Team Japan 2003

We split up for most of the day. The girls went to Josui to do a craft with the women there, while the guys went at met Tomo at her school then went to Shibuya. From what I heard later, the girls' event went well, and Mrs. Honda wants all of the girls to come over to her house for a girls-only day.

Okay, back to the guys, because that's all I really know about. So we took the Chuo-sen (Chuo Line) all the way to Kichioji, then switched to one of the three Keio-sen (it wasn't the exact one that Mike and I used to ride, but our old stations were on the Keio map) and rode to Tomo's stop that she uses for school. We waited on the platform until 1PM when she finished school. We met up and went the remaining two stops to Shibuya. We went here last year. Tim says that it was the time that Tomo, Hitomi, and Joshua went with us and we had to listen to Christi and Missy singing "I Love Rock And Roll" all day.

We saw the sites, played a few rounds of "House of the Dead III" or "Time Crisis III", and took a group picture in one of the many picture booths that are so popular here. We also went to lunch at some random shop that Isaiah just pointed at because he was hungry.

So, I'm just going to run the gauntlet of pictures now:
The station we waited at,
and the French, English, and Japanese that we saw there.
Our first view of Shibuya.
Our second view of Shibuya.
The Nataional Stadium that we walked by last year (Christi took a picture of me here last year, but on the other side).
We sawC3P0 and R2D2, but out of all of C3P0's 60 million languages, he didn't speak English!
The huge gate to a temple that we saw.
The Golden Camera Award of the day.
The street band Joy and I saw on the way home last night.

So, about the Star Wars droids picture, that was from a bar that we walked by in Shibuya. It's called the Cantina, and it had a toy shop with all sorts of Star Wars stuff in it. It was cool, right up until we realized it was a bar and that we couldn't order a soda and enjoy the atmosphere.

Speaking of movies, the "Jurassic Park Institute" Tour was right next to that stadium, but it was by invitation only, otherwise, we'd have done the tour.

And after alot of walking around, we walked by the Disney Store and the Snoopy Store. Then Tomo realized that we were near the Oriental Bazzar, which has cheap, yet somewhat authentic, souvineers. But, it is closed on Thursdays. So we walked by that huge temple gate, but we had to be back in time for dinner, so we didn't go on the kilometer walk to the actual temple. It must've been huge too! Then, finally, we headed home. It was quite tiring.

I had a lesson tonight at 6PM for an hour and a half. It's longer because I missed the lesson last week due to confusion. So, Aiko got a refund and we'll have two longer lessons, this week and next. It's great though! Aiko is fun to talk with. We talked about where we've been in the Tokyo area, and what our homes were like. I was able to share about my house, and why it was built the way it was.

When my parents bought our house, they bought it with a home Bible study in mind. So back in the 70s our living room was packed with couches and would fill will Christians and unbelievers alike, every Friday, to study the Word. Many 'pillars' in our church today, came to Christ in our living room (Or met their spouse). Then, when I was 6, we built an addition with a bigger family room for the same purpose. And every since I was a kid, we've had a Bible study in our house, every Friday night.

So, I really enjoyed the chance to talk about my family's involvement with the church and as Christians. But, alas, we ran out of time before I could really start talking about the Gospel. I had to rush off to the Takahashi's to celebrate Jon's birthday.

That was a blast! We had a ton of good food and fun games. Although, one of the games involved a little too much bubblegum.

Then, Joy and I walked to the bus station together, right by that street band. Apparently, they play just about every night. It's so cool. Oh, and Joy and I ride the bus together now. I get off about three steps before her. Tomorrow we're going to try to take the exact same bus to Josui, because we go right by it every day, and its cheaper to just go straight there rather than going from home to Tachikawa and back to Josui. We'll meet Jessica and Caroline there to help pass out flyers for Josui's Ice Cream Party.

It's a bit slow today. 'Cept for that pesky concert that I just have to go to. How horrible, I'll just have to suffer I guess. But before all of that, we have quite a few lessons to pack into today.

