I gave up on blogging this month; my posts get 23 hits on average and that wasn’t worth forcing myself to put words on a page. I’ve loved Japan but haven’t had any particularly interesting thoughts about it.
But tonight(10:34am at home) I can’t sleep and decided that all my little thoughts could add up to a big enough thought to make a whole post, so here’s something for those faithful 23 people to read.
-This month our ministry has looked really different from any other. And it was always different each day, but not like Peru where I loved the constant change. Each week a pair of us would help teach in the preschool, while the other five on our team plus all of team Kairos would hang out with the kids’ moms. Some of them were believers and some were what our contact calls “pre-Christians.” (I love that term; it’s so much more positive than just saying “non-believers”) We never knew from one day to the next what that would entail; some days we’d have Bible study, which we loved, other days we’d learn how to make organic foods or tour a local public school, which made us wonder what possible purpose we were serving. But it always made them so happy to spend time with us, no matter what we were doing.
Not all ministry has to be practical. Sometimes laughing with a group of women as they teach you how to put on a kimono is the best way to show them love.
-We’re all split up in pairs staying with host families. It’s a little sad because I miss the rest of my team who I barely see(I’ve been a very lonely extrovert this month), but I mostly love it because our house is on an island and we walk through this park full of fall-colored trees to get to ministry and our mom is really sweet and speaks decent English and we have a BATHTUB. I’ve gotten a better taste of the culture here than in any other country since I actually live in it.
-Roasted acorns are delicious. Octopus dough is not. Neither are fermented soybeans. This has been my favorite month as far as food; my host mom hasn’t made a single meal I didn’t like. My squad is so proud of me.
-I was more present this month than I thought I was. I know because 1)it went by super slow, and time slows down when I’m not distracted, and B) I literally forgot we were going to a new place after this, and I usually start asking my team leader about our next ministry over a week before we go there.
-I still miss Ecuador. Not to the point where I’m depressed and distracted and don’t want to go to ministry or talk to anyone(like the first week of Colombia), but I do miss it. Every day. I want to live there.
-Japanese dads are really different than anywhere else. It’s really common for them to live in bigger cities to work while the mom and kids live in a smaller area, and come home to vist a couple times a month. Men are expected to provide for their families and be successful no matter what it takes, and “providing” doesn’t mean meeting their most basic needs; it means making sure they can go to good private schools and live in fancy apartments. When we learned this at our orientation, I got the idea that all the dads are distant workaholics. But that wasn’t the case in our host home. Their dad visited one weekend while we were here, and within ten minutes of meeting him I could tell he loved his family and hated being away from them. The more he told us about his job and how they’d tried to find ways for them to all live together, the more sad it made me. No wonder suicide is the leading cause of death for men; society tells them that working is the most important thing in the world, when all they want to do is be with the people they love.
-No matter what culture you’re in, the look in a new believer’s eyes is the same. And it’s the most beautiful thing in the world everywhere. One of our moms came to Jesus after our Bible study last week, and the contrast between all the World Racers on one side of the table and all the Japanese women on the other was so funny; we were all crying and laughing and hugging each other(because people aren’t huggers in Japan, so we couldn’t hug Yuki herself), while the others were smiling but still sitting calmly. We could tell everyone in the room was just as excited, just expressing it in different ways, and I loved it.
It’s now 2am(noon at home) and I’m finally feeling like sleeping. I’ve run out of thoughts.
If you comment and ask me things you want to hear about, I’ll be much more likely to blog more often.
Finally: I’m $3659 away from being fully funded and my final deadline is only four weeks away! PLEASE share my blog on Facebook and ask your friends to give whatever they can(this is where most of my donations have come from, so you know it really helps) Click the “support me” link if you want to give; it’s tax-deductible! You’re helping yourself by helping me. 😉
