Easter Festival 2012

Last year we held the very first Hiragishi Izumi Church Easter Festival.  This followed on from our having gone to visit another church which has held a similar event every year towards the end of April in another part of Hokkaido.  Their event was very much outward-focused and for people in the neighbouring community.  Last time we held our event on a Sunday but this time, for various reasons, went for a Saturday.  The cold and damp weather of earlier in the week gave way to a warm, sunny day with no wind (it can be very windy at this time of year in Sapporo, as it was the day after the Festival).  Having been somewhat overwhelmed with unexpected numbers last year (and too few helpers) we were more prepared this time and had a good team of people to help, some from OMF, one from another church and indeed a group from Hong Kong who happened to be visiting for a few days and were glad to be there and help.  Many children who had been last year and at Christmas time came again.  We also had quite a number of new children, as well as quite a few parents (including one dad) and some older people from the community who came along.  One elderly lady had called a few days before and came quite a distance by bus and then walked to the venue.  She seemed to have a great time watching all the activity as well as indulging in the shortbread and white chocolate raspberry muffins on offer at the cafe corner.  We had various activities for the children, ranging from outdoor sporty things to slime-making to games.  There was food too, including the ever-popular mini-hot dogs.  Then in the middle part of the programme an OMF colleague from Brazil shared why he had come to Japan, told the Easter story and then did some hip hop dancing, after which he taught as one and we all joined in.  The event ended with the children all decorating an egg and taking home a bag of goodies, including a card with a simple Bible verse about Easter.  We trust that many were touched by the message of Easter and also experienced something of the life and hope we have in Jesus just by being there and being part of the Easter Festival.  We look to God to bring fruit from this kind of event.  Lorna hopes to follow up one young mother soon.  And the next day two of Alistair's friends who had come also turned up at our afternoon worship service.  We trust that somehow God is working out his purposes through these times of interacting with people and will use the various conversations that took place to be stepping stones for people to move closer to Jesus, whether that be soon or even in years to come.

Hallelujah

Well the blog at the beginning of the week did not quite happen but better late than never. How good it was to celebrate Easter in Hiragishi with our first-ever Easter Festival. With a forecast that had been predicting rain for the weekend, and a pretty awful day on Saturday with rain through the night, we looked forward to the weather God would send on Sunday. We awoke to no rain, then a bright start to the morning to dry up the soaked ground, and a beautiful warm, wind-free afternoon - perfect for our Easter Festival. Preparations were made. But would people come? Some started to arrive 40 minutes before it was due to start. And people kept coming and coming. Children of all ages, mums, dads, grannies. In all we had around 110 there, though it was hard to keep count. Everyone had fun with the outside football and strike out, enjoyed the various activities inside, indulged in sausages and chocolate bananas, and there were some yummy cakes for the adults. All left with a self-decorated egg, some chocolate eggs and a short Bible verse. In the middle of our Festival we had the exuberant JP helping us all join in some hip hop dancing to a praise song and then David gave a short and simple message about Easter. It was a blessed day. We look forward to doing it again next year. Meanwhile we are thinking how best to follow up all who came and what to do next - some larger events, some smaller gatherings so we can have more time to chat more leisurely to people. It will be great to see some wanting to take the next step, maybe open to some basic Bible study, or coming along to a service. We meet many of these people as we are out and about in the community, or at the local school; some are neighbours (two sets of JP and Nora's neighbours came and one commented that it was great to be able to meet her neighbours at a church event!) We are excited to see what God is doing and look forward to all that will lie ahead. We had a great Easter worship service too in the same building, with the sun streaming in. A blessed Easter indeed.

In the battle

In our last blog we shared about plans for the Easter Festival this Sunday. There is lots still to be done, not least with Lorna only having returned from India on Monday. However, as always with these kind of events here, there is something of a battle. There are always walls you hit up against us and hurdles to overcome when you seek to bring the good news of Jesus in this land. The spiritual battle is very real. And as we proclaim the message of new life, the message of a Risen Saviour to the people in Hiragishi, we know we have an enemy who is more than keen that the message is not heard. It's not unusual in our experience for things to go wrong or difficulties to get in the way as we hold special events. Calum is part of a local football team and has lots of friends there he could invite. They have just arranged an event for the very time of our Easter Festival! The local school is a place where we know lots of people and where can invite many children and their parents. Just this week there has been an outbreak of flu in some classes (unusual for this time of year)! The weather is due to be nice all week until the weekend when it is forecast to be cloudy and rainy! Some our activities are planned for outside. No doubt there will be other things we 'battle' against as the week goes on. Do join us in prayer that the Lord's hand would be on all the preparations and and against anything that would seek to hinder or interfere with people coming on Sunday. For many, if not all, it could be the first opportunity ever to hear what Easter all is about. We look forward to sharing about all that happened in a blog at the beginning of next week.