Starting from the top: usually we have a morning prayer meeting, but that appears to have been cancelled. Even Sensei wasn't at church. I'm wondering if it was because of the All-Star game back in the States. The game got cut off in the 8th Inning by local Japanese news, so every other guy was ticked. Me, I didn't even watch the game. I went to church early, played some guitar in an attempt to practice for Gospel Night, and just relaxed until about lunch. The girls went with Yoshie for a lunch meeting of some sort, though I have a hunch it was along the lines of dealing with culture shock. They are still having a hard time. I took two of them to the AM PM near here to get international phone cards. They've been calling home constantly. I just don't think that Japan is the place for them. I know I feel lonely sometimes, and I think about home, but I know that I'll be there soon enough and be missing Japan. If all I'm thinking about here is home, I will miss out on the here-and-now and have no memories of this place. For all I know, this could be my last time serving in Japan. Last year I was down quite a bit because I broke my camera then started missing home alot more. I'm sure I missed out a bit for a few days, but I still have real vivid memories of everything last year. I hope that I can look back happily on this trip. Right now, it's a bit stressful still and it's becoming rather frustrating not being able to understand. Mrs. Saoshiro loves to talk. She talks nice and slow, but I just can't understand because I don't have a big enough vocabulary. Miwako is pretty good at English listening, but she is hardly around to translate my English for them. So let's hear it for broken Japanese and guestures!

Okay, enough said. We got lunch at KFC yesterday, and it was pretty good. Then after that, I had my 2PM lesson with Mrs. Iwai. It went really well. We were working on talking about describing and comparing objects, things like "Is this building as tall as that building?". This could turn out to be real helpful for her.

Then I chilled untl about 5PM, because I had to go home for the concert. That means that I missed the meeting with Sensei, but, oh well, they'll have to catch me up. Hopefully they remembered to talk about Josui Church's Ice Cream Party, because Mr. Honda was asking me about it on Tuesday.

I took the bus home. We enjoyed a small dinner of yaki soba, then biked to the Higashi-yamato-shi Humming Hall for the concert. This is the only picture that I was able to take, because, right after I took it, Seiji said that the sign right inside the door said "No cameras". So, I bought a 1000 Yen program that has Japanese and pictures.

Seiji got awesome seats. We were in B-3 and B-4, right up front. But, they were right in front of the speaker too, so it was a little loud. One seat closer and we could've gotten one of the guitarist's picks! He gave one to the person in front of us! So close! Seiji would've loved that, the Ventures are his favorite band! I think he still enjoyed it. I know it was surfer rock and all, but they did do some covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival and other classic bands. We rocked to the sounds of "Jonny B Goode", "Runaway", and "House of the Rising Sun" for about two hours. It was cool! And I think that there were only five Americans in the house: the band and me!

That's it. No more peanut butter, no more JELI. Today was our last class with the ladies and kids of Josui. But, before all of that, we had our Mommy & Me class at Tachikawa Church. I was able to get involved this time. I helped with the "Wheels On The Bus" hand motions. Other than that, we did all of the same stuff: "Hello Hello Hello Hello" song, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7" song, the Finger Famliy song, and all those other fun kids songs that we've done since last year. However, we were a bit low on kids this week. Next week, the Mortimers will be in the States, so we'll be flying solo.

Once we were finished with the class, we had a short meeting with Midori to discuss the schedule for next week class. Then we told Megumi what songs we chose for Gospel Night. (I Will Call Upon The Lord and Come Thou Fount) Then a group of us went to the hundred yen soba resturant. Come to find out, Jessica doesn't do Japanese noodles of any sort. Tragic. That place is awesome!

Then it's off to Josui for our last JELI classes (I think there may be more though). It was show and tell for Jessia today. Amazingly enough, this turned into a discussion about ethics and death. I really wanted to start asking questions like, "Are you afraid to die?" or "What do you think will happen when you die?", but it seemed that the conversations just wouldn't lead in that direction. It would've been a great way to begin sharing the Gospel.

We got to enjoy some cream puffs that one of the ladies brought, and then they presented us both with Japanese fans. Now I have a complete outfit, jimbe and fan, for the fireworks show on the 26th.

The Barkman's started a kindergarden English class today, but we were exempt from attending because we had to plan for the 4th grader class at 5PM. I went alright, but we could've used a little more forwarning.

Then we both got a ride back to Tachikawa from the Barkmans because Jessica, Caroline, and I are switching houses today. The Barkmans brought Jessica and Caroline's luggage from their house. They're moving to the Sando's house. I'm moving to the Saoshiro's.

