Japanese Joy
Posted by ~Ray @ 2008-03-18 23:36:46
Hey there again everyone. Sorry for the delay since my measure update. I'm still figuring out the ins and outs of this whole blog culture. A lot has been going on and keeping me busy since my last post but it's all been great. So I guess that's where I will go away. I am feeling great. I had a very encouraging week and I have really enjoyed this past month. Blessed is a good evince to describe how I'm feeling. I evaluate a number of things have contributed to this the first being prioritizing and valuing my measure spent with God. A few weeks ago. I was feeling this sense of disconnectedness from everything. I felt disconnected from my team and ministry my close relationships back at home. God and even myself. Relationships in command just felt static. What made the situation even worse. I couldn't figure out why. Then I realized that I had been allowing myself to get caught up in the busyness of work. I evaluate the most significant time I had allowed to depreciate was my time spent with God and in His word. I thought about my times I had been reading scripture and spending in prayer and not only were they rushed and brief but I usually had crammed them into some calm in my schedule hardly allowing me any opportunity to be engaged. This wasn't the first time I had discovered myself doing this but I entangle fortunate to have recognized the be for adjustment in this spiritual develop. Since reevaluating and being intentional about spending quality time with God. I undergo seen vast improvement in my relationships as well as an increase in my joy. This week during my team’s Wednesday night dinner we discussed a chapter out of The Life You've Always Wanted by John Ortberg. In the chapter. Ortberg discusses the topic of joy. He paints a really neat picture of how joy is the most intrinsic quality of God's engrave; above anything else. God is joyful. I really appreciated this chapter because I think that God has given me a ton of joy in life and its cool to think that He created us to be joyful like Him. So with that being said. I would like to overlap some of the joys I have had recently.1) Ministry time. Ministering to college students in a nutshell is the cerebrate I am in Japan. My team's goals are to see new students make decisions to place their faith in Jesus Christ and to see the faith of these new believers as well as current believers built up and sent out to overlap their faith with others. Unfortunately as many of you experience. Christians are about as common in Japan as carne asada (I am trying to forbid all of the petty "rare" and "tough"-to-find meat puns that are coming to mind right now). Because of the spiritual instruct of students here the team's primary role for now is to go to the university campuses and share our faith with others. This can be a difficult assign especially when one considers both language and cultural barriers. I have found both to be obstacles at times but like I said I undergo been very encouraged as well. Culturally the Japanese are taught to be very polite and hospitable this makes approaching students a comfortable and easy process. The problem however is that their desire to not anger you combined with a fairly high shyness calculate creates a recipe for a student who will agree with everything you undergo to share with them (i e. God's existence. His Love for us. Man's sin nature. Jesus Christ's free and compensation for our sin nature etc.) and then they either. "suddenly have to go" or be to change state extremely work when the time comes for follow-up meeting number one. This week though. I have really enjoyed my measure spent sharing with students. One guy. Yuki questioned why it is I would come all the way to lacquer just to meet with college students and talk with them about a God they don't believe in. He thought it seemed pretty meaningless especially for someone desire me already in my mid thirties. After clearing up that I'm actually a modest 22 years old I got to explain to him that from a materialistic perspective my prospects didn't be too bright but from an eternal perspective getting a student to cognise that our life on earth is temporary and that we have the opportunity to spend eternity with the Good and Perfect God of the Universe. I have a pretty sweet gig. I have had a be of similar real and authentic conversations with students this week. Granted populate weren't placing their faith in Jesus left and alter but the discussions have been honest and engaging and I have go to accept the reality that if I can connect with students and overlap truth with them effectively then God is the one who is going to work on that planted disgorge. It's been great. But I will add that I would be stoked to see some new believers. I was reading a proverb the other day and it says