Japan Journal Entry #2

Friday August 12^th 2010

This morning was kicked off with a powerful worship session. Sarah, Christie, and a girl named Leah joined our group and blessed us with their beautiful voices. John seemed to be the highlight of the intercession, and it was so precious to see God speaking to him, encouraging him, bringing him to tears. He is such a treasure. Inside and out.

I enjoyed a long bike ride to a picnic, shortly after lunch. I was so blessed to spend the entire hour and a half talking to John and Jean about their vision, their children, their lives. Both of them, but especially Jean, poured out so much of her heart to me. Listening quietly, I was able to see into the difficulties she’s experienced here. Difficulties that have been many, and so painful...I felt that somehow God was using me by simply listening.

I think we are fulfilling our calling here…I can see already that we have been an encouragement and blessing to John and Jean. Their eyes are more peaceful, less troubled. And John has been laughing more than I ever saw him laugh last year!

It was lovely to see Hiro and Miumi again! (They are a couple in ministry here, both Japanese. They own a cafe were they do outreaches, including church services, Bible studies, concerts, etc.) There was a group of about fifteen of us down by the ‘beach’, which is really made up of boulders and logs. Yiko, a new friend, showed me the different ‘states’ of Tokyo. From what I could understand, all of Japan is made up of these tiny states. Funny enough to an American—you can see several states at a time.

As we were walking back, John and I were strolling together and he made a comment… "This is it, man. Hanging out, having fun. Yes, drinking beer, dear…this is the gospel to me. This is how you have to do it in Japan. Sharing life with each other.”

Quote of the Day:

“It was a joke. That was why it was funny.” ~Manuel, after a particularly ridiculous comment.

Saturday, August 14^th 2010

This day has been nothing but rushing! We breakfasted and scooted out the door around ten, and haven’t stopped until now. Now it eleven o'clock.

Now, something about Japan must be understood. There are innumerable trains to catch. This is good. However, there is also almost unending walking. (Which is also good, because otherwise I would get no exercise at all.) Walking, standing, walking, standing, walking, and standing, and popping in and out of AC all the while. This makes for long days, no matter how interesting the sights are.

We began with a trip to the government district, and straight to the government building. Straight meaning lots of pauses and bathroom breaks and distractions. It was strange to be back in a building I never thought I’d enter again.

The building itself it sixty some floors high. On the forty fifth floor they have built all open windows, with shops for the tourists to buy their souvenirs. You have a magnificent view of the city, and on the most clear days, you can even see Mt. Fuji in the background. It's a perfect place to pray for Tokyo.

I had two interesting things happen there. One was seeing an Indian/Middle Eastern man with a severe limp. I felt so strongly to pray for him, that my heart was actually wrung with the intense desire to see him healed. I prayed for him for quite some time, and though I asked, I never felt to go speak to him, but to look at him and not look away, and pray fervently.

My second instance was meeting a young Korean man named Micky. He is an ex-Catholic, no longer interested in religion. He and I talked for a very long time. He felt the need to show Manuel and I all of his photo’s on his camera--all three hundred and some. But I felt that our interaction was precious, somehow, and that God had something to teach me, and something to touch him.

We continued on our way, winding through the underground malls and restaurants, sometimes bursting up into the air, and descending again below ground. I lost track of where I was a dozen times, and when we finally settled into a tempura restaurant, I couldn’t guess whether I was several stories up, or several stories down. (The tempura, by the way, was fantastic. My favorite Japanese food.)

Our next stop for our prayer walk was Tokyo ‘Times Square’. Everything is garishly decorated. Everything begs your attention. And so many faces look so empty. It's a circus, a maze of brilliant lights, thousands of faces that flash by you, a web of noise and traffic that is best observed from the center of it all. But the center of traffic isn’t a place where you can have a worship session. Which was the point of our being there.

So, God found a different place for us—a side street narrow and lined with trees and foliage. It looked like a trail through the forest, except for the skyscrapers towering over the trees. There Manuel played guitar and we sang worship songs. I got Exekiel 33 as a passage to read over Japan.

It was a great time. Sometimes in outreaches like this it is so hard to relay to others what exactly you did on outreach. Sang, worshipped, read Scripture over the country, prayed….but the reality is, those things are tangible here. What sounds so simple is often SO difficult to force yourself to do, like wading through molasses…but when you push through and truly worship and pray, in just the same way, you can feel spiritual matters shifting, changing, growing. But how do you explain such things to everyone at home?

