Well, I'm already a day behind in my blogs, but I'll try to write one this morning and one tonight.
I'm pretty sure I've talked about Joe G. a couple times on here, and if not on here then I know I have in my newsletter a couple times. Joe is from Grand Junction, Colorado. He's 27, an amazing musician, and totally called by God to be in full time ministry when he gets home. Although, right now he's not sure where he's supposed to go for ministry. So anyone reading this, if you have any opening at your church or maybe know of a friend who does, please tell my parents and they'll let me know. Joe works the best with older high school to college age kids. But enough of advertising for Joe.
Joe also has another special thing about him, he's Jewish. He's also leaving in two weeks. ;(So since he is leaving so soon, Tim and Christine thought it would be fun to have a Passover meal all together. And that's just what we did last night. It was so cool!! It took about three and a half hours from beginning to end, but that also included dinner and a worship time afterwards.
We ate unlevened bread, bitter herbs (which was wasabi root), and many other things that I don't know how to spell because Joe said all the names in Hebrew.
So that was basically my day yesterday. In the morning I also had Japanese class. We were studying about a suffix that they put on the end of words "te". "Te" can mean many many things, but in the two examples we learned yesterday, it means to either tell some one else to do something (EX - Sit down.) or it acts like the English suffix "ing" (EX -walking). Unfortunately that's the very simplified version. There were lots of other things that went along with those two examples that just made it all confusing, but it'll just take some studying and hopefully I'll understand it.
Then in the afternoon Amy and I just hung out at Joe's place helping him get ready for the dinner that night. We also all found out that Friday is Debbie's roommate's birthday, so we planned we were going to do for her today. (It's already Friday here)
Well that about sums it all up. Hope everyone has a great night and sleeps well. God bless you all!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
A Beautiful Day and a Visit w/ a Friend
Today was I think one of the firs real days of spring! It was beautiful out! We were all able to walk around in tshirts all day and throughout the evening. And the best part is this weather is supposed to just continue to get better the rest of the week. Unfortunately though, there is a 95% chance of rain on Saturday, which means it'll not be so much fun walking around Machida. But that's ok, we'll still have a good time and I know God will do something great like always.
This morning I received a call from Ben Repke, a friend from Peoria. He's currently in Japan. Actuallly by the time I'm writing this he's on his way back to the States. But he was only going to be here until 4pm today, so Amy and I hurried and got ready to go meet him for lunch and to hang out.
Well, long story short (12 trains, and 3 wrong stations), it took us 3 hours to finally all meet up in the right spot. We spent the next couple hours all talking and just kinda catching up. It was good to see Ben, because he's been gone with the Navy for the past year and a half and I haven't seen him in probably a good two years.
So my current goal is to try to write a short blog each day until I leave. I'm not sure how good I'll be at it, but like I said it's my goal.
Hope everyone in the States has a great day! Miss you all and love you all too!
This morning I received a call from Ben Repke, a friend from Peoria. He's currently in Japan. Actuallly by the time I'm writing this he's on his way back to the States. But he was only going to be here until 4pm today, so Amy and I hurried and got ready to go meet him for lunch and to hang out.
Well, long story short (12 trains, and 3 wrong stations), it took us 3 hours to finally all meet up in the right spot. We spent the next couple hours all talking and just kinda catching up. It was good to see Ben, because he's been gone with the Navy for the past year and a half and I haven't seen him in probably a good two years.
So my current goal is to try to write a short blog each day until I leave. I'm not sure how good I'll be at it, but like I said it's my goal.
Hope everyone in the States has a great day! Miss you all and love you all too!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
My Last 10 Weeks!
A lot has happened since my last blog post. I'm sorry everyone who reads this, I haven't done a great job at keeping up with writing in here on a regular basis.
If you've read my newsletter in December, you'll know that we saw 3 of our friends here in Japan become Christians. Two of them are now translators for the Fuse, and the other is one of our guitarists. We also all went snowboarding just before New Years, had an International Food Party, and a great Christmas Gospel Party.
In the January newsletter, I wrote about the Hawaiian Night and I gave a little background on the different missionaries that are on the leadership team for the Fuse. I work with an amazing group of people here.