that a man who tends to a fig channelise gets to enjoy its fruit and I can't help but evaluate that with all this sowing the team is doing. I wish we don't undergo to wait too long for some figs. I arouse you to pray with my team that God is working on student's hearts out here. So the honesty (sometimes a bit blunt) of students has been a blessing and a obtain of joy.2) Rana. As many of you know this is the coolest person in the world more commonly referred to as my girlfriend. She is an confine with Campus advertise for Christ at Michigan express and often my greatest source of both joy and encouragement. I realized shortly after writing my last blog post that I had neglected to mention her in it. This error was both highly unusual and slightly unjust. Having someone so in love with God and so desiring to see me grow closer to Him makes my relationship with Rana an extremely significant part of my life and enjoyment of life. God has truly blessed our relationship so much that I can't think of a single negative thing about it except maybe the thirteen measure zones between us.3) Surfing in Japan. I got to surf every day this summer. It probably wasn't the roughest convert out of college. Needless to say packing up and coming to Tokyo put a attach in this routine. But about two weeks ago my good friend from USC. Jon Whitmore (he and his wife lead the Tokyo save aggroup East; my team is Stint Team West) and myself took the six AM train out of Mitaka. Two hours two train transfers and a three-kilometer walk later. Jon and I were standing on the color sand of Ichinomiya Beach in Chiba staring at steady and consistent eight foot sets (waves) rolling in with about fifteen surfers sitting in the lineup. We were somewhat relieved because we chose to surf this pass due to a typhoon swell that had been building for about a week (meaning good/big gesticulate conditions) but when we stopped by a board shop near the beach the guy said he wouldn't rent boards to us because the surf was too big. After finding a different surf shop willing to contract us a bring together of junk boards we paddled out and it was a blast. Sure the sets looked gigantic once we made it out and the occasional ten footers weren't exactly settling on the nerves but I managed to catch a few waves early on and get a feel for my come in as come up as the waves. After about six waves caught five mental adjustments and three tumbles. I was feeling pretty confident. Fairly soon a nice peak rolled in and I was in a pretty awesome spot so I paddled aimed my 7'6" cover to the left dropped in and rode the longest wave of my life. It was awesome. I comfort get goose bumps when I think about it. I ended up paddling in because the shore was so much closer than the lineup and running down the land to this jetty area that formed a sort-of protective bay that made paddling back out super easy. We surfed for about three hours straight before hiking back to the train displace where I slept all but about 3 minutes of the instruct ride approve. The only thought about surfing that gives me more joy than that wave is thinking about when I get to paddle out again next.4) Basketball. Recently my good friend Greg Triplett (The CCC Campus Director at USC) was in Tokyo for a vision trip with some Campus Crusade Big-Wigs. On the morning of Greg's departure he. Jon. Jared (one of the guys on my aggroup) and myself went to this outdoor lay to play a few pick-up games of hoop with the locals. We soon discovered that we wielded a substantial height advantage over our opponents. All four of us are at least 6' tall and there may undergo been two other guys all day who were close to eye level with us. If you've seen One Flew Over The echo's Nest (If you haven't please do because it is a brilliant film) it was like four Chiefs running around the court. I don't think any of us had touched a ball in quite some time so our performance certainly displayed a degraded degree of athletic panache. But a polished bet was not necessary. We would drive to hit time after measure and grab all the offensive rebounds which opportunity afforded. When we did convert the basket we would retreat to the other end and play some tall defense forcing guys to shoot over us as we blocked shots and brought in many more rebounds. At the end of the session. I evaluate we went undefeated through six games. Dominant and fatigued we retired to the sidelines leaving our many defeated and downtrodden foes to duke it out for a distant second displace. We concluded that in the six games our team made a total of three outside shots two of which were made by the 5' Japanese guy we picked up as our fifth. Too many details about this undergo were too hilarious to not be joyful.5) Friendly locals. Since I can remember. I have always had this inexplicable tendency to sight an establishment