Another year

We started this blog when we returned to Japan in the spring of 2009 with the aim that people back home could follow our journey as we seek to plant a church in Sapporo. It has been an encourgement to hear that people have been following this journey and that the regular posts have helped people to partner more with us in this journey and also learn something about this country and its culture along the way. So how has this past year been for Hiragishi Izumi Church? We ended 2009 with Sambi's baptism and full of hope for the coming year. Over the past year we have not had any additions to our small church. Yet we have realised afresh that the task of starting a church from scratch really does take time and patience. Only now are we beginning to see the fruit of time spent getting to know people in the community and being in the places where people are. We have made a conscious effort to be 'out there' and befriend people in the different worlds in which we find ourselves, not least school, football and local sports clubs. Interestingly, people who have come to events which we have held during the past year have been people that we already know in some way. It is not easy operating without a building which is known as the 'church'. Of course, church is about people more than a building, but it is not so easy for people we know to get a handle on where and what this 'church' is. As we go into 2011, there are many challenges but also many opportunities. We are excited to see what God will do. We are glad to have new co-workers on board with us. And we long to see some of our many contacts move towards Jesus and see some new believers from the Hiragishi area who take the big step of baptism and become added to Izumi Church. Thank you all for your support and encouragement over the past year.

The journey to faith

One of the joys of our work here is being able to help others understand the message of the Bible and find their way to a relationship with Jesus. A young guy has been coming now and again on Sundays since early last year. He is a friend of Sambi's and she invited him for the first time on Valentine's Day. After that he began to come on special occasions, around once a month. Over time he began to relax and he always chatted freely as we ate together afterwards. Recently he came and asked if he could pray during the service - he did and it was great! Some weeks ago he shared a bit about his life and how he feels about himself. David wondered whether he would like to meet more regularly (he is not working at the moment) so now he has met with David and JP three times to begin considering the message of the Bible. He has lots of questions and often comes at things from an intriguing angle. As we meet with him, we try to find points in common and ways in to share so that he can understand. He is not going to back to his family home at New Year so wants to come this Sunday and cook curry rice for all of us after the service. It would make an even better New Year for us if Wataru were to commit himself to a relationship with Jesus and be the next addition to our young church.

Christmas with a difference

This year will be unusual for us. One of our boys will be gone for Christmas Day! David headed off early this morning to the airport with Calum so he could catch a flight to Tokyo with 15 other 10 year olds chosen to represent the whole of Sapporo in a football tournament in Yokohama. They will be there till the 27th. Calum did open one of his presents before leaving and the rest will await his return. He is so excited to be going and already there is a great rapport among the boys who form the team. The coaches are making it a fun trip too. There is even a grand 'curry rice making' evening - everyone had to take their own spoon! Calum is looking forward to rubbing shoulders with some of the other future Japanese stars from the top club teams. He's not one of the main starting players so is unlikely to feature much on the pitch but it will be a great experience. It was fun to watch them leaving this morning. Everything was of course highly organised - even down to each child receiving a mask to wear on the plane! Obviously someone is concerned that the children don't pick up any nasty bugs en route. Well, here's hoping for a great time and as they say in Japanese - 頑張れ!　(Do your best!)

Christmas Food

'Christmas equals chicken'. So says a marketing director of KFC in Japan. A professor of business at a university here comments that 'the Japanese are keen to celebrate Christmas in a non-religious way' so as there is 'a certain amount of nostalgia attached to the KFC Christmas meal, people try to pass the tradition on to their children.' KFC is certainly big business here at this time of year. Dr Sanders gets dressed up in his Santa outfit and you can see many Japanese clamouring to buy KFC chicken on Christmas Eve. Of course many pre-order now to avoid disappointment. While it is true that many see Christmas just as a chance to eat chicken and Christmas cake with their family on Christmas Eve (the 25th being just another working day here), it is also true that people here are also drawn to churches which often hold candle services on the 23rd or 24th. These are usually simple services by candlelight with traditional carols and Bible readings, and a short message can be given too. Maybe there is an opportunity in here for churches to reach even more people at the Christmas Eve service. 'Celebrate Christmas with us and join us for a chicken meal afterwards!' It would be great to see the crowds flocking to churches rather than KFC.

On the move - again!

It has reached that time of year again when our older boys are on the move, this time returning to Japan for the winter holidays. They are in Tokyo and will head up to Sapporo tomorrow - two other boys (as well as Mum and Dad) are eagerly awaiting their arrrival. It is always fun to have these weeks to be together and catch up. Schedules are adjusted; work commitments scaled back (somewhat); and precious time is spent talking and listening, often in the case of of teenage boys lasting late into the night! Daniel and Matthew enjoy the adventure of travel. They also look forward to such mundane pleasures as McDonalds in the airport, though it seems they checked out Starbucks during their stopover in KL. That seemed to be partly for the coffee but more for the wi fi connection (until they discovered the whole airport had wireless access). It won't be all rest though. Daniel goes back to mock A Level exams in late January so the textbooks will return too. However, before that we can enjoy Christmas together. Having said that though, just as two boys come back, one goes off for a football tournament in Yokohama. But that is another story which can wait for another day. Meantime we look forward to this weekend when we are once again a family of six all under the same roof.

A hot year

Every December in Japan around this time the kanji (Chinese character) of the year is chosen. With great ceremony the character is painted on a large sheet of paper by a priest in front of one of Kyoto's famous temples as the chosen kanji is revealed. This year it is the character 暑 which is used for 'hot', as in summer heat, which has been chosen to be the kanji of the year, having received by far the highest number of votes. The main reason is for this character being number one for 2010 is the record-breaking heatwaves over the summer which saw numerous people succumbing to heatstroke. Another reason put forward was the rescue of the Chile miners from the underground heat in which they found themselves for these long weeks of waiting. The effects of global warming were also mentioned. As the kanji for the year is chosen just before Christmas, it has often been perfect for an illustration in a Christmas message. So in recent years we have had characters for 'love', 'life' and 'new' among others. Perfect for a lead-in to a Christmas message. This year's choice does not seem to give so much scope - we'll see.

