This last weekend the BEST Club took a trip up to the Bandai Mountains where we had our fall Sports Camp. We had about 30 students and staff come from Utsunomiya and about 10 students and staff come from Shizuoka University. When we arrived there was about 3 inches of snow on the ground which ruined our outside sports that we wanted to play on Saturday.
On Friday afternoon, we had our Bible Discussion, then Dinner, and free time sports in the gym where we played Volleyball and Basketball. On Saturday morning we started our tournament and played Volleyball and Basketball. We then ate lunch and had free time in the afternoon because we could not use the gym due to another group that was there. During our free time, Bryan, Keith, Tsubasa, Miura, Akun, and I went driving around the huge Lake of Inawashiro. We stopped and fed ducks with the other Japanese tourists. It was an amazing site to see a couple hundred ducks huddled together trying to get bread from the people. We even were able to feed them out of our hands. Don't worry, no one was bit. The most amusing part was giving one duck a huge chunk of bread because it could not eat it quickly. As a result, all the other ducks would attack it trying to get the bread from its mouth. We also saw a handicapped duck with only one leg. It seemed to get picked on a lot and wasn't able to eat much. So the 6 of us fed the handicapped duck and huddled around it so that the other ducks couldn't eat its bread.
We then continued to drive around the lake to find out that the road didn't actually go around the lake. But in the distance we saw a huge Buddha, so we drove up and stopped to take a look. It turns out that it was a 57 meter statue of Mama Buddha holding baby Buddha when he was born. So once again a familiar song popped into by head about Big Mama Buddha. We went inside and climbed up to the top to see out of the window. It was a beautiful view as it was a pretty clear day and snow on the mountains surrounding us. Looking at the Buddha made me remember once again of the Israelites placing their statues on the highest places so that you could see them from far away. Well, this one looked over a city in the flat land in the mountains. It is amazing to me to be able to go with students as most of them respect it but show no signs of worship. To them it is something of the culture but not necessarily something they truly believe.
We then had dinner and played some indoor soccer on Saturday night. On Sunday morning we played Dodgeball, Japanese style, to wrap up the tournament. Sadly, we weren't able to play outdoor soccer, softball, or our final relay race because of the snow. In the end it was a fun weekend and a great experience with some of the students.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Deer Season
As I type this post, it is about 40 minutes into daylight of opening day of gun season in Wisconsin. Most people ask the question, "What will you miss about home while you are in Japan?" Maybe, the number one answer is deer season. Over the past day I have been telling students all about deer season.
I went down to Tsukuba today with my roommate, Yoichi, and Mori and E-chan. On the way back home, I kept telling them what would be happening right now at the farm. Examples: 1) Right now, Tom, my stepdad is probably up making coffee and fueling the fire while everyone else sleeps for another 40 minutes. 2) Everyone is probably up right now since it is opening morning and starting to drink coffee and eat breakfast. 3) Right now, the people that either have a far away stand or those who need to go on top of the hill are leaving the house. In fact, they are probably on the hill driving up to the top right now. 4) Hey Keiichi, guess what? Right now, is the first 5 minutes of light for deer season. You can probably hear the first shots being taken in the distance.
Things like this make me realize how much I miss deer camp and things like this either frighten the students or make them interested. I love telling deer stories. They are always amazed that we butcher the deer ourselves. Good luck to the crew hunting this year. I miss you guys and gals and hope you have a record year even though the Skyscraper will sadly sit empty.
A few memories of the past.
I went down to Tsukuba today with my roommate, Yoichi, and Mori and E-chan. On the way back home, I kept telling them what would be happening right now at the farm. Examples: 1) Right now, Tom, my stepdad is probably up making coffee and fueling the fire while everyone else sleeps for another 40 minutes. 2) Everyone is probably up right now since it is opening morning and starting to drink coffee and eat breakfast. 3) Right now, the people that either have a far away stand or those who need to go on top of the hill are leaving the house. In fact, they are probably on the hill driving up to the top right now. 4) Hey Keiichi, guess what? Right now, is the first 5 minutes of light for deer season. You can probably hear the first shots being taken in the distance.
Things like this make me realize how much I miss deer camp and things like this either frighten the students or make them interested. I love telling deer stories. They are always amazed that we butcher the deer ourselves. Good luck to the crew hunting this year. I miss you guys and gals and hope you have a record year even though the Skyscraper will sadly sit empty.
A few memories of the past.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
The Need for Laborers
As I was sitting in the cafeteria this morning, I was reminded about the need for laborers to share the good news about Christ in Japan. As each person walked past the window outside, I thought to myself, "Will they every hear the good news about Christ and if they do will they ever come to an understanding of the gospel to believe?" A couple weeks ago I was riding my bike and as I pasted by each house I thought, "The family in this house has probably never heard about Christ." "They have probably never seen a Bible or even thought about studying the Bible."