It's currently the end of February and the Fuse has continued to grow and change. This past week we had 31 people come and 8 of those people we first timers. PRAISE GOD!!! Nearly every week we see new people coming to the Fuse and some of them are staying around and really getting involved with helping out with the Fuse.
Two specific examples of that are two girls named Midoriko and Hitomi. These girls are two girls I am now meeting with every couple weeks and hopefully soon, Hitomi will become one of our translators and Midoriko will be able to help out in another way. Both are incredibly open to the gospel.
My friend, Kendra, was also just here for the past two weeks. We had a lot of fun visiting different places around Tokyo area and just hanging out and catching up. We visited Shinjuku, Shibuya, Asakusa, Enoshima, and the old houses I took my dad to. It was great to have her here. And it was sad to see her leave.
Well, as I'm writing this I'm sadly realizing I only have about 10 weeks left here in Japan. Then I will go back to the States, back to work, back to school, etc. But I know that when I go back I don't want to settle into the "norm" and get bored. I have done/seen some amazing things while I've been here. God has blessed this ministry and our team here in more ways than I'll ever be able to say. But even though I have such a short amount of time left I don't want to waste the time I have. I want to take advantage of it and use this time to the best of my ability to praise God and to continue pressing on to see what else God has in store for the Fuse and for me. I know God has some amazing things planned and I can't wait to find out what!
If you've read my newsletter in December, you'll know that we saw 3 of our friends here in Japan become Christians. Two of them are now translators for the Fuse, and the other is one of our guitarists. We also all went snowboarding just before New Years, had an International Food Party, and a great Christmas Gospel Party.
In the January newsletter, I wrote about the Hawaiian Night and I gave a little background on the different missionaries that are on the leadership team for the Fuse. I work with an amazing group of people here.
It's currently the end of February and the Fuse has continued to grow and change. This past week we had 31 people come and 8 of those people we first timers. PRAISE GOD!!! Nearly every week we see new people coming to the Fuse and some of them are staying around and really getting involved with helping out with the Fuse.
Two specific examples of that are two girls named Midoriko and Hitomi. These girls are two girls I am now meeting with every couple weeks and hopefully soon, Hitomi will become one of our translators and Midoriko will be able to help out in another way. Both are incredibly open to the gospel.
My friend, Kendra, was also just here for the past two weeks. We had a lot of fun visiting different places around Tokyo area and just hanging out and catching up. We visited Shinjuku, Shibuya, Asakusa, Enoshima, and the old houses I took my dad to. It was great to have her here. And it was sad to see her leave.
Well, as I'm writing this I'm sadly realizing I only have about 10 weeks left here in Japan. Then I will go back to the States, back to work, back to school, etc. But I know that when I go back I don't want to settle into the "norm" and get bored. I have done/seen some amazing things while I've been here. God has blessed this ministry and our team here in more ways than I'll ever be able to say. But even though I have such a short amount of time left I don't want to waste the time I have. I want to take advantage of it and use this time to the best of my ability to praise God and to continue pressing on to see what else God has in store for the Fuse and for me. I know God has some amazing things planned and I can't wait to find out what!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
The Holidays and a Surprise Visit
Well, the Christmas holiday season is in full swing here with all of us missionaries. Amy and I have started decorating our house, not much to decorate but we're having fun none the less. Today we (Amy, Ben, Benny, Caren, Debbie, and Vanessa) helped Tim and Christine decorate their house and ate cookies and drank hot chocolate/apple cider. It was so much fun! The house looks beautiful but more importantly we had a great time bonding.
For those who hadn't heard, my dad came and surprised me with a visit last week. He arrived on Friday night. Dad had it video taped. That night was actually the night before my debut as one of the worship leaders for the Fuse Jesus Community. Needless to say I was incredibly nervous. To lead worship you have to not only sing in English and Japanese, but also to have all the songs that I'm singing memorized. I was so stressed on Friday and Saturday that I was almost sick to my stomach.
