Rambling Notes from Japan
Here are some blog posts that we hope will make you feel a part of things, and help you understand how to pray better for us and Japan. Please see our external blog in Blogger, if this page does not display correctly.
Volunteering Once More in Miyako
September 14, 2013 11:24
| Activities, Earthquake, Tsunami
| Permalink
Clear blue ocean water laps gently ashore. Sun glints off gorgeous white rock formations and cliffs that enclose the bay. Sightseers laugh aboard the many boats exploring caves and shoreline. This scenic sanctuary is panoramic eye candy. You can easily see why it is the pride of Miyako. In spite of its remote location, the beach attracts many people to an area that is otherwise just another set of fishing towns along the Iwate coastline.
Give Me this Mountain
August 8, 2013 11:56
| Activities, Hope, Missions
| Permalink
I’m taking another step
upward, steep and obscure though the path may be.
If I knew how hard it would be
back when we started out, I might never have tried at all! Whether church
planting in Japan, or mountain climbing in her Southern Alps, you have to be
just a little stubborn or crazy to attempt either. An overnight hike last
week with Justen was sort of a condensed metaphor for 15 years of work here:
hard, tiring, unsure at times, but glorious! What kept us moving up
Mount Kita is what keeps us moving forward in missions: envisioning that glorious destination.
Our father-son hike last year
was Mount Fuji. This year we decided to conquer Japan’s number two, all 11,000
feet of her. Given my level of fitness and expertise, I use the term “conquer”
very loosely. The truth is that Mt. Kita put us through some major pain. But
what glorious suffering it turned out to be!
At times it seemed that
everything around was encouraging our upward steps. Tree roots and stones
arranged themselves into natural staircases. Branches reached down to form
handrails. Stumps offered places to rest. A cool stream with waterfalls
acted as an air conditioner. And breathtaking vistas around every bend coaxed
the “wow” right out of us.
At other times (okay, the
majority of the time), we wondered if we’d make it. We doubted we might. We had
missed our bus to the trailhead and gotten a late start. Our equipment was
amateur grade at best. Our physical fitness was questionable (okay, just mine).
Wet rocks sent us skidding and slipping. Light drizzle sent us scrambling for
raingear. And then a cloudburst sent the temperatures down. We still had hours
to go and less and less daylight to fit it all in. Would we get lost, frozen,
dehydrated, attacked by animals? Why were there no more fellow hikers around?
Was this still the right path to follow? One begins to wonder.
What was particularly
discouraging, however, was that a view of our destination was shrouded by
mist and fog. Somewhere up in those clouds was the top. And on the top was a
mountain hut with our name in their reservation book. But where? How much
higher? We hadn’t seen a signpost in ages, and the relentlessly steep
path offered no clue as to how much further it might go on. We trudge
along, bone weary, wet and sore.
A Trip to the "Tree of Hope"
June 12, 2013 01:51
| Cross, Earthquake, Tohoku Earthquake
| Permalink
I’ve written before about the “Tree of Hope” in tsunami-struck Rikuzentaka, Japan. It’s official name is “The Miraculous Solitary Pine Tree.” Out of a glorious forest of some 70,000 Edo-era trees, this one alone survived the waves of 311. It was heralded as a miracle, a source of hope for a devastated country.
But 16 months later, despite the best preservation efforts, its roots finally succumbed to saltwater poisoning. So it was sawed down in sections. The wood was treated, the leaves coated with a synthetic resin, and a metal spine inserted down its trunk. The $1.5 million price tag for all this preservation work garnered a lot of criticism. Many felt the little city’s relief money might be better spent.
A ceremony for the restoration of the tree was held on March 10, 2013, a day before the 2nd anniversary of the 311 triple tragedy. Here, Yoshihisa Suzuki, president of the association for its preservation, said, “It’s returned at last. I’m convinced that the tree will cheer us up.”
