We have just reached the Lancaster area after having been my family up in Maine for a couple weeks and then with Colby’s family in northern PA for a couple of weeks. We were able to be at our home church in Terre Hill on Sunday, and it has been so good to see everyone and catch up.

A lot of people have asked us how we’re adjusting to being back in the States. Well, what I have found out is that there is much more of an adjustment when we go to Japan than when we come back to the US. That being said, there are a few things that we did indeed have to get used to again in being in our ‘motherland’.

The first thing was Walmart. It was the first store Colby and I stopped at after landing in New Jersey and let me tell you, Walmart is one huge store! It felt like just walking through it would suffice for my daily exercise. We had to go to the back to get juice and I happened to walk past the eggs. Oh my! There was literally a whole aisle from top to bottom of just eggs! All you could see was carton after carton of eggs. Our grocery store in Ube had one or two racks of eggs and that was it. American chickens must be a bit more “active” than Japanese ones I guess. Then there was the yogurt aisle – well, I won’t get started on that, but that too was impressive!

Eggs!

The next thing to get used to has been store clerks. In Japan, there are set greetings and phrases that store clerks say to every customer they come across. You learn to expect them as you’re going through the checkout line and, for the language learner, the repetition is very helpful. However it’s different in the US, where who knows what the clerk will say to you, that is, if they say anything at all. One clerk somewhere checked out our things without saying a single word to us. The next clerk over was chatting up a storm with a customer. At one restaurant we went to, the waitress came over and said, “okay, so what do you want?”, and at another restaurant, all the waitress did practically was crack jokes. It didn’t bother us at all, but I could see how if you were a foreigner living in America, it would be very hard to understand people.

Another big adjustment for us has been to speak and hear English all the time. It’s refreshing to be able to understand everything and not have to always have a dictionary at hand. We can talk freely without having to figure out what grammar or vocabulary to use, and we know what things are polite and appropriate to say. While we were used to those things in Japan, they were a continual source of mental exercise and so it is nice to not have to worry as much about how we speak here. As much as we can though, we are going to try to continue our language study here in the States so that we will not have forgotten too much when we go back to Japan.

We appreciate your prayers for us and our safety and adjustment here in America. Please pray that we would have many opportunities to connect with our supporters and share with them how God is working.

Well, we’ve said our goodbyes in Japan and have made it safely to the US. The Japanese have an interesting custom when people leave on long trips – they send family and friends off at the airport. Colby and I had heard about this but this past Tuesday afternoon when we left Ube was the first time we experienced it.

 
Feeling it proper to bid a final farewell and give the person a good sendoff, 7 of our Japanese friends came to sit with us as we waited until it was time to go through security. They all chatted with us and each other, telling us how they’ll miss us, and one lady even brought us chocolates to eat on the plane. It was hard not to miss them already as we looked back and found them waving goodbye.

This is what it looked like, although not quite so many people.

It made me realize how God has blessed us with a number of friendships during the time we’ve been in Ube. Looking ahead and knowing that we are thinking about moving to another place in Japan, it’s easy to feel a bit afraid since we don’t know anyone in that area. However, we didn’t know too many people when we first came to Ube, and God allowed us to meet many people and make many friends. I think we’ll have to be a bit extroverted and intentional when we move to this new place to go out and try to build relationships, but over time, I think they will form just like they have in Ube. God has provided for us before, and we are trusting that He will provide for us again.

Thank you all for your prayers for us and for our trip home. It went well and we are enjoying time with my family up in Maine. Please pray that we would continue to have quality time with my family here, and then with Colby’s family in Pennsylvania.

Well, it’s 6:00 AM here and as sometimes happens on the day you leave for a big trip, I can’t sleep. This is actually okay as the extra 2 hours gives me a chance to tell you about two important conversations we had here as we were saying goodbye to our friends. Before I mention the conversations, I should tell you about the restaurants.

These are two of my favorite restaurants (behind the sushi buffet, of course) here in Ube and they simply don’t exist in the US. The reason is that both restaurants have the customer cook their own food. While this is a lot of fun, my assumption is that they have never been launched in the US because in the US allowing anyone to do anything that could harm themselves (e.g. burns, food poisoning) is lawsuit city. [for the sake of actually finishing this post, I’ll resist getting on the soapbox]

The first is called Karubi Taisho (lit. “general of ribs”) and is one of the many cuisines that the Japanese have co-opted from China and Korea. In the center of the table is a large grill where diners cook their food throughout the meal. Although many different meat and vegetables are common, the pièce de résistance is beef rib meat cut into strips and marinated in a special Korean sauce.

