Being a foreigner in a homogenous country can be a very interesting thing sometimes. Because most everyone one looks similar to each other and is just about the same size, both our looks and our height make us stand out. Being barely 5′ 3″, I have never thought of myself as tall – ever. However here in Japan, I feel like a giant since many of the church ladies only measure up to my shoulders (yes, that much shorter!). I think it’s funny that when I was growing up I used to pray that God would make me taller. While both of my parents are on the short side, my brother is rather tall and so early on I knew that all of the tall genes, if there were any, went to him. Then two things happened that made me completely stop praying that I would become taller: I met Colby and we found out we were going to Japan. As many of you know, Colby, like Japanese people, is a bit on the short side. I very quickly decided that I would be content with my height, or lack thereof.

Another area that being a foreigner is an interesting thing (and a handy thing too) is that we are easily recognizable and remember-able. I have recently joined a baking class and when I couldn’t attend one of the sessions a couple weeks ago, the teacher called me to let me know that she had left some of the goodies in the refrigerator for me at the community center.

So as I was driving to the center, I was trying to prepare what I would say in Japanese to the receptionist to explain to her that I was in this class, I couldn’t attend the day before, the teacher called me, there were things for me in the fridge, etc. etc. By the time I got to the place, I had it all worked out and thoroughly practiced and was ready with my spiel. As soon as I went into the center and before I even said hello, the lady said, “Ah, Wine san!”, which means “Ah, Mrs. Wine!” (It would seem that the “hofer” part disappeared).

She started chatting away, leading me over to the fridge and handing me the goodies from my class. I had to marvel that, even though I was ready with an explanation and probably would have needed to use it if I were Japanese, simply by being a foreigner she knew exactly who I was  and what I was there for.

Standing out from the crowd may be a way God can use us to share about Him with those around us. Please pray that we would be good testimonies and examples to all who see and interact with us.

decisions... decisions...

As far as we can tell, the Japanese people don’t celebrate mother’s and father’s day with quite the same zeal that Americans do, but they recognize it nevertheless.

Today, as we ate lunch after church we were chatting with Pastor and Mrs. Uchida about what kind of things American churches give out for Father’s Day. The Uchidas had bought pink roses just like they did for Mother’s day, but realized that they probably weren’t the most appropriate gift for fathers.

We described some gifts that our sending church had given over the years and mentioned that one year they even gave out duct tape. Despite how we tried to describe American men’s fondness for playing handyman and the fact that duct tape is a really handy thing, the Uchidas thought it was an odd gift idea. Japanese people aren’t into the whole DIY thing. While Americans would say, “Why pay a professional to do something you can do yourself.”, Japanese tend to think, “Why go through all the hassle of trying to do something yourself (and possibly make the problem worse) when you can just hire an experienced professional.” The best line came as Pastor Uchida tried to explain to one of the church ladies how Americans thought this was a good thing for fathers.

“I guess,” he said “they just hand it to them and say,
‘Here. Go fix something.’ ”

Please pray for the many women in the church who have unsaved husbands. Pray that they will be a good witness through their actions and share their faith appropriately. Pray for the church in Japan as it continues to look for ways to address the needs of men.

Well, speculation has been floating around now for a while as to whether or not the rainy season here in Japan has started yet. Some say that it came early to the southernmost islands, and some say that it won’t be so bad this year. As someone who loves the rain, I believe I am one of the very few, other than the rice farmers that is, who thoroughly enjoys rainy season.

Unlike rainy seasons in some other countries, in Japan it is about a month long and rains most days but not necessarily everyday. When it does rain, it is usually an all day affair ranging from a light drizzle to quite severe showers. This is the time of year that the mold starts to form and for many, that old, offending arthritis problem sets in.

Despite it being an unpleasant time for most people, rainy season is actually quite a needed thing here in Japan. It is around this time that farmers plant their rice crops and rice, as it turns out, needs a lot of water in order to grow. It is not uncommon at all for these rice fields to be flooded with water during this time of the year. Rainy season really gives the rice production a good start.

Our first summer here was quite a wet one. It rained June and July and it rained a lot. Last summer, however, left me disappointed as it didn’t rain nearly as much as it was supposed to (or as much as I thought it ought to). So far this rainy season it has rained a little bit, but nothing yet like a true rainy season. Here is a picture of what some farmers with large rice fields like to do:

Please be in prayer for the Japanese as they continue to rebuild their lives after the March earthquake. Pray that the rice harvests would be good this year and that people would come to know Who it is that gives and sustains.

For awhile now, Colby and I have wanted to participate in various community classes for the chance to use our Japanese and build relationships. It has been difficult to find classes that are appropriate for our schedule, age level, and interests. We have even tried going to a couple classes only to find out that the they were full of senior citizens or that the teacher talked too fast to understand.

