past 11 when I was getting to bed, and I sighed out loud when I clicked the button on my alarm... Sigh. 5am), we're doing things all differently tomorrow, but because of that, people from different lifegroups that are going on will be particpating in the outreach...

That's pretty exciting, I think. Having more people is helpful to attract more attention and also, it's good for them to be involved too in outreach and to take ownership and grow a passion for reaching out too.

So, I'm super glad that we have more Japanese people stepping up in not just this, but in other areas. That makes me so happy.

Well, I kinda feel like I'm blabbing, but I did want to let you know what's going on and what's new... And hopefully Sunday I can let you know what went down with Fuse and all the great things that happened!

Catch ya'll later!!

Answers!

2010-06-04T08:28:00.002-05:00

Alrighty, so first I want to apologize to all those who have emailed me recently... most of you, I haven't been able to reply to. I'm really sorry!! I've been thankful for your emails, but I've been barely able to keep up with myself lately. I'm working on that, and I hope to have a full day on Sunday.. maybe.. to do that and things like study and write thank ya cards.

Speaking of that, I sat down the other day to start on them and as I was making the list of people to send cards to, I was overwhelmed at the list of names! Wow, thank you so much to all of you who have contributed financially and who have made it possible for me to come here and share the Gospel with people who have never heard it before, and for those who have recently become children of God, to be able to build them up and point them to Jesus as they walk out their faith. Thank you-- it's because of you that I have this opportunity to fulfill the calling of God on my life, and I am so, so grateful.

You are a part of taking the Gospel to Japan.

So, let me just give you a few clips of some things that have been going on this week and lately in general. I don't have time to talk about everything, because there's so much and I could spend paragraphs just talking about various conversations with people and new people I meet and street performances, outreaches, etc. You get the picture.

Anyway, last Sunday, I went to the church because I was going to pick Aaron up and take him to Shibuya and Harajuku to explore and see Japan... well, Tokyo... because probably when you think of Tokyo, you think of super urban jungle with lots of kanji and vertical signs all over the place. That's definitely Shibuya. But Japan has many facets, including the vary traditional and beautiful culture that can be seen in many places, particularly in Kyoto, which is lovely. But when I took him to see Tokyo, I mean the urban crowds and famous spots and things of Japan. This Sunday, I hope to take him or have someone take him to a more traditional spot on Sunday. While I really, really want to be the one who takes him and spends time with him, I have sooo much stuff to get done that I just don't have the energy to accomplish during the week.

Back to the story. So I stopped in at the church and went to Sally's room and found Aaron, Kengo and Saki-chan. Kengo was talking on the phone, Aaron on Sally's computer and we were just hanging out. Afterward, Kengo told me that he was sad because his ipod that he just got had broken. I was sad for him and when he showed it to me, I just laid hands on it, and said, God, we know that You can do all things and so please fix Kengo's ipod. And I kid you not, I just pressed a button with faith, and it worked.

Oh, to have SEEN the look on his face. He was laughing and like, WOW! I was like, Kengo, Jesus loves you a lot. He called Yuiko and was like, my ipod is healed!! It was so cute and just like, wow!! Saki was really impressed that God done it too, and still today (Friday), they were talking about it. Later on in the day, it wanted not to work again, and Kengo was a little like, what? though he didn't say anything. I just prayed again, Lord, please fix it all the way.

And he hasn't had a problem since.

It might seem like a little thing, but God also can take care of the little things. In fact, last week, I believe... or maybe two weeks ago, I was soooo tired, and I prayed in the morning or the night before, Lord, it would be really nice to get a seat on the train. Then I was like, what? Why am I praying this for? And anyway, the next morning, I got on the train and stood by the door on the other side and at the next stop, the guy sitting on the end seat (the best seat to have, by the way), got up and got off the stop. My jaw DROPPED. But at that very moment, I was reminded that I prayed that prayer and though I threw it off to the side, because it was more a comment to God, God reminded me that He can take care of the little things too.

Even tonight, we wanted to do street performance, and it was sprinkling outside (which means we can't do street performance because it will destroy our equipment), and also a "squall"? was possible in the forecast. Like a sudden, strong and fast storm that just drops over. So we prayed and... no rain during street performance, though right now it is raining. Praise God.

Little things, but we are also seeing how God is answering our prayers in the lives of the young people that are attending Fuse. So many in this last month have come a step up (gone to the next level) in their faith and God is doing things in the life.

We are praying for more passion and vision in their lives and also to see many more lives changed by His love and the knowledge of His saving grace.

School is going well-- I feel like I can understand a lot of conversations that I hear going on around me. My friends are so happy that I'm learning Japanese and a few of them are really, really good about practicing it with me. The thing is that I learn polite Japanese in school, and then they teach me everyday Japanese that is not so formal. So, they tell me, yes, what you say is right, but that's what you say at school or at church. With us, say this. Saki-chan is particularly good and patient with me. Tonight we were talking... and I was trying to get something out about asking her a question about tomorrow night and what eventually came out after repeating myself a few times was...
Ashita (tomorrow) in the noche (Spanish- night)!

Everyone got a kick out of that. :)

So, anyway, yeah this week I've done much else- English class, meetings, outreach, street performances, beside school, and all those things have gone well and continue to go well. Hopefully maybe this weekend I can post again about some of those things, and I have pictures too, but we'll see how it goes.

Thank you for your continued prayer support!! We need it and we're excited to see what God is going to do with the FUSE and how He is going to change Machida, Tokyo and the lives of many, many Japanese people! We need your prayers, so please continue lifting up Japan and our team and the different activities and things going on, and that we can be a bright light that shares the love of Jesus to those who have never heard!

Can't wait to see what God is going to do at FUSE tomorrow!!

With much love to you- and thank you for your patience with me! It's so busy, but I do not forget about you and I do not forget to thank God for you and pray for Him to bless you!

Departures and Arrivals

2010-05-31T07:49:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I know that I've been a bit remiss on updating ya'll on my every movement :), but school adds an extra... eh... 30-40 hours to my schedule. Of course, other things are cut out in order to make room for it, but still. I'm trying. :)

In fact, last week, it was raining when I got to Shinjuku to go to school, so I stopped at the Starbucks, and chose a table in the corner that was made out of glass. I pulled out my books and was so tired that I was having a hard time staying awake... and about two minutes later, I was asleep on top of my bag on the table with my cell phone in my hand on the table.

The big news lately is that Debbie and Allan left last week, and Aaron arrived for about two weeks on last Thursday. I was pretty excited for him to arrive, because he's like my adopted little brother from Mexico. He's also playing on the FUSE band these two weekends, and so I was excited to have him meet all our team members and friends from FJC.

Yuiko helped me find the best route to the airport via train since it was the cheapest route. I transfered a number of trains and managed to make it all the way there without getting lost. Aaron came out and we got his money exchanged and then got the train to head all the way back. We made it home around 12:50am (I left around 6:30 from a local stop and his flight got in around 9:15)... so that was a really long day, but I was so happy for him to get there and so I told him.

Friday, I took off school (they extended my credit) and took Aaron and Sally to Shinjuku to the towers to overlook Tokyo, which is an incredible sight. We enjoyed it and then we went out for ramen at a shop with Tim and Christine and then Tatsu also joined us.

In the afternoon we had prayer and street performance, and Aaron played on that... Everyone was really impressed...

Well, I'm going to have to go, because I need to get to bed... Tomorrow's my marathon day and I want to conquer it. Pictures and more stories to come, I promise, but I wanted to let you know I'm alive and still blogging, just a bit busy... Catch ya'll in a couple of days.

Lunch Time!

2010-05-26T01:26:00.003-05:00

YES! I finally get to sit down to lunch, and it's a relaxed day too, I only have to go to one other place today. It's really nice though.

So, I think I wrote about last Friday night-- it was a great street band performance! We had a great time, and made some contacts out of that, so hopefully we'll keep that up. As I speak, I'm trying to upload some videos of Fuse practices... granted they're from about a month ago, but.. nonetheless, you'll get the general feel. And, like I said, it's only practice.

Let's see... what have I been up to? Well, school, but you already know that. Monday night we had a goodbye party for Debbie and Allan. Debbie left this morning (Wednesday) and Allan leaves tomorrow night. Debbie has been here for a year and is the last person to leave that has been here from the start, so many here are feeling that. Allan has been here for 2 months, but we've seen a lot of growth and maturity in him, and we're excited that he wants to come back for college next year.

It was a good party, quite a few people showed up, and we had a nice power point and time to listen to them share a few thoughts and hear a few others share their thoughts. Yes, there were tears. I gave myself a 10pm curfew... but didn't leave until like 11... oops!

So, Tuesday was kicking my tail at school, but as you know Tuesdays are my really days. So, after teaching English in the afternoon, I sat down at Starbucks to have a few moments of peace and study Japanese. After that, I headed up to join the team for street band. They had already been going at it for about an hour, but I was so surprised to see so many of our teammates there-- like a lot of Japanese.

What's really cool is that so many have taken a different perspective about the three girls leaving this last month. Instead of whining and crying "woe is me", they are looking at this as an opportunity to step up and work hard for FUSE and to reach more people. How exciting!! Mark gave a good message last Saturday about vision... it was called Committed Japan: World Changers... and it was really about having vision for your life and investing your time, money, effort and perseverance to see success... he also shared about the Fuse's vision and different ways people can be involved.

Anyway, Tuesday night we had the planning meeting and it was cool to all sit together and plan together for the Fuse in both Japanese and English and to work together to meet the goal of reaching out to more Japanese people. Even though it seems like we're low on resources and manpower, God doesn't need those things to move mightily here in Japan. We're going to give it our all.

Well, dear friends, I'm going to work on some stuff, mostly Japanese, and then tonight, I'm planning on a full 8 hours of sleep... Be excited for me. :D

