Who is teaching who?
Today as the children were going out for children's church, Cameron got
to the door and said, "samui!" (cold!) Later, he was singing to himself,
"dekinai, dekinai" (can't do it, can't do it). He is really starting to
learn Japanese! Mr. Miyazono said, "Cameron's pronunciation is really
good. It won't be long before he can act as your interpreter." Thanks
alot...as if I didn't feel that my Japanese was bad enough...
Good news! The rainy season has officially started! And I heard it
should be a really wet rainy season, unlike last year when the rice
paddies were drying up. Lots of rain means all of the bugs will be
looking for a dry place to hide, like our house...
Today, we had a Japanese missionary to a closed country reporting to the
church. He hadn't been here in 12 years! That's a long time between
reports. I learned that it is much easier for a Japanese missionary to
get into this closed country than it is for an American. Any Japanese
can visit this closed country for at least a few weeks (I forgot how
long exactly) WITHOUT a visa! Several Japanese missionaries live in Hong
Kong or Taiwan and travel to this closed country regularly to assist
national Christians. This just reinforced my belief that a strong church
in Japan is the key to reaching Asia. Pray for more workers for Japan!
Spiders, centipedes, mold and mildew...
these are some of the troublesome things in Nagashima. Cameron heard
Susan let out a yell last week and came running to help, "centipede?
where centipede?" He has a good handle on the difference between a
centipede and a spider. Spider = "squish it!", centipede = "abunai
(dangerous)"
Pastor Kishimoto and the church members here on Nagashima have worked
hard to give the church a good image. Occasionally while we are handing
out tracts or flyers, someone will tell me that, "those are good
people." The flyers we hand out have a summary of church activities and
contact information on one side and a brief gospel presentation on the
back. It focuses on people in need or with worries and concerns. That
covers about everyone! Several people have come to the church after
receiving the flyer and putting it away. They come to a point when they
don't know where to turn, remember the flyer and call or come to church.
It's a good reminder that God works in mens hearts and draws them to
Himself. Only He can soften hard hearts and prepare them for the seed of
the Gospel.
A Rainy Night in Nagashima
They say that the rainy season hasn't started yet but you can't tell by
looking outside. It has rained quite alot lately with rain in the
forecast until Sun. The first typhoon of the season, number #1 just
incase you thought you might have missed one, is the cause and has an
ever-so-slight chance of making it to Kyushu. We haven't had a good
typhoon since last year so maybe this one will make it.
Only two weeks before our first GRITer arrives! I better get back to work..
Just Another Vending Machine
Japan is the land of the vending machine. You can buy almost anything
from a vending machine, not just a soda. But, today I found out about a
new one. It is a millng machine for rice. In case you don't know what
that means, I took a quote from a site about rice to help you out.
"Milling removes each grain's hull to reveal the part of the rice plant
that eventually ends up in our mouths. Milling both the hull and bran
layers of the kernel renders so-called white rice; brown rice retains
the bran. "
Cool, huh. We took a 40kg sack of rice to this vending machine, dumped
it in a hopper, deposited our 400 yen ($4) and selected our choice -
white rice. After alot of noise and rattling, white rice started pouring
into our bag! We will eat this tomorrow for lunch at church.
By the way, this sack would last the average Japanese family about one
month. It would last our family about 1 year. It is produced on about
1/8 of an acre.
Delivering flyers in Nagashima
Today we passed out flyers, this is normal for the church in Nagashima.
Thursdays we spend 1-3 hours passing out flyers depending on the
weather, how the week is going, how tired everyone is, etc. My day
almost ended early today when a dog the size of a small Lab tried to
take my leg off. I saw him wagging his tail in the doorway of a small
shed and thought he would be OK. However when I got to the mailbox and
turned away from him, he came out fast! His chain brought him up just
short of my leg and the whole shed jerked. I almost had a heart attack.
This is the second time this year I have had an issue witha local dog.
the first time I was riding my moped to church when a pitbull-like dog
came after me. While the law says it is illegal to have dogs off a leash
in Japan, you wouldn't know it by driving around Nagashima!
This is not a problem I thought we would have in Japan.
A Rainy Day in Nagashima
It is windy and pouring outside, this time of year that means the poison
centipedes and spiders will be heading inside. We have killed 3-4
centipedes already this year, the largest was about 6 inches long, the
smallest about 1 inch. Let the games begin!
At church this morning, Chloe's etch-a-sketch was the center of
attention. Apparently they aren't available in Japan. One college girl
was really enjoying it, I wasn't sure we would get it back!
For lunch, we had two ladies from church eating with us. Susan had made
pudding and it was about as popular as the etch-a-sketch. You can buy
pudding here but I don't think people normally make it. Seeing a big
bowl of pudding was a shock for them.
I will be preaching Sunday afternoon at church. Because it is Mother's
Day we are expecting a large turnout plus, there are two churches with
fairly substantial groups coming to join us that day. Pastor Kishimoto
will be preaching a Mother's Day message in the morning so I will
continue with the series on I Peter. We are in Chapter 3 so I believe I
can come up with an introduction talking about Mother's Day that will
lead smoothly into the text.....just kidding, I can't do anything
smoothly in Japanese!
I don't like early mornings...
but this one started at 5:30 as I drove to Aira to pick up a fridge and
washer to use for the summer. Four and a half hours later I was back and
ready to start my normal Monday. Oh, wait a minute, I don't have a
normal Monday...
I stopped by to help Mr. Miyazono, and while there he gave me a bottle
of dirty brown liquid to spray around our house. What is that?! I asked.
He said it is soemthing he makes to keep the bugs, like poisionous
cetipedes, out of the house. He makes it as a byproduct of making
charcoal. He makes charcoal and sells it in the summer. He has a big
kiln? that he puts the wood into and seals up with mud. The exhaust pipe
has a weird apparatus attached that runs down in to a barrel. He gets
about 200 liters per kiln full of wood. Cool, huh..
Golden Week
This week was Golden Week in Japan. There are three major holidays
during Golden week so everyone has time off to visit relatives, go to
the beach, spend time with family, etc. I spent the last day, Friday,
with the club I used to fly RC planes with. They had a barbecue and flew
(and crashed) planes all day. I gave Mr. Yamamoto a Bible he had asked
for earlier in the week. It was the first time he had ever seen one.
I still have a good bit to do to get ready for the summer program. I am
sick of preparation and ready to get started! Only 4 more weeks before
the first person arrives!
