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In So Many Languages....

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:28:46 GMT

メリクリスマス! 즐거운 성탄절! iFeliz Navidad! Joyeux Noel! Frohe Weinachten! 圣诞快乐! Vrolijke Kerstmis! Χαρούμενα Χριστούγεννα! Buon Natale! Feliz Natal! С Рождеством Христовым! חַג מוֹלָד שָׂמֵח! Gleðileg jól! З Різдвом! میری کرسمس! Crăciun fericit! Mutlu Noeller! Nadolig Llawen! God jul! Wesołych Świąt! สุขสันต์วันคริสต์มาส! क्रिसमस की शुभकामनाएँ! Hilaris Sarcalogos! عيد ميلاد مجيد! Häid jõule! Merry Christmas!

Wishing Everyone a Blessed and Merry Christmas and a Wonderous, Joyful, and Happy New Year!!!

On Going Home, Part XIII

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:39:19 GMT

On Going Home, Part XIII

The Specter of Failure looms large and shadows my steps as we prepare to go home….

Of all the “On Going Home” Parts I have thought to author and publish, this one is the hardest to put forth. I’ve wrestled and struggled with how to present this one, and in any of the drafts I’ve written, re-written, re-rewritten, and re-re-rewritten, none of them have come off quite the way I’d like. That being the case, failure is hard to deal with, especially when it comes to having put nearly twelve years of effort and work into something, all for it to have seemingly borne no fruit whatsoever.

Growing up in the hills of Kentucky, my Daddy taught my brother and me to always put forth our best efforts in everything that we endeavored to do. “Why do it twice?” “Never make more work for someone else.” “Be three times better.” “Anything worth doing is worth doing right the first time.” These are all quotes that Dad still uses even today when talking about giving an effort in something or working in general. My brother and I were taught that hard work does pay off, that people do see hard work, and respect is given to those who go the extra mile, put forth 110%, and lends a helping hand to someone else when my job was finished. While failure wasn’t looked at as the end all to life, it was to be treated with disdain and loathing. Failure was (and still is) always unacceptable in Dad’s book, though unintentional failure was looked on with a greater measure of respect than intentional failure or quitting before the job is done. Defeat, loss, and “taking one on the chin” were all taught to be expected, but that there is always a lesson in each.

I’ve personally been in Japan for nearly twelve years (it will be very close to twelve years by the time we depart in late-March or early-April). As I have looked back on my time here in Japan, it is hard, hard, HARD to see any success. I did complete both contracts that I signed with Japan Christian Junior College (JCJC) (the first from 1998 to 2001, and the second from 2002 until this past March [as of this writing, it is December 2009]); fulfilled my verbal commitment to my employer in Hokkaido (September 11^th, 2001 – September 11^th, 2002); and plan to finish out the contract that I signed with Korakuen English Centre and Takinogawa Private Girls’ Junior-Senior High School. My wife and I also will finish out our church responsibilities where we now serve as staff, and we also plan to continue to attend Saturday Night English Bible Study all the way until we leave. However, in all of these it is extremely difficult for me to see any kind of success here in Japan. It would seem just the opposite.

When I first came to Japan and to JCJC in 1998, I’d never worked as a teacher anywhere fulltime. I had done some tutoring at MidAmerica Nazarene in the 1995-96 and 1996-97 school years along with some ESL teaching for my Spanish Classes form 1993-95, and also taught volunteer ESL classes at my home Church, Olathe Westside, for a year before coming to Japan. However, none of it was anything compared to what I had contracted my self to do for JCJC, nor has it been in any way a comparison to any teaching I’ve done since. In my first year – my first semester actually – I resigned form JCJC after hearing the English Department Chair’s woes concerning the future of JCJC. I figured it was best to get out while the getting was good. However, after hearing of an upcoming presidential change for the college, I rescinded that resignation, and stayed on through think and thin until my contract expired at the end of July 2001. It was during this time that I had tried to make and be a difference for the students, and attempted to “change” Japan, all in the Name of Jesus Christ. However, I learned that – no matter how much of the language I learned, the culture I understood, and I related to people – I’d always be viewed by the powers-that-thought-they-were as an outsider. It was in these early days, when I was sent packing by the JCJC Administration the first time around, that the Specter of Failure began knocking on my door. In all my three years at JCJC from 1998 to 2001, what had I accomplished? What had my efforts, work, blood, sweat, tears, and prayers accomplished? As I went home in the Summer of 2001, in between leaving JCJC and going up North to Asahikawa City, Hokkaido (where I’d been given a job and a position with an English School), I brooded pretty heavily over my time at JCJC. What had I done? It looked quite similar to my Football Career in both High School and College: no real stats or accomplishments to speak of or write about. Basically, I was released from JCJC for rocking the boat; for questioning questionable policy; for supporting a president that deserved more than one year and had stood in opposition to the Chairman of the Board of Regents of the College; and for being friends with people dubbed “unfriendly” to the college. What had all my efforts in “changing Japan” and “being a voice for the students” gotten me? A one-way ticket home, virtual isolation from a college that I’d grown to love, and separation from students that had become a burden on my heart and mind.

If I considered JCJC a monumental failure the first time around, then my time in Hokkaido would have to be even more of one. Things went well in the first few weeks of being in Asahikawa and working for Asahikawa Church of the Nazarene and Asahikawa English Communication Services (AECS). I’d been given a staff position in the church (for the first time in my life, actually) as Resident Missionary and English Ministries Director, having a position on the Youth and Young Adult Council. The school I was teaching in was a good place, and my manager was seemingly kind and considerate. However, in very late October of 2001, a question arose on the Youth and Young Adult Council (Y-YA) concerning a Christmas Party at the church, where the pastor would be presenting the Gospel Message of Salvation. The Y-YA council wanted to place an admission fee, something that I greatly objected to precisely because of the Pastor preaching the Gospel at the end, and this being an outreach event. I appealed to the Leadership of the Y-YA Council, and later to the Pastor, all to no avail. The party went on with the admission fee attached, but my opposition had sealed my fate: by the end of the year 2001 I was no longer welcome at the Y-YA Council meetings; had been demoted and relegated to being merely a member of the English Ministries Department of the church; was having my English Service Sermons edited for content; and my position of “Resident Missionary” more window dressing than actual responsibility. By the Summer of 2002, I was questioning my being in Asahikawa. In August that year, JCJC had asked me to return, and on September 11^th, 2002, in the afternoon (366 days later almost to the minute) I was on my way back to Chiba and to JCJC. The Specter of Failure again wrought havoc on my heart and mind. What had been accomplished in Hokkaido? Aside form being kicked out of the Y-YA meetings, being demoted on the English Ministries Board, being reprimanded by my employer for sharing the Gospel after and between classes at the English School, and having my very integrity questioned to my face, what really had I done that could be considered positive? The answer was as clear then as it is now: next to nothing.

When I came back to JCJC in September 2002, I’d made up my mind to not be as “gung-ho” about changing anything at JCJC with regards to the administration. My endeavor this time around was to merely teach, enjoy my students and classes, and be there for anyone who needed my help. No politics, no attempts at being the eyes and ears of the students with regards to the administration and any meetings, my attitude was to teach and take care of my students as best I could. Things went along famously for four years: during these four years JCJC became more and more international along with neatly quintupling our Student Enrollment. Then came the decision, in 2006, to cease recruiting of High School students and to sell the land and school in 2008. Though several attempts and offers came and went, none of them were either accepted by JCJC’s administration or agreed upon by the buyers. In 2008 – despite my prayers, fastings, appeals to the General Board of the Church of the Nazarene, and hoping beyond hope that JCJC would be spared the demolisher’s ball and crane – the school property was sold to a developer, and following graduation in March of 2008 the buildings were demolished to make room for a housing subdivision.