In years past, Quincy, Jason, Tim, Christi, and Missy have stayed with the Saoshiro's at one time or another. This year, it's just me. So far, I've only met Seiji and his mom. His sister, Miwako, and Mr. Saoshiro don't come home from work until really late and they leave quite early in the morning.

As for English, there's just about none. However, Mrs. Saoshiro holds to the firm belief that if she speaks Japanese slower, I'll have a better chance of understanding it the second, or third, or fourth time around. Unfortunately, if I don't know the word, then I won't know it ten seconds later unless I have a dictionary on hand.

But, we managed quite well. Seiji has already performed all of his magic tricks. I fouled him up on one. I knew what he was doing and completely threw him off. He couldn't figure out for the life of him why it didn't work. He also did the water and newspaper one. I told him that if he did it with a newspaper that wasn't from 2001 and was more recent, I'd be impressed. So, he did. He stuck a glass in his pants that he could pour the water form the other cup into it all behind the recent newspaper. He succeded for the most part, except that the success wasn't in pouring the water into the second cup, but instead, over himself and the floor. Fairly creative though. I'll give him kudos for that. Oh, we also tired our chances at juggling. He's pretty good. I've got him working on over-hand juggling. I'm a bit rusty, but he thinks its cool.

Oh, and not only does Seiji do magic tricks and play guitar and bass, he's a competitive swimmer! He has to get up early tomorrow morning for a four kilometer practice. That's so cool. I've got a friend who's a competitive swimmer... in Japan! And, because of his swimming, he really enjoys one of the new TV dramas, Water Boys, a soap opera about a bunch of guys who do synronized swimming at their university. I watched it with him. Personally, I didn't think it was drama. Most of it was more along the lines of cheesy comedy.

So, tomorrow, I have to come home early because we are going to the Ventures concert! Cool! It should be fun. The concert hall is only a 10 minuite bike from his house.

Well, we were supposed to go out to the country today. But because of rain, things were cancelled. Jon called and said that we'd meet at the church at 2PM to do something. I headed out at 12PM, mailed some letters, and got 200 Yen tempura soba soup. From lunch, I went to the church and waited. I worked a bit on music for gospel night, but couldn't figure out some chords. I wrote a short song instead.

Around 2:30PM, I went downstairs, because it appeared that no one had shown up. There they were, eating lunch on the first floor, talking about the stuff they had all gone shopping for.

Chie, Tim's girlfriend who's home is in Kyoto, was there. She stoped by to visit on her way home for the summer.

Then after chilling for a while, we all went to Lumine to go shopping. However, Lumine didn't carry what Jon or the girls wanted, so I took the girls to another mall while the guys went somewhere, I don't really know. It's not like the girls know their way around, or that the other guys are kind enough to escort the girls around. I guess they were happy that I showed them around. After a breif shopping outing, they took the train to Hiromi's house (where Lindsey is staying) to watch a moive. I have no clue what the guy's ended up doing.

So, I went shopping for a bit, checking out some stores that everyone and mentioned. Then I went and played Time Crisis 3 at Club Sega, before going home.

It's fairly depressing, realizing that this is my last night (quite possibly forever) at the Hosokawa's. I've repacked my suitcase for the morning. Tomorrow will be quite an experience, since I'll be going to a new house for the first time this year. I'll be taking the bus to and from the Saoshiro's now. I hope it all goes well.

So that is what I shared with Mr. Hidaka's Bible study. David shared something along the same lines, out of end of Mattew 6, which talks about the Lord taking care of his creation and his children. I know this is much more difficult for some of our team members. Tim, Joy, and David have graduated. The rest of us are seniors, except Jessica and Isaiah. Isaiah is a sophomore and has some time ahead of him, but Jessica is leaving Master's to try to get into Moody Bible Institute where her boyfriend, Dan, goes. But she didn't make it in this year, and is going to Chicago to go to a JC in the meantime. So, this topic of the future and God's will is really a promiment thing in our lives right now. Please keep us all in your prayers for this very reason, and also for our continued ministry in Japan.

Once all of the talking was done, we enjoyed some kiwi and homemade cheesecake. Then Mr. Hidaka took us home.

