by Whitey | Aug 22, 2009 | Brain Dump
It’s a quiet Saturday night and I’m winding down for the night. After being away and not blogging most of this month, I thought I’d post something quick tonight before winding all the way down. Here are some thoughts.
1. I had a great time at Chukyo Seikai (Chukyo Area Holiness Meetings) and Tonican (youth camp) these past two weeks. I’ll give a more full report when I’m ready for a more “official” update. But in short: both events were fun, I got to spend some quality time with some friends, and it was great to be out doing ministry stuff for days on end instead of going to Japanese class for a change. Also, lots of chance to use the Japanese I’ve been learning, which is kind of important, right?
2. Unfortunately I accidentally deleted half of the photos I shot at youth camp.
3. It’s been good to be away so much this month and have a change of pace. But it’s good to be back in Nagoya now, too. This really does feel like home now.
4. I’m glad to still have about 10 more days before language school’s back in session, and I’m hoping to make good use of the extra time — both catching up and working ahead on studies and work stuff both.
5. The reality hit me today that I’ve only got about 4 months left of my current missionary term here in Japan. Suddenly the end seems very close. And while I look forward to seeing folks back home, I’m not so keen to leave Japan for an as-yet-undetermined amount of time. I feel like I’m just getting started. I’m afraid of taking too long to get back here, and forgetting a lot of what I’ve learned. And, like I said, this really does feel like home now.
6. But… a lot can happen in four months. So instead of worrying too much about what’s next, I’m hoping to make the best of the next few months I am here. I wonder what God has in store…
To be continued…
by Whitey | Aug 11, 2009 | Brain Dump
Random thoughts and recent happenings, unloaded from my brain to your computer monitor for convenient digestion:
1. Yes, there was an earthquake today, but not strong enough to do any serious damage to people or property. So for those of you wondering, I’m OK. Having said that, it was strong enough to wake me up at about 5 AM, lasted a good minute or so, and knocked some stuff off my shelf; so it was kind of scary. But again, no worries; I’m OK.
2. I just got back Sunday night from vacation. I spent most of last week with friends in a small cabin at a camp ground near the ocean, not too far from the city of Sendai. But I was also in Fukushima and Tokyo at other points during the break. It was very relaxing and fun.
3. It was good to get away. But it’s good to be back home in Nagoya now, too. And really cool to feel “at home” even though I’m so far from my home-home.
4. I’m going away again this Thursday, this time for ministry purposes. I’ll be taking part in our area’s holiness meetings. I’ve been asked to do some music and a testimony. I’m going to attempt to do the testimony in Japanese, which means it will be very short. It also means that I’d appreciate any extra prayers you want to pray on my behalf.
5. I don’t go back to school ’till September. It’s nice to be away from the daily grind of language school. But I’m hoping to use the time productively in terms of study, work and ministry stuff. Today was a good start to that. Also looking forward to spending more time with my Church Family at upcoming ministry stuff. Should be a fun rest-of-month.
Bye for now.
by Whitey | Jul 30, 2009 | Videos
Stumbled upon this group playing at Oasis 21 in Sakae the other day. They’re called Gotcha — if I remember correctly (but I can’t find their website to confirm that). And they were great. Unfortunately the video quality is not so great, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.
by Whitey | Jul 27, 2009 | Ministry News, Photos
As those of you on my email list may remember, this month we had a couple of events at the church that I’d asked for prayer about. Let me take a moment to tell you how things went.
The kids’ Ice Cream Party was held on July 5, and was a big success. We had over 47 show up, a large number of whom were first time visitors! And in the weeks following that event, we’ve had a handful of those kids coming back for our regular programs as well. Also, our Jr. High band did some music for the kids’ event. One band member invited some friends, and there were about 15 who showed up! Please pray that these connections to the community will continue to grow.