In the last twenty months since the property was sold and demolition began, and in the nine months since JCJC closed, the Specter of Failure has, again, cast a pall and a long shadow over things. Japan Christian Junior College is no more. Her students are gone, her teachers have left, her property sold off to the highest bidder, and her final legacy one of dismal misery and demagoguery by her President/CEO of the Board of Regents. In the face of my prayers, fasting, appeals to the General Church, and efforts to try and keep JCJC open, the school closed. In the intervening months, I have asked myself time and time again what my accomplishments were. I have prayed and questioned the Lord time and time again as to the reason for JCJC closing, the heavens seemingly being brass in such times of prayer. To say that my frustration levels are quite high would be a gross understating of the situation.

And now, since January 9^th of this year, I’ve been an Instructor of English Oral Communications at Takinogawa Girls’ Private Junior-Senior High School in Northern Tokyo. In my almost one year of employment here there are, again, no real statistics or accomplishments to be recorded. I go to school four days a week, teach my 18 classes, interact as much as I’m able to with the students I’ve been given charge and responsibility to teach, and try my best to enjoy myself and the time I’ve been given there. I’ve no real authority over my students. Should any of them choose to act up or act out, there is little I could do as far as disciplinary procedures go. The grades I give them are not absolute (I’ve failed several, only to have them show up in the next level class at the beginning of the next school year), and it really seems like I’m making zero difference in their lives. In my high school classes two-thirds to three-quarters of my students in each class chit-chat, sleep, or study something else when they come in despite my requests for them to pay attention. In my junior high classes, some of my students have been so rebellious that I’ve had to turn them into the English Department Chair for discipline (which turned out to be talking and scolding rather than any real discipline). Failure has been rearing its ugly head ever since I started, and the Specter has been shadowing my steps for the last eleven months.

As I look back on my life, time, and “ministry” here in Japan, I see naught but failure. In my twelve years (almost) here, I’ve spent less than two years on average in any one church. By the time my wife and I leave, I will have switched churches seven times with little to show other than a series of broken relationships, fractured friendships, lost opportunities and – typically – failure to make a difference in any way shape or form in any of the churches I’ve had the chance to serve in. In my time in Japan with regards to Missionary Work, the oppressive failure looms even larger, and the Specter’s Shadow cast longer. The worst, most tragic fact of my time here is that I have never once personally led anyone to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ: Never once. There is no student, coworker, friend, superior, acquaintance, or neighbor that I have led to the foot of the cross. I’ve talked to many. I’ve preached to dozens. I’ve taught several Bible Classes and Dozens of Bible Lessons. I’ve prayed with and for and about each and every student I have had in class and have now. I’ve fasted for days, weeks, and months. I’ve ministered in every way that I know how and even tried some new and different types of ministries. Yet, to sum it all up, the bottom line is grim, even grisly: not one person can I say, with any kind of clear conscience, that I have led to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Above all my other failures with regards to JCJC, to Takinogawa School, to AECS and Asahikawa Church, and to all the schools, classrooms, institutions, homes, and buildings I’ve ever taught in and worked in, none of them hit me as hard as this realization: I have not led one person, personally, to Jesus Christ. The most tragic thing is that I was in the house of a man who was an unbeliever. I sat in his house, ate dinner at his table, spoke to his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson, taught his wife in a couple of English classes, yet when this man fell off of a mountain and died some time later, I have no idea if he knew the Savior. His wife later came to Christ through the ministry of my Japanese Mom, but her husband? I have naught an idea…and it weighs heavily on my conscience, heart, and spirit.

Now we’re preparing to go home. Christ Jesus has made it very clear to Jihye and me that its time to go. I can’t help but wonder: have I failed so miserably here in Japan that Father is sick and tired of me being here that he wants me to go home? Have I tried and lost, fought and gotten knocked down and knocked out, stood and been blown over so many times that my Heavenly Father has said “Enough is enough!”? Has the Lord has his fill of my failures to remain at one church for even two years that he has chosen to put me in a “safe” place, so as not to cause any more embarrassment to him, his kingdom, and his work? When I think about it, Japan will basically be unchanged when we leave as compared to when I first came nearly twelve years ago. Her Christian Population is still anywhere between .2% and .03%; her suicide rate is still around 30,000 successful attempts per year; her rates of violent crime among youth still continue to skyrocket; her people are still becoming more and more each year more godless, less scrupulous, and more immorally directed; her divorce rates are still climbing like the space shuttle; and her youth and young adults continue to mock anything having to do with righteousness and purity. What difference did my presence have here? Perhaps this really is why we’re going home. God is tired of my personal failure, and wants me back on the bench. When I was in Junior High and High School – though I loved them very much – I never was any good at sports. Time and time again, I’d be given a chance to prove myself on the field, and time and time again, I’d blow it, with the coaches finally hauling my kiester back to the bench in frustration. I wonder if that isn’t happening now? Has my Heavenly Coach decided – after getting this shot at performing for him in the “game” – to kick my rear end back to the bench, and let someone else come to Japan so that his kingdom will be advanced (I daresay that I deserve it if that really IS what the Lord is thinking)? Has the Lord Jesus determined that, thanks to my “jumping off-sides” or “throwing the ball to second when I should’ve thrown it to third”, I need to spend more time on the B-Team, play in more “games” for the Junior Varsity, or get back on the practice squad for “further instruction and discipline”? The answer to these questions, I know not…and really don’t want to know. What I do know is that we are going home, and my past record here is hardly worth mentioning. Aside from the failures I see in my places of employment and ministry, my wife and I have also lost contact with several friends. Except for one family of teachers that I came over with, every other teacher from the USA of Canada that I have taught with my wife and I have not heard from, despite efforts at reaching them, mailing them letters and Christmas Cards, sending e-mails, and even calling on the phone. Just about all of my Japanese Co-workers and Superiors at JCJC are out of contact, and absolutely nobody from Asahikawa Church keeps in contact with me, despite efforts to reach them. It’s probably for the best. After all, who wants to court someone such as myself who has such a list of failures on his record?

Probably the toughest separation and broken relationship – and my deepest feelings of failure – have to do with a pastor who has basically been my friend here in Japan longer than any other Japanese person, save J-Mom. I got to know Nozomi Sugitani just a few months after I first came. We became friends pretty quickly. Nozomi doesn’t fit the “typical” mold of a Japanese man. He’s outgoing, laughs easily, deeply, and whole-heartedly. His English is fluent as he studied in the States for a few years, prior to returning to Japan some years ago. Nozomi gave up taking a church in Japan – and earned the undying belligerence of the District Board – in order to return to Sodegaura City to help his Dad at Showamachi Church of the Nazarene. For two years, Jihye and I worked with Nozomi, following the passing of his Dad. We went at his request, giving up attendance at a church in Tokyo. Nozomi is as close to me as my own brother, Kelley, and we talked with each other about a lot of stuff. I taught at his church’s Day Care School for six years up until April of this year. Because of the abruptness of JCJC and its administration, demanding that we move inside of a week back in December 2008, we were forced to leave Nozomi’s church, as our move pushed us an hour further away, adding to the hour-and-a-half it took us to travel there. In March, we were unable to continue English Services with Nozomi, and upon going down to talk to him about it, he expressed to me his anger, disappointment, and frustration at our leaving. Later, after catching a combination of the flu and allergies, and being unable to teach his school’s children due to my not wanting to infect them, he basically cut me off and cut us off form contact with him. On Christmas Day, we – my wife and I – will drive down to Sodegaura City to take back an electric piano he had given to us on loan. He doesn’t yet know about our decision to leave. In the nine months since we left his church, and in the eight months since he has cut us off, my deepest, most gut-wrenching feelings of failure center around Nozomi. He and his elder sister treated us as family. When he was engaged and later married last year, we were set in a place of honor as members of his family. Hearing his words and seeing his sadness and bearing his accusations cut to the quick. Neither one of us was in any condition to speak of what happened: he was in no humor to hear that his accusations and implications were off of the mark, and I was in no shape to show him the folly of his words. A dormant volcano may erupt in two days, and I can’t help but feel the blame for this broken relationship. The Specter of Failure has been darkest, most looming, and casting its longest shadow in this regard.

