...no amount of training prepares you for an old lady shoving her finger in your ear during the communion time of a worship service.

I am writing this on my laptop, connected to wireless, sitting under air conditioning, sipping tea and looking out the window at Tokyo. Believe me, we are fully aware that right now we have things really good. I suppose nobody said you had to suffer when you do missions abroad, but I do think about my friend who is in the backcountry bush of Kenya right now, facing probably some of the most difficult conditions of his life for the sake of helping people and showing the love of God. Please pray for us, of course, but give an extra measure of intercession for those who must endure very trying physical conditions for the sake of God.

So, in a materialistic way, things are great for us here in Tokyo. They are also very positive spiritually. We have each scheduled a full slate of readers, and these sessions began yesterday. We work each day from 10:00am until 9:00pm, which are long days of course, but they pass quickly because the work is rewarding and every person who comes in brings an hour's worth of great conversation, whether it is in fluent English or one labored word at a time. The first days of reading sessions are largely spent getting to know our readers - their lives, their families, their stories, and anything else they are willing to talk about. We also introduce ourselves. Conversations are generally surface at this point, but as the relationships grow, so will the level of openness.

Japan has proven to be somewhat of an unexpected challenge when it comes to our job of teaching conversational English. Japan is full of English, especially Tokyo. English is everywhere. Not only that, the people here all spend many years studying English in school - usually about 6 or 7 years each. So, the infusion of English in the surroundings and the long and intense study of the language would lead one to believe that English would almost be second nature to many people, as it is in many other parts of the world. However, English as a conversational, spoken language is actually somewhat difficult to come by in many who have been students of the language. Therefore, our job of working with non-native English speakers is more difficult than in many other areas of the world. In Ukraine, for example, I worked with many very conversationally fluent speakers who were probably less familiar with the mechanics of the language than many Japanese, but were much better at communicating using it. Just yet another example that intense academic work in a subject area does not necessarily translate into practical usage.

There have been touching moments. Yesterday the women of the church cooked us a large, very delicious lunch and spent about two hours with us in a time of introductions and sharing. All of us in the room took turns answering about five questions about ourselves. One young, shy woman who sat at the end of the table had carefully written down every one of her answers in the small amount of English she knew. She confessed that she was not a Christian but that she had recently begun learning about the God and the Bible and came to the church three times per week to study the Bible with the local Christians. Her softspoken, unassuming, absolute sincerity and sense of wonder at the story of God is something that all should witness.

Japanese culture is very indirect, in that they work very hard to not show distress or disagreement but always work to accommodate. Sometimes you can see through this, though. One of my readers is a young mother who brings her toddler with her to our sessions. (I actually have several young mothers who bring their children, so I have the room with all of the toys.) In telling me about her family she revealed that her husband is an insurance salesman who works very late and then goes out drinking with his "clients." I consider her to be one of probably several million "married single mothers" in Japan, whose workaholic culture keeps many professionals enslaved. However, she couches this situation in terms of her "having lots of good personal time" after she puts her son to bed. "So it is good." Sorry, but your eyes tell a different story.

So, the stories are just beginning to take shape, and as we continue through the weeks some will no doubt become clearer and deeper. We have been praying for many months now for God to be preparing hearts for this time, including our own. So we will see what God is going to do.

Stay tuned!


Photos:

• Japan 2008 part 1
• Japan 2008 part 2
  

This will be a relatively short note - it is the beginning of our first full day in Japan and it will be busy.

We arrived in Tachikawa, which is a city on the west side of Tokyo, last night without much incident, which means there aren't many interesting stories to tell about it. The flights were long and boring, but that's generally better than short and extremely exciting when it comes to international flying.

We are now getting settled in at the Tachikawa Church of Christ, which is a fairly well-established church in Tokyo. We are living at the building, which is three stories tall and has pretty decent living quarters on the third floor. We will be doing all of our work in a large common room on the second floor, which can be split into separate rooms for our reading sessions and then opened up for parties and other larger meetings.