The second restaurant is called Dotonbori, named after a famous commercial district in Osaka. They specialize in okonomiyaki, which is cabbage and batter and anything else you want (okonomi literally means “preference”) all mixed together and fried on a griddle. While these are usually prepared in front of you by the restaurant staff, Dotonbori gives you all the ingredients in a big bowl and allows you to cook it yourself. Those of you who know my wife’s love of all things garlic, won’t be surprised that she ordered one called ninniku bakudan or “garlic bomb”.

...and yes, those are whole cloves of raw garlic to be grilled in the pancake.

So, back to the people… The Tamuras and the Hiraishis are two great couples we have been privileged to become friends with during our time here. Although old enough to be our parents, both couples are generous, energetic, and fun to be around. As we have thought more about church planting strategies in the past year, one of the philosophies that I have been very drawn to is the idea of targeting key people in a community. While it can often take time for these relationships to develop; when people like this do come to Christ, they have a large network of friends and acquaintances with whom they can share. Both of these couples fit that bill. The husbands both own multiple small businesses here in Ube and both wives are very active in the community.

The Tamuras

and the Hiraishis

During our time with the Tamuras, we had a chance to talk more about what a relationship with Jesus looks like. They know a lot of the Christian message because of participating in the gospel choir, but have never to take that plunge personally. After our dinner with the Hiraishis, we had a chance to give them a copy of the Living Bible in Japanese. Mr. Hiraishi has a copy of the traditionally used Bible, but told us (as many others have) that the language is hard to understand. We are hoping that the conversational style of the Living Bible will appeal to him.

It was sad to talk with both these couples, knowing that our opportunities to connect with them from this point on will be limited. Unfortunately, both couples – in addition to the normal cultural barriers – have interacted with a Christian here who has given them the impression that Christianity is all about rules, obligations, and mental acknowledgement of very foreign-sounding concepts, rather than a vibrant and personal relationship with Jesus. One bright spot for us is that they have also had very positive contact with Mrs. Koikawa, one of the women that attends the church here and we are hoping that she will be able to continue to influence them as their relationships continue.

It is sad to know that we will be leaving here without having seen these important couples come to Christ, but at the same time with the expectant hope that our departure is not the end of their contact with the Gospel.

Please pray for both of these couples on their spiritual journey. Pray that God will have used us as yet another watering in their lives which will eventually produce fruit.

Pray also for safety as we travel over the next three days.

** UPDATE – Thanks for your prayers. Despite some messy weather, we and all our luggage have arrived safely in ME, where we will spend the next two weeks visiting supporters and spending Christmas with Theresa’s family. **

This morning I was reading in 1 Peter 2:

Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners’’ to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.

As humans, our understanding of spiritual concepts is always limited, but it is always enhanced when we experience the very analogy used by one of the biblical writers. For instance, being a parent makes the analogy of God as our heavenly father come alive.

For me, I know exactly what it means to be a foreigner. Japan is a wonderful place with warm, welcoming people, but Theresa and I are (and likely always will be) foreigners. Even though we can identify with the Japanese in many things, our values and ways of thinking continue to reflect our American background. I hope I can say the same thing about my citizenship in heaven. I live in this world, but I do not share its values. The way I approach life should reflect the fact that my life comes from and that I live to serve the king of the universe.

Today we also got a taste of what it means to be a temporary resident. Theresa and I are currently in North-Eastern Japan looking at a possible ministry location for our next term. This afternoon, we had the opportunity to go and see one of the towns that had been devastated by the 3.11 tsunami and meet a couple that lives in one of the temporary housing complexes that have been built for people whose homes have been destroyed. While the places are very nice, the people who live there have no long-term commitment to them. No one is planting shrubbery or adding a porch onto their little unit. All of the furniture and fixtures are the kind that can be eventually removed.

Theresa and I have dinner with two of the survivors of the tsunami (left)

I hope my life reflect the same. Am I amassing earthly goods, or do I have just enough to live my life well on behalf of the Kingdom of God? I want to be focusing my time on things that will produce heavenly and not earthly rewards.

