Post Vacation

Hey everyone! I'm back in Tokyo after my vacation to Singapore! It was SOO fun!!! (Pictures to be posted soon.) Well we did so much that I'll just write a list off the top of my head of things we did:

- overnight camping on a deserted island where we chased away thieving monkeys who got away with a bag of marshmallows

- ate YUMMY Chinese food

- experienced a bit of America (tear) such as Popeyes (my first time actually) and Sephora (amazing)

- rode the tallest observation ferris wheel in the world

- got some henna done for the first time! yay!

- watched Sherlock Holmes in the theater (this was a big deal since movies in Japan come out like 6 months after America)

- experienced the Night Safari

Well being there, I missed a chance to speak to a Japanese family, and it started stirring up a sense of urgency in my heart. Then fellowshiping with other Christians and hearing stories of how God is working in their lives and surroundings, I was challenged to finish my term well!

So coming back to Tokyo was a great feeling. Tokyo has become very normal to me now, and I missed it. I missed Japanese rice, green tea, my bed, the train systems, Japanese people. I am excited to be here again and I pray that God will give me a great New Year to share Jesus and find those whom He is working in, and to continue building in my relationships with my friends here. Yay!

Love in Christ

Yup, it was officially the coldest day up to date today. Freezing. I don't recall ever having been so cold in my life. My fingers and toes were frozen stubs, and I seriously wondered about frostbite because I couldn't move my fingers. I couldn't grip my 100 yen coin to give to the McD's cashier! It was pathetic and a little scary...but no worries, all 10 of my toes and fingers are with me and warmed back to life! haha

Well so the theme of this entry is love...and love in Christ, because I sure can't love the way I did today on my own power.

Love entered my mind through my roommate Amanda's old roommate, who sent Amanda some Christmas gifts. Amanda checked the mail on our way out to the train station, and the package was sitting in our box, so she just grabbed it and opened it once we got to the station. One of them was an art project with the lyrics from the song "Hosanna" by Hillsong (I think that's the title anyways). The line that mattered was "show me how to love like you have loved me". The train arrived, and a lady stepped off with her hand covering her mouth with a hankie, and then we boarded. You could already sense something was odd because of the way people were acting, lots of weird stares at each other (and people here do not look each other in the eye normally if you're strangers). Then we saw it. The old man in front of us was wearing a black backpack, and there was a pool of throw up swimming around. It was nasty. And I just stood there shocked as I realized that nobody said anything to the man or tried to help. I was angry, thinking that if the man didn't know he had throw up on his backpack, he should be TOLD by the people who DO know. Frustration sets in. I hear a guy next to me saying "doshio?" (what should we do?) which makes me more angry because I'm thinking "DUH TELL THE MAN AND HELP HIM". Amanda and I are the foreigners, the ones whom Japanese people think are inconsiderate, etc. But these people don't know about Christ's love. They don't help strangers out, and they're not going to help out this stranger by touching another stranger's throw up. Anyways, so the Hillsong line crosses my mind, and Amanda and I look for tissues (which we have a lot of because they pass them out here for free EVERYWHERE haha) and she offers her plastic bag, which she used to protect her Bible. Then we proceed to wipe off the yuck and put it in the plastic bag. And then we sanitized our hands. There was an older lady next to us who kept talking to me in Japanese until I told her I don't understand Japanese. But I could figure out what she was saying a little, and she helped us even though we didn't communicate with each other. She explained to the man what we were doing multiple times. She was nice. Everyone else just watched. Yup.

But the feelings and thoughts that arose in me at that time, permeated throughout the rest of my day. As I stood out in the FREEZING (I promise you it was deathly cold) cold passing out Christmas CDs and Hope dvd offers, I felt the urgency and the need to press on even though I thought I'd have to cut off my toes (haha, I'm sorry I'm so dramatic, but I could NOT feel my toes for the whole time and you can't judge unless you were there - only Amanda and Jude arrowed). I loved being able to finally speak to eldery folk, who I never get any other chance to make any contact with. I loved the one time when a man came back to specifically ask about the Hope dvd offer - yes! I loved it when one person would bravely ask me for what it was I was handing out (this is rare) and then 5 people following each wanted one too haha.

There was a lot of distractions going on at this time though. I've never seen so many people in that amount of land, all competing to be over heard and to pass out things. We were one of the tissue people, except what we were passing out was far more important than tissue hehe. It was very hard to give out our CDs and Hope dvd offers amongst all of that and in the cold, so please continue to be praying for us! I have only 3 more days for this and I don't want to miss any opportunity God might have in store for me! Yay for Christmas!! This year's is extra special for me somehow :)

Christmas in Tokyo

Sooo it's officially winter I'd say. Hehe. I found online that winter here in Tokyo is from December to February. Noooo....I can't believe it has only started. It is so cold. Unless you're walking briskly and the sun is out.

