Amysan

While sitting in church service today, the speaker mentioned something that reminded me of my team in Japan. The speaker mentioned that we each have our unique gifts and talents – things that we’re good at. But we also have areas in which we are lacking in gifts and talents – things we’re not so good at. The awesome thing about the body of Christ is that while one person may be gifted in one area, there is another person that is gifted in that area in which the other lacks. Together, when we form a body, we can work together to make big things happen.

This reminds me of my team in Japan because we worked so well together. Whenever there was a large task to be completed, we talked about needed to be done and then we all went out and got those things done. At the end of each VBS day, we had to clean the entire community center. It included mopping the common room and hallways, then vacuuming the common room and hallways, washing everything in the kitchen, putting everything we used back to where we originally found it, taking down our VBS banners and other apparatus, storing our things inside the hallway closet, sweeping out the dirt in the foyer, putting back all the slippers on the shelf, etc. Last year, they had gotten into some trouble with not doing a thorough job cleaning the center; so this year, we made an extra effort to clean the center so that it was cleaner than when we arrived. We were given 30 minutes to do this everyday after VBS was over and all the kids had left. The first day we just barely finished in time but on the second day, we cleaned that community center in 10 minutes flat! We all pulled together and got a seemingly large task done with so much time to spare.

This is just one example but it happened repeatedly throughout the entire trip. Our team was never late, we never missed our trains and it seemed that everything we set out to do, we completed. I feel the success of this is due mostly in our ability to work as a team and for each individual to rely on and trst in God to give us what we needed to accomplish our mission. It is also apparent that each person had their own role on our team – it was never assigned but it was something that each person naturally took upon themselves to fill.

One of the team members brought this neat rocket launcher. You pressurize a water bottle with air and then release it to shoot it up into the sky. One of the girls was holding dead cicadas in her hand. She came to me telling me she injured her hand. I bent down to take a closer look at the injury but when I adjusting my focus to what was in her hand, I reacted in a very natural manner … check it out (you gotta watch right to the very end…)

You’ve probably heard the story of the square (cubed) watermelon grown in Japan. We wondered if we might see one. It believe I was the only one on my team that did. I would have purchased it to share with my team to see if the watermelon tasted any different than a round one except that it was 150 USD!!! I wasn’t that curious. So i just took a picture of it instead.

The Japanese take their fruit very seriously.  Besides seeing the $150 watermelon, I also saw $3 Kiwi (a steal next to the watermelon).  Also if you happen to buy fruit at a grocery store and it is unripe or too ripe or not sweet enough, you can bring it back to the store and RETURN IT.  The fruit in Japan is amazingly sweet, fresh and flavorful.  You don’t need to know how to pick the right melon or the examine the grape bunches for bad grapes because it is ALL good.  They don’t put bad fruit on display.

When the Nokendai Bible Fellowship church first started, they handed out approximately 10,000 fliers to the houses surrounding the community inviting them to attend church. Of all the fliers that were handed out, Mr. Onoe was the only one who responded to the invitation. He is one of their original attendees and still attends every week.

At the beginning when NBF was first established, there were three elderly men who attended the service together. One man was very enthusiastic about the church and service. Every week he listened intently to the message, encouraged the other two to attend the service, and was always with a smile at church. Another man was skeptical and was overheard telling the other two men that the church was a cult and that they should get out of there before they were scammed. Mr. Onoe was the third and when he originally came out approximately three years ago, he looked like a man overburdened with a life filled with pain and hardship. He was a man that kept his eyes to the ground, never smiled and was very quiet.

As time passed by, the ethusiastic man suddenly stopped attending service. When Kohichi tried to contact him to invite him to Christmas service, the man replied asking him to stop contacting him – he had found that Christianity had similar beliefs and values as Buddhism and that he preferred Buddhism instead. The skeptical man continued to attend service and in his skepticism, continued to ask hard questions and dig deeper. He became a man of faith and continues to attend service. Mr. Onoe also because a changed man. When I first met him, he greeted me with a smile. He introduced himself as an 85 year old man who has been attending the church for about 3 years now. He looked like a happy healthy man. I had found out later than he was a survivor of WWII fighting for the Japanese. He had worked in the financial industry afterwards as a banker and spent a portion of his life in New York City working at Chase Manhattan. Shirley explained to us that after the war, Mr. Onoe carried a lot of guilt, shame and pain as a survivor of the war. In general, the nation of Japan was devastated after having lost WWII. They were occupied by foreign states and forbidden from ever establishing an army even to protect themselves. Seeing Mr. Onoe now, I would never have known him to be such a man full of history. Every week, he visits the old-age home to play Go with friends who live there. He is often their only visitor. He was our host and translator when visiting the old-age home to sing for them and share with them the message of Christ.