Despite all of this, there are still people who want my wife and me to move near them and be a part of their churches. Mom and Dad, and my brother and sister-in-law are champing at the bit to have us work with them in their respective churches. I truly wonder why. Seeing how my “ministry” and work here has been one of almost complete and utter failure, I truly do wonder why anyone at all – including family – would want anything to do with me. Yet, all the same, there it is. But perhaps, again, this is the Lord’s way of letting us know we need to be in a “safe” place, away from the major action in the field, away from the front lines where the battle has been hottest, because my failure over here. Perhaps this is like rehab. Who knows? Only Father, and to be quite honest, he hasn’t been saying much to me on this line.

To sum this all up, I reach to a favorite move of mine. Its title is She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, starring John Wayne and Joanne Dru. In one act of this film, John Wayne’s character, Captain Nathan R. Brittles, is given a command to make sure that his commanding officer’s niece and wife get to the stagecoach station on time, in order to get the wife and niece out of danger for fear of an Apache Uprising. In the course of this act, Captain Brittles and his troop are met with delays, battles, fights and flight, and wind up getting to the stage station too late: the Apache have all but destroyed the station, and burned the stage. As Captain Brittles is walking after the battle with the Apache, he kicks the burning stage, and states to his CO’s niece, “Mission failure! Well, we missed the Stage, Miss Dandridge…” He repeats the “Mission Failure” report to his CO when he and what’s left of his troop reach their squadron’s fort. This all pretty much sums up my feelings about my time here in Japan: Mission failure. When I get home, though I likely won’t use such direct language to describe it, this will be my report to my home churches: mission failure. JCJC is closed; nobody directly led to Christ; no Nazarene Mission left in Japan; the Church of the Nazarene basically being nearly dead; and not a whit of a difference made. Mission failure. Coming home like a whipped dog, tail between its legs, whimpering all of the way, and with scrapes, bruises, and cuts. Mission failure. And blame for this mission failure falls squarely on my shoulders. None of it is Jihye’s: she’s done famously here, touching many lives, making a big difference and a huge impact in the four years she’s been here. I wish I could say the same for my twelve…

Well there it is. What you read here today, nobody else has really heard me say or speak, and I cannot really say that this treatise truly plumbs the depths of my feelings, my mind, and my opinion concerning my work here in Japan. I will ask, however, that you pray for me. Beyond the feelings of failure that I have, I also hold a lot of anger and frustration at my Church Denomination, especially at the General Level. Please pray for us as we prepare to head home, and may the Father, who resides in eternity, but also in the hearts of each one who calls upon his name give you peace and his added blessings today…

Four Years

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:12:10 GMT

December 17th, 2005

Hard to believe its been four years since we tied the knot! It seems more like four days!

I love you, My Lady Reina Jihye!

On Going Home, Part XII

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:47:14 GMT

On Going Home, Part XII

The need for Revival in my heart, soul, mind, strength, and spirit -- and my life -- is very raw.

I considered making this a part of the last post in this series, Part XI, the things I'm looking forward to, but to be honest, this one deserves a section and a part all by itself. In my twelve (almost) years here in Japan, I have never, ever been to a revival series, camp meeting, nor week-long renewal campaign in any church here in Japan. While it could have been very good to note this in Part XI, I felt that this needed to be written about here - separate and aside in a part by itself, mostly because the need for revival for my part very raw. Partly, too, this is a separate posting because Part XI is big enough already.

Revival meetings as they are known in the West, particularly the United States of America Canada, and Mexico, are virtually unknown here in Japan. While there are different and various Special Events, retreats, seminars, guest speakers, conferences, even special region, city, and area wide services, the week-long, daily series, camp-out camp meetings, and local church revival and renewal emphases are unknown here. The reasons given to me, personally, for such an absence of such and important aspect of Church life and walking with the LORD are many, mostly dealing with businessmen and workers not getting off of work (or leaving work, rather; it isn't so much that workers don't get off of work, they just refuse to leave due to the desire to impress the boss with their diligence), and wives needing to be at home to prepare dinner for them and their children. Other reasons include lack of interest among younger generations, the need for children to be home at a decent hour, the pastor being too busy with other things during the week, the congregation being involved in other things, and so on and so on. The fact of the matter is, revival emphases by the local church simply do not exist, and almost never take place.

I grew up the son of a Pastor. Dad has been a pastor for more than thirty years, and a preacher for more than forty. Every Spring and Every Fall, Dad emphasized Revival. He would invite special speakers and Evangelists, Song Evangelists, and we, as a family, would turn the TV to the wall for a solid week in order that the Holy Ghost might speak more clearly. I didn't find this out until later, but Mom and Dad also prayed and fasted before, during, and after the week of revival. Most, if not all, of the Revival Services I have ever been a part of, I remember. I remember Evangelists such as Dr. Alec Ulmet, Rev. Melvin Dishon, Rev. Beryl Spross, Rev. Charles Hazelwood, Rev. Gale Ashby, and many, many others gracing out homes for the week, eating at our table, and being involved with us as a family for a week. Revival was a great, great week for us. A few of the Evangelists we had stayed in a trailer behind the church, with the church's hose attached to the Evangelists' trailer. Even so, they always came and spent dinnertime with us. And the services were always remarkable. Rev. Dishon was (and still is, if he is living) an expert on The End Times, and at least two of his Revivals at Dad's churches in Kentucky were exclusively about the end times and the events surrounding the Rapture of the Church. Dr. Ulmet - LORD bless his memory - spoke about his Cowboy Days, when he was a cowboy as a young man. Dr. Ulmet had been Kentucky's District Superintendent, and he was well-known by our family, and Dad asked him to hold at least four revivals in the different churches he pastored. Several of my brother's and my high school friends remember these evangelists, as well, some of them claiming Faith in Christ in part because of their messages.

One of the best revivals I ever remember was one in the Spring, about my Freshman or Sophomore Year in High School. We were living in Nicholasville, and the Evangelist that Dad had asked to come had come down with a bad case of the flu. Dad called and called and called all around, but nobody was available. So, Dad was the evangelist that week, and his preaching went to higher level during that week....and stayed at that high level ever since (actually, it has gone to greater and more expansive heights since then, but this revival was like a rocket at that time for him). Another revival week which I remember was when we had first moved to Nicholasville. Again, no Evangelists were available, so Dad asked the Seminary Students and retired pastors who were a part of Nicholasville Church to preach. Because it was in the Fall, and I was playing football and couldn't get to many of the services (my brother included), but I heard all about the services later. That Sunday, a blessed man, retired Missionary and Pastor, Norman O. Miller, preached the final two services. Rev. Miller was a gentle preacher, and his messages, while soft-spoken, were powerful and moving. It was one of the best revival services I've ever been a part of.

When I entered College at MidAmerica Nazarene University, this practice of biannual revival weeks continued, with the extra added fact that not only was there a week of Chapel services, but also there were nighttime services at College Church, Olathe, as well. My first three years at MNU, I ran from God and from his call to be a missionary. It was during this time that the LORD pounded on my heart's door. Father used men such as Dr. Tom Hermiz, Dr. Richard Spindle, Dr. Chuck Millhuff, and others to track me down. After I gave in to the LORD's will and his call, Father then used these men to build up and strengthen that call, my faith, and help me to be able to go on and do what he called me to do. Again, one of the best revivals I remember was when then-College Church Pastor, Dr. J. K. Warrick - again, after the Evangelist he'd asked to come had fallen ill - preached the Revival Services for both the College Students' Chapel and the evening services. He did a wonderful job, and the LORD strengthened my faith through him. Another memorable Revival took place when Dr. Jack Eyestone, the former District Superintendent of Missouri, came and held the services. His down home humor, and his homespun wisdom again struck me in ways that I will never forget.

