PDF version is here. Japanese version is here.
Never a dull moment
Seasons greetings to you all from a cold and frosty Nagahama! I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and a relaxing New Year. I aimed to get this newsletter out last month, but as you’ll see, there’s been an awful lot going on!
One of the things I most enjoy about my job is that it really rewards the generalist, the dabbler and the jack-of-all-trades. (And, some would say, the master of none!) Over the past few weeks I’ve been carrying out a number of roles, and I think that looking at each of these will give you a taste of what’s going on out here...
Photographer
I wasn’t just there to take the photos; in fact, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
At 83 years old, last month Mrs H accepted baptism. As she said in her moving testimony, “My sins have been washed away; I have become a child of God.”
I've been using Mrs H as an example in my sermons recently, because I've been preaching a lot about the believer's joy. We often talk about being “born again” until it becomes a trite phrase, but to see someone of her age rejuvenated and full of joy reminds me why we say it.
And it reminds me why I'm here.
Cook
I spent most of the run up to Christmas cooking mince pies and preparing vegetable stock. On Christmas eve, I cooked a traditional English Christmas dinner, with all the trimmings, for the church and also for those JET English teachers who are not going back home for the winter break. I had planned for about twenty guests, and was a little worried that nobody would come - until they came and kept coming, and we fed fifty people Christmas dinner!
The feeding of the fifty
After dinner, we went out carolling in the local shopping center, and then held our candle service. It was a great opportunity in lots of ways: for our English and Japanese congregations to fellowship together; for us to get to know some of the JET teachers better; and to reach out to the Christmas shoppers and passers-by and let them know that the church is there for them!
Computer Guy
A few weeks ago I went to our headquarters building armed with a hundred metres of network cable, three wireless access points, and two helpful assistants, and rigged up a wireless network throughout the HQ. This means that we can now have Internet access during our monthly pastors meetings, missionary conferences and any other times we use the HQ building.
I’ve also been working on our mission web site, adding tools which help us co-ordinate short-term worker applications and new missionary orientation.
Actor
At the end of November I performed my first wedding! Many couples in Japan want a Christian (read: Hollywood) wedding but want nothing to do with a Christian church, so the commercial sector has stepped in: hotels and dedicated wedding companies have recreated the church wedding experience by building traditional Christian chapels, decking them out with organs and choirs... and hiring Western vicars - or those who are prepared to don the robes and pretend to be vicars.
My field leader has been quite involved in the wedding business, seeing an opportunity there to develop relationships, not with the bride and groom (who, let’s face it, you only see for two hours) but with the choir and wedding venue staff. While he was out of the country at a WEC conference, I was asked to step in.
The wedding itself went off fine, thanks to the occasional subtle prompt from the choirmaster, and it was an interesting inside view into an industry which, let’s face it, is planting “churches” faster than we are.
I don’t think I will be doing it again in a hurry, at least not until I have to cover for my field leader again. Which is, I believe, this Saturday...
Children’s Entertainer
Someone’s gotta be Santa...
As well as my various Christmas duties, I’ve also been into a couple of local primary schools to talk about life in the UK. It’s been fun talking to the kids and answering their questions. Nothing missionary about it - I thought - until I met one of the other “foreign guests”, a Filipino lady who lives a few blocks away from me and who has been wanting to come to church for the past few years. I hope this contact can help her to get back into the church community.
Philosopher
My first Christmas and New Year in Japan have been a time for reflection and thought about my time here in Japan and my work. And it has been a time of many contradictions!
I have been thinking hard about how to do my job, but then I have been reminded again that this is not my job but God’s job.
I have left myself eager for a “new challenge” but that has reminded me that whatever I’m doing and wherever I’m doing it is God’s challenge for me right now.
I have felt myself under pressure to plan out what I want to achieve this year, but then I have been reminded that I have no idea what God has in store for me.
All I know is, it’s going to be fantastic...
As of next month, we’re hoping as a field to produce a monthly newsletter, which will summarise all of what’s going on around our missionaries and in our churches.
Please let me know if you’d like to receive this newsletter as well!