The Mask

I came down with a nasty cold, dry cough and a headache last Tuesday. Had to spend most of the day resting in bed.

Here in Japan, people wear a mask when they have a cold. This is to prevent spreading the germs to others. Quite a good reason to wear one...but not a comfortable one indeed. You have a runny nose and wearing a mask, imagine what happens. Also, you breathe out and breathe in the same hot air all the time.

I don't like wearing a mask when I have a cold, but I have to. Or else I get glares from people around me whenever I sneeze or even when I just exhale. Masks make my cold worse, really!

This week

January 15, 2011

Saturday

Back to blogging...after a very long absence from the blogging scene :)

This week....

* classes had resumed after the winter break

* busy sorting things for packing...can't believe how much I've accumulated for these 5 years...when I came in 2005, I only brought one suitcase!

* got a call from Mailyn...my precious former student in Bethany Christian School decades ago...now a physical therapist in the US and is doing her share of telling others about our Lord as well as discipling ladies in her church. What a blessing to know what God has been doing in her life!

trying to post photos from my fb page

Summer 2010 in Sasebo, Nagasaki

With friends, Jenny and Sofia, who I met through Judy.

Franklin Graham Festival in Osaka

October 22-24, 2010

Jesus is rocking Kansai !!!

Christians all over this region in Japan are gathering at Osaka Jo -Hall in Osaka City, bringing along family, friends and acquaintances for the Franklin Graham Festival 2010.

My tomorrow

Looks like I'm all set to go.
My Bible study group is now being handled by Michelle, the CMS missionary . The Genesis ladies group which Hiroko and I formed in 2005 is now with Kellie, another CMS missionary . A lady teacher from Australia will come next year to take over my English classes. Clearly, God is moving me to a new field and work from March 2011 onward. Where and what is that exactly? I still don't know.

"Many things about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand. But I know Who holds tomorrow, and I know WHO holds my hand."

my sister's family

it's spring time

my favorite season of the year has come ....it's spring time....it's flower time!!! Yay...

worship leading in Japanese

Today was my second time to lead the afternoon worship service in Japanese! My nerves went haywire at the start. They always do whenever I have to speak or perform before people.

Thank God, they said I did well. The people at church were able to understand everything that I said. I was worried that I might mispronounce some words or get the intonation wrong. I rehearsed the Bible passage reading and the things that I needed to say for each part of the service with my Nihongo tutor last Wednesday and with Eri-san this morning.

The entire service was recorded on cassette tape for my tutor to listen and comment. I hope and pray that God will use that to speak to her heart about Him.

Amy Carmichael was in Japan??

I have been reading the book about Amy Carmichael's life and ministries called "A Chance to Die", written by Elisabeth Elliot. I have just finished the chapter that describes her missionary work in Japan, before she went to Ceylon. This woman had touched so many lives for the Lord here in Japan despite her short stay.

So far, my favorite quote from this book is this:

" Where He leads, I will follow. What He feeds, I will swallow!" :)

Kobe Hanshin Earthquake anniversary

5:46 am, Tuesday, Jan. 17th. Very cold. Middle of winter season. Trapped in my apartment for 2 hours. Later rescued by a next-door couple who I met for the first and last time. This happened 15 years ago, but the memories are still clear because it was when God spoke to me, " You are ready to go because you know wh...e...re you are going but what about the others? Around you, people are dying without even hearing about Me." In the midst of deep misery, I heard God's voice. Returned to the Philippines a few days after the earthquake but promised God I will return to Kobe in His time. Ten years later, March 2005, God sent me back here to do my share of helping spread the good news to many more Japanese. What a joy to see friends and students from 1994-95 now walking in the Lord, attending church meetings and Bible studies. What a joy to see many more students knowing God through the Bible times in classes! God is eternally good!!!

Jesus loves Japan

Maikos walking in Kyoto..

