Go chase a lion!

My first time at a sushi bar...
I think Milwaukee needs one of these.

If any of you took a look at the profile about me on this blog you might have noticed that at the bottom the question, “How do you chase the lion?” is written down there. This post is about that.

A few years ago I was at a church service where Pastor Hartmann of Atonement Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI preached a sermon about “Chasing the Lion”. In fact the bulletin from that church service still sits in a frame in my apartment in the States to this very day. What was written on the front
of that bulletin encouraged me to continue doing some of the things that I had been doing at the time and stop doing some of the others. That bulletin has a lot to do with the reason for this leap of faith that I took. After hearing that sermon so many years ago I remember promising myself that when I die I wanted people to think of me as someone who was a lion chaser. About four days ago I finally decided to go ahead and take a look online at the book “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day”. At this moment I have only been able to read the first chapter (it’s provided online) because I refuse to pay for the shipping to get the book here. This book is where the whole “chase the lion” phrase comes from. Have a gander! And then let me know what you think!

20 years in Japan and finally at the age of 26
I eat raw fish!

Three days ago a man walked into the center around 3:00PM. To be honest this is very unusual. He is my first unplanned visitor to walk into the center since my first day here, which was about three weeks ago. He began by asking if he could start English class. I obviously said of course and we began by having a quick chat before my next English class came. Well in that 15-minute time frame I learned a whole lot about this guy. He was a pharmacist, lived across the street, and knew stellar English. Oh, and he learned English by reading a chemistry book. He ended up staying for about 3 ½ hours that first evening and participated in a very interesting Bible class…lots of questions were asked and I can remember some very specific times, where, if it were not for Pastor Hartmann being willing to answer my questions about “my faith”, I never would have been able to answer my fellow Bible studiers.

Sunrise at the Kesennuma Harbor/Fish Market

Any who, Mr. Masayuki returned the next day at 1:00PM for our scheduled English class. It was during this two-hour conversation where we talked about everything from food, cultural traditions, stereotypes, religion, soccer, and Hurling! But it was also during this conversation where I realized I was in the presence of a true “Lion Chaser”.

Oshima Island at Sunrise

It came out in our conversation that Mr. Masayuki had lost his father at about six years old. He said he never knew how to be a father because he didn’t have one to give him an example. He was fearful that he did not do his duty as a father for his own three sons. Trust me, he did… if you only knew what his sons are now doing we would give this guy the father of the year award! Any who, my student proceeded to tell me how he learned some English in junior high school but then when he went on to undergraduate school he was very poor. He was so poor that he bought English books instead of Japanese ones because those were cheaper. He managed to learn English using these books, graduated from undergraduate school and returned to the Kesennuma area to take care of his mother. He explained that he really wanted to go to post graduate school. However, because he believed in his responsibility to care for his mother, he returned to Kesennuma rather than chase that dream. Mr. Masayuki got married and had three boys. He worked at the hospital here in Kesennuma as a pharmacist. Well one day he received a letter informing him that he had been accepted to post graduate school. So what did he do? Well with three children he decided he was going to chase the lion. He would work his 50 hours a week and then early in the morning on Saturdays he would make the two-ish hour drive to Sendai to study all day Saturday and Sunday. He would return late Sunday night and head to work the very next morning. He did this for four years without ever taking a weekend off. He received his Master’s degree 20 years after he received his undergraduate degree. For twenty years he held on to his dream. And then when he was given the opportunity he didn’t hesitate, even though he knew it would be difficult for his family and for him. After receiving his Master’s degree he was offered a position to be a professor at the college. He chose not to accept it. He explained that it turned out to be a good thing, because had he taken it, he never would have met me and never would have been given this chance to learn more about Christianity… something he had always wanted to do.

One of my students brought me lunch!

