Typhoon Neoguri update.

Typhoon Neoguri a couple of days ago.
(Public domain image from NOAA/NASA.)

Some of you may have heard about the (formerly) super typhoon that tore through the southern island chain of Okinawa yesterday and was headed straight for Kyushu (where Kumamoto is), but as of now it has been downgraded to a tropical storm and right now outside my window there's not even any rain falling. I'm still going to play it safe and stay indoors today, though, since school's been canceled. Thanks to all who have been praying.

Still, along with widespread damage, there have been numerous injuries and a couple of deaths reported down in Okinawa, as well as record rains elsewhere in Japan causing severe landslides and floods, so please keep Japan in your prayers as we continue in typhoon season.

Gray skies over Kumamoto this morning.

He stilled the storm to a whisper;
the waves of the sea were hushed.
Psalm 107:29 (NIV)

Cleaning Aso Sansō.

The main building of Aso Sansō.

Teamwork and cleanliness are two of Japan's most esteemed cultural values, and these are both well-expressed in the church. Every year near the end of May, Lutheran churches, schools, and organizations in Kumamoto Prefecture come together at Aso Sansō (Aso Mountain Retreat), a Lutheran retreat center in the mountains, to give the entire place a good cleansing. This year I took the hour-and-a-half trip out with seven or eight people from Kuwamizu Church.

Airing out futons and blankets.

Jobs included scrubbing the toilets, weeding, washing the floors, and laying out to dry in the sun everything that wasn't nailed down... including the futon mattresses and blankets. The only place with enough space to do that was the parking lot, and when the tarp they'd laid down on the ground was full, they moved to the cars.

My corridor.

I spent most of the day cleaning a corridor in the 63-year-old main building with the church ladies, who lent me a pair of gloves and a rag to wash the windows and a mirror hanging on the opposite wall. I'm at least a head taller than most people at my church, so I was assigned to clean the higher parts of the windows. "Ah, it's really convenient that we have Laura around!" remarked one of the pastors, walking past me as I scrubbed the dirt out from under the top corner of the window frame. I smiled. I don't always feel useful in this country, especially considering my linguistic limitations, but if I can help a bunch of church ladies wipe a window clean, I'm happy.

Camps and retreat centers have a spiritual significance for many people I know in the States (including myself), and it's the same in Japan. With the numerous camps and events that the Lutheran church holds there every year, it holds a lot of memories for a lot of people. I kept thinking back to my old summer camp as I wandered the grounds on my break. The common love of a place, the peaceful natural environs, and even the smell of the damp earth was the same. So, for those of you curious about what a Japanese retreat center looks like, here are a few pictures:

View from the veranda of the main building. (2013 photo.)

One church lady called this place the "green chapel."

No shoes in the building!

Communal sink. The nets are actually a good way to get suds from the bar soap.

The bath is communal, as well.

One of the several rooms for lodging in the main building.
(The futon mattresses are stored in the closet until bedtime, when they're rolled out on the floor.)

A side entrance I also helped clean.

Tatami-matted front of the main hall.

It was a tiring and sweaty Saturday, but well worth it. (Afterward, the church ladies took me to go soak in an area hot spring afterward, which felt heavenly!) It's a privilege and an honor to be working alongside my Japanese brothers and sisters in Christ to celebrate, enjoy, and take care of God's creation here in Japan.

My terrible five-year-old point-and-shoot camera does not adequately capture the beauty of Aso, but this gives you something of an idea. We crossed a bridge spanning this gorge on our way back to Kumamoto City and stopped for photos.

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Ephesians 4:15-16 (NIV)

School (and Golden Week), take two.

Overflow student bike parking.

It's my second year of teaching at Luther, and the first semester is in full swing. This year we have the largest incoming class of first-years that we've ever had--something like 400 kids! Last year was a lot of learning the ropes, so this year it's going a bit more smoothly. (I don't forget the keys to the classroom nearly as often as I used to!)

One of the "changes" I've been talking about recently includes the birth of a beautiful baby boy to Katie and her husband in March, which has brought much joy to the community. We've been missing her a lot at Luther, but we've got some great people pitching in to help in her absence as she stays home to take care of the li'l guy for a while.

Meanwhile, April was crazy, full of getting ready for our new influx of students (and a year without our 14-year J-3 veteran adviser/translator/person-who-tells-us-what's-going-on extraordinaire Katie). I've got fewer class hours in a week than I did last year, but it's more than made up by the amount of outside prep work, grading, and planning. Golden Week, that glorious clump of consecutive public holidays, came just in time.

Caroline and I were both feeling the pressure of school, so we decided to just do a simpler variation on last year. We took the train to Aso again, but instead of staying overnight or climbing a mountain, we ate lunch at a street fair, picked an area of the town we hadn't explored and just walked. We stumbled upon markers for an "open-air museum" walking tour, and following them, found shrines, trees, and little hideaways off the beaten trail. The rest of Aso was crowded with tourists hoping to get out of the city, but the backroads we were on were almost empty. It was perfect.

