Japan with Hannah

Sunday:

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I got to share my testimony at church in Japanese. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to be able to prepare a small part of my testimony with Keiko sensei beforehand. The process was very difficult, and slightly frustrating when trying to figure out the correct translation in Japanese, because of some cultural differences. Keiko sensei helped me immensely, and I would not have finished if not for her!

Monday:

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On Monday evening, I had dinner with the Kawai family! They are so welcoming and nice, even though we met only once at Lighthouse, I felt like I knew them for longer. Shoma was super friendly and kept asking me to play with him. He is a very smart, funny boy. Poor Ema was sick and her eyes were watery and her nose was running the whole time.

It very fun talking with them and talking about mission life in Japan! Japan is said to be 1% Christian, but this includes all the cults and other religions that claim to be Christian. So there are about less than 0.3% of Japan who are Christians. Hide san until there is about 2% of Japanese Christians, Japan needs the help from missionaries from other countries.

Tuesday:

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Nora and Judy have been super sweet, and it really saddens me that I have to leave them very soon. I learned from watching all the short term teams come and go, that the missionaries and missionary’s kids deal with this every year. Some missionary kids get really attached to some short term missionaries, and when they leave, it breaks their heart. Since there are summer interns every year here, I imagine some kids may get really hurt from this continual cycle of people coming in and out of their lives.

Wednesday:

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The three summer interns had dinner with Moe. She lived in the apartment building next to us, so we did a pot luck and went over to her place.

Thursday: (This is long)

On Thursday evening, I watched a movie with a friend, and then was on my way to meet Lauren and Claire for karaoke. I was walking from Nagoya station, and I was stopped by a girl asking if I had time for a survey. I told her that I was sorry, and that I was not Japanese. She then asked me what ethnicity I was. I told her I was Korean, and she was very surprised. She started speaking to me in Korean and told me that she was half Korean and half Japanese.

I stopped and started talking with her, and we ended up talking for an hour just on the sidewalk near Nagoya station. Her name is Nae, and she is 22! She turned out to be part of a cult, the Unification Church, and I told her that I was Christian and believed in Jesus. I explained to her the gospel with broken Japanese and Korean and then asked her what she believed in. She could not explain it perfectly, and she told me that there is someone else who is more knowledgeable than her. However, she mentioned that God loves us, but to make him happier, she does things like evangelizing and other devotion things. She gave an example of how it was like giving God a massage.

I told her that I believed that Jesus paid all of our sins on the cross, so we are not required to do anything for salvation except to have faith. I also asked her if she read the bible for herself, and she told me that she lived in a dorm filled with 40 other people of the same belief and they woke up early morning everyday to do that kind of stuff together. So, I encouraged her to try to read the bible and pray on her own for herself. I told her that our relationship with God needs personal time with just God and ourselves. Also, that she should really know, and be confident in what she believes in.

I invited her to an event happening the next day, and she politely declined. She told me if she went to where there was a lot of Christians, she would naturally want to tell them about her beliefs, but that they would think she was saying heresy. She thought that they would get mad at her and want to harm her. I told her that I promise it wouldn’t be like that, and that they would be curious to hear what she believes in. She said she would feel too uncomfortable, and that also she isn’t as knowledgeable as others in her religion. I suggested if we could get coffee instead another time, and she seemed still a little uncomfortable about that but eventually agreed.

I told her I was very thankful that I met her, and she said the same. She told me she never coincidentally met another Korean in Nagoya. I got her Instagram, and then we parted ways. We planned to meet again, but our schedules both didn’t match up, so we did not meet a second time.

Friday:

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My last lesson with Keiko sensei. 😦 I honestly learned so much from her and I’m so thankful I got to work with her. Her testimony is so encouraging and the work she does is NOT EASY.

MonAmi Cafe is a cafe that the other two interns, Lauren and Claire were helping out at. It is a cafe centered to help women who are in crisis pregnancy. I never got to visit the cafe, and I finally got to on Friday. The food was delicious and I got to talk with Cynthia, the one who started the cafe, and Anna, the cook.

Saturday:

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I attended a seminar led by a counselor from Dallas, Texas. She talked about how she counsels children with play and how she does it. She shared some of her counseling stories of how children would sometimes retell their stories or tell stories of what they fear through their play. Although she does not work with the same age range I work with, there were a lot of insights that were helpful to consider when dealing with kids who have gone through a traumatic experience.