The story of the three eldery men at NBF reminds of a passage in the Bible.

Matthew 13:3-9
Parable of the Sower

3Then [Jesus] told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9He who has ears, let him hear.”

The enthusiastic man was the seed which fell on shallow soil – it sprang up quickly but withered when the sun came up because it had no root. He eventually turned to Buddhism. The skeptical man and Mr. Onoe was the seed which fell on good soil – I pray that through them a crop of hundreds can be produced.

Mr. Onoe’s testimony was amazing for me to hear how Christ can transform a person and create such a huge difference in his life. From someone who carried such an obvious burden that you could see it on his face to someone whose face is always lit up and smiles every times he see you. That is the work of Christ in his life.

Interestingly enough, each missionary family we stayed with had babies. The Tamuras had Amelia – fiesty Ms. Independent. One night, she pulled out her yukata and insisted on wearing it. She looks so cute in it. It was too long for her and when she put on her shoes (crocs) outside, she kept tripping over her yukata. But she wouldnt let any of us fix it for her. ohhhh Mimi.

The Nakamuras had Nathan – only 9 months old. This baby is the exact opposite of Mimi. So well behaved, never screams, happy to be held by anyone, very friendly. I only got to hold him once becuase the other members of the team wanted to hold him too. We had to share.

Richard told us a story about a rice farmer that I thought was kinda cool. 

A rice farmer had two stalks from his field, one in each hand.  To an untrained eye, they look identical.  To the professional, one was a rice stalk and the other was a weed – one had to strain very hard to see that the rice stalk had small grains of rice at the bottom where the rice grows while the weed stalk had none.  The rice farmer was asked how he manages to separate the weeds from the field.  He said it is actually very easy.  He allows both stalks to grow to a certain stage when they are both strong enough to sustain drastic change in environment.  The rice stalk will survive without water longer than the weeds can.  So the farmer will drain the rice fields until the weeds die off.  Shortly after that period of time, he will flood the fields so that the rice stalks can continue to grow. 

This speaks like a parable – something that Jesus might have taught.   The rice field is like the family of Christ followers – there are Christ followers whose roots run deep and there are Christ followers whose roots are shallow.  When hardships and suffering comes, the ones with shallow faith will perish and abandon the faith.  But the ones whose roots run deep will continue to grow and continue to follow Christ.  

I used to be one who thought that following Christ would mean that life would be easier. Growing up, I was surrounded by many mentors and peers at church who appeared to have the picture perfect life.  There was no pain and no suffering for them (at least at a surface level).  I attributed that to the fact that they had a strong relatoinship with God.   But as life unfolds for me, I am beginning to learn that hardships and trials in life test our faith and if we can weather the storms that our faith becomes stronger.  I guess this is true generally in life.  A marriage is easy if everything goes smoothly. But once conflict and disagreements arise, then it tests the couple’s love to see if they can overcome the trials.  I believe most married couples would say that the trials make their relationship stronger – and i believe the same is also true for friendships as well. 

Anyway, just something I wanted to remember.

I’ve gotten a lot of requests for photos.  This post will be devoted to photos of the food I ate while in Japan. Part of my hesitation of going to Japan was that it didn’t really seem like it would be a missions trip.  I had trouble asking for financial sponsors because Japan is place that people would go for vacation. It’s a developed country and not what one typically thinks of when they hear “missions work”.  One typically thinks of Africa or China even – a place that people don’t normally pick for vacation – underdeveloped – a place that doesn’t have electricity, a place that doesn’t have flushing toilets, mud huts and no developed roads, etc.  But Japan? the land of animation and technology and excellent raw food??   I prepared myself before going to Japan by setting the expectations low.  I knew that I would be in Tokyo and NOT be able to see every tourist sight or visit shopping districts to pick up souvenirs of all sorts (Totoro, pokemon, kimonos, mochi, more Totoro!!)   But when I landed in Japan, Mei-Ling handed me a devotional book and the one of the earlier entries was that a short term missions trip should be fun.  We dont’ need to set the stage by purposefully making ourselves miserable. We should learn the culture, try things we don’t normally try, and experience everything we can while there.  So even though I didn’t request to stop at every store we passed by, if an opportunity came to enjoy tastey food or to go shopping at the mall, I took advantage of it. I didn’t ask for more time and i didn’t go out of my way to hit the mall.  But I didn’t purposefully say, no thanks because I’m on a missions trip!  That said, I enjoyed a lot of good Japanese food.  It was so tastey and fresh.  It is one of the things I truly miss about Japan. Everything is so GOOD to eat.  And so healthy.