Also, tomorrow night Aaron from Meki-suko (Mexico) is arriving! I'm very excited!!
~~~
Oh: Just in, the video is ready! Hope you enjoy!!

A Changed Life... er... Light

2010-05-22T22:00:00.009-05:00

So, I've officially completed my first week of school, and I was very happy walking home from school to the train station on Friday. I feel like I learned a lot this week... with 20 hours of school and 10 more of studying on my own, I should hope I learned something.

Friday, after prayer, dinner together and band practice, we went to street performance that evening. It was a very, very good evening all together. We had about 20 people standing there at one time with people coming and going, and we made a lot of new great friends. Actually, I met a girl who goes to the university right by where I live, so we're going to for sure hang out. But, yeah, it was a really, really great evening and we hope to see quite a few of them again. (pictured above: Sally, Kengo, me and Debbie after Street Performance)

Saturday, we had Fuse and it was good... I had a really bad headache the whole time, so it was a bit of a struggle to really "be there"... but Yuiko and I had a great super-small group right after the message talking about "vision" for life with Yoshi and Kin-chan. Afterward we went bowling and I didn't bowl but watched those playing and stood around and talked with everyone else. I wasn't feeling that great, and I've had a cough all this week, and every time I coughed, it felt like my head was going to explode. We had a good time though, I just wish I could have felt better to enjoy it more. (Here with Kin-chan... we were working on having a conversation between what little English and Japanese we both knew... :) It was good!)

One nice thing was that, on the way home, most of us went together on the train. I had the bass which is a bit heavy, but not too bad, since it's on your back. But Yoshi offered to carry it for me, and I let him. That was very kind, and I really appreciated it. I was just so tired from such a long week, and having a massive headache, it was so nice that he carried it for me.

This week also, Kengo helped me out. He's teaching me everyday Japanese that you need at the store or other places like that, which is pretty practical. Also, phrases for if I get lost, etc. But anyway, I had a question for him because Monday night, my light in my room started to go out while I was working on my homework. It's one of those round florescent ones, and there are two of them. I had no idea where to get another one. So I asked him where to buy it, and so he came and helped get my light bulbs out, took me to the store, showed me where they were and then came back to put them in the thing.

Wow! I was very thankful... because he helped me out Thursday, but since Monday night, I'd been without light, because I hadn't had time to go get a new one, and I also didn't know where to even get one. While at the store, we came to the aisle that they were in and the first price I saw was about $30-$35 for a light. I gasped and was like, oh my gosh! They're so expensive! He goes, yeah, whatcha gonna do?

There's a phrase in Japanese "shoganai", or at least, I think that's how it's spelled. But, it's kinda like, "well, there's nothing that can be done about it. Too bad." Anyway, Kengo always says "whatcha gonna do?" because the girls taught him that as the translation to shoganai. So, it made me laugh at the store, because it was like, yeah, prices are high. Nothing you can do about it. Eventually, I paid about $17ish for it, I think.

I was telling the story on Friday night on the train, because I wanted to make a bit of a big deal out of it, because it really was very nice. So, I was standing next to Mark, and I said to him, "So, Kengo changed my light last night!" Kengo, who was standing next to me, said, "I changed your life?"

And that, my friends, is going in my top quotes. Yes, Kengo, you changed my life. I can now see the light.

Anyway, I'm very thankful for these Japanese friends who are so great and helpful. I'm enjoying getting to know more of them. (Here with Fabiana, who was the bowling champ of the evening, I believe)

So, it's time now for your Japanese lesson of the day. One of the things that we've been working on this week is adjectives. There are two different types of adjectives, but I'm only going to do one kind, though in all the "conjugations"...

きょうはあたたかいです。

Kyoo wa atatakai desu.

Today, it's warm.

きょう　は　あたたかくない　です。

Kyoo wa atatakakunai desu.

Today, it's not warm.

きのうは　あたたかかった　です。

Kinoo wa atatakakatta desu.
Yesterday was warm.

And here comes the big one that I've been working on all weekend:

きのう　は　あたたかくなかった　です。

Kinoo wa atatakakunakatta desu.

Yesterday was not warm.

My response to that is that-- yesterday it was cold. That's much easier.

Anyway, speaking of Japanese, I need to study, and then I think I'll go to the Noborito service this evening and then come back and get a good night's sleep to start another long week! :)

See ya'll soon!

2010-05-20T00:52:00.005-05:00

So, I'm four days into school now, and almost done with my first week of Japanese classes. It's been a very, very busy week. Thankfully, today is a more relaxing day, though I have things to do that I haven't been able to squeeze into all the other days. (This is Yuiko and her daughter.)

So, let me walk you through my day. Somewhere between 5 and 5:10 (yes, a.m.), my alarm clock goes off, depending on how inspired I felt the night before. And somewhere around 5:20, I actually roll out of bed. Well, I can't really roll considering it's 10 inches off the ground. Nonetheless, I finally convince myself that it's time to get out of bed.

At 6:30, having done everything that I need to do to get ready for the day, I quietly walk out the door, locking my still-asleep roommate in. I take a 10 minute walk to the train station, dropping off the trash in the bin if I need to.

At the station, I climb up the stairs, over and then down the stairs onto my platform. There, I stand in line at the correct marked arrows till my train pulls up at 6:46, and approximately 30 seconds later, it leaves. If I'm lucky enough to get a seat, which God blessed me with yesterday and today, I put my bag(s) on my lap and let my head drop and nod off, waking every now and then to look out at the stations passing and see where we are so as not to miss my stop.

If I'm not so blessed as to get a seat, I'll find some place to stand, by the door, or at least hopefully by a ring hanging down that I can hold on to... and it's funny to note how people will sleep standing up, hanging onto the rings. I haven't got that desperate yet, though I've come close. (This was actually taken discreetly in the evening. I was way too amused to pass up this opportunity.)

Anyway, I usually get off for a few minutes at one of the last stops and then catch an express, and though it's probably out of my way to do that, it's nice to be out of the crowd for a bit and beside, I know exactly how to get to the exit I need to take when I take the express train as compared to the local train. But the local train is less crowded and so I take that even though it takes twice as long.

At 7:30, I'm in Shinjuku, and I walk over the overpass and find a place to sit down and chill and look over my notes from the day before. Usually, the night before, I make a vocab list and then I quiz myself in the mornings. At 8:20, I head over to school and begin class until 1pm...

Everyday we have a new teacher, which threw me off the second day. One teacher we have Monday and Friday, I believe. But we do a lot of repeating words, and flash cards, and writing out sentences, fill in the blanks, answering questions, working together on dialogues and then saying them in front of the class. And this is all in Japanese, it's not an English teacher or someone using English to teach us Japanese, it's all in Japanese. Sometimes if we all look confused and aren't getting it, she'll say the word in English to help us out. But it's not stressful at all. Well, at least I don't find it too stressful, and we laugh at mistakes. The teacher I had today was actually pretty funny and cracked jokes. We have quite an international group. There are 3 guys from Korea, one guy from the UK, 3 people from China, one Asian guy from Australia, one UK/Nigerian guy, 2 ladies from France (though tomorrow is their last day, I understand), and one American- me.

So, quite an international group.

After school, I catch a 1:30 express train back to wherever I have to go. Monday it was to Shinyurigaoka to teach a class. And Tuesday was crazy. Tuesday I left immediately after school and went with Mark who helped me open a bank account. Then, I headed to Sagamiono to teach an English class (and grab something to eat and quickly finish preparing for the class)... after class, I went to Starbucks to study for an hour and then went to join the rest of the team for street performance. Right after that, we went to Mark and Yuiko's house for the first ever Fuse planning meeting at their place.

We used to have it on Tuesday mornings right after the prayer breakfast. But now we've changed it- for two reasons. First, I'm in school now and won't be able to go in the mornings and since most of the missionaries have flexible schedules, we changed it. Second, we want more Japanese to be able to go, and since they are freer at night, we changed it. Also, we want to start moving things closer to the area that we're working in so we can be more a part of the area and reach it. For this reason, we're also looking at a move for me within the next year to the Machida area, which would be in a number of ways, beneficial.

Anyway, we caught a 9:48 train out of Sagamiono... we had to wait for a while, and there was only a local, but we all had a good time chitchatting and joking on the train. At 10:30, I got into my house and the only thing that I could think of after being gone for 16 hours was how quickly I could get back in my bed.

So, on some days, I go to other commitments, but most days I try to come directly home, grab some lunch and spend a couple of hours studying and preparing for evening activities or just preparing for the next day.

There's always stuff to do.

Monday evening, I hung out with Saki, who I'll be doing life group with soon. It was a really good time-- I wanted to have a "date night" with her since I'll be taking her leader's place. We met at McDonald's, and then afterward, she came back to my place and I painted her toe nails while she told me her life story. I really don't want to do details, but I was surprised. After hearing two other people say that they think that I'll be able to help her move through some areas of her life, I agreed with them when I knew her story. So, praise Jesus.

Well, I need to study some and then I have a few things to do... and guess what! Tomorrow's Friday, and I'm glad. I love and enjoy Japanese school, but I kinda feel like I'm in a swirl of Japanese words and at night when I close my eyes, all I can hear is Japanese voices and phrases zooming by. It's worse than having regular voices in your head. ;)

So, now you know where I am and what I'm doing. Will catch up with you this weekend! I'm looking forward to a great Fuse this weekend and I can tell you more about that later. :)

Two Months!

2010-05-15T19:08:00.005-05:00

Today, I celebrate two months here in Japan. It's hard to believe it's been that long already and it's hard to believe that it's only been that long. Debbie said that she was surprised because she feels like I've been here way longer than that.

Anyway, for one of the first times in a long while, I'm sitting here peacefully eating breakfast, with a whole half hour before I need to leave for any place. Normally, it's the last thing I'm doing in the morning, running around, trying to remember everything before I run out of the door.

So this last week was the Tokyo 2010 Global Consultation Conference in... well, Tokyo. It was pretty awesome, and I learned so much. We are getting closer and closer to completing the mission of reaching the world with the Gospel, but at the same time there is a lot of work yet to be done with 3700 people groups still unreached with no known work going on there. So, we talked a lot about that, and the different ways of reaching so many peoples-- Hindus, Muslims, Japanese, etc.

What's really cool about this conference is that there was a conference held in 1910 in Edinburgh and it was a huge conference for the coming together of leaders from every major mission agency, etc., to reach the world. It was the first conference like this. Now, a hundred years later, we've come together, peoples from all over the world, to celebrate the progress we've made, but also to spur us on to work together to reach the rest of the world that remains unreached.

One of the cool things about this conference was that in 1910, the majority of the people who came together for this conference were from Western nations, wanting to reach the world. It looked like over a thousand delegates in the pictures that they have, and wow- what a history! But, there were only 19 delegates representing non-western nations, and I believe there were some there from India included in that 19. I'm not sure how it all came down, but 19 from non-Western nations.

As as gathered in the huge, 2-story auditorium in Tokyo this year, there were over 1000 delegates from non-western nations. In fact, I felt like a minority! I think they represented around 80 nations. It was amazing! Not only that, but our speakers were not just Westerners putting on a conference. We had Korean speakers, Nigerians, Egyptians, Japanese, Swedish, Peruvians-- and this was just in the main plenary sessions-- not even the vast number of workshops that I wasn't able to attend. But the speakers names were not John and Bob, I can tell you.

A particularly touching thing happened on Friday, the last day of the conference. The Swedish speaker got up to talk about the state of Europe and what's needed to reach Europeans. In the past, Europe has sent so many missionaries who were passionately focused on one thing: reaching the world with the Gospel. Many who went out did not return, and so many gave their lives. Through them, the Gospel was spread to places like Asia, Africa and Latin America. In fact, in this conference a hundred years ago, most people were Europeans. It was held in Europe! In Edinburgh, Scotland! We have such a huge debt to these fearless, determined Europeans whose heart is was to share the Gospel with those who had never heard.

Now, a hundred years later, the church in Europe is very sick. While in other parts of the world, the Gospel has grown in the 1000%s, the church in Europe has declined. With the growing ideologies of secularism and humanism, so many churches have either compromised with such liberal theology that it denies itself, or it has withdrawn, also withdrawing its ability to reach out.

As we listened to these things and also talked about what was needed to reach secular and post-modern Europe, our hearts were broken for Europe. We cried out in prayer after that session for Europe, and though my heart is here in Japan, and it's for the Japanese people, I felt like my heart tore open to see what has happened and to cry for the church-- but also, we cried out for the strength of the missionaries working there. They went down from the different parts of the auditorium, and we all prayed in our own languages for them and for God to send more "Pauls" to this European continent crying, "Come over here and help us!".

We believe it-- these people are still God's children needing to be called home.

The conference days were long. The day started at 8:30 (though I left my house at 6:30 avoid the unbearably crowded express trains, and even so, they were still very crowded)... and the last session of the evening ended at 9pm. There was an hour long break for lunch and an hour long break for dinner, a half-hour break in the morning, and in the afternoons, 10-15 minutes between sessions... so, it was a full day!

I got to meet a lot of people... it was exciting to meet brothers and sisters from around the world, and though we didn't all speak the same language, it was fun to watch everyone making the effort to communicate. They had translations in a number of languages for the sessions, and people tuned in on their FM radios... it was interesting too, because some people were not able to be photo-ed or video-ed, for reasons I'm sure you understand. But they seemed to think of all these things ahead of time.

So, that was the conference. I really, really enjoyed it, but boy was I exhausted after it. Friday night, as I spent with our Fuse team in prayer, dinner together, lifegroup and then street performance, all I could say was, "I'm so tired"... like every few minutes.

Saturday was a great, great Fuse day! I did a little bit of prayer walking before we all met in the morning, and then we went to do street performance to hand out flyers, but we got kicked out after one song. :/ Making too much noise, I suppose. Anyway, then we walked around and handed out flyers, had some lunch and then came back.