Overview:

During my time here, I have met about 6 short term teams who came to help out in Nagoya. The teams definitely keep missionaries busy, but also creates many opportunities to have different events that turn out to be a huge blessing. It has been super cool to get to know fellow believers that I will one day get to reunite with in heaven. The missionaries here do have so many different responsibilities, and I don’t know how they all do it! So much respect for those in ministry!

I was so grateful to meet Nae, and the opportunity to share the gospel. It was really a God given event, and I am glad I have more people I can pray for by name in Japan.

I am not ready to leave. Goodbyes are hard, and it seems very surreal that I’m leaving soon. When I say goodbye to someone, I say that I will definitely see them later. I will definitely be back in Nagoya.

Monday:

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I was invited to join a NC3 (another Christian church in Nagoya) event on Monday. It was an event that the KCM team (short term Korean American Team from LA) that was participating in. I got completely lost in the park that the BBQ was at. I was roaming around the ginormous park for about an hour and a half. I asked 3 different people where to go and the last person was a police officer who gave me the map pictured, and I finally found the correct place. The meat that I got to eat was delicious, but I did not get to eat much. I got to talk with some of the church members and it was a fun time of fellowship.

I rushed over to the Kang’s place for tutoring and they had some friends over. So, I tutored Sara with a couple of her friends and the energy level was very high. I tried having them introduce themselves in English. After I was done with Sara and friends, Isaac explained to me how to play Splendor in English and we played one game. We then did some math worksheets together. I had dinner with the family before I headed out.

Tuesday:

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After tutoring at the Ruck’s, I met the interns and Megumi (Karis’ friend) at Motoyama Station to go to a local festival. It was an extremely small festival that had traditional dancing that everyone was following along with. We all ate different snack foods, the takoyaki was especially very delicious.

After our time at the festival, all 5 of us spent some time praying for the people who came to the festival near the bottom of the stairs (around where the 2nd picture was taken). We prayed that the Lord would bring salvation to the people and that he would open their hearts to know that there is someone greater who they need to put their hope in.

Wednesday:

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Lauren and I went to the only Christian bookstore nearby, and we had a lot of fun looking through all the stuff. We both ended up buying a bunch of books and such, and it left us both in very good moods! We enjoyed our lunch together before I had to go back to CBI for my Japanese lesson.

Thursday:

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Lauren had plans to eat lunch with Rina (her friend that she had been meeting consistently) at the apartment, and she invited me to join them. We successfully cooked together and ate pork belly with lettuce and ssamjang! We were chatting and after dinner, Lauren asked me to share my testimony to Rina, because she knew I had it all written out in Japanese. While Lauren was washing dishes, I shared my testimony (read off my paper) with Rina.

After, I asked Rina if she could help me out with my Japanese homework. I had a script of a 3 minute sermon of a pastor explaining the difference between the old and new testament. I had to write out all the readings of the kanji words that I didn’t know of (basically all of them). She helped me through all of it and found the whole script extremely interesting. She was particularly amazed at how Jesus resurrected 3 days after his death. She kept looking through it, and we asked her if she had any questions, but she said that her knowledge about the concept is so little, that she didn’t know what to ask.

Friday:

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This week for the Heart and Soul event was board games! The KCM team joined for the event and I learned how to play Saboteur. The game was super easy to learn and a lot of people joined in. There weren’t many new people that came to this event, so we just had fellowship among ourselves.

Saturday:

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The KCM team prepared a “Los Angeles Night” event Saturday evening. The team did a K-pop dance, 4 skits, and then a dance to the song, Echo by Elevation Worship. The skits were SO GOOD and you could tell they prepared well for everything.

We went to karoke afterwards and we were in a room that was for 30 people. We had about 27 people I believe, it was super energetic, and I had a really fun time! This was my first time doing karoke since I’ve been on this trip!

Overview:

I was back to my original routine schedule this week, and it was great! I kept mentioning to the other interns how much fun I was having this week. I enjoyed all my tutoring sessions with each family and all the events that I did along this week. I’m super thankful for the KCM team and the different events we got to do together. The interns all agreed that they really were a refreshing group that gave us energy. I was glad to meet with people from home too!

I was really glad to have that time with Rina. Although I didn’t find a person to invest time into yet, I was glad I got to share my testimony and talk about the gospel with her. I’m really feeling like we are leaving soon, so it makes me incredibly saddened. Time is really flying!