What is the solution to this you might ask? Why to start our own community class, of course! It might sound ambitious, we know, and it probably is since we’ve only been here for a couple of years and don’t know much of the language. However, we knew that Colby loves to cook and that probably there would be a number of Japanese people interested in American style cuisine, and so we decided we would hold our very own cooking class. And, by George, that’s just what we did!

The chefs getting ready before the class.

This past Sunday was our first class held at the local social welfare center. We had asked at a number of places about having classes and the social welfare center was the only place that would allow us to have our class there even though we were foreigners (this was one of the first times in our lives we may have been experiencing discrimination, but that’s a topic for another post…). We decided we would start off easy with only one class a month and just advertise by word of mouth.

And so our first class had 13 students in it, many of whom were either English students or acquaintances. Together we made a gourmet version of macaroni and cheese and everyone had enough left over to bring some home. Colby and I talked all in Japanese which provided some good practice for us, particularly with having to think and talk on the spot. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but things went well without too many problems. Everyone seemed to enjoy the class and the food and we have 3 people signed up for our June class already!

Please pray that God would use us to be a blessing to the people who come to these classes. Pray for opportunities to build relationships and share God’s love.

Characters in the Guess Who Game

Have you ever played the kids’ game, Guess Who?  It’s a simple game where you have to ask your partner questions about the person on their card until you are finally able to guess who it is.  I had never heard of it before we came to Japan, but we found it in amongst some things a family that was leaving Japan gave to us.

Wouldn’t you know, this is a great game to use in our English classes!  It’s a fun way for the students to practice describing people (Does your person have white hair?  Blue eyes?).  Colby and I also found out recently that it’s a good way to practice these same things in Japanese.  We played Guess Who with our friends, the Tamuras, and we got lots of practice, not to mention a few good laughs.

While we had to ask the questions in Japanese, the Tamuras tried to ask them in English, which kept us all busy looking in our dictionaries.  In trying to describe someone who has a large nose, Mr. Tamura asked us if our person had a “bulbous” nose.  I tried asking if their person had a beard and instead of using the word “hayasu” for to wear a beard, I used “hiyasu” which meant, “Does he have a cold beard?”.  I’ve made sure to straighten that one out and hopefully won’t ever say that for real!

We are grateful for our friends, the Tamuras, who we have been meeting with ever since we came to Japan.  Please pray for Mr. Tamura as he is in a lot of pain due to having been in a car accident a few years ago.  Pray that both he and his wife would come to realize God’s personal love for them.

One thing we had been looking forward to all winter was a conference scheduled for this past week on starting cell churches. We had gone to a pre-conference back in November where a cell church planter from Hong Kong came and shared various principles on this topic. He was to come again this past week for a few days in order to talk in more depth about the first two of the principles he had shared.

We got to the conference as scheduled and found to our dismay that unfortunately this man (who spoke in English, by the way) would not be able to join us due to a funeral he had to attend. Thus, the entire conference was going to be just in Japanese. I was unsure of how much Colby and I would be able to understand, but we decided to make the best of it and learn all we could.

It turned out that, while we did not understand everything, it was a real blessing to be there and participate, as well as form  new relationships and connections with other people interested in this type of church. The concept of cell churches is centered around a few basic principles and it was affirming for us to hear these principles taught and to see so many people interested in starting this type of church. God allowed us to be placed in a group with other young people who spoke with us on our level of Japanese and so we were able to benefit from the group discussions. What looked like a difficult thing at first turned out to be a blessing in relationships and affirmation (not to mention the host of new Japanese words we learned!).

Please pray for us that God would allow us the opportunity to participate in a cell church in the future. Pray that God would continue to give us His vision for churches in Japan.

It used to be, many many years ago in Japan, that the way to know what was going on in the area was through informal town gatherings where someone would relay the news. Flash forward a number of decades and, while people get their news mainly from the internet or TV, much of the election campaigning is still done in a similar mindset as that of all those years ago.

However, unlike a public gathering, these days election candidates often have their own personal election vehicles with loudspeakers on the top. These said loudspeakers allow for the candidate to then parade through towns and neighborhoods speaking through the microphone alerting everyone of who they are and wouldn’t you please vote for them.

If this sounds like an ingenious idea, let us assure you that when it wakes you up at 8am on a Saturday morning, it does not equate to such a lovely thing. The loudspeakers do exactly what they are supposed to do and let everyone know that the candidate is passing through the neighborhood. What does he or she say? Most usually (at least from what we can understand), the person repeats their name again and again as well as “Thank you very much! Thank you very much!” even though they have yet to be elected.