After talking this morning with the girls in our girl-leaders lifegroup, we were really, really encouraged. Even though there weren't many people there yesterday, the people who were there-- it seemed like we saw everyone go to the next level of where they were. We were all sooooo encouraged to see what God is doing in their lives and how they are growing and are committed to FJC.

Mark had told us about the story of one particular person we know and how it seemed like he wasn't that into participating anymore in something they're involved in. We all really love this person and I was disheartened and troubled to hear about that. Anyway, when I saw this person show up at Fuse and then explain themselves and really see leadership from other Japanese and this person also communicate and show their humility and I was overjoyed to see it afterward. We all were! Anyway, I don't know if that all makes sense, but it was really cool-- it was the next step up for this person.

So, anyway, that's kinda where we are... keepin' on and praying and believing for God to do more things here. We won't be satisfied until it comes to the completion of what God wants it to be... which is a continual process-- so, we'll keep pressin' on and seekin' God. It's so exciting to see that He is answering our prayers and responding to us!

Well, I need to get... I'm in the middle of making lunch and I need to leave in not too long for a church meeting, planning meeting and etc.... and tonight, I'm going to get lots of rest... because....

Tomorrow I start school!!!

I survived!

2010-05-10T08:55:00.003-05:00

Two quick pieces of information!

1- Sunday, I experienced my first earthquake here in Japan. It wasn't a big one, in fact, I thought that maybe a huge truck was going down the road, until I realized that it was wayyyyy too long of a time for that to happen and too much shaking (beside the fact that that never happens). The house was a vibratin' and the lamp overhead was swinging just a bit. I kinda just stood there in awe and looked up and thought, wow, it's an earthquake.

And then it stopped.

2- Not only that, but I also survived my first rush-hour train ride this morning. I went to school to sign up and have a trial class, and I was thinking as I got on the platform this morning- wow, there's a lot of people on this track. Not too many, but enough.

Then the train came up and the windows were... black. That's right, it was packed like sardines in there. There were about 6 people before me waiting to get in line. And I watched in amazement as the doors open. The business man who was standing in the middle where the doors meet stepped out for a second to let people off.

No one budged. Not that they could if they wanted to. So, he shrugged his shoulders and stepped backward, back into the train. And that, my friends, was when my eyebrows went up and my jaw went down. All I could think was, oh my gosh, how am I going to get on this train? There is literally no room.

And then I watched the people in front of me just step onto the train, pushing and they magically fit. The guy who was getting on at the same time as me, just went in shoulders first... and so in I kinda pushed myself too.

We were standing there, waiting for the doors to close and the train to go to the next stop when a guy came running down the stairs to the jump on the train, and what do you know- he jumped in right beside me. I was like... really?

Anyway, the doors closed, and thankfully not on me, but on the bag of that guy standing next to me. So, with an available hand, I tried to help pull it in and the officer on the platform helped push it in from outside as well.

On we went for a minute until the next stop, and as we pulled up, I saw even longer lines of people waiting to get on this train. And yes, comparatively fewer people got off the train than got on and farther into the train I got pushed.

If you had a personal bubble, it no longer would exist at this point, and boy, was it uncomfortable. I will leave it at that.

Anyway, thus I continued for most of the way to my destination: the last stop on my line. And the last 3 minutes or so, it was full-- certainly stuffed by any American standard, but it wasn't bad, and I felt free to breathe.

So, then was the hard part of navigating myself through the station to the exit that I needed to take and then actually make it to school, having only been there once before (mind you, once you're out of the station, it's pretty easy-- if you get the right exit.

And I didn't. In fact, I really went the wrong way, and when I got out, I had no idea which way to go. So, I prayed and asked God to guide me. More recently, I've particularly noticed that when I'm lost, I just kinda pray lightly and just go with the flow- trying to be observant, but not stressing out. So, I walked around the station (and I chose the right way!) and I just kept going until I recognized the street that I was supposed to continue on.

I made it to school on time and enjoyed my trial class, though it was really really easy. I registered, gave them money and all the things I had to take along, got my books and headed out, where I needed to go to a bookstore Mark had pointed me in the direction of. With the general directions, I just kinda made decisions as I went along and I made it perfectly there without having to backtrack or anything...

Anyway, I needed to buy the English version of my book (since it's all in Japanese) that also has grammatical notes. I did and headed back and was on a way better train- meaning that the seats were almost all taken and people randomly standing here and there.... It felt so beautiful.

In fact, I'm considering leaving earlier so I don't have to deal with the craziness.

But that's that, and I thought I'd share my adventurous day with you... Will write about the thank you party later. It was lovely.

Kitchen: Dealt With

2010-05-08T22:14:00.001-05:00

Well, what an interesting few days! I have lots to tell you. On that note, I won't bother you with Thursday's activities except to tell you that we went prayer walking and then I spent hours catching up on all the things that I had to do but hadn't had time to do.

So, Friday! I ran over to Debbie's house in the morning to work on the dance piece for the evening's street performance (alas, it rained and we weren't able to go). Afterward, I went to Shinjuku where my school will be. Shinjuku is one of those places that makes you feel very small. I guess it's the equivalent of being in Times Square? I don't know, I've never been there, but that's my impression.

Anyway, Shinjuku is roughly 20 minutes by express train from my stop, and then it's about a 15 minute walk, maybe 10 if your legs are longer than mine, which they probably are. But for me, it's about 15 minutes. I went there with Mark and talked with the admin people, or I guess anyhow. But it was pretty intimidating and the girl when she started off just like spoke with SUPER speed in Japanese and my head was reeling. My stress level jumped a little bit.

But there was a girl to do some translation and then I had a quick interview in Japanese where they asked me some questions. I'll still end up going in the beginner's class, even though I answered all the questions, but I'm actually happy about that. So, we talked about classes and cancellation/extention of classes, etc. It should be pretty easy to deal with. Afterward, I went to a kanji class while Mark visited all the teachers (he graduated two years ago). The kanji (picture words) is a self-study class from 12:30-1 where you study the kanji and then have 2 tests... one where you write the reading... for instance 四 is pronounced yon (and it means four). And then another test where you'd do it the opposite and the teachers help you along if you get something wrong on the test. So, I will definitely be taking advantage of that.

So, anyway, class will start from 8:50am to 1pm, everyday. Monday I go for a "trial class" for an hour... I guess to make sure that I'm sure I want to do this, and then pay them all my money, ha! But, actually, yeah, it is pretty steep. I need to go for a year, so I'm praying that finances will be available for it, because I really really do want to learn.

Also, on my way over there on train, I got a gift from Mark and Yuiko! A stamp with my last name in katakana (the Japanese script for foreign words)! I was so excited and I've shown it to everyone, because now I feel more Japanese. Anyway, it had to be special ordered, and I need one to open a bank account here, which I need to do for a class that I'm teaching as a way of direct deposit.

Anyway, like I said, I was really excited. So, after grabbing a bite to eat in Shinjuku, I headed back on train like 25 minutes (on the rapid express this time :) to teach my other English class at a coffee shop. I really enjoy this class, but I was particularly excited this week because as I was preparing for it on Thursday night, I learned something about English: how the order of adjectives goes. You know how when people start describing something and they list like a million words and it just sounds wrong if someone says something in a different order? Well, I learned the order for it on Thursday evening, and I was really excited as I tested it out for myself to see if the book was right.

It was.

So, afterward, I ran to a store real quick in that area and then went back to the church for our prayer time for the FUSE and people going and different needs that we have. We had a meal together after that and then was the Fuse band practice, which I took part of this week since I'm played the bass on Saturday and will play in two weeks' time. I was kinda nervous about it, because I wanted to do well, and because everyone else is just soooo good. So, I practiced really hard and was a good Japanese. :) Practice went pretty well, and I earned myself a blister, as I was running out of blisterless fingers to play on.

Afterward, I hung out with Saki, Yoshi, Tom and Christine was there too. And we all just sat around and chitchatted but we had good talks about baptism and about the ups and downs of your walk with God. I made it home around 11:30 at night and was so tired.

Saturday was the Fuse and we did street performance during the day beforehand and handed out flyers and invited people. The band did pretty well, but I didn't do such a good job with the icebreaker game... it was clear to me what I was saying, but I don't think I made complete sense to everyone else. Anyway, that went over and then Debbie gave the message for the last time.

Afterward, we had supersmall groups and it was pretty cool in that we were: me (American), my roommate So (Korean), Fabiana (Brazilian) and Kaori (Japanese)... Between us, we spoke 4 languages, and it was a lot of fun. I led the group and whatever I said in English, then afterward, I would say it in Spanish to Fabiana (the two languages are understandable between each other), and at the same time So-chan would translate it for Kaori-chan. So, we had a great time talking about "connecting with God", since the message was on John 15. We were able to really encourage one another, but praying took a while afterward, since we translated the prayers because Kaori wanted a a translation (she's still on her way with a decision).

In the evening, after I got home around 7:30, I kinda chillaxed and got some more stuff done and then talked to my family via skype. Then... then. I got to sleep, and it was so nice.

Well, this week, I'll tell you from the start I don't know how much blogging I'll get to do. I'll be leaving my house around 7:30 everyday and won't get home until about 10 each night, with the exception of tomorrow. But, it's going to be a very long week- since there's a conference to go to, and then straight into Fuse activities over the weekend. So, pray for energy for me, and I'll get back to ya'll just as soon as I can.

Golden Week Indeed!

2010-05-04T21:09:00.003-05:00

It's a beautiful day, and I'm sitting in my new tatami-floor apartment with the sun shining in through the windows that are 3/4 the height of my wall. It's so nice!

I still have yet to deal with the kitchen, although my roommate made some progress either last night or this morning. I don't know which, but I know that there are few things in there now.

So, these last few days, like I've said, have been crazy!!! Last Friday, I left my apartment... the other one, mind you, at 8:30 in the morning and got home around 11... at night. During the day, I did a number of things, including making a special power point for the girls who were leaving and practising bass with our bassist who was leaving, aned cooking for approximately 20 people some Mexican dishes. I think it was a success, and it gave me pleasure to be able to cook something that everyone liked.

In the evening, the band had practice, and I went down there to snap some shots of the last practice with the girls. Mark and Yuiko's baby girl was down there too, and we were having a lot of fun playing with her and teaching her to dance (she's 2) while the band practised loudly in the background. Anyway, it was during this time that I was jumping around and I jumped up and came back down on the corner of a metal case that carries pedals for guitars. I was more worried that I broke it (the box), when the initial throb of pain went away. Mark was like, oh, are you okay? I was like oh yeah, and then I looked down at my foot.

I had a pretty deep cut in it and it was starting to bleed. Debbie came down and I asked if she had any Neosporin. So, she took me back up to her place, and cleaned up my foot, since is was on the sole of my foot and near the outer edge. I'll spare you mose of the details, but I did have to clean blood off the stair.

Fun times!

Afterward, we went to Shinyurigaoka and had street performance. We had conversations with a few people and passed out flyers. So great!

Saturday, we went and prayer walked and passed out flyers before Fuse for a few hours and then had the Fuse event. It was pretty packed in our place! We had 35 people there, and a few new people! Saki debuted on piano, which was pretty cool, especially since our pianist was leaving! Afterward, we all went to karaoke and got to see a few personalities come out as we sang together. LOTS of laughs and tons of bonding moments. That was another late night getting to bed.

Sunday! Wow, Sunday was a long day. I left my place at like 8:45am or something like that and we went to a baptism in a place called Aikawa. Fabiana, who comes to the Fuse and who is also a part of the Brazilian church started by PAZ. Through a "team effort", she came to know Jesus as well. Sunday she got baptized, along with another girl, and Debbie, from our team got to be part of baptizing her since she was doing discipleship with her.

It was a great big celebration with lots of food, as it was a big Brazilian barbecue as well... and wow! It was great!!! Delicious. I also caught up with my friends from the Brazilian church that I had met last year. I got my share of talking in Spanish as it's pretty interchangable... not completely but we can certainly understand each other, and a few people who speak Portuguese also speak Spanish itself. I felt very content.

Well, I baked during the day... the sun was out and it was beautiful, and I was out in it to show it! I came home slighly lobster-ish, but very happy. I think I got home around 7:45pm from it, and I was sooo tired. I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to do including packing, since we were moving. But I was so tired that I felt like I couldn't even concentrate or function. So, at 8:11pm, I turned off my lights.

And at 8:41am, I got up. I was SO very tired. But anyway, I spent my morning packing and then went to the Indian restaurant with a group since that's where the girls wanted to go and it was their last day. After packing some more, in the evening, I went to Hannah and Amy's goodbye party and we packed the place and had lots of food and shared memories. We prayed for them, watched the slide show and the girls cried, of course. The party dwindled down, and I ended up staying the night there (though at 1:30, I ran back to my house to get my stuff)...

And after 3 hours of sleep, I got right back up to start the day by getting ready for a breakfast for 20 something people who were coming to see Hannah and Amy off to the train station. We did, and then I rushed back to my house to cram pack all the things that I had yet to pack. In an hour, I was ready and then were like... oh no-- the kitchen!

We ended up getting most of it packed, and the guys, who had only slept 1 hour, stayed to help. What a group! We were sooo tired, but they made heroic efforts and didn't complain once, even though I was moving to a 2nd floor apartment, where you have to squeeze past a washing machine to get to it. And I do mean there's about 18 inches of space to get past-- so they had to lift things.

But I really felt blessed by them.

Anyhow, we ate back at the church and So-chan (my roommate) and I saw them off at 4ish in the afternoon and we went back to our place to unpack most of what we'd just packed in the morning (ok, not all of it).

We had the Fuse planning meeting on Skype at 7, which was nice since it was such a long day. And afterward, all I wanted was a shower and sleep.