Highlights

KYOTO: Tuesday & Wednesday

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Yukatas are worn in the summer time usually during festivals. A lot of foreigners were going around with these Yukatas around the temple. It was a nice experience, but would not recommend a ton of walking! The shoes are not very comfortable.

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This ryokan (Japanese style inn) was definitely a highlight of Kyoto. Everything was super nice and the baths/sauna area was very relaxing. The breakfast the following morning was prepared for the whole team and it was delicious. The team wasn’t a fan of the extremely Japanese food, but the interns ate very well.

We ate lunch at Kura Sushi (100 yen sushi) and did some sightseeing with the PCPC team around Kyoto!

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Our last stop before we headed back to Nagoya was just in Kyoto Station. There were stairs that lit up and changed backgrounds! The 4 interns rested here a while before heading back to Nagoya.

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Friday: KCM team

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Another short term team (KCM from LA!) came to CBI and the interns had the opportunity to talk with all of them about the internship program and our stories of how we got to Japan. Then we shared prayer requests and prayed together for Japan and the missionaries in Japan. We had lunch together afterwards, and it was a overall a very refreshing time.

Saturday: I had my first Saturday off since I’ve been here! It was SUPER restful and I didn’t leave the house for the first time. I really needed the rest and I enjoyed it completely.

Overview:

I feel like I am finally used to being in Japan now, and can see myself here for longer. The PCPC team being here had all the interns extremely busy, but now it feels like we have a lot of free time. I’m very thankful for rest and realize the importance of it as well.

Highlights

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The Parks City Presbyterian Church Team from Dallas, Texas, arrived in Nagoya late afternoon on Wednesday! However, I was stomach sick from Sunday this week, and I was up all night on Tuesday in the bathroom. So, I got to rest on this day and didn’t go to the airport to meet the team. I had only liquid foods/drinks for a couple days, which really limited my energy. On Thursday, we had a burger dinner for the team, and they did the Japanese Watermelon Split game.

Friday:

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On Friday morning, we had the last bit of orientation for the team. The large team was split into three separate groups with each team going to a different church. Claire and I were in charge of the team going to Hamamatsu. We were going to Kasai Christ Gospel Church. I went through logistics and the schedule for our time there, and we prayed before heading out. Our travel time was about 1.5 hours on the train to Hamamatsu.

We met and had dinner with Pastor Kambe’s family and some of the church members, and I was able to eat the curry that was served! I was translating Japanese to English (barely) for the team. Kambe sensei welcomed the PCPC team and talked about how thankful he was that they came to a small church in Japan compared to their large church in Texas. We did our introductions around the room and played 2 truths and a lie. It was a lot of fun and everyone was extremely nice. A family of the church gave us sweets for everyone to share, and they were SO GOOD!

Also the entire time, everyone was saying how I looked like Saki, Kambe sensei’s niece. They told me that she would be coming the next day, so I could look forward to it.

Saturday:

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Saturday was the BBQ Event, and it was so much fun! I felt like a lot of us forgot we serving because we were so immersed in fellowship. We had several different types of amazing meats served right after it was done grilling. We also did the Watermelon Split game, and it was actually the best watermelon I’ve ever eaten in my life.

After all the eating, the PCPC team lead a couple games, and we had a small dance party. Afterwards, we sang a couple of worship songs, and then one of the PCPC high school students shared her testimony. After the testimony, Kambe sensei gave an awesome message with a connection to a children’s book that he read first. The book he read was about a cat who didn’t have a name. The cat compared itself to other cats, dogs, and even flowers and how they all had names. At the end of the book, someone finds the cat and gives it a name. The cat realized that it wasn’t looking for a name, but it was actually looking for a person to call them a name. Kambe sensei connected this with how God has given us a name and connected it to other stuff that I didn’t completely understand. 😀

The event ended and many people stayed and continued to play games with each other until we had to clean up. Overall the day was full of fun, and it was encouraging to see many students from around the town gather and have fellowship with one another.

Side note: I met Saki as I entered the church, and the kids from Friday evening were all looking forward to it. Everyone was amazed on how much we looked alike and the day continued with pictures and stares from those who were friends of Saki. Her mom came too and told me that I could call her my mom as well.

