Self Reflection by Jonny

This is Jonny. I am writing a self-reflection on the trip. I will not be writing too much about the day-to-day, since we have already documented most of it on the blog already. Instead I will write about my thoughts about the trip as a whole, and what God has taught me.

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“I can’t believe that this is actually happening,” I thought. “This is real, and we are on our way to Japan.” We were flying out of San Francisco as the downtown disappeared from our small plane window.  Many of my team members shared the same sentiment as I did as we were finally on our plane ride to Japan, after months of preparation time. I know it wasn’t my first time going, but it was no less exciting for me. We weren’t foolproof in our day-to-day plans, but we had prepared enough that we could adapt easily when we were there. However, God provides, as He promised that He would. Flash forward two weeks, and suddenly, what seemed like a world away has quickly faded into seemingly distant memory.

Memories were made, relationships formed, and the gospel of Jesus Christ was ministered to some of the Japanese families of the Otawara community. The Japanese parents, as well as Pastor Tomio & his wife, and the church expressed their gratitude to us throughout the time we were there. We received many blessings in the form of thank you notes written by the kids, Japanese “hand-fans” (lack of better term) with our picture on it, countless pieces of candy, dinner, and even a thank-you ceremony for the team.  Despite them saying they were blessed, I want to say that the pleasure and the greater blessings was mine. All throughout the trip was an amazing tale of God’s work in the short time we were there. I could not have expected any better.

While we were only there for two weeks, my teammates and I witnessed first hand how God was working. As a result of last year’s program, we had five times as many kids as we did last year (there was about 40 each day this time around), which is a major testament that the church had gained some trust among the Otawara community and opened the door for the church to serve. But the bigger blessing is that a few of the mothers of the children that came to our program had expressed interest and made appointments with Pastor Tomio to study the Bible with him.

We knew well that the mission trip could simply be one of planting seeds without seeing fruit, which I would have been content with. It is still true that we did plant seeds. Pastor Tomio had explained to us that many of the Japanese Christians who became Christians actually have had some experience with the church before as younger children. If God wills, then perhaps our children’s program would one day lead them back into the arms of loving brothers and sisters in Christ, and ultimately the Lord Jesus. Earlier, I said that we were the ones that received the greater blessing, because of the fact that we had the privilege of not only planting the seeds in the children’s spiritual destiny, but also witness some of the beginning effects of putting on these programs. Praise God.

On deciding to come to Japan this second time, I expressed that one of my reasons for going is to make sure that my heart is fully committed to the Great Commission whether by going myself, or supporting those who do. Going on this trip was to remind me of this holy duty. God has definitely fulfilled my desire. I have witnessed first hand on how God can work powerfully through missionaries who truly care for God’s glory and genuinely desire to love the people as Jesus loved. Whether in the future I would go again to Otawara again or not, one thing is clear on my mind: by God’s will, I will do my best to support the efforts of the Great Commission. I am so thankful that God has allowed me the opportunity to have gone a second time.

 God has grown me personally in other ways while I was on the mission trip. The trip itself was definitely not without its bumps along the way. These bumps are trials that God puts in our paths to grow us and to mend us more to be like Christ. We experienced no persecution at all while we were there (and no kanchos), but we did experience team tensions that have arisen not only during the trip, but even in the preparation stages for the trip. And while most of the tensions do not directly involve me, it did involve me in learning how to best love my brothers and sisters in Christ in the most edifying way possible. I will not go into too much detail about these tensions, other than to say that it was an actual and very real challenge for the entire team. Much grace and forgiveness were needed, and there is still many ways for the entire team to grow.

For me, there were times where I felt an extremely strong passion of antagonism that came over me, which manifested in some passive aggression as well as a isolated stand-off moments. Thankfully though, one of my brothers and I were able to have some open discussion and prayer about it very early on, which helped greatly for the rest of the trip. God had taught me to have grace and to have patience, lots of it. Thank God that I did not fall prey to these temptations for too long.

In conclusion, amidst all the busyness and exhaustion of preparation, the chaotic scenes of children running amok, and challenges that arose among the team, I am glad that I was able to participate in such privileged opportunity. My team and I were highly blessed to have been rewarded with much fruit and blessings from God as well. I do have to remind myself that all this was because God had given these blessings. While we did accomplish much while we were there, there is still much to do in proclaiming God’s kingdom in Japan. Only less than 1% of the entire country truly know Christ, and hopefully with our efforts, God would increase that number in the future. But even above that, I must rest my identity not on what I did, but what Jesus did on the cross for me. Great things have precipitated on this trip, but the greatest thing has already been done. For this I thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” – Luke 10:20

Prayer Update #7

Salutations everyone!