Fresh soba noodles.  This was one of my favourites. The restaurant was on the way back to the station from nokendai community center. We ate here for lunch after VBS one day.  The menu was in Japanese with only two pictures – one for soba with tempura and the other for soba with donburi.  I picked the tempura one.  The tempura bowl in the menu had rice under it but we asked that they remove the rice.  The waitress nodded that she understood our limited Japanese.  When our dishes arrived, we were shocked that instead of giving us the rice, they had given us an extra tray of soba noodles to compensate for the absence of rice.  It was cold and refreshing on such a hot day.

Chirashi.  I didn’t eat this – it was a team mates meal but it looked completely raw and most definitely fresh (one would hope..). Unfortunately there were only so many meals we could eat while there.

Yokosuka (the city I stayed in) is located near the waterfront.  There was a fish restaurant located a few blocks from our condo.  We were told to come here for dinner and enjoy their selection of fish.  The Chirashi dish above was served at this restaurant.  I wanted a cooked fish that was not deep fried.  I looked at the pictures on the menu and when the waiter came to me, I pointed to a dish that looked like a steamed fish.  He looked at my choice and motioned with his hand that it was the head of the fish.  I immediately said… oh no!! no head no head!!  so i looked back at the menu and selected the next fish option which was deep fried.  he said, motioning again with his hands – body.  I said yes that is perfect.  He went to talk to the chef in the kitchen and came back to me making a cross with his arms.  No more. Sold out.  I must have looked completely dejected because he went back to the kitchen and had another conversation with the chef.  After a few moments, he came back with a plate with a raw whole fish on it.  He said, soy sauce, steam. ok?  I said, Oh that’s good!!  I was hoping that he was going to steam the fish with soy sauce.   I was so amazed by the service in Japan.  If it had been a restaurant in America, the waiter probably would have been pretty upset with me. I felt embarassed by all this commotion i had caused. Everyone at the table was waiting for me to finish ordering!!!   It was well worth it though. The fish meat fell right off the bones.  YUM!

Can you guess where we ate here?  DENNY’S!!! That’s right.  There was a Denny’s near our condo and the team insisted we go.  So i ordered the hamburg meal.  It’s a sizzling hot plate with a thick (maybe one inch thick) hamburger patty on top of a layer of bean sprouts.  It was served with fries on the side and a plate of rice.  While it is nothing really spectacular, I do remember that the patty was perfectly cooked.  It was not burnt on the outside and it was sooo juicy on the inside. It was nicely seasoned and went well with the rice.  It was actually pretty good for Denny’s – probably much better than anything I could order in an American Denny’s.  The Denny’s in Japan has the typical american breakfast but you can order Japanese style pasta dishes, rice dishes and noodle dishes as well.  It is not oily at all but rather healthy(-looking).

Our last meal with the Tamuras was at a Korean BBQ restaurant.  We order kimchi, kolbe beef, short ribs, chicken, pork, veggies, salad.  It was ALL delicious.  I especially liked the kimchi. I know it’s suppoesd to be spicy but this one was just a hint of spice and a bit sweet.  It was really good over rice.  The beef came with romaine lettuce that you were supposed to wrap the beef in. No one was eating it though so I tried it with my beef. I acutally ended up liking the lettuce more than the beef!!  i ended up eating both our plates of lettuce.  It was actually soft – not typically crunchy.  I couldn’t describe it except it was the best lettuce I have ever eaten!  Ridiculous, i know!

Hamburg patty number 2.  This was eaten in Tokyo in Yurikamome at a food court.  It was ok. not as good as the Denny’s dish.

