by Whitey | Sep 11, 2009 | Etc.
I’m excited for my friends at Studio Re:, whose short film “Jitensha” is an official selection being shown at this year’s Venice Film Festival — one of the top five film festivals in the world — this weekend.
From Paul, at the Worship & the Arts blog:
Jitensha grows out of the Studio Re: vision to impact Japanese culture through redemptive films. We are stunned that high up professionals in the film industry have chose our film to be part of one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world.
As I have reflected on why this happened, I think it is about the power of a good story, a story with heart, along with great production values. In other words, technically it is a well crafted film that allows the story to “connect” with the audience. Every aspect of the film is strong, the cast, the music, the locations, the cinematography, the music, and the editing — which is amazing for a low budget film made by students and emerging filmmakers in Tokyo who are committed to making films with redemptive themes.
I saw this film in August, and was pretty impressed myself. These guys are doing great work, and providing an example and inspiration to those of us with our own dreams of impacting Japanese culture through the arts.
Here’s what the movie is about:
“Jitensha” (or “Bicycle”) is a story about Mamoru Amagaya, a young man struggling to find meaning in life. A co-worker confronts Mamoru on his apparent apathy toward life, and this results in Mamoru leaving his job out of humiliation.
Now alone and without work, just as it seems that things could not possibly get worse, parts of Mamoru’s bicycle begin to disappear, one by one. In frustration, Mamoru leaves a note for the thief, begging him to just take the whole thing. The note left in response is signed “God”, leaving Mamoru only more confused.
At last, when the only remaining piece of the bicycle is a lonely bell, Mamoru receives an envelope, containing addresses at which each piece of the bicycle might be retrieved.
Puzzled yet intrigued, Mamoru embarks on a journey to resurrect and reassemble his beloved possession. As he seeks out each piece of the missing whole, Mamoru begins to discover that he himself is in a healing process. As he puts his bike together piece by piece, he realizes that he himself is in the process of being reassembled in the same way, by one far greater than himself.
Intrigued? You can read the whole above-quoted article HERE, and check out the movie’s official site HERE.
by Whitey | Sep 8, 2009 | Thoughts
This is the second article I’m re-posted from my former-former blog. This one’s dated December 14, 2006, and in it I talk about one of my favourite passages of Scripture and what it meant to me at the time. It still means a lot to me now, and is a good truth to reflect on as I think about what God might have for me next year and in the years to come.
Last time I talked about the Problem With Being Creative. Now let me talk about my other problem: I’m a dreamer. The following is one of my favourite passages in all of Scripture. It encourages me to dream big dreams…
(3) Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
(4) Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
(5) Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
(6) He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
– Psalm 37:3-6 (NIV)
I believe God wants to make our dreams come true. The problem is that it can be hard to see that sometimes. We get used to being disappointed. So we stop trying. We stop dreaming.
But I think God wants to give us our dreams. And Psalm 37 tells us how… “Delight” in the Lord (v.4). Worship Him, enjoy Him, make Him Your center of attention and reason for being. “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” — He’ll make Your dreams come true! This is true because as we delight in Him, we change. As we change, our priorities, our desires, our dreams change. We trust Him with our dreams. We commit those dreams to Him. We begin to pray, like Jesus did, “Your will, Father, not mine be done.”
I think our dreams can and will come true as we truly trust God, delight in Him and commit our dreams into His hands.
Before I started to sense God calling me into ministry, I had other dreams; stuff like being a rock star or a cartoonist. Obviously being a rock star was probably a pipe dream, but being a cartoonist seemed a little more likely at the time. So I was working as a graphic designer, but dreaming of “bigger things”…
When I went off to Bible college, I basically gave my own dreams to God and said “Your will, not mine, Lord.” Little did I know what that would mean. Sheesh, I never wanted to be a missionary, even after Bible college. But that’s another story. This story is about how I gave those dreams of creative occupations, and God gave them back to me; only, when I got them back, they suddenly looked a whole lot different.
I never got to be a rock star, but during and after Bible college I got to develop my musical side a lot, and had many good experiences playing and singing. Only now I was a worship leader instead of a grunge puppy rock star wannabe. I even recorded a CD. And I haven’t gotten to be a full-time, paid cartoonist, but I have been doing a webcomic for almost three years now, and finally have published my first book collecting those strips. And have I ever mentioned that I created SkitZo MaN about 13 years ago? Sometimes dreams just take longer than we’d like… That doesn’t mean we should give up on them!
