Two Months Later

A brief summary of the past two months: Summer School went well, Tokyo was awesome, Laura left, I went a little crazy but God helped me find my marbles again, and I've settled into the everyday life of ministry in Japan.

I'll post a little later with a more detailed summary, and some pictures. :)

Four Weeks In

Sorry I haven't been updating lately. Apparently, people actually read this here blog.

Last week we had English Summer Camp. It went really well. We had 20 kids the first day, and 10 or so the second day. We had four chapel times and two English lessons. It was challenging at first; I was teaching the more advanced class, which ranged anywhere from kindergarteners to 5th graders. My first lesson was too simple for the older kids, but for my second lesson I arrived at something sufficiently challenging to keep them interested: verb tenses. Evil things, those.

The theme of camp was, "Honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself." (Matt. 19:19) We couldn't think of a good children's song that illustrated that point, so I pretty much wrote a new one based on the song that goes, "Love, love, love, love, the gospel in a word is love," and so on. If you haven't heard it, it's surprisingly gloomy. So I kind of took that concept, switched the lyrics around, put it in a major key, gave it motions, and voila! Children's song.

This week is our first week of English Summer School. Every morning, we start out at 10 AM with a bunch of songs in English, then move on to a Bible story, an hour long English lesson, lunch, craft and/or game, and then free time until their mothers pick them up. So far it's been really fun. The kids are all beginner, so we're going over the alphabet and other basics. I love the kids we've had so far; they've been eager to learn.

On Wednesdays, we have summer school at a local park. It's hot, but fun. This park is huge; I think they said it was 3 square kilometers. It's got a huge indoor play area, with an air-conditioned room where we have our English lesson, then a small area where the kids can play in a shallow pool. There are outdoor playgrounds, rice fields, apple groves, and the occasional goat pen. It's fairly awesome. The kids love our park days, and we usually have the most kids at those days.

On weekends, Laura and I usually take the train to Utsunomiya to go shopping and maybe bump into the occasional other foreigner. This last Saturday we met an Irishman and a Frenchman who are here to teach English. It's interesting being a foreigner in Japan; it's like you're instantly part of some club. When you see each other, it's weird not to acknowledge one another's presence. There's this instant bond of, "We're both different from everybody else." It's nice, but some of the other foreigners we've met have been kind of creepy. I'm still holding out hope that I can make some other foreign friends while I'm here.

Anyway, we've got two more days of English Summer School this week, then we have next week off. We're going to stay at the home of some church members for the first part of the week, then on Wednesday, we're going to visit Tokyo! I'm excited. I'll let you know how all that goes.

Ta!

Language Stories

When the Swedish missionaries who founded this church thirty or forty years ago first came to Japan, they did not know Japanese, nor did they know any Japanese people. It took faith and courage, and God blessed their mission; the church they founded still stands, and is staffed entirely by Japanese nationals.

However, they had some linguistic difficulties. On one occasion, the Swedish missionary was riding the bus. Back then, when one was riding the bus, he had to call out to the driver to stop ("Oroshite, kudasai!") when they got to his destination. This missionary was riding the bus, and when they arrived at the destination, he hurriedly called out, "Koroshite, kudasai! Ima, koroshite!"

He was one letter off. Everyone on the bus was both surprised and frightened to hear this strange man shouting, "Kill me, please! Kill me now! Kill me right here!"

Two Weeks In

Today makes two weeks since Laura and I stepped off the plane. It feels like it's been longer.

When we first got here, I was surprised at how my proficiency level in Japanese had jumped. However, it soon became apparent that it is still woefully insufficient. I understand so little still, but I've learned a lot since I got here. I have to remind myself that it's only been two weeks. When I remind myself of that, I feel confident that my proficiency level will be enough to carry a decent conversation by the time December rolls around.

We've been teaching some private lessons here and there, but the real work begins next week. We'll have English Summer Camp, which is an overnight thing. I'll be teaching the more advanced students. We'll have fun, I think.

After Summer Camp will be English Summer School, for which I am also excited, although we've done very little planning for that as yet.

These past two weeks, God has been drilling me with the parable of the Unmerciful Servant. I have been struggling with impatience with my partner, Laura, because of her inexperience and temperamental differences. She's a more slow, steady, thoughtful type of person, and that's been something of an irritant to me. But God's been using that parable to change me and remind me that it's not fair for me to be so critical and unmerciful, and that He expects me to be more gracious than that. As soon as I told Laura I was having that struggle, the feelings of irritation and impatience dissipated.

Pray for us, that God would keep us healthy and peaceable and give us the creativity we need to teach well.