Well the night that Dad came we finished up worship practice and I wanted to go home and practice my Japanese for worship the next day, but everyone else wanted to stay and "have a meeting to discuss what to do for street performances once it gets too cold to do music". The whole point to the meeting was actually to buy time until my dad got to the church. Everyone else was so excited for my dad to come and they kept dragging the meeting. I started getting really frustrated, mainly just because I felt so unprepared for Saturday.Dad walked into the room, I jumped across 3 ppl and threw myself into his arms. It was so good to see him! After dad and I left the church we headed back to my apartment to get some clothes for me, because Dad and I would be staying at the new church building for the Noborito church. It was so weird having my dad walking through my house. I've pictued it in my head so many times at what I wanted to show him and what he would think of it.
That night we talked for a little bit but went to bed pretty quickly. The next morning (Saturday), Dad brought out all the presents from different people from church and some family. There were so many presents! Thank you to everyone who sent them! I got a lot of coffee, chocolate and a whole bunch of other things. Then we sat around the house and talked until we had to leave for the Fuse. It was so amazing to have Dad come to the Fuse. It's another one of the things that I have been dying to show my parents and basically everyone at home. It was even more special that Dad was there on the week that I was to lead worship.
Dad and I went out for tempura for lunch. Which is basically fried food. We had prawn (shrimp), pumpkin, green beens, and squash. Plus of course rice and mizo soup. Dad did good, he ate all the food. Then we walked around Machida and I took him to the 100 yen store. Then we had a street performance after that. Joe and I sang a couple songs together but mainly it was just Joe singing and playing guitar.
Worship went well. I messed up on the first song and completely forgot the Japanese for the second verse of it, but the rest went really well! Once I got really comfortable being on stage I completely relaxed and I really enjoyed myself. It didn't matter if I messed up. The chorus of the second song became my prayer for worship that day, especially after I messed up.
The chorus says, "Jesus we're living for Your name. Never be ashamed of You. Our praise and all we are today. Take, take take it all."
After the Fuse we went out to eat with everyone, but quickly went back to the house so Dad could get some rest. It was so nice being able to spend time with Dad!
On Sunday we went to Shibuya and Shinjuku and walked around ALL DAY! The only time we sat down the whole time we were out was at lunch (which was Burger King). We went to the busiest Starbucks and we walked around Shibuya and all all the different stores there. In Shinjuku, we went up the Shinjuku towers and looked out across Tokyo. You can see for miles and miles up there. The city just stretches on until you can't see it anymore, it just doesn't end. Then we went to a park near the towers and walked across it to an old temple. There was a wedding going on inside the temple. That's probably a sight I will never see again while being here in Japan and it was so great to see it with my dad. After that we walked back to the train station and towards the Christmas lights they had up.
On Monday, the Fuse Jesus Community had our Thansgiving meal. We had so much food! All in all we had about 30 people come and Dad spoke and gave the Thanksgiving message. He did amazing! Then after dinner a group of people all came back to the new building and had dessert. The last of the people left for the night around 10pm...and the celebrations started at 3pm. It was a long and great day!
Tuesday we had the team breakfast like normal, then we all went out for curry for lunch. I had a bean and chicken curry and dad had just chicken curry. Curry here is amazing. We usually go to a restaurant called New Dehli and the owners love us because we all go about once a week. The food tastes amazing and it's fairly cheap. We get a salad, all the nan we want, nice size bowl of curry, and a drink for 780 yen (about $8).
After curry, dad and I met up with Mark and Yuiko for coffee and to talk. It was really amazing to have 3 of the biggest role models in my life meeting and talking. Dad has influenced my love of music and my relationship with God and all my standards and most of everything in my life. Mark and Yuiko has influenced my love for missions and being a worship leader.
Then Ben, Joe, Vanessa, Debbie, Amy, Dad, and I all went hiking. We were going to go walk through some old houses here in Noborito but they were closed for the day. We hiked around for a couple hours, climbing up and down lots of hills and stairs. We were all exhausted!!!!
