Last day in May...

Last day in May.......wow! Time has gone by so fast and it is not slowing down. We have 2 more weeks in Japan, and one of our team prayer requests has been to be exhausted, tired, and everything else that comes with that, everyday. We want to do as much as possible these next 2 weeks, so please pray for strength, patience, health, team unity, etc.
This weekend we are at a church in Fujigaoka, which is about 1 hour away. We are doing a children's program on Saturday and on Sunday we are attending the regular Sunday morning service and then after lunch we are in charge of a 1 hour and 10 minute special service for the church people and visitors. Please pray that our visit and ministering together may be of encouragement and a boost for the Fujigaoka church.
Because of our crazy schedule, I don't know how many times I'll be able to post up new blogs, but I ask that you please pray as we want to finish strong and tired at the same time.
I can't believe we only have 15 more days right now......but I know that God is still stirring up some hearts, so please pray that the hearts and lives that we come across may see The Light in our lives.
Arigato goizaimashita (thank you very much)!
Sayonara (good-bye)!
In Christ,
Joanna

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.