This little Christmas tree may not be the most beautiful you have ever seen, and I myself was far from enchanted by it the first time I saw it, but it now holds a special place in my heart. I'll never be able to forget it, no matter how hard I try.

Every year, I look forward to decorating the Christmas tree. My family has several tree decorating traditions that I just love and its wonderful to bust out all of my personal ornaments and find places for them amidst the tangle of branches and lights. I was a little bummed this year because I really didn't think we had a Christmas tree here at Rakuen and consequently that I would have to forgo any and all decorating. Of course, Christmas is still Christmas without decorating a tree, but I love it. Come on, who doesn't? Last week after Sunday service it was announced that the tree was going to be brought in. "Oh wonderful," I thought. "We do have a tree!!"

Well, I got sidetracked doing something else and by the time I made it back to our worship room the tree had been set up, lights and garland had been strung around it, and the last ornaments were just being put on. "Well.....[gulp] maybe I'll at least be able to put on my ornaments that I brought from home." Nope, the tree was over-ornamented as it was. Sigh...ok, maybe next year.

Yesterday, I was able to participate in the filming of a Christmas drama written and produced by one of the young adults here who happens to be a film student. The action and dialogue of the drama is centered around myself and two other girls decorating (yup, you guessed it) the Christmas tree in the worship room. God has such a sense of humor. Of course I knew before yesterday that this was to be the main actions of the drama; the script had been translated for me ahead of time, thankfully. What I didn't realize was that when you're filming a movie, you usually have at least ten takes of the same scene before you get it right and the cameramen have it from every angle. If we put ornaments on the tree during the first take, we had to take them all off again so that we could then put them back on again in the next take. Then I or one of the others would forget our lines or botch up a song and it was off with the ornaments again.

Needless to say, I got my decorating fix. I decorated and redecorated that little tree about fifty times yesterday!! I think I might be ok if I didn't get to decorate another tree for about ten years. I think I could draw every ornament from memory and maybe even tell you how many evergreen bows are on the tree. Jesus is sooo sweet to minister to my heart this way, and remind me to laugh at life's little ironies. I didn't need this, but that's what's so wonderful about my Jesus. He provides for my every need and then delights to give me good things and sweet moments. Thanks!!

Giving thanks...even when there's no turkey

Thanksgiving came early this year for me, four days early. Today was our official Thanksgiving celebration here at Rakuen Christ Church. For a while it was rather doubtful as to whether or not we were going to celebrate it at all. A few months ago we had originally planned to do a Thanksgiving "event" for the students (and their families) from our English and Korean classes. As we began to tell our students about it, it turned out that practically no one would be able to make it, whether because of work or other reasons. One day a few weeks ago, while driving in the car with I Sensei and his wife, they told me as much and that therefore, consequently, "Thanksgiving....canceled." What!!?? You can imagine how I took this. Those two words should never be used in the same sentence when addressing an American. That's like saying we're gunna just skip Christmas or my birthday, better luck next year. You can't do that!! Its illegal...or it should be!!Thankfully, shortly after my only Thanksgiving plans had been canceled, I learned that we would still be having a smaller family dinner and inviting a few close friends. Hope and peace were restored within.

My contribution to the meal was apple pie. That's as close as I could get to something American (we wanted it to be as international as possible). My miraculous finds are pictured above; the pie pan and shortening were the only things I thought might be hard to find, but with God on my side they were no problem.

I had a great time making the crust from scratch - it was my first time - and everything was going just swimmingly until the pie had been in the "oven" for about 30 minutes and we started smelling something burning. Yeah, guess what it was. I thought it was all over when we opened the "oven" and saw black crusty stuff all over and around the bottom, but turns out the juice just leaked out and started burning. The bottom of the crust did end up a bit dark in parts, ok by dark I mean black, but the rest was wonderful and everyone really seemed to like it. It was such a joy to be able to share something like this with my Korean and Japanese friends. I was worried that this Thanksgiving might be kind of miserable for me, being so far away from family and everything I've ever known, but I think the Lord really used this apple pie to minister to my spirit. When I'm only on the receiving end its so hard not to be disappointed. Japan is not America and the people here aren't my family. I was afraid that these facts might keep me from enjoying the new experiences and giving thanks to the Lord this Thanksgiving. But I think because I was also on the giving end I experienced so much joy by sharing a part of myself with them that I was able to embrace the differences. Family, turkey, football, etc. are a big part of Thanksgiving, but even when all of that is stripped away, God is still good and for those who know Him as the Almighty God, Lord Jesus, Emmanuel, there is always reason to give thanks.

"He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God."

~Psalm 50:23~

Paradise Lost

On my way to visit Dan and Amy, I'm standing on the platform waiting to catch the next train. A man comes into view six or seven paces to my left. Middle aged, average looking, sneakers, blue jeans, black t-shirt, black shoulder bag. What I notice before his apparel, however, is that he's mumbling to himself in an unusually animated way - his eyes opening and then closing abruptly. We've all seen people mumbling or talking to themselves in public, whether they're suffering from a deranged mind or merely rehearsing information for their anatomy test, who can really know. But I got the impression that this guy was having a conversation with someone. The impression was so strong that I looked to the other side of the tracks to see if there was someone on the other platform whom he was talking to, but there was no one. Then I see the open beer can in his hand and his behavior makes a little more sense, although not less disturbing. He continues to mumble (couldn't hear anything because my ear plugs were in) and turns casually to look at something behind him. I catch a glimpse of the decal on the back of his shirt and the irony is striking. "Paradise Lost" is written in white letters under the image of a distorted face (anger? fear? laughter?). This man tragically externally exemplifies the depravity and confusion of the human mind post-Eden. Paradise has indeed been lost, but thanks to the sacrifice of one man, it is not beyond our reach.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

and are justified freely by his grace through the

redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

Romans 3:23-24

It is my prayer that this man may have an encounter with the only One who can permanently restore that which was lost in the paradise of Eden.