Wednesday Dad, Ben, Benny, and I went to the old houses and walked around then Dad and I went out for sushi with Yas. Yas and his two daughters (Sarah and Fiona) had stayed with my family in the states 8 years ago. Dad tried boiled octopus, raw octopus, scallops, sea urchin, ikura (salmon eggs), crab, and shrimp sushi. I think he liked all of them except the sea urchin and the ikura. The only new thing I tried this time was the sea urchin. Sea urchin looks kinda like cat food and has a TERRIBLE taste! Other than that I had ikura, crab, and shrimp. Not too adventureous, but this is my 4th time having sushi.
After sushi we went to the Fire Deptment and we got to talk with the chief, look at all the vehicles, and watch them train. Dad loved it. I got bored after we hit the hour and a half mark. We were there for two hours. But I was glad Dad got to visit the station. I know he was really looking forward to it.
That night we all went out for a Japanaese BBQ. We had the typical meets beef, pork, and chicken, but we also had pigs tongue and diaphram. The odd thing...the last two things were my favorites of the night. We didn't get home that night until nearly 11pm and still didn't go to bed for a couple hours.
Thursday Dad left. It was a really sad day, and yet at the same time it wasn't nearly as hard as it had been when I had left the States. I miss Dad a lot, but I also know I'm right where I'm supposed to be right now. God has given me a peace and I know He's given me that because I'm directly in His Will.
I'm so glad I got to spend a week with Dad. I wouldn't trade that week for the world.
The next month is going to be a busy month for all of us short termers. Two of us leave on Thursday (The Bens...they're here from Grand Junction, Colorado and have been here for the past month). Then on the 15th Vanessa leaves for the States and on the 18th Caren will leave as well. It's weird to think we're loosing half of our team.
Also this next month we will be having an International Food Party for the Fus and that night we will also have communion. That's on the 12th. On the 19th, we will have our Christmas program. For that we have a gospel group coming to sing with us. On the 16th, Joe and I will be singing Christmas songs for our Japanese class. On the 28th, we are having a Fuse Jesus Community Day Trip and we will be going ski-ing for the day. We'll leave the night before and take a bus all night, ski all day, then take a bus back that night.
Thank you for all the continual prayers and support. It is all felt here. None of us would be here without all the help from everyone back in the States.
For those who hadn't heard, my dad came and surprised me with a visit last week. He arrived on Friday night. Dad had it video taped. That night was actually the night before my debut as one of the worship leaders for the Fuse Jesus Community. Needless to say I was incredibly nervous. To lead worship you have to not only sing in English and Japanese, but also to have all the songs that I'm singing memorized. I was so stressed on Friday and Saturday that I was almost sick to my stomach.
Well the night that Dad came we finished up worship practice and I wanted to go home and practice my Japanese for worship the next day, but everyone else wanted to stay and "have a meeting to discuss what to do for street performances once it gets too cold to do music". The whole point to the meeting was actually to buy time until my dad got to the church. Everyone else was so excited for my dad to come and they kept dragging the meeting. I started getting really frustrated, mainly just because I felt so unprepared for Saturday.Dad walked into the room, I jumped across 3 ppl and threw myself into his arms. It was so good to see him! After dad and I left the church we headed back to my apartment to get some clothes for me, because Dad and I would be staying at the new church building for the Noborito church. It was so weird having my dad walking through my house. I've pictued it in my head so many times at what I wanted to show him and what he would think of it.
That night we talked for a little bit but went to bed pretty quickly. The next morning (Saturday), Dad brought out all the presents from different people from church and some family. There were so many presents! Thank you to everyone who sent them! I got a lot of coffee, chocolate and a whole bunch of other things. Then we sat around the house and talked until we had to leave for the Fuse. It was so amazing to have Dad come to the Fuse. It's another one of the things that I have been dying to show my parents and basically everyone at home. It was even more special that Dad was there on the week that I was to lead worship.
Dad and I went out for tempura for lunch. Which is basically fried food. We had prawn (shrimp), pumpkin, green beens, and squash. Plus of course rice and mizo soup. Dad did good, he ate all the food. Then we walked around Machida and I took him to the 100 yen store. Then we had a street performance after that. Joe and I sang a couple songs together but mainly it was just Joe singing and playing guitar.
