Holidays in Hamamatsu

So a month or so after I arrived in Japan I realized that the environment I'm in isn't really conducive to really learning Japanese. I speak English all day with my students, many of the church members speak English, and my housemates speak English. I realized that I'd need to be in a different setting to really be immersed in Japanese. So when my friend Drew told me about a church he'd been connected with in Japan that had some cool stuff going on and was very culturally Japanese and filled with mostly Japanese speakers I decided that I wanted to spend some time there to get immersed in things Japanese. I ended up spending a large part of winter break at this church in Hamamatsu. After two and a half weeks as a part of the Hamamatsu church family I am now back at my house. My time in Hamamatsu was so much more than I had expected and has left me feeling unable to express how deeply it impacted me.

All I had really wanted was a place to listen to Japanese and a place to be during the holidays so that it wouldn't feel so lame being away from my family, but what I got was graciously welcomed into a church body that is so full of life and joy. I don't even know where to begin. I guess I will just try to give some little snipits from my time, though I doubt it will do it justice.

My friend Josh and I both went to try to learn some more Japanese. We were greeted by Drew’s friend Shion, the son of the pastor of the Hamamatsu church. While we were there we actually spent time at two churches, one in Hamamatsu and one in Nagoya. When we were in Nagoya we helped Shion with English classes he teaches, and we participated in the Christmas party for the English students. This was one of I think 5 Christmas parties we attended while there. While we were at the other church we participated with the international people small group, and we basically helped out wherever they needed help. We also spent 4 days at a New Years camp with the church.

Some highlights from my time with the church:

*I love mochi and while I was there I got to help make mochi. You have to pound the hot mochi rice and then make it into little balls. It was so fun and later, I think it was on New Years, we had a mochi lunch with all different kinds of mochi.

*Shion showed us around Nagoya and we went to the aquarium and saw a dolphin show. This was followed by a little shopping and then a short break in a coffee shop. The coffee was delicious, but the best part was just sitting down with a couple friends, enjoying good conversation over a nice cup of coffee. They don’t really have coffee shops in the area I live, and this was a treat.

*I stayed in a very Japanese style hotel for New Years camp. The room I was in I shared with 5 other ladies and it was a big tatami room (the rooms with the grass mats).

*I was given Japanese citrus fruit from the Nagoya pastor and his wife and told to put them in my bath. I was told, mostly through charades and a little translation from Shion that I am to fill the bath at 44 degrees Celsius, crush the fruits in the bath and make sure to splash it on my face as well so that my skin can still be so beautiful when I am 90 as the pastor’s mothers skin. He was poking her face at this point to show me how beautiful it is. So I took a hot relaxing, citrus fragranced bath.

*I got to talk with people from Japan, Brazil, the Philippines, Peru/New Zealand, and China. We did church together and as a people from various nations and languages, we praised Jesus together in Japanese.

*God blessed me with my own room and a western style bed to fall into at the end of the day.

*Many of the church members gather every morning at 5:30 to pray together. Many of the days I went out of a feeling of obligation, but I was always really glad I was there and it was a great way to start the busy days.

*I ate an unbelievable amount of really delicious Japanese food. I tried nato and fish eyes, and about every other imaginable Japanese dish. I was in a constant state of fullness.

My favorite part of the trip was being welcomed into the church family. During the last morning prayer meeting the pastor called us up to have us share a little with the group, and to pray for us. He then told us that we were to consider that church our home base in Japan and told us that we always were welcome to come visit whenever we had a chance.

The church is so full of life, passion, and joy, and I felt myself being refreshed as I lived in that environment. The pastor had been spending time teaching about humility and how we need to be willing to tear our hearts, tear the old wine skin, so that we can receive the new wine skin, the blessings. I saw a group of people who had faith that indeed it would be better if they humbled themselves. In a shame-based culture, where people usually do what they can to avoid bringing any shame to themselves or their families, people were standing before the church repenting and exposing their weaknesses and mistakes. Men were standing up and weeping before their church family apologizing to their wives for becoming so hardhearted after loosing their jobs. It was so incredible to be a part of and I felt overwhelmed that I was allowed in. It’s hard enough to stand before those you know, but I was welcomed in as family. I was not treated as a visit, I was engaged and loved.