Today we are running two information meetings for prospective readers, one this morning and another at 7pm tonight, and will begin the sessions tomorrow. We'll also be doing some shopping and learning our way around this part of Tokyo.

Speaking of Tokyo - it is immense. We arrived at Narita airport, which is on the east side of Tokyo and took a bus to Tachikawa on the west - the traffic was relatively light and there was only one stop before ours, but the journey was still just under two hours.

We are about to have breakfast with the family of one of the ministers, who actually lives in an apartment at the church building. The church here is entirely native - both of the ministers and all the members are Japanese, although the church got its start as an American mission after WWII.

That's it for now, stay tuned for tons of photos and many more details about the goings on here in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Photos:

• Japan photos part 1

Videos:

• 360 Degrees of Tachikawa
• The Monorail
  

It's almost here! On Monday morning I fly out for Tokyo, Japan (technically the community of Tachikawa on the west side of Tokyo), for five weeks of intensive one-on-one work teaching conversational English lessons with non-native English speakers for five weeks. We do this using the Bible.

I will be writing continual updates, as well as posting photos. Some photos will be here, but the full albums will appear on Facebook. I'll post the public links to those here.

Please be praying about this. It's been a tough go this year for the church in Tachikawa in the efforts to bring people into the program. Right now we have around 35 participants and our team can handle a maximum load of 60. However, it is more than apparent that we are set to see some really great works of God.

I will be posting here and also sending emails. There will probably be things in emails that I may not post here, so please leave a comment or email me if you would like to be included in the email list. If you have financially contributed, you are already included.

I will be returning, God willing, on July 29.

So, stay tuned, it's about to be a wild ride!

UPDATE: Somebody out there must have said the right kind of prayer, because as of today (6/22) there are now 52 readers.

Today was the typical "day after," where you learn what really happened. Unfortunately, things were worse than what I thought even when I made the previous post this morning. The first image should show the red area extending much further west, across the main road and all the way into the entire neighborhood. A great many of the houses west of Seth Child Rd. (across the street from where my house is) are completely destroyed or are a total loss. A small army of us spent most of the day in this neighborhood.

Also, the neighborhood west of the K-State campus was hit very hard and the damage is extensive on the campus itself. I haven't been able to see much of the campus yet -- they ended up sealing off most of it today anyway.

Coverage of this tornado included a rare look at almost the entire time the tornado was on the ground in Manhattan, from its early appearance on the southwest side up until striking the area of the campus where the roof camera was located:


What is sobering is that this tornado threaded the needle right between the two most personal structures to me in this town... my house and the Cats for Christ Campus Center. If it had veered barely to the right, it would have surely completely destroyed my house. Barely to the left, it would have at least caused serious damage to the campus center. The Campus Center basement is where I rode out the storm, clueless about the F4 funnel passing by two blocks south.

Ultimately, it is a strong reminder that we have no control. We spend our lives largely within the illusion of control, and for many that illusion is never exposed. But the indiscriminate power of nature is one of many instruments of God that has a way of putting us into our place.

Photos:

Things got a little interesting last night around here. The latest round of fury from the heavens rolled through and this time took some of Manhattan with it. I'm in the process of figuring out what all happened, but this is the best I can figure where the tornado touched down or came close to touching down: (click images to embiggen)

It looks like the worst was a commercial area just north of my house, where a car dealership was heavily damaged and a True Value hardware store completely leveled. Several other building and a whole bunch of vehicles behind there are destroyed as well. And, just got word that the neighborhood just to the west of there was hit heavily too. Several buildings on campus are heavily damaged, and one laboratory completely destroyed.

Here's what I've been able to figure out of the area near my house:

I'll probably get some pictures today and keep this updated.

I am fine and everyone I know is fine. I have not heard any reports of injuries out of Manhattan yet. The warnings were very good and there was no surprise to this storm - it had been roaring up I-70 for quite a while before it descended upon Manhappenin'.

Yesterday's wedding also turned out to be somewhat of a Cats for Christ reunion. These are all current and former members of the campus ministry I help lead at Kansas State University:

I love these people.