Easter is coming

Easter is not big in Japan. Just like Christmas, it is not a public holiday here. However, whereas Christmas is in some way celebrated (albeit in presents, cake and bright lights fashion), Easter just passes by unnoticed. For the churches, Christmas is a big opporutnity for outreach and many events are held, usually very well attended. But Easter is often simply marked with a special service for the church folks on Easter Sunday and that's it. There is little observance of Lent and nothing to mark Holy Week (of course there will be churches which do so but generally that does not happen, at least that has been so in our experience). But how we want to celebrate Easter and take the opportunity to proclaim the message of the cross and a risen Saviour! This Easter we are doing something a bit different in Hiragishi. We got the idea from visiting church at this time last year. That church has for the past 20 years or so held an Easter Festival for the community on a Sunday afternoon at the end of April having held their worship service in the morning. Japanese people love festivals - food, games, fun things to do (and they are often associated with the Shinto shrines). The church we visited has built up many contacts over the years and had well over 250 people coming that Sunday afternoon. We are planning something much more modest and who knows how many will come. Like we did at Christmas we are renting a building very near us which has lots of space both inside and outdoors. We are palnning food, games, crafts and a section in the middle where one of our OMF colleagues who does hip hop dancing will do his stuff and everyone can join in. We'll have a simple Easter message then too. Just now we are busy with all the preparations - always a challenge for our small church. Later that day we will hold the Hiragishi Easter worship in the same building and it would be great to see some folks coming to that too. Easter is not known here - but through this Festival we want to make the message of Easter known. Jesus is alive - may people in Hiragishi hear that and come to know him!

Happy Easter!

This past Sunday we visited another church in a town around 1.5 hours away from where we live. We joined in the worship there in the morning but the main reason for our visit was to see and be part of what happened after the worship. For the past 20 years, this church has held an Easter festival at the end of April for the local community. Japanese just love festivals, complete with food, games, music and fun. We were amazed at how many people turned up. It seems that from around 5 or 6 years ago, the numbers have really picked up. Yesterday there were around 220 folks who came along from the community, many of them children. The church members were busy and each played their part in welcoming those who came. There was such a happy and relaxed atmosphere. It was a great way for the church to connect with the community. The pastor has been there for over 30 years and has over that time built up relationships with so many - from the mayor to the school head teachers to the people who live round about. Who knows how many seeds have been sown over the years and through the annual Easter festival. We hope in a small way to take some of what we observed yesterday and use the building below our house to hold some kind of mini-festival to make further contact with the folks who live here in Hiragishi.

gift giving

One of the lessons that we learned early in our days in Japan is that you can't outgive a Japanese person. Gift giving and reciprocation is culturall very important. At both summertime and New Year there are special gifts to those you feel indebted to, typically a superior. At these times of year shop shelves are filled with special gift packages just for the occasion. When you go on holiday (even if just for a night) you would bring back a gift from that area, and again Japanese hotels and airports are well stocked with just the right sort of thing. In general, if you receive a gift, whether for the birth of a baby, during a stay in hospital, you should think about giving a small gift back in return. Until they give an appropriate gift, some Japanese feel burdened with this sense of obligation. At Easter we thought it would be nice to take some decorated eggs to each of neighbours, mentioning that we were celebrating Easter that day. Only three boiled eggs - we thought that would be small enough. Not so, however. At one house the lady insisted on searching in her cupboard and produced a big bag of chocolates (which of course the boys were delighted to receive). That evening our doorbell rang and there stood another of our neighbours with a bag of three different boxes of chocolate, from a very nice shop. She had obviously gone out specially to buy these. They were probably worth 20 times the boiled eggs. But that lady probably felt better once she had given something back. How hard it is too for many Japanese to receive the free gift of the gospel.

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.