Fast forward to Japan. I came in 1998,and from the time I arrived until now, there has never been a revival emphasis in any church that I've ever been a part of. Duri9ng my time here, I did receive upon request taped revival services from College Church Olathe, Westside Olathe, and a few other churches. I've also had my own personal revival emphases via The Ark of Salvation, Virtual Church, and The Online Word. However, as good as these all are, there is no substitute for the real thing. Beng in church when there is a revival going on is something that I have sorely missed over the almost-twelve years I've been here, and I believe has added to the stress, burnout, and wearing down I've experienced in my time here. I believe, too, that if Japanese Churches would take the dare and try a revival week, it would help a lot of churches overcome the stuntedness, shallowness, and immaturity plaguing the vast, vast majority of churches here. Who knows? Such an attempt may usher in a Great Awakening for Japan...something that I've prayed for ever since arriving at Narita Airport in `98.

I'm looking forward to being in a revival. I hope to be a part of one when I get home, either in Dad and Mom's church in Atchison, Kelley and Rhonda's church in Spearfish, and/or wherever the LORD Father will place us when we move back home. It's something I know that I need, and that Jihye should experience (I don't believe Korean Antioch Church in KC ever had one when she was there as Pianist in the 1990s). I know that this, by itself, would do wonders for the stress and burnout, the mental fatigue, and the spiritual exhaustion I've had the last couple of years. I believe also Father would use it and will use it to mend my broken heart, which was shattered into a million pieces when JCJC closed. It may also help me see things more clearly, rather than the view of failure that I have concerning my time here (more on that in a later part). In essence, I need a good, strong, Holy Ghost revival, and I pray I can get to one when we get home.

Will you please pray for us, as we continue towards our upcoming move home? Will you pray that, somewhere, somehow, I will at least have a Revival via the computer or cassette tape - albeit from afar - until we get home? Thank you, once again, for taking the time to read this. We pray Father's special blessings for all who read this today.

On Going Home, Part XI

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:01:14 GMT

On Going Home, Part XI

After Eleven (and what will be almost Twelve) Years here in Japan, there are a LOT of things I’m looking forward to upon arriving in the States…

I’ve been in Japan full time for more than eleven years, and during that time, there have been a lot of things I’ve missed about the USA. While my time here in Japan has been worth the sacrifices made in the intervening years, there are many things I’m looking forward to doing, seeing, and re-experiencing when Jihye and I get home.

Spending a LOT of Time with Family and Friends – I’ve returned to the USA to visit six times, and in each case there was never enough time to do and see all the things we wanted to see and do. Certainly there was never enough time to spend with Mom and Dad, Kelley, Rhonda, Jessica, Samantha, Jack, and Levi, Aunt Dot and Uncle Leland, Aunt Linda and Uncle Tom (whom we’ve only seen once in the whole of the eleven years I’ve been here), and all the rest of our loved ones. It will be good to go to Atchison, when we first get home, and spend some quality time with Mom and Dad, and help them with their church (we don’t know for how long we’ll be there when we first get back, but if we do end up going somewhere else in the USA to live and work, we at least want to spend a couple of months [April and May] with Mom and Dad); to see Kelley and Rhonda and our nieces and nephews, and to help them as much as we can (Jihye and I would love to move to Spearfish and live there a good while, helping them with their church); to go to Sibert Family Reunions and have Jihye meet Aunts and Uncles and Cousins from Mom’s side of the family; possibly going to Florida and perhaps visit with (and, again, have Jihye meet) Aunt Janice and Uncle Bill, and our Cousins Ralph and Cynthia, and their boys; and meeting and seeing all of our extended family and loved ones everywhere in the USA. Mom and Dad, and many of their siblings, my Aunts and Uncles, are gettign older; we want to spend a lot of time with them, and I, personally, want them all to meet Jihye in person.

In A Word: REST – It has been good to live and work in Japan; please don’t mistake my meaning with regards to my next sentences. All the same, it has been a lot of work to live and to stay here. It will be good to get some plain old, good old fashioned rest from our labours here. It has been mentally, physically, emotionally, and – especially – Spiritually taxing to be here in Japan because of the needs being so great, so very different than in the USA. America has a high proportion of believing Christians, and not only thus, our entire culture is based (for the time being, anyway) on the Bible, Biblical Principles, and Jesus Christ in general; Japan and her government is not, and it shows. Mentally it will be good to get some rest from Japanese (it has been said that people who live in a foreign language immersion situation tend to have mental stress that is usually unaccounted for; I agree with this premise) and to hear English being spoken as a matter of course, and not from a desire (or lack thereof) for learning. Basically, it will be good to get home and rest from this work. In all of my time here, I’ve never had a furlough, and this, Jihye and I both believe, is God’s way of giving us an extended one at home.

Going to Church – It may not sound like an important thing, but going to church in the USA is something that I, personally, am most looking forward to. As I mentioned in another part of this series, Churches that I’ve been apart of and visited in Japan are, by and large, stunted, shallow, and immature in their growth (save Funabashi Immanuel General Mission Church, and though I’ve mentioned a lot about this church, it is well deserved. Yes, Funabashi IGM Church has its problems, but first and foremost, they have made the decision to focus and center themselves on Jesus Christ and reaching the lost). It has been laborious and stressful to not only attend church here in Japan, but to be involved as well. All of the Japanese Churches I’ve been a part of have been a mile wide, but an inch deep. While this may also describe many churches in the USA, this is rather the exception, and not the rule – especially with regards to the churches I am most familiar with (Westside Church, Olathe [my current home church]; Atchison Church [Dad and Mom’s]; Spearfish Hillsview Church [Kelley and Rhonda’s]; College Church, Olathe; Lafayette Church, Lexington among a few). It will not only be a joy to go and attend, but also to work in the church in the USA.

Hearing English Everywhere – Enough said. Though I understand Japanese, can speak the language pretty well, and can read much of what I see, it will be good to be in my home language for an extended period (it'll give my brain a chance to relax)…

The Chance to Use Spanish Again – The USA has the #2 largest population of Spanish Speakers in the world (after Mexico and just above Spain); Japan is probably #200 (VERY few Spanish-speakers live here). While my Japanese and Korean have greatly increased in the last eleven years, my Spanish Ability has decayed. Getting back to the USA (and possibly going on a Work and Witness Trip to Panama in June with Westside Church) will offer a great chance to use Spanish again, and to re-enhance my rusty skills.

Going to My High School Reunion – I graduated from High School in 1990. I missed the 10-year Reunion in 2000 thanks to my teaching schedule and JCJC’s Summer Vacation starting a month after the reunion took place. My wife Jihye has expressed a great interest in going to Nicholasville, Kentucky, to the 20-year reunion which we hope will happen in 2010. Most of my High School Friends I’ve not seen in 20 years. It will be good to see them again and to show my wife where I went to school and where we lived for 15 years.

Christmas in the USA – In Japan Christmas is a cultural day, similar to Halloween: good for the kids, but not a day off from work (though school is out for Winter Vacation; actually, Halloween is a more important day in the USA than Christmas is in Japan). As such, it isn’t greatly celebrated here, unless one happens to go to any and sundry department stores, Tokyo Disneyland or Disney Sea, Universal Studios Japan, or any other place of business which may (or may not) cater to anyone who bothers to celebrate Christ’s Birth. Though the idea of Christmas may have changed in the USA (and undoubtedly certainly has) in Japan it is still a far cry from the celebration that it is in America. Not only thus, but it will be good to be a lot closer to family and friends during the Advent Season.

