Living in a foreign country is always interesting.  Yesterday, my private lesson at 8pm was cancelled and I had to walk to the train station when I am usually driven by said student.  I welcomed the change though.  I love being out at night, the waxing quarter moon was in the sky and being slightly out of the city, I could enjoy the stars for almost the first time.  The beautiful, friendly Canis Major was there, as was Draco and a few planets, I believe…possibly Mars & Jupiter.  It was nice, although I was a little late to see the bats.

  Which brings me to another thought, there is a mass death happening to bats in the northeast of USA.  They are developing a sickness known as “White Nose Syndrome,” so named because the bats acquire white noses.  This saddens me greatly…especially as they predict it will spread to other regions, like Pennsylvania.  How sad!  Not just because of the loss of bats, which animal I love, but also the increase of nighttime bugs, which creatures I loathe.

  Also, it is a strange experience to walk through the streets of Japan and greet citizens (wow, I sound almost Communist right there) in Japanese only to have them respond in English.  Kind of saddens, yet tickles, me at the same time.  Although, the joy still remains of the one elderly woman with makeup pencil marks all over her face who insists on speaking to me in Japanese even though I obviously do not know Japanese and have told her multiple times.  Oh wonder… 🙂

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2008-07-07-bats-main_N.htm

Well I am feeling much better this week after the low of last week.  Thank you for your prayers, they were felt and God has answered.  I feel a lot better, although the problems are still here, I’m able to see the hope behind them clearer than before.

  Our brother, Mark, was in an exhibition event with some other students from his university, and he invited Samantha and I to come and observe.  He learned a traditional Japanese dance, and performed it with a friend from CN, who is also an exchange student there.  We will call him To-kun.  He is here with several other ladies from CN, and I’m hoping to continu building a relationship with them.  I’ve asked you to pray for CN in the past and present, and I ask you again, DO NOT FORGET ABOUT CN!  Just because I am in Japan, my heart has not changed and it still cries out for the salvation of CN.  I have pictures from the event in the album I previously linked for you, but it’s at the bottom of this email too.

  While we were there, there were several tables set up with food from different countries, so we made the rounds and got our dinner from the samplings we had.  I rode the bus by myself over to Yamanota, which is where the university is located.  The characters for it are the kanji for “mountain”, the hiragana for “no” (which means possession), and the kanji for “rice fields.”  Literally translated it means, “The rice fields of the mountain.”  Isn’t it beautiful?  But, it is kind of confusing as the character for guchi, which means “mouth”, is very similar to the kanji for “rice fields.”  There is actually an area of Shimnoseki that is called Yamanoguchi, and it is about 4 or 5 bus stops before Yamanota.  I got confused, but Praise God, I have learned enough Japanese to ask a lady sitting next to me if that was really Yamanota or not.  I would have had to walk for a long way in a direction I didn’t know if I had gotten off the bus then. 

  When we sat down at the tables to munch on traditional Thai, Australian, Japanese, and Korean food, we were ambushed by several students wanting to practice English.  It was neat.  We became the life of the party, even though nobody but Mark, and a few of the Chinese students, knew who we were.  People were taking their pictures with us and everything.  It was fun though…a kind of celeb status at times.  🙂

  One of the guys who I started talking with is named Kazuya, and in the phonetic alphabet, he had the word “Perfection” printed on his shirt.  I told him it was funny, and that started a conversation.  He is a very humble guy, saying that he is basically perfection, but he comes from a poor town.  He is studying economics, but loves to speak English, especially since he is very good at it.  I do have to admit that he is very good at it, and we had a really great conversation.  Another guy who we talked with is named Kenjiro – his name means, “Beautiful World.”  He was wearing another interesting t-shirt…it was white with a brown Jesus fish on it, and Jesus’ name emblazoned in the center.  I told him I liked his shirt and asked if he was a Christian.