Pray for Mr. & Mrs. Sasaki. Despite losing everything (including one of their sons) they seem to have a good attitude. Pray that as our friends, the Ikubos, are working here, they will be able to build a good relationship with them and share the love of Christ and the message of the gospel.

A couple weeks ago one of my English students told me of a flower exhibition that she was participating in and invited me to go see it. This exhibition was specifically for Ikebana, which is the traditional Japanese way of arranging flowers (you can read more about Ikebana here). I was happy to go and brought my friend, Teresa, who also works with Christar here in Japan, along as well. Here are some of the pictures we took:

This was one of my favorites.

Here was Teresa and I, and my English student Fumiko. Her arrangement is to the right.

Pretty and simple.

I guess you didn't have to use just flowers - this one is made from packing peanuts!

The room was filled with many different arrangements, some rather interesting like the one above, but many that were just lovely. It was a fun chance to see a bit of Japanese culture!

Please pray for our English student and friend, Fumiko, that she would come to know God’s love for her. We recently had lunch with her and were able to give her a biography of a Christian Japanese writer. Please pray that she would have the chance to read it and that God would be at work in her life.

As was mentioned in the last post, I hurt my back the other day when I was trying to lift something. After close to a month of it not getting better, we finally decided that maybe it was time for me to go see a doctor. I ended up going back to the doctor a few more times to get LLLT, which is low level laser therapy – a very interesting and seemingly effective procedure where the doctor presses a laser beam into your skin and it somehow heals your muscles. I am happy to report that I am now feeling as good as new and am back to being able to lift all sorts of things from lampposts to couches to even certain types of small cars!  Okay, okay, so maybe I can’t lift any of those things, but still, I feel great!

This is similar to what my laser machine looked like.

Going to the doctor’s office, particularly a few times in a row, made me aware of the differences between a Japanese and American clinic, aside from the obvious fact that one is in Japanese and the other in English. One of the first differences you encounter is that in Japan, you generally don’t have to make an appointment – you just go. This took awhile to get used to but it turns out it can be a very convenient thing. Since there is no set time for you to come, it doesn’t matter if you’re running late or early, and if you suddenly don’t feel like going or find out that you have no money, it’s not a problem! However, on the flip side, if you hit a particularly busy day, you might end up waiting at the doctor’s office the whole morning before you’re seen. But, then again, don’t we wait quite a bit in the US too?

Another big difference here in Japan is the price. Compared to America, it is quite cheap. There are two reasons. First, doctors don’t need to have extensive malpractice insurance. If something doesn’t work out with the treatment, it doesn’t even enter most Japanese people’s minds to sue their doctor. The doctor is the expert and if something happens to go wrong, it must be because of fate. Certainly, doctors here do malpractice and are held accountable, but not by the outrageous lawsuits that we have in the US. The second reason is that Japan has a socialized system. Everyone is part of the national medical coverage. Prices for the most part seem to be fairly similar. And everyone cooperates and works together to make the system work. Despite the low costs, Japan has some of the best healthcare in the world. For my four visits to the doctor’s office, which included an x-ray, a full exam, 3 prescriptions, and four sessions of laser therapy treatment, the total came to a whopping $86! Yes, $86. And, it was only that high because we had to pay 100% in cash. If I were a Japanese person, I would have paid only 30%-50% of that, with the government program picking up the rest. Colby said that while he was waiting for me, he heard one older woman on a fixed income (and therefore in the lowest cost bracket) be asked to pay $1.50 for her visit!

The last major difference that I noticed is that the Japanese do not seem to be as concerned about privacy as Americans are. When I went to have my blood pressure checked, it was done in an open exam room where one woman was lying on a cot waiting for the doctor, and she could clearly hear it when the nurse told me my blood pressure numbers. (I was glad they didn’t weigh me!) Instead of walls and doors between exam rooms, areas were sectioned off with curtains, thus making it possible to hear everything said around you. I had to chuckle at the thought of how many Americans might feel uncomfortable in this kind of setting. I guess in a place where everyone lives so close together and going to a public bath is held in high regard, there just aren’t the same inhibitions and privacy rules that I have grown up with. This is part of what ‘foreign’ country means – not bad, just very different.

