Food: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Just one of the treats waiting at the grocery store.

Some ate this plain. I declined. But it made good soup!

Another treat. Even Mari said this was gross.

It turns out that I wasn't supposed to take pictures here. Heh heh.

Fruit here is awesome!! But so expensive. The grapes at the end are about $8 per bunch.

Oh so tasty. The skin is thick, so you either peel them or just suck out the inside.

My morning friend

Shaved ice with sweet bean topping. Sounds weird. Tastes good.

This is one of the many forms of gelatin found here.

  

Sushi rice with egg, fish eggs and seaweed. Tofu salad.

The fish eggs are the little round orange things.

The Emperor's Palace and Asakusa

Anyone hungry for some beaf?!?!

THE EMPEROR'S PALACE

We didn't get to go in because it was closed today, but these are some perimeter buildings.

Watch Tower for the Palace

ASAKUSA

There are so many wonderful things about Japanese culture and society, but their idolatrous history is one aspect that makes me both sad and jealous that they would know the one true God who loves them.

The outer building of the temple at Asakusa.

The red thing is a big lamp.

The underside of the big red lamp.

Close-up of one of the idols. Not a pretty sight.

View from inside the main building.

These bars are where people throw money and pray. 

I wonder how much money this temple makes daily. Whoever thought of the idea of having people pay to have their prayers answered must have been a ridiculously wealthy person.

Coin toss.

Ceiling art in the main building above the coin toss.

And this is a different kind of coin toss: a covered street with shops on either side. 

This area is either just outside or on the temple grounds. 

I happily participated.   :-)

Coin toss. :)

Ren-chan is a really sweet and funny Christian sister who offered to take us around Tokyo. 

I'm so thankful! It was such a fun day!

Ren-chan and me.

Mt Fuji

White box says "You are here"

Yes! I have officially visited Japan! Yesterday we hiked on Mt Fuji and today we visited the Emperor's Palace (which was closed - so we just kind of walked around it) and also a famous shrine in Tokyo called Asakusa. It's a major touristy place. There were all sorts of foreign people there. I can't get this blogger to format the way I want it, so I'll have to post the Emperor's Palace separately.

I'll also update more about things that God is doing later. For now, enjoy the pictures!

Mari and her mother Junko ("June-koh")

Abandoned Shelter

Me, Mari, and her brother Chishio ("Chee-Shee-Oh")

At this point you need real climbing gear, so it's as far as we got. It is the 6th Step out of 10, which is the top.

Mt Fuji is traditionally a sacred mountain, so there are shrines and various other religious things to be found.

Here you see the roof of a Shinto shrine built in Chinese style by a Japanese monk.

What a clear day!!!

What a day!

Wow. I`m exhausted.
Today we:
*Visited an old friend - Nanako - had lunch with her and went to an afternoon church service. Worship was hyper with lots of lights and drums in the basement of a building. It wore me out. But it was good to spend time with Nanako.
*Went to an outdoor festival where Mari`s dad sang with a Japanese Gospel choir. It was awesome! The leader of the choir was not a christian when she started the group, but through her interest in gospel music, she heard the Good News and gave her life to Jesus. They sing all the songs in English and in Japanese and she is not shy at all about joyfully sharing the Gospel during the concert. It was great! Half of the choir members are not Christians.
*Visited a couple who pastor a church in their apartment and people generally hang out there all day, so we met up with them for dinner. It was really refreshing. I was so tired from the heat, the train rides and the afternoon church service. We had a great time talking, laughing, sharing testimonies - it was just what I needed. One Korean couple in particular were a blessing because you could see the love of God in them. The pastor invited me to speak at one of their meetings in September. I would love to share whatever God gives me if there`s opportunity. Please pray for this.

This week I taught a bible study for three women from Mari`s parents` church. The bible study was about seeking God in secret and what it means that He will reward us openly. They came to Mari`s house at 11am. None of us knew each other very well at all. Even though they go to the same church, they didn`t know each other closely. We talked a while, ate fajitas with Mari`s family (which was really fun), studied the bible, and then prayed for each other.
After we prayed for each other, they all loosened up. One woman confessed a particular area that she`s been struggling with. I talked to her about "going boldly before the throne of grace" - I encouraged her to fully express her situation to God. I also told her how God helped me overcome the same thing. We prayed for her, and she prayed with tears streaming down her face, and God showed up.
After that, they started talking about how much they want fellowship like this on a regular basis. This is my heart`s greatest desire for Japan!!! So I talked to them about how simple it is. It didn`t take much to enourage them because they were so hungry for it. "All it takes is one person saying `Hey, you want to come over to my house and pray for each other?`" If any one of those women does that, I`m sure that Jesus will be happy to join them. Please pray for these sisters that they`ll get the deep fellowship that they`re thirsty for.