Worship went well. I messed up on the first song and completely forgot the Japanese for the second verse of it, but the rest went really well! Once I got really comfortable being on stage I completely relaxed and I really enjoyed myself. It didn't matter if I messed up. The chorus of the second song became my prayer for worship that day, especially after I messed up.
The chorus says, "Jesus we're living for Your name. Never be ashamed of You. Our praise and all we are today. Take, take take it all."
After the Fuse we went out to eat with everyone, but quickly went back to the house so Dad could get some rest. It was so nice being able to spend time with Dad!
On Sunday we went to Shibuya and Shinjuku and walked around ALL DAY! The only time we sat down the whole time we were out was at lunch (which was Burger King). We went to the busiest Starbucks and we walked around Shibuya and all all the different stores there. In Shinjuku, we went up the Shinjuku towers and looked out across Tokyo. You can see for miles and miles up there. The city just stretches on until you can't see it anymore, it just doesn't end. Then we went to a park near the towers and walked across it to an old temple. There was a wedding going on inside the temple. That's probably a sight I will never see again while being here in Japan and it was so great to see it with my dad. After that we walked back to the train station and towards the Christmas lights they had up.
On Monday, the Fuse Jesus Community had our Thansgiving meal. We had so much food! All in all we had about 30 people come and Dad spoke and gave the Thanksgiving message. He did amazing! Then after dinner a group of people all came back to the new building and had dessert. The last of the people left for the night around 10pm...and the celebrations started at 3pm. It was a long and great day!
Tuesday we had the team breakfast like normal, then we all went out for curry for lunch. I had a bean and chicken curry and dad had just chicken curry. Curry here is amazing. We usually go to a restaurant called New Dehli and the owners love us because we all go about once a week. The food tastes amazing and it's fairly cheap. We get a salad, all the nan we want, nice size bowl of curry, and a drink for 780 yen (about $8).
After curry, dad and I met up with Mark and Yuiko for coffee and to talk. It was really amazing to have 3 of the biggest role models in my life meeting and talking. Dad has influenced my love of music and my relationship with God and all my standards and most of everything in my life. Mark and Yuiko has influenced my love for missions and being a worship leader.
Then Ben, Joe, Vanessa, Debbie, Amy, Dad, and I all went hiking. We were going to go walk through some old houses here in Noborito but they were closed for the day. We hiked around for a couple hours, climbing up and down lots of hills and stairs. We were all exhausted!!!!
Wednesday Dad, Ben, Benny, and I went to the old houses and walked around then Dad and I went out for sushi with Yas. Yas and his two daughters (Sarah and Fiona) had stayed with my family in the states 8 years ago. Dad tried boiled octopus, raw octopus, scallops, sea urchin, ikura (salmon eggs), crab, and shrimp sushi. I think he liked all of them except the sea urchin and the ikura. The only new thing I tried this time was the sea urchin. Sea urchin looks kinda like cat food and has a TERRIBLE taste! Other than that I had ikura, crab, and shrimp. Not too adventureous, but this is my 4th time having sushi.
After sushi we went to the Fire Deptment and we got to talk with the chief, look at all the vehicles, and watch them train. Dad loved it. I got bored after we hit the hour and a half mark. We were there for two hours. But I was glad Dad got to visit the station. I know he was really looking forward to it.
That night we all went out for a Japanaese BBQ. We had the typical meets beef, pork, and chicken, but we also had pigs tongue and diaphram. The odd thing...the last two things were my favorites of the night. We didn't get home that night until nearly 11pm and still didn't go to bed for a couple hours.
Thursday Dad left. It was a really sad day, and yet at the same time it wasn't nearly as hard as it had been when I had left the States. I miss Dad a lot, but I also know I'm right where I'm supposed to be right now. God has given me a peace and I know He's given me that because I'm directly in His Will.
I'm so glad I got to spend a week with Dad. I wouldn't trade that week for the world.
The next month is going to be a busy month for all of us short termers. Two of us leave on Thursday (The Bens...they're here from Grand Junction, Colorado and have been here for the past month). Then on the 15th Vanessa leaves for the States and on the 18th Caren will leave as well. It's weird to think we're loosing half of our team.