Colby and I have felt very blessed to be here in this foreign country. Please pray for us that we would continually seek to be culturally sensitive and have many opportunities to show God’s love to the Japanese.

This past week, Theresa and I took a trip up to the Osaka area to meet some pastors using the method of church planting we hope to participate in during our next term. We were able to attend a workshop where various issues related to this method were discussed. We departed early Saturday morning and got off to kind of a rocky start.

To begin with we were feeling quite discouraged. Because this method is different than what the Christar workers here in Japan have used in the past, we have been basically on our own in figuring out who we could work with and how to go about getting involved in this type of ministry. Thanks to some seminars we have been attending, we met a retired pastor who was able to introduce us to two other pastors in his area (near Osaka) who were doing this kind of work.

Emailing a person who you have only ever been introduced to via email and saying, “We are interested in the type of church planting you are doing. Would it be possible for us to come and talk with you and observe your church for a few days?” could be tricky in the US, but is definitely tricky in Japan where connections are very important and people who are not in one’s circle of acquaintances must be talked to with the utmost politeness.

We managed to arrange meetings with both pastors. However because we had to make our requests in round about ways, we had some frustrating misunderstandings and weren’t totally sure they understood exactly what we were hoping to get out of the visits. Still we made our hotel reservations, looked up our train schedule, and hoped for the best.

By Saturday morning, we had two very full backpacks, plus our computers and various reading in a third bag and a fourth filled with gifts to give the various people we hoped to visit. As we were just about to leave, we remembered that we had yet to print off a map so we could get from the last train to the church. As you might have guessed, the printer decided to malfunction. After 15 minutes of wrangling, I finally gave up. At that point we were already 15 minutes behind schedule for the train we hoped to catch. Unfortunately, because we are in a rural area, our train only runs once an hour and so missing it would have nullified all the schedules we had researched earlier in the week and mean a lot more wandering through the various stations.

As we scrambled to grab our bags and head out, I noticed Theresa begin to cry as she bent down to tie her shoes. It was then that she told me that her lower back, which she had injured picking something up earlier in the week, had been getting progressively worse instead of better and now it hurt so bad that she couldn’t bend over to tie her shoes. (She’s better now.) This was not a good thing given that we had a 20 minute walk to the train station and plenty more the rest of the week. So, after putting on her shoes and mine, I put on both our backpacks and we headed out, trying to make the best time we could.
…oh, and it was raining.

I have to say I don’t know if I have ever been so discouraged and wanting to give up and go home in our past three years here as I was then. But as we walked to the station, I began to pray. At first, I was just asking God to help us get to the station on time and catch our train. But soon I found myself pouring out my heart to God, expressing all the frustration, tiredness, discouragement, and anxiety that I had been trying so hard to bear-up under over the past few weeks.

Paul’s statement about his own difficulties has proven exceedingly true in my life.

“Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor 12:9-10, NLT)

I am the kind of person who doesn’t face up to my own weakness very well. I am tempted to think that if I just try hard enough I can take care of everything. In my head, I know I can’t do anything without God’s strength, but I don’t always know it with my heart. This is a very painful position to be in because often the only way God can get through to people like me is to allow is to come to the end of ourselves. When I am broken, my reliance on God hits home because I have nowhere else to turn.

And God always proves faithful. We did actually make it to the station with just a minute to spare, and had good visits with both of the pastors. Because of that and some other positive things with our ministry here in Ube, I finished the week much more encouraged than I started it, but having very clearly in my mind that it was all from God’s working in various situations.

On a humorous note, something funny from our trip: When we checked into our hotel, the desk clerk told us that the hotel offered a western style breakfast buffet. We purchased tickets for the following morning, but knew we shouldn’t get our hopes up too much. Here was what we found.

our yummy breakfast buffet

From back to front the selections are: shredded cabbage with various dressings, potato salad, wakame seaweed, steamed broccoli, sliced cucumbers, canned corn, canned mixed fruit, and then the sausage and scrambled eggs. I know you’re all probably thinking, “How come my local restaurant doesn’t have seaweed on its breakfast buffet?!” Well, come visit us here and we will make sure you can enjoy one that does.

Praise God for the good times we had with Pastor Endo (en-dough) and Pastor Ueda (oo-ay-da). Pray for their churches in Hirakata (hee-ra-ka-ta) and Otsu (oh-tsu) as they seek to connect with and reach out to those communities. Pray also for wisdom for Theresa and I as we continue to seek God’s guidance for our next term.

