If we have not love...

Hey!
Last night ( Sunday night Japan time) we got home from visiting Komaki Hope Chapel. It is a church in Komaki. We arrived there on Saturday afternoon and met most of the church members then. We watched the Narnia movie and had dinner at the church. Dinner was Yaki Soba. It is noodles, pork and vegetables and is absolutely amazing. We were split up into pairs and stayed in homes with families from the church. Simone and I stayed with Pastor Abe and his wife in their home above the church. That night we had coffee and fruit with them and talked with them. Sunday morning they made us breakfast and it was huge. We had french toast, strawberries with yogurt, boiled eggs and... cream of corn soup. Okay so I am definitely not used to having soup for breakfast but it was pretty good. And the strawberries here are amazing... so now I know why they are so expensive. We went to the church service there and we played a couple songs for the church and did our drime ( a kind of drama/mime done to music with a bit of dancing). We had a Japanese style barbeque for lunch. They cook meat and vegetables on a grill. It was really good except for the pork that was basically all fat. Definitely not something I enjoyed.... I thought it was eel because when it was cooked it was this grey colour. One of the ladies that goes to english class hosted by the church is a calligraphy teacher and made each of us a calligraphy thing. We found out later that she is not a Christian . It was beautiful. Mine was the character for believe and had white flowers painted on it. God is saying: " Believe that I will heal you. Believe that I have great things in store for you. Believe in the power of love. Have faith. I have made you and I know you. You are precious to me. I care for you. Let me heal all your parts that are broken." God has been showing me that he understands all my hurts and heart aches and has been through his own. He does not say " I told you so" when I get hurt but instead says " I know how it feels". I feel healed over. It is wonderful. Pastor Abe took some of us out for dinner. We went to an Italian restaraunt but it was Japanese style Italian with corn on the pizza. It was really good though. Once again I felt such a strong sense of community and family. Please continue to pray for the people of Japan that God would open their hearts. Pray as well that we would get more students for our english classes, that God would draw the right people to the classes. Pray also that God would open our hearts to hear what else he might be asking us to do during our time here. God is good and I am so glad to be serving Him in Japan. Until next time, Sayonara

Missing you

So I feel kind of bad for not updating my blog sooner but I have been busy and tired this week. This past Sunday was Easter as everybody probably knows. Easter in Japan is a lot different than Easter in North America. It's not even acknowledged by a holiday by companies and there are no stores selling giant chocolate bunnies or easter candies. I didn't miss the commercialism one bit. The church we are helping at had an Easter service that day. We had a nice Easter message and our team performed a drime for the church. We ate lunch with the church, which we do almost every Sunday. That was followed by a piano concert by one of the English teachers, Sean and a telling of the Easter story for the kids. We had an Easter egg hunt in the park after for the kids and a pinata. When we got back to the house we found Easter baskets for each of us that a couple of the girls I am here with put together. They also had a surprise chocolate hunt for us. That was pretty cool and made each of us feel a bit better about not being at home for Easter. For Easter dinner we made sushi (california rolls to be exact). We didn't end up eating until 8 o clock though because the first time we were making the rice our rice cooker shut off half way through and the rice didn't turn out. It was pretty funny though and now we have a bowl of hardened rice on our counter. Apparently it serves the very useful purpose of a paper weight and holding meat down in water when we are trying to defrost it. Other than that my week has been rather uneventful. We have been handing out fliers for our English classes in April. Please pray that God would draw people to those classes and that God would draw more people to the other teacher's classes as well. This is a major ministry for the church we are helping at in Toyota. Pray for us that as we start to teach we would be able to teach effectively and for the other English teachers as well. Pray that God would guide us and give us wisdom as we teach so that our students will be able to get something out of the classes. For many of us this is our first time teaching. Pray that we would not be nervous but that we would be able to trust in God. Continue to pray for the people of Japan that their hearts would be opened to the message of God and that they would see God's love in big ways. Pray also for me ,because I am starting to feel a bit homesick now, that I would be able to keep my heart focused on God and the work that I need to do here in Japan. A big shout out to all my friends in Kelowna and everywhere else. I miss you all and you guys are awesome. Until next time, Sayonara.

God is moving!!!