Also this next month we will be having an International Food Party for the Fus and that night we will also have communion. That's on the 12th. On the 19th, we will have our Christmas program. For that we have a gospel group coming to sing with us. On the 16th, Joe and I will be singing Christmas songs for our Japanese class. On the 28th, we are having a Fuse Jesus Community Day Trip and we will be going ski-ing for the day. We'll leave the night before and take a bus all night, ski all day, then take a bus back that night.
Thank you for all the continual prayers and support. It is all felt here. None of us would be here without all the help from everyone back in the States.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
So much to do so little time
Well, praise God I officially have a new laptop. It's an HP. Very nice! Thanks to my parents for finding it for me and to Gene and Joyce Galat (friends of our friend Tremont that are here visting for a couple weeks) who brought the computer with them.
But with having a new computer means I have to get caught up on all the things I fell behind on during the past month. (blog, newsletter, Fuse stuff, etc) So I've spent the last couple days trying to get caught up. It's been interesting. I've had to go through all the pictures on Facebook and pull them off there and resave them to my computer, I've had to type out a months worth of Tuesday morning meeting notes, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
I never really realized how dependant on my computer I am. It makes things so much easier and faster. I've also realized how much I love Windows Vista. I've tried working on other computers during the past month with other processing systems...it's been interesting to learn about them.
Gene and Joyce Galat arrived last week and they will be helping Tim and Christine with the new church building the church in Noborito bought. They will be helping them plan out the renovation plans for it. They will stay until October 28.
Christine, Debbie, and Vanessa all leave on October 27 for just over a week to go to Indonesia for a short little missions trip. That will leave us short three people for a Fuse meeting, but it's okay because we're using that as a great opportunity to get more Japanese helping out.
We also have two new short-termers coming on October 29. Both are named Ben. They will be staying about a month and are from Grand Junction, Colorado. From what we've heard they are both computer guys so it'll be great to have someone help Joe out with all the tech stuff. (Joe is our computer fix it man)
This month we also have 4 birthdays within the Fuse team. Joe Motter (not the Joe mentioned above...this Joe is our drummer...this Joe also goes by the nickname of Mochida) had a birthday on the 5th. Vanessa's birthday is tomorrow (19th). Amy's birthday is the 23rd. Tim Huber's birthday is the 25th. Lots of birthdays, though, means lots of cake and lots of fun!
Not much else is going on right now, and I have to keep working on more catching up work. I can't wait until I'm all caught up. :)
But with having a new computer means I have to get caught up on all the things I fell behind on during the past month. (blog, newsletter, Fuse stuff, etc) So I've spent the last couple days trying to get caught up. It's been interesting. I've had to go through all the pictures on Facebook and pull them off there and resave them to my computer, I've had to type out a months worth of Tuesday morning meeting notes, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
I never really realized how dependant on my computer I am. It makes things so much easier and faster. I've also realized how much I love Windows Vista. I've tried working on other computers during the past month with other processing systems...it's been interesting to learn about them.
Gene and Joyce Galat arrived last week and they will be helping Tim and Christine with the new church building the church in Noborito bought. They will be helping them plan out the renovation plans for it. They will stay until October 28.
Christine, Debbie, and Vanessa all leave on October 27 for just over a week to go to Indonesia for a short little missions trip. That will leave us short three people for a Fuse meeting, but it's okay because we're using that as a great opportunity to get more Japanese helping out.
We also have two new short-termers coming on October 29. Both are named Ben. They will be staying about a month and are from Grand Junction, Colorado. From what we've heard they are both computer guys so it'll be great to have someone help Joe out with all the tech stuff. (Joe is our computer fix it man)
This month we also have 4 birthdays within the Fuse team. Joe Motter (not the Joe mentioned above...this Joe is our drummer...this Joe also goes by the nickname of Mochida) had a birthday on the 5th. Vanessa's birthday is tomorrow (19th). Amy's birthday is the 23rd. Tim Huber's birthday is the 25th. Lots of birthdays, though, means lots of cake and lots of fun!
Not much else is going on right now, and I have to keep working on more catching up work. I can't wait until I'm all caught up. :)
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