Mr. Masayuki is truly a lion chaser. He saw the center’s calendar on the window and decided to take a chance. He decided to chase the lion. I hope that you all are having a wonderful week. I hope that maybe this post gives you a little inspiration to go ahead and grab on to that opportunity that was placed in front of you by God. And I hope that you enjoy the many blessings that God intends you to receive from it. As for me, every day I am reminded of the blessings God intended for me when He set this opportunity in front of me. As terrifying as it was to go for it I am forever thankful that I did.

more shots from around the Kesennuma area

How would you respond?

 

I was asked to write a human interest piece so here goes my attempt at something like that. This is not part of the Exodus 16 Series. 

How would you respond?

My first day at the center I had the honor of listening to a story about the Tsunami and its effect on the people in this region. The story was a second hand account about a gentleman and his family. This man who the story is about, I do not know his name, had been working at one of the hotels here in Kesennuma at the time of the earthquake. The hotel was built far up on a hill looking over the entire city.

The earthquake came that day as he was working as a chef. The earthquake was beyond frightening. But the earthquake came and went and this gentleman remained at his job to deal with the damage that had happened there at the hotel. Twenty minutes passed. That is when the Pacific Ocean unleashed all of its horror and strength on the north east coast cities of Japan. Kesennuma was one of those cities. Thirty percent of the city was destroyed by water. When the tsunami came the gentleman was safe because he was high enough. Unfortunately though his home was not. But not just his home, his wife, his children and his parents were also not high enough because they were in his home. The home and family that he was going to work every day to provide for. His home was swept away by that terrifying water we were talking about. And so was his family. According to the gentleman who told the story the family has not been found and the husband has no one but himself.

Last week during one of my English classes we had a very small earthquake. It hit quick and it left just as so. But the look in my student’s eyes did not. I had seen this look many times in my past career as a social worker. It was a look that people exhibit when they have flashbacks. We had to stop class for a bit because I could tell that my student had just been re-traumatized. I shifted my focus quickly off of English and on to him. We talked about his experience and we talked about the things he had seen back at the time of the Tsunami. No he was not the man from the hotel. But he was a man and he had endured a significant amount of trauma. He also had been re-traumatized numerous times since March of 2011.

The last couple of days I have had plenty of time to think about every thing I had seen and heard here in my first two weeks in Kesennuma. One of the things I tend to do is try to put myself in someone’s shoes and try to see if I can experience what thoughts may occur in some ones head if this were to happen. Here is what started to come up in my head when I did that:

20 Minutes. I could have done something.  Did I fail as a father? A husband? A son? I should have done more. I should have chosen them instead of work…but I didn’t have a choice…or did I? Why did this happen to me? Why couldn’t I have been taken instead of them? It’s my fault. I hate God. I hate life. Maybe they are still alive and I just haven’t found them. They can’t be gone. They were all I had.

I know I will never be able to put myself in his shoes but even trying to if you really try hard enough you will be overcome by so much sadness that you realize you need some way to pick yourself up out of the mood you just got yourself in. The sorrow of loosing a loved one is indescribable. But loosing your whole family with out ever getting to say good-bye is hopefully something you and I will never have to endure.

I thought about what I would do if I were to meet this man and to be honest I hope I don’t. I don’t know what I would do. In fact I don’t know if I could handle hearing his story. If I did meet him though I would give him a hug and I would ask him if he wanted to tell his story and then I would cry with him for as long as he wanted. Then when we were finished crying I would ask him if he wanted to plan to meet again so that we could cry some more. I would keep doing this until he was ready to continue on through the grieving process. And hopefully in that process I would have the opportunity to share the gospel with him.

My English student is only one of tens of thousands who have to deal with flash backs of the March 11^th Tsunami, every day. In the United States we flood a school with counselors when a fellow student dies. Here, in Japan, that doesn’t happen even when cities are wiped out. That’s partly a culture thing. But even with cultural barriers we are all humans. We all suffer and we all sin. Most of all we all need Christ because when we have begun that grieving process of loosing a loved one or a friend Christ is there to give us comfort. Christ is there to give us eternal life. Christ is the one there with open arms saying, “I love you! You are not alone”. How could you make it if you didn’t have that?