Seinen kai: small steps with a big God

"Lord I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.
Renew them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy."
Habakkuk 3:2

The Lord continues to affirm what I know of Him and have heard spoken of through the Holy Scriptures and by those who fear Him - i.e. that He is awesome and that He does mighty things through small people and in seemingly insignificant places.
Tadaoka, the town where I live and work, is so small and so quiet that it often seems to be cut off from the rest of the world. Our church congregation is by no means large, but those who attend are faithful. The majority of our church family is in the 40-55 year age range; there are also a handful of early 20s and a few really young children. Over the past few months, I have been getting to know the other young adults (seinen kai) and I am so thankful for the encouragement and support that they provide. I've been able to hang out with all the seinen kai members one on one but we've never all hung out as a group. I don't know how it happened, well, ok, its because the Lord is amazing, but our little group seems to be picking up momentum.
Two or three weeks ago, the daughter of one of the church members moved to the area from Korea and we've had the pleasure of getting to know her as she joins in our Sunday and mid-week fellowship (there's a picture of her in my last post). Then this past Sunday, a guy came to Sunday worship who none of us had ever seen before. Come to find out, he's working in Tadaoka as a Junior High English teacher and he heard about our church because he visited the Korean restaurant in town owned by one of the church members. Because he's Korean-Australian (to the best of my knowledge), he wanted to check out our church. On Sunday, we decided that we should all hang out and everyone was game for doing dinner on October 16th. This is so exciting for me, for us. To the best of my knowledge, we've never had an official seinen kai here at Rakuen and the mere thought of what God could do with this group of people is ridiculously encouraging to me. I'm really praying that God will give us a sense of community and ownership as we begin to fellowship as a group and share each others lives. Also that we would have a sense of unity and that God would bless us with a vision of where and how He would have us serve.

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." 1 Timothy 4: 12

Osamuburugogi

A few days ago, I tried my hand at Korean cooking for the first time. Once a month, we (Rakuen Christ Church) offer a Korean cooking class as an outreach into the community. There's been a good turnout the two months that I've been here and this time, instead of just sitting around watching everyone, I decided to try it out. One of the best things about the cooking was that I got to wear an apron - they make me feel so domestic.


Well here it is. Osamaburugogi. Essentially, its pork and squid with Korean hot powder and paste and a variety of vegetables all fried up nicely. The squid in this dish was surprisingly tasty. I'm not usually a fan of squid due to its rubbery consistency; chewing something for 5 minutes before I can swallow it is asking a lot for something that I really like, much less something that is just so so. But for some reason, the squid in this dish had a firm tofu consistency...yummy.

This is my new friend Song. She is the daughter of one of the church members here at Rakuen. She just moved here from Korea. There are so few young people here that any new person around my age is always more than welcome. I'm so thankful for her already; she's kind and seems eager to get to know people here. In this shot, she's helping me with my Osamuburugogi because my chopsticks were getting too hot.

Say "No" to Strangers

Over the past month or so, the church members here at Rakuen Christ Church and I have been passing out flyers advertising my English classes to the surrounding neighborhoods. We have pretty much covered Tadaoka and even branched out to a few of the surrounding cities. Today, we tried a new tactic in order to get the word out. We decided, since our main target for the classes is children, that it would be a good idea to pass out flyers to kids as they were leaving their school and walking home. In order to make the classes a bit more appealing, we taped candy to the flyers. Yes, we handed out candy to innocent children just trying to make it home from school.

This was not my idea and when I was being told about it, I'm thinking, "Yeah right, kids are never gunna take candy from complete strangers, especially foreigners." I expressed my concern but was assured that it was perfectly fine. And sure enough, about 85% of the kids took the flyers and were quite grateful for the candy. There I was, smiling broadly as I hand the flyers to these adorable little kids, feeling like such a creep, and wondering why in the world they were so eager to rip the candy off the flyer and devour it. "Didn't your parents ever teach you not to take candy from strangers?" I'm thinking. Apparently not. Just another way that America and Japan are worlds apart.

Pieces of home in unexpected places

Ok Ben, this is mainly for you but I hope Holl's will get a kick out of it to. No, I do not intend for this blog to be solely for communication between me and certain individuals, but I thought since you have offered so much encouragement and gentle prodding, I should share these photos with you through my blog.

I found Holly's Cafe first. I saw it on a day trip that Dan, Amy, Jen, Nehemiah and I took to Umeda. Then I saw Ben's House on a trip to Kobe with people from Parter Mission. I thought it was interesting that the only restaurants with names of people I know should happen to relate to both you and Holly. You two were meant to be together forever.

That's all. Nothing clever or funny :) but check back next week!