There were a number of times when I felt completely overwhelmed with gratitude to the Lord. Before I came to Japan, as I was trying to decide if I should actually come, there came a moment when I realized that there was nothing holding me back except fear. I was even totally aware of what I was afraid of, but I was able to say I was coming when I felt they Lord was telling me he would provide, financially, relationally, etc. He has been so faithful, and I realize that spending the Holidays in Hamamatsu was a part of that. I don’t think I even realized how much I was in need of being refreshed and revived, but I did and that was how God provided. He put me in a place where I was praying every morning; where I was witnesses people being free from shame, and sin, and fear; where I felt very genuinely cared about and loved; where I got to feel completely excited about the work that God is doing in that church.

I enjoyed talking with Emasan and receiving hugs from her. I loved that when her husband spoke of the troubles they’d faced the last year and apologized to her and the church, the Lord was gracious to me and allowed me to sit next to a woman I’d only known for two weeks and put my arm around her and share in the moment. I enjoyed the 1 ½ long car rides from Hamamatsu to Nagoya where I got to talk with Shion and hear about how the Lord has taught him as he’s lived in the US and returned to Japan, and hear about the cool stuff the church is doing. There is always something happening at the church. There are people that live at the church that were once homeless and now have come to know Christ. They have been given back a sense of dignity and are serving the Lord. There are people who work in the mornings but then attend Bible classes at the church every afternoon. Every week the church members seek to bring church to those who can’t or wont attend on Sundays and they go out into homes reaching nearly 1000 people who wouldn’t be connected to the church otherwise.

I know that I have done a poor job at given a good representation of my time in Hamamatsu. Much is left out, and some probably doesn’t really make sense, but I was so blessed to be there, and am so thankful. God is so very good.

A few last thoughts. Being away from what has become normal life in Tokyo I had the chance to reflect a bit. I realized that I still don’t know exactly why the Lord has me in Japan, but at least a part of it has to do with people, and putting various people in my life, and me in theirs. I want to be careful that I honor that purpose and am intentionally showing Christ to those I’m with. God also reminded me of what he’s given me passion for and I think he’s giving me direction about where he wants me next year, and partly what he wants me doing.

Please pray with me that God would continue to guide me. That he would give me strength and motivation to make the best of this year. Pray that I would have vision for what God is setting before me for next year.

I also have been very burdened to be praying for an organization my friends are a part of in California. I’d love it if you’d partner with me to pray for Solidarity (solidarityrising.org). The organization is committed to living out Christ in a community that Christians often shy away from. Within a community dealing with gangs, violence, poverty, and broken homes, they are seeking to practically show Christ’s love. Pray for them, that the Lord gives them strength and favor to continue doing His work.

Bringing back the Macarena

I just got home from the holiday party for my Japanese class at the city hall. The teachers there are incredibly nice, they all volunteer to teach, and we had a great time. When I arrived they had set up the tables so that there was one huge long table we all sat around and there was lots of delicious Japanese food. Sushi, tempura, soba, pocky...yum.

Each week I go to lessons, I meet with the same teacher, Wada Seinsei. We go through a text and every so often she will try to just have a conversation with me, but she does best with the text. She's a very nice lady. There is also another teacher, Fukashima Sensei, who has been Ashley and Drew's teacher for a while. I've had her teach me a couple times and her method is basically talking to you with lots of charades and repetition until you know what she's saying and can answer her question. The two teachers are good friends and a lot of fun. Fukashima Sensei has a lot of energy and doesn't hesitate to give Drew a good shove if he's being ornery or continuing to use bad grammar. She's also been know to jump over or climb under the table to get to the other side.

