Pictures from Ikebukuro Lutheran Church

Ikebukuro Lutheran Church

Working at the church bazaar in October with Rume

Church Bazaar

Christmas at church--a beautiful nativity scene from the Holy Land

The sanctuary

Kojima Sensei, not the pastor of this church but a retired pastor I knew from Kumamoto.

Cabbage soup (recipe from Finland) served at the Christmas Party

Church Christmas Party

Reflections on the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

Last weekend I visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.  It was an intense and moving experience that is difficult to describe to people who haven’t been there.  It certainly feels uncomfortable on so many levels to view the horrors of atomic weapons as an American living in Japan.  One thing that I especially appreciate about this museum, though, is its emphasis on moving toward the disarmament of all atomic weapons rather than focusing on placing blame for the atomic bomb that America dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.  After visiting the museum, I went to the Peace Park to be alone and process all that I had seen.  In an attempt to share my experience with you and others, I felt compelled to do something extremely rare—write a poem.  I do not claim to be an expert writer, so please be kind as you read my poetry, where I reflect on this horrific event.

ONE MOMENT CHANGES ALL

By Christine Eige

A flash of light and a booming noise—

Heat and radiation devouring all in its way.

Flesh and clothes melting into one,

parched throats gasping for air,

seeking relief, but instead, finding black rain.

Radiation running rampant through bodies,

vital organs failing one after another,

and so many beyond recovery or care.

A whole world turned upside down,

yet the suffering only just beginning.

“Papa, please help me!

Make the pain go away.

Where are you?

I need you.

Don’t leave me this way.

Where are my little sister, my mama, and friends?

What happened to my home?

When will the nightmares finally end?”

God looks down from heaven,

his heart broken in two.

Jesus opens his arms wide saying,

“Forgive them, Father,

for they know not what they do.”

Linus Sharing Words of Wisdom in A Charlie Brown Christmas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKk9rv2hUfA

You Say Goodbye, and I Say Hello

Recently someone asked what was special about 2010 in my life.  I’d say that this was a year of moving and big changes. 

I started the year teaching junior and senior English classes in Decatur, Illinois.  Even though I only lived there for a year, I met some amazing and inspiring people.  I learned so much from my students, my co-workers, my friends, and my experiences there.  I am so blessed to have friends there who are still praying for me as I serve and live in Japan.

In June I moved back to Iowa to live with my parents for a few months.  A few days after we moved my things, we moved my parents out of the only home I ever remember growing up in.  It’s still weird thinking about another family living there, but I hope they will be as happy in that home as I was.  My parents moved into a condominium for people 55 and older, so that was my home for a few months too.  I didn’t realize that I was such a rebel until I tried to dry some laundry on the balcony, but the residents quickly made a rule against that.  My summer gave me a great opportunity to spend time with friends and family before my next move.

At the end of September I made the move back to Japan.  The first time I moved to Tokyo was back in 2004 when I was right out of college, and being here again shows me how much I’ve grown and changed as a person since then.  What’s neat is that after getting together with some friends here, they can see some of those positive changes in me too.  It still seems a bit weird to go from being a teacher to being a student again, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to study Japanese.  People here are so kind and welcoming, and I am enjoying this time of studying, forming friendships, and serving in what ways I can.  In March I will be moving again, this time to Kumamoto, Japan, to teach junior high and high school English.

To be honest, I don’t really like moving, and would much rather be able to settle into a community to get rooted.  So, why do I keep moving?  Whenever I make big life decisions, I cover those decisions in prayer and truly desire to follow God’s will.  Some time ago I told God that I wanted to serve him and that I was willing to go wherever he’d send me.  I meant it when I said that and still do, so that seems to mean a lot of changes and adjustments for me, at least during 2010.  The best part is that wherever I go, God goes before me and prepares the way.  Even as I start thinking about my next move, I know that God will help me through the transition and has called me there for a reason.  I can’t wait to see what adventures and opportunities await me in 2011!