I went home to a special dinner party for Mr. Hosokawa's birthday. We had suki yaki which is tofu, noodles, meat, and a raw egg. I know it sounds weird, but it was good! Then after that we enjoyed a few games of Uno in accordance with the (very aggressive) Japanese rules. I won a few times. They were impressed.

Then, before we had the cake, they presented me with a gift of my birthday, since it is my 20th (the Japanese coming-of-age) and it is mamunaku (Soon). I got a blue jimbee. It's the traditional summer dress for boys. Girls wear a yukata and the boys wear jimbee to hanabi (Fireworks) displays. I was wanting one, but I didn't know where to get one. So that was an awesome gift!

Mr. Hosokawa got a new handbag that he wanted, for his old one was wearing out. And then, we traded tounge twisters. Those Japanese tounge twisters are difficult! Let's see if I can type one in here for you all.

Here's my favorite. It sounds the best:
kaeru pyoko pyoko mi pyoko pyoko awasete pyoko pyoko mu pyoko pyoko

It means: "Frog jump jump. Jump three times. Jump jump jump. Total of six jumps." I know, it lost alot in the translation. But you couldn't believe how fast they can say it! They wrote them all down for me in hirigana and that slows me down alot. But hey, none of us can say "toy boat" five times fast.

We all know about Jeremiah 29:11, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future'". This is probably out of context and over used, but I have a verse to share in conjunction with that. Psalm 16:5-6, "Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance."

This really stood out to me when I was reading it in my devotions the other day. I know that the Lord has a perfect plan for my life, and that I should seek after his will for my life, but sometimes I do not know what it is. That can lead to fear and worry, because I am not in control of my future. After middle school, it was easy to know what was next, high school. After high school, it was easy to know what was next, college. But after college, there is really no direct step to take. From college, one can either go into the work force or continue one's education. Financially, I know that continuing my education isn't much of a possibility, and I do not have much interest in it yet. So then I must work towards a career.

But there have been two roads that have revealed themselves. One is to work. Anywhere, for any amount of pay, just to get started in the 'real world'. But the other path is missions. Would God really have me consider missions to Japan? I've already had two pastors here and my homestay family suggest it. It is a possibility.

Yet still, there is a great degree of unsurity concering any of these posibilites. I have been reminded by the scriptures, that I need to "Seek first the kingdom of God", and it's easily understood, that where ever I go, I need to find a way to continue to serve Him. But the question is: "Where?" I've prayed again and again about it, I've sought the counsel of others, but still nothing seems to be the obvious choice.

That's why these verses in Psalms really stand out to me. I already know from Jeremiah, that God has a perfect plan for me. But Psalms 16 reminds me that even though I do not know what tomorrow holds, my boundaries have fallen in pleasant places and my inheritance is "delightful".

Look at verses 7 and 8, "I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken." Right now, this is where I need to be. I need to listen to his counsel and keep him always before me.

I know that my future is secure, even though I do not know where it will lead me. I must continue to pray that he will show me where he wants me to be.

It's the Sunday we've all been waiting for! It's was Mr. Hosokawa's birthday and Mrs. Hosokawa got baptized today! So, the service today was very exciting. Today's sermon didn't make all that much sense though. It was on atonement and the passage was in Leviticus. I think that alot was lost in the translataion. However, that didn't stop us all from enjoying Nobuko's baptism.

The whole of the cerimony, was quite traditional, very much unlike anything I'm used to. As you can see in the picture, Pastor Takahashi and Nobuko both wore traditional baptismal garments. She did share her testimony previous to this, but there was a mysterious lack of "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit". That's about all the tradition that I'm used to.

Even though my pictures didn't turn out, many other people took pictures and were more daring to get up front than I was. Hopefully, Mrs. Hosokawa will be able to get some good pictures.

After all of the hustle and bustle, Jon and I helped clean up the baptismal, but ended up getting pushed out of the way by these two Japanese men who really wanted to help. Jon and I got to prep the tank prior to this occasion, so I've had my turn cleaning it. So, that picture is just so you can see a Japanese baptismal. It's a bit deep due to a mistake in it's design, so they use wooden platforms weighted down by bricks to make the tank a little more shallow.