I tell people I live in a smaller city in Japan. Well, compared to Tokyo it is a small city of 450,000 people. According to the Joshua Project for 2007, they estimate that 1.5% of Japanese are adherent to the gospel. In the city of Utsunomiya, if you knew 200 people there might be the possibility that 3 of them are Christians.
There is a great need for laborers in Japan and this weekend we are having our Young Laborers Conference. Believing staff and students will be joining together from the different campuses for this upcoming Friday through Sunday. This is a time where the believing students from around Japan can come and encourage each other and learn from God's Word together.
Please pray that this will be an uplifting time for the believers as some of them have graduated and live in the work world and are struggling with having the time to grow closer to God as the demands of work are far higher than in America.
Please pray also for future laborers to be brought forth. When Christ looked upon the crowd he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." Please join us in this prayer.
ONE other thing. Please visit the website http://summerimpactjapan.com
There is a video that was made by the staff in Tokyo about Japan and the need which can be found at the bottom of the website. I would love for youth groups and college ministries to see this video and to spread the word about the need in Japan.
I tell people I live in a smaller city in Japan. Well, compared to Tokyo it is a small city of 450,000 people. According to the Joshua Project for 2007, they estimate that 1.5% of Japanese are adherent to the gospel. In the city of Utsunomiya, if you knew 200 people there might be the possibility that 3 of them are Christians.
There is a great need for laborers in Japan and this weekend we are having our Young Laborers Conference. Believing staff and students will be joining together from the different campuses for this upcoming Friday through Sunday. This is a time where the believing students from around Japan can come and encourage each other and learn from God's Word together.
Please pray that this will be an uplifting time for the believers as some of them have graduated and live in the work world and are struggling with having the time to grow closer to God as the demands of work are far higher than in America.
Please pray also for future laborers to be brought forth. When Christ looked upon the crowd he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." Please join us in this prayer.
ONE other thing. Please visit the website http://summerimpactjapan.com
There is a video that was made by the staff in Tokyo about Japan and the need which can be found at the bottom of the website. I would love for youth groups and college ministries to see this video and to spread the word about the need in Japan.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
PS - New link for Videos
On the right you can see my link for Pictures and now for videos. I am using the website Godtube.com for my videos because they are very protective about what gets on the website and every video is watched before entering the site. This way I feel a lot better about recommending you to watch my videos without the possibility of coming across inappropriate material.
Happy Halloween or Hallow's Eve
I teach English class on Tuesday nights in downtown Utsunomiya to around 20 adults. I thought I would make this week a bit more fun since Halloween was the next day and dress up for class. I mentioned it to the students and a couple of them said they would dress up also. Well, sadly, they didn't but I still did. I found a wonderful Santa costume which was way to small for me but I was able to make it work. Below is a picture of Tomo and I.
One thing I enjoy is making people laugh and have a good time. It was very funny to see the smiles and compliments I received from the office workers in the building and from the students in the class because a Japanese person would probably never have done what I did. One of the students requests was for me to teach them about the origin of Halloween and what Halloween is like in America. After researching I learned some fascinating things about Halloween and the Jack O'Lantern and had a wonderful time trying to explain it in English. As part of the class we decided we would have a Halloween party afterwards and go to Karaoke. So during class I taught them the Monster Mash. We listened to the song and then read the lyrics and I explained what they meant. I thought if they had any Halloween songs in Karaoke, they would probably have this one. Sadly, they didn't but we had a wonderful time with the Santa costume and eating candy while we sang.
One thing I enjoy is making people laugh and have a good time. It was very funny to see the smiles and compliments I received from the office workers in the building and from the students in the class because a Japanese person would probably never have done what I did. One of the students requests was for me to teach them about the origin of Halloween and what Halloween is like in America. After researching I learned some fascinating things about Halloween and the Jack O'Lantern and had a wonderful time trying to explain it in English. As part of the class we decided we would have a Halloween party afterwards and go to Karaoke. So during class I taught them the Monster Mash. We listened to the song and then read the lyrics and I explained what they meant. I thought if they had any Halloween songs in Karaoke, they would probably have this one. Sadly, they didn't but we had a wonderful time with the Santa costume and eating candy while we sang.
Winter in Japan?
Since coming back from the States on our trip, I have learned a lot about Japan and ministry. One thing that I have learned about Japan is....it actually gets cold here! My previous times in coming to Japan have been the months of June and July. I arrived this time in the middle of May and returned to America for our trip in September. Since coming back in October we had a couple weeks that were rather cool but the last few days have warmed back up.