Now, the girls who had lived here before showed me how to use this shower, but for some reason, it wasn't working the way it was supposed to... and it does involved gas and lighting something.

I'm pretty sure everyone knows my aversion to anything gas related, and so I called Debbie and... off I raced on my bike at 9pm to go shower at the church.

It felt so wonderful to be clean and I came back to the house to finish up some things and to sleep. It felt incredible to lay down and to close my eyes and relax and know that I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn today.

Anyway, that's a catch up of the last few days, and today I'll go clean the other apartment and we'll celebrate Debbie's 22nd birthday this evening with sushi and games, etc. Today, I believe, is also the end of the holiday week and so, we'll also return to our normal schedule tomorrow.

Even though it was a holiday, it felt so crazy and not at all a vacation! Although, I have no reason to complain, I felt it was an excellent last few days and I've gotten to know more of our group and hang out with them. One of the new guys coming to the Fuse has been there at all the events of the last few days and he's just so excited to be part of the group. I really can't wait to see what God's going to do with him when he gets to know Jesus more.

Wonderful people! I love the Japanese and I can't wait until I'm able to talk to them more in their own language instead of depending on English. :)

And, as promised, here's another upward umbrella... notice that both are turned inside out! Dedicated to Vonda.

Posting this is my way of avoiding unpacking our kitchen...

2010-05-04T04:22:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay-- the last few days have been a marathon of being gone from the house for more than 12 hours at a time... and then packing when I got home in order to move today, which we did! On 3 hours of sleep!

Anyhow, more to come. Included will be Fuse last Saturday and Karaoke afterward, Fabiana's baptism on Sunday, goodbye party for Hannah and Amy on Monday... which inevitably lasted til 3am and today's moving adventures!

SO very tired, but glad that it's over and I get to get some sleep soon.

Love and Cheese...

2010-04-29T09:39:00.005-05:00

I got an ad today for a great deal! $27 Large Delivery Pizza from Dominos... and the banner across the ad said exactly that: Love and Cheese. That better be an amazing, true-love producing King-Kong size pizza for $27.

As is typical in my lifestyle lately, I've had a marathon last 48 hours. Since last writing, on Wednesday morning, it took a lot of persuasion to convince me that getting up that morning was God's will for my life. The fact that I only had an hour to get ready for the day and be somewhere was the final deciding factor.

Against the idea of getting up was the fact that I felt like I hadn't slept at all and that it was pouring rain outside... not just the constant, soaking drizzle that had been there the whole day before, but all out rain storm. I managed to drag myself out of bed though.

I know, I should receive immediate sainthood.

Anyway. We had self-study Japanese class for two hours, where I seriously studied some kanji. It might be easier if there was only one reading for each kanji... but the thing is, when you learn it, you need to learn the stroke order of it, what it means in English (a variety of meaning sometimes), and also, the different ways it can be pronounced depending on how it's used.

I'm actually not complaining, but I do apologize if you're unhappy about reading this... because in a few weeks, you're going to start hearing a lot of this kind of stuff about the language.

But you'll also get to read a lot of my mess ups in Japanese... saying one thing instead of another.

So, anyway, then we had prayer and went to Senshu Univ. to do outreach... we didn't get a whole lot done... so no exciting stories... but some days are like that. You just keep pressing on and praying and trusting that God will do something.

Speaking of prayer, Debbie mentioned on Tuesday that she noted that ever since we started prayer walking Machida each week, that that Saturday we've had someone come off the streets to Fuse, that we had met that very day. Last Friday, you know, we had the 12 hour prayer thing, and on Saturday we had 2 people come off the streets.

So, prayer is powerful!

After Senshu, I took Sally back to my house to grab some stuff and we set off to do some quick errands and then go to the church... I made it back 15 minutes before Japanese class started, where one of the guys taught us the difference between particles in Japanese.

An hour+ later, we got out, and left to go to a Bible study. It was the last evening in the session, and we actually finished in good time... by 9pm. When we got back, I helped Christine with some stuff to be mentioned later and then made some truffles-- for 2 reasons.

First, today (now Thursday... ok, Friday, by the time I'm writing this actually) was Mark and Yuiko's 5th anniversary, and she really likes mint. Second, I'm making dinner for our team meal on Friday, and so this would serve as a dessert too.

Okay, so we had originally planned on going to the famous fish market called Tsukiji, and made all kinds of plans of spending the night, but the fish market took a break for some odd reason, and there was no auction. So, we didn't have to get up at 5am as planned, but that's good, considering we didn't go to bed until 2am.

However, the alarm did go off at 6:45. We had breakfast together, which was really nice, and then went to Sagamiono to drop off Mark and Yuiko's "love basket"... that had popcorn, a picture, chocolates and a card in it.

It dawned a GORGEOUS day. Ridiculously beautiful. BUT... out of nowhere, we got to Sagamiono and it started to rain. Hannah had had a dream the night before that we were on the way and we met Mark and Yuiko in the street. So, I just said a one liner, Lord, please do not let Mark and Yuiko leave yet.

We finally made it to Mark and Yuiko's apt., and I do mean finally because we tried a number of side streets until we found THE ONE that leads to their street... all along the way laughing and having fun. We met Kengo at Sagamiono, who was celebrating his one year of being a Christian today too! We were really excited about that, and I had a great time getting to know him today, since a lot of the others know him.

Anyway, we stopped to get some umbrellas again (at the dollar store, and we shared them), but... the wind was too strong and blew them inside out again. Actually, to two of us, it did it at the same moment! We got some good laughs.

So, we get to Mark and Yuiko's house and drop the basket and ring the doorbell, and wait for them. Yuiko was thinking about not opening the door because salesmen had been coming by, but Hannah nudged Kengo, who said something-- who knows what, in Japanese, and she answered the door (we were hiding now)... and they were really surprised and blessed.

As it turns out, we found out that they were ready to leave when all of a sudden it started raining and they were only waiting for it to stop and get a few things together before they left. Hmm... now isn't that amazing? By the way, it had been clear for only a few minutes when we dropped the basket off and it didn't rain anymore.

Stupid umbrellas. :)

I'll skip a lot of the details of the rest of the day and just let you know that I took a quick nap when I finally got home mid-afternoon and then ran to do more stuff this evening. Now, it's Friday morning, and I'm hoping to get to bed soon after I finish one more thing.

I knew though, that I wouldn't have time to post tomorrow, and so, I wanted to let you know about our fantastic activities today.

Oh, and the reason why we didn't do a whole lot of activities today is that it's a holiday here in Japan. It's Shoowa day, a day to reflect on the events of the Shoowa period. It also marks the start of Golden week, which is next week... which of course, falls perfectly to meet our needs/activities... to be discussed lately. Anyway, if you want, google Golden week/holidays in Japan and you'll find out what this is all about.

That's what I did anyway. :)

So, I'll post pictures soon that you'll enjoy, especially per wishes of Vonda... I think God may have heard you? :).... but yes, pics will be posted. We'll all be happy, but... I need to get to bed. Catch ya'll later!!

Nin-chan, warrior sensei...

2010-04-27T06:03:00.002-05:00

I am happy to say that I am nearly done with my cold. YES.

So, I haven't been too incredibly busy in the last few days, though this week should change that. That being said, I made sure I took yesterday off, until 6ish anyhow, when I left to go to Machida to meet two girls who are contacts/friends of the girls (short-termers) here. We met up at Starbucks, so I could meet them and we could hang out and I could become friends with them so we wouldn't lose the contact.

It was a great meeting, and I ended up with an invitation to go out to Kamakura, where the girls are from. So, I think we got along really well and I look forward to pursuing this friendship with them so they can establish a much more important one!

Anyway... I don't even know what time I got home last night. I wanna say between 10:30 and 11. Not that it matters, but it made for a tired Janine today... not to mention that I dragged a bass on my back and a backpack with my Bible and laptop and purse stuffed on it on my front side. I'm sure it made for an interesting picture.

Well, let's see. At the prayer breakfast this morning, we all shared out of quiet times and then split up into groups for prayer. My roommate was in the group too, but she had to leave quickly afterward to head to her college. Her bike was already at the church, so she was like, why don't you take my bike home, since your's is at home?

Then, as she was getting her key for it, she said with her Korean accent, I just realized that I'm so smart.

We died laughing. No, it wasn't that she got into the top university in Japan. It was that she thought ahead of the double benefit of me taking her bike home.

Now, let me mention that I got only a little bit down the road on the bike before it started raining. So, I walked the bike the rest of the way home. Joy!

Anyhow. I rushed to my English class... which... wow, do you know how many activities you have to plan for 2 6 year olds in a 35 minute period? Let's just say this class could get interesting, but they are super cute. They may already know this.

So, the kids call me Janine-sensei. Is that not really cool? For real. I feel like I've been imparted with some special ability and the accompanying aura when that happens... and then class starts.

To accompany this greatness: My nickname here, among the group and at the Fuse is: Nin-chan. (Neen-chan)... which sounds like Ninja when you say it.... Janine-sensei... Nin-chan...

Yes, I am destined for black masks and karate moves.

So, this morning, in the line of less superficial (though amusing) things... we talked about some of the things going on here... and what God is doing in the lives of some of the kids... and how some of them are at a decision point and different family influences going on. Family is super important here... Like in a co-dependent sort of way. There's lots of books about it.

But some of the group had a good conversation with a young man here, who spent lots of time at the Fuse and is really a part of the community and thought he was a Christian, but he hadn't quite understood it all yet (not that you have to understand everything)-- but the whole message of the cross when he talked, you knew he didn't understand. One person in particular had a long talk about it with him and challenged him on it... and he walked away a little hurt by it... but a couple of nights later (not sure on the time frame when that first conversation had), when on the subject with someone else who didn't know about this previous conversation, he said, I believe that Jesus came to die on the cross and save me... I believe it though he has some issues with proclaiming it because of his father. So, we were really happy to see that God has been working on his heart and that he really thought about where he stood with Christ. God definitely has a call on his life, and so we are waiting to see what God is going to do. Even now, he was talking about how his mom says that he's changing, being nicer... and he was complaining the other day-- I can't even litter anymore!

There's another girl who seemed to be in the same boat last December, but then she had a definite, deep experience with God, and she drastically changed. God has a real call on her life too! She still has a fear of rejection from her family, but we're trusting and waiting on God to work with her on that.

One of the other guys, who I think I wrote about, Ma-kun, he's become a Christian... and boy, can you see he's a changed man! We're believing for many stories like this!!

Anyway... I need to get to a few other things and then I'd like to make up tonight for the sleep that I missed last night.

Catch ya'll later!

Dead Pan!

2010-04-24T06:02:00.002-05:00

So, it's 8pm here and I am yawning so much and am soooo tired. What a long day it's been-- and it's been a shorter than usual day (ok, by an hour)...

Although, some of us have been known to get home from Saturdays and be in bed at 8.

Anyway, Thursday, I went back to my regular schedule... We prayer walked through Machida and then went to our Japanese classes. It was raining though and a bit chilly... Rain here is like constant drizzle... but more than drizzle... And it doesn't stop.

However, today and tomorrow it will be nice... I'm still hoping to make it to like 70. Because lately it's been like 55-60.

Enough about the weather... I had a good time in a planning meeting for May with Debbie. We planned out the basic weekly schedule for the team and what outreaches we'll do when and if and what we'll do for special events for the Fuse. So, May should be busy, but one thing especially is that I'm going to try to take care of how much I do... because I don't want to over run myself since I'll be starting school in a few weeks.

Friday we had a special event of 12 hours of prayer and worship. Some of the girls really had it on their heart to do that, and so we all put it together and some of us took hour-long slots to choose a topic of prayer and lead the prayer time in that. Not all of us were there for all of it, but it was a powerful time!

Today was obviously the Fuse meeting and I had the opportunity to speak. I was asked to share my testimony and make it into a message also, and let it be appropriate for people who've never ever heard the Gospel (or about Jesus), appropriate for new believers and challenging for those who have been believers for a while. And we try to take 20-30 minutes sharing, but not more, and keep in mind, you have a translator... :D

But I think it met all those requirements and I worked really hard at re-phrasing what I was saying a million times in preparation to get it just right. We also had a lot of new people, so I was glad to have the opportunity to share the Gospel with them for the first time. In Japan, I don't think that altar calls are really done... and I think that's because it would just be weird in Japan. But through conversations that we have afterward, we can tell where someone is heading and help them along if they're really interesting in being a friend of Jesus.

A couple of weeks ago, Ma-kun, who is a friend of a guy who goes to the "sister-church" of the Fuse, Noborito Ekklesia, here in our neck of the woods... and Ma-kun has been going to both the church and the Fuse, but he wasn't ready to receive it yet though he was very open. He recently decided to follow Jesus, and boy can you really see the difference. He's definitely a changed man. Mark was saying that Ma-kun went to his life group (discipleship group), and when reading some of the verses from the Bible, he was just about ready to cry from them. You can really see a new life in him and joy, love and hope that he didn't have before.

That's very exciting-- and we're expecting more of those stories!!

Last week, after we went bowling, we wanted to take a group picture and so we stopped three guys and asked them to take a pic. They were really cool about it, and funny too, and so we invited them to the Fuse (not because they were funny :). Anyway, this week they came!! And one of the guys, actually- the one who took the picture, seemed like he was really touched by today and felt really good... So, those kinds of expressions you want to hear, and I think he was really sincere in it. We're excited to have them all be a new part of the community!!

Also, today, we were headed back from lunch and Hannah and I stopped to talk to a few girls that we saw standing and give them flyers and invite them to the Fuse. Later, there were two girls walking behind us and so we stopped and turned around and gave them invitations... and they came! I know I shouldn't be surprised, because that's what it's about... but we do give out a lot of flyers and many other ones also don't bother to take them... so to see some people that we gave them out to show up that same afternoon was really cool! May they come back!!