This past Monday, we were invited to have lunch with Kazuko, one of our English students. We drove to her house along with Keiko (another student who is also a Christian). As we talked, we discussed how both of us had had somewhat difficult weeks and commented on how we were looking forward to having lunch with Kazuko because she is one of those people who laughs easily and is a joy to be around. The lunch was delicious (Kazuko has also worked as a professional cook) and a lot of fun.

Later, I pondered our discussion in the car: three Christians feeling uplifted from being around someone who is not a Christian. Hopefully Kazuko enjoyed being with us as much as we did with her, but the somewhat backwardness of it really struck me. As Christians we should be the ones bringing joy into others lives. We are called to serve others and we are called to share the true source of ultimate joy – the message of the Gospel, but we should also be just plain fun people. Because we are children of God, our lives should be filled and overflowing with joy. We should laugh often, have fun easily, and put people at ease when they are around us.

I remember the unsaved husband of one of the women in the church telling me that he was okay with his wife going to church because she always came home happier than when she left. Is that true of your church? What about you personally? Do people enjoy being around you? Is it obvious to the non-Christians around you that your life is filled with joy?

Pray for us as we live out the Gospel message amongst our Japanese friends and contacts. Pray that our lives would be filled with joy even amidst difficult or tiring circumstances.

As many of you know, we have been trying to have each of our English students over for a meal this year. This past week, we had two ladies from Colby’s beginner class in for lunch, Mrs. Masuda (one of the church ladies) and Mrs. Kimura. They wanted to eat something ‘American’ and so we made them taco salad (I know, it’s actually Mexican, but when you stop and think about it, what IS American food anyway?). Being the custom here in Japan to bring a gift of some sort when you visit someone, Mrs. Kimura brought us a yogurt cake (yes, a yogurt cake!) and Mrs. Masuda brought us a whole watermelon.

Our lunch with Mrs. Masuda (left) and Mrs. Kimura (right).

The reason I mention that a whole watermelon was brought is because that is viewed as quite a gift. That same good-sized watermelon that you can buy in your local grocery store for about $3 to $5 is sold here in Japan for around $20 to $25!

That was one reason why we wanted to grow our own garden this summer is because fruit and vegetables are just generally more expensive here in Japan. This is possibly due to a number of them being imported, but also could be due to the Japanese penchant for beautiful, blemish-free produce they like to give as gifts. At any rate, with as little rain as we’ve gotten and how hot it has been, it is looking like we may still have to buy our produce instead of grow it.

Even though we aren’t doing so well at growing vegetables and fruit,  our main desire is to grow relationships. Please pray that our relationship with Mrs. Kimura would grow as she has invited us to her house for dinner. Pray for opportunities to share about Christ with her and her husband.

Back in March when we had the team from our home church in Terre Hill, PA come, everyone would have unanimously agreed that one of the strangest things they ate was raw horse meat. Well, this past week, Colby and I broke the record for strangest thing eaten.

We were invited out by our good friends, the Tamuras, to a small Japanese style restaurant. Here, you could order as much meat and veggies that you wanted (including various other animal parts aside from the meat) and it would be cooked for you in front of you. So after we sampled a number of things (all delicious!), Mr. Tamura looked at the menu and started to chuckle.

“Have you ever eaten suzume?” he asked (in Japanese).

“Suzume? What’s suzume?” we asked as we pulled out our dictionary. Suzume, as it turns out, is sparrow. Yes, those same cute little birds that sometimes come to our bird feeders are being served up on a stick half a world away for the price of about $5.

Colby and I looked at each other. If the Japanese eat it, how could we not at least try it? we reasoned. So, we put in an order for one sparrow, dipped in soy sauce. This is what it looked like:

Yep, it was the WHOLE thing.

Thankfully Colby ate most of it, but from what I could taste it wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t something I would like to make a regular part of my diet, but for a one time experience (and a great blog post!) I ate it.

Mr. Tamura is smiling because he doesn't have to eat it. I don't know why Colby is smiling...

God has blessed us with the Tamuras’ friendship. Please continue to pray for them that the truths they sing about in the Gospel Choir each week would touch their hearts and that they would be drawn to the Savior.