P.S. Please make sure to really enjoy time with your family this holiday season.  It is a luxury that people serving in the military and people serving as missionaries abroad don’t always get to enjoy.

Traditional Japanese Fairy Tales

I have always been a big fan of story time and fairy tales.  Even when I took a children’s literature course in college, I was one of the first people on the floor for story time.  I think that whatever age a person is, they should enjoy an occasional bedtime story. 

Beyond merely entertainment, fairy tales can say a lot about a culture.  Think of your favorite fairy tales and the lessons that they teach.  There’s Rupunzel whose mother covets her neighbor’s cabbage, there’s Little Red Riding Hood who talks to strangers, and those poor three little pigs who more often than not are too lazy to make proper plans for the future.  Hopefully, we’ve heard these stories from a young age and are avoiding such catastrophes.  My guess is that even though these particular stories have European roots, most Americans are familiar with them.

Other cultures tell different tales but also try to prevent their youth from going down the wrong moral path.  I’ve read several traditional Japanese tales, and they seem to emphasize the virtues of respecting the elderly, obeying one’s parents, and the importance of treating others well.  Below you’ll find links to a few of my favorites.  Enjoy your bedtimes stories!

Urashima Taro:

http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/folk/urashimataro/index.html

The Toothpick Warriors:

http://www.japanippon.com/fairytales/toothpick.htm

The Spider Weaver:

http://www.japanippon.com/fairytales/spiderweaver.htm

The Peach Boy:
http://www.japanippon.com/fairytales/momotaro.htm

Pie and Rice

One thing I love about living in another country is that it helps me look at familiar things in a new way.  This weekend I was sitting around a table that was half full of Americans and half full of Japanese people.  Dessert rolled around, and we had a delicious chocolate pie/cake sort of thing.  As I watched people eat, I remembered something that I learned the first time I was in Japan.  Let’s do a quick check here… imagine that you are handed a piece of pie.  Which direction does the longest end of the triangle face when you eat it?  Chances are that if you are American, the tip of the triangle is pointed directly at you.  Right?  Why do you do that?  Have you ever even thought about it before?  If you are Japanese, on the other hand, the tip of your pie is probably going to point to the right or the left.  Why?  Where did they learn that?  Well, this weekend one Japanese friend explained that she thought it was “too aggressive” with the tip pointed at herself.  Now I don’t know if that’s the real reason or not; for that matter, I don’t really know why Americans have the tip pointed at themselves either, but that’s just the way that it’s always been done.  I don’t remember anyone sitting me down as a child, explaining how to eat my pie, but yet somehow I figured out the American way.

One other part of this weekend especially stands out to me.  We focused on studying Jesus’s “I am…” statements from the Bible.  One such statement was from John 6 when Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.”  Now, I’ve heard that passage dozens of times and never really thought twice about it until this weekend.  Matthew, one of the other Tokyo missionaries, explained it in a way that really connected with me and the intended audience.  He paraphrased Jesus’s words and said, “I am the RICE of life.”  Wow!  In a culture where rice is served at pretty much every meal, now I really understand just how important Jesus is.  Jesus is our sustenance and life-giving force.  It makes so much sense!

Food

Yakisoba: cabbage, carrots, and soba noodles.  I add fried egg on the side too.

Gyoza: sometimes called dumplings, insides vary but usually have cabbage and a tiny bit of meat

Gyoza after it's prepared

Tofu

Sashimi: raw fish

Natto: fermented soy beans.  It's definitely an acquired taste that I don't have but does taste better with the added ingredients.

A beautiful dinner at Tim and Mari MaKenzie's home.  Notice that rice and miso soup are also added.  All pictures here were from that dinner except the yakisoba picture.