Japan has more than 100 million people...all packed in a land the size of California. Only about a million are Christians.
This is Kinkakuji Temple, a famous tourist spot in Kyoto.

and more...

young salarymen (company employees) shopping in one of the center gai's

Kobe Motomachi Center Gai

Center Gai (street) where I often go for shopping and walking exercise

more Kobe photos

These photos are not mine. I downloaded these from the internet.

Ikuta Shrine in Kobe...I often pass by this place on my way to Kobe Grocers to buy imported stuff.

Kobe Port Tower in Harborland...I went up one time with a friend. Nice view of Kobe from up there, especially at night. There's a revolving restaurant on the top floor.

downtown kobe

These photos are not mine. I downloaded these from the Net.


one of my favorite places in Kobe , the Harborland

Trying out a new skill just learned...how to upload photos from the internet to this blog...well done! Got it...

Quotes from the book "Kingdom Conflict" by J. Stowell

Part I

1. Life is not made by the dreams we dream but by the choices we make.
2. Never look at the temptation. Always look beyond it and see the tempter.
3. When it comes to sin, what you see is not what you get.
4. Sin is Satan's graffiti on the wall of God's creation.
5. ...all of sin - all of our spiritual failure- begins with this thing called self.
6. Self-styled religion was Satan's first attack on the kingdom of Christ. (Cain didn't mind worshiping and serving God. He just wanted to do it on his own terms).
7. Intermarriage is the very scheme Satan uses to dilute the strength of God's work and to diffuse the power of His Spirit in this generation as well as generations to come. (Gen. 6)

Thanksgiving

This American holiday is not well-known here in Japan. Some even thought that this has something to do with Halloween. So I thought of giving my Saturday adult class a lesson on Thanksgiving on November 28th.

We discussed the history and traditions of this holiday. They learned about the lives of the pilgrims and native Indians; the traditional Thanksgiving dinner menu; the Thanksgiving football games; Macy's Thanksgiving parade and the usual decors and table centerpieces for this holiday.

More importantly, they learned to share about the things they are thankful for. The class chaplains who handle the Bible time explained why we thank God for what He has done in our lives.

The lesson ended with a special Thanksgiving prayer.

Then it was time for sampling the Thanksgiving lunch menu: roast turkey with cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, veggies, and pumpkin pie for dessert. Yum...all prepared for us by the church Fureai cafe staff.

We want to do this again next year... could this be the start of our Thanksgiving tradition here? I hope so.

Seek and ye shall find

Disappointed ...running low on spiritual gas...feeling empty! Those were my feelings this morning as I sat at church. I was preparing myself to be fed fully but instead just got morsels. What happened? We all sang songs and hymns; read the Bible and prayed together . Ahhh... why do I still feel empty inside? I was begging for more. More...

I looked for God today at church but could not find Him. Was He there? I'm sure, He was. He was not in His rightful place though. For He was not in the center seat for everyone to bow and worship because, sadly, we put Him aside today. We moved Him to another place and instead put men in the Bible like David, Moses, Absalom and other Japanese novelists in the center of the worship.

I felt edgy midway through the worship service this morning because I did not get what I wanted, what I expected. I looked around me and wondered whether the others felt the same. I thought, could this be one of the reasons why the Japanese churches are not growing?

The morning dragged on...finally it was over. The worship service , I mean.

We had lunch at church. Then I had to attend a very important meeting. My mind was engrossed for a time at something I needed to prepare for Christmas.

The church phone rang. It was for me. A good friend called, wanting to meet me for tea somewhere. OK, great!

We first went to Starbucks...all seats occupied. "Let's go to Honey House", I suggested. It is my favorite place to chat and chill.

While there, lo and behold! God appeared . He was there. He sat with us for two hours. No, He did not just listen to us ladies chattering ...He was feeding our souls! My soul, in particular!

You see, my friend visited a high-end Anglican church in the morning just to observe their service. Surprisingly, she had more than what she expected to get. The sermon at that church today turned out to be very good and spiritually nourishing. It was so~ good that she wanted to share the message with someone. Who did she think of? Yeah...me!