Japan has always been notorious for being a difficult mission field. It is not easy to talk about Christ here. In fact it’s freaking hard. This northern part of Japan I remember was considered to be especially difficult. This was “old country” which meant that new ideas and new religions were “out”. But since this tremendous disaster occurred nearly one year ago this area has become an opportunity. God gave you and I a gift. Maybe not exactly the way most would like it but he gave us a gift. He gave us an opportunity to spread his love and grace to a region that would have been passed over because of the lack of opportunity. There is a lot of clean up to do here…but there is even more church work to do. God gave us a pretty clear wake up call with this disaster. God might have well said “These people need me too, don’t pass them over, share my love with them too”. So that’s what we are going to do!

EXODUS 16 Part 1

Hello all of you nourished and well cared for individuals!!! And hello all you who are not!!!
As promised Part One of the EXODUS 16 series is going to address the topic of basic needs.
You all know what these are. Many of you though may just never think about it like this. Well today is the day you get to.  So hang in there until the end and then take some time to ponder before asking questions.

The idea of basic needs and how they affect our daily lives was studied and written about by many, but society generally gives the credit to a man by the name of, Abraham Maslow. He came up with something we like to call Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Triangle.  Now if you studied even a hint of psychology, business, communication, or education you likely should have heard of this at least once. The problem with this theory is that Maslow is off track a lot of the times. Go ahead and Google Maslow and you will come up with more proof disproving his theory that proving it. So now you are probably thinking, ‘Jesse, you best find someone else to talk about because you’re not helping out much with your credibility here’… I know, but remember, stick with me on this until the end.
So even though Maslow has been disproved regarding many aspects of his theory there are some little bits he has right. And I can prove that. One of the few things Maslow had right is that there are very specific things that every single human being needs to be able to remain alive. This is not just for individualistic cultures. This includes every human being. What are they? Well Maslow uses the term Physiological Needs. Go ahead and start your Google search. When you get a triangle to come up on your screen you are going to see that on the bottom part of that triangle, under physiological needs, he lists things like air, food, water, shelter, warmth, and sleep.

You may find some that lists “sex” as well. Before you get all crazy on me understand why that is on there. From what I have read and come to understand, sex was included because for mankind to continue they must reproduce. Therefore a basic need for any SOCIETY is to have somebody making babies…preferably these are people that are ready to accept the responsibility of being a parent.
Anyway, back to those other basic needs. I would be willing to start a dialogue with anyone who could prove to me that they will be able to live without air, food, water, shelter, warmth, and/or sleep. For those of you who have ever camped or thought about camping, there are very specific things that you bring along with you. You bring your basics.  This includes food, a tent, a sleeping bag, and a water bottle with fresh water or maybe a water filter. You do that because you know that if something happens to you then you know you will survive with those things. Have you ever watched Man vs. Wild? Do you ever pay attention to what things he is always trying to find? It is warmth, shelter, and food. If he doesn’t have one of those things he knows he will not last long out in the wild.

Let’s see if I can give you some examples of how societies realize that basic needs are important. In foster care children are provided with shelter. In fact that is one of the first things I would have to figure out after it was decided that a child needed to be moved. We had to figure out where to put this human being so that they would be in a place that provides protection from the elements. We have homeless shelters in many large cities. Why? If protection from natural elements wasn’t something we needed why would we bother building structures to do that? That’s not just in the United States. Go ahead and open you history books or Google search for ways that people protect themselves from the elements in countries around the world. Examples… igloos? Ummmm teepees? Ummmm any form of tent or sod houses? Temporary housing units in the disaster area here in Japan…

What about water? I’m not an expert but I would be willing to do an experiment for you if we get enough votes. How long could you last without water? How long could you last without water in the desert? What about the rainforest? I don’t think I have to try too hard to prove to you that food and water are essential to your ability to live and function. But just in case, what about what we see public schools doing in the United States? They provide meals in the morning, at lunch and even at the end of the day. WHY? Because. Nourishment is essential to human functioning. Administrators know that when the children walk into the classroom on a full stomach vs. an empty one they are going to be able to focus better and they are going to be able to retain information. The time spent in school will be efficient. But food isn’t the only thing that they need to do that. It is just one of the major players here.

