As we are still a relatively young church which is still at the planting stage, we are always looking for ways to connect with people we know and find ways to invite people to an event or a worship service. Certainly it is much easier for people to come to an event like Family Christmas or Easter Festival. We thought we would try this year to do something a little different to mark harvest time. It is not something which seems to celebrated much in the churches here but harvest is an important occasion to many in this land whether that be for rice, fruits like apples, or vegetables. Of course for many city- and town-dwellers, there is little connection today with farming and most probably think very little about harvest. Yet it is an important time both to commemorate and to give thanks for all that we have. And it is a festival which is marked in the Bible. So we rented the place we often do and invited people to come to a simple service celebrating harvest. We started with a craft together - making something on which we would later write our thanks. We moved into a time of worship, with some simple songs, a great illustrated kids' talk by one of our talented members and a simple message on what, to whom and why we give thanks based on one of the Psalms. We also watched a short video made by a Japanese Christian charity which works to provide food and aid for, among others, children in Africa who have little food and little money. Later we enjoyed some simple food and chat together. Although we did not have a large number of guests, we were glad to be able to mark this occasion and can see this as something we might repeat in future years. Sunday, October 21, 2012
Celebrating harvest
As we are still a relatively young church which is still at the planting stage, we are always looking for ways to connect with people we know and find ways to invite people to an event or a worship service. Certainly it is much easier for people to come to an event like Family Christmas or Easter Festival. We thought we would try this year to do something a little different to mark harvest time. It is not something which seems to celebrated much in the churches here but harvest is an important occasion to many in this land whether that be for rice, fruits like apples, or vegetables. Of course for many city- and town-dwellers, there is little connection today with farming and most probably think very little about harvest. Yet it is an important time both to commemorate and to give thanks for all that we have. And it is a festival which is marked in the Bible. So we rented the place we often do and invited people to come to a simple service celebrating harvest. We started with a craft together - making something on which we would later write our thanks. We moved into a time of worship, with some simple songs, a great illustrated kids' talk by one of our talented members and a simple message on what, to whom and why we give thanks based on one of the Psalms. We also watched a short video made by a Japanese Christian charity which works to provide food and aid for, among others, children in Africa who have little food and little money. Later we enjoyed some simple food and chat together. Although we did not have a large number of guests, we were glad to be able to mark this occasion and can see this as something we might repeat in future years. 
Monday, October 8, 2012
Handover
Just over three and a half years ago we returned from Scotland and moved into a house in the Hiragishi area of Sapporo. In our area there was no church for a population of some 30,000. So we began from zero what came to be known as Hiragishi Izumi Church. At the same time, we started this blog to describe the journey, but also to highlight some of the cultural and other aspects of Japanese life that we have interacted with along the way. The church is still small, but it has grown slowly and surely. We know and have come into contact with a large number of people in the area. There have been ups and downs, challenges and blessings. We did not know how long we would be able to devote to this baby church, but hoped that we would be able to serve here for a number of years. As it turns out, our role has been simply to get things started and lay a foundation. We will move on to a new role with OMF Japan from next month so the time has come for us to hand on the leadership of the church to our successors.
It has been a joy to have Richard and Catherine, along with their two young daughters, being part of the team here since earlier in the year. As of yesterday, Richard became the leader of Izumi Church. During the service, David shared a little from Deuteronomy (looking at the passage when Moses handed over to Joshua), we thought also about the responsiblity of the folks in the church towards the leader (looking at a couple of verses in the Letter to the Hebrews), then had a time of prayer for Richard and Catherine and their two girls. It was a special time and in some ways marks a stepping stone in the journey of this young church. We will still be around in Hiragishi until next March and hope we can continue to reach out to the people we have got to know (and to others we do not yet know) in the hope that some of those people will begin their own journey towards Jesus and be added to Izumi Church. We look forward to seeing what God will continue to do in this area of Sapporo and have assurance that Jesus is building his church, including this three year old church in Minami Hiragishi. We will not be able to devote much time to the work of the church here from next month but hope to continue this blog over the coming months to share with you the next chapters in the story of Hiragishi Izumi Church. In the next post, though, we will share more about our own future.
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