So over cups of jasmine tea, I listened to her share God's truths , His character... about Him being transcendent and at the same time imminent. OK, those are big words for a non-seminarian like me. She understands those things because she went to a seminary in Florida for her Biblical studies. But yet, in an amazing way, as my friend explained those things to me, I felt God , not her, talking to me.

God was feeding me. Touching me. Filling my spiritual need and thirst.

Wow! I got my nourishment for today that I so desperately wanted. In fact, I felt so full deep inside, that I came out of Honey House spiritually burping!

So I thought...

Isn't it great to know that when we seek Him in our heart, we will find Him? Isn't it great to know that God cares for us so much that when He sees that our hearts and souls need watering, He will do amazing things like leading friends to other churches to get the filling and whisper in their hearts to share His truth with us? Isn't it great to know that God is not confined in church buildings but He can be found everywhere, even in small places like the one three blocks away called the Honey House?

I was seeking for Him this morning...before the end of the day, we found each other! What a blessed Sunday!

the Genesis Ladies

This photo was taken last Christmas during our annual Christmas dinner.

The professional single ladies group at our church used to be called "Euodia" (Greek for aroma, as in , we are to be God's fragrant aroma). For some reasons, we decided to change the name to Genesis. The name implies something new...new beginning, new creation, new dreams, new hopes, new lives, new hearts (and loves??) , new passion, new...whatever! :)

In 2005, we used to meet at cafes and bistros. A year later, we decided to move our meetings to the church living room. This way we would have unlimited....chatting time! You know what usually happens when middle-aged single ladies meet. We can chat and giggle like there's no tomorrow!! Also, we would save much of the yen that we used to pay cafe owners who sometimes shoo us away if we stay more than a couple of hours. Now, our precious yen can be spent for more lady values like beauty salon, clothes and makeup. Haha!

The joyful upside to our meetings at church is that we were able to get the Pastor to spare us a little of his time to share us a thought or two from the Bible. Last year, we studied the lives of famous women of the Bible. This year, we got lifetime truths from the stories of some men in the Bible.

Working beauties are always busy, we agree. So we do not hold meetings regularly. Only during holidays or on selected Saturdays of the year.

Our activities during meetings vary. There were times when we had cooking demos by church friends who are good at baking. There were also times when we had sit-down dinners. Most times, though, we were just content to have coffee/tea, cakes and sweets over endless chatter and laughter after our devotional time.

We invited some of our non-Christian friends to join us in some of our meetings. Some of them kept coming , until they had to move to new workplaces or until something pressing came up. We are just thankful that we were able to minister to them during our Genesis meetings. We just hope and pray that God blessed them with not only happy memories but also by touching their hearts with His love and truth .

Halloween - our version

The kids asked me why we don't hold Halloween parties here in our school - all the other English schools in our area have that.

So, I changed my lesson plan for that day and we did an activity that explained why we don't celebrate Halloween. I bought a book for children that is titled, "Halloween is..." and we did the Halloween lesson.

First thing, I made sure that they learned and understood the English words : evil, scary, afraid, ghosts, jack-o-lantern, haunted, witch, skeleton, etc. Then, I went through the book with them and explained the most important part of the lesson, that God loves us and is not happy when we do evil things ; He also does not want us to be scared of these evil and scary decorations because He is more powerful than evil. I made them memorize Psalm 118:6, "The Lord is with me, I will not be afraid."

The younger children did crafts : making doorhangers and Halloween hats with the Bible verse.

Game time was playing a boardgame, a modified Trick or Treat thing. I made a boardgame for this lesson. They throw dice and move markers, and if they stop at a Trick square, they have to say the verse. If they stop at a treat square, they get a candy or small chocolate.

It was fun to watch them go for the treats, but I tell you, it was more fulfilling to hear them say the Bible verse instead . We'll do this again next year, I'm sure.