Shinto Shrines

Last Wednesday was the national holiday known as Culture Day (Bunka No Hi).  I celebrated by visiting Meiji Shrine, one of the most famous Shinto shrines in the Tokyo area.  There were two big attractions that drew a crowd: 7-5-3 Day (Shichi-Go-San Hi) and mounted archery (yabusame).  7-5-3 Day is when parents take their 3 or 5 year old sons and 3 or 7 year old daughters to a shrine to pray for their health and growth.  Basically I saw lots of cute kids dressed up in their traditional Japanese clothing.  Toward the back of the shrine they held an autumn Culture Day festival.  There were people demonstrating various forms of martial arts as well as yabusame.  Most of the yabusame competitors were so fast that I couldn’t actually get a picture of them hitting the target, but I think I may have found a sport that I actually enjoy watching.

My guess is that many people reading this blog do not regularly go to shrines, so I wanted to conclude with a little “visiting a shrine 101.”  Follow this link to Meiji Shrine’s page about proper shrine visiting etiquette.  The left-hand side of the page also has various other interesting links for you to check out about Meiji Shrine.

http://www.meijijingu.or.jp/english/your/1.html

Sports Day Festivities and Yokohama

Sports Day is a national holiday in October.  I happened to be in the right place at the right time on Sports Day to catch this parade of women and girls in traditional Japanese clothes (kimono).

Aren't the little girls darling?

Musicians playing Japanese drums (Taiko).

Yokohama, near the train station.

Yokohama at night.

One Month Anniversary

Recently I celebrated the one month anniversary of my arrival in Japan.  At times it still feels like I’m dreaming because during my last 3 ½ years in the U.S. I had so many dreams about being in Japan.  I decided that I’m probably not dreaming though since I usually don’t dream about boring things like spending massive amounts of time on trains. 

In total, I’ve lived in Japan for 2 years and 7 months now.  At times I still recognize the similarities and differences between Japan and the U.S.   Other times everything just seems like routine and normal since Japan has been my home for so long.  So, this is where I need your help.  If you want more blog posts, then I need ideas on what you’d like to know about Japan and Japanese culture.  What would you like to see in pictures?  What kind of things would be interesting to you?  Any ideas?

What's the matter with kids today?

One of the Tokyo missionary jobs is working at the Hongo Student Center.  The staff teach English to adults and once a week even to children.  Their clients come from a wide variety of occupations, backgrounds, and age groups.  Recently I started attending their Friday night Bible studies and coffee hours.  Surprisingly, coffee hour doesn’t actually include coffee; instead it’s a time for conversations, snacks, and tea. 

Last night’s coffee hour involved 18 adults in an intriguing discussion about what’s the matter with kids today.  Yes, I instantly got the song from the musical Bye, Bye Birdie stuck in my head where the main characters inquire, “Kids, what’s the matter with kids today? . . . . Why can’t they be like we were, perfect in every way?  What’s the matter with kids today?!”  The song says it all because regardless of how old the adult, they inevitably think that things were so much better when they were growing up.  I’ve heard this question come up numerous times in teachers’ lounges, on talk shows, and even in musicals.  I was curious to see how people in another culture would answer that question though.  What surprised me was that although the Japanese and the American cultures are quite different, many of the opinions about the problem with youth remained the same. 

What’s the matter with kids (18 or younger), according to our surveyed group:

--Not playing outside any more these days

--Talking too much in school

--Technology making things too easy and students not learning to think for themselves

--Kids not knowing how to communicate face to face

--Having parents who don’t respect authority so they don’t teach their kids how to respect authority (I definitely agree with this one)

--Using cell phones too much

--Lacking in involvement with/the influence of grandparents and the extended family

--Constant distractions caused by the internet world

--Parents over-indulging their children

--Parents and children needing better communication

--Needing more discipline to become better behaved

--Being easily influence by extreme ideas

--Not knowing how to communicate with peers

--Being too busy

--Taking many things for granted (such as having a good education)

What I especially enjoyed about this discussion was the follow-up question: what’s something you’ve learned from a young person?  Yes, there may be problems with how young people are raised and influenced by society, but even in the midst of that, there is so much that young people can teach us.  I am a teacher, but I am the first to admit that my students regularly are the ones teaching me new things.  So, I pose this question to all you people out there reading—What’s something that you’ve learned from a young person?

