Peru in Japan?!?!

I never thought that I would have to speak Spanish in Japan, much less translate it. And I never thought that I would have met a Peruvian, but God is so sneaky!
After practicing with the worship band Sunday morning and waiting for the service to start, Kisuna-san, a lady from the church and one of my English Bible class students, came running into the sanctuary saying, "Joanna-san, Joanna-san, come here!" So I quickly went over to where she was standing, and saw that there was a lady and 2 young girls, who clearly looked like they weren't Japanese. Kisuna-san then asked me to translate into Spanish for the lady. It was then that I met Peru in Japan.
Karina, the mother, came to the church because she was searching for God and searching for people to help her and her life situation that her family is in at the moment. Xiomara and Ayanai were both born in Japan and they know how to speak Japanese, so that helps Karina get along in Japan. During the worship time and testimony we stayed in the sanctuary, but during Laurence's message, I asked Karina to step out, into the foyer so that we could talk a bit more since she didn't understand a thing of what was going on. Laurence gives us his message translated into English for us, but that wouldn't have helped her since she doesn't speak English either.
As we were sitting outside in the foyer, Karina shared her life story with me. She explained why she was in Japan and the situation that her family is in at the present moment. The story is long, complicated and touchy so I'd rather not go into details, but please pray for wisdom on how to help her and her family and how much we and the church should do.
One of the things that Karina told me was that she knew God had her and her family in His hands and that He is in control right now and is in control of the future. It was hard to use my rusty Spanish, but like Karina said, "God had a reason for you being here the day that I came. If you wouldn't have been here, I would've come into the church, and right back out with not having talked to anyone." Karina made it clear to me that she was very appreciative of me helping her, and that she was able to see how God places people in her life for a reason.
Please join me in prayers for Karina, Xiomara, Ayanai, and Karina's husband, and their family situation.

MEDIA FAST AND MID-TERM RETREAT

This past week, our team decided that we should do a media/internet/email/facebook/etc fast. We decided that the two main reasons why we were doing this fast was to grow closer as a team, by not retreating to our laptops, or even feel like we had to respond to people back home. We get so distracted with so many things, and by no means are those bad things, like talking to people from home, but I encouraged the team to think about how much "quality time" we spend with each other and with God. I also encouraged them in this telling them that we only really have here and now, we don't have tomorrow or next month or next year promised, we only have right now.

I have to admit, the fast was hard for me. It was hard for mostly everyone on the team. A little harder for some more than others, but none the less, it was hard and challenging. The reason it was hard for me was because there were some things that were happening at home that I had no clue on how they were going, and it hurt not knowing how things were going. But God brought us threw and drew us closer to Him and to each other. We had some really good conversations within our team and I thank God for the week of being intentional with our time together.

For our "mid-term retreat," we stayed here in Toyota for the most part. We did go sightseeing to different places but we slept in our own beds in our house. The people that attended the retreat were the Hieberts, our team, Sean, Andrea and Wendy (Sean, Andrea and Wendy are in Japan with MBMSI, teaching English as a Second Language), and Katie (a friend of the Hieberts who is from Ontario, Canada). We all shared our life stories with each other at different times throughout the 4 days. I love hearing peoples stories and how they got to where they are at right now that I know them. I love getting to know people at a deeper level and that definitely happened this past weekend. God works in our lives, and it's not until we share it with people, that we see how God works in amazing ways in everyone's life!
God is good...........all the time.
All the time...........God is good.

Professional recording studio

So this past Friday morning, Laurence walked in with a proposal. He told us that Mori Yuri, the most famous Christian artist in Japan, wanted for him to help her with the pronunciation in an English song that she was recording, but he had no time to go, so he asked us. And of course, I wanted to go! So did Simone, so we both headed to Nagoya by train to meet Mr. Oka, Mori's manager, at the station. Both Mori and Ken (Mr. Oka said we could call him Ken) were very nice people and very easy to work with.
As we walked out of the train station, Ken walked us to a building that didn't look like it would be a place where only professionals record. We had to get "buzzed" in through an intercom, and once we got upstairs and into the actual recording studio part of the building, I was going "googoo gaga" over the studio. Once I walked in, it definitely looked like a professional recording studio.
Mori handed both Simone and I an 11-page booklet of the song she was going to record. She sung and recorded phrase by phrase, stopping after each one to ask us for suggestions and corrections with the English and her pronunciation. I have to admit, I LOVED IT! I had never really helped a professional artist record a song and not just that, but correct them. It was a little different than what I've done before, but it was so awesome!
After she was done recording, she sat down at talked with us for a bit and the first thing that she told us when she sat down was, "Thank you for being a part of spreading God's glory to the Japanese people!" I had not thought about this in that way. When she said that, I was reminded of how everything we do, is to point to God and His glory.
Here is a picture of me, Mori and Simone.

