Hongo Bible Camp.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! On Thursday the other J-3s (yes, Caroline is finally here!) had some tacos with chips and guacamole for lunch courtesy of the new long-term Tokyo missionary couple Erik and Tauna. Good food and good fellowship--it was a lovely afternoon. Also, tonight was a Thanksgiving potluck at Tokyo Lutheran, complete with a turkey (very expensive here!), but more about that in a later entry.

View from the beach next to the resort.

Last weekend was English Bible Camp for Hongo Student Center, an outreach of Hongo Lutheran Church here in Tokyo that offers English classes and an English Bible study for all ages and skill levels as well as an English Coffee Hour. In past years the camp has been held at a retreat canter out in the mountains west of Tokyo, but this year it was held at a sports resort in Chiba, east of Tokyo across the bay. Fittingly, the theme was "God's Love is Like an Ocean."

Ladies' cabin!

It had been raining all Saturday morning, but when we reached the seaside that afternoon the winds made it feel much more like a storm. After eating a delicious fresh seafood lunch (which one of the Japanese camp attendees graciously demonstrated to me how to eat) and arriving at our destination, we were nearly swept off our feet on our way to our cabins. The windows rattled and you could hear the rain pound on the roofs! It was quite exciting, though unfortunately the wind actually slammed the door of the men's cabin into the wall and broke the glass in the door. (Everyone was fine; they just had to move into a room in the "hotel" portion of the resort for the night.)

Despite what the name might suggest, the attendees were all adults (youngest was a college student), though one couple brought their bouncy three-year-old son who kept everyone smiling the whole weekend. He was a big fan of the icebreaker game we played, which if you're familiar with "I Love My Neighbor" (I'm looking at you, attendees of this year's Heritage retreat!) was quite similar, except this one required people to grab partners after every turn. There was lots of gentle tackling and and at one point I actually got picked up off the ground! It was crazy, active, fun, and the perfect way to start getting comfortable with one another.

No regrets about studying this language.

We split up into small groups, read some Scriptures in English, and talked about how huge and incomprehensible God's love is. Hannah, a woman who works as a translator at a missionary organization in Tokyo, put it best: we can't even comprehend how deep and wide God's love is; all we can do is accept it. When we all gathered together again, one of the Hongo English students, an older gentleman, pointed out that the Japanese character for love, 愛, is made up of two characters: 受 (to receive) and 心 (heart). Interesting, ne?

In talking with my group and stumbling through trying to articulate God's love, I found myself stuck right there in the incomprehensibility of it all. My speech started to go into recursion ("it's wonderful because it's so big, because it's so wonderful, because it's so big") and everyone's faces were blank--even the Christians in the group. Oof. It makes me feel a little better that the apostle Paul was also not so great at talking.

After-dinner fellowship. (Photo by Caroline.)

The food and fellowship outside the main sessions were marvelous. Mápó dòufu (Szechuan tofu) and ajifurai (fried mackerel) are my new favorite dishes. After singing and a candlelight service in a squash court (yes, you read that right; this resort was not really designed for Bible retreats), we gathered in the café attached to the resort and talked about everything from our favorite TV shows to our hometowns to recommended sightseeing spots in Tokyo. Good times, good cocktails. Though at one point the windows overlooking the ocean were rattling so hard in the wind that the staff moved us away from the windows to the back of the room lest they shatter right on top of us! (They didn't, thankfully.)

Tokyo Bay from my bunk Sunday morning.

The next morning dawned relatively sunny. We had the opportunity to walk along the seashore and take some pictures before attending our last session where we read some more Bible passages on love. It was a productive and interesting intercultural discussion--the word "love" is used very differently in English and Japanese. In English we say "I love you" all the time to our families and even our friends, but in Japanese... it's very strange for even a couple to say that to each other, even in private. It's something I've known for years, but still can't quite wrap my head around--you're reading the blog of a girl who for years as a child made sure the last thing she said to her parents before going to bed was "I love you" lest one of her parents die during the night. But a lot of communication in Japanese is actually subtext. Translated literally, many set phrases sound quite strange. Otsukaresama deshita, which would be an appropriate phrase to say to someone who has finished their work for the day, literally translated means "You look tired." But in practice it's used much more like "Good work!" I've heard it used to compliment a musician after a performance. There is still much for me to learn about this culture. I'm looking forward to it.

Sunset view from the bus.

The last event of the camp was a barbecue. We shared platters and platters of pork, chicken, squid, scallops, sausage, carrots, peppers, potatoes, eggplant, and finally, yakisoba (stir-fried noodles) before climbing aboard the bus to go back home to Tokyo. Unfortunately, there had been a traffic accident earlier that day and the normally two-hour bus ride took four-and-a-half. We occupied ourselves with conversation, naps, and, later that evening in the back of the bus, a couple of rounds of Mafia. (Some know this game as The Werewolf Game or Witch Hunt.) Rather interesting to play a game that involves accusations of murder with a group of people you just met at a Christian retreat. But it was a good time with much laughter. ("We were just taught that we should love each other!" protested one attendee, after being accused of my murder. He actually didn't do it--it was Luke, the J-3 who's been teaching at Hongo since last year.)

We finally reached Tokyo at 7:30 that night. With waves and "otsukaresama deshita!"s we parted and went home to have a good night's sleep. There was much love and joy in that group; I was a little sad it ended so soon. I wouldn't have minded another day by the sea with them. But I know the love and fellowship of the Body of Christ doesn't end when the retreats do. They're just a nice reminder.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:16-19 (NIV)