Well, I don't have any funny stories lately... though I am putting together an album of "bad translations" and just other funny things you see in Japan. Here you see SO many weird things and people dressed weird, and it's just so amusing and endearing to me... For instance, I was thinking about that this evening when I went to the convenience store (there's one located just about every other block)... a guy came in with it looked like a scuba-driving suit from the top half of his body (including the "hoodie" of it) and basketball shorts on bottom and like super-spandex and lined pants underneath... I couldn't focus too much on it, because it would have been rude to stare... but I was like, OH Japan.

I really need to figure out how the Japanese are soooo good at "dead pan" face. They're super good at controlling their own features so that you don't know what they think or feel about something when you say it, but they can also read other people's faces really well...

That's a huge difference from Mexico where everyone is so expressive.

Anyway... I'm going to bed now... or at least to chill out and read and fall asleep. The thought of a good night's sleep makes me happy right now. :)

G'night ya'll.

It's all a bit fuzzy...

2010-04-21T03:54:00.006-05:00

Sorry about the delay people. I've spent most of today sleeping with a box of kleenex by my bed... Obviously, this was not written in my calendar.

Monday, we got home from a long day... actually, I arrived home around 11:30, and as soon as I laid down, it was like I got sick. Now- today- Wednesday, I slept from midnight last night till 1pm today, with a brief, slightly awake period of a half-hour at maybe 10am. My roommate came into my room, wondering what was going on with me, and she was really kind, and gave me some meds. I think I was running a pretty decent fever... anyway, after being really sweet and getting me water, she left and I fell asleep for who knows how much longer and woke up sweating pretty nastily. I'm still congested, and overall pretty groggy and tired. But, I shall survive.

Anyway, let's recap the last few days. The last time I posted, I was whining about the moodiness of the weather... and I'm not kidding, there were like 15-20 degree differences between days. In fact, overnight into Saturday, it snowed in Tokyo, and by Sunday morning, I could wear a light jacket. The Fuse was really good on Saturday though, and Mark spoke on "The Real Thing" and used David as an example, about being the real deal instead of just looking or pretending the part.

We went bowling afterward, and everyone really enjoyed themselves. It was cool to see some of the Japanese Christians really following up with the new people there!

Sunday morning, we had a Bible study, and I got to talk to my mom for about a half hour before leaving for that. Afterward, I worked on my message for this weekend, and then went to Amy's house, where she helped me with some of the songs on bass. I'm going to play on two weekends at the Fuse, since there's need. And she's been kind enough to help me out.

Let's skip to Monday... we left AT 10:30 on a "family vacation", with Tim and Christine, and all us young people. Nicely compacted in the car, we headed south for two hours to a city called Atami. There, we sat on the beach and had a picnic lunch and then just went to explore and sightsee. It was beautiful!! I said at one time-- WAY on the other side of this ocean is the US.

Anyway, like I said, it was beautiful. We sat on the beach... and drove past other beaches with surfers. At one point, on some kind of dock thing, there was an eel laying on the ground. It was dieing and I felt really bad for it. I was like, throw it back in the water!! Tim did, and I'm glad... I wonder how it got there! It didn't look like a fishing spot.

Afterward, we visited some cliff types of areas that were particularly beautiful... and we drove to many other places, getting in and out of the car. In the evening, we went to an onsen, Japanese hot springs and bathing facilities, and we girls did some real bonding. The water was ridiculously hot, and your skin just kinda tingles. I joked that the bubbles in the middle were not from water being pumped up, but because it was boiling.

That could be another reason why I got sick. After being in basically a sauna and super hot water for about a half hour, we left and, obviously, it was chillier outside. We had dinner at a restaurant, laughed really really hard, and got home at 11, from where I biked home.

Tuesday morning, I wasn't feeling so hot for the breakfast meeting/planning meeting from 8-12... But, I didn't have much of a choice but to keep going. I stopped by and picked up a card to put more money on my phone and then went to the government building to pick up my....

Alien Registration Card! That's right! I am now a registered alien, and I have an ID to prove it. I don't know, I feel more official now.

About an hour later, I left to go teach my English class. The students actually showed up this time, and they are really cute, though a bit quiet. The little girl made me an origami bracelet type thing while I was getting ready to leave and before her mom arrived. Very cute.

Getting home-- oh my gosh. Not only was it rush hour anyway on the trains, but there was an "accident"... which means that someone committed suicide by jumping in front of the train. This is very common in Japan. Anyway, in a very, very hot crowded train, I stood, feeling pretty nasty, and sorry for whatever happened, but really wishing for the train to leave again. It took me close to an hour and a half to get home, when it normally takes 20 minutes on an express.

We had game night, and I went for about an hour and a half, and used... the mask. Those white face masks that you see the Japanese wearing... it's kind to wear them to not spread your germs to everyone. Within not long, I was told to go home, because I looked like death warmed over.

And that successfully brings us to today, and now, while I'm sitting here typing this with a kleenex sticking out of my nose. Beautiful, I know. But you gotta do whatcha gotta do.

I should blog again before this weekend, but if you think of it-- Saturday, I'm speaking at the Fuse, doing a testimony/message... Pray for me!

I want Spring Already!

2010-04-16T09:39:00.002-05:00

Lately, it seems like I have a hard time remembering what I did the day before-- much more before that. There is SO much that goes on... you really should see my planner. In fact, I bought a bigger one at the dollar store here because my other one was just too small.

Anyway. Yesterday we prayer walked through Machida at 9am. One of the huge values we have here is prayer... We are always praying and seeking God, before events, on behalf of friends and family, for everything that goes on and the people that we meet in all places... Always praying. And that's good-- after all, how can we expect to be working for God or even having a relationship with Him if we don't take the time to communicate with Him?

But yeah- in the year that the Fuse has been meeting in Machida, the city has be changed so much. There used to be drug lords on the corners, men hiring women-- even some of the girls on the team here were propositioned. But- now those people are gone. The city has changed, and that has been an answer to prayer.

So, then we had a two hour self-study of Japanese at a cafe in Machida. Let me tell you-- those can be brutal. I like a little interaction and not just sitting in front of a book with a notebook and pen. But, that's what it will require.

In the afternoon, we had another Japanese class taught by a guy here who speaks Japanese. He helped us with particles. Particles are little words that mark the position of a word in a sentence. For instance, take this sentence:

Watashi wa Machida ni ikiimasu.
I (part.) Machida (part.) Verb- go
Wa marks Watashi (I) as the subject. Ni marks Machida as a directional... thing. I don't know. Anyway, what you get is I am going to Machida... or I go to Machida.

So yeah-- he helped us with "ga" and "wo" particles. Wo marks a direct object. Ga, I'm still working on that one... but apparently this guy's friend had an inch-and-a-half book on the difference between "wa" and "ga".

I hope to be starting language school soon. In fact, I was talking to Tim last night about it, and he was asking about my finances- if I was going to be able to afford it. I said I would go month-by-month, seeing if it was affordable for the next month. Really, it's best to focus for 2 years on the language, 1 year for most countries is require by missions agencies, but Japanese is kinda complex in the writing, particularly, so- 2 is suggested. But, again, at the same time, I'll be balancing that with Fuse responsibilities... so- we'll see how that all goes... but it's best to start on it right when you get there.

Along those lines of finances, he recommended that a single missionary really should have $2000 monthly support. Let's just say that I'm not there. I need about $800 more monthly support to make it there... so, be praying about that! God has been good to provide so far-- but please do pray!!

Last night, after getting everything finally taken care of, was a free night for me! Granted, I had plenty to do here, but it was nice to sit on my heated carpet, and do things here at the house... because BOY- is it COLD. It's supposed to get down to winter temperatures in the next few days... But then get to the 60s later next week... It's been like 70 for a day and then low 50s and rainy for a few days. So, I think I'm trying to catch a cold.

Today, I mostly did a few errands, and had my private English lesson. In the evening, we had prayer and then a meal together. I did some homework with a girl from Bible study and then just had good conversations with the missionary girls and my roommate.

Speaking of that-- I've been having good conversations with her lately. She was telling me how her life really had changed and the things God has been doing since she moved to Japan. She's from Korea, and she said that when she came over her, she wasn't a sincere Christian. But now, she's really growing, and I've had the privilege of being able to share with her some things about walking with Christ and just in the practical everyday kinda stuff... It's been quality. Even tonight walking home, we had a really good conversation.

Today I took my first wrong train. I got on a "rapid express" from Sagamiono, thinking that it would stop at my stop. We stopped at one station, and I was expecting mine to be the next, and I got distracted watching a group of boys trying to get the attention of this really pretty girl. I was smiling to myself at them, and admiring their hair (because Japanese guys have really cool hair). All of a sudden, I got to thinking that I had been on their a while, and as we passed a couple of the stations, I knew that I didn't recognize their names. When it finally stopped, I was way beyond my station, and had to figure out how to get to the right platform going the opposite direction to my station.

I asked one lady how to get to the platform, and she most kindly directed me. When I got there, I asked a student if the particular express train that was coming next stopped at my stop. She informed me it did, and she was on the same train. She got off two stops later, and as she got off, she looked at me and kinda asked-- are you okay? I answered yes, and said thank you (a million times). It always makes me smile when the Japanese help me.

Up til now, I've always gotten on the right train. But I knew it was bound to happen eventually. I wasn't too worried, but looking at the map-- wow! I went a LONG way past my stop... where they didn't stop.

Alright, I'm going to bed now! Tomorrow will be a pretty long day and I want to be prepared for it. :D Catch ya'll later!

As Promised...

2010-04-13T09:24:00.004-05:00

Are you in suspense yet? I'm sure you are after that intriguing theater promise yesterday...

Our story starts off in Sagamiono where I teach an English class... will get to that in a moment, but after that, I headed to the train station to meet the rest of the crew to do a street performance. We set up, Joe got some joe from McD's (which I still owe him for, as he was doing the coffee run. oops.) We got our flyers in hand and started passing them out to those who looked interested as they passed by and to those who stopped to listen. To them, we try to start up conversations. Sometimes it's creative conversation as there can be language barriers. I found myself there last night-- first with an old lady who stopped. Beside not being able to hear her, I had no idea what was going on... I did know if she was asking at one point if I was a student. The other girl, a university student, stopped and I talked with her for I don't know how long... 40 minutes or so?

And no. She didn't speak English. But she was pretty interested in what we were doing, and I pulled out every little bit of Japanese that I could squeeze out of my limited vocab. BUT, I'm praying that I'll see her again! At the Fuse....

Speaking of singing, I got my first taste of Japanese style karaoke on Monday. The girls wanted to have a girls day out, and so we went to a local karaoke place, and we had our own room rented, for pretty cheap (since in the evening it is more expensive)... there was also the "drink bar", where you can get all kinds of sodas, coffee, capucchino, all unlimited. A soup bar (only 2 soups), and an ice cream bar. All in all, it was pretty cheap, since we split it up between us all.

We have quite a few singers in our group, and even if they don't normally do singing, they at least know how to sing. I don't. And I don't sing well. But it didn't stop me from trying! All in all, it gave us some good laughs and I enjoyed it far more than I anticipated I was going to enjoy it.

Back to Sagamiono. On Tuesday afternoon, during the hour and a half I had at home to get ready and eat lunch, my bed was pretty full of clothes that I'd tried on looking for the right outfit. I had no idea what I was going to wear, but eventually I did find something that looked kinda professional, but not too much. Eh. I have a feeling I'll be wearing the same two outfits repeatedly.

I got to the place I teach at and met my fellow teacher, who teaches the first part of the class. She basically told me that she was going to teach the text and manual that we get, and I get to do the extra practice and extra activities. I was like... OH. Hmm... what am I going to do??? But, I'm not too bad at improvising and so I came up with a quick lesson plan and got everything ready...

Only to have no students show up. I have two first graders in this class (not much, I know, but it's good to start off small). One's sibling had mumps and the other... well, she didn't show. So. All prepared was I, and my room at home in disarray to have no student.

At least I'm prepared for next week!

So, we all took the train home. One of the things you often deal with on the trains is crowded-ness! Often, it's our bonding time, and we end up with good stories, like the time the train started to stop and I began to fall backward... and having no hand ring to hold onto, I grabbed one of my teammate's jacket collars with incredible force to keep me from falling. What I didn't mention is that she was sitting [read: straddling] the suitcase that carried our mini-amp. If I was going down, I was gonna take her down with me.

We do, when it's not too crowded, like to surf. Like, stand in a surfing position, without losing your balance. However, we try not to be too obnoxious, because most people are sitting, very condensed (arms in and everything), and either reading, sleeping or listening to their mp3 players.

However, I promised you "violence" on here. Taking Hannah down (or trying to) wasn't it: when I don't have a seat on the train, I stand and hold on to one of the myriad of rings hanging. However, when I have to move to accommodate for other people moving, I have a tendency of moving and then letting go of my ring, if needed. I should just let go. But, I did whack some guy in the head as he was trying to get off the train. And it wasn't just like a small bump, it was a full out whack in the forehead. I felt really bad, but I couldn't do much beside call out "sumimasen!" behind him as he was now rushing off the train. Sumimasen means excuse me!

So, yes, those are some of the things you learn to do (or not do) in another country. But it's enjoyable.

Among other things, I think I'll be starting Japanese classes soon-- as in, a couple of weeks, if all goes well with finances, which I'm trusting God that it will. Things are pretty busy with doing outreaches, studies (Japanese, Bible), prayer meetings and planning and trying to make connections with the people I meet. It's all great, and busy. I actually was thinking today that I needed to sit down and organize how I was going to spend my free hours... :) I still want to reserve most of my day off for relaxing/ doing whatever.

But anyway, things will be getting busier, so we'll see how things go!

Stay tuned for more exciting times!

OH- Today, I was ordering some food at the place where we do our Japanese self-study classes, and they told me it would be a few minutes and to just sit down. I replied, Hai! Está bien! which translated is: (Japanese:) Yes! (Spanish:) That's fine!