I enjoyed some takoyaki at the Asakusa market.  i walked by it the first time but then i could hear hmma’s voice in my head. If i go to japan and don’t eat the takoyaki, it will be a huge shame.  So i went back and got 6 pieces and shared them with my team.  It was really hot – fresh off the grill – and to eat it in the hot humid weather was almost unbearable. I kinda wish I had opted for the shaved ice in the next stall. But I had already tried that so I didn’t want to try it again.  The takoyaki was very tastey though. It had a large chunk of octopus inside and the toppings included a sprinkle of chives and very thinly sliced bacon – then a layer of sauce. YUM!  I can say I tried it

When we finally made it to Kashiwa, Richard took us to a ramen restaurant near his house.  Here, I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture of my meal before digging in.  So this picture already has one bite eaten from it.  Richard had thought that this restaurant had pork based soup but he learned from the chef that the soup was changed recently to fish based.  He has just a huge look of disappointment on his face.  To me, it tasted excellent!! But Keri, his wife, rated it a 5-6 out of 10.  When he called his daughter at home and told her where he was and then told her that the soup was changed to fish base, she said it was good then that she stayed at home!!  I cannot believe it would cause such a reaction!!  But I guess you don’t know a good thing until you’ve had it.  I still thoroughly enjoyed my ramen.  Our meal also came with freshly made gyozas – we finished 8 plates of them – each plate had 4 pieces. We were THAT hungry.  It has so much flavour packed inside the wrapper and it wasn’t too greasy.  I don’t know how they do it!

SOOOOoooo has my post made you hungry yet???  There are more food photos and acutally with each before shot, I took an after shot.   Needless to say, the food in Japan is awesome.  I looked forward to each meal not only because i was usually starving by the time we ate but also because I knew that no matter where we went to eat, it was going to be delicious.

Its been a couple days since arriving back in Seattle.  It feels like only part of me is here.  The other part is half floating somewhere in Japan.  Thankfully, I am not too jetlagged. I sleep when it gets dark and get up when the sun comes up so that’s pretty good.    It feels odd to be back to the old route.  I feel like I suddenly have a lot more time.  I’ve taken that time to reflect on some of the things that I remember about the trip that I dont’ want to forget.

1) The ways in which God was looking out for our team.  I think there are many instances and examples of how God was protecting our team. In many ways, we probably weren’t even aware but if I sit and think of it (which I have done the past couple of days), I begin to see that God really was with us, protecting and guiding us in the right direction.  A few example :

• consider the fact that 18 foreigners travelling on Tokyo’s busy transit system during rush hour and of all the times we took the train, none of us was left behind or got lost.  This seems minor but actually it’s quite a feat.  Try it with some friends.  It’s actually harder than it seems.  I really am amazed that none of us got lost or separated from the group.  Ever.  I’m not even sure we tried that hard to stick together.
• Tokyo’s subway system is a bit complicated. There are local trains that stop at every station and express trains that stop at only major stations.  Everyday, in order to get to Nokendai, we had to take a local train because the station we wanted to get off at was a local stop that an express train would not stop for.  Our very first day, we set out and got on a local train.  We thought we were safe! None of us were really paying attention because our train was stopping at every station – we just had to wait until our station came up.  There is a US navy base located in Yokosuka, near where we live.  One of the servicemen happened to get on our train.  He noticed that we were foreigners from North America and asked us if we knew where we were going. We answered confidently that we did.  He asked us which station we were hoping to get off at.  After we told him, he let us know that we would need to switch trains at the next station as our current train would change to an express train at the next station.   We were baffled.  We had no idea that this could happen!  We were very thankful to our American friend for having introduced himself to us and made sure we were going in the right direction.  Because of him, we made it to the community center in time to set up for VBS on our first day. If we had not bumped into him, we would have missed our station completely and had to back track.  We would not have gotten to the center in time.
• Our day at the park \ picnic.  The water balloon competition was an unexpected surprise. In fact, the company that hosted the event informed us that they hold it annually at the park. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time.  Not only that but the fact that though we won the competition, we had just enough prizes to give to each of the families that was there.  Each family was able to get a prize. We didn’t have leftovers, we didn’t have to have a raffle to give them out fairly.  That was such a good feeling to be able to have just enough to give away.
• Our original schedule included ESL classes in the evening – Mon to Thursday.  I think I failed to mention that those ESL classes were a “failure” – no one showed up unfortunately.  We got together as a group to discuss what went well and what did not.  We agreed as a team that if we had people show up at the ESL class, we would have been burnt out far quicker. Instead we used that time to talk with Shirley and Kohichi about their lives in Japan and we were able to get a bigger and better picture of how God was working in their lives.  It was amazing to hear some of the stories they had to share and I think the time was needed for us to rest and recover from the day’s work.  So even though one might say it is a failure because no one showed up, it still worked out and perhaps was better for our team.
• the day we left for Tokyo, my team had shipped our luggage to the airport using a delivery service.   We had to catch a train in order to meet with the other half of our team so the delivery man took our luggage, signed the papers and we left.  We took our tour of Tokyo and Asakusa and returned to Richards home.  IN the morning, a few hours before we were to catch our bus to the airport, Shirley called Richard to inform us that the delivery service had left the receipt tags in her mailbox.  Without it, we would not be able to claim our luggage at the airport!  Richard was very calm about this. He called the delivery service and asked them what would be required as proof in order to pick up the luggage from the airport.  The service said they would need the receipt numbers and photo ID.  We thought this would be fine, except that the receipts had Shirley’s name on them.  Instead, we decided that Shirley should take a photo of the receipts, email it to Richard and then Richard could print it out. We would bring that to the airport and hope it would be enough.  We wouldn’t know until we got to the airport.  We got the airport and showed them the picture of the receipts. THey looked at us a bit funny but it worked! We didn’t have any problems with our luggage.