Thanksgiving in the USA - I've not celebrated Thanksgiving with Family since I came in 1998, though spending the three Thanksgivings with Ma and Pa Pond and their family and other friends was pretty doggone good. However, there's just something about spending Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad, and my brother and his family, and others in the USA. Japan has a holiday called "Thanksgiving", but it is closer akin to our Labor Day. Japanese Thanksgiving is celebrated in November 23rd, so it fits for Westerners to have Thanksgiving then...but again, its just not like home.

Real (insert type [except for Japanese]) Food – There is only one place that I have found in Japan that has real, good, authentic Mexican Food, and that one place is in way Downtown Tokyo, maybe a couple of hours by train or car from where we live (that is, if it is still in business). Though Japan has some good Italian restaurants, for some reason, I have found Italian food in the USA to be better (same for Chinese). I’ve yet to try French or Indian restaurants in the US, but I hope to try both when we get home.

TGI Friday's, Applebee's, The Cracker Barrel, Other American Restaurants - No Applebee's in Japan, and though there are some TGI Fridays, they are in downtown tokyo. No Cracker Barrels, either, though there is a good Outback Steakhouse about 45 minutes away. We both miss good restaurants like these, and others, like Bonanza and Shoney's...

American Style Pizza – This I place in a category all by itself. Japan does pizza pretty well, but there have been and are times where “pretty well” just doesn’t fit the bill. The only places where American Style Pizza can be found is at Lala Port (a huge shopping mall in Western Chiba, near Tokyo) and Costco (also in Chiba City). Even Pizza Hut in Japan serves pizza that just isn’t totally American…and yes, there is a difference…

American Style Doughnuts – Again doughnuts are worthy to be in their own class. Japan has a Doughnut Chain called “Mr. Doughnuts”. The doughnuts made by “Mr. Doughnuts” are done, again, pretty well. There are two – and from what I’ve heard ONLY two – Krispy Kreme Doughnut shops in all of Japan, both of which are, respectively, an hour and two hours away by Bus, Bicycle, and Train. When comparing the two – Mr. Doughnuts and Krispy Kreme – Krispy Kreme Doughnuts make Mr. Doughnuts Doughnuts taste like cardboard. If Krispy Kreme ever catches on here in Japan, it’ll be Good Bye Mr. Doughnuts.

Driving – In all of my time here in Japan, I can count on both hands how many times I’ve driven a car: a total of eight or nine times. The basic reason is that living in the Tokyo Metro Area, owning a car isn’t really necessary, at least not for basic transportation needs: my Trek 4300 Road/Hybrid and the trains are entirely sufficient, and, in my opinion, preferred over driving. All that said, I have missed driving (especially a pickup truck the likes of which I had before I came in 1998). It will be fun to do so again when we move home.

Going to See the Kansas City Royals Play at The K – I’ve missed going to American Baseball games, plain and simple. Since my favorite Japan League Manager left at the end of Baseball Season here in Japan (Bobby Valentine, formerly of the New York Mets, coached the Chiba Lotte Sea Marines for almost six seasons, winning the Japan Professional Baseball League Championship, and the inaugural Asia Baseball Championship in 2005; he was released form managing the Sea Marines after this past season ended), and since the Japanese version of the New York Yankees won the Japan Series (the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants [I can’t stand `em]), watching Japan Pro Baseball next year will be a let down. I have loved the Kansas City Royals since I was three years old, I love their current manager, Trey Hillman, and since we will likely be in Atchison in April and May, I hope that we can get to a Royals Game at the K when we get home.

American Football – The Japanese play it, but not nearly well enough. NFL Games are broadcast on TV over here, but usually the outcome is already known before the games are played (except for the Super Bowl). College Games are never shown.

Actual Winters - I've had one (in Hokkaido and it was VERY GOOD!!!!!) since coming to Japan. Tokyo Winters, basically, are weak: not very cold, little snow, and not very long. I'm hoping and praying we will move somewhere where we can have a real Winter, with snow and ll the fuss.

Going to Bookstores – Again, Japan has bookstores, both large and small, but by and large, their sections almost never contain Foreign Sections (in the smaller ones) and if they do, there’s a lot of undesirable stuff (in the larger ones). Further, even if my Japanese reading was up to a good enough level to fully understand a novel, many of theirs are sordid, or are graphic novels (and most of the graphic novels are VERY graphic [no pun intended]). I’m looking forward to going to a B. Dalton’s, Waldenbooks, Rainy Day Books, Borders (especially with their cafés), or other bookstores and browsing.

Shopping Malls – There’s one in the Greater Tokyo Metro Area that I know of and have been to: Lala Port in Funabashi City (outside of Tokyo). My wife loves going there to shop. I like going there because there’s a Shakey’s and a Krispy Kreme, and two Starbuck’s. Lala Port is mostly a girly place. US Malls, much less girly…

Christian Bookstores – There are two that I know of here in Japan: one is in Chiba City, about a ten minute walk from Chiba Downtown Train Station, and the other is in Central Tokyo. The Chiba City one is pretty much out of the way, and kinda’ off of the beaten path; the one in Tokyo takes about an hour to an hour-and-a-half to get to from home, and while both are good to visit when I have time, both are sort of limited in what they have to offer.

Buying Christian Music – Aside from the two Christian Bookstores mentioned above, the only other places to get Christian Music of any sort are in either Tower Records (if it can be found; usually the larger ones have some popular Christian Music artists, but the smaller ones don’t), or Vision Music in Seibu Department Store in Funabashi City. Again, these places are usually troublesome to get to. I have found Christian Music in second hand and used music stores, but those have been few and far between.

Jeans that Actually Fit – I have never found jeans in Japan that fit well, even when they were the right waist size or large in the leg (they’ve never been both). Some have been tolerable; most have been horrible. The bottom line: Japanese Jeans are not made to fit this weight lifter and former D-lineman, and traveling to Ryogoku, where the Sumo Wrestlers live and train is not an option.

Shoes that Actually Fit – Most Japanese shoes are not made for wide feet. While they do have my length in centimeters (29 or 30), they are usually tight on the sides.

A Good Weight Room – While I’ve been a member at three different exercise facilities and weight gyms, they were either too small (for the weight gyms), or too diverse (for the exercise facility). I hope to find a good weight training place where I can pump iron and not hafta’ deal with bumping into another person training or be distracted by aerobics practitioners or ballet dancers.

Not Standing Out Like a Sore Thumb – I’m foreign, blue eyed, no-haired, white-skinned, and rather large. In Japan, these are all the ingredients for being treated similarly to a zoo gorilla or viewed as a trained bear. These physical features of mine are also grounds to be treated like a tourist (despite telling the Japanese person doing the treating, in Japanese, that I’ve lived in Japan for more than a decade [they always ask how long I’ve been here even after I’ve told them and are always surprised])., especially in downtown Tokyo.

Nazarene Naps on Sunday and True Sabbath Rest – In my years in Japan, the practice of taking a nap and getting good rest on Sunday after church has been sporadic at best and, in recent days, non-existent. Since 2005, my Sabbath rest has been on Saturday, and while Saturday is a good day for rest and rejuvenation, I can’t help but think that much of my burn out and fatigue here in Japan has been because I’ve not honored Sunday as The Day of Rest. The reason for that is because church business in Japan is generally taken care of on Sunday because people will not take Saturday, or any other day in the week, off in order to take care of much of the church business that could be taken care of on days other than Sunday. Since moving to Showamachi Church in 2006, Jihye and my Sundays have been full, busy, and basically restless affairs, forcing me to make Saturday as my day off, or, if we are busy, to go without any Sabbath rest at all. In the USA, things will be different, and taking a nap after lunch on Sunday will, hopefully, become what it once was in my life prior to coming: Sabbath Rest.

