We've arrived! Sorry for not blogging sooner. Other photos and videos will be up later but I really want to record for y'all the main points before I forget, everything is so hectic.
So I met up with the team late on saturday night at an Italian restaurant in Asakusa pretty much a stones throw from the temple's Thunder gate. Aki and Azusa had welcomed and taken them around already including buying groceries. Everyone looked fine, they hadn't slept much on the plane though. Harry was also there he was to leave on Sunday night. Speaking of nights, after returning to the hostel we had a team meeting where the basic flow was explained but alot of things were yet to be specifically decided. As a side note I find it worthy to mention that Harry broke a chair that both me we sitting on. It was fine with me just sitting on it but after about 30 minutes with his 25% extra weight it broke into pieces.
The next morning, the lack of sleep on the plane and abrupt change in weather had taken it's tall. The team set off with Azusa to Musashi-somewhere and met up with Aki to attend the church service where Aki was giving his testimony. Prior to that we had a chance to meet the pastor, Aki was explaining to the pastor about how they had just from Australia yesterday. The remark I caught was "ah, so that's why they have these faces", whatever the intonation I think it actually looked more in our favour that we came to church so early in the morning despite our fatigue. The pastor was indeed very happy to meet us, as well many members of the congregation who before or after came by to greet us, give us a bookmark, shake our hands, make small conversation. All of these things were just great examples of a serious commitment to welcoming despite language barrier.
After church we had lunch at Matsuya, which is basically fast Japanese food with the whole vending machine ticket buying system. Next up was Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka! We still had everyone with us as we entered Studio Ghibli Museum (Studio Ghibli makes high quality animated Japanese movies, such popular titles as Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, most recently Ponyo). Throughout the Museum you get the feel of what kind of work is needed to produce animated films from the many animated and interactive things throughout the place. I think the most interesting for me was a machine that spun figures around in a circle super fast, in the dark and using stroke lights at a precise moments to illuminate the figures in such away creating the illusion of movement. When stopped it basically looks like a whole set of copies of the same figurine but in gradually different poses. Unfortunately, photos weren't allowed so I couldn't record this awesomeness. We also got to as part of our entry fee, watch a short animated film about mice sumo. Even though it was short seeing the attention to detail and quality of animation and just humour present in the film was really cool. After Studio Ghibli we went to buy some more groceries and also hit up a sushi train joint. What is cool about sushi train restaurants here is that the chefs are in the middle of the train and you can actually order from them if what you want is not on the train.
That night after bidding Aki and Azusa and Harry goodbye the team retired and they may have had a brief meeting but I went via home to the hostel to pickup some more stuff.
Finally, I come to what we did on Monday. First, slept in a precious hour more, I overindulged but still after breakfast we did some prep for the KGK meeting we were having tonight. Some people worked on powerpoints, some on counting money, others still on skits and brochures. We did this up until late lunch time and then set out for our meeting in Ochanomizu, which meants the water from tea. Firstly, we met up with Makiko-san, the KGK staffworker who was in charge of co-operating with us and organising what events and uniersity visits we would do with KGK. We first introduced ourselves and tried to give Makiko-san a better idea of how AFES rolls, how we worked with Credo in Australia and then Makiko-san explained the schedule in more detail to us. I have to say it's pretty rough we pretty much only have early mornings for breakfast, prep and meetings afternoon to late night is being somewhere and doing something. We spent the last and majority component brainstorming and planning out how we would conduct Australia night which is an event we'll be holding as an outreach. So far it looks like we'll be doing some bush dancing, eating damper and anzac biscuits, a skit on the prodigal son and a short message. After this meeting that went on for a fair few hours we had a bigger meeting with the Ochanomizu block. KGK is nationwide, divided in 9 areas and each area is made of any number of blocks of universities. On average you are looking at 1 staffworker for each area, the bigger areas around Tokyo and Osaka have 2. A far cry from Credo's 11 just for UTS. After a short program involving worship, introducing AFES and KGK to each other and some prayer for both the team was individually split up among 6 eating tables. It was here we got to really fellowship with our Christian siblings, the team's first real student interaction. Most Japanese around this age would have gone through 6 years of English study in school so they are really good, but on the other very self-conscious of the fact that they aren't perfect. On my table at least there seemed a few more shy ones, one obvious extravert and two that at least can at the very least sympathise enough to care for me by asking things to make me feel welcome. The genuine expression of interest and asking me things about myself despite my Japanese not being so great, I felt very welcome and reflected on how insensitive I was towards International students in Australia. I knew it might be difficult for them, but damn hard is the only truthful way to put it, studying abroad that is.
After meeting and fellowship over dinner the team headed home and nothing more than sleep was on the Agenda.
Praise points:
- KGK made such a great effort to receive us and will continue to do so while co-operating with us
- It seems that a mission team from SIngapore is also coming here in one or two days in fact, and they have quite similar schedule to us so we will definitely get a chance to meet them, it's so encouraging to see Christian's from other countries missioning to the same country we are. A huge blessing to also able to meet said Christians and hear their story.
- Everyone has adjusted reasonably well to the change in climate, culturally too.
- For those student families that are taking us in to their homes and churches for a few days
Prayer points
- Please pray for rest and health, our sched is so packed we won't be cooking much and to keep us working diligently we really need to pace ourselves especially before we starting our biking/tracting later on.
- Pray that Harry would be able to join for as much important stuff as he can and that he would be encouraged by being able to see God's work being done here in Japan.
- Pray for spiritualy strength for the team, that we would continue to preach the Gospel to ourselves and continually be amazed by aspects of God's character and the salvation we have received. So that we may share this great news.
- Pray for great fellowship with KGK students and great outreach to those who are lost.
Chestnut Soil sends you greetings from Japan, thanking you for supporting us,
ybic - Alen
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