  His response made me laugh at first.  He said, “Only on some days.”  I gave him a look of confusion and he went on to explain.  “On Christmas Day, I am a Christian.  But any other day, I am not.”  At least he was honest.  But I have thought about it more and more.  At the time I answered him “Oh, I see.  I’m a Christian every day.”  We left it at that.  It made me wonder, though, about those “Christians” back home.  You know the ones.  The ones who say they are Christians, but really only go to church on Easter or Christmas…or Mother’s Day.  Isn’t it interesting that a Japanese atheist is more honest about his lukewarmness than supposed Christians back home in America?  Now you might be thinking, “How can you say I’m not a Christian if I only go to church on those days.  You don’t know my heart, don’t judge me.”  I’m not judging you.  You’re right, I don’t know your heart.  But God does.  And He knows your heart when you do eventually go to church.  He knows that the worship you give Him on those days is just a punctuation mark to your life without Him in between those days.  What I mean is, you acknowledge Him with your mouth, but your actions and heart say otherwise.  This is a tough message, and I might ruffle some feathers, but I believe it has to be done, or I am not being faithful to God.  It’s alright to pray for people in Japan, but if you yourself do not have a right heart with God, how are you knowing what to pray for?

  After this discussion, Kazuya began to ask me more probing questions.  I don’t know what his motives were for them…it might just be that I am a blonde female gaijin (foreignor) and he doesn’t usually have a chance to talk with such a person.  Or he might have genuinely been interested.  But he began to ask me if I really truly believe in religion.  I told him NO.  I do not believe in religion.  I believe in Jesus.  I was able to use this misguided question to share the whole of the Gospel with him in a few sentences:  Jesus is the Son of God.  He came to earth as a baby and grew into a man.  He lived the perfect life (like Kazuya’s shirt) and then died on a cross to save mankind from their sins.  Now, if believe in this and choose the ask Jesus for forgiveness, then He will cleanse us and when we die, we will go to heaven and be with God forever.  Just a short window, but that’s what God gives sometimes.  As I shared, it was like everyone else in the room disappeared…I don’t remember hearing anything else going on in the room.  After that, he asked about my church and what section of Christianity it was.  I told him, but I told him it shouldn’t matter…just so long as you believe in Jesus. He is really interested in International Cafe, and he said he might want to come to church sometime.  Again, I don’t know his motives, but it is encouraging.  Even if he comes to church for the wrong reasons, at least he is coming to church and will hear the Gospel.

Thanks for your prayers again and keep praying for the church here as we are stil working through many things.  A lot of people are hurting emotionally and need healing.  Pray for the leadership as they seek God’s will in leading the people out of this valley.  Praise God that it is in the valley that the most growth can/will happen.  God is good!

In Him,

Sarah ><>

Nana Gatsu
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126209&l=1ff33&id=500635206

  As you think about today being Independence Day in America, please remember that there is something greater that the people of Japan need their Independence from…sin. 

 One of the families on our team are leaving tomorrow.  They are going to stop in Nagoya, where they are going to work from now on, and then go home to the States.  Marcy will be having their 4th child (possibly a girl…they don’t want to find out until the baby’s born) and they will be working to develop a strategic relationship between their church and the church in Nagoya.  We are all really excited about their new opportunity and location, but are sad that they will be leaving us.  I have really enjoyed conversations that I have had with the Cranes.  They have lived in the Cincy area for several years, working with the Cincy Symphony Orchestra, so we have had tons to talk about.  And they are solid Christians, the encouragement of which I have greatly needed. 

  I found out that the youth group here at SCBC will be going on a camping trip up north the first week of August.  If you remember, I told you about the crazy experience I had before coming where I was put in touch with a guy living here in Japan, by a Sister I have never met in person.  The guy, Bobby, ended up being best friends with Taka, and so it was another confirmation that this was what God wanted for me for this year.  Well, Taka has been asked to come speak at Bobby’s church’s youth camp, and not only this, but the youth kids are able to go to the camp as well.  Taka’s in the process of finding out if I can go as well, and it will give me a great opportunity to minister to Japanese youth and also meet other miss’naries and Japanese pastors.  Please pray that everything will be sorted and that it will work out.  I’m really excited to go.

  We are working on getting a young adults English Bible Study going too.  Mark, a college student from Australia, is studying Japanese and medicine at Shimonoseki University.  He became a Christian a year and a half ago and is really spear-heading getting this started.  I need it as well.  We’ve invited Kazoo, one of the students at Shimotan, the community college Samantha and I are teaching at through next week.  Kazoo (his nickname…emphasis on the first syllable, not the second) is from Hagi, about two hours away taking both train and car, but he studied economics in York, UK.  His English is really good, as such, and he quit school at York and came to Shimonoseki to study nutrition/health.  He’s pretty new to the area, about the same time as me, so he doesn’t have many friends here.  We are trying to get him plugged in, but there is the prospect of Brian and Yoko leaving, so we’re hoping this Bible Study might provide a great reason for him to stick around (as well as a group of the guys from church who play basketball on Friday nights).  Pray for an openness to come to this.  We’re also praying about inviting Mika to join us.

