Funerals

Tonight David attended a funeral of the wife of a recent graduate of the Bible College in Sapporo who died aged 46. Actually it was the first part of the funeral and already several other ceremonies will have taken place between the time of death and the evening wake. Tomorrow morning there will be a further funeral ceremony not unlike this evening, then the body is taken to the crematorium, following which the mourners complete the final part of the funeral proceedings by placing the bones in a casket. This evening was a very moving occasion. There are some things which are similar to a Christian funeral in the west - hymns, Bible reading, prayers, a short message. But some other traditions are different. Usually one or two people share some memories of the deceased - these are always moving moments. At the end, the next of kin (in this case the husband and two teenage children) stand at the front and the husband said a few words to those who had gathered. And then finally, before leaving everyone proceeds to the front and places a flower on a table in front of the area where the coffin is laid. Funerals in Japan are often Buddhist with sutras chanted by the priest, the smell of incense and no sense of any hope. Tonight the pastor rightly said that we do not know why a wife, mother and daughter was taken at such an early age - but we are not without hope and can in the midst of sadness know the grace and comfort of the Lord. The church family in Japan is small but there is always such a sense of caring for one another. It was good to have been there tonight to see that love expressed in very tangible ways.

Holy Week

It is interesting how church traditions differ round the world. While Christmas is marked in Japan with many services and special outreach events, Easter is quite different. Within the churches we know or have been part of, you would hear very little about Lent, there would be nothing to mark Palm Sunday and no services during Holy Week. Easter comes and goes with just a celebration service on Easter Sunday. And that's a bit of a shame really as there is little chance to pause and reflect on the cross and Jesus' passion. As we start our new church in Hiragishi we have tried consciously to incorporate some of these things and mark important times in the church calendar as well as reflect on how to mark some things which are important in Japanese culture. In our curch we have all used Lent as a time for giving up something. Yesterday we focused on Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. This coming Friday we will take the opportunity as a church to have a reflective time of readings and meditation on the cross. And next Sunday we will gather again to celebrate the risen Jesus and hope that a number of guests will join us then too. We are already thinking about holding an outreach event for the community next year around the time of Easter and are visiting another church next month to see what they do. As many round the world mark Easter, our prayer is that many in Japan would come to know the one who came as Crucified Saviour and Risen Lord.

The challenges of church planting

Exactly a year ago tomorrow we arrived back in Japan to begin our new assignment in the Hiragishi area of Sapporo - start a church from zero. As we look back we appreciate the blessings and the good times. The first worship service; a wonderful Dedication Ceremony; our first baptism at Christmas; beginning to make contact with people in the area. But we realise too the challenge of beginning from nothing. Apart from Sambi (who has a full time job), there is no one to help us and the Chuas, who themselves have a more than full load with other ministry. It takes a long time to get to know people. Even little things can become discouragements. There have been misunderstandings - with other churches and pastors, with other missionary colleagues. Japanese Christians who might have been potential additions to our team here end up elsewhere. So often when we think we have taken a step forward, we seem to take several steps back! Just today someone we hoped would be part of our church from next month called to say she had moved to another area. We would really love for one or two other Japanese to be added to the church - that would be great encouragement to Sambi too. Our struggles are hardly in the nature of the hardships Paul writes of, but we understand more and more that seeing the advance of God's kingdom in these needy land is a tough battle. But we know God is at work here and will by his grace and in his time bring blessing to this area.

Keeping the records

This is transition time here. The school year comes to an end with graduation ceremonies. The business year ends with many employees moved round the country to other branches often on very short notice. The church year comes to an end and March often sees the AGM which is usually preceded by many weeks of preparation of reports and statistics for the current church year and plans being made for the next year. The amount of detail (and paper!) can be quite phenomenal. The time spent in the AGM varies according to the church but can often last for several hours. We are still a baby church but we do need to begin keeping some records of the church year so that these are available for future reference. It is also important for us to record something of the story of this church plant - why we started where we did; how we arrived at the church name; what the ethos and vision of the church is. So we produced a short document with this story and a few facts and figures of the life of Izumi Church to this point, as well as some ideas for what we would like to see happen over the coming year. Nothing very detailed but enough to have some sense of purpose and direction as we wait to see how this church plant will unfold. And today after our service we had our very first AGM, though that is probably too grand an expression. It did not last very long but it was good for us as a missionary team also to get Sambi's input and ideas. We are looking forward to the coming church year with expectancy.

Going to the bank

Today David went to the bank. No big deal, you may think. But going to a bank in Japan usually involves a lot of queuing, a lot of form-filling and a lot of waiting. The other day David had to go to the local city office to make some minor changes to personal documents - and it's the same story there. The wheels of bureaucracy turn very slowly. Interestingly, for a land where everything is hi-tech and mobile phones can peform almost any function, there is still an affinity with doing things the old way - forms, paper, photocopying, double checking by the person sitting at the next desk. At banks the ATM machines can do all sorts of things at the push of a few (actually sometimes quite a lot) of buttons. But if you need to do something the ATM can't do, then you need to battle with the forms and the waiting. The staff though are always very cheery and helpful. Maybe there is a parable in there somewhere. The Japanese love to embrace gadgets and technology. Yet there is also still a holding on to the old-fashioned ways. Tradition matters here. There is a rich and complex culture. The surface looks modern and hi-tech - and it is. But beneath that veneer of gadgetry, the traditional way of doing things, and doing and saying and thinking things in the right way is highly valued. We need patience and grace and a teachable spirit to understand the culture and the people and then be able to share the good news of Jesus in appropriate ways.