Lastly, what about sleep and warmth? Sleep is another one of those fairly logical ones, right? I mean you might make it a day or even two without sleep.  But when you tried that back in college, honestly, how well did you do at retaining knowledge? Or when you were young or old and you tried to stay out late with an old friend but then went into work the next day…How productive were you? Were you able to use your time efficiently, or did all you think about was how much you wished you could take a nap? Please understand I am just saying this from experience. If you are a super human being that has the ability to go without sleep your whole life and still be as productive and still have the same psychological functioning of someone who does sleep, you best call me up. Because we are going to make a ton of money together!!!

Ok, so then warmth. When is the last time you walked out in 35-degree weather wearing nothing but underwear? If you did that you got cold right? Does it get cold in the desert? FYI…IT DOES!!! Do you remember learning in grade school about warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals? Do you remember hearing about how humans are warm-blooded? Do you remember what that means? If you don’t, go ahead and Google that too.

So why is this important? Well, do you remember how Milwaukee schools feed their kids so that A. they don’t die from starvation and B. so that they are able to perform better in the classroom? That’s what we are getting at here. Humans in a disaster situation, just like humans who are not, need to have their basic needs met. When this happens they are able to be more efficient with their minds and their bodies. It is not to say that they can’t do things with their minds and bodies when these needs are not met, but it’s rather difficult. Try to not sleep for the next couple of days. What do you think about? If you are in one of those colder regions of the world turn off your heat and open your window for the day. What are you thinking about? Now try to sit down and learn something. Try to stalk people on Facebook. It’s hard. You have trouble focusing because all you can think about is what you don’t have, but need. I’m not saying you can’t do it. I’m sure you can for a while. I am saying that you are going to be much more productive, whether it be doing your homework or Facebook stalking, if you are fed, warm in a building, can breathe, and your mouth isn’t dry.

I promised to give you an example from society today. How about Child Welfare (I can speak about that because that is what the majority of my work experience has been with)? In child welfare as a case manager you have to ensure that children on your caseload are getting their basic needs met. That’s why foster parents have to go through so many classes and criminal checks and financial checks. As a case manager you want to know that someone is going to 1. Be able to provide a stable house or apartment for the child. That’s why if there are some pending criminal issues or maybe some evictions on their record we are extra leery about the person. 2. I check their refrigerator and their cupboards to see if they have food in the home for them and the child. 3. I take a look at the living space. Is there a bed for the child so they can sleep? Are there clean linens for the bed with blankets for the child? 4. Do you have an income? How do you pay your bills? What’s your electric bill like usually? I make sure that their heat works and that they will be able to ensure that it will always be working. I also need to do this so that I can ensure that they are able to pay their water bill. 5. Do you have any animals? Is the house clean or is it dusty or musty? Some kids have asthma and I need to ensure that they are able to breathe in whatever home I place them in. There are a whole set of questions I ask after I find out these five points. If at any time one of these first five points is not appropriate or up to par then either a plan must be identified to address it so that it is brought up to par or I move on to the next possible placement.

While I was doing my research about basic needs and about this whole series in general, I found some interesting information regarding other organizations that do Disaster Aide and Relief. For example, there is an organization that gets water purifiers into countries that do not have clean water (Water of Life). BOOM! That’s meeting a basic need. There is an organization that provides goats to families so that they can use this goat for survival. BOOM! That’s meeting a basic need. There is an organization that provides all of the needed basic needs for children in disaster situations specifically. (Convoy of Hope). Boom! There is an organization that provides coats to children who are in need of one. (Operation Warm) UMMMMMM BOOM!That's meeting basic needs! Look up your local food pantry list. If you are in the Milwaukee area, call 211 and ask them, they will give you a list of agencies whose number one purpose is to meet a basic need like nutrition. Guess what?! When you Google Aide and Relief organizations and you look a little bit deeper you will see the same thing I did. Most of the organizations you find will have a religious cornerstone. Why? Because they asked that famous question. What would Jesus do? Take a look at some of these other resources: (Other resources).