Ok no more rambling. So for ministry, we started our Santa Project today! We went all the way out to Tachikawa, about 1.25 hoursish from my place, and our supervisor dressed up as Santa and we were his helpers. We all passed out Christmas music cds and also a Hope dvd offer (it's an offer for a free dvd that explains the whole Gospel in good depth but it's not too long, and it is in Japanese, AND it's really not cheesy! haha really!). Altogether we passed out over 1000 of both in a little over 2 hours! I had 2 interesting conversations. One lady, H-san told me that she was Christian too! And although she spoke all in Japanese, we somehow communicated hehe and I gave her my email, so hopefully she will email me because I gathered that she was interested in studying the Bible with me! :) She told me that her friend who is half Japanese who is also Christian shared Jesus with her and she became Christian because of her. So yay! Keep praying for Japanese Christians to continue sharing their faith with others! The second guy was this old man who was so so sweet and kind. He told me he used to be Christian but decided to be Buddhist because Buddhists focus more on world peace. Well, I told him that it was a great goal in life, world peace, but when and how would it ever be achieved? I told him that because of sin, world peace will never happen the way people want. But that in the midst of all the craziness and turmoil brought about by sin, Jesus was sent to provide peace for our souls. He is also called Prince of Peace, ain't He? :D So please pray for the Japanese Christians who are struggling in their faith, that they would be grounded in His Word, and that they would be able to find a group of fellow Christians they can share their life with.

Here is our Santa and Andrew, another journeyman.

These three pictures are of the Christmas tree in Ginza. The lights change colors as you can see :)

This is at the top of a department store in one of the train stations. Pretty Christmas decorations are up everywhere here.

Please continue to pray for the Santa Project! That people would mail in the dvd offers and their hearts would be open to the message of Christmas yay! It's also really cold outside so maybe you can throw in a prayer about that too hehe. Thanks everyone!

Some Going Ons and Personal Thoughts

So, interesting stuff has been happening around here...yesterday, me and the 2 other journeyman on my team and our 3 interns got to go to Seikei University where a Christian professor invited us to 2 of his classes. He gave us free reign for his entire 2 classes - it was amazing. We got to introduce a little of ourselves to the class, and then we broke up into smaller groups and we each individually got to talk to several of the students. I know most of us were able to share the gospel to them that way. They've had other Christian groups come spend time with them. Some of the students had been given Bibles, etc. It was so cool. There were several who were open, so that was great :) I learned that in Japan, Christmas is a time for couples. So if someone was not in a romantic relationship with someone, they were like "I hate Christmas", like someone in the states would say for Valentine's Day if they were single. I got to share with my two groups what the true meaning of Christmas was. That was awesome. My first group was a group of girls, and they were shy.

My second group was a bunch of boys, but they turned out to be hilarious. They kept cracking me up! It made me miss hanging out with a bunch of dumb boys haha. Different things happen there. Both classes were invited to Andrew's Christmas Party on the 25th. So please pray for many seekers to show up to his party! They will be passing out Messiah Mangas as Christmas gifts :)

It is definitely getting COLD here. The wind is ICY and it's STRONG and we have to walk around everywhere in it. But I think it's making me a little tougher hehe.

Well I feel like some thread is unraveling on the edges of myself (is this a dumb metaphor? haha I'm getting so lame). I think I'm sliding a little here, and a little there, and then before I know it, I'll be in a bad state. So before I get there, I want to get myself back on track that narrow road. Here is a passage from Proverbs that convicted me to work harder (I definitely am weak in the area of diligence):

"Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest - and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man." (Proverbs 6:6-11)

Dang, the word "sluggard" definitely can describe me! I'm ALWAYS like 'just a little more sleep...just a little more rest...just one more chocolate...just one more slice of cake haha' dang always always. It's interesting though because I see the people around me, and they are all hard working people. My coworkers, my mom, my dad, Wilson, Peggy, etc. How did I get like this? lol...but I know I've always been like this. My dad would always scold me for lack of self control. Once I watched television, my eyes were glued to it and my mouth was partly open and I could just sit in front of it for hours upon hours. So my dad cut off cable for the rest of my life lol. How many times have I been late to something because I hit the snooze button 5 times? Man, the story of my life. I make excuses after excuses, to myself, to God, to my family, my friends...eh and then it'll bleed into other areas of my life that shouldn't be compromised. I rush through reading my Bible, or I think I'll do it tomorrow EARLY morning, except WHEN have I EVER woken up "early" like I wanted to? It's sad, but funny. Because then I'm left with a messy room, which I've promised myself I'd clean up for months now, a growing To-Do list, inboxes with 30+ unread messages. Sigh. And I can't really afford to be like this. I'm only here for a little over one year now. It don't matter if it's freezing outside, or I'm snug in bed, because the time here will go by fast and I don't want to have missed any chances to live my life for my Heavenly Father. Gotta love Him. <3

Wow December Already?!

I just made curry for the time with my roommate independent from my mom haha. I've always helped my mom chop vegetables, but I never did the whole thing from the beginning to the end myself, so now I can say I've made カーレー (curry). Of course, the directions were all in Japanese, so there was one part where we realized that I had put too much water. So after getting help from my neighbor, we corrected the watery curry and it turned out oishi! (yummy) That can definitely be a repeat :)

Hmm well, our other dear roommate's term is quickly coming to an end. I've been here with her the whole time I've been here (8 months now) and I can't believe she is no longer going to be here. She is leaving on the 15th and it is going to be very hard...

Our Santa Project will start on December 14th. Our supervisor will dress up as Santa, and we will all pass out Christmas cds and try to engage people to share what the real meaning of Christmas is. It should be cold but fun! :D

Speaking of the meaning of Christmas...I went to lunch with my roommate and T-san today. I got to share the gospel with her again by asking her if she knew what the meaning of Christmas was. It was my 2nd time getting to fully share the gospel with her, and this time I think it sunk deeper. More seeds planted! PTL :D

I got this article from the Tokyo big boss about a Japanese Christian soldier. You should read it if you have time.