JAPANESE DAY

The ladies from the church and some ladies from the English classes wanted to dress us up in kimonos, and give us the opportunity to do some traditional "Japanese" things. They brought 3 koto players. A koto is a traditional Japanese musical stringed instrument (there is a video at the end of this post that Simone recorded of me and Brianna playing kotos). They also prepared for us to do a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.
We really enjoyed this day because for lunch, before we had "Japanese day" at the church, we had about 14 people from the church over to thank them for what they've done for us already. We love the women of the church because they are awesome and they have done so much for us.
Hope you enjoy the pictures and the short video of the koto playing. Blessings.

Oh yeah, Nike Shox and a kimono.......that's me in Japan!




















Brianna and I playing the kotos.

Getting dressed up by 3 women......kinda got used to them pulling, tugging, tightening, touching....it comes with the kimono wearing!

The very uncomfortable sandals that are worn with the kimonos. They were uncomfortable mainly because they were way too small for us.














The kimonos Amber, me, Brianna, and Amber-Lee wore (in order from left to right).














Brianna, me, and Darlene drinking matcha (a bitter, thick green tea) during the traditional tea ceremony. We first had a traditional Japanese dessert and then drank the matcha.



This is the video of Brianna and I playing the kotos.

God is doing things in Japan

Japan is a place where missions is a little more exhausting than what you would think. Most of the time, you don't get the results you were praying and hoping for, and it can be very discouraging. We've felt like that a few times here, but we've seen God work in people's hearts in our English classes and in the church! I'll tell you of one....

I co-teach an "English Music Class" with Amber Solski on Saturdays from 3:30-4:45, and we have one student, Misa. She has lived in Kentucky for 3 years because her husband was transferred there because of his job. She's been back in Japan for about a year now and is taking a "North American Culture" class on Friday nights with Brianna and Darlene, and also taking the music class on Saturdays. The first day of the music class, we asked Misa what she wanted to get out of the class and if she had any specific songs she wanted to go over, and the only song she mentioned was Amazing Grace. That made us wonder why, but we had that ready for last week, the 2nd class time. So while I was explaining the song Amazing Grace to Misa last Saturday, I noticed that after the first verse, she was tearing up and basically crying. When I realized that she was crying, I prayed that God would continue working in her heart. She has asked Brianna and Darlene questions about their faith and God is doing something so please pray that He continues to use us to water that seed that was planted long ago.

God is doing things in Japan and we're excited to be a part of it. Please continue praying that His name and renown be the desire of our hearts and that we continue to be sensitive to His Spirit and be led by The Spirit. Blessings to you all!

Nagashima Spaland

Today (Monday) we went to Nagashima Spaland amusement park. The Hieberts all went and took our team and Sean. We had a blast riding all the different rides and roller coasters, and since it was a school day, the longest wait for a ride was probably around 20 minutes. Nagashima is infamous for the "Steel Dragon 2000." The Steel Dragon is put in the "gigacoaster" group because of it's size. It set a record for longest track length in the world - 8133 feet, 2 inches (2479 m), which it currently holds. It is the 5th tallest roller coaster and has the 5th biggest drop in the world. The ride last 4 minutes! And let me tell you, it's the fastest 4 minutes of your life! We got on it twice! With a break in between of course, to catch our breath. It was so much fun! Here's a picture of the huge drop, and only half of the track is in this picture because it's just that huge!

I don't know if I've mentioned this already in my blog before, but Japan is the land of vending machines! They have them everywhere! And sometimes lined up like this.......10 in a row! This was at Nagashima Spaland, so it was a little overpriced, but what do you expect.



Today was a beautiful day, and we couldn't have asked for a better day!
We are in our last full week of April this week and that's insane! Time has gone by so fast it's crazy! We have so much planned for these next 2 months. Please pray that we stay diligent and most of all faithful in Him. Pray that the Lord's name and renown be spread here in Japan through His daughters.