Voting Against President Obama in 2012 - I've voted in every Presidential election since I came. However, the next one I will be able to do so, not by absentee ballot, but in person, and trust me when I say, I'll be glad to cast a vote against President Obama!!!!

Seeing Jihye Become a US Citizen – This is something we will actively be working towards when we get home, and have been doing for the last four years since we married. To see the culmination of these efforts will be worth the wait!

Finishing my Doctorate in Biblical Studies – I’ve already started my studies. In the States, I hope to finish in two or three years.

Helping Jihye Get a Master’s in Music – This is something my wife wants to do, and we plan to get this done during our time at home. We are currently looking for a University with a Good Music Program.

Rejuvenation, Recharge, Rest, and Reconstitution Before Moving On to God’s Next Assignment – As I stated in the other parts of this series, I have never had a furlough, time of deputation, or period of rest Stateside. In all of my eleven years, my time at home has been between three-and-a-half weeks and five weeks. Spending a few years, if not several, will be good for the mind, body, spirit, emotions, heart, and soul. It will be good to get closer to the Lord, and continue my walk with him, in the USA.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. We pray God’s special blessings on you today. If you think of us, will you please pray for us during this time of transition? As always, thank you and Lord Bless!

On Going Home, Part X

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:32:26 GMT

On Going Home, Part X

It won’t be all butterflies in flowery meadows and sunshiny valleys. There are things that I'm not looking forward to when we move to the USA…

As with “On Going Home” Parts VIII and IX, in this post I would like to list some things that I’m not looking forward to as and when we return to the USA. We both know the move itself won’t be easy (really, it’ll be next to impossible, financially), and while there is much to look forward to (which I will detail in “On Going Home, Part XI”), there are some things that I’m not looking forward to…

Reverse Culture Shock – I’ve lived in Japan for eleven years (it’ll be twelve by the time we leave), and though it was a bit tricky getting used to the ins and outs, quirks and normalities of Japan、I’ve basically been immersed in Japanese culture for the better part of my adult life. Things are quite different between the United States and Japan, and needless to say, the kind of transition that we are preparing to make will be a huge upheaval. I’ve experienced a lot of reverse culture shock on returning to the States for visits at Christmas and the lone Summer trip I made back in 2001. The biggest things that impacted me then were the differences in size between Americans and Japanese. Americans are just larger in most proportions than Japanese people and it is pretty much glaringly obvious. The second thing that struck me hard was that I could clearly understand everything people were saying around me without processing it in my brain. Yes, I can understand Japanese to a pretty high degree, and can understand conversations going on around and about me. But whenever I hear English, it is like a lighthouse light in the midst of a storm (my wife notices the same thing with both English and Korean). In the States, this can become quite overwhelming, not to mention a bit disconcerting. However, one of the greatest impacts in my life concerning this was hearing people pray over their meals at restaurants. Nobody, save the miniscule Christian Population, does this here in Japan. When I went back with my parents to Kentucky for the first time since leaving in 1998, the first thing I noticed at the restaurant we went to was that every table around us had people praying for their food. It was a balm to my soul. Still, yet, the culture shock that will invariably come is something I’m not looking forward to…

Saying “Good Bye!” to All of Our Friends Here - I hate saying “Good Bye!”“Good Bye!” basically, stinks to high heaven. “Hello!” is a whole lot more fun. Yet we will be saying “Good Bye!” with very heavy hearts, and will be saying it quite frequently on the day that we leave, and it will not be fun, no, not at all.

The Move Itself – I’ve been a furniture mover in my life; I worked for a furniture company and a mover, and I have come to see that moving is not really fun. In my life in Japan, I’ve moved seven times, and this will be #8, and the third time since getting married. This will be only the second time I’ve moved internationally, and with all of the work, effort, and tiresome tasks involved, it is something not to be desired. Praise the Lord I was able to work for a professional mover, a furniture company, and had a pastor as a Daddy (we moved a few times when I was growing up). We’ll start this process in earnest during Christmas Vacation for my school (December 11^th – January 11^th).

President Barack Hussein Obama as President of the United States of America – President Clinton was President of the USA when I left, and that was bad enough. At least it’s pretty consistent: a Democrat was in office when I came, and a Democrat is in office with our home coming.

Being Asked to Translate when a Japanese Person Speaks Japanese – While my grasp of the Japanese Language is pretty good, my translation skills are still the same: bad! I’m sure that there will be someone who will want me to translate whenever a Japanese person speaks.

Flying for Twelve to Fifteen Hours – Flying is nice, and flying for a long time is not too bad, but the excitement kinda’ wore off after the first couple of times. Traveling for any extended period of time can be taxing…

Finding a Place to Fit In – This already isn’t much fun. Both Jihye and I are praying about where to go, and even though we hope and pray to go to either Atchison, KS and Mom and Dad, or Spearfish, SD, and Kelley and Rhonda, even in these places it will be difficult to fit in. If we go anywhere else (and we could; Jihye and I still have no clear direction from the Lord on where he wants us to go), it will be that much more difficult.

Watching the Super Bowl with Commercials – One of the nicest things about my time here in Japan has been being able to watch the NFL Super Bowl WITHOUT the commercials. Though many people like to watch the Super Bowl Commercials, and though some of them have been pretty good, after having watched eleven (and soon it will be twelve) Super Bowls without the commercials, it will be tedious and monotonous to watch the Super Bowl in 2011 with all of the commercials.

Leaving Work Undone and Unfinished – I feel as though my work here is not done, nor will not be done when we leave. My Dad always taught when I was growing up to never leave any job undone, yet that is exactly how I feel about leaving: I feel like I have a lot more work to do here. In a sense, I guess I’ll always wonder how things go and how people do over here once we are back in the States.

Looking for a Place to Live and Transportation – High concerns for us are looking for housing and transportation. Jihye wants to buy a car or some kind of four-wheeled, motorized vehicle, and I, personally, would like something, too (like a pickup truck). We are also noodling about whether or not to try and buy a house when we return, but we aren’t sure where (because we don’t know where we will be), or what kind of house. In the first month or two, we will stay with Mom and Dad in Atchison, and if we stay there long-term, we will likely live in the parsonage, while Mom and Dad move to their house out in the country in Atchison County. If we end up going somewhere else, it will be a lot of effort to find a place, and neither transportation nor housing will be cheap. Japan and the USA are very different in this regard, as transportation, especially, is relatively easy, especially in the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area.

Moving Further Away from Our Family in Korea – Haymoni and Oma, Choje and Tongsoh, and the rest of our Korean Family will not be moving with us (naturally). As such, it will be hard to move further away from them. While it is good that Choje and Tongsoh will be moving into Oma and Haymoni’s place, and that will make things easier for us, it will still be hard to be further away from them, especially since Choje will be having our niece or nephew in January.

Leaving Japan in Spiritual Darkness – Japan is a dark place spiritually. It was a dark place when I came, and it is even darker now, though there are a few areas where the light has grown. However, leaving Japan with such darkness will be nearly crushing for me primarily because I’ve been here so long, and so very little can be seen in the way of accomplishments. My first employer is not only closed, but totally gone. Several of my friends that I made when I first came have either moved out of the area, cut themselves off from us, or are simply out of contact. Of all the churches I’ve personally been involved in over the last almost-twelve years, none have undergone any kind of significant change or growth, save Asahikawa Church (which moved to a new facility a couple of years back) and Gakuen Church (which moved out of its old JCJC property about a year ago). Though I plan to devote an entire part to my idea of my success here in Japan, it must be said here that I’m not looking forward to leaving Japan under the specter of spiritual defeat: it’s kinda’ like walking out with our tails between our legs, whimpering all the way. And while I’ve enjoyed my time and teaching at Takinogawa School, I feel like there, too, I’ve made little if any impact, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if everyone cheered when they hear that I’m leaving.