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You...

2010-04-13T09:22:00.003-05:00

Tune in tomorrow for street performances, first day of work, karaoke and Janine's subway aggression...

Recovered from my triathlon

2010-04-11T08:27:00.003-05:00

I can hear one of my neighbors snoring... I don't know which neighbor it is, but I can very clearly hear them. Now, I don't hear everyday activities-- walking around yes, but I don't understand why I can hear them snore... Maybe it's since they sleep on the floor...

My roommate's mom came from Korea today. She's really, really sweet. I've actually only been in contact with her for like 5 minutes, as both of us have been gone in opposing times today. As I was coming home, with very tired feet and a few groceries in one hand, I saw them walk out of our entrance to the apartments. Her face lit up, and her mom greeted me. But, when my roommate-- So-chan- told her that I was her roommate (or, I guess that's what she said), she lit up, her eyes, big, and she threw her arms around me to give me a hug. It was pretty darn cute.

They just got home from going to church and then going out to dinner with someone from there.

Yesterday... when did I last write?... Oh, yeah, when I had been worn to pieces by running, biking and mountain climbing in a day. Friday, I was at Sagami-ono for a meeting for my class-- to get the curriculum for the class that starts Tuesday (nothing like good preparation). It took all of 20 minutes to be introduced to the place, around, discuss pay, etc.

I left and decided to stop by Starbucks down at the corner... I debated in my head and then decided to go ahead, after thinking that it would be good to sit and have some peace after all the things I've been doing lately. As I was ordering, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and it was Yuiko! She was coming for her peace and quiet time-- her "hour off". So, we sat down and chatted and got to know each other better. It was really nice.

Saturday we had a really good Fuse meeting. We were able to pass out a lot of flyers in the streets (we walk the streets around Machida for like 2 hours, but we do have lunch in that time)... and there were quite a few new people at the Fuse. Also- we had out guitar player Kengo back from the States. Debbie gave a great message on The Power of Words... and in our Super-small group right after it, my group had a good discussion about times when words influenced us for the good or for the bad... and then we encouraged each other in things. It was really cool-- and one of the girls really shared-- in fact, everyone in our group shared something. Afterward, we all hung out at a cafe, which is where we all go out to eat and get to know each other a little more. It's particularly good for new comers, but in general, the fellowship is always good.

Anyway, I think that this Fuse meeting went very, very well! I'm very happy with it!

Today, I got to Skype with my family and then went with the rest of the Fuse team to Jesus Lifehouse which is what the Fuse is kinda modeled after. Jesus Lifehouse is the fastest growing church in Japan, and I was pretty impressed with it. There were people from all over there, and it was a great, great message, very relevant to the Japanese culture... and beside that, it was exciting to see so many Japanese people worshiping God there.

It proves that the Japanese are open to the Gospel! God is here in Japan! I was inspired that our small church plant will grow also, and that we will reach many Japanese in the Machida area.

For my odd fact of the day: not that I usually have one, but..
We were discussing some kanji written on our board advertising the Fuse yesterday. It said: 本日　　This means: today. There's another way to write today, which is 今日　but apparently, that first one also means today... and that's how Yuiko chose to write it, and since she's Japanese, she wins. So, anyway, she wrote this and Mark was saying that it meant today-- he said the pronunciation, but I don't remember it at the moment. I said, wait-- if you switch those around, doesn't that mean Japan? 日本　Which sounds completely different from what it sounds like if you switch it around.

In case you didn't know-- kanji, which are those picture words, in Japanese, have multiple readings (for example, when you see 日　it can be pronounced like a million ways, depending on the word/context). And if you combine it in different ways, it can mean different things... so. Lots of fun!! But many Japanese have consoled me in that- it's hard for them to read it sometimes too!

So, tomorrow we're going to do some girls' time... I made some salsa for it... but I probably need to get to bed, since I'm going to be tonsa busy on my day off...

Moving to Tokyo means becoming an athlete

2010-04-08T08:36:00.002-05:00

So, tonight my goal is rapidity. It's been a long day, as you will soon hear, and then you will justify me.

But first, a story from yesterday. I went to the evening girls Bible study, and as we were starting, I got a phone call (actually, it took a minute for me to figure out it was my phone). I excused myself, and it was the director from the YMCA. He was calling because a new class opened up and he wanted me to co-teach it, which is what they typically do for elementary students, as Mark told me today. Funny enough, it starts next week.

But, anyway, we set up some of the particulars. I was glad to confirm that it was his sincerity he was showing the other day in wanting to give me classes, but was unaware of the situation that I had originally been set up for. And, it's a foot in the door, for later on.

But, what's really cool is that a week ago (or so?), when we were sitting down to do planning, we had originally set one station for Tuesday evenings for street performance, and the one where the Y is for Friday evenings. As we were having our Fuse meeting on Tuesday afternoon, we decided to switch the stations on the days because they wanted us to get in early on Friday nights so we could get good sleep and prepare for Saturdays (which are long in and of itself).

So, what's really cool is that I'll now be teaching at the station on the same day that the team does street performances. What's even more interesting is that when my class gets done is right when they arrive at the station, so I can take the five minute walk on over and meet them there.

Awesome, no? The girls were super excited to hear about it.

But, today, I became a Tokyo-ite. I got up early, had a relaxing morning, and then, realized that I had left a couple of minutes later than I had originally planned (and I do mean like 5 minutes), and so I ran all the way to the station. I quickly went through the gates, putting my card to the machine, ran up the myriad of stairs, and as I was crossing the overpass to go down to platform, I looked out the window to see that... whoosh, there was leaving my train.

So, anyway, I had to take a local train and then catch the express at another station, and I was a few minutes late... but oh. Had I made it 45 seconds earlier to catch my first train! I also realized that my watch was 2 minutes faster than the train station's clock, so I set mine to it. No more missing my train!

When I got to the station, now like 9:40am by this time, we did prayer walking for almost an hour and then did self-study Japanese class for a long two hours. After that, Debbie and Amy and I went to a university to meet some contacts that they had made. It is a really hard university to be make contacts in, but after a long time, we had the opportunity to go back. It was okay. I wouldn't say great, but I also wouldn't say it was terrible.

When we left there, I came back to my home station and it was now like 2:20 in the afternoon. I had planned to meet this girl, Chitose, at the station to hang out. She came to the Fuse last Saturday and we had a good talk. She's really sweet, and she contacted me to get together. She offered to take me to two different places, and if I wanted, to show me around the two towns that I spend most time in. She was super kind about it (in fact, I found out later that before we went out, she had called the city hall to see about getting me a map of it in English. But alas, no English).

So, the place that I wanted to go was called Ikuta park. It's about a 10 minute bike ride or so from my house (which we had to stop, because I desperately needed other shoes). There was a slight uphill slope most of the way there, and then you have a small, but somewhat steep hill to BIKE up before parking the bike. Oh schnikies. I was shot by the time we got there... and I forgot to mention that at one point, I had put my foot down to kinda help with stopping/not crashing into random people, objects or other things on my obstactle course, and my shoe came off. So, I had to park my bike and go back and get my shoe... Oh my.

Anyway, the park was really pretty and the Japanese know how to do pretty. They're pretty awesome. So, then we decided that we were going to go to the observation tower... by climbing a mountain of stairs. Literally, we climbed up the mountain by stairs. I was beginning to consider that any chocolate consumed today would be amply made up for it in all the activities of the day.

We looked around, and of course, with the Shinjuku skyline in the distance and the tops of the cherry blossom trees at waist length to you, it can't help but be beautiful. There's really no use in trying to explain it-- I'll try to post pictures tomorrow (I think I may have a couple of free hours).

So, down the mountain we went, and walked around with our bikes for a while and later rode for a bit, she showed me the best places to shop for what. She had really thought about this. I also had the opportunity to kinda feel her out on where she stood about Jesus. I think she needs more time before I do an evangelistic based life group with her. But I didn't hold back from inviting her and I'm sure we'll be hanging out again soon.

By the time I made it home (which I was frozen, and she had also shown me the library of town and which sheets to use to sign up for it)-- it was 6pm. I was super tired, and so sat down to have a bit of dinner and at 7- arrived at Hannah and Amy's house for her to show me how they do the team calendar online.

I had planned to stay for a short time, but we ended up watching some shows on youtube and then chitchatting and painting our nails and finally at 11 after 10, I decided it was time to come home.

And here I am, slouched down and leaning to one side on my couch in a sweat shirt, jeans and slippers, with my laptop bringing the current news to you!! :) It was a good day, and I don't think you could say it was unproductive. But I do have to say that I'm glad tomorrow isn't so full with high-impact activities!

Tomorrow I go for the material to my class and to fill out paperwork, I guess. Mark called today to offer his assistance if I need any while there... The afternoon I have relatively free, and then prayer, dinner together, life group and greeting the newest member of the Fuse team at the bus station!! :) We might do street performances after that, but I'm not sure yet.

Well, that's all for tonight folks, I'm going to sleep now! Hurrah!

Oh Nadine

2010-04-06T06:16:00.003-05:00

Today I got my new honorary car. Her name is Nadine, and she is orange and proud to be so. Although, Debbie, who last had her is 17 years taller than I am, and so I had to lower the seat just to be able to touch the ground, and even so, I still feel like if I go under an overpass, the top is going to cut off my head or knock me off the bike.

But, nonetheless, she's mine now. Her left brake is horrendous, but the right side doesn't make a sound...

Anyway, enough about Nadine. Sunday was Easter and the Noborito church here had a special Easter service with the Gospel choir singing. There was a lot of people there! The Japanese love Gospel music, which is quite fascinating.

Anywhow, apart from our missionary prayer/share what you've been reading breakfast, and the Fuse planning meeting, today we did street performances at a town called Shinyurigaoka. At street performances, we set ourselves up outside the train station and play music, do dance pieces, etc. But the point is to attract attention and to talk to people who stand by listening. Being mostly Americans, we tend to attract attraction. We give them flyers for the Fuse church and sometimes we exchange contact information.

Today was our first one as a new team, and from what I understand, in a while. It went well, and I got to talk to a few girls, and had a good conversation with two young ladies that I pray will come this weekend to Fuse.

So, we did that for about an hour and a half until it started to get late... and then we left.

This week will be busy with more outreaches, including going to two universities and hanging out to make conversations and meet people and hopefully make good contact to see them at the Fuse or to start maybe a life group with them.

Well, I'm super tired, but here's a pic to keep you satisfied:

A new reason to avoid rush hour

2010-04-03T11:17:00.002-05:00

No, this really does happen. :)

Yes, Sakura IS a big deal

2010-04-03T08:50:00.005-05:00

Wow, at this point, I can't even remember when I last wrote. In fact, I was talking this evening walking home with Hannah from the station after getting back from Machida, that it's bad when the only way you can remember what day it is is by what you did yesterday. And that did, in fact, happen to me last Sunday morning.

So, let's catch up with news. First, I went to the interview on Thursday. Apparently, the director who I met just arrived the day I was doing the interview... the other guy, through whom Mark had "got me the job"-ish, was being transferred. Perhaps you know where this is going. Anyhow, apparently, the first director had been okay-ing me coming for the interview and making everything sound okay, but after I had the interview with the new guy, and he sat down to look at a schedule with me to see about my availability and classes... alas, my Wednesday evening class had been given away already, by the first director.

Anyhow, there was a bit of a confusion (Mark went with me to the Y to do the interview) and embaressment, and this new director really seemed to feel bad, but he kept saying that if new classes came up, that he would contact me. So... I'm not too concerned, though everyone else seemed to feel bad that that happened, but I figured, maybe I don't need this second class right now and need to focus on other things.

That being said, I also had my first class with my other student... it's a private lesson and we meet at cafes to study. It went well, and I think she learned some things... so hopefully I can be a good teacher to her-- she's at an advanced level already.

Last night, after the prayer meeting, we went to Shinyurigaoka to welcome Allan, the newest member of the Fuse team. He'll be here for 2 months, and his family is in Korea actually... something to do with the military. But he'll have to kill me if he tells me more.

Anyway, to newbie Allan I relinquished my position as newbie. Not too sorry for it. Afterward, we all had a meal together and then Debbie, Saki-chan and I had a life group together where we talked about fear versus faith. It was pretty cool. Along the lines of life-groups, I think in the next couple of weeks, a new one (as in, another one) will be starting. Yay!

Then, we all walked down by the stream and took pictures of the sakura (cherry blossoms) at night, as they were lit up by lanterns. It was really pretty and we all had a good time.

Today was the o-hanami party, where we all gathered together before the Fuse meeting for a picnic and games. That was lots of laughter, and we played some name games and all got to spend more time with each other. Afterward, we went the the Fuse meeting, which is held in a cafe-style venue, and the Gospel singers group sang and the leader shared his testimony. Today was also my first opportunity to lead the game... We played a game that I learned in Mexico, actually, and it elicited quite a few laughs. The weird thing was having a translator. I don't think I really had a translator in Mexico, though people sometimes helped me if it was a big thing (like a hospital visit) that I didn't understand. So, it was something new for me to have a translator, but Tatsu, who did it, did a good job, as he always does.

So, I am getting better at understanding... I am constantly eavesdropping. :) But I will need a lot of work, and so maybe soon I will go to language school.

Among fun things, today I went to a FOUR-STORY dollar store. Now, the dollar stores here ROCK. Way better than the ones in the states. You can get anything and everything there... and a lot of the things are cute! So, not only is it very practical, it's really decent. Usually anyhow.

But, I did buy an umbrella, since it was raining this evening and we had some walking to do. I payed 210 yen (roughly $2.33)... and I went outside and by the time I had reached the corner, the wind had attacked me, and my umbrella looked like this:

Bullets... not the metal kind

2010-03-31T09:36:00.004-05:00

Oh what busy-ness lately!