Then, after a flurry of pictures, everyone went upstairs for lunch. There were the chuch people, we summer workers, both missionary families (Mortimers and Winters), and then a family from SEND International who were coming from the states to help with the JEA conference. They were pretty cool. They spoke English, but their daughter is taking Japanese in high school, so I talked to her a bit about high school Japanese. And I thought I was the only one who did crazy stuff like not take Spanish.

Someone in the church found out that it was Mr. Hosokawa's birthday, so a group of the college kids surprised him with this cake.

Oh, I've forgotten to mention, that in addition to Mr. Hosokawa coming to church, Nobuko's skating friend, Mana, came. She's in the second year of middle school here, which makes her about 13, I think. It was her first time to church. She seemed to enjoy it.

That afternoon, David and I were invited to Mr. Hidaka's home Bible fellowship. He drove us over to his apartment, which is in one of the dachi's where we distributed Josui's flyers. On the way over, he decided to have David and I speak instead of allowing us to listen to what he had planned for the lesson today. We asked for demographics on the group we would be talking to, but Mr. Hidaka remained elusive on the subject, and we really couldn't think of what to talk about.

It ended up that we did a short Q & A time, then I shared a bit on what God has been teaching me.

On this particular Saturday, we had the youth meetings. The girls went to Yachio's apartment for the Lydia meeting, and us boys went to the Mortimer's for the Eutychus meeting. I'm unable to tell you how the girls' meeting went, but the boys had a good time.

Chris Mortimer too his son, Mako, to the library to watch a free film there. This particular film was about World War II. Chris really enjoyed it, and also for it's historical perspective, the Japanese' view of the war. However, there was a scene, were a little boy, about Mako's brother's (Nono) age, was shown dying from the nuclear blast at Hiroshima. First it scared Mako, but it also drove an important point home about guns and war. Chirs talked with Mako on the way home about the depravity of man and why there was a war.

However, Mako was still frightened, so he got out of bed to talk with his Dad again. This was smack dab in the middle of the Eutychus meeting, but it worked out fine. The only Japanese boys who were in attendance were the leaders, Yo and Yuki. So, we discussed war. Why is there war? Why is man evil? Why do people war? How should a Christian react to war? Should we obey our government? And eventually, Romans 13. It was an excellent discussion, and the whole of it ended with us watching John MacArthur on Larry King Live. Chris got a tape of it from a buddy at a local military base. Boy, some of the people on that panel were off their rocker. You wonder if they even read their Bible. But, the end result was a great dicussion on the soveriegnty of God in wars and authorities, and the Christian's role in those situations.

Well this morning, I went to church a bit early, because I didn't know what time we were supposed to meet. I guessed 11AM, and was wrong. So I attempted to update my website. I got pictures up, but the text is refusing to upload properly, so I'm sorry for the delay.

Once I got back from the Internet Cafe (Comic Buster), I jumped in and helped everyone decorate.

Oh, I should mention that we've had two earthquakes. The first was yesterday, and only those of us on the fourth floor felt it. Then last night, Joy and Jessica (I think), felt one real late at night. Nothing major, it just felt like someone was kicking my chair. It was pretty long though. By the time that Caroline and I realized that it was an earthquake, and that we were in Japan and really didn't know what else to do other than wait it out, it was over. It woke Jessica up, probably because Caroline and I were talking while working on decorations for the party.

Okay, back on track: Ice cream party. It was great! We started with an awesome puppet show. This year we had a better plot line. We did a Golden Rule baised skit. But, even though it was serious, you can tell we had a great time.

From there, we did some songs, then played a very large game of musical chairs. I say large, because we were running out of room trying to fit about 35 kids and some adults and 34 chairs all in one room. Remember, everything in Japan is smaller, so this isn't a big meeting hall type room that we're talking about.

After that, Emily (One of the Canadian missionaries) was there to do her chalk picture/gospel presintation. This time it was based on a passage in Matthew. She drew two roads, then when the blacklight revealed the whole of the picture, you saw that the broad, easy road led to death and hell, whereas the narrow, difficult road led to life and heavan. It was pretty amazing this time.

Then, we downed a ton of ice cream. We almost ran out this year! They had to run a get a little extra. But it was definitely worth it. I think everyone enjoyed it.