Music in the streets...
Hmm, it's probably not what you think! Here, there are trucks that drive through the neighborhoods selling things or advertising to pick up old bikes, computers, tv's etc for recycling. Whatever they happen to be doing, it is usually accompanied by some kind of music. It is a little strange to hear this man's voice coming through the loudspeakers calling for broken printers while listening to some strange flute music! At other times, cars or trucks with loudspeakers will go through the area shouting out public service annoucements, or the worst, just before an election there are lots of cars with recordings of the candidates promises to the people. There is no escape!
Other than that it is a fairly normal day, I am almost finished with a pamphlet to take to the printer today and am 90% finished with a leaflet that I need to get to the printer for an estimate. Later today, Mr. Ohashi is coming by with his son who is in a speach contest. They want me to listen so he can practice before the contest.
Break is over, back to work!
Raining again...
It has been alternately really hot and much cooler as rainy days have interspersed with bright sunny, HUMID days. Today is a rainy day.
I received a copy of a pamphlet we are printing to use here in Kikuyo today. It is a challenge for people to think about the meaning and purpose of life while giving Biblical answers to those kinds of questions. It is amazing how God works even in these little things. As we were looking for a place to get an estimate for printing these, God brought a man across my path who works for a printing company - his job is giving estimates and then helping through the printing process! He gave us a great estimate with a substantial discount, what blessing! The neat thing is, when he gave met the copy to look at today, he said that he read through all of it the night before - that is definitely not in his job description. Pray that God will work in his heart through our friendship and more importantly through God's word.
The Challenge of Japanese
This week I spent a lot of time working on a translation of a Spiritual Gifts Inventory for the next Discipleship Retreat. Keiko is a big help in this department. Actually, she translated and I helped her. We are going for a dynamic equivalent. I read the English and tell her what it means in various forms and she puts it in Japanese. Next step, Keiko will read the Japanese and explain it to Susan and Susan will compare it to the English original. Hopefully we will end up with something worth using. So far I haven't been able to find any tools like this available in Japanese. After the retreat, we will get opinions and look at any problem questions, edit again and then send a copy to 5-6 churches with missionarie or national pastors. Once they have a chance for input we will "finalize" it and make it available to everyone. What a job! I have ideas for several projects like this but I am not sure that I am the one for the job.
Susan and I are chafing at some of our self-imposed limitations. We came to Kikuyo with the idea of trying to do only what would be considered reproducible by a Japanese church planter. This means setting some ministry finance limitations as well as some creative thinking about our methods of making contacts. I t is turning out to be just as difficult as we thought it would be! We are forced to wrestle with some very real problems that have no clear answer that we can see. Examples include finding a place to use to meet for a Bible study, affordable printing for flyers, how to distribute flyers, how to break through the barriers that society has placed between people and build life-changing relationships. The list goes on but you get the idea. All of this is made somewhat more difficult by the fact that our Japanese is not perfect, there is still much we don't understand about the culture, and we are in a new city.
On the brighter side, we are confident that God is able to accomplish HIS work here. Even as I am struggling to meet people and seek out people interested in learing about the God of the Bible, HE is working elsewhere and last week brought a man to our house who is seeking God. Wow! I am still learning to be more aware of where and how God is working. I am SO glad that we are not in this alone! Thanks for you prayers.
Back OnLine!
Well after another couple of hours with a tech in the house, I think we are back in business. I have (I think) made all of the updates and am sick of looking at a computer. There are new photos on the FAMILY page, new info and a link to our team prayer sheet on the MINISTRY page and there are new photos on the GRIT2008 page as well. We will work on making the next update a littel sooner!
Website troubles..
Well, I intended to update everything last week, and I did, at least on my computer. But I am having trouble getting it uploaded so there are a few problems. Hopefully the problem can be resolved this week and there will be new photos and information almost everywhere! For now, I think a few things are broken. If you think it is difficult talking to a Tech person over the phone in English, you should try it in Japanese!
Has this ever happened to you?
Well, Susan was buying groceries and couldn't figure out the Chinese character (kanji) on a pack of meat. It looked like beef and was cheap so she bought it and brought it home and fixed it for supper. She saved the pack to ask Keiko about the kanji. When Keiko looked at the package she laughed and said it was HORSE! yummy... a new use for that mean pony you could never ride...
This week has been busy getting ready for the next two weeks. Sunday we will all be going to Kagoshima to fill in at Hinatabira Baptist Church. Their pastor died with cancer earlier this year so 3-4 churches are helping out by filling in while they look for a new pastor. Keep them in your prayers because there are no pastors to be found at this time. I personally know of 3 churches without a pastor right now.
Next week, we have our 2nd Discipleship Retreat! The first one, called the Life Challenge Camp, went really well and we are hoping for a good turnout for this one too. So far 5-6 people have confirmed their attendance. We will be talking about preparing and giving devotionals. For most of them they will give their first ever devotional during this retreat. Fun, fun!
In November we will have the 3rd Disicpleship Retreat and will be focusing on Spiritual Gifts. Keiko and I are translating/ rewriting a spiritual gifts inventory for it. At the moment their is nothing like this available in Japanese that we are aware of.
And last but not least, I am working on an informational flyer about the Bible and Christianity as well as a pamphlet gives a good picture of man's need for God. It gives a good presentation of the gospel in a context that is easily understandable in Japan. It was written by Pastor Ohara in Nagashima, we are just designing a cover more appropriate for our target group with our contact info on the back.