Hey!
This weekend we went to Hirakata to visit with one of the churches there. It is called Hirakata Christ Church and it is amazing. I could totally see God moving in that church and the people there. We stayed in a house right next to the church. It was small compared to the house we are living in here in Toyota. It made me very grateful for our house here. We left on Saturday afternoon from Toyota when the pastor of the church, Pastor Fujino, came and picked us up. He is Japanese but speaks English very well. He is very passionate about God and the people in Japan. He also makes jokes tbat we don't really understand because he uses a really serious tone of voice. But he was really fun. We arrived in Hirakata after a two hour drive and were shown around our house had fellowship with the pastor and met Christina an international student from the states. She spent the whole weekend with us acting as a translator and helping us out. We went out for dinner with a family from the church. They were so friendly and their children were so cute. On Sunday we went to the service at the church we were visiting. I was so encouraged by the members joy and faith. We had fellowship with the church members and international students from a university in japan the whole day. The church members made us a special dinner and at the end of the night they sang us a song and prayed for us. It felt like we were all one big family. I felt the idea that all followers of Jesus are a family to be so true. On monday Pastor Fujino took us to Kyoto. We went and visited a castle, the Golden Pavillion and some Bhuddist and Shinto temples. What was really heartbreaking was to see the people offering their prayers to the different gods when they don't know what they are really worshipping and to see that it is so empty. I urge you to pray for the people of Japan that their hearts would be opened to the truth and that God would reveal Himself to them in big ways. That night we went to a sushi bar for dinner. These are really popular in Japan. You sit at tables and a conveyer belt with sushi on it passes around and you grab whatever you want off it. You can also special order things and there is a little plastic train that will come to your table with your special order. We went shopping in the evening. On Monday we went to Osaka and went and saw Osaka castle. Inside was a museum with displays on the history of the castle. When we were leaving two Japanese girls came up to us and asked for our picture. I think it is funny that we have instant celebrity status here because we don't look Japanese. I am pretty sure it is not the last time something like that will happen. We then met up with Pastor Hiebert and he drove us back to our home here in Toyota. His wife made us dinner and it was wonderful. I really enjoyed seeing the rich history of Japan and how God is working through His people here in Japan.
Until next time,
Sayonara

Teach me , Sensei

Ahhhh. Japan is amazing. I have been here for a week and I find myself starting to fall in love with this place. This is of course the honeymoon stage so my outlook may change. I am living in a traditional Japanese style house right by the church. The houses here are really close together small. The people here are so polite. Today we had a lesson on Japanese manners. There are a lot of things that are taboo mostly relating to table manners. It was quite interesting especially when we found out that there are things that aren't good manners that we have done since we have been here. Yipes! The church that the Hieberts pastor is amazing. Even though I hardly know the people they feel just like family. And it is a church with regular attendance for services equalling 35 so everybody is really close. A really cool experience was eating lunch on sunday with the church. Even though a lot of the people don't speak much english it was really cool to share a meal together. The Hieberts are a wonderful family as well. They have such a great understanding of Japanese culture and customs and are really hospitable. The work they are doing here in Japan is great and they are so passionate about what God is doing here in Japan. They have a daughter that is a couple of years younger than our team and we really enjoy hanging out with her. There is also an esl teacher close to our age named Sean, who lives on the church property as well. We will all hang out sometimes usually at our place because it is bigger.
Today we sat in on a couple of the esl classes and it was really interesting to see how it was done. I still have one more to sit in on yet this evening. It is a bit later so that shall be interesting. We also had our first Japanese lesson today. It felt like I was back in school. I really enjoyed it though and when our teacher (sensei in japanese) pulled out the two workbooks for the two different japanese alphabets I got a bit giddy ( so I am a bit of a dork and really enjoy learning languages). I just can't wait until I learn a bit more although I doubt 3.5 months is enough time to become fluent or even semi-fluent in Japanese. So today has really been a full day but I don't have anything until 2pm tomorrow which means sleep in time. Yes! God has been teaching me a lot these past couple of days as well. It has been a really good experience for me and I am feeling lifted up and encouraged. I am feeling strengthened and ready to go. So now I will say Sayanora and bid you good night and a pleasant tomorrow.