Hope for Japan

I really took a beating last week. With a surprising amount of meetings and Allie having irregular sleep which led to waking up several times throughout the night, my Japanese class really left me feeling exhausted and defeated. Thursday was the lowest, where I had no energy to think about anything. One encouraging moment was calling my mentor in Boston and being able to share all that I was feeling and experiencing.

Due to this, I ended up buying a 24-pack of Pepsi at Costco over the weekend. While I typically don’t drink soda/pop, energy for the morning has become the rare exception. Some know that I don’t drink coffee, due to the taste not because I am a Mormon (as somebody once asked me, as if every American should drink coffee) 🙂 During Hebrew class in seminary, I would start off with a quiz that I was ready for the night before but everything turned into a fog at 8am. Code Red Mountain Dew was the turning point, then. My “C” quizzes radically turned into “B” or “A” quizzes.

So, Tuesday was the first time to try this old trick out again. A can of Pepsi before class might do the trick. Surprisingly, I felt like a different person. My mind was no longer a puttering old junker, but actually was hitting on several cylinders. A classmate joked on the way out that it seemed like I jumped about three levels in one day, after my poor performance last week. We’ll see how the rest of the week goes. Please keep praying for my language study, as there are moments when it clicks and moments where I feel like I hit a wall.

Visioncasting Members' Meeting

Today felt like a boost to our ministry here in Japan. Now that we have been here for four months, we met with the entire congregation after service to share our vision and how we can work together in ministry. Not sure what the responses would be, we were amazed at the amount of discussion and people coming out of the woodwork to volunteer in the various ministries we plan on starting this next month.

We laid out the theme verse that we hope will guide us as a church for the year. Eph. 4:16 states, “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” We tried to inspire them to become a church that works together, serves, and builds up others in faith and love. As we preach once a month, we shared how we will start a sermon series on “Vital Nutrients for the Body,” which will cover critical elements to a healthy church such as community, using one’s gifts, evangelism, worship, etc.

After talking about the Language Cafe, possible Homestay program to Boston, and Young Adult Ministry, a number of people chimed in with ideas of how they can help, whether babysitting Allie, baking treats for the cafe, decorating the space, making a sign to put outside, etc. There was a sense of excitement and joy in being a part of a new chapter of this church. Several of the people who helped with the Christmas event shared their experience, which came across that those who were not there missed out on something special.

It is an incredible feeling to sense unity in our labor at our church. It is not about us coming as free labor to plan events, start programs, and try to built up the church, but that we might be catalysts for moving the church forward to grow and effectively reach this community. We still have a long road ahead of us this year, but we start on a positive step with the whole church coming together to work towards this vision of growing as a church.

Recently, we had lunch with Miho’s dad. Thinking of me, he tried to take us to a buffet that served Western food. However, it was no longer there. But, we found an Indian buffet. Since most Japanese meal portions are rather small for American standards, buffets are rare and atypical. It is not often that I walk away completely stuffed.

Japanese foreign-word selection is quite interesting. For some reason, buffet here is called “Viking.” A “Drink Viking” is sometimes offered at restaurants, meaning you get free refills. It is not completely clear how my dear Scandinavian ancestors are related to all-you-can-eat establishments. Then, the image of an “Indian Viking” makes me chuckle as my imagination runs wild 🙂

Some foreign words make total sense, while others can be confusing. For instance, coffee is “co-he,” a tie is “neku-ti,” and bread is “pan” (the French word for bread). Confusing ones include pants (“zubon”), part-time job (“alubaito”), an expensive apartment (“manshon”), and stapler (“hocchi kisu”). If this was not enough, the Kanji alphabet (Chinese characters) can be read two different ways: Onyomi (Chinese) and Kunyomi (Japanese). So, each word that I memorize might be pronounced several ways. Fun times 🙂

Now that we have been here three months, we have been able to get to know and serve alongside some of the members at our church. Because of time limitations and a heavy workload running a seminary along with being a pastor, our pastor and our church have not been able to really develop and sustain various ministries and outreach.

Yet, we see glimpses of the tide turning at Tsurumi. Already within the first two months, one of the longtime members was able to use his skills as a systems engineer to develop a website for the church, http://tsurumi-covenant.com/. Though very basic at the moment, due to this member’s very busy work life, it is amazing to get something going and allow potential visitors to find out more about the church. All it took was asking questions and igniting a desire to see something like this happen.