And, as I briefly mentioned in my previous post, I’ve got this ongoing, evolving dream of bringing my creative side and my ministry side together into one “big thing”. What form this beast will take remains to be seen, but I’m continuing to work towards that every time I exercise my creative muscles (including writing this blog). And, as I’m preparing for ministry in Japan, I’m beginning to see how being a big comic geek (like me) could actually be an advantage!
All that to say keep dreaming…
As I said, these are good things for me to reflect on as I near another time of transition. In a future post I hope to share some more recent thoughts on knowing and doing God’s will, along with some quotes I’ve found encouraging along the way. Hopefully you can find some encouragement here as well.
by Whitey | Sep 5, 2009 | Thoughts
I did an “archive dive” of my old blog (not this one, but this one) tonight, looking for something I wrote way back when. I found two things I wrote back in 2006 (when I was still in Canada preparing to come to Japan as a missionary). I thought these were worth re-visiting because they seem to have fresh relevance as I end my first 2-year term with GP and dream about the future.
Here’s the first one, dated December 9, 2006, and titled The Problem With Being Creative:
Some of you may be wondering how a guy like me — working in retail as well as being busy doing the missionary support raising thing — has time for stuff like blogging, web design and particularly SkitZo MaN. The answer is a three-parter:
One, I think too many people kill themselves doing “good things” and then end up being no good to anyone. I don’t want to be one of those guys. And there are a lot of those guys in ministry, since it’s so easy to justify doing too much “for the Lord”. So, I may be busy, but I refuse to burn myself by not taking time out to just “be”. This includes time with God, resting, friends and of course being creative.
Secondly, I have this dream that my ministry side and my creative side will someday come together into one “big picture”. In the meantime I want to continue developing my talents. More on this in another post…
Thirdly, I can’t not be creative. If it wasn’t SkitZo MaN, it would be something else. Unless you’re some kind of artistic type yourself you’ll probably not understand. Creative people create. We must. It’s who we are.
Take tonight for example: I was trying to read but I couldn’t. My mind kept wandering. I’ve been dreaming up some new ideas and sometimes they come to the surface at the most inconvenient times. I’ve got more ideas than I know what to do with.
And that’s the problem with being creative: In a way, it’s something that can’t be controlled. And yet, you know, sometimes we actually don’t have time.
But we have to make time. God’s given all of us (not just us “artsy fartsy” types, but all of us) talents and gift. We honour Him when we use them and enjoy them and bless other people with them. We dishonour Him — and ourselves — when we waste them.
Next time: The Problem With Being a Dreamer
I still agree with most of what I said, if not how I said it. And I’m still dreaming about that “big picture” I mentioned. Not only that, but I feel as if I’m getting closer to actually getting there. And that’s encouraging.
by Whitey | Aug 30, 2009 | Ministry News, Photos
Today’s photo is of a retreat centre in nearby Konan, where we stayed during Chukyo Seikai on August 13-14 (the week before the Tonicam).
Chukyo Seikai is the name of this area’s annual retreat (Chukyo is the name of the area and Seikai basically means “holiness meeting”) for the denomination. I had the opportunity — and challenge — to give a short testimony in Japanese, as well as sing a couple of songs, during one of the worship services. Thanks in large part to the help of some Japanese friends who checked/corrected my Japanese manuscript, it went pretty well, I think. It was definitely a step further than last year, anyway, when I did the same thing, but in English and with an interpreter. And more importantly, I think God used me to encourage some people.
by Whitey | Aug 25, 2009 | Ministry News, Photos
Tonicam is the name of our Japanese denomination’s youth camp. This summer’s event was held last week in Nagano, as mentioned in the previous entry. Our group from Nagoya was pretty small; there were nine of us, but only four were campers while the rest of us were staff. I had the opportunity to play guitar on the worship team all week, which was a challenge — it’s hard enough to read sheet music in English, let alone in Japanese — but a good challenge and a lot of fun. Leading worship through music is one of my passions, and in Japan I haven’t had the chance to do much of it, so it felt good to get to work with the worship band the whole four days of camp.
The stage is also a great place to watch the crowd from. It gets me excited to see Japanese teens getting excited about worshiping Jesus and letting Him work in their lives. And God definitely was at work in people’s lives during Tonicam. I’m thankful I got to be there to see it.
Below are some of the photos I didn’t accidentally delete after camp. You can click on the first one to see it close-up, and then use the arrows to navigate through the slideshow and see the rest:
by Whitey | Aug 22, 2009 | Uncategorized
… the posts from the old one to this one. So if things get funky, please excuse the mess. I’ll clean it up soon.
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.)