Quite a day

Today was the day of the Hiragishi Family Christmas - the first time we have ever held such an event here since the church started last year. We had no idea how many to expect and thought we would do really well to reach 50. We began to hand out invites and to give us some idea of numbers, we asked people if they could let us know if they planned to come. Numbers began to creep up. However, it was still quite amazing to welcome 93 people this morning - 73 children and 20 adults. One of our team was sick and couldn't be there so we were really stretched. We wondered about the weather as the forecast was for high winds and rain just at the time people arrived. We were praying about it and the rain stayed off till the right time. It was great to see many children we know (and parents too) as well as others we don't know. They listened well, joined in with singing a Christmas song, had great fun with the games and it was really a delight to have time with them. Most of those there have probably never before heard what Christmas is all about. Great as it was to have all these folks there, this is just the beginning. Some have now come to two or three events we have held. We long for some of those to move on and express interest in learning more about Jesus. That is the challenge for us now - to pray for fruit. And as a church here to pray regularly for these families and children that we had the privilege of welcoming to our Family Christmas. God is at work in Hiragishi and it's exciting to be a part of it.

Family Christmas

This Christmas is somewhat different from last year for Hiragishi Izumi Church. We have got to know lots of people, not least through our involvement in the local school, through Lorna's children's English classes and our boys' involvement in football and swimming. We thought it would be good once again to rent the building below our house and have planned a Family Christmas outreach event for Saturday. There will be lots of fun and games, lots of goodies to eat and a chance to sing a Christmas song together and for us to share the Christmas story with those who come. For many, it may well be their first time ever at a church event, and first time to hear what Christmas is really all about. Because we don't have a church building as such, it is harder to become known more widely in the community but this event has given us the opportunity to place leaflets in the local newspaper as well as go out and hand out invites to the children on their way home from school. It's interesting that many of those who have already said they will come are people we know personally. That shows the importance of slowly building up relationships. However, we hope that others from the community will come too and that this Saturday will mark another important step in the life of this fledgling church. Look out for a report later this weekend.

A dog's life

Leaflets and fliers advertising almost anything pop through your letterbox here with great regularity. One of the latest for us is to tell us about the grand opening of a place called Pet Town complete with cute photos of some of the dogs which are for sale - along with all the necessary accessories. Dogs are big business in Japan. There are after all over 13 million of them - more than the total number of children under 12. Some dogs seem to spend almost all of their time indoors. And they certainly get pampered. Today's leaflet offered a selection of clothing (designer labels are popular here), a stroller for taking the dog for a 'walk', even a special Christmas dinner and cake. Dogs can have all the gear here, even little socks and shoes. Of course if you need to be away for a few days, you can check your canine friend in to the dog hotel. And then why not give it a treat at the beauty salon or indulge it with a visit to the pet spa? We have quite a number of pet salons around our area and a pet cemetery not too far away. Why the big thing with dogs here? Perhaps some people just need the company. Perhaps it's easier to be friends with your dog when relationships in the family and workplace can be tense. However, the statistics are worrying - a low birthrate and an ever-increasing number of dogs will not solve the problems brought about by the population crisis facing Japan.

Christmas Tea Party

Yesterday the Hiragishi ladies (Lorna, Kaori and Nora) hosted the first of our Christmas events this year. The idea was to have something low-key and informal in our house for ladies. The weather forecast of the previous evening was proved correct - high winds and heavy rain, quite unusual for this time of year in Hokkaido. In fact it is one of the worst days we have experienced here for some time. But everyone made it - helped by Lorna offering to pick some of them up. A good time was had by all (in fact people didn't leave till an hour after it was meant to finish!) Conversation flowed easily. There were good times of sharing. And some want to meet up again. It turned out that 9 of the 10 are mothers Lorna knows from school (or friends of these mothers) and the other one there was our neighbour who meets each week with Lorna for French lessons. It really shows the value of building up personal relationships with people in the early months of church planting. The Hiragishi guys were not present - but David and JP were at the same time meeting with a young man who comes once or twice a month to our service and who was keen to meet to talk and share more about the Bible. That too was a special time - but no space for that here so there will be more on that next time. Now our thoughts turn to our Family Christmas outreach next Saturday - lots to plan and prepare for that.

Countdown to Christmas

Today is the first day of December so we move into one of our busiest times of the year. The Christmas season is always an opportunity here. But it's odd too as we celebrate in a land where Christmas Day is just another working day - actually it is often the last day of school before the winter holiday. Things have changed since we first arrived in Japan over 12 years ago. You can get a decent-sized frozen turkey quite easily; you can buy Advent calendars; you can even get chocolates for the Christmas tree! Certainly the commercialisation has also moved up several notches over the years. But these coming weeks will see people drawn to churches and other events held up and down the country. For our fledging church here we can't do anything on a big scale. But for starters we (or rather the ladies in the team) are hosting a Christmas Tea Party this week in our home. We were hoping and praying for 10 to come - and exactly that number have said they will come! Most are mums Lorna has got to know through the school. It will be quite simple and informal - making a chocolate log cake and German cookies together (and eating them!) with Kaori, Nora and Lorna also sharing something about Christmas. This may be the first time for many of these ladies to hear what Christmas is really all about. More opportunities will follow over the coming weeks - watch this space for more info.