On July 15, with the help of some church members, hosted a Canada Day party (only 2+ weeks after the real Canada Day). We had a good time of games, English conversation practice, music, prizes and food. Around 36 people attended, a good handful of whom were visitors. Please continue to pray for my weekly English classes, and that God would use me to help this church build bridges with the community around us.
Following are some photos from the Canada Day party, as well as a young adults’ gathering the same evening. Click on any image to see it full-size and un-cropped, and to flip through the whole lot as a slideshow.
(Please let me know if you have trouble viewing these pics. It’s my first time using this gallery feature.)
by Whitey | Jul 23, 2009 | Brain Dump
It’s been a quiet week or so on the blog, so I wanted to write a quick update. This will be pretty random, though, as I’ve got limited time — big test tomorrow that I need to get back to studying for. So, here are some thoughts and stuff in no particular order, but numbered for easy reading.
1. Sunday’s Canada Day Party went really well. We had around 36 people attend, a good handful of whom were new people, first-time visitors and the like. A good time was had by all, and my voice was hoarse from talking over the crowd. I wore a funny hat. If you’re lucky I’ll post photos someday.
2. The recent Ice Cream Party / kids’ festival outreach thing was also really well-attended, with over 40 people, most of whom were visitors. Good things are happening at the Nagoya Church.
3. Next week is the last week of Japanese classes for me for the summer. In August we go on summer break, part of which I’ll be vacationing and part of which I’ll be doing ministry stuff.
4. I think the rainy season came late this year. I thought it was supposed to be in June, but July has been pretty wet. Today’s nice, though.
5. I thought I had more to say but I guess I don’t.
Brain: dumped. Now to re-fill it with Japanese.
by Whitey | Jun 28, 2009 | Life in Japan, Videos
This video was shot tonight at some friends’ house, and features the making of some delicious Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. Please excuse the low quality. It was shot on my cell phone, on the “economy” setting in order to fit it all. But I think it’s got some good entertainment value anyway.
by Whitey | Jun 18, 2009 | Thoughts
“They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead. But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town.”
– Acts 14:19-20 (NLT)
These words really stuck out to me the other day as I was reading the passage. Paul is out sharing the Gospel, runs into opposition, has the stuffing beat out of him, and is dragged out of town and left for dead. And then what? He gets up and goes right back into town. Wow. He doesn’t run away. He doesn’t back down. He goes right back into the city he was just thrown out of. Back into the fray.
I’ve never been beat up for my faith. I’ve never faced anything remotely close to that kind of persecution, and I assume most of the people reading this haven’t either. But I have failed. I’ve been hurt. I’ve been disappointed by others. I’ve disappointed myself. I’ve sinned when I knew better and felt rotten for it.
But when I read this passage, I remembered that whatever failure I’ve had, whatever hurt I’ve experienced, it doesn’t have to have the last word. With God’s help, I can get up and go back. And so can you.
by Whitey | Jun 17, 2009 | Thoughts
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
– John 1:1 (NIV)
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what the Bible means when it refers to Jesus as “the Word”. I’m sure there’s more depth to it than I’ve yet discovered, but here’s what I’ve got so far:
Jesus is God’s way of revealing Himself to us. He could have sent another prophet to tell us about Him. He could have shown us some sort of miraculous sign in the sky. Instead, He came to us in a form we could understand: He became one of us. Jesus is God’s most clear revelation of His own character. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.
This has a huge affect on how we see God. And it should have a huge affect on how we view Scripture too. Jesus is the center-piece of the Bible. Everything in the Old Testament leads up to Him; everything in the New Testament is directly influenced by His life and teachings.
Beyond that, Jesus Himself teaches us how we should interpret Scripture: Himself (a pretty bold assertion to make, but if He’s really God, then He can do that). He tells us He’s the fulfillment of the Law. He replaces the sacrificial system with His own sacrifice. And He radically re-interprets a lot of Old Testament teachings by showing us God’s heart behind them (the letter versus the spirit of the Law).