So, I'm going to keep this short, because it's been some long days lately, as things are starting to pick up.

1. My roommate is back from Korea! How exciting!! It was nice to see a light on when I got home tonight.

2. I got some packages that I had shipped over here (thanks Mom for mailing them!)... I wasn't at home when they first tried to deliver them, and so they left a note. Yuiko helped call and set up a time for them to deliver it. When I got home that afternoon, I had another note (from the 2nd box)... so when the guy came, I was really excited to receive my package! BUT, what really made my day was the fact that I showed him the other note, told him, IN JAPANESE, that there were two boxes. He offered to come between 7 and 9pm, but I told him that I would be leaving at 7:30, so he said he would come before 7. All this was in Japanese, and I was pretty excited.
Unfortunately: he brought by my roommate's box, who had also had one received. But, he brought it, and that means that I wasn't wrong in my communication, he just brought the one addressed to her instead of to me.

3. Yuiko took me to the doctor so that I could get prescriptions for the medications that I normally take. Let's just say that the health insurance program here rocks. Also, at one point the doctor cracked a joke, saying that for the entire prescription I would pay the equivalent of a good meal here... and the man just kept laughing and laughing. Actually, watching him laugh amused me way more than the joke did.

4. The other night, we had life group at Machida, a station about 15 minutes by train here. We ran by the store to pick up some stuff, and I was the last one to check out. When I came out, there was no one there! Apparently, they were in the store next to it, waiting for me. But I thought they left me. So, I entered the train station, somehow found my gate and everything (which I almost walked past, because nothing looked familiar until something that's somewhat common caught my eye (granted, I've only been here 3 times before, and never in this part, at least that I'm aware of), but I found the train that I needed and made it!! I was kinda proud of myself. Anyhow, they texted me when I was getting on the train asking where I was, and they eventually ran and caught the same express since it didn't leave for a few minutes... though we didn't ride in the same car.

5. There are 18... yes, 18 vending machines between my house and the nearest train station... which is a 10 minute walk away. And those are the ones I counted on bike, not trying to look on the other side of the street. So, there may be more. But, they sell everything from hot and cold coffee, water, tea, sodas, cigarettes and just about anything you can imagine. You will never die of thirst in Japan... unless you don't have money.

6. Tomorrow I have an interview for teaching an English class at a YMCA. I'll be interested to see how that goes.

7. One of the young people, who is becoming a leader and is basically in charge of translating, told me that my Japanese is at a level of being here 2-3 months. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it made me feel good, and it's better than nothing! It'll start picking up more, especially as I hope to be in classes soon!

I think I'll leave that for now, and I hope that I'll be able to blog soon. Normally, I'd try to blend this all and make it smooth, but it's a miracle that I'm getting it done tonight, and this fast.

SO, lo and behold, I'm finally off to bed.

Oh Boy Oh Bug

2010-03-27T05:41:00.002-05:00

Last night, I was laying in bed, thinking, I haven't blogged yet! But I figured it could wait. Among other thoughts in bed last night: giant cockroaches.

Yesterday, I found out that in Tokyo, cockroaches are a problem in the summer. I did not know this, and am glad no one told me about this beforehand. Some places have it more than others, and if you have a clean kitchen and a concrete building, you're less likely to have them.

But, for those of you who might not have known: I really hate bugs. I'm pretty sure what I do could be considered a tribal dance in some parts of the world when I have to kill a bug. It is a sight to be seen... and the thought of cockroaches just makes me crawl inside (no pun intended). Mark told me yesterday about flying cockroaches, but when I googled it (to see if it was real or if he was playing with me), I found only one post about it, and only in the rural areas of Japan. Just the thought that I won't be dealing with flying ones makes dealing with regular, nasty, 2-3 inch ones a smidgin better, in the grand scheme of things.

I'm not going to continue too much longer on the subject, because it just makes me shudder inside. However, there has been talk of my moving to another apartment when Hannah and Amy leave in a month. It's kinda my decision, though everyone's opinion has been that I should move.

I've considered my options. At my present location, my apartment is on ground level. It has considerable more space, and a heated carpet... Yes, that's right-- my carpet is electric. And beautiful. I like the general decor of the house. A negative side is that my neighbors are crazy, and sometime later, I will comment on that.

The other apartment is smaller, maybe considerably? (which also means it's cheaper when and if you use the heat), but rent is also obviously cheaper. However, they also have warm toilet seats (yes, many toilet seats in Japan are heated). Perhaps this does not mean anything to you... but let me just say that I know a guy who bought one here and took it home to the States for his mom. No further comments. About this other apartment, I do know that you have to light something? Maybe a pilot light? And if you know my history with pilot lights, you'll know that that is quite a negative (good thing I have a roommate to do those kinds of things!). Oh, it's also on the 2nd floor, and you have to squeeze past a washing machine to get to it.

Today, when walking down in Machida, I asked Amy about cockroaches and if she had a problem with them during the summer in her apartment. She said, no, we didn't have a problem, only a couple, but you have a problem in your's.

And that, my friends, sealed the deal. I will be moving the day after they leave.

In other news, yesterday I met my English student. It seems like it will be a good class, and since she is an assistant professor of Social Work at a university here in Japan, I will get to learn too alot about social issues and family things in Japan. She's really nice. I really like her.

Afterward, I went to Mark and Yuiko's house for lunch and then just to hang out for a while and talk and get to know each other. I asked a lot, a lot of questions about the ministry, culture and things like pressure from the family with regards to Christianity. They were really good to answer all of my questions without being tired of them (I'm a question-asker)... they also asked me questions about my personal history and things like that. We told stories and laughed a lot. I really enjoyed my afternoon with them and considered it very well spent.

Today was the Fuse meeting, and that's always a long day. You can check out from last week what we generally do, but it was good today, and Mark gave a message on Sakura/Easter. Sakura, you know, is the beautiful cherry blossom that lasts for only like 10 days or so. It's a huge thing here in Japan... and is scheduled for this week. So, he related that to Christ and how death brings life, etc., etc. It was really good.

Afterward, we broke up into the super-small groups, and talked a bit about it. Yuiko, 2 guys and a girl were in the group that I was in... and Yuiko asked if I would lead it because it's hard to translate and lead at the same time. I was a little taken off guard, but I hope that I did okay. The two guys shared some during the time, and Yuiko and I each shared a story... but in the end, I hope it ministered to them.

Anyhow, that was today... we all had a good time, and I bonded more with Saki-chan, which is good, since I think I'll be her life group leader when the other girls are gone.

Welllll... that's all for now. I've got a few other things to work on and then to get some sleep!!

Ode to the Umbrella

2010-03-24T09:28:00.002-05:00

Today I got around the crack of dawn... okay, not really, around 7:50am, to talk to my parents on Skype. For the first time, we had a record "least amount of problems connecting". But still, it was good to talk for a while.

Today, it rained... All. Day. From what I hear, this is how the rains are here... Constant and long... not one heavy shower for a period of time. But anyhow, I got ready to leave this afternoon and stood outside, looking at the rain dropping on my bike seat and the general dreariness of the day. I paused there at my door, contemplating, okay.... do I really want to do this?

I knew that if I rode the bike that I could make it there in 20 minutes-ish... But that I'd also have to carry an umbrella at the same time AND my purse would get all wet. That would require some coordination and I'd have to hope there were few people in the crowded, narrow parts of town. There is little space in many parts of this city! On the other hand, I could walk, but it would take me longer (and it was cold)... and, well... that was my only real consideration.

I grabbed the umbrella from right inside the door, and as I pulled it out, I moaned... awh MAN! Not only was it made-for-a-child-tiny, but when I pulled it, my hand just kept going. The top part came off, and so I ended up walking, holding the umbrella at my ear. And basicaly, the only good it did was to keep my head and shoulders dry, and about the top half of my purse.

Half-way there, I saw convenience store that had umbrellas for sale... so I stopped and joyfully picked one up. Oh to be dry! And not even dry, but just not to get more wet by the rain!

Anyway, I made it to the Bible study where I was destined, and met some of the guys who are playing this weekend at the FUSE along the way. We had a good Bible study... and yesterday, I had made some salsa for the girls who had been so kind to help me lately, and they added velveeta cheese that someone had sent them from the States (who thinks of that?) but it was really, very good.

It was at this point that I found out that it is illegal to ride a bike with an umbrella. Note that everyone does it anyway, but still, it's illegal. However, if you get in an accident, it's automatically your fault. It's the equivalent of rear-ending someone in the States. It's just gonna be your fault.

The girls were really kind though this evening and walked home with me, walking with their bikes! They could have been home in just a few, but they walked home anyway, along side their bikes. Kengo and Yuiko did that the other day when they were with me... I wonder if that's just what you do? Perhaps I would have done it, but the point is-- on a cold rainy night, they could have been home a lot faster than they got home.

And beside, we had good conversation and laughs.

Well, right now, the warm carpet (yes, they have carpet warmers here... wonderful, wonderful things) and my bed are calling me, as I'm sitting here and my fingers are starting to freeze over. I know, I exaggerate.

Anyhow, I bid you adieu.

I Will Survive... Sing it!!

2010-03-23T00:32:00.004-05:00

It is so weird to look down at my computer and see that it is 1:30am, and you are just starting Tuesday when I am already halfway through the afternoon.

So, since I last wrote, I have done quite a few things. One thing I discovered lately was that you really need to check what you think you're using when you're cooking. How do I know that? Because I used vinegar oil to cook garlic and noodles in. I made a few funny faces while trying a few bites and in went my lunch to the trash can. I ended up having toast.

Since then, I have made some progress in my cooking skills, just so you know.

So, last night, I went to a life group with Amy... actually I met her there-- it was at a McDonalds, since all life groups are done at public places, for all kinds of cultural and practical reasons. It was with a girl named Saki, who is so adorable! We're doing discipleship with her (well, not "we" yet), but the topic of last night was our identity in Christ. It was basically looking up the "I am" and "I have... in Christ" statements... We looked them up and then made up the "I" statement and discussed them.

It was really cool to watch Saki's face at one point when we talked about the verse that says we are God's temple. At first, she didn't understand it and asked if it meant that we have temples inside of us. Then when we explained and used examples, her face really just lit up. It was cool because you could see that it clicked and that she realized that God lived inside of her and that she already has Him, she doesn't have to go to a "place" to find God.

That was probably the best-- watching that moment she understood-- wow! And a big smile came over her face.

Of course, she came to know many other things too, and one that was particularly special to her was If God is for us, who can be against us?-- because at times she felt those pullings of going one way when Jesus was saying to go another way-- and she knows now that no enemy is undefeatable.

Anyway, it was really cool! I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's interesting, because in Mexico and in the States, you had some basis for explaining things to people... they generally have an idea, even if it's skewed. But here, it's like a blank slate-- and so like last night, we explained what redemption meant, and all those kinds of things.

Anyway, today after the prayer breakfast and Fuse team planning meeting, Yuiko took me to register for my Alien Registration card (sounds fun, huh) and health insurance. I think it's a rule that if you're in Japan for more than 3 months that you have to have insurance. So, I have it now, and a nice little card to carry around. In about 3 weeks or so, I'll go for my alien registration card and that'll be the equivalent, I guess, of my Drivers License Identification (only, I can't drive, but I think for identification purposes, it's its equivalent).

So, fun times. I'm learning more every day, exploring more everyday-- oh and did I mention that I found my way all the way to the church today? And that's a good half-hour walk. I also learned how to use the rice maker, whose buttons I completely don't understand. Nonetheless, I have rice, and it's the right consistency. If all else fails, I can survive on rice.

Yeah, that's what I thought too...

A Sunday Edition

2010-03-21T07:32:00.003-05:00

So, last night, you may recall that I blogged about taking the storm windows out. Well, apparently I missed one. BUT, what I didn't realize is that they slide into the walls of the house. Think Japanese sliding doors on the inside-- now think windows on the outside.

I got to bed around 11 last night, and at 1am I was suddenly awakened by the huge banging noise again, right. Oh man.... it was sooo loud. The girls said today that it was like typhoon style winds, but it sounded like a hurricane was going on outside or a tornado or something. The wind blew and shook the house and rattled, that storm door tucked into the wall.

Around 3:40, I really couldn't take it anymore, because I'd been awake just praying for it to stop, and I sat up on the other little couch in my room and looked outside and when the wind blew, I saw it rattling. Ahhhh! I've discovered it. So, I opened my window, pulled it out and laid it out. Now, picture this-- me, leaning over a couch, with a huge open window and the wind blowing like crazy, trying to manuever a huge storm window and put it on the ground without making more noise than was necessary.

I shut and locked the window, laid back down and 2 minutes later- was out. Tonight it's quite windy again, but the storm window is already out, and until the wind goes away, I'm not putting them back in!

Today, the missionary girls all met for breakfast at McDonald's (well, we mostly just met for coffee), and a Bible study. We talked about yesterday at the Fuse, and then we read and journalled on a passage, and then shared our perspectives and what God spoke to us. It was cool.

Afterward, Mark met us (Yuiko and I) there, and the girls went home and we stayed and had a chat. They shared their vision and heart and other relevant information for being an effective minister in Japan, including American-ness, and how that can be effective. It was good to sit down with them and chat. I shared a little of my expectations with them, and some short term goals that I had and we came to an agreement as to things to be doing now.

Of course, I'm in a stage right now where it's mostly learning and observing. From what it looks like, I'll get about 5-6 weeks of that (of course, being involved and participating and doing it with them, certainly). After that, I'll be taking over responsibilities that certain of the girls here have had that will be leaving, and it'll be gradual from there. Certain of those things will include like admin stuff, and a life group and various things.

We also talked about some practical stuff and then I made my way home. I made it all the way, by the way, without a cell phone or anything, and it's a walk that has a few turns in it. But it wasn't really that hard. :)