End of an era

Today Alistair became the last of the Ferguson boys to finish his pre-school days. It was the graduation ceremony at the Hiragishi kindergarten. The kindergarten is large by Hokkaido standards with well over 300 children. This morning some 117 children duly 'graduated', resplendent in their uniforms complete with decoration flower. Everyone else gets dressed up too - one or two of the mothers even wore a kimono. The all-female teachers wore the standard black suit which comes out on such occasions. In Japan they do these kind of ceremonies so well, especially those which mark a transition and there is a real sense of closure, usually with not a few tears too. The ceremony was conducted with great dignity and precision, with much bowing; the speeches were given in very polite language; the children were able to sing and recite long chunks of Japanese impeccably. Even when the young teacher who was handing out the certificates on stage keeled over and fainted, the show went on as smoothly as before. Within a few seconds, she was helped off stage, another teacher took her place and the children continued processing forward to receive their certificates. Afterwards, the children went to their respective classrooms for a farewell time with their teacher. More certificates, more speeches, more tears, but a real sense of one chapter being closed well and the children being left with many happy memories of their kindergarten days. School for Alistair starts on 6th April and we will write then about how well the Japanese mark the start of something new.

Learning and growing

This past week we have had the privilege of coordinating a Training Week for 18 first-term missionaries, one of whom joined us by live link from Tokyo. It was a time of learning, interacting and sharing together as we sought to be better equipped to serve here and bring the message of the gospel to the Japanese people. Several OMF colleagues helped us understand more about the history of missions; about Japanese religions; how to contextualize the gospel to Japan; and issues relating to the church in both urban and more rural areas. We were grappling with a big question - what is an indigenous, biblical church in the Japanese context? And more than that, longing to see a movement in this land, not a church that is stagnant and static, but one which is growing, where disciples are bearing fruit and where many others are being added to the kingdom. It was so encouraging to see and hear the enthusiasm and commitment of the new generation of missionaries here. We are blessed to have many gifted people within OMF who have a passion to reach the Japanese with the gospel. We all left the week enriched but knowing that we have only just started. God is doing a work in each of us. And God is doing a work in this land. It is an honour to be part of that great work.

Back to school

Since we came back to Japan last April, we have had the privilege of being able to attend lectures and audit classes at the Bible College in Sapporo. Today was the last of ten classes given by our co-worker Kaori Chua on the subject of pastoral care. We learned so much that will be invaluable for us as we get alongside people here - and we wish we had learned some of those lessons years ago! The Bible College does not have many students but there is a very warm atmosphere and we have enjoyed getting to know the students and admire their dedication to giving up three years to be equipped to minister as pastors, missionaries or evangelists in Japan or overseas. Three of the students will graduate next Saturday and move on to become pastors in local churches. Other students come in to study just for one year. Still others, some who are church members, some who are pastors, attend like ourselves to audit a class. Kaori's husband How Chuang is a lecturer at the College and we have benefited greatly from his wisdom and insight as we start off this new church plant in Hiragishi. Missionaries like to be active and be out there among people. But it is always good too to take time to reflect and think about how the great truths of Scripture can be expressed appropriately in the complex culture that is Japan. So today we give thanks for the Hokkaido Bible Institute and those who serve there so that others can be better equipped to share the gospel with Japanese people.

Ready, steady, go

Today a very special guest appeared at Calum's school. The children all gathered and waited excitedly in the Large Hall. Lots of mums (and a few dads) were there too. The children practised a song as a present for the special guest. He was a bit late so they practised it again - and again. And then he arrived - Atsunori Inaba. Now, for those of you who know nothing about baseball, the name will be completely meaningless. But he is one of the star players of the Sapporo pro team, Fighters. And he has just embarked on a tour of all of the primary schools in Hokkaido (1300 of them) over the next five years. Today was the very first and it so happened that Calum's school had the honour. No one we spoke to seemed to know why. As he entered the hall, the children (and teachers!) bounced up and down doing what they call the 'Inaba jump'. During this tour Inaba will present batons to each school to be used at their school sports day. He has inscribed a message on the batons - roughly translated 'Run your best!' Today he spoke to the children and encouraged them not just to do their best in sports, but in study - and in doing what their mums tell them! It was great to watch the event and the cultural interplay that happens as a school welcomes a superstar into their midst. Lots of bowing and impeccably executed speeches, particularly by children. It was good that we could both be there and again just be visible in the school on a day when many others had gathered. We have discovered that people are getting to know us and know why we're here, even if they are not people we have ever spoken to. The word gets round.

Girls' Day

Today is Girls' Day in Japan - not that we have much occasion to mark that in our house! However, Lorna thought a cake was in order to celebrate her sole contribution to femininity in the Ferguson household. At Calum's school, the children enjoyed a special strawberry dessert for lunch. At Alistair's kindergarten, they had a 'cherry blossom' jelly for dessert and had the treat of drinking juice rather than the usual cold tea. And he came home with two 'mochi' - rice cakes made of glutinous rice, both of which were filled with sweet red bean paste. Lorna had a pink one covered in a 'cherry blossom' leaf, something which is traditionally eaten on Girls' Day. The day is also known as Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival) which has ancient spiritual origins. In the weeks leading up to Girls' Day you can see many displays of traditional (and vey expensive) dolls in the shops. Some question whether Christians should participate in Hina Matsuri. Opinions differ but it is good at the very least to think through the origins of such festivals and customs and then decide how far it is appropriate to fall in with them or come up with alternative ways of marking what is celebrated. A constant challenge here is how to contextualize the gospel, in other words how to strike the right balance between being in the culture and being counter-culture. On Sunday during our service we did not mark the Hina Matsuri but did have a time of prayer and thanksgiving for girls. And today we enjoyed eating the sweet mochi.