An Open Letter To a Country I Didn’t Know Existed
Okay, this sounds kinda bad. Growing up in Canada I always thought China and Japan were the same. I had Japanese friends, I just never paid much attention to the cultural differences. Needless to say after going to China I wasn’t overly excited about Japan – I kinda felt like ‘we had been there done that’. Sounds kinda horrible eh?
Japan proved me wrong. Oh man did it prove me wrong. If you have never been to Japan, I HIGHLY recommend it. After our time in China, and Mongolia sleeping on a church floor, I settled on the fact I would never be physically clean until I returned to Canada.
Nope, wrong. Japan takes clean to a new level – I was very thankful. The streets are immaculate, bushes trimmed perfectly, the cars all shiny. Japan is known for its technology, and this is rightly so. My favourite piece of technology was the sushi train, with the robot car that shoots to your seat when you place an order on a screen at your table.
Our Collage of a Ministry
Our ministry last month was a mix of a many areas. We taught English at several elementary schools, helped with after school programs, helped occasionally at the local Montessori Christian preschool, and ATL (Ask The Lord, seeing where/who God is leading us to talk to) for all the hours in between.
My favourite part of our month was definitely living with our two different host families. My squad leader Taylor and I got paired as roomies for the month. We first got to live with Emi, one of the teachers at the preschool. I learned a lot living with Emi. Like elsewhere in Asia, Christians in Japan are the minority; 1% of the population identifies with following Christ. Emi however is part of this 1%. My favourite time of the day became sitting around the dinner table listening to her experiences with YWAM (Youth With A Mission), and how she lives out her faith in Japan. The second family we lived with, the Watanabe family was a bundle of energy and joy. With two boys, Haruma 5, and Shouma 2, we had our share of giggles and play time. We really enjoyed the conversations we were able to have with our host parents, Yasuyo and Tsunehisa. They asked about why we were on the race, and in turn we got to learn much of the Japanese culture from them… Such as making ‘Tako Yaki’ (octopus balls). WE LOVED BOTH OF OUR HOMESTAYS.
What Japan taught me
To be honest, Japan felt oddly like Canada or the States. Very comfortable, very first world. As a result of this comfort and living with our great host familiesy, I started to miss home. It felt like home, minus my family, friends, horse, and cozy fireplace.
This made me realize something else. I will always want to be somewhere, or strive to achieve ‘that thing’ or ‘this thing’. For me this has always been travelling. At home I would crave landing on an airplane in a new place or going on a awesome hike in foreign country. On the race I crave home and comfort. It will never be perfect, we may never have complete peace. But what I do know, is that where ever I am in the world, whatever I am doing, whomever I am talking to, my greatest peace, my true ‘happy place’ is God. The soft embrace that doesn’t make logical sense but is so tangible. The gust of wind that arrives at the perfect time. The unexplainable shivers spread like wild fire during prayer. There’s no better high. Praise God I know Him and for some crazy reason get to travel the world for Him and with Him.