That`s a quick update for now. Like I said before, I`m exhausted.

:-)

Grace`s Testimony

Grace`s testimony is really about her mother.
Her mother married when she was 18. In Kenya, children are very important. After 1 year people start asking. "So? Where`s the baby?" After 2 years, if the woman has not conceived, then the husband can take a second wife. Grace`s mother was barren for 10 years.
As a woman of faith, she refused to try any alternative methods, which all included some sort of witchcraft. her family pressured her. Her husband`s family pressured her. But her testimony was this: if you trust in God you don`t help Him. You either trust God or you don`t. For 10 years she was persecuted and rejected by both sides of the family. After waiting for 9 years to take a second wife, her husband`s sisters brought a wife to him and he took her and she conceived a son.
At the same time, after such a long time, Grace`s mother conceived a son. One year after her first child was born, she bore a second son. Then, every two years she had a child until her house was filled with 10 children! Now the whole village talks about what God has done for her.
When God opened her womb, He showed her in visions that her children would be very bright and she told God that she would send them all to school. Many in Kenya don`t go to school past the 8th grade because it is expensive. To send 10 children through high school and college would take a very wealthy family. On a teacher`s salary and with great faith Grace`s mother has succeeded in doing what she told God she would do.
When it was time for Grace to go to college, she thought that she had the money coming from a particular source. At the last minute, the plan collapsed and she had no money to enter. You must have the money the day you attend class. If you miss class the first day, you have to wait until next year. Grace came to her mother in tears. "Stop crying. God will provide." Her mother started going door to door, asking neighbors and telling them the situation. I don`t know if Grace was able to go to school that year or not, but her mother`s response is what really stayed with her. Grace is now working on her PhD at Niigata University - her focus is lukemia research.
Grace said that her mother talks about God constantly. You can`t stop her from sharing the Gospel, and at home she diligently spends time worshiping God and praying. When she introduces herself she says "Hello. My name is Beatrice. I am a born again Christian. I love God." Her children jokingly say that it is part of her name.

This whole testimony was shared over dinner with Sayaka`s non-believing parents sitting at the table with us. They were enthralled by her story and were asking questions about Kenya and how her mother is doing now. We had really good conversation. After that we sang worship songs and Sayaka`s parents were clapping and smiling. I posted pictures on a previous blog post. We had a great time together. I know that God was working in Sayaka`s parents. Pray for them! The dad`s name is Kyoshi and the mom`s name is Masako.

Yuriko`s House

Some of this will be a repeat of the email I sent out...

Last weekend I went to Yuriko`s house in Kanagawa, which is a suburb in the larger Tokyo area. Yuriko lived in Denton for 12 years before returning just two years ago. I was so excited to see her again! Her entire family are Christians, so it`s always a blessing to stay in their home.
On Saturday night we met with other Japanese Christians who lived in the Dallas area: Yuriko, Yuko, Tai, Mari and Sayaka along with Yuriko`s sister Michiko and me. Each one talked about what God has been doing in their life over the last two years. There were really great testimonies and we were all encouraged. It was a great way to start our weekend together.

Sunday morning we met for worship and Jesus decided to come and join us. The presence of God was there. After we sang and worshiped, people shared what the Holy Spirit had given them. Each person had something to offer. Their hearts yearn for this kind of intimate fellowship with God and His People. Pray that God would establish this more and more.

We basically spent the whole day talking about the Kingdom of God - either reading the scriptures, praying for some need, or just talking. It was a very relaxing day.

The next day - Monday - we had breakfast and again sat and talked for a long time. As we talked, my friends started talking about the problems in Japan and how hard it is to live there: idol worship and ancestor worship, work culture, social pressure, depression, and even the lack of minerals in  food. The whole thing was really depressing. The thought came to my mind; the people who Paul was writing to were in the same situation. They were a relatively small group of people living in an intensley idolatrous nation. Even from within the church, they had Jewish believers pressuring them to follow the law and be circumcised. Talk about pressure!! But Paul didn`t preach compromise to these people. He preached an overcoming life through faith in Jesus Christ. As I spoke, my spirit grew more and more zealous. "You`ve got to live by faith. You cannot walk by what you see. God has victory for you that you`ve never seen before. You`ve got to walk into it by faith." At first there was some resistance; "Foreigners can`t understand the pressure that we feel because it`s unspoken." Right - that`s part of the definition of social pressure. I don`t know the full details of pressure they feel, but nevertheless, God has victory and freedom from every pressure there is. The children of God must walk in freedom and the only way to do it is by faith. I felt like I was resisting the devil, tearing down false hopes, and fighting to reestablish their faith in the scriptures and in the power of God. I went on until the resistance was gone and their hearts had hope and faith built up in them.