What kind of examples can you find of God giving to us (or his people) in situations where his people were in need? When is the last time you read the story about Jesus feeding the five thousand (not including women and children)? Have you read Exodus 16 yet? If not, haven’t you wondered why I titled this blog series that? There are actually a couple of reasons. But in regards to this post I want to focus on this. There were a lot of Israelites. Actually there were 600,000, not including women and children (Exodus 12:37). And they were in the desert and they didn’t have anything to eat. I don’t know about you but I would be willing to make an argument that 600,000+ people not having any food and in the middle of the desert would satisfy the definition of a disaster. So what does God do? Longish story made short, God provides for His people’s basic need to eat.

Catch my drift? If you are curious about what basic needs the LECC Center identified as needing to be met I invite you to take a look at the WELS (Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod) website under the blogs section (Blogs about Japan Relief). The Jaspersens, who preceded me, have an excellent blog explaining what basic need was met. Have a gander (as Steve Carran would say). You will enjoy it!

We aren’t done yet. I haven’t made my whole point clear yet. Read all of Exodus 16. It is short. You can handle it. Does God just put the quail and manna on a plate for his people every morning? No. He doesn’t. But that’s what the next post will get into. Empowering people!!!! My FAVORITE!!!!
Now if you actually read this whole thing I applaud you! Really, I would have given up two pages ago. I want to let you know that it is all right for you to ask questions on this blog. This is not a blog that I just talk and never listen. I look forward to getting comments. Good or bad. But I warn you, don’t come into my neck of the woods and make a comment without being able to back it up. You better do your research and you best be able to defend a comment that you make. I have no problem being wrong. I love being wrong…it happens all the time.  I love it because then I get to learn. So please comment either on the blog or shoot me an email (hieb.jah@gmail.com). Getting a response is rewarding and encourages me to work harder and harder.

Have a wonderful Monday! God bless your week and if you see my fiancé please let her know that she looks fantastic, for me!!!!

Introduction to Series: "EXODUS 16"

It has been a very interesting last couple of days. What I left out of my last blog was my observations and conversations that I have had with the numerous people that have entered into the LECC Rescue Center’s doors.

On my first day alone at the center (02/04/2012) I had about five visitors in the morning. It was obvious what these visitors had come for. They enjoyed the warm room with out a doubt. In fact as soon as you walk out of the doors in the hallway it is so cold you see your breath. That’s why I keep the room extra toasty! Some of you who know me well are likely surprised by this, I am not a fan of hot places and living in cold weather is what I love.

This isn’t the main reason they walked through our doors. The main reason they walked through those doors that day was because they were cold. Plain and simple, it was freaking cold out and even someone like me needed a coat. They were very aware of what the center had offered to other people. They asked me “Do you have any blankets?” (In Japanese of course). And guess what I was able to say?!

I found Mushu from MULAN!!!!

Nope! But I have socks!?! The look on their face was all I needed and I knew exactly what they were thinking… “oooooo socks! I need those because my feet have been numb for the last week and a half… I could use that!” They did not actually say this to me but it doesn’t mean they weren’t thinking it. Do you know though what else they asked me? “Are you going to get more blankets? Thank you for the socks but will you be getting any other supplies? When do you think that will come? My response: “I am really sorry. I don’t know. But please come back and check and I will see what I can do.”

Later on that morning two older women came to the center. They were there for the same reason as the others. My response to them was the same. This time though the ladies stuck around for a while and allowed me to serve them some coffee. We actually had a great conversation (ish). As good as you can have when you are still working on your Japanese. About mid way through our conversation English class came up. I offered to teach them English. Their response; “LOL, how about you learn Japanese… we have bigger things to worry about right now.” I am going to go out on a limb right now and say that they were talking about all that destruction the Tsunami did almost a year ago… just a guess.