I think a lot of the Church’s history of legalism, abuses of power and misuse of the Bible to justify political and personal agendas is rooted in a failure to interpret the written Word through the life and teachings of the Living Word, Jesus.
Christians often talk about “getting back to the Bible”. I say we get back to Jesus.
by Whitey | Jun 7, 2009 | Life in Japan
It occurred to me today that It’s been quite a while since I blogged about my language studies. Actually, I haven’t blogged about much of anything; I’ve posted lots of pictures and stuff but haven’t shared many thoughts or stories lately. I’m going to try to get back to more regular blogging, especially now that I’m officially only updating one blog (this one) instead of two. By the way, if you’ve just joined us from JapanLog, welcome!
Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah — languages studies…
Studying Japanese has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Seriously. A linguist I am not. I was horrible at French back in high school, and remember practically nothing. My spelling’s also pretty bad, though it has improved with some help from a little thing computers do called “spell check”. So it should be no surprise that Japanese would be a challenge. Also, rote memorization is tough for me, and with language study there’s a lot of that.
People talk about “hitting the brick wall” in their studies. I feel like I’ve hit several of them over the past year and a half. But, the good news is, I am improving. Maybe not as quickly as I’d like to be; but improving nevertheless. I’m encouraged by those “a-ha” moments that happen once in a while, when something I didn’t for a long time get suddenly clicks.
I’m also encouraged in those the moments when I actually stop and think about where I am compared to a year ago; when I see how far I’ve come rather than just seeing how far I’ve got to go.
This morning in church, I had one of those moments. We were singing a song and I realized that I actually understood almost all of what I was singing. It helped that today was one of our less-traditional services. Usually we sing from a hymnbook; like English hymnbooks, Japanese ones use a lot of out-dated language and “churchy” language. Today’s songs were more modern and thus used more common language. And I realized all of the sudden during one of those songs that I knew just about ever word. I looked the one up that I couldn’t, and understood.
It was a nice moment. I find I’m having more of them lately. Sometimes it’s when I have a good conversation with a friend. Or when I’m sitting in a meeting and understand the gist, even if I don’t get every word.
Though I’ve got a really really long way to go before I’m even close to fluent, I’m thankful that I can look back and see some real progress.
by Whitey | May 15, 2009 | Brain Dump
Tried to go to sleep early tonight. Like 10:30. It didn’t work. So here it is, 11:20, and I’m blogging for a change of pace from that. Some thoughts:
1. Just finished a great week with a couple of Canadian friends visiting me here in Japan for some travel and ministry. It was really tiring… but at the same time refreshing. We shared a lot of laughs, had some great ministry experiences, and learned some stuff too. I felt blessed by the experience.
2. I’m really in love with my church here. They made me proud with the hospitality they showed by Canadian Brothers, and with how they stepped up to the plate to partner with us in some ministries this past week. Sometimes I think I could stay here in Nagoya with them forever.
3. Meanwhile (on a more superficial note) back in the West, the season finale of Lost aired this week. I’m not all caught up yet, so don’t tell me how it ends. It’s been an interesting season, though, with some really good writing. I wasn’t sure when this year’s started, but it’s turned out to have been a good ride. I’m hoping it ended on a good note. Only one season left after this.
4. I have some catching up to do: on studies, on work stuff, and on the personal/creative front, too. No time to get bored these days… and lots of reason to work on my time management skills. Which always need work. I’m easily distracted. What was I saying?
5. I have way too many photos to sort through, edit and share. Like 400+ from the past week alone (including some I got from others, not just my own). And like a zillion (that’s right, a zillion) from the previous few months. I need like a month off just for that. But instead it’ll probably end up being a “a little at a time” project…
6. Speaking of projects, the Doodze webcomic has been put on hiatus due to my recent bout of busyness. I do hope to get back to it soon, when I have some free time, but I probably won’t start posting right away. Instead I’ll work on building a buffer, some lettering fixes on previous pages, and getting the official site ready to launch.