The rest of the day we practiced music, Tai and I went on a small YouTube excursion showing each other cool music stuff, Yuriko gave Mari a bunch of clothes. We just hung out until the evening when it was time to leave. We`re now back at Mari`s house (no wi-fi) and will be here for the week. Bible study is planned for this evening. :-)

More later,

~Jayne

People

We had lunch on Tuesday with 3 girls who had never heard the Gospel or any testimonies of people being changed by Jesus. Mari was able to share her testimony, and she really went for it. She told all the details of her story and fully preached Jesus as the only One who can forgive sins and make us clean. It was easy to talk to them - there was no tension or uneasiness at all while Mari was talking. We spent a log time together even though it was the first time for any of us to meet each other. We were all strangers before then.

Left to Right: Chiaki, Sachio, Me, Kazuyo, Mari

We visited a pear garden that is owned by an elderly couple with a Christian daughter who has been living there and helping them for the last 10 years. Every year she hosts an outdoor lunch for about 100-150 people and invites Arthur Holland to come and preach the Gospel. The lunch is held in the pear garden under the canopy of branches. I'll go to this year's lunch if I'm able to. We were able to pray with her and I encouraged her to keep meeting with God daily.

Shoko in her garden

This picture is awful. It was so hot that day and we all look tired, but this is the only picture I have of these girls. The girl on the left is the girl I mentioned in previous posts. This is the group that met for bible study when I taught on ministry to the Lord and to our neighbor. The girl in the middle came on Monday and again for this bible study. She loves God and is hungry for the truth. The girl on the right is not a Christian but wants to study the bible and seems to be seeking a relationship with God.

Mari, Mihiro

Mihiro is a Christian who lives in Tokyo, but traveled up to the Niigata area to spend time with us. She was a Moony for a while, but eventually started seeking out a Christian church, mostly because she likes Gospel music. While her experience with the Moonies wasn't good, she's thankful for it because through it she believed in God, even though they teach that Jesus wasn't raised from the dead. She's pretty shy, so I wasn't able to get more details than that. While she's shy and hesitant to openly say what she thinks, when we started reading the bible together, she had solid, simple, heart-level understanding of the scriptures. She has more strength than she knows.

Gisenia, Grace, Me

Niigata University has one of the best medical research campuses in all of Japan. They have a scholarship program to bring students from all over the world, and these girls are part of that program. Gisenia from Nicaragua is studying orthodontics - particularly working on children that had surgery for a cleft palette. She is researching tooth movement. Grace is from Kenya and is researching lukemia. She comes from a strong Christian family - her testimony is astounding. It deserves it's own blog post. In the second picture is a Chinese girl who's Japanese name is Shue. She is doing research on stem cells. All of these girls really love Jesus. We had instant fellowship together and even Sayaka's parents, who don't believe, were intricately involved in our conversation. God really blessed our time together. After a late lunch, Sayaka's mother wanted to hear me play guitar, so we all sang a few songs together and I played. We were facing Sayaka's parents as if it were a performance, but the Presence of God was there and her parents were clapping along with the music happily as we worshiped together.

Shue, Sayaka, Mari

Wi-Fi at last!!!

Despite the occasional weirdness (jellyfish ice cream), I LOVE JAPANESE FOOD!!

Breakfast at the Yamamoto house is awesome!!
Eggs, pears, peaches, pancake, tomatoes, cucumber, and edamame (soy beans).

Sayaka, on the left, has done an incredible job at setting up as many ministry opportunities as possible. We've met so many people! These are the mountains I mentioned in a previous post.

The Lord is Our Helper

Hi all,
Just a quick update:

I had mentioned before that there was a girl who seemed very injured and I didn`t know how to help her. Well, I taught bible study on ministry - our primary ministry being to the Lord and then to our neighbor. I read from Luke about the Good Samaritan and encouraged all of us to simply meet the needs in the people that we have around us our of love and service, and God will increase our faith and realm of influence for the Kingdom`s sake. Be faithful in little and we will be faithful in much. While that was my overall emphasis, I started by emphasizing our ministry to the Lord. I said "If you are in a situation where you don`t see needs around you, then just minister to Jesus. Spend time worshiping Him and giving thanks - offering yourself to Him." I talked about Paul being alone - discipled by Jesus - for 14 years before he finally met the other apostles.
The girl that I had mentioned said later that she expected me to say something like "If you are in a situation where you don`t see needs around you, then something is wrong with your walk with God. You need to do this and that and another thing." So when I said to just minister to the Lord, she was surprised in a good way. Perhaps a door for the Lord was opened at that moment.
Apparently, her Christian life began in a very legalistic setting. She now expects bible study to be a list of do`s and don`ts rather than a strengthening time of discovering God`s character, how this was revealed in Christ, and how Christ`s character can be revealed in us. She has struggled a lot with illness, both physical and mental, and has been bedridden for long periods of time. I can only imagine what a relief it could have been to know that she can minister to Jesus when she is alone in her house, unable to get out of bed.
That being said, this girl is actually very active in serving however she can, despite bouts with illness. Her name is Megumi. Pray for her and her family. She and her mother are Christians but her sister does not know Jesus and is in a mental hospital right now, but I think all three women need help.