Now that you have a little picture of our teachers, let me tell you that I did the Macarena with Fukashima Sensei tonight. She is always trying to break me out of my shyness in Japanese language and will enthusiastically try to converse with me. Tonight she was asking me questions about singing and some other things because she saw me with the church at the city festival and I sang with them. I also danced, and I think seeing me do these things let her know that I'm not so shy overall, just with Japanese and new people. Anyway, she wanted me to sing for the group, which I kindly refused. Then someone turned on music. It happened to be the Macarena and Fukashima Sensei started doing the dance in her chair. Then she looked to me and said something, and then looked to Ashley to help me understand what she was saying. Ashley informed me that she really wanted me to get up and dance with her. And so I did. We danced the whole song in front of the class. It is LONG. She enjoyed every minute of it and really got into it, and I enjoyed it as well, mostly because I was dancing the Macarena with my super cool Sensei. A few others joined in and we had quite the fun time.

The night was completed with some BINGO and prizes for all. Oh and I forgot to mention introductions. Haha. I have a new appreciation for when teachers make the new kids stand up and introduce themselves when they don't really know English. I felt like an idiot. All I really said was, "My name is Sara." I didn't know how to say anything interesting and was too flustered to say the phrase for nice to meet you. And so I stood there mortified having said my name and not having a clue what else to say. They are all so kind though and they asked me my hobbies and where I was from. Fukashima Sensei helped me and so did Ashley, so it turned out ok.

It was a fun night. I ended up speaking Spanish more than Japanese, sitting by a Peruvian man who attends our church. Sometimes I talk to his son in Spanish...well I try, and so he knows I know a little and we small talked in Spanish. It's very odd to feel relieved when the Peruvian comes and sits by you and you think, "oh phew, someone I can kind of talk to."

This coming week I'm headed to Hamamatsu. The thought behind this is to have a cultural Christmas and New Years, and to be around people that can't speak English so I can listen and learn more Japanese. I'll be there for about 2 1/2 weeks so hopefully I can pick up on a few things and have some time to study my Japanese.

coffee shop culture, department store conspiracy, the gift of education, and other news

Coffee Shop Culture

So for the four months or so I've lived here, I can't say I've ever really felt homesick. I've certainly missed people in the states, but I haven't really missed the place. So today for the first time I wished I could just transport myself to the US for a couple hours. The root of this desire? Starbucks. I don't even like Starbucks all that much, but Ashley and I were doing a bit of shopping today and took a little break in Starbucks. Aside from all the Asian people surrounding me and the menu in Japanese, I felt like I was in the States. English Christmas music playing, warm aroma of coffee, familiar red Starbucks holiday cups, it even looked like the states outside the doors of Starbucks looking onto the cosmetic counters of a department store. For just a short moment I wished I were sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops in the States...I'm now back at my house and quite content to be here, but I will report that my first feeling of homesickness was the result of a visit to a coffee shop. haha.

Department Store Conspiracy

Shops in Japan tend to close at 8:00pm which seems a bit early. This depratment store Starbucks looked onto, Ashley and I ventured into it. Turns out there wasn't a thing there that was anywhere near what we could afford. I've never been in a department store so trendy they have Prada and Tiffany's. Anyway we continued to meander through the expensive goods until about 8:10 when Ashley mentioned how it seemed we weren't really supposed to be there. Looking around and realizing that indeed we were the only customers among a number of business suited workers I agreed that it seemed it was time to go. It felt a bit like we were in some sort of conspiracy where at any moment the dark suited people would move in us and take us captive. Thankfully that is not what happened but we did quickly make our way down to the ground floor where we were directed toward the exit.

The Gift of Education

The last couple of days I have been thoroughly enjoying being a teacher. I have a Language Arts class of four high schoolers. None of them are native English speakers so Language Arts is a bit of a challenge for them. I realized not too long ago that I had a lot of background work to do to enable them to write decent persuasive essays. They turned in the final copy yesterday and I was so proud of them. They worked hard and did quite well! Now we are going to tackle oral presentations of their papers. For being such a small class, and considering they are all friends, they are very shy. So I decided we would work on breaking them out of their shells. I know about the shell of shyness because I was rather shy when I was in school as well, and hated giving presentations. I have since realized that the fear of that type of public speaking is really quite silly and unneccessary, no one is going to judge you based on your class presentation, and I was trying to share this with my students. I'm not a huge fan of public speaking for large groups, but I don't mind it, and in smaller groups of people I know, I find it to be rather fun. So I was trying to convey these ideas to my students and told them that we are going to work on overcoming their fears. This means I am coming up with ridiculous little exercises to loosen em up. Today I had them have an imaginary sword fight with a partner in front of the other two in the class for thirty seconds. Yesterday I had them each say a phrase with various tones to show meanings like fear, amusement, or surprise. I hope to get them comfortable with each other and really more with themselves. It's a fun challenge.