A recent trip up in Tohoku took me close enough to Rikuzentakata to visit the memorial. Though I wasn’t quite sure of the location, it turned out to be hard to miss. The glint of the afternoon sun off the metallic skeleton led me to the spot from a distance. I pulled into a stone parking lot on the beach front and walked the kilometer or so to the base of the tree. A half dozen other onlookers stood nearby.
To be honest, I felt it difficult to be “cheered up” by the sight of the tree. The dead, lonely pine posed so artificially. The scaffolding holding it up as though it were a crippled patient in traction. The desolate, brown “moonlike” beach front. It all had the feeling of melancholy to me.
When Garbage Refuses to Die
May 7, 2013 06:10
| Culture Shock, recycle
| Permalink
The problem is a matter of simple physics. An unlimited amount of matter cannot occupy a limited amount of space at the same point in time. And our tiny Japanese home is, well, pretty limited! Like most Japanese houses, we have no basement, no attic, no garage, not even a large hall closet. Sending an unused item to storage limbo is simply not an option. But eventually things get used beyond usefulness. So we need to aggressively (and continually) sell, recycle, and throw away. And herein lies the greater problem. Sometimes things just refuse to leave you.
After my "generous" offers of such gently used items are rejected by friends, I turn to the local recycle shop for hope. Now, my castoffs are generally of such a pathetic nature that the recycle shop only takes on my case pro bono...out of pity...and perhaps a little amusement. I must say, though, that they are very gracious. And I've appreciated their mission of mercy. But I may have exceeded my limit. These days they want original packaging, instruction manuals, dent-free and scratch-free quality, and (of all the nerve) they want for the item to actually work as it was intended! My humble offerings are rarely up to that kind of scrutiny. And the clerks, in the gentlest Japanese way possible, have apologetically asked me to take the item back when I leave.
Her Season Changer
"I am not a Christian. I do not plan on becoming a Christian. I just want to hear [the] words of God, pray and sing a hymn."Those were her exact words to me...in English. God, however, had a different, better plan for Mrs. E, a changing of the seasons of her heart.
The first time she ever set foot in a church was her visit with us in the fall of 2011. If she was nervous about things, you wouldn't have known it. During the announcements when I invited her to simply give her name, she held the microphone and boldly stated that she felt pushed by God the right way to attend church. Sure enough, she came back the next Sunday. It happened to be a Sunday when a guest speaker gave a clear evangelistic message. It was too much for her to process all at once. We weren’t pushy, but somehow she felt pushed again, in the wrong way. That’s when she shared with me her honest thoughts above. Then she stopped attending services.
The Cross in the Tragedy
April 1, 2013 03:33
| 311 Book, Devotional, Tohoku Earthquake
| Permalink
Take two weeks for Japan, spending just 10 minutes a day to read each chapter and pray! This is my best effort to share with you our experiences from the March 11, 2011 triple tragedy in Japan, and to look at them through a spiritual lens to see what God what want us to know.
Singing a Sojourner's Song
March 23, 2013 09:32
| Culture Shock, Devotional, Re-entry shock
| Permalink
Buddy Greene said it best in song: "I don't belong. I'm a foreigner here just singing a sojourner's song. I've always known. This place ain't home. And I don't belong."
It didn't used to be that way. Up until we left for Japan in 1999, I was decidedly American in my outlook, cultural identity and sensibilities. But things change when you remove yourself from that cultural milieu for any long stretch of time. Things no longer look the same when you return to them. You're different. People are different. The environment and culture are different. And you sense a lack of fit with a people and places you really were eager to call home again. That's disappointing, surprising and frustrating all at once.
Two Years Later -- Hope in Christ Alone
March 11, 2013 12:57
| Tohoku Earthquake
| Permalink
What about the next big quake? Don't tell my mother this, but the respected Tokyo University Earthquake Research Institute reported there's a 70% chance that a 7.0-magnitude or higher quake will strike Japan's capital by 2016. Such an event, the scientists said, could mean a death toll of up to 11,000 people and $1 trillion in damages!
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We serve with WorldVenture, an evangelical faith mission. Our sending/home church is Cornerstone Church of Lansing, Illinois.