So this got me thinking. What am I doing here? I mean I know what I am doing here but do you know what I am doing here? And better than that do you know what you are doing there?

These questions have driven me to do some thinking and some research the past couple of days. What I decided to do was provide all of you beautiful people with a series of blog posts that are going to come out over the next week or two. I’m going to answer those questions I just asked and I’m going to sell this to you! We are going to call this series… Exodus 16.

Here is the outline of the six posts to come:

1. Basic needs

- What are they?

- Why are basic needs important (examples)?

- How they vary across cultures and examples of how basic needs are met across cultures

- How to use meeting basic needs to spread the word of God, examples from the bible

2. Empowering your target population

- What do you mean Empower?

- Example from my life

- Example from the Bible

3. Two stories about empowerment at the Center

- Mr. Suzuki San

- Mr. Satoshi San

4. Aide and Relief

Is that like building houses and stuff?

5. How does providing English class fit into Disaster Aide and Relief?

6. Soooooo What’s the Plan?

Here is a little video from my drive through Kesennuma!

Trip to the Peninsula

 

So its been a bit since I wrote a blog so I am going to give you a bit of info about what I have been up to these last couple of days at the Center and in Kesennuma.

Feb. 4 – This was the first day that Pastor Nadaira was not in Kesennuma with me. I opened the center up at 10 AM and by 11:00AM I had already had five visitors. Needless to say my brain was drained after that. My Japanese still needs a bit of work but I was able to understand enough to know what they were asking. Any thing I had difficulty saying I choose to have "Google Translate" help me with. Since this is Google supported I am able to use it at the Center. (FYI the Center does not have its own Internet. I could plug my computer in downstairs to use the internet but that’s not very convenient. I also didn’t have a router to bring with me as the Jaspersens recommended. There is however a an open WIFI signal but I can only use certain sites such as any thing Google supported… This could change if I decided to become a member of what ever organization it is run by but…That’s not going to happen while I am here. Let me make it clear though. I am not stealing internet…it says I can use the Google supported sites for free and with out being a member.)

So besides the five visitors in the morning the rest of my day was pretty chill until about 3:00PM. I had a man by the name of Suzuki San stop in at the center. He explained that he was interested in ESL. We talked for a little while. He has explained that he had not used his English that he had learned in school for a very long time. When I asked him when he wanted to study he replied; “Every day!” I was completely fine with this so we agreed that starting Wednesday of next week we would begin ESL class. He also explained though that he was unable to pay very much for the class so he may not be able to do it every day. I told him I would give him a good discount and would do this class for free. He seemed very excited about this. Don’t worry though I told him later that no one has to pay for this and that the ESL classes are all free for every one. He still seemed pretty pumped about it though. I am excited to see what happens with this.

Later that evening I was scheduled to have English class with Mrs. Sato and her friend. Unfortunately her friend was unable to attend because of the bad weather so Mrs. Sato and I had a one on one session. Mrs. Sato explained to me that she wanted to do English class but she also wanted to do Bible class. It was Mrs. Sato who had the idea to have Bible class in English so that we could cover both objectives. We started with the story of Moses. Mrs. Sato explained that she has always been very interested by this story and this is why she wanted to start here. We went ahead and used the “Bible stories in Pictures” booklets that are here at the Center. The class went very well. We had a great discussion about Moses; in fact we went fifteen minutes over our time. Mrs. Sato and I agreed to figure out a time next week to continue with the bible lessons. God is awesome!

 

Feb. 5

Sunday was a rough day at first. The center was scheduled to be closed but I was not feeling so hot so I decided to sleep a bit. This obviously did not last very long though. I couldn’t stand to see my day off go to waste with me sleeping in my hotel. So I put on an excessive amount of layers and decided to take my first shot at driving in Japan… YIKES!!!! I wasn’t that good at driving in America… so I bet you can guess how this experience went down! Actually it wasn’t all that bad. I made one mistake… which I will not tell any of you. All you need to know is that I am fine and the van is fine. Although the van may be suffering from a mild case of PTSD.