It seems like these are really minor things.  But if you add them all up and consider that if each of these hadn’t gone right, then it could have been a pretty horrible trip.  I’m thankful that everything went so smoothly.The Tamuras and Nakamuras. These two families have shown me that life can be different from the norm. They have showed me what it is like to live a life that chases after what is important to God and it is apparent that their hearts bleed for the things that God’s heart bleeds for. They have been so motivating and encouraging for me to see the amount of faith they have and how they are so willing to trust God in all that they do – even with their children’s futures.

2) The Nokendai team. Being a person who values and NEEDS personal space, I thought I would truly go insane from living in such close quarters with 8 strangers. It is amazing how much patience God can give to someone on a short term missions trip though!! Honestly, my teammates made this trip so much fun. No names to be mentioned here but even when things went missing, we all handled it with such grace and forgiveness. And even when we poked fun at certain people, those being made fun of allowed us to laugh at their expense and again, handled it with extra measures of grace. We worked so well as a team – we cleaned up that community center in 10 minutes flat!! We each had our own role in the team that we naturally filled. I believe that we truly operated like the body of Christ. I was so blessed to be part of this team.

3) VBS. I didn’t fully realize the extent of the communication barrier until I got to Japan. It was heart breaking for me when one of the kids ran up to me, said something in Japanese, and I was NOT able to understand what it is that they had just said. I distinctly remember that moment and realized that I would need to use other forms of communication beyond words. During arts and crafts, I had to show them what to do rather than telling them what to do. I smiled more at them hoping it would convey happy positive feelings rather than a neutral face which could be interpretted as positive or negative. While I will always remember the kids and their moms, i will never forget the moment I stopped in the middle of sharing my testimony and saw every pair of eyes on me, and every ear listening. It was so quiet I believe I could have heard a pin drop. In all the previous days at VBS, the kids were bouncing off the walls. It was during that one moment that I had their full complete attention – and this blew me away. It felt like a God moment and I will never forget it. Even in the short time we had with these kids, we developed such good friendships. I will be praying for these kids and their families that VBS has made a positive impact in their lives and that the seeds we planted will grow in good soil.

4) The Tamuras and Nakamuras. These two families have shown me that life can be different from the norm. They have showed me what it is like to live a life that chases after what is important to God and it is apparent that their hearts bleed for the things that God’s heart bleeds for. They have been so motivating and encouraging for me to see the amount of faith they have and how they are so willing to trust God in all that they do – even with their children’s futures.

Our last day in Japan was spent at Richard’s home in Kashiwa.  After our 3 hr walk around Asakusa, our team took the train for about 40 minutes to his station.  Even though it was well after 6pm, it was still considered rush hour traffic.  We didn’t have seats on the train and many of us were tired from not having sat much during the day.  When we got off the train, we still had to take a bus to get to Richard’s home.  We were so exhausted that all of us plopped down on the curbside.  Richard looked at us and said… this is a sorry sight.  None of the Japanese people would ever do such a thing.   I looked up and saw that the Japanese people were lined up at the bus stop looking at us.  It is obvious why the Japanese people are so skinny!!