These past few weeks have been election time here in southern Japan, first for the prefectural representatives and then for the city representatives. And thus, we here in Ube have been graced with election candidates and their loudspeakers for a few weeks now. Thankfully it ended yesterday as people went to the polls to vote. Below is a video of some of the footage we got of the campaigns.

In thinking about the government of Japan, please pray that God would be at work to draw the leaders unto Himself. Pray that God’s plans and desires for Japan would come to pass.

Although teaching our English classes has been primarily a source of income, it has also been a good way for us to establish relationships with the people that come. One man God has brought our way has been a very faithful student and also helps Colby practice conversing in Japanese.

As someone who came to class without fail, we were surprised when he suddenly didn’t show up a few weeks ago when our friends from Pennsylvania were here. That night while we were out to dinner with the team, Colby got a phone call from him. He said that he wouldn’t be able to come to class for awhile due to some difficulties that he wasn’t able to explain at the time. Because the restaurant was noisy, it was difficult to communicate and unfortunately the call got cut short. Colby sent him an email afterward saying that he hoped everything was alright, that we would be in prayer for him, and that we hoped we could meet up sometime.

Not knowing what was going on and if he was okay or not, we did pray for him and sent him another email a few weeks later inviting him for coffee. He called us back just this past week and suggested we go out for lunch at a local bakery. We were encouraged to be able to meet with him, but found out, sadly, that his absence has been due to illness and he has been told to rest in the  hospital for awhile.

We were able to give him a copy of the biography of a well-known Japanese author, who struggled with illness and subsequently became a Christian. In coming regularly to our English class, he has heard many times about God through Pastor Uchida’s Bible times. Although he has shown an interest in the Bible intellectually, he does not seem to have a desire to believe personally. We are hoping and praying that he will read through the book we gave him as he has plenty of free time in the hospital.

Please pray for this man as he is struggling with illness. Pray that God would speak to his heart through this and through the book we gave him and that a desire to know God would grow inside of him. Pray for God’s saving grace over him.

Many of you have asked us about the state of young people in Japan. Unfortunately, for various reasons, many do not seem to live up to their potential. Recently, TIME magazine published an interesting article describing the young people in Japan and the potential of the earthquake to shake up their world.

Rising to the Challenge (TIME Magazine,  Mar. 26, 2011)

Young people in Japan are less bound by tradition and other people’s opinions, which can make them more open to the Gospel message. However, many are only concerned with their own happiness. Pray that the difficulty of recent events would make them consider what is truly important in life. Pray that ministries targeting them would have wisdom as they find effective ways to connect these young people with their true purpose and with a God who cares deeply for them.

As many of you are probably aware, a couple of weeks ago we were blessed to have five people from our home church, Terre Hill BFC, come to visit us. They arrived on Tuesday, March 8th and stayed with us for one week.

The pickup from the airport, from L to R: Pastor Kevin, Ian, Becky, Stacey, and Diane

We quickly got them settled in with a day full of activity and action particularly designed to combat any jet lag. We had dinner with some of our friends that night, the Tamuras, and had a fun time playing Jenga together.

Diane carefully inspects the pile before removing a piece.

One of our highlights of the week was the people on the team getting the chance to meet our English students and interact with them. We had one person from the team in each class to see what it was like, and then everyone joined together for lunch or dinner afterward.

Diane and Becky chat with Kazuko and Fumiko before lunch.

Ian shares his testimony at the Thursday night class.

Between English classes, the group also helped us tremendously with various clean-up projects around the property. One such project was the sorting of the left over garbage in one of the warehouses on the property.

Pastor Kevin expounds to Stacey on the importance of garbage removal.

Another highlight of the week was our trip to one of the prettiest places in Japan called Miyajima. Known for its “floating” temple gate as well as its very tame deer, we spent a great day there sightseeing and souvenir hunting.

Colby enjoying the solitude ways of the monk. Unfortunately he forgot to shave.

As beautiful as it is, Miyajima is a place where people come to worship in both Buddhist and Shinto ways.

The team ended the week by sharing the message and a song in the worship service at the Lighthouse to the encouragement of the members.

The team singing "God is so Good" in Japanese.

Although the recent earthquake happened while the team was here, they were able to return home safely that next Monday. It was an encouragement for Colby and I to have our friends with us, and it was good for them to be able to see a glimpse of what our lives are like as well as meet some of the Japanese people we interact with. Thank you guys for coming!

Praise the Lord for such a neat opportunity to have the Terre Hill Team with us. Praise God for all of the work that was able to be done and all the new friends made. Please pray that God would continue to use the testimonies the team shared with the English students and church members to draw the Japanese unto Himself.