Our Family Christmas Event had four others from our church come help out. Afterwards, it seemed like those not present felt like they missed out on something special. Those who were there expressed a joy in using their gifts and being a part of something exciting.

Miho recently met with an older couple from our church. The wife is a wedding dress designer and together they have written and illustrated children’s books and started a children’s theater. We had no idea about some of these talents and passions. Miho planted the seed of a possible ministry to her clients. Since most couples do not have pre-marital counseling, we hope that she might be able to suggest this idea to couples preparing for their wedding. We could then build bridges with these young couples, counsel them, and hopefully share the gospel with them. Who knows what else might be possible, whether using drama in the church, teaching kids writing and illustrating skills, or whatever!

At the end of the month, we will be having a churchwide meeting after the service. This is our opportunity to express our dreams for ministries we plan to start this year, while also explaining the need for the whole church to be a part of ministry and reaching out. We do not just want to focus on our tasks but think about the entire church, the vision, and how we can all work together to grow in our faith and in our outreach within the community. We sense that many people are ready to use the gifts that God has given them and contribute to all that God still wants to do through our small church here in Tsurumi.

Christmas with the Morita Family

Since next week is pretty hectic with Christmas events and services, we had an extremely early Christmas dinner with our neighbors. The wife seemed curious about Christmas meals, as it is an unfamiliar phenomenon here in Japan. New Year’s meals would be an equivalent, since that is when families get together, though the cuisine is radically different from our traditional holiday meal 🙂

Since turkey is hard to find and is rather expensive in Japan, we prepared pork tenderloin, roasted vegetables, green beans, salad, and rolls for them. They seemed to love it. We work as a great team, as Grant loves cooking and Miho is very skilled at presentation and creating a wonderful ambiance. Grant joked that he would rather cook for 2 hours than wash dishes for 30 minutes.

After the meal, we taught them one of our favorite card games, Ligretto (which also became a favorite in our Highrock youth group).  All in all, a fantastic evening together with our new friends.

Allie's First Meal- Broccoli

This week marked the beginning of Allie trying her first food. She seemed eager to grab things and touch food, so we tried to make her own food. We started with pureed broccoli. Though some got on her lip and the bib, she ate it, though not with great joy! We wouldn’t enjoy it much either, since it is just boiled broccoli then blended with water!

This week also marked our Christmas outreach planning and preparations. We are gearing up for a few things later this month. One is a Candlelight Christmas Eve service, which we hope Miho’s brother’s family and our next door neighbor will be able to attend. The other is a “Family Fun Christmas Party” on the 23rd for families and kids in our neighborhood. Since Allie is the only child in our church at the moment, this event is exclusively built on attracting those in our community to join. We will be playing a few fun games, singing Christmas songs (in English and Japanese), sharing a Christmas story, and building Gingerbread houses (a great tradition we are taking with us from our youth ministry in Boston). We will also be handing out gifts to the kids who come. So far a few families have already expressed interest in coming. We are dreaming big that we can pack out the place for this fun and unique event.

In the next week, our church will be placing a two-page insert into newspapers. We were able to write one entire page for this. We were able to introduce ourselves, share a bit of our story, Grant’s experience of Japan so far, and highlight some of the events coming up and our plans to benefit the community in the coming year. We really hope people will read this and become interested in getting to know us and our church more in the near future.

Please pray for the planning and reception from our community this Christmas season. We are also beginning our Young Adult Ministry tomorrow after the church service. Please pray for the start of this ministry that we hope will develop the faith of those already in our church, while also being a place for outsiders to come and explore Christianity.

Last week, Grant’s mom had her second skin graft operation on her arm. The last one did not completely heal, which led them to decide to try another procedure. Fortunately, it was complete in half the time they expected and she didn’t need any tubes hooked up to her afterwards.

It is unclear what is the next step and when the stroke surgery will take place. This is encouraging though. We were able to talk with her this past weekend and she seems to be doing well. Her memory is still sharp, as she talked about Miho’s birthday coming up on the 28th of this month. Keep praying for her during this long road of recovery.

Allie going for a piece of pumpkin pie

This Thanksgiving draws us to reflect on this past year to remember all that we have to be thankful for. As we ate with our fellow missionary family, the Carlsons, we realize how different this year is from the past two. Last year Grant ate with fellow Edinburgh students while Miho stayed home due to morning sickness and no interest in being around food. Two years ago, we enjoyed a fantastic meal with the Yee’s, Schmidt’s, and Chyn’s, two families from our old youth group and fellow youth leaders.