Hama Shrine.

A very large, very old gingko tree.

Carp flags for Children's Day on May 5.

Stairs leading off the road...

...into a secluded little park.

At one point, the "open-air museum" signposts became a little ambiguous and we ended up out in the middle of nowhere, on a highway that stretched through endless crop fields. I knew we were most likely not following the prescribed route anymore, but I enjoyed the walk, anyway. We rehydrated at a sports field complex with vending machines and eventually found our way back to the station just in time for the train.

We think we may have been in the dead center of Aso crater.

The next weekend was Luther's annual Sports Festival. It was much the same kind of stuff as last year, but still a lot of fun.

Waiting for the baton pass in the sports team relay, in uniform.
(Note the swim team member. Poor guy!)

Finished Maypoles.

Senior girls' eurhythmics. Kind of like Extreme Patting-Your-Head-and-Rubbing-Your-Belly.

Students waiting and watching from their class tents, under the Luther flag.

Yellow team Ōendan performance.

It's been busy, as always, but I really do enjoy my work. It's hard knowing that this is my last year as a J-3, but I'm planning to make the most of it. Thanks for your prayers and support!

Then people go out to their work,
to their labor until evening.
Psalm 104:23 (NIV)

International Children's Program.

One of my favorite J-3 duties is the International English Children's Program, held twice a month in the evening as the "Sunday school" of the International English Service at Kumamoto Lutheran. In the year that I've been assisting with it, we've gotten anywhere from two to six kids on any given Sunday, ranging in age from 3 to 11 and all over the map with regard to English language abilities.

The Palm Sunday story in felt.

Our session usually starts at 5pm with a story from the Bible, and we're lucky enough to own a full set of those Bible story felt boards, which is nice. Did you know those things actually have like 400 pieces? I certainly didn't think about it when I was five years old and in Sunday School. The attention to detail on those things is pretty impressive, and it makes things easier for the littler ones with less English to at least get an idea of what's going on.

After the story, the boys start to get a little antsy, so we go into the games portion. I've found that games involving blindfolds work pretty well for this crowd. When I plan the games I try to connect them to the Bible story (animal-themed Memory for Noah's Ark--'cause the animals went in two by two!), but sometimes it's a bit more of a stretch (for the story of Jacob and Esau, everyone wrapped yarn around their arms to make them "hairy" while blindfolded "Isaac" ran around trying to find them).

"Pin the Jesus on the Donkey."

Last is the craft portion, which is actually the hardest thing to plan with the wild age variations, though by the grace of God we haven't had any total busts. The kids have especially taken to the origami projects we've done... and thus, according to some parents, I've created origami fiends out of some of them (and devastated their parents' memo pads in the process, I'm sure). Then it's a quick prayer and a preliminary clean-up before everyone heads upstairs for the service at 6.

It's really a gift to be able to serve in this way. The kids are, of course, fantastic, though the sheer variety of kids in our little class presents some unique challenges. All the same, it's absolutely a privilege to be a part of these kids' spiritual development, to hear them enthusiastically shout "Jesus is alive!" when I ask them why Easter is such a happy day, to hear a parent tell me the next day that his nine-year-old son is starting to ask deep and thoughtful questions about the Bible. We're not big on resources or numbers (though the felt-board set is pretty sweet), but God still sees us through.

Right now, after briefly flashing forward to the New Testament for Easter, we're in the Old Testament; next Sunday we're going to talk about Jacob wrestling an angel and then make our own angels out of paper plates with hand-traced wings. Please pray for this ministry, and for the kids that come through our doors every first and third Sunday.

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
Matthew 19:14 (NIV)

At the end of the first year.

Spring break is almost over and I can hardly believe I'm already approaching my second year of teaching. Unexpected (but not unhappy!) things have arisen and my duties have increased quite a bit from this point last year. Even so, God has taken care of us and provided for our needs at church and at school.

Fukuoka Tower.

The paradox of blogging about my experiences in Japan is that the things about my life and job that I thought I'd write more about are so mundane to me now that I'm afraid I'd bore you with the details. Inputting 300 students' grades into an Excel spreadsheet and vacuuming dead leaves from the houseplant I keep forgetting to water do not an interesting blog entry make. But on the other hand, if I only blog the Kodak moments, it'll give you a severely incomplete picture of my life. Being a foreign missionary has taken me halfway across the world, and recently up to Fukuoka for a JELC Kyushu district meeting, but missionaries are no jetsetters. (We took the 2½-hour discount bus, not the 30-minute bullet train.)

Day's end at Myoken-ura in Amakusa.

And that's what I've found J-3 life is like: long weeks full of scrambling to make grade deadlines and design Bible studies for college students with little to no Christian background, punctuated by sporadic getaways with friends to Amakusa to watch the sun set over the ocean, all with a liberal coating of prayer. It's never boring, but it does make figuring out what to blog about kind of difficult.

Sakura trees near downtown.