Pray for us as we prepare to move, will you please? And as always, may the Lord Jesus Christ grant a special blessing to you today. Thank you for reading.

On President Obama and Bowing to Foreign Royalty

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:24:02 GMT

On President Obama and Bowing to Foreign Royalty

Since When Does the President of the United States of America Bow to a King or an Emperor?

President Barack Hussein Obama, on two overseas tours in the course of this past year, has bowed before two personages of royalty. Many have defended the President for merely showing "respect" to the heads of state of two separate countries in which he was a guest. While I am all for showing due and proper respect to those in authority, especially in their own home countries, is it really right for the President of the United States of America to bow before a foreign dignitary?

In 1775, Thirteen North American Colonies of the British Crown rose up in revolt against the Empire of Great Britain and Ireland. We Americans had had enough of King George III, his taxes, and is demands for subservience to the crown without question. In 1776, these Thirteen Crown Colonies declared themselves independent of Great Britian, and free from delivering obeisence to the British Crown and His Royal Majesty's Person. It was in these two years, 1775 and 1776, that Americans made the decision to never bow again to a foreign king, namely the King of Great Britain. After a long and bloody war, the United States of America came into being, and by 1789, had ratified a Constitution, and elected its first President, George Washington. Never again were we, as a people and a Nation, subject to a king, and ordered to bow before him.

Fast forward to 2009, and our 44th President of the United States of America. On two occasions, while meeting foreign royalty on foreign shores, President Obama bowed: first to Saudi King Abdullah, and secondly to the Emperor of Japan. No President has bowed in such a fashion to a foreign dignitary, especially royalty, in the history of the USA. Not since 1775 has any North American within the boundaries of the US of A bowed to any king, queen, or emperor. (and for those of you liberals, leftists, and Democrats who want to take issue with Nixon and Ike bowing to foreign dignitaries as some sort of "proof" that American presidents bow, take a good look at the photos in question: the sole occasion where the other party isn't bowing is Ike with DeGaulle, and we don't know if DeGaulle bowed first or in response, do we? Sorry, no "smoking gun", and bowing to religious leaders, such as Ike bowing to an Orthodox Patriarch [and Ike bowing to Pope Benedict XIII? Look again: the Pope is also bowing to Ike att he same time], and Bush bowing to Pope Benedict XIV really don't count either, as they are bowing to the God to whom these two religious leaders represent [both Ike and Bush claomed Christ as their Saviour).

I find it quite disconcerting that we have a President of the USA who will so willing subserviate himself to foreign royalty. I know from personal experience (seeing how I live outside of Tokyo) that the Japanese are lauging their heads off that an American President would bow in such a way to their beloved Emperor. I further find it setting a bad example in that a Presidnet of the USA woudl literally stoop to such a low, and bow in such a fashion to a Saudi King, and to a Japanese Emperor. Americans have fought and died over the last two centuries plus to keep the American People subservient to God, and god alone. For a President to go abroad and bow to a foreign king and emperor is a slap in the face of all those who gave their lives to keep us from being subservient to anyone. The President of the United States of America should never subjugate himself as President Obama has done. Not only does it make the President look foolish, but it also passes the US of A off as weak.

God help us!

If Vice-President Dan Quayle'd Had Fox News

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:20:08 GMT

If Vice-President Quayle'd Had Fox News

The Mainstream Media Made Vice-President Quayle look like a buffoon and succeeded because there was no foil. They're trying to do it again with Gov. Sarah Palin and failing because of Conservative Blogs and Fox News...

I was in High School when President George H. W. Bush was elected President, following the eight years of President Reagan. President Bush's choice of then-little known Senator James Danforth "Dan" Quayle was seen as a surprise; the mainstream media made light of his relative youth, and later one of his gaffes, in which he misspelled the word "potato" on camera. They also attacked Vice-President Quayle on his statements against the ideology of Murphy Brown (Candace Bergan, the lead actress on Murphy Brown interestingly enough, stated later in a Barbara Walters' interview that she agreed with Vice-President Quayle when he made his statement). In the `92 Election, and in the run-up to the `96 Election, the media hammered the Vice-President. In his Vice-Presidential Debate (as President Bush did later with all three of the Presidential Debates) against Al Gore, Quayle hammered Gore on policy, Mr. Gore's stances and platforms, and future-President Clinton's policy plans. Yet, all the while, Vice-President Quayle was tarred and feathered as a buffoon of the most boorish kind.

The fact of the matter is that Vice-President Quayle was never given a chance to tell his side of things. The Left, liberal mainstream media (who, just as they were in the tank for President Obama this time around, were whole hog for President Clinton back then) never bothered to interview him, to talk to him, or to give him his "day in court" of the public opinion. They simply passed him off as a buffoon, as a dimwitted hick from Indiana, and a politician who was more likely to put his foot in his mouth than say anything noteworthy. Yet, the glaring truth is that Vice-President Quayle was and is a highly educated man. He graduated form DePauw University with a degree in political science, later moving on to Indiana University where he then earned a Juris Doctor. In his early political career, he upset a veteran representative and veteran Senator to become the youngest representative from Indiana and later youngest Senator in Indiana State History.

The fact of the matter is, Vice-President Quayle never had an outlet in which to clarify himself, and to clear up any of his misstatements. It is interesting to note that, as Vice-President Al Gore made even greater and more colossal verbal blunders than Vice-President Quayle, yet nothing was ever mentioned of these during the 2000 election process. In fact, if anything, the mainstream media covered up the fact that Al Gore, as Vice-President, had made such colossal blunders (and, to a degree, continues to make them via his global warming activism). After watching former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin interview with Bill O'Reilly on FOX News, I have been wondering, "What if Dan Quayle'd had Fox News back in 1991 or 1992?" I think about this because the mainstream media in the United states is trying to paint Gov. Palin in the same or similar shade as they did Vice-President Quayle: as an uneducated, young, naive woman who is more likely to put her foot in her mouth than say anything intelligent (of course, listening to Gov. Palin's most recent interview, and having heard her in the Vice-Presidential debates has proven otherwise). What if Vice-President Quayle had had Fox News in 1991 or 1992? Would it have made a difference?

After hearing and watching Veep Quayle tear apart then-former-Senator Gore in the 1992 Veep Debates, I seriously believed that Vice-President Quayle would be the man to beat in the GOP Nomination in 1996. I knew this also because my parents have been residents of Indiana (my Mother was born and raised there), and on vacation times from College, I went there to be with them. While I was there in n 1992 and 1993, I had the chance to hear local and regional news stations interview Vice-President Quayle both before and after the 1992 elections. I'd read his commentaries and his interviews in Indiana Newspapers. When giving interviews, Vice-President Quayle was anything but a buffoon, uneducated, or contradictory in his statements. By contrast, his words were eloquent, his reasoning clear, his high quality intelligence very easy to see, his political insight and prowess invigorating, and his platform, beliefs, and stances easily understood and easily defined (such akin to Gov. Palin now). In 1995, he announced in Indiana that he was going to run for the presidency against then-President Clinton in 1996....but then came the mainstream media and their attacks on his intelligence. Still there was no Fox News. The only media that dared to defend Mr. Quayle were the newspapers and local and regional television and radio outlets in Indiana. Combined, these weren't enough to stem the flow of misinformation, nor strong enough to effectively counter the negative and boorish image that the mainstream giants - ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and CNN - were throwing at him; he had no outlet that was at least maringally favorable in order to counter that image bestowed upon him. He ran again in 2000, but by that time, even Fox News couldn't erase the negative spin he'd received from the rest.