I apologize to the lateness of this post. (I guess it is still better late than never.)
 

This is Catherine writing the updates for the last two days of the American Day Camp. Despite our weekend adventures to Nasu, Nikko, Chuzenji Lake it barely seemed like we were away from the kids. When we restarted the camp on Monday, some of our kids told us that they missed us also with was encouraging since I did not initially think I would be able to build such close relationships in such a short period of time. I noticed that some of the kids would sing some of the songs that they learned during singspiration; most of the time it was just the tune with different words though.

One of our last crafts were sock octopuses The socktopus' were fairly easy for all the kids (even the kindergartens) to make and personalize. The kids were very creative; it did not even occur to me to use the polyfill for hair. They seemed to really enjoy playing with the polyfill, but much of it ended up on the ground. The snack was decorating sugar cookies with frosting. So something that we did not anticipate was having problems with ingredients. The night before we baked probably around 80 cookies, of which the consistency was more bready rather than cookie-like. The consistency of the frosting was very very liquidous. Later, we realised that we had been using butter spread (which is mostly vegetable oil based) rather than butter. Fortunately, the kids seemed to really enjoy the snack even though it had not turned out as we wanted it to. For one of the games, we tried teaching the kids duck-duck-goose, which surprisingly turned out a lot better than expected. Most of the kids got the hang of it after watching a few rounds. We also had an outside day for bubble blowing! It was an activity that both young and older kids enjoyed. (Both blowing and popping bubbles).

Our last day was a blur to me as we quickly cycled through our schedule for the last time. We started the day off with board games instead of the usual large group running around being active game. Noticing that the kids really enjoyed playing them made me think that we should have introduced these games earlier. Even though a handful of kids were just playing with the pieces (think building train tracks out of Jenga blocks or stacking Connect 4 discs) they had a lot of fun doing so. Teaching the English lessons for me have always been a bit daunting not because it is particularly difficult to teach the kindergartners--they are all very smart--it is getting their attention. \this is not something I am usually actively thing about. Our last craft was Play-doh. Ironically, our Play-doh craft also turned out to rather liquidous so it became goo-in-a-bag instead, which I think confused some of the kids, but more so the parents. I think this outcome flustered me more than anyone else, but because of it I do not really remember the kids' reception to the parfait without fruit. Japanese yogurt is much lighter, smoother, and liquidous than American yogurt. For our activity, we went outside and did some water relay games and then a large game of jump rope. The older kids (5 and 6 graders) were really good. Some of them could also double-dutch!

At the end of the camp some of the parents wanted to throw us a thank you party for teaching and spending time with their kids so the camp ended half and hour early. It was very elaborately decorated and they gave us all a bag of green tea Kit-Kats as a gift. Many of the kids and their families also wrote cards and gave us little gifts to thank us. To me this gesture seemed almost overwhelming because from my point of view, we were happy to be here to teach their kids and play with them. Later it was explained that there is not anything really like this in Japan, especially in the more suburban area. They were taken aback that we would give up our vacations to teach English in Japan instead of doing other things. Pastor Tomio had the opportunity to share with/explain to some of the mothers about it and explained that we were coming because we had Christ in our lives and we wanted to share His love with others.

All in all, this experience has been amazing in so many ways that I had not anticipated.

PRAISES

- Despite all the business and sleeplessness during the childrens' day camp God provided the team with so much patience ____ I believe that it was

- The children's parents were very receptive to the program 

- Pastor Tomio, Pat, and Paula's support and help throughout the entire program. It was great seeing how God had worked in their lives and revealed possible plans to come (please see prayer section). Even though the Otawara church is small, the members have really taken steps of faith and were very gracious/ hospitable to us along the way. 

- Many of the Otawara church members and parents of the kids at camp helped prepare the lunches every single day

PRAYER

OTAWARA CHURCH

- To continue their ministries and finish the program for the upcoming week with passion and faith. We will be doing a one-day program in Nasu on Wednesday.

TEAM

- God will allow us to rest spiritually, mentally, and physically over the weekend and wrap up the program on Monday and Tuesday.

- Tea Ceremony after church service. Plese pray that we will appreciate this lesson by the Nasu church member who mastered the tea ceremony and enjoy the fellowship with the members at Nasu Church.

- Love and patience for one another in spite of our differences, and see the good that God has done in us and through us.