My two sixth graders are also a lot of fun. They always have interesting things to share with me, and they catch on pretty quickly to the work we do in class.

Other News

Last week was thanksgiving. I ate a thanksgiving meal three times which is more than I do in the States, and I'm in Japan. The first round was at my friend and vice principal's house and began with tea and Sumo Wrestling, followed by Thanksgiving dinner and the movie Narnia. It was quite fun. The second round was a family's house from church. Also enjoyable, but I had to leave early to go teach English. The third round followed an outreach at church. They invited people to come enjoy an American holiday and we served them dinner and entertained them with music and such. It turned out very well. Lots of people showed up and got to experience Thanksgiving and hear a bit about Jesus. I served food and was part of the musical entertainment...I wanted to throw some interpretive dance into the mix, but I didn't think the guy in charge of the program would have appreciated it :). After the guests left all the helpers got to eat. So Thanksgiving in Japan really was very nice. Aside from all the food, I really have a lot to be thankful for. To name a few in no particular order: my family, God's grace, a nice place to live, God's financial and relational provisions, my job, my friends back in the states, my friends in Japan, long underwear to keep me warm, a cool bike, coffee, living in Japan.......etc. etc.

Went in to Tokyo last weekend to hang out and go to a Bible study. Had a good time in Tokyo seeing a few sights and spending time with my friends, and the Bible study was good. It's really for Japanese people that are unfamiliar with but interested in Jesus. My friend leads it and it's a really cool relaxed place for people to hear a bit about the Bible. Jelly beans were involved after the study and it turns out they aren't very common here and were quite fascinating to the Japanese people there which I found a bit funny. They didn't really seem to like them.

Pray With Me

People keep asking me what I'm doing next year, and I don't have a clue. Pray that God would give me guidance. I want to be where God wants me, I just don't yet know where that is.



Me and my friend Josh by some famous dog statue. Apparently there was a dog who always waited for his master at the train station, even after his master died. So it was such a touching story the dog was made a memorial.

I made Aunt Onnie's pie filling with an oatmeal topping so I could eat a yummy gluten free dessert. Turned out pretty I though.

Ashley in Starbucks.

If it weren't for the menu in Japanese, you'd never know it was Japan.

Random Ruminations

Lately one word to sum up my emotional state would probably be confused. Questions like, "Why does God have me here?" "How much time does God desire I spend on learning Japanese and ministering to those in the community, and how much am I to devote to my students and the church and ministering to them?" "What is my role as a woman in the church?" "How can I best honor God in the relationships I have formed here?" have been swirling in my mind for weeks, and there came a point a few days ago when they just felt heavy.

Really I'm a bit of a hypocrite. I always am telling people not to worry, but simply to live following what you do know about what Jesus has called you to. I believe that in Christ there is freedom and I desire for others to realize that, really really realize what that means. But somehow I lost sight of that. I allowed myself to get weighed down by worry that I'm not doing or understanding what Christ has called me to. Part of me still knew that really I just need to trust that as I seek to follow God he will lead, but there was something in me that was telling me I needed to figure it out and that if I didn't I might miss what God is calling me to.

So yesterday I decided to email a professor I had while I was at Biola. One of the things that was holding my thoughts so tightly was this idea that as a women, I needed to figure out what my role was in the church. What do those verses really mean that talk about women in the church? So I email this professor knowing that he studies the Bible in such depth, and really seeks to understand what it means within the context it was written. So I emailed and asked his thoughts. I really kind of thought he would give some sort of really conservative Christian answer, but what he said to me was, that the most important label we have is "Servant of God." That is how we are to live. We are to use the gifts God gave us in whatever way God asks us. The rest falls to the side. I really needed to be reminded of this. We love to label things, and put people in boxes, but that's not how God works.