Such a long day. We are all going to a well deserved sleep. Tomorrow is even longer, so I hope we all sleep well.

Sunday August 15^th 2010

I slept late today. As did we all. We needed it.

We attended church where our team did last year! It was good to be back with that sweet congregation. There are probably twenty in all, and only ten today because it’s family holiday. The church is very traditional in the style of the service. I had tremendous fun singing in Japanese, for they were all songs that I knew, yet instead of English lyrics, it was phonetic Japanese.

After the service, during which we were all graciously introduced and greeted, we ate lunch with them. It might very well have been one of the best meals we've had here. The congregation was so encouraged by our presence and so happy to sit and converse.

That evening we were able to participate in evangelism with the congregation from the morning service. The streets of Akahabara are a mass of teenagers and young adults. Many are dressed as Anime characters. Hiro has told us stories of these people, who live their entire lives reading, watching, making, Anime to the point that they live in an Anime world. Some emerge only to buy food, and disappear again into their dream state. Anime porn is prevalent. You may even go to applications where you have an Anime boyfriend or girlfriend. This is as much of relationship that some people ever have. It truly is a bondage.

For half an hour or so we played worship music, sang, and passed out Bible tracts. As I stood near Alice, who was playing the guitar, I was able to watch the passerby. I noted that many looked angered, sullen, or in a strange dreamlike state.

“Zombies.” Brandy said flatly. “This place sucks the life right out of you. Their faces are empty.”

Interesting Fact: In Japan there is a phrase—disturbing the waa. It means that you disturb the atmosphere of quiet and respectfulness. Like walking into an office where everyone is working and popping a plastic bag.

As foreigners disturb the waa by raising our voices above a quiet murmur, by talking on a train, by Harpers screaming.

......... As a matter of fact, our mere presence as foreigners disturbs the waa.

Japan Journal Entry #1

Tuesday, August 9, 2010

In transit to Japan. Left at nine, hour and half delay at airport. Are still three hours away from Tokyo.

Arrived safely in Japan, coming out of the terminal to see Brandy and the baby girl Harper happily waving for us. Their time in China was an amazing God-given blessing, as they experienced and assisted in so much growth in the DTS students there. They’ve been full of stories of God's movement, their joy over the students, and especially stories of food. Their meals were apparently quite frequent, and quite filling. Chinese do love to eat. Often.

Alice and I have settled ourselves into a room upstairs. We are staying with the Mongolian family here. We’ve met the children, Sam, Nate, and Essie, but haven’t yet met Sarah. They are sweet children. I was surprised by how well they speak English. Mongolian, Japanese, and English...and the youngest is only six!

We are tired! Now to bed.

Wednesday, August 10^th 2010

Our first real day in Japan! We had meant to take it easy, but as Alice and I were feeling so well, we went out about the city with John. Our first stop was a business English class near the downtown area.

We enjoyed our time there very much. The class was uncharacteristic of Japanese culture—quite boisterous. Most spoke English tolerably well, and some spoke excellently. To introduce us, John had the students guess which countries each of us were from. Alice, apparently, looks quite Australian or Italian, but not at all English. I look nothing like an American, but instead like very French girl, or Eastern European.

Manuel, not suprisngly, was mistakenly pegged as Italian or Spanish. And Brandy, somehow, they mostly guessed right on. They were even able to guess that she was from the South--Texas.

We split into groups to help the students with their ‘business English’. We were meant to help them write business letters, something which, as Brandy and I laughed later, we have basically no experience with. Still, at least we know English, and in this way were able to assist.

They were a fun group. They were invited to John's Tuesday night Bible study at the Decision Café, and we’re hoping very much that many of them attend. It's not often that you find so dynamic a group that you can actually communicate with. There were several who we later felt to pray for.

Manuel also had a very interesting conversation with a Chinese man and Japanese woman about forgiveness. China and Japan have a long history of war, unfortunately. However, almost none of the Japanese of this generation know anything about the war, or the atrociousities their nation committed the other parts of Asia. It is not taught to them in schools, but completely ignored. Not even the government recognizes what it has done in Asia. So, when the Chinese and Koreans come here and begin to share stories of what has happened in their countries, it isn't surprising that there is much for both to process.