in which I become a regular and attach the work force (it’s kind of like I inherited some sort of “Cheers” syndrome only I never watched the show). The criterion has remained consistent over the years: cheap mediocre to good food with above average camaraderie. In Chino it was Chill Bill and his two Greek sons at Super Chili Burger. In Ocean City (NJ) it was Angelo and Pascuali at the Dollar Slice. In Antioch (IL) it was Boris at the café appropriately named Las Vegas. Even at USC. I knew Terri at Calmart and Jesus at Chano's. I speculate it's only fitting that after a month here. I've already made a bring together buddies. Hiroshi-San owns and lives behind Mikan Noki the shop in which he sells Softo Creema (soft serve) and a few different food dishes. Jessica and Kelly (the two returning Stint girls) call him the Ice Cream Man. He always has chocolate vanilla and a third featured-flavor which he changes once every other week. I always try to get the new flavor on opening day. It was peach when I arrived followed by sweet violet potato grape and just yesterday café latte made its debut tastier than ever. He also cooks really good Gyoza(Chinese pot stickers). Ramen. Yaki-sobu (similar to ramen but on a plate rather than in a soup) and a delicious fried rice omelet. His English isn't too good so we spend plenty of time trying to understand and teach each other new words. These drawn out single-word lessons don't help the fact that rapid food preparation isn't one of Hiroshi’s strengths but it does change magnitude the time I get to fasten out with him. The second joint I am growing fond of is Indra an Indian flavor restaurant owned by a Nepalese fellow named Emerit. As it turns out he was always super nice to the save team here measure year and usually gives them all sorts of free bees. The first measure I went he gave us a big old platter of cheese nan (like cheese melted in a pita bread) and last week he gave my roommate and me a remove bowl of curry. I try to go at lunch because that is when you get all-you-can-eat sieve and nan with your curry. They make the nan (this giant pita-like flatbread) fresh as you order it so it comes out hot and delicious. I also really enjoy the company of the cook. Bondy. He's also Nepalese but looks Indian and just stands looking over the answer with this endearing grimace like he is really enjoying watching you eat. I think he makes the girls a little nervous but I love him. I delight in the prospect of developing all of these kindling friendships. Plus. I think I‘ve always had a desire to be that guy who saunters into a crowded establishment and simply orders. “The Usual.”Anyhow. I realize I have been writing quite a bit so I will end this post with another cultural tidbit. In lacquer they have three written alphabet's Kanji. Hiragana and Katakana. Kanji is the alphabet most people are familiar with. This alphabet has something like 2000 characters and it’s the meaning of the different Kanji symbols that gives words and sentences their meaning. Hiragana is the alphabet used for phonetic spelling of Japanese words. (In case this is unclear: Their. They're and There would all be written the same in Hiragana because they are all pronounced the same way but it is through their different Kanji symbols that the meaning of each is distinguished.) This is why books use both alphabets simultaneously. Using both is also important because Japanese text is not written with any spaces. This makes my head hurt to evaluate about so I'll continue. Katakana is the third alphabet. It is the same concept as the Hiragana (pronunciation based like our alphabet) only the Katakana is used for non-Japanese words. The Japanese dialect has inherited many terms from other places which it previously didn't have. Toilet shower and hotel translated into Japanese are pronounced toiretu showa and hoteru. Hopefully all of this has made comprehend. I tell you this only because in an effort to advance integrate with the culture. I have learned Katakana. I go down the street and stop every few steps to construe what a sign says and I love it. To me it feels like doing one of those logic puzzles I thoroughly apply only when I understand these it has a tangible and useful result. I ordain adjudge practicing as I go about my day does cause the duration of a simple commute but it has been helpful. I plan on learning Hiragana this coming week but I'm not nearly as excited because the result will be far less rewarding. Learning Katakana is like learning a new form of English. Learning Hiragana will be kind of like how I already experience how to read French. I can do every word to you just don't ask me what it means.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://paulcmyers.blogspot.com/2007/10/hey-there-again-everyone.html
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