My current goal, is to stop worrying and just to live as a Servant of God each day.

"Baby, I was born ready...."

I biked to Haneda Airport....here's me at the finish line (though actually the half way point, had to bike home) and here are our bikes by the trail as we took a brief rest.



My dear Aunti, whenever asked if she's ready, always responds, "I was born ready," and that's a mentality that I tend to have. I'm always ready for an adventure. Yesterday this kicked me in the butt. A while ago my friend Drew mentioned that he thought it'd be fun to bike to Sendai sometime and camp along the way. I like biking and I like camping so I thought it sounded like a great idea and promptly told him this. Ever since then we've been dreaming of a fun bike ride and trying to rally a group of people to join the adventure.

Sendai is about 300km from where we live. This means that we need some serious training before we go and now that we both have decent bikes we thought we should give a longer bike ride a shot. So yesterday we had the bright idea of biking down a trail by the river to Haneda Airport. We took some snacks and beverages and hit the road at about 9am. Well Haneda Airport is quite the treck. Turns out it's about 50Km each way. Oh my word! I hurt! But the worst part was not being sore today...it was the ride home. We made it to Haneda just fine, and really the trip was pretty enjoyable, we saw some interesting things along the way like a baseball team of old Japanese men, a guy riding one of the bikes that has a really big front tire and a really little back one, and of course people practicing various instruments in the park. We even got a wave and a konichiwa from a the baseball coach of some young boys, all riding past on their bikes while we had stopped to eat lunch. But after 5 hours to Haneda we weren't exactly itching to hop back on our bikes and ride home. However we had no choice so we climbed back onto our bikes and began the long ride back.

The first hour or two wasn't terrible and we then stopped for a good dinner at Denny's. This was a Denny's like you've never been to. They may have had french toast, but other than that it was fully Japanese, haha. Rice, miso, udon...Anyway the hardest part of the ride, and the part where I thought to myself, "what the hell were you thinking?!" was after that when it was dark, about 6:30 and we still had a good three hours ahead of us. My rear hurt like you wouldn't believe...my bike's saddle is HARD! And my legs were feeling a bit fatigued. Really the worst of it was the time we had left ahead of us and my uncomfortable bike seat. I also now understand why cyclists wear the funny looking clothes. The spandex would have been nice and breathable and easy to move in, not to mention the behind usually has a little extra padding that I would have appreciated.

Anyway, we did make it back at about 10pm. Learned that there are some things you simply were not born ready to do. Taking a 100km bike ride without working your way up to it, is a very bad idea. Although I am thankful that by the grace of God, when I'm really stressed or tired things become very funny, so while my body has been hating me since about half way through the day yesterday, up until the moment I am writing this, there came a point yesterday where I just found everything funny. And really, it was a fun advenute at many points.

I am currently reevaluating the potental 300km bike ride that would also require 300km home and at least six days of what we did yesterday. Maybe once I recover I will be up for training for it. We'll see.

Today was my birthday, still is in the states actually. I felt so incredibly blessed. This morning I was kind of wishing that I was in the states and could celebrate with my friends there, and while I still wish I was close enough to spend time with them, God has provided me with wonderful people in my life here.

The day began wonderfully with God's gift of sunshine (something I do not take for granted....yesterday was raining and freezing cold....so it was a lovely birthday gift). Then at lunch time I was presented with a berry dessert that Belinda, our vice principal, had made for me, taking care to avoid the many foods I cannot eat. After school I went on a bike ride in the sunshine on my new bike with my good friend, and then a large group of us went to dinner. Then....yes the excitement continues, I had fireworks show by the river for my birthday, followed by gifts. You know there are times when you just feel so undeserving. Today was one of the those days, and I am overwhelmed by the love of God and the love of those he's placed in my life.

More Pictures

This is my house.

Me seeing some sights.

One of the sights was a very large Buddha.

I got to hang out with my Japanese brother, Shota.