Let me set the scene for you. I live in a house that has one air conditioner in one room which broke during August. Well, turns out houses don't only have central air but they don't have central heating. I never thought about this until I started waking up in the mornings cold and would have to wear slippers and a sweatshirt to stay warm. My room is also a corner room of the house. Two walls face the outside and the one wall is single pane glass on two sliding doors to go outside. The third wall is the entry way which doesn't stay warm because the door is always opened and their is no insulation on the door as their are many little gaps where you can see outside. My fourth wall is the staircase. I soon started thinking, what do they use for heat in the winter. My first thought was electric heaters but I soon found out they use kerosene gas heaters. Using electric heaters is too expensive. Since I have asked, I have heard some horror stories about safety in using a kerosene heater. A slight adjustment from central heating.
Then my mode of transportation is bicycle. Most people I know stop riding their bikes in the winter and start driving. Well, that doesn't happen here so much. Everyone still uses their bikes throughout the winter for transportation. So I need to learn how to stay warm on a bicycle as it becomes colder and one of the keys is layers. Japanese dress in layers. Even during summer they always have at least two shirts on at one time. Now in the winter they start to wear more. My first reaction was, why don't they just wear one big sweater? I soon found the reason. Depending on where you go depends on the temperature inside. So, nice restuarants and shopping places have central heating but if you go to houses some can be warm and others freezing cold. If you took my advice, you where one big sweater on your bicycle to stay warm but you end up in a building with heat which you then end up sweating in because it is so hot. It is a nice system wearing the layers, because if you get hot take one shirt off, if cold, put one shirt on.
One special treat is that they always wear scarfs. Thanks to a couple nice friends of mine I have a wonderful bright orange scarf to wear on the cold days.
If you come to Japan in the winter, here is some advice. Wear layers, bring a scarf, bring warm slippers, and be ready to haul a kerosene heater with you from room to room in the house.
Let me set the scene for you. I live in a house that has one air conditioner in one room which broke during August. Well, turns out houses don't only have central air but they don't have central heating. I never thought about this until I started waking up in the mornings cold and would have to wear slippers and a sweatshirt to stay warm. My room is also a corner room of the house. Two walls face the outside and the one wall is single pane glass on two sliding doors to go outside. The third wall is the entry way which doesn't stay warm because the door is always opened and their is no insulation on the door as their are many little gaps where you can see outside. My fourth wall is the staircase. I soon started thinking, what do they use for heat in the winter. My first thought was electric heaters but I soon found out they use kerosene gas heaters. Using electric heaters is too expensive. Since I have asked, I have heard some horror stories about safety in using a kerosene heater. A slight adjustment from central heating.
Then my mode of transportation is bicycle. Most people I know stop riding their bikes in the winter and start driving. Well, that doesn't happen here so much. Everyone still uses their bikes throughout the winter for transportation. So I need to learn how to stay warm on a bicycle as it becomes colder and one of the keys is layers. Japanese dress in layers. Even during summer they always have at least two shirts on at one time. Now in the winter they start to wear more. My first reaction was, why don't they just wear one big sweater? I soon found the reason. Depending on where you go depends on the temperature inside. So, nice restuarants and shopping places have central heating but if you go to houses some can be warm and others freezing cold. If you took my advice, you where one big sweater on your bicycle to stay warm but you end up in a building with heat which you then end up sweating in because it is so hot. It is a nice system wearing the layers, because if you get hot take one shirt off, if cold, put one shirt on.
One special treat is that they always wear scarfs. Thanks to a couple nice friends of mine I have a wonderful bright orange scarf to wear on the cold days.
If you come to Japan in the winter, here is some advice. Wear layers, bring a scarf, bring warm slippers, and be ready to haul a kerosene heater with you from room to room in the house.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
America Trip Pictures
I am still alive for those of you wondering. I have updated my pictures with some from the America trip. I thought you didn't want to see all 5,800 pictures taken by students so I posted about 150 to help summarize our trip. I hope to have an email update sent out in the next couple days as a lot has happened and there has been a lot of praising since we have returned.
Quick summary of the biggest highlight: Mori has accepted Christ as his Savior and Lord and it is encouraging to see Christ become his Lord more and more each day in his life. Look forward to the email update to find out more about his story and if you don't get my email updates let me know and I can add you to my list. Thank you all for your support and encouragement.
Quick summary of the biggest highlight: Mori has accepted Christ as his Savior and Lord and it is encouraging to see Christ become his Lord more and more each day in his life. Look forward to the email update to find out more about his story and if you don't get my email updates let me know and I can add you to my list. Thank you all for your support and encouragement.
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