Knowing as much as I do about Vice-President Quayle, having heard and watched him debate Mr. Gore, and knowing his political history, I truly believe that if he'd been allowed to clear up his record, his missteps (true, alleged, and slanderously labeled) on the record with a news outlet like Fox News, he would have soundly defeated President Clinton in 1996. I believe this because a network like Fox News, which is fair and balanced to both sides, would have allowed Mr. Quayle to have been able to clear the air. As I watched Bill O'Reilly interview Gov. Palin, I couldn't help but be amazed at how Mr. O'Reilly asked sharp, penetrating questions of Gov. Palin, and how no other media outlet (save Fox News) has done the same with President Obama (with the slight exception of George Stephanopoulos of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos). Had Mr. Quayle been given the kind of opportunities that basically every politician or candidate that has dared to go on Fox News has, Mr. Quayle likely would have been able to clear his name, erase the slander against his reputation, and have the chance to defeat President Clinton at the polls.

I know liberals and Democrats may laugh at the notion I am laying out here today, but the fact that Mr. Clinton's campaign in 1992 and in early `96 went out of their way to smear and re-smear Mr. Quayle by way of the mainstream media, and knowing the kind of solid leader that Mr. Quayle was as a representative, Senator, and later Vice-President, tells me that the man could have been a serious threat had he been given the chance. This is what makes outlets, and now, conservative blogging, so necessary to the survival of the USA and its political processes. Just as Mr. Quayle could have been in 1996, Gov. Sarah Palin is the threat that the Obama Administration and the mainstream media would like to bury and have go away. The reason is, she is a real threat, and they know it (otherwise, they'd leave her alone). The sad reality is, this could have been the case for Vice-President Quayle had Fox News (or its equivalent) had existed in 1992...

Spud Wars

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:24:50 GMT

You'll never look at Star Wars the same way again! Enjoy!

On Going Home, Part IX

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:38:54 GMT

On Going Home, Part IX

Japan has been my home for more than eleven years. There is much that I will miss…

In On Going Home, Part VIII, I listed some thins that I won’t miss. This time, I want to list some things that I will miss form Japan. I’ve lived here for more than eleven years (it’ll be twelve by the time we leave), and I have come to love a lot of things in Japan.

My Family in Japan – This’ll be a pretty good part of the pie, so let me subdivide…

l J-Mom (Sachiko Tanaka): Sachiko has been my friend ever since I first came. I met her within a week or two of arriving in Japan, and we have had a great relationship since that time. She was my first Japanese friend in Japan, and over the years she has become like another Mom to me. When Jihye and I were first an item, Sachiko, like Mom and Dad in the States, was worried about whether or not we were rushing into things. However, during Jihye and Oma’s first visit to Japan back in October of 2005, Sachiko was convinced that God had led us both into this relationship. She was the first to tell me, “Jason, you don’t need to worry: your Mom and Dad will LOVE her!” And she was right. I have taught for Sachiko on Monday Nights for nine years (it'll be ten in March), and have also substitute taught for her classes in Ichikawa City and at her home when she has been sick, gone on trips with her students, or just needed a break from teaching. She has also been there for us when we have been in times of need, as well as her students, and has prayed for us, worshipped with us, and helped us in ways too numerous to describe. Sachiko spent a dozen or so years in England, and is more English than Japanese, in my mind. She has always welcomed us and our family with open arms, offering to take care of us and invite us to stay with her in any event of being cut free from our housing. When we told her about this decision to go home (the hardest thing I've ever had to do, I think, in all of my time here in Japan), Sachiko, in English style, took it with a stiff upper lip, but deep down Jihye and I both know that she isn’t taking this well nor easily. It will be tough to say “Good bye” to her when it comes time to go…

l Aunt Chizuko Smith – Aunt Chizuko and J-Mom are very similar: Aunt Chizuko, like J-Mom, lived in England for quite some time and was married to an English man for more than thirteen years. I met Aunt Chizuko about ten years ago, perhaps six to eight months after I’d arrived. We became friends pretty fast, and though I lost touch with her for awhile when I was in Hokkaido, we struck up a good friendship after I’d come back, as she was attending an English Saturday Night Bible Study that I’d started attending. As with J-Mom, Aunt Chizuko welcomed Jihye with open arms, and has invited us over to her place many times. Aunt Chizuko openly wept when we told her of our plans to leave. It was a difficult thing to do, telling her that we are planning to leave (please pray for Aunt Chizuko as she is in desperate need of the Saviour, and is close to making a decision for him)…

l Our Saturday Night Bible Study Teacher and Members – Perhaps the most gifted Bible Teacher I have ever known is Mr. Scot Hill, who was a predecessor of mine at JCJC (he left in July before I came in September of 1998). He is a teacher who knows how to simply, succinctly, and eloquently get the point across without losing any of the ability to help his students understand the Word of God and English. I have had the privilege to substitute for him on numerous occasions, and try as I may I am just not up to his level yet in Bible teaching. Not only has Scot been a great teacher to Jihye and me, but he’s also been a great friend, mentor, confidant, and adviser for us in various ways. Scot has been a good ear to listen to and try my problems and difficulties, and I have tried to be the same for him. He’s been in Japan almost thirty years, and as he has stayed, the Saturday Night English Bible Study he has led has grown. We will miss all of the members of this study.

l Nozomi, Rebekah, and Noyuri Sugitani - The relationship we have had with Nozomi and his family has been broken, thanks to the haste with which we left Japan Christian Junior College’s housing back in December last year. Nozomi and his elder sister, Noyuri, have blamed us for leaving so abruptly, but the fact of the matter is, JCJC and its administration gave us little time, little choice to move, and we ended up moving a further hour away from his church and Day Care School. Despite this, I will (and already have) miss Nozomi, his sister, and his wife, Rebekah. Nozomi was my second Japanese friend in Japan after J-Mom; I met Nozomi about three or four months after I’d moved here during a Japan NYI event held at JCJC in the gym. He thought I’d left in 2001 when JCJC cut me free but after finding out that I was still here, he, and his late father, Kennichi, asked me to teach once a week at the Day Care School that is run out of their church. I did this for six years, up until this past April. Jihye and I hope to at least rekindle the relationship with him when we go and take back his electric piano that he has loaned us. We plan to take it back after Christmas Vacation begins for me, and we pray that we can mend fences before we go back. If I ever had anyone that I consider a brother with a different father and mother, it would have to be Nozomi. Please pray for us as we head South to return his piano to him.

l Rev. Shimpei “Mark” Matsumoto – Matsumoto-sensei was the president of JCJC from 200 to 2008, resigning after the decision was made to close. He, too, out of his church in Ichihara City, runs a kindergarten, and in 2004, he asked me to teach for him twice a month. Though I didn’t much know him in the beginning of my time at JCJC, and I felt he wasn’t the best choice for President of the College at the time of his appointment, over the years that I’ve taught for him, I have gotten to know him and his wife so much better. Instead of my first impression of him – a lackey for the chief administrator of JCJC, I now see him as a man who really didn’t want to be a part of all the politics and the drama surrounding JCJC and its eventual closing, but who merely wanted to pastor and lead his church, and make a difference in his kindergarten. Despite my initial misgivings, he turned out to not only be a good president for the college, but a popular one, as the students came to respect and love him, as did most of the teachers. We have yet to let him know of our plans, but we will let him know in December during my last class there before Christmas Vacation.

l Dr. Makoto “Mark” Sakamoto – Sakamoto-sensei was the Vice-President of JCJC for a number of years, and for about a