Anyway I went and checked out the Peninsula out here. There were some really cool shots except I realized once I was out there that the battery on my camera was dead… no worries though I went back the next day for another hike and this time I have some awesome shots to show you.

 

Feb. 6

MONDAY, FUNDAY!!!

The Fliers from the Tokyo church arrived today!!! The fliers explain what the center’s hours will be for the rest of the month. I spent the morning distributing these to the Temporary housing units. A shout out to the Jaspersens for leaving me a map that had all the temporary housing locations on it… with out it I would have been lost. Also today the Van was re-traumatized, but don’t worry there is no cosmetic damage J.

After distributing the fliers I figured I would go for a bit of a hike back on the Peninsula. This time to the very tip of the Peninsula where there is a shrine and some excellent hiking trails (There is also a campsite so I wanted to go check that out to see if it would fit my winter camping needs J).

Here are some pics of the spot!!! It’s pretty awesome!

Gate to the Shrine

This box is where you would put your offering to the gods in. You would then ring the Bell to wake the god so that they could hear your prayer.

Looking out at the Pacific Ocean

There is a small pool of water there that seems to be fed by ocean water but there doesn't seem to be any obvious inlet or outlet. I promise to make my way down there and get some better shots of it for all of you!

This is what the rock formations looked like up close. It looks like a bunch of tortilla Shells stacked next to each other...

My awesome Keen shoes

Feb. 7

It was raining today in Kesennuma. Today the center is closed again to give me time to hand out the rest of the fliers. Success!!! Reminds me of the good ole days when we were forced as children to walk miles and miles in dangerous conditions to deliver fliers. Just Kidding Dad!!! It was good training!!! 

Any who, after handing out fliers I got to have my first attempt at shopping in a Japanese grocery store… things are a lot different when you don’t have a bilingual mother to get the groceries.

This marked the top of the mountain.

After that wonderful experience I figured I would try to get in a bit of a work out. The other day I had noticed there was a parking area just before entering a tunnel on one of the highways. I figured this might be a good spot to park and attempt a hike up one of the mountains. I was right!!! Here are some shots of the hike.

I was pleasantly surprised when I reached the top of the mountain. In fact it was one of the most gorgeous views I had ever seen. I plan to make that hike a few more times before the end of this trip. Hope you enjoy the shots. How cool is that sky right? It actually started to rain while I was up there so the trip was a bit freaky on the way down. Narrow muddy paths with an almost straight down drop…maybe next time I will do better planning. Then again it was a rush so probably not.

 

Feb. 8

The Center is open and I am over my Jet leg. Still working on the cold though. Mrs. Sato just brought me some medicine for that though so I am hoping it works some miracles. I will let you know how today goes once it is over. Our hours today are 10AM-12PM, 1PM-5PM and 7PM-8:30 PM.

Hey so I decided its time we get a few more followers of this blog! I know there are lots of you looking at it so why not just take that extra lil leap and become a follower. For every follower this blog gets I will bring back a lil souvenir. Now there will be some restrictions... I decide the souvenir (I will not let you down) and you need to meet up with me, in person, to get it... so that I can personally thank you for your support. Now if you are already from Japan well then I don't have a lot of good news for you but I would still love to meet up with you in person to thank you!

Click here to watch a video from my first night in Japan

Top: Pastor Nidaira and I in the hotel lobby before he left Kesennuma. The train station is right next to the hotel...which makes things very convienient.

Middle: The Sushi that was waiting for me in Tsuchiura City my first eening in Japan. I grew up in the town of Tsuchiura. Tomita San who is the church secretary there left this for me along with a ton of other stuff. YUM!!!

Bottom: Pastor Nidaira felt that it was hilarious that my first task in Japan was going to be shoveling snow. He Just felt it was necessary that we take a picture to show all of you. :) If you are wondering; "how small is that shovel?" The answer would be; very very very small!

God is good. God knows best. God totally got rid of any doubt that I had in my mind yesterday...my first day in Kesennuma, Japan.