Sunday:

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Sunday church service at Kasai Christ Gospel Church was great. One of the PCPC leaders gave his testimony during the service, and many people said they felt encouraged from the testimony. The church served udon and pizza after the service, and the church prepared gifts for us all! They gave us each a super cute towel, and the kids made origami for us.

The event for Sunday was geared more for elementary students. PCPC led a short game of “bear, ninja, and cowboy,” a version of rock, paper, scissors. Then, the PCPC team did a short skit they prepared called “the Ragman Skit.” Kambe sensei did a short message afterwards explaining how Jesus took all our sins on the cross. After the message, Kambe sensei went over the rules of the water battle, and we split into two teams. We went to a park that was right behind the church, and there were paper targets around the park on two sides. Our goal was to break through the other team’s targets with our water weapons. All the older kids and the PCPC team had to have targets on themselves as well. Almost everyone was soaked head to toe after everything, and we returned back to have kakigori!

After everyone left and cleaned up, we all circled up and reflected on the weekend with Kambe sensei and the church. Kambe sensei first thanked the PCPC team for coming and explained how successful both events were. He asked the team for their thoughts of the weekend. The team shared about how they were fascinated by seeing others praise in a different language and about how they were amazed by the true fellowship that happened at this church. One person also shared how they were encouraged by seeing Kambe sensei’s true joy from the truth of the gospel. Kambe sensei shared prayer requests, and after we prayed all at once, we had a few people close in prayer.

It was really nice to end our time in Kasai with prayer. Kambe sensei requested that we would continue to pray for Kasai Christ Gospel Church and that the church would continue to pray for us during our stay in Japan. It was sad to say goodbye, and I felt a strong desire to come back and visit in the near future.

Overview:
It was an absolute joy and honor to be able to serve with Kambe sensei at Kasai Christ Gospel Church with PCPC. The two events we helped out with were a blast, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. In the short time we had there, I felt like I was a part of their church family. I was grateful to be able to experience how God was working in Kasai, and I left super encouraged. Please continue to pray with me for the Kasai Christ Gospel Church and for the salvation for the students who come to these monthly events.

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SUNDAY: June 16

Ichibaku: Claire (another summer intern) and I are attending Ichibaku Gospel Church. There are about 15 people at this church, and they were super welcoming and accommodated for us in every way possible. They wrote Romaji (Romanization of Japanese) underneath all the lyrics for worship and had one of the church members attempt to translate for us. However, the translator spoke very loudly so it was hard to focus on the message. For the future, I told the pastor that I could try translating for Claire, so that they wouldn’t need to worry about accommodating. After the service, Claire and I got lunch with the church, and everyone was so nice. They asked many questions to get to know us two better.

Since it was my first Sunday in Japan, I also visited All Nations Fellowship (ANF) which is a bilingual church that meets at CBI in the late afternoon.

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MONDAY: June 17

Prayer: We have 4 hours blocked for praying on Mondays. This was very much needed time to be reflective. It was difficult staying focused the entire 4 hours, but it was nice having blocked off time with the Lord.

Tutoring: I got to go to the Kang’s to tutor their two children, Isaac (9) and Sarah (7). The kids’ first language is Japanese, so I do a lot of speaking practice with them and try to talk about things they enjoy.

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TUESDAY: June 18

Tutoring: I got to rest for the first half of the day which was very much needed! I went to the Ruck’s late afternoon and got to tutor their two girls, Nora (6) and Judy (4). I don’t have much experience teaching young ones, so it was very new trying to figure out what to do with the girls. I ended up reviewing the alphabet with both of them individually at different paces. I had fun with the girls and got to have dinner with the family after as well.

WEDNESDAY: June 19

CBI Office: I started helping out at The CBI office and have been working on the distribution of the Japanese translation of Into the Redeemer’s Hand by Paul Tripp. I have also been working on organizing surveys for CBS which is the seminary school at CBI.

Tutoring with Keiko sensei: Keiko sensei is the teacher who teaches many missionaries here Japanese and she is amazing! She is helping me with Christian vocabulary, understanding sermons, and then conversing about the sermon. It was fun talking with her and I am learning SO much more useful vocabulary.

Family Dinners: The other two interns and I have been getting along with no issues. We heard that living together was super rare as summer interns, so we have been super thankful. We made dinner together two days in a row now and it has been nice eating in.

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THURSDAY: June 20

Tutoring: I was at the Rayl’s place to tutor their oldest, Paton, and he was so happy and ready to learn. I was attempting to teach him how to read and he was catching on so quickly and enjoying himself which made my job super easy.