I've been debating about what kinds of entries I should write next. Luther High School history? Another food post? (I don't subsist on just yakisoba anymore.) A day in my life? J-3 program history? Crazy student stories? Strategies I've found for getting green tea stains off white coffee mugs? (Rub it with baking soda and a little water! It works every time.)

So, my question, as I head into my last year as a J-3: what do you, the reader, want to hear about? Let me know in the comments or via email; I really am interested in hearing what's interesting to you. Meanwhile, I'm going to sort through my photos of the blooming cherry trees around Kumamoto Castle and scrub the mildew out of my shower drain.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV)

Recent excursions: Suizenji Park and Yamaga.

Been busy lately, lots of craziness with the end of the school year and preparing for aforementioned changes. But while I repeat Isaiah 40:31 to myself, here are some photos of the blessings I've received in the midst of it all, from those precious days off.

Tuesday, February 11 was a national holiday, so I went with Brent to see the plum blossoms at Suizenji Park in town. Some trees were in full bloom; others were just barely starting to bud.

Plum trees.

A sure sign that spring is coming.

Suizenji Park, Izumi Shrine at center.

Then, last Saturday, Caroline and I were graciously shown around the town of Yamaga, an hour or two north of Kumamoto, by her friend. Yamaga was in the midst of their annual "Lantern Romance" festival, when the whole downtown area is decorated with paper umbrellas and cut-away bamboo, which are all illuminated at night.

Umbrella display before dark.

Kongōjō Temple in Yamaga, set up for the festival.

The local junior high held a charity concert in the town plaza to support the city of Fukushima.

Bamboo with candles in them like this lined the main street.

Some were arranged into shapes, like this...

...or this!

Bamboo and umbrellas illuminated.

More umbrellas and bamboo lanterns.

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:28-31 (NIV)

Winter break highlights and Happy New Year!

With the new year comes many changes, not the least of which is a brand-new Kumamoto J-3. We welcomed Brent into our little family at a party a couple of weeks ago (which, incidentally, marked the halfway point for Morgan, Caroline, and me). He's still in orientation but will start full teaching at Luther when the new school year starts in April.

Yōkoso, Brent! (From L to R: Morgan, Patrick, Brent, me, Caroline.)

Other highlights from the past month:

Attending a Christmas Eve service in California.

Technology is astounding.

Well... not quite. But thanks to mobile technology, spur-of-the-moment ideas, and the fact that my home church has Wi-Fi, I was able to Skype into my home church's 7pm Christmas Eve service from Japan at noon on Christmas Day. (Special thanks to my older brother, who held the tablet over his head the whole service so I could see.) It was a surreal and moving experience, singing with my home congregation in California in the early afternoon Japan sunshine. I even managed to close my curtains and dig a candle and holder out in time to join in the final candlelit rendition of "Joy to the World."

Boxi Rocks!

Not your usual rock band. Or your
usual pastors.

This is the rock band founded by Sekino-sensei, pastor of Tokyo Lutheran, featuring two pastors and a seminarian who's currently serving in Kumamoto. "Boxi" is an alternate spelling of bokushi, Japanese for "pastor." They had their first Kumamoto live show a couple days after Christmas at Murozono Church, one of the Lutheran churches in town, and I thought they were going to bring the rafters down! Guest vocalists included Murozono's pastor Nishikawa-sensei (a former seminary classmate of Sekino-sensei) and Luther's chaplain Choi-sensei. I bought a t-shirt after the concert (no CDs yet, unfortunately). Their logo is... interesting, to say the least. The design on the bass drum is actually the emblem of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church:

Luther on bass, Calvin on guitar, and... Jesus on drums.
(Does anyone recognize the one on the left? We haven't been able to figure out who he is.)

Costco!

Look familiar?

Thanks to some generous friends, I had the opportunity to visit the Costco warehouse in Fukuoka, a two-hour drive from Kumamoto, at the end of December. It's almost like an exact replica of Costco in America, except the prices are higher and there are of course many more Japanese goods for sale. But it's the only place in Japan to get distilled white vinegar, peanut butter, Orville Redenbacher popcorn, and Costco muffins. Yes, those Costco muffins.

Fitting a Costco haul into a Japanese car is
a photo-worthy accomplishment. (Hi, Katie!)

It was also a startling reminder of just how long I've been in Japan. We had pizza for lunch at the food court and at first bite I was overcome with such nostalgia that I started to cry. (It was delicious, and with the exception of the distinctly Japanese cheese, tasted exactly the same as home.) Everything was the exact same size as Costco in America, but after a year in the land of tiny cars and a 12-inch "large" pizzas, everything seemed gigantic. It's going to be an interesting transition at the end of my time here.

This year has started out pretty well, if busy. There are still many changes a-coming, and now that I have a full calendar year in Japan under my belt, I have a new resolve to make the most of this last full calendar year as a J-3. There are several ways I hope to step up this year in my faith and service as a missionary. Please pray that God's will be done and that we are able to be strong and courageous to do the work He's called us to do this year.

How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!
Psalm 133:1 (NIV)