So now I'm 22

I turned 22 on Wednesday, April 16. It was a good day. I started off the day by doing my morning devotional and digging into the Word. Lately I've been extra hungry and thirsty for the words of Jesus. As I've already read through Matthew and Mark, I've realized how much I want my life to reflect Jesus more and more! Seriously, He's a pretty sweet guy! He had some amazing compassion, love, authority, power, grace, mercy, and so many other things that will make this list go on and on, but you can read more into His words on your own.

After reading my Bible and doing my devotional, I talked to Josh (my brother), my parents, and my Grandma Lupita. It was good to talk to these people because they have played and still play a huge part in my life. The days before my birthday, and especially on my birthday, I like to reflect on my life in the past year. I ask myself if my life meant anything? Did it change anything? Did it bring glory to God? Did my life point to Jesus? I realize that I'm not perfect and have failed a lot, but I pray that I continue focusing my life on bringing Jesus the glory and honor through my life. I want for people to know Jesus more because of my life. When I leave this earth, I want people to remember Jesus Christ more than me!

After one of the ESL classes that I and Amber-Lee help Sean with, we had the 2 ladies who attend the class come over to our house and have dessert, coffee/tea (water for me), and play some Dutch Blitz (a card game). We talked a bit about us, and they talked a little bit about themselves. The ladies really enjoyed coming over and we loved having them over because we had never really had any visitors come to our house. As they were leaving, they invited us to one of the ladies house for an "Okonomiyaki Party." Okonomiyaki is a very traditional, famous Japanese dish and is something that our whole team enjoys immensely! We're really looking forward to May 12 so that we can build those relationships a bit more.

Yesterday night, Friday night, our team, the Hieberts and Sean surprised Amber-Lee and I with a really good dinner cooked by Leona (it's Amber-Lee's birthday today, April 19). And after we ate and had an amazing dessert, Amber-Lee and I opened our gifts that our team bought for us. I got 2 sweet Japanese shirts with some awesome English sayings that make absolutely no sense and a notebook.

After dinner and the gift opening, they made Amber-Lee and I go to the house to "relax." I knew they were up to something else, but obeyed anyways. At around 8:30ish, Brianna, Simone, Darlene, and Amber came into the house and started telling us to put on jeans! They were being very pushy as well. They hurried us and then blind folded us. They then lead us to the Hieberts van. They didn't tell us what we were doing or where we were going and kept us blind folded until we got to our destination. We ended up in a small room which was at a Karaoke place. Japan has these Karaoke places that you rent a room and have your own private room with your own Karaoke machine! It was so much fun and we took some awesome videos, but I won't put those up here because we all know how embarrassing Karaoke can be! We had a really good time and it was a really fun night of "surprises." I love my team! They're awesome!

Feeling better

Hey all, I'm sorry I have not posted lately, but my laptop is not working at the present moment. I dropped my laptop before leaving for Japan and I ruined my charger. My actual laptop works fine, but since the charger doesn't work, I can't charge my laptop. I ordered a charger on the internet and it'll be here in like 3-4 weeks, so I'm using someone else's laptop mean while. Anyways, that's the reason why I haven't posted lately.

I've been feeling better from the pain caused by my ulcer. I've also been eating a lot less because I feel full fast, and I've stayed away from salty, spicy, caffeine, raw vegetables and citrus fruits. It's been hard at times to get used to it, but I think I'm used to it now. My team has been a huge encouragement and they have challenged me to not be as stubborn and not feel like I have to be strong all the time. I've always been the type of person that has felt that I have to be the strongest person in the team in all areas. It's not something that I feel everyone else is expecting, but especially as the leader, I feel like I have to be the one that people can lean on. But my team has told me that they don't expect for me to be the strongest. They have continually verbalized that we are all in this together and I couldn't say enough words on how much I appreciate them.

We have about 7 students for our English classes that start on Friday and Saturday of this week/weekend. It has been a bit discouraging to get so little response out of 10,000 fliers, but we know that God has plans that we don't know about yet. We have confidence in our God and know that He knows what's going on and the purpose of all of this. We've learned about patience a lot through all of this. Please continue to pray that we look for His will in everything and we wait upon the Lord for everything. Thank you for the prayers and blessings upon blessings for all of you! Much love from Japan! Sayonara!