When we finally arrived at Richard’s home, we were greeted by a three floor MANSION (in comparison to all other typical Japanese housing).  It is the largest house in the neighbourhood and approximately 3000 sq ft of space.  Richard’s family is quite large – his wife and 5 children.  They live in this house and it contains plenty of space for them.  God was able to provide for their family when they were looking for housing that would be able to shelter them all.  We weren’t sure how an additional 9 people would be able to stay with them but when we had all settled down, we found that it was more than sufficient.  After having slept on futons the past week and a half, our team was so blessed to have such a good night’s rest right before we travelled back to the US.   In the morning, Richard made us breakfast.   There were eggs, yogurt, fresh fruit, sausage and bacon. But the best part of it was the french toast.  The bread in Japan is so fresh and fluffy – it smells AND tastes delicious.  Richard used farm fresh eggs and the fresh Japanese bread to make french toast for us. It was soooo good. 

We were so thankful for the Nakamuras for having opened up their home to us. They gave us a good night’s rest and filled our tummy’s.  Then they took us to the bus terminal where we caught a shuttle to the airport. 

At the airport, there is a mixture of feelings and emotions.   This trip was such an adventure.  I learned so much about Japan and about myself.  I was able to see God at work in so many different ways.  Part of me is ready to travel home and part of me is very sad to go.   It seems that most people on the team feel the same way. As we boarded the plane and got ready to fly, we kept asking one another – will you be back next year? Will you come back again?  If I can somehow fit it again into my work \ vacation schedule, I would love to come back again next year.  I will be praying about this – again trusting that God will make things work for me if it His will for me to go.

On Sunday, my team went to Nokendai Bible Fellowship. We were excited to see that some of the families from VBS came out to service.  There was a 6 minute slideshow presentation of the kids throughout the week which I think the parents enjoyed.  Then we got the kids to come up and sing one of the songs they learned for us.  Fun stuff!  After service, the other 9 members of our team arrived and we were suddenly a group of 18 again.  We had a time of fellowship with the families and the entire VBS team over sushi potluck at the church.  The sushi was purchased at Costco!  It was fairly delicious.  Finally it was time to say goodbye.  It is quite possibly the hardest thing to do when coming on a short term missions trip.  You arrive at a foreign place knowing in advance that you are called to develop relationships and you work at developing relatoinships during the short time knowing also in advance that you will have to say goodbye.  There was a round of tears and hugs and “see you next year”.

Once the potluck was over, I could really feel things coming to a close.  It would be the last time we set foot in the Nokendai Community Center. And it was the last time we would be seeing the kids.  We made plans to have dessert with Shirley and Kohichi and their three daughters as a team of 18 ( we were loud North Americans in a quiet nearly deserted dessert shop). We shared our stories and laughter over the past week. We shared lessons learned, hardships endured and quirks of each member of the team.  We all agreed that given everything, it was still such a awesome experience to have taken part of.  Most of us would like to return next year.

The next morning, Monday, we took the train to Tokyo and met up with Richard (the other missionary) again.  He took us to Yurikamome – a new-ish amusement park area in Tokyo.  THe other team was able to spend the day there.  My team still had to see Asakusa.  The other team had gotten this tour earlier in the week.  So Richard took my team to Asakusa around mid afternoon.  Asakusa is home to one of the more famous Buddhist temples in Tokyo.  Richard gave us some history of the place and explained to us that Japanese people bring their children to this temple at an early age and dedicate them to false gods.  At every major event in their lives, these children return here to rededicate their lives to the false gods and ask for blessings.  When they have children, the tradition continues.    Richard read to us a verse from the BIble:

Isaiah 44:17-18

 17 From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
       he bows down to it and worships.
       He prays to it and says,
       “Save me; you are my god.”

 18 They know nothing, they understand nothing;
       their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see,
       and their minds closed so they cannot understand.

He said that when we bow to idols, we close our eyes and minds to the real truth – the truth of Jesus and the message of the gospel.  It is possible that part of the reason why Japan is such a lost nation is that they have been dedicating themselves to false gods for so long and from generation to generation, that their eyes are blind, and their minds are closed.  And they pass this trait onto their kids.  Part of the worship of idols is based on culture – people don’t actually know what it is they are doing, they just do it because that is how their parents raised them up. But after observing how people pray in the temple, it is apparent that some people pray very earnestly. There is something on their hearts or something happening in their lives that is truly desperate – they pray for mercy and healing perhaps – these are the people that Richard tries to share the gospel with at the temple. But more often than not, he gets a “No thank you – not interested”.

It is a grand structure, this Buddhist temple, but it is a sombering experience when you watch all these Japanese people coming here, some following culture and traditional, and others seeking earnestly for God and not realizing that they are so far from the mark.  Perhaps even more saddening is that they are unwilling to hear the truth.