As with traditional Jet leg has it I woke up at about 1:15 AM and there was no chance of falling asleep again. I figured I would make some use out of this and got ready for a run... my lack of motivation for this superseded the desire to get back in shape though so it wasn't till about 5:00AM that I finally put shoes on and headed down stairs.

I have to hand in my Key when ever I leave the hotel so when the hotel clerk saw me he looked at me kind of oddly. It may have had something to do with me wearing shorts and having yaktracks on my shoes. That run started out well. I let myself get lost in Kesennuma for a while until I ended up down by the harbor. The harbor at 5:30 AM is an amazing sight. It wasn't quite sun rise yet and most of the fishing boats had already docked with their days catch. The fish market was still busy though. It was about this time that it started getting light out. That was the first chance I got to see all of the destruction the Tsunami did. It would blow any of us away. pictures of the destruction don't do this Tsunami justice. There were boats in areas where they should have been able to get to. There were buildings completely demolished. All that was left was the foundations. There were buildings that were standing but the first couple of floors were completely missing. It is really unbelievable.

At 10:00AM Pastor Nidaira picked me up from the hotel and we went to get my first glimpse of the center that I was going to be calling home for the next two months. While waiting to meet the Sato's we had a man come to the center. He had explained that he had received a flier from back in December and it said that the center would open the second time in February...so he figure he would come to check it out. He stayed for a while and talked about the day the earth quake and Tsunami hit. I wasn't really able to understand what was going on. My Japanese is still pretty rough and when the Japanese talk as fast as they do... any way I picked up on a few words. If t weren't for Mrs. Sato coming and helping me understand what was going on in the conversation I would have been completely lost.


I have my first class! Mrs. Sato and one of her friends are hoping to expand on their English and are hoping to take a test that would get them their certificate to become Examiners...from the sounds of if they were able to achieve this status they would be of a very elite group who has their certificate. So we decided to start tomorrow at 4:00PM!

Mrs. Sato's friend explained to me that having me come was a gift from God. She proceeded to tell me that her and Mrs. Sato sometimes talk about God. My response. "Oh cool I love talking about God"

Ms. Sato and her friend also talked about getting other people involved to have English class with me. both lady took some fliers to give to their friends. We also talked about getting some children's classes started and finding out if there were any Students that the ladies worked with that were interested in receiving additional ESL tutoring.

The crazy thing about all of this... I have never taught ESL and I have absolutely no materials to begin teaching ESL. The best part about that is that this means I get to be creative with my lessons. I decided I would approach these classes the same way I approach doing Jesus Cares Ministry and Worship at the Cross. That means I am going to make ESL more fun than anyone has ever seen. Stay tuned for more details on that!

Ms. Sato also talked about being part of Toast Masters in Kesennuma...I always figured this was something my friend Phil Scharrer did to sound cool but it turns out he wasn't kidding about what it is. I asked Ms. Sato if I could attend the meetings with her. She appeared delighted that I would want to. So that will start next Thursday!

After our last meeting pastor Nidaira and I went for a drive around the town. he tested me to see if I could figure out where we were on the map...I think I did pretty awesome. He took me to see the destruction. I realized that what I had seen this morning was just a tiny little bit of what had actually taken place back in March of 2011. My mouth stayed dropped for the half hour ride we took. I can't believe I am here. I can't believe that for some crazy reason God would want me of all people to be here. Pastor Nidaira and I talked about that a bit later over dinner. I explained that God knew the worries I had and knew my weaknesses and that today he had shown me that he wasn't worried about what I was worried about. In fact God decided to put the kibosh (spelling?) on all of the worries I had today. He provided two human resources to me to aide me. And then he showed me as simply as he could what exactly he wanted me to do and how I was going to do it.

God is good. God knows best. God totally got rid of any doubt that I had in my mind yesterday...my first day in Kesennuma, Japan.

A little assignment for those of you who are reading this. Come up with a passage from the Bible that I could have ended this post with. I have a couple in my mind but lets see what you come up with. Also only lets not get greedy and post like ten passages...lets give every one a shot at this :)