Manuel will have to write a blog story about it and put it into his own words, for I wasn’t able to hear enough of the conversation between Yiko and the Chinese man to relay it.

We then went wandering about the city. It is so hot here that sweat is constantly soaking your skin. I don’t usually get sweaty easily, but even I could feel beads of it rolling down my back. How the men here all wear long sleeved white button ups, I really don’t know. And the women, often as not, also wear long sleeves. I suppose they’re simply used to it. They wear the sleeves so that their skin stays white, which they consider beautiful. Brandy and I have been eyeing their parasols. It would be much cooler to have the sun off of our heads.

My favorite moment of the walk through downtown was strolling along a river. Brandy and I looked to the left, and in unison gasped as we saw an old bridge stretching across the water parallel to ourselves. It was twined with ivy, with bits of rock chipped away and pillars broken off from the stone railing. It was so perfectly antique, a snippet of history surviving the monumental towers of modern buildings and highways standing everywhere around it. It was a beautiful picture of the old being overtaken by the new, beauty still surviving quietly.

Japan may be one of the most modern countries in the world, but it is still, down within, fiercely traditional. Somehow, all of this was perfectly reflected in one moment.

We finished the day quietly, having a nice meeting in the Imperial Palace Gardens. (Which weren’t quite so impressive as I had imagined they would be.) The grass here is intriguing. It grows very short, and it quite spikey on your toes. Or your bum, if you happen to be sitting in it. We talked about our expectations, hopes, concerns, and the upcoming schedule. At the moment, the schedule is very relaxed. But I know Asia well enough to realize that those empty slots will soon and suddenly be overflowing.

Home then. Alice and I are going to bed very early. We’re tired. It’s been very hard for all of us to sleep here—Alice and I because it’s so hot, and Manuel and Brandy because of Harper.

Thursday August 11^th 2010

Whew! Busy day! A bustling morning as we all packed up our things early and went off to see a pastor of a newly built church! We were most impressed by it—only a couple months old, with only sixty members, and it’s enormous.

The structure boasts of all the modern convienences, including a café, service kitchen, a children’s room with long windows to see into the service, a full size gym equipped for every form of sport you may think of, a youth room with five flat screen TV’s and a perfect 'youth' atmosphere. Black soundproof wallls, ceiling, set the tone, and a full band set commands your attention. I thought of the youth group at home. They would have loved it.

Showers, a dozen small offices, and everything with AC. It is all run by solar panels on the roof. He also had a raised bed of grass on the roof, which he intends to later turn into a garden. This is fairly common, as there are so many buildings, with sometimes scarcely five inches separating them, that it is the only way to have any vegetables of your own.

The pastor was quite cordial. John, however, felt disappointed by the visit. There are so many ways that they could partner together to do ministry, and John threw out a dozen ideas for the future, but the pastor didn’t seem keen on anything. The fear we have is that he will feel people want to partner with him only for the use of his building. It’s a danger John has taken into account.

“It’s hard,” he says, “I see so much potential, but I can’t push anything. I can only pray that God gets something moving here. There is such a spirit of death over this land…such a spirit of death. God knows how many times I’ve felt it myself. It makes it so difficult to get things moving…so often your vision just seems to die.”

It is quite true. Death and loneliness hangs in the atmosphere, despite the constant bustle of people. It is easily masked by this busyness, or the materialistic mindset, but it's there. Perhaps we can see it more easily because we know to look for it.

After we returned home, we had a time for resting. Manuel and Jean and I went out shopping, riding our bikes through the rain. It was one of the jolliest things I’ve done here so far! I love riding bike through these streets. There is so much to see!

That evening we all went out for sushi, and shopping about. Brandy and I found a clothing store that was delightful. (They are just SO tiny here! We fit into only the baggiest clothing!) We also found a 100 yen shop (Like our Family Dollar). Perfect for tiny souvenirs!

It was relaxing for all of us to wander about and simply enjoy Japan and each other. Ice cream added to the evening joys as well. How is it that one simple scoop of ice cream can lift our spirits, especially Alice and mine, so greatly?

God is doing things. I can see it in all of our faces.