  One last and final thing and then I will close with some links to pictures and such.  Today, I went to have lunch at Quixote restaurant.  I went in with purpose today, praying before going in, and took my New Testament.  I have a goal to memorize favorite Scripture in different languages, as a way to help them stick in my mind more.  So far, I have John 3:16 (Spanish), John 14:6 (Greek), and Philippians 4:4 (Mandarin/Chinese).  For Japanese, I’m working on Philippians 4:19…a great favorite…”And my God shall supply all your needs according to His glorious riches which are in Christ Jesus.”  I love this verse because it says that God will provide for my needs, not based on my needs, but based on His riches…which are sooooo much greater than any of my needs could demand.  But I went in to ask them to help me memorize the verse.  It’s in hiragana, katakana, and kanji…but I can’t read the kanji, so I asked them to help me put all the words into hiragana for easier reading.  After that, I decided to go further and shared the rest of the verses I have memorized…under the guise of showing off my amazing language skills…Satsuki-san read each and every verse out loud (so Mitsui-san heard every word).  Then I would say it in whatever language I had it memorized…they were really excited.

  I went in thinking that if it had an impact on them, that Satan would try to retaliate.  I didn’t know when or how, but I was on the lookout, and I was ready.  Almost immediately after finishing the verses, and my coffee, the too-tired(retired)-teacher-who-used-to-be-in-the-yakuza (mafia) came in and sat down at my table.  We’ve spoken before, and I think he has been waiting for me to do something bold, like bring out my Bible and talk about it.  He looked over my hiragana of Phil. 4:19 and said, “You wrote it well.  I’m an atheist.  I don’t believe in God.  You don’t understand it.”  I told him that I did understand it, and he asked if I wanted to know why.  I said, “sure.”  So he explained how God didn’t make the universe, and isn’t concerned with what goes on down here.  He gives thanks, but he gives thanks to the universe, to everything, because that is what gave birth to him.  Again, he said, “You don’t understand me.”  I assured him I did, but didn’t feel led to give a defense.  The timing wasn’t right, and I could feel him just baiting me.  I was not going to bite.  He saw that it wasn’t going anywhere, and I glanced at Mitsui-san and Satsuki-san, who were wearing uncomfortable smiles, almost waiting for him to finish and just start eating his lunch. 

  He sat down to his tray of assorted Japanese yummies, and folded his hands, saying the standard “itadakimasu” which means basically, “Ok, I’m going to start eating now the food that you have given me.”  I say it too, out of politeness to whoever cooked, but I pray before that and make sure they see it is a separate act.  He was deliberate, and after he said it, he turned to me and said, “I thank for the food.  I don’t thank God.”  He went on to complain about a headache, and a felt the atmosphere changing to where I should leave.  So I told him that I would pray for him, that God would heal his headache, and left them smiling. 

  It might seem frightening, or discouraging, to some of you.  This was the first time I was blatantly confronted about my faith.  Most Japanese tip-toe around the issue and won’t get into details of their beliefs.  But this man came straight out at me, and it’s no coincidence that it happened right after I shared the verses with Satsuki and Mitsui…John 14:6 states: “Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man comes to the Father except by me.”  I am very encouraged by it because it means that Satan feels threatened.  And that is a wonderful thing.  Continue to pray for these people!!!  God is working on their hearts and Satan is trembling at the thought of two people coming to know and worship God.  The battle is on, the line is drawn, and I’m not backing down.  Neither is God.  He doesn’t back down for you, He won’t back down for these people either.

Thanks for your perseverance in getting to the end of this.  I hope it was worth it to you.  I’m thinking about you all and pray for you!

In Him,

Sarah ><>

Ayaragi Beach
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=124052&l=b7a90&id=500635206

Barbeque
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=124545&l=0d10b&id=500635206

Nana Gatsu (July)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126209&l=1ff33&id=500635206