Albuquerque

Friday two weeks ago, Laura and I were talking about the possibility that she might not be able to go. The numbers were daunting, and not very hopeful. She still needed to raise about $1500 to be able to get to Japan.

That Sunday, we spoke in both services of First Christian up there in Albuquerque. And God did something amazing.

We expressed in the early service that Laura had this need, and, I kid you not, not five minutes after we sat down, a woman I don't even know came to us and handed Laura a check for $1500.

One thing I have been telling myself for months when the numbers just seemed too scary is this: There is no recession in God's economy. And what I told Laura when she was starting to freak out about the numbers was this: If God wants you there, He gets you there.

The transition is no longer as scary as it once was. God would not call me to something I could not handle with His help. We leave in three days.

Geronimo!

Oronogo

This weekend was my college graduation. I am now legit. It was good to see my friends from Ozark. It was a hard weekend of goodbyes, though.

Yesterday I went to Christ's Church of Oronogo in Missouri for the last time. It was really great to worship with my Joplin brothers and sisters one last time, even if most of them had left already. I am going to miss the services at this church intensely. That is one thing I have been keenly conscious of for these past few months: I will not be able to go to services in my heart language. Being in Japan and going to Japanese services will be rewarding and I feel so blessed that God has called me to be part of what He is doing in Japan, but I really will miss Oronogo's services and preaching.

After that I went to present at the mission's meeting for the church. I felt so privileged to be there, because several other missionaries were also there presenting, and three were from Mustard Seed Global Fellowship, which is an organization that involves quite a few of my friends and co-graduates from Ozark. They started Mustard Seed Christian Church in Nagoya, Japan, and God is really blessing their efforts over there. Keep them in your prayers.

I got a chance to talk to my friend Joel, who is considering doing a year internship with Mustard Seed. Please pray for him and his efforts in that regard. I also had the privilege of hearing Kenroy Clarke, a pastor from Barbados, speak about the work they are doing in Barbados, Guyana, and the work they are planning to do in Haiti. And I got a chance to speak with some missionaries who had been in China for a couple of years.

It was so refreshing and great to meet with all of these people who are passionate about the same thing I am passionate about, and I am so glad I was able to go to that meeting, because it got me really amped up about what God is doing in Japan. I have a feeling God is getting ready to sweep through the nation. I really wish I could be part of what Mustard Seed is doing. I intend to visit their church in Nagoya while I'm in Japan. However, I am excited about where I'm going and what I'll be doing there.

Today I set out on a roadtrip up through the center of the midwest to visit friends and family. Pray for safe travel.

Also pray for my friend Josh, who is in Osaka right now on his first missions trip to Japan!

Pray for my partner Laura, that God would provide all of the funds she needs to go with me for the summer. I admit that part of my desire for her to go is selfish: her presence will help to make my transition into life in Japan a little smoother. But she's really excited to go and I'm really excited for her to have this new experience.

Returning

Here's the skinny: I'm going back. My tentative date of departure is July 8.

It's been quite a process, this preparation stage. I told JEMS I wanted to return almost as soon as I got back to the States. The church in Japan decided that they wanted me for 20 months. This is because the Japanese school year starts in April and ends in March, and if I went in July, that would have to be either 8 months or 20 months. 20 months a long time to be in another country, and it's been kind of a hard road being ok with that. My first instinct was to say no and opt to stay for only 8 months, but the more I thought and prayed about it, the more I realized that my entire life is God's, so how can I say, "You can only have x amount of my time?"

So for the past 10 months I've been working hard to make the time as worthwhile as possible. I've been studying Japanese at smart.fm (an excellent website which I highly recommend. Thank you, Josh!). When I went for my training in LA last week, the head of JEMS, Pastor Rick, said that he was really impressed with my Japanese, and to keep it up. I was quite pleased to hear that. I'm really hoping for fluency by the time I've been there a year. I know it's ambitious, considering how difficult Japanese is, but I've been learning so quickly that I think it's possible. Immersion is the best way to learn, and when I was there last summer, I was picking it up fast.

Please pray for me. Pray that God sends me some good friends while I'm in Japan this time. The ladies at the church were lovely, and I would definitely consider them and Yuji-san to be friends, but please pray that I can get into contact with some other foreigners while I'm there. I have a feeling there will be some unique support we can offer each other, being "strangers in a strange land" and all.

Also please pray for my friend Laura. She's hoping to come help out for the summer, and I'm really excited for her to come. Pray that God will provide the funds that both of us need to come.

If you're interested in helping to support us, contact me: annekwinters@gmail.com.

Arigatou!