The rest of the details are located here:  harvest-ikimashou.blogspot.com

In Christ,
Catherine, Jonny, Karen, Megan, Will, and Xin Xin

Sent from my iPad

First Impressions

Read about each team member's initial impressions of Japan.  These responses were originally compiled on the 3rd day of the American Homestay Program (7/24/13).

Each team member was asked to answer the following questions.
1) Any culture shock moments in Japan?
2) What encouragement have you received from the Otawara Church?
3) If you could bring one thing back from Japan to the USA (gadgets, culture, food, style), what would it be?
4) Any misconceptions about Japan that have been changed?
5) If you only prayed for one topic (need, hope or desire for Japanese people) for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Happy Reading!

Catherine (aka Kato)
1) Culture shock: They walk and drive on the left side of the road. Also bowing for everything.
2) Encouragement from Otawara Church: How friendly & welcoming everyone has been.
3) One thing would bring back: Culture - the cleanliness of everything; how safe it is (no/ little crime)
4) Japan misconceptions that changed: When I heard we were going to be in the more rural area, I was expecting rice paddies everywhere (There are quite a few, but people don't need it to live off of it).
5) One prayer for Japan: For people to be more open to religion and not see church as something scary/threateningly)

Jonny (aka Jonnnnnnnnnnnyyyyyy)
1) Culture shock: Japanese people are extremely responsible when it comes to throwing away trash.
2) Encouragement from Otawara Church: The Otawara Church have such a heart for the gospel even in the face of the hardness of heart
3) One thing would bring back: A luggage full of ramen
4) Japan misconceptions that changed: That all Japanese people are well socialized and accepting of different lifestyles
5) One prayer for Japan: Gospel to take hold of the Japanese heart

Karen (aka Ka-len)
1) Culture shock: Not as much.
2) Encouragement from Otawara Church: The way they persist b/c the church has older crowd. It's hard to minister to the community.  They have such faith in what God called them to do.  The church just came together and helped for the American Day Camp, especially this year.  Also, they're not afraid to talk about the gospel, and they get surprised by the results of the conversations.  For example, Tomio talked with Kano's mother, an English teacher, and shared why our team came to Japan.  She seemed to be touched that we were here as volunteers not only to teach English but to share Christ's love.
3) One thing would bring back: Quality, sometimes we go for what's cheapest but what we get isn't as good.  I think their respect for service/quality makes me think about my attitude with others, whether in ministry/work/in general.
4) Japan misconceptions that changed: People are always serious.  I think they have a huge leeway for the children [culture to not discipline children in school].  Then as they grow up the become more stoic.
5) One prayer for Japan: For Pat & Tomio, they had goals to build a certain number of churches in their lifetime (15??).  They have been at Otawara for some time, and I learned this year that Otawara was very difficult already, so they may not be "on schedule" or their missions plan may be different.

Megan (aka Megumi)
1) Culture shock: On the bus from the Narita Airport to Utsunomiya, we had to be absolutely quiet while riding (~3 hours).  It was sooo hard- I felt like screaming
2) Encouragement from Otawara Church: Tomio & Pat serving so faithfully and how involved and supportive they have been throughout the planning and each day of the American Homestay Program!
3) One thing would bring back: The part of Japanese culture where people are so polite, respectful, and do not interrupt each other.  Japanese people know the value of silence.
4) Japan misconceptions that changed: They are not as stiff as I thought.  People don't bow as low as I thought.
5) One prayer for Japan: I would pray for God to provide avenues for Japanese people to make positive relationships with the church so that they would come to know and love Christ.

Will (aka Will tou moshi masu aka Will.I.Am)
1) Culture shock: Not particularly, I have to say "Yes" a lot
2) Encouragement from Otawara Church: Devotions by Ohashi Sensai and stories about God doing work presently.
3) One thing would bring back: The Japanese people's honesty
4) Japan misconceptions that changed: It can be cool during same here.
5) One prayer for Japan: Harvest is plentiful but the workers are few so pray that God provides workers.

Xinxin ( aka Xinxin [: )

1) Culture shock: Since they drive on the left side of the road, I always looked the wrong direction for cars when crossing the road. So dangerous! 

2) Encouragement from Otawara Church: The entire church mobilized for the children's program. It was encouraging to see God's people doing His work in Japan! 

3) One thing would bring back: 7-11

4) Japan misconceptions that changed: I thought that Japanese people would be very open and liberal (Tokyo Drift maybe?) but they are very conservative and closed. 

5) One prayer for Japan: I pray that the negative stigma surrounding Christianity will disappear, that more missionaries will find opportunities and desire for Japan. 

Blessings,
Japan Mission Team