Kamo City

This post begins with a cheesy story. :)

After I graduated high school, 3 of my closest friends and I took a road trip to Florida to visit Disney World for a few days. At that time, I was yearning for God but didn`t really know Him. One of the exhibits there was a large circular room with a television screen that lined the top portion of entire room and they played videos that talked about different parts of the world, but to see the whole view you had to make a 360 degree turn. One portion of the video showed low green mountains, covered in forest, shadowed in mist. It was Japan. I said in my heart "God, I want to go to Japan."

My last two trips to Japan, I have not seen green mountains, and I wasn`t looking for them, either, since I had forgotten about that little prayer. I think of misty green mountains as being in China or Malaysia or something - not Japan. But as we drove into The Niigata area last Sunday afternoon, I remembered that video as I looked at these lush forest-covered mountains fading to purple in the distance. Could God have heard that quiet prayer from a lost 18-year old girl?

One praise report is that Mari is doing a fantastic job translating. She translates, not just words, but the same heart and enthusiasm as the person speaking. She talks like it`s her own story she`s telling. We`ve continued to pray together each morning, as planned. Communication between us is easier and easier. God has unified us in heart and mind.

Sayaka has planned so much for us each day that I`m overwhelmed at the thought of listing everything we`ve done, so I`ll just mention the highlights and post pictures later when I`m able.

The Christians that I`ve met here have been really wonderful people. They`re prayerful, passionate and sincere. There`s so much I could write about each one! Through bible study and prayer together God has been faithful to meet their needs. He`s given me subjects to teach on, and when we pray He gives me some part of His heart to share with specific individuals. We`ve also been able to share the Gospel with people who had never heard it - Mari and Sayaka have both been really good about taking opportunities to testify of Jesus.

Every day we`re having lunch and dinner with different people. Each gathering involves a time of prayer and worship. I`m so glad I can play guitar. I taught a bible study on worshiping God in spirit and in truth and a study for an unbeliever from Acts 17. Tonight I will teach about ministry from the parable of the good Samaritan.

As I write this, Mari is sharing something from the Scriptures with a Christian girl. :-)

This girl is very injured. I don`t know how to help her. But God knows. I trust Him to lead.

Gosh - there`s so much I could write about. I`ll just stop there and write more when I`m able to upload photographs.

Right now I have another bible study to teach. :)

Japan

I know that people say that you loose a day traveling the way that I did. I left at 10am on Wednesday and arrived on Thursday at 12:38pm, but the flight was only a little less than 13 hours. You could say that I lost a day, but in reality, I woke up at 6am and didnt get to sleep until 22 hours later, and even that was on a sweaty bus with a guitar jammed between me and the seat infront of me. I all seemed like a really looooong day to me. So, if I lost a day, it was the time of day when I should have been sleeping.

It was so good to see Mari again! I have heard people say that they feel some sort of spiritual heaviness as soon as they get off the plane. That, thankfully, has not been my experience. I was too excited to see Mari again! And not just that, but the whole opportunity to work in the Gospel is so exciting! The only weight I could feel that might be described as oppressive was the humidity.  :-)
Mari and I were able to talk a while in the airport while waiting for the bus to arrive that took us from Narita airport to the station closest to her house. In the past week, she has met with old friends from school and church. She invited one christian girl to her house who ended up expressing some things that were really troubling her. This girl had been holding it all in for a long time and all it took was Mari inviting her to her house, being friendly, and listening. Mari encouraged her through the scriptures and invited her to join us as we travel. The girl declined, but I hope that we have more opportunity to talk and pray with her. She is struggling with basic questions of faith and has been afraid to express them. I know that Jesus wants to help her.

It was really good to pray together this morning. God is so good, and its good to spend time with Him. He always comes and helps us pray as we give Him our hearts and seek His will in prayer.

There`s really not much more to say. I`m sure there will be more interesting stories and photographs as the trip progresses. But right now, its lunch time!

P.S. Please pardon the lack of apostrophes. I dont know how to type them on this keyboard. ha ha.