Mentoring: Today we talked about how we often “shrink the cross” by pretending or performing. We pretend by spinning the truth in our favor to make our sin look better than it is. We perform when we try to compensate for our sins by trying to earn God’s approval. We looked through several different types of righteousness one could have and talked about which ones we related to.

“Performance – driven Christianity is actually a minimizing of God’s’ holiness. Thinking we can impress God with our “right living” shows that we’ve reduced his standards far below what they actually are.” (Thune & Walker 24)

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FRIDAY: June 21

Aichi University: Claire and I joined Brooks (missionary) and Levi (summer intern with ANF) in their lunch outings at Aichi University. The four of us got lunch at the very crowded school cafeteria and prayed for the Lord to bring us an opportunity to talk to anyone. Since we were a group of random foreigners, we were bringing a lot of attention to ourselves by just being there. While we were eating, Brooks suddenly said hi to 3 girls who were asking each other why there were foreigners here. Then he asked them to sit with us to practice their English. They were so surprised and keep saying, “Eh?”, but they eventually came over to sit with us. It was awkward at first, but Brooks was very talented at making the conversation entertaining. We talked for a while and then I told them about the game board night we had later at Heart & Soul. I got one of the girl’s contact information and texted her the details. She kindly texted back that they would maybe want to come another time.

Heart & Soul Event: Every Friday we have an outreach event where we do something fun at the cafe. This week’s event was a board game night.

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SATURDAY: June 22

Saturdays are usually our days off, but we had a special concert for Joshua Messick at the CBI building that we helped out at. Joshua Messick is a professional hammered dulcimer and he played in the majority of the sound track for the movie, Mary and the Witch’s Flower. I helped with selling his CD’s for the event.

Overview:

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THURSDAY: June 13

Arrival:

I arrived to the Chubu airport in Nagoya Japan at around 2:30 PM. I got picked up by Karis, who is a 2 year intern at CBI, and went straight to CBI and the apartment I was staying at to get my bike and drop off my luggage.

Mentoring:

The schedule on Thursdays is to have mentoring with the Rayls, one of the missionary families at CBI. We share our highs and lows during the week over dinner and any culturally shocking things we have experienced. Then we sing a couple songs of worship and then go over a lesson together in the book, The Gospel Centered Life. I was extremely exhausted and had trouble staying awake, but we talked about how we often minimize sin. When we minimize sin, we have a smaller view of God which prevents us from experiencing the goodness and greatness of His character. I enjoyed the lesson and had fun getting to know the other interns and the Rayl family.

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FRIDAY: June 14

Prayer Walk:

Pastor Brett Rayl took all the interns to a prayer walk around the area. I learned a ton about Japanese culture and prayed about the idols present in Japan and also about the idols in my own heart. PLEASE read more specifics of what I learned here: https://japanwithhannah.travel.blog/prayer-walk/

Heart & Soul Events:

Heart & Soul is the cafe that is connected to the CBI building. The cafe is not opened anymore, but there are events that happen every Friday event. This Friday was Cafeoke Night which is just a night of karaoke. This was fun to watch and I did get to talk to a few people, but I sadly still felt exhausted from the jet lag.

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SATURDAY: June 15

Day Off:

Saturdays are set aside for our days off. I did not use this Saturday super well – I went shopping and went out for dinner with the other interns. This included a TON of walking (around 10 miles) which I am really not used to and felt myself super exhausted and annoyed of all the walking we were doing. Since I was keeping myself busy during the day, I was doing good with jet lag and got used to the time quickly. However I got discouraged because of my exhaustion and like I needed a whole day of doing nothing to recharge.

Overview:

I was super excited to come to Japan and ready to do anything, but with the long traveling time and the packed events in the beginning, I felt a little burnt out. I was discouraged by my exhaustion and thought that I couldn’t see myself doing missions in Japan long term.

After reflecting, I believe I really needed more time with the Lord. I was being sinful of trying to take things into my own hands instead of giving everything to the Lord. My disappointment grew from unmet expectations and I minimized my sin thinking that I deserved the rest after the long trip. I am looking back now and am thankful for everything I did during this short week. I often stopped and said, “Wow, I’m in Japan”, and was amazed that God brought me here. I’m still super excited of what is to come and hope to let go of expectations and trust that God will do what is best.