Prayer Requests

Recently several people have asked me what they can be praying about on my behalf.  That’s such a great question because I can always use prayer!  Here are some ideas, in case you are interested.

Please pray for me

**To form meaningful relationships with the people around me

**To be able to share God’s love with others through my words and actions

**To have success with studying Japanese and to boldly speak it even though it’s still in the beginning stages of development

**To learn how to cook more Japanese foods

**To get more restful sleep.  I’m still not used to living on a busy street with a bus stop in front of my building and having the building shake whenever a large truck passes by

**To figure out how to minister to friends in the U.S. who experience difficult situations and who I want to be there for, even though I can’t physically be there

**To find joy in the little things all around me

**To see the world, myself, and others the way that God does

Settling In

Beautiful fountain along our daily subway route.

The street where I live in Hatogaya City.



The new J3s: Ally Streed, me, and Allyson Bedford



The cross at the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Seminary.  There is less than 1% Christian in Japan, so please pray for the 13 current Lutheran seminary students.

From Independent to Extremely Dependent

Konnichiwa and greetings from Hatogaya City, Japan!

This week was devoted to getting settled in and taking care of the necessities like registering with the city hall as a foreign resident, setting up a bank account, and getting a cell phone.  It’s amazing how all of these simple tasks become much more difficult when tackling them in a foreign language and trying to figure out the customs and rules of another culture.  Thankfully the new missionaries are appointed a guide to help with these tasks and any other similar circumstances that will arise while we’re here. Cindy works for the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church and will be our guide, translator, and go-to person for the next 6 months.  She is already turning into a life saver!

Only a week ago, if I wanted to take care of any business I’d hop in my car and accomplish my goal in no time.  Now I am mostly illiterate, have limited means of communicating with others, and need guidance with the simplest of tasks.  I even needed help figuring out how to work my super-high-tech toilet!  This morning’s small victory is figuring out the washing machine, mostly using a guess-and-check method with pushing buttons.  More often than not, I have to ask for help with just about everything.  Where does this leave an independent woman who likes doing things for herself?

My current situation reminds me of God’s desire for us to rely on him rather than to rely on our own strength and abilities.  Yes, we can try to do things all by ourselves, but we will find ourselves exhausted, overwhelmed, and weary.  Instead, God offers his help and strength to us.  He tells us, “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness” (2^nd Corinthians 12:9).  When we are at our most vulnerable moments, God is there to surround us with his strength.  Sometimes God offers his help through a hug from a friend, passionate prayers offered on our behalf, or someone like Cindy to explain seemingly easy tasks.  I know that I’ll need the support and prayers from friends and family during the next 2 ½ years as well as God’s strength, but with these I will be able to accomplish great things.

My Theme Song

In less than two weeks I will be landing in Japan to begin my adventures.  In the midst of planning, preparing, and packing, I also want to keep my eyes on the reason that I am going.  So, here is a song that I consider my personal theme song and shows my motivation.

"HERE I AM" BY DOWNHERE

Sometimes Your calling, comes in dreams
Sometimes in comes in the Spirit's breeze
You reach for the deepest hope in me
And call out for the things of eternity

But I'm a man, of dust and stains,
You move in me, so I can say

Chorus
Here I am, Lord send me
All of my life, I make an offering,
Here I am, Lord send me
Somehow my story is a part of Your plan,
Here I am

When setbacks and failures, and upset plans
Test my faith and leave me with empty hands
Are You not the closest when it's hardest to stand
I know that You will finish what You began

And these broken parts You will redeem
Become the song that I can sing

Chorus

Overwhelmed by the thought of my weakness
And the fear that I'll fail You in the end
In this mess, I'm just one of the pieces,
I can't put this together but You can

Chorus

Here I Am, all my life an offering to You, to You
Somehow my story is a part of Your plan
Here I am