As you can see in photo, having Allie with us made this meal very different and very special for us. She is now 5 months old today and is getting her hands into everything. Though we kept the pie away from her, she might have enjoyed it being that it is smooth and she has no teeth 🙂

Here is a very short list of reasons to be thankful to God:

1. We are now serving and living in Japan after so much time praying, dreaming, and preparing to be here!

2. We have the joy of Allie in our lives, who is healthy, easy to deal with, and adorable.

Eating turkey with the Carlson family

3. God has watched over the lives of both my mom and grandma throughout their health challenges. This is in part thanks to so many of you who have been faithfully praying for her and my family.

4. All of our dear friends and supporters who richly bless our lives and walk with us on this mission God has given us. Though frustrating to have been delayed a month in coming to Japan, we loved spending more time at the Pu’s home, seeing family and friends in Iowa, and getting more chances to get together with friends in Boston.

5. The once-in-a-lifetime chance to live in Europe (without kids). We loved serving in France, raising money for Haiti victims through the marathon in Barcelona, and getting to see other historical and Christian sites.

6. Our opportunity to work alongside our church in Japan that freely allows us to pursue the dreams God has given us, along with our ECC missionary families here who are very encouraging and helpful as we adjust to life here.

Just heard from my sister and talked to my dad. Found out that certain parts of my mom’s arm is not healing properly and that she will need to go back to Iowa City next week for another skin graft surgery. This will be taken from her right leg this time. After the surgery on Nov. 29th, she will need to stay there for another week, then may be able to go home (though our house is not very wheelchair friendly).

My dad has been getting training for how to care for her wounds and for my mom when she gets to go home. I got shivers upon hearing the steps it takes to nurse her burns and clean them out regularly. My dad will also have to lift her in and out of the wheelchair since she can’t stand, along with helping her onto the toilet. As my dad has had various back problem as well as a back surgery, we are a little nervous of how well he can handle all of this.

My dad also told me that he got the first hospital which amounted to around $98,000. However, we are relieved that his insurance covers all but like $750! With more bills to come, please pray that everything will be taken care of for my family. Also, as my mom comes home soon, please pray for my dad as he needs to cook according to a certain diet for her, give her various pills, clean her wounds, and take of everything else.

Your prayers are powerful. We are very grateful at how God has brought us through this so far.

I know my purpose is to share the gospel here, but I couldn’t help from sharing my experience today about a simple haircut. Not the most profound topic, yet a memorable adventure for me. As I pick up the language, I was very nervous about how this would work out since most words associated with a haircut are not top priority words to learn in class.

Nevertheless, I had an hour break between my group Japanese lesson and my weekly one on one lesson. Surely that is enough time for a simple cut, so I thought. After a recommendation from my teacher, I went to the salon across the street from the school, especially since I got a 25% discount due to the prof’s referral. I just asked, “Discount shitte kurimasu ka?” (Would you be kind enough to give me a discount?)

It began with an initial shampoo and head massage. Not a bad start 🙂 They then placed several layers of towels and guards under the gown to block hair getting to my shirt or skin. This was the first time I’ve never had an itchy neck after a cut. Before the cut, I asked for some magazines to point out what I was looking for, as my Japanese precision is lacking in giving directions. Surprisingly, through his poor English and my modest efforts in Japanese, we actually had a decent conversation, as I shared about my past, being married to Miho for 5 years, and am a missionary. The cut took much longer than expected, since he didn’t use clippers but several varieties of scissors to really style my hair. No complaints here.

After the cut, he then proceeded to give a second shampoo and massage to get rid of the hair. Genius idea! Even the hair inside my ear was cleaned out. As they tried to have me relax, they placed this warm gel pack on my eyes, then gave a scalp massage, along with a neck massage. As if that wasn’t enough, they spent probably ten minutes blow drying and styling my hair. Needless to say, I was blown away by their service and attention to making the customer feel relaxed. However, what typically takes 15 minutes for me ended up taking nearly 1.5 hours! Though only across the street, I unfortunately was 40 minutes late for my Japanese lesson 😦

Maybe because I am one of the few white people visiting, but the owner took a photo of me and asked if it would be ok if he used it on the homepage of the salon’s website 🙂 Hope you enjoyed my experience, but please don’t be jealous. If you ever come visit us, you can enjoy the same pampering!