Anyway, the other point of interest for today was a singular accomplishment: I killed my first Japanese bug today. I was laying in bed, and looked up at the wooden border that's about 2 feet from the ceiling and thought, oh my, what is that?!? Then I said, dangit, I'm gonna have to kill you. That's another thing I miss about the States: having 4 other people in the house to kill bugs for me. Granted, I'm adept in the science myself, but whenever possible, I like to have others kill my bugs. Don't be deceived, it doesn't come for any compassionate bone in my body; I just hate bugs.

Japanese Hair

2010-03-20T07:57:00.003-05:00

So, today I met this guy, Baki, who, to me, looks like he's 15, right? He's 30.

I also tried to tell this kid Yuto (who actually is 15, and turning 16 next week) that he has cool hair. I made the motion with my hand to describe his hair. We had a bit of a language barrier. He turned to Mark, who was with us, and said, did she just call me crazy?

Apparently, whatever I did made it look like I was calling him crazy.

But he did have cool hair! As as a statement, Japanese guys in general have really cool hair. Kengo, who plays guitar with us, and met Jesus a year ago, has awesome hair! We girls often have the conversation of how he gets it to stand like that.

Anyway, enough of hair. Today was a really long day. I did good sleeping though! We left for Machida, the location of the church plant, in the morning, carrying a few things with us on the train. When we got to the cafe style place (think dimly lit, black walls-coffee house) where the Fuse meeting (the name of the church plant) takes place. We dropped off the stuff, including our coats because it was be-u-ti-ful weather. After praying for a few minutes, we proceeded to walk for 2 hours around the area, handing out flyers, and talking with whomever we could.

Now, there are a lot of people who pass out flyers, and it's crazy how many there are. But- we have good flyers that catch attention, and we aim for college age people (though, like you might have noticed, it's hard to guess age)... anyone who's into music and whoever else. So, we did that and then came back to quickly go over who was doing what (set up, greeting, going to the train station to pass out a few more flyers), etc. etc.

Honestly, I wasn't of much help, because it was my first time and I didn't know what to do or how to do it. But, I observed and chatted as much as I could with some of the people, like Yuto. Oh, and I did go up to the entrance with Tatsu, a college age student who is Japanese but spent quite a bit of time in Hawaii. He speaks good English and taught me a few things like how to say the day before yesterday, yesterday, today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Granted, I learned them a couple of weeks ago, but it was helpful! Mark says he's really good with helping the non-Japanese speakers with their language skills, and he also does translation for various things going on during the meeting.

So, anywho, they had worship which was really, really good-- They play awesome! It was neat to sing the songs both in English and Japanese (though I have to say that I probably know them better in Spanish). But nonetheless, it was cool. After that, Debbie, a young lady who's been here since last May (her fam are missionaries in Brazil), gave the message about perseverance. It was a very good message, and it was relevant to the new believers as well as evangelistic, and it was encouragement even for mature believers. She did an excellent job!

What's cool about the Fuse and the set-up of it is that after the message- we split up into what's called super-small groups. I guess that everyone just makes sure that there's an English and a Japanese speaker and a leader (one of the helpers with the Fuse) in each small group of 4 to 5. We sit down and talk about something relevant to the message and what's practical. For instance, today's message was about perseverance- and today's question kinda was do you have a goal that you're working toward and how can we support you in that?

Of course, that's more of like an ice-breaker, but it gives you a chance to talk about the message and encourage newcomers to fill out the response card (with contact info so we can contact them in the next couple of days). This way, they don't just leave and log that out of their memory. But we have the opportunity to really think about the message, see where they are and what they understand, and then it will stick with them.

It's really cool!

So, in my group were Yuiko (the main leader of the Fuse, with her husband, Mark) and a girl from China named Kin-chan. She's been coming for 4 weeks (and is attending Yuiko's "life group"), and she was encouraged to know that other people go through periods of searching for the purpose of their life. We all prayed together before we left, and I prayed for her that she would find the purpose of her life (obviously, in Christ!), and thank God that we weren't created without purpose. Yuiko also prayed, and then Kin-chan prayed, and it was so cute because I could kinda see that she was wringing her fingers while she prayed. She prayed for me that I'd be able to learn Japanese quickly so that I could communicate with people, and afterward, she told Yuiko that it was the first time she'd ever prayed out loud. Yuiko told me then that I was the first person that she prayed for. I was like, wow!

I hope she will come to a saving knowledge of Christ and a relationship with Him very soon! I'm sure she will.

Anyhow, then we all went out to dinner and chatted around. We had fun coming home, and though it was only 7:15 (granted, we left at 10:30am), it felt like it was 9! I came home to continue the process of unpacking and organizing myself. Now today, it was warm and windy and was blowing things around, right? Well, all of a sudden, it sounds like someone is violently shaking the window right next to where I'm sitting. It certainly startled me. I sent a couple of messages asking people if they knew why this was going on. After a while, I got an answer that it was the storm windows. So, I opened my window took them out and laid them on the ground. Now the wind has settled down, but man, it sounded pretty crazy and rackety.

Alright, that was my today. Here are a few random notes that maybe you'd like to know:

-Tomorrow, apparently the missionary girls get together with Yuiko (who is beautiful, by the way) and have a "life group" (which is like a discipleship group). I love that we all get together a lot, and pray a lot! That's awesome. Afterward, I'll have a meeting with Mark and Yuiko to kinda get more orientated, and I think we'll be talking more about some scheduling and some of the things that I'll be involved in or in charge of. And in the evening is church-- at the Noborito church... it's a bilingual service, and the one that I attended when I visited here the last time.

-I'll meet my English student this Friday, and I think I'll go meet the guy in charge at the YMCA, where I'll be teaching a class starting in a couple of weeks.

-Apparently, this is a really good time that I came. Everyone just left on break for a couple of weeks, so things are kinda calm and relaxed, so I'm not falling right into the middle of things, but I have time to get oriented right before things start to pick up.

-I've been listening a lot, reading everything I can on the signs that I go by, and eavesdropping a lot. I'm always excited when I can piece together what they're saying and answer questions. Granted, I'm far off, but I understand a WHOLE lot more than I did last year and it will come. Even Kin-chan asked Yuiko if I'd studied beforehand because she saw that I was understanding and I'd ask Yuiko if she'd asked such and such before Yuiko translated for me. So, I'm pleased with that, because that is a goal that I'll be working hard toward!

** Note: I'll try not to make these posts so long in the future, but there's a lot to talk about right now! :) Hope you're enjoying!

I have a cell phone and I don't really know how to use it...

2010-03-19T07:32:00.003-05:00

Man, it's 9:30pm here and I feel whipped!

But, I did get lots of stuff accomplished today. I woke up and got up for an hour and a half at 6:30... had a good quiet time, checked my mail and went back to bed.... When I got up, I got ready for the day, and also did things like: the dishes! And I explored our kitchen and the things in the small shelves that we have. Of course, I didn't know what most of it was.

In fact, I was looking for sugar to put in my coffee, and I opened one container of sugary like substance, and well... it wasn't it. So I decided: I don't need sugar in this.

Anyway, I also went to the dollar store to get some things I know I'll need around the house and to the grocery store.... Hannah and Amy once again went with me to kinda show me what things I can or should get at what stores. I figured out more of where I was and what I was doing... and even led the way home from the church, which is a 20 minute or so walk.

Got biking practice. Can you believe that? Janine, biking through Tokyo.

Among other cool things, we had Friday evening prayer, where we all gather to pray for the needs of one another and the meeting of the weekend and the various people that we know are close to a decision. That was really cool to join with them in prayer... we all ate dinner together and then they had band practice in the evening for tomorrow. So, I stayed for that and listened in.

Well, it's not much, but I felt like I accomplished a lot today... and realized that in my receipt keeping, I'm going to have a lot to work on! :) Also! I got a cell phone that was another team member's. He went back to the states, so I'm using it now. I feel important... but, I don't know how to use it or who to call or what I'm really supposed to do with it...

I guess that will come later.

Tomorrow is the meeting and a really long day, so I don't know if I'll get to write tomorrow. For tonight, I'm super tired, so I'm going to bed. Catchya later!

Todo, we're not in Kansas anymore...

2010-03-18T06:55:00.004-05:00

No indeed.

This has been an interesting last 48 hours. Tuesday morning, at 4:30am, the alarm went off and up I got after having slept about 4 hours. I showered, I did my hair, finished packing and sat down to coffee and the weather forecast... not that it mattered.

At the airport, we sat down to our tradition: coffee at Starbucks. After joking around a little, and hushing my brothers whenever they said anything scandalous that you don't usually like to hear at airports (i.e. bomb), we did the part that I most dreaded: the death march.

That's right. The little stretch of hallway between Starbucks and the security checkpoint. That's where all the teary hugs and the I'll miss you's and take care's and I love you's take place, and it's the one part of the whole process that I dread. If I could leave and not have to do goodbyes in general, this would be an easy thing.

But alas, it is a necessary part of life.

Anyhow, I made it to Dallas with little trip up. I've had times where it's taken me forever to get out of St. Louis and I was concerned about that. But all went smoothly and I was able to grab lunch in the airport before doing a final call to my fam before I boarded my next 13 hour flight.

I counted my good fortune too soon. I was SO close to having an empty seat next to me, but then a lady wanted an aisle seat. So, I got a lady from Bolivia who, by the time the flight had ended, had proposed a trip for me to Bolivia (to work there, of course) and mentioned that her son was very handsome, etc. She was a very nice lady though, and I helped her fill out her customs and immigration forms.

It wasn't my favorite flight. I don't want to sound negative, but for the first 7 hours, the kid behind me kicked and pushed the back of my seat. He was about 7 years old, and you can't really ask a kid to be quiet and still for that many hours. The last few hours I didn't feel too good...had a stopped up nose and was nauseated.

Beware of the chicken served on the airplane, that's all I have to say about it.

So, before I went through immigration, I stopped off at the bathroom where I threw up my last meal. I felt better after that!

Anyhow, no problems going through immigration or customs. I left, exchanged money, with all my luggage. And let me mention, that you have a limit of 2 pieces of 50 lbs. of luggage. I managed to make it to 99.5 lbs. Yes, we did cheer in the airport.

So, exchanged money, bought a bus ticket to Shinyurigaoka, made a phone call letting the people here know what time I'd be here, bought some water and then stacked my 99.5lbs of checked luggage and two carry-ons on either side of me, and I collapsed in a chair, exhausted.

Five minutes later, I grabbed everything and went to go get on the 2.5 hour bus ride.

A number of team members were there to meet me. In fact, when I stood up on the bus to get off, I looked out and saw them out on the sidewalk on the other side of the bus and they started cheering. It made me smile.

I got stopped before stepping off and they took a picture, and we took many pictures and then took the train station to Mukogakoyuen (not that that really matters to you! ;), a few stops later, and someone else met us to take my luggage to my apartment.

At my apartment, four of us stayed: Amy, Hannah and So-chan, my Korean roommate, who is super-sweet. Hannah and So-chan made dinner of Japanese curry rice. It was soooo good.

They stayed and chatted for a while and left after 9pm and I didn't bother unpacking but went to bed around 10.

At 5:30am (Japan time: 3:30pm here), I started waking up and did a quiet time, and went back to bed and eventually got up at 8:30. After somewhat unpacking and getting showered, cleaned up and ready for the day, Amy came and picked me up, and we went to lunch with more members of the group. It was great, and I got to know many of them, and they I better.

Family members were also in town, and they were going to go to various places like the Shinjuku towers and Shibuya (which has the busiest Starbucks in the world), so Amy and I went there, and then by 3:30pm, I was getting a bit tired, so I decided to head back. Amy took me by the 100 yen store (roughly, the dollar store), and I got a few things that I knew I needed and came and unpacked more.

At the risk of telling you all the details, I'll leave you with a few things:

-Today, So-chan boiled a sweet potato (not like the ones in the States, but they taste really similar) and I got a piece for breakfast. I opened the fridge to look for the butter. I paused, looked around and said to myself: I don't know which one's the butter. I closed the door, headed the other way and said, "I don't need butter with this." :)

-After visiting Hannah and Amy's apartment, I came back by myself! It's a 5 minute walk, and really easy, but I was proud of myself for finding my apartment by myself.

-Tomorrow is fasting day until 5pm... So, I don't really have to worry about groceries!

-Other than that, I'm still kind in exploration mode: figuring out what's where, how to accomplish things like getting to the grocery store, where and how to pay bills, how hot water, the stove and the heaters and other things like that work. Oh! And turning things on and off, becuase you know, they don't say on and off like regular appliances that we have (had) in the States do.

Anyhow, I'm going to get going. I hope to blog again tomorrow. Feel free to comment!!

Last Things

2010-03-15T21:42:00.003-05:00

Oh my gosh, I'm SOOO tired. It's been a long day... a long few days!

So, tomorrow I'm off. Off to Japan. I'm pretty excited, although to tell the truth it still kinda seems unreal. Today was full of last minute things like a trip to Walmart, laundry and cutting my nails so that they don't get broken, torn, bent or otherwise damaged tomorrow. That ALWAYS happens when I fly, and so I've learned to clip them!

Also today, I re-packed my suitcases. I weighed the one suitcase and it was 62.5 lbs.. and of course, the limit is 50lbs. Unfair, right? I know. So, my ma helped me rearrange items, and all in all, I took out a number of books that I will send over along with some other things that I need to take over, but I just didn't have the room. Oh well.

We had dinner, laughed, joked around, a friend added some fun to my hair. I ended up doing a lot today... but I won't mention them all, I'll just say that I enjoyed mentally crossing yet another thing off my list... all those small nagging things that fly through your mind.

In the last few days, I've made a list of things that I will miss about the States. Yes, family and friends are at the very top, and that goes without saying. So just count yourselves there. Anyhow, that list contained things like: being able to read all the signs, driving, driving with very loud music, a ready supply of Mexican food, stilletos, and shows like The Amazing Race and Project Runway. Target! Oh, I do love Target. Some silly things, but I will miss everyone and many things I leave behind.

Well, I need to get to bed... I'm super tired, and do need to get to sleep before quite a few hours of travelling.

Will write from Japan! Stay in touch!