Separation

I was listening to a sermon this morning, and found this profoundly heartbreaking.

Excerpt from Ravi Zacharias' talk on "The Lostness of Man" (22/6/08)

"Man has traded away the glory and beauty of God for the ugliness and crassness of man and creatures. Listen to what Habakkuk says: Of what value is an idol since man has carved it, or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes and trusts in his own creation, he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood 'Come to life!' or to lifeless stone 'Wake up!'. Can it give guidance? It is covered in gold and silver but there is no breath in them. But the Lord is in his Holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.

"Listen to what David says in Psalm 135. He talks of idols that are blind, idols that are deaf, idols that are dumb. And then he adds this rather pungent comment, he says 'Those who worship these idols become like them.'

"Isaiah in chapter 29 has an analogy for worshippers of idols, and those who deify themselves: He says they are likened to a man who is hungry, who went to sleep at night, and while he was tossing and turning and night he dreamed he was feasting at a banquet. He ate all the food that he wanted to eat, only to be shocked when he'd woken up to find out it was all a dream. It was likened to a man who was thirsty, rolling in bed at night desperately seeking some water in his stomach, and as he is sleeping he is dreaming he is drinking from a fresh spring, he drinks and drinks and drinks to his body's content, only to wake up and find out it was all a dream.

...

"Habakkuk captures the lifelessness of idolatrous persuits as destitute of truth; David reminds us that we become like those whom we worship; Isaiah captures it as an illusionary dream that leaves one hungry...Chesterton describes it as waking up in the morning, looking into the mirror and seeing nothing."

I'm still alive.

Just about.

It's only Wednesday..but I'm exhaaausted.

20 more days til I return to the motherland for 2 weeks!

Reminder

Tonight I thought I'd go through some of my friend's newsletters/prayer updates/monthly prayer letters etc...And I was really grateful for my friend Jeremy's newsletter, which began with something so important, yet is so often neglected, or underestimated, or at least not mentioned or thought about enough. Let me quote..

"God has existed throughout eternity; He is the creator, enabler and sustainer of the universe and all life within it; He is the source of all wisdom, beauty, justice and truth; He is today being glorified as He restores the world, marred by human rejection of Him, and more and more people, made in His image, come to recognise His love and power to forgive through Jesus' sacrifice; He is building His church of followers and preparing an eternal home for them in a new heaven and earth which will come about when Jesus returns as judge and everyone will see Him and bow before Him." - Jeremy Rowe

I needed this reminder. I live on reminders, and this is probably one of the most important reminders I've had for a long time. (Thanks Jez!!)

The pastor at church on Sunday said that the most important thing, the first and foremost, is to know God. Know Him, not just about Him, but know Him. Personally. Churches or mission organisations often talk of spiritual warfare. And I've been thinking about that since coming to Japan. But Pastor Thomas made a good point as he drove me home on Sunday, is that before we should even start thinking about spiritual warfare, we need to be submerged into the knowledge of God; familiarise, and stay with the Real Thing. So that when something dodgy comes along, we'll know.

what's a teacher?

Having been here for 3 months, being an assistant to 14 teachers in 4 schools and spending most of my day in the teacher's room, I find the simple definition of 'teacher' not quite so easy to define..

Teaching, for the teachers at my schools, is probably about 50% of their job. I've seen a sensei (teacher) give this student a haircut cos apparently his hair was a little too long. I've seen teachers yell the living daylight out of a group of kids who secretly brought chocolate to school. I've also seen a teacher spank the living daylight out of a student. On top of all the disciplining, they have to organise school events, students' workplace experience days, after-school and weekend activities (which are actually compulsory for all students, and happen almost everyday), supervise the students cleaning the school everyday, supervise inter-school matches on weekends,...

Another occasion - a student didn't show up for school one day. He didn't call, and the teachers couldn't reach him. So two teachers got up, left school, and went to look for him at his house.

Once I saw a teacher mend the hems of a student's trousers. "Why doesn't his mum do it?" I asked my fellow senior ALT. "Maybe 'cause he probably doesn't have a mum..."

I don't think all teachers in Japan have quite the same role as those that I see here...I think its to do with the area. Kids at my school aren't as well off; many come from broken families, poor upbringing, parents who are always out working...one of my students was described as "better off raised by a pack of wolves".

I have a lot of admiration for the teachers here. They may not be the best at actually teaching, but they have a lot of responsibilities, a lot of patience, and a big heart, no matter how harsh their bark may seem....

winter conversations

寒い

SAMUII



(with much emphasis on the 'SA')


which means COLD.

so it usually goes something like "saaaaaamui neh!!!!"

As winter approaches...

It's getting quite cold here in Fukushima.

I think its almost time to turn a few things on...such as my heated toilet seat, the warm water in the bidet, and the kotatsu - its a low table with a heater stuck on the underside of the table top. I've also started to heat my wet face towel in the microwave in the mornings. Just like they do on airplanes.

How's the weather like in Martinque, Larry? (It seems like you're the only one reading my blog nowadays :P)

Itch

its been a while - thought I'd update on what's been happening with my freckles...

Last weekend (Saturday - Monday) I had the greatest privilege of going to the JET Christian Fellowship weekend away, in a beautiful place in Tokyo Prefecture called Okutama, surrounded by beautiful scenery, blessed with beautiful weather, and graced with the presence of beautiful people who have a beautiful heart and passion for a beautiful God in this beautiful country. (Yes I have also noticed the limitations of my vocabulary.....must be being in this country too long!!)

We had some great fellowship, some great worship times, and best of all, being able to pray and sing with a bunch of English-speakers, in English!! It was so refreshing, and so encouraging. At Passion Tokyo, it felt like I jumped back into Jesus' big arms; but this weekend felt like I was now actually walking with Him, hanging out with Him., catching up...just like long lost friends. And seeing some of the fellow JCFer's heart for Japan was greatly inspiring and encouraging.

Tuesday - Wednesday -- the JET ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) Mid-year Conference in Fukushima City, about 2 hours from me. It was a bit of a doss 2 days, although I did take away a couple of good ideas from other JETs. The most interesting thing though, was that the keynote speaker, an old Japanese Waseda Uni professor, turned out to be a Christian, and was quite outspoken about it in his speech...!

Friday -- Onahama 2nd Junior High School's 地域交流 (Local area exchange?) Festival & Bazaar - I had to 'make' a Chocolate Brownie the night before (does it count as make if I sought the assistance of Betty Crocker's Brownie Mix??) to bring to the 'Ethnic foods demonstration'..

THEN, YeeChiang (fellow ALT) and I, sang and guitared, respectively, 2 Japanese songs for the closing ceremony of the festival (this is Japan - everything has an opening and closing ceremony). We only started practicing one of the songs the night before, after being told there'd be a request for encore after the ONLY ONE we prepared for. Nontheless, we pulled it off. The kids went wild. We were heroes.

And thus concluded one of the most exhausting weeks of my Japan adventures so far.

But I still haven't had a chance to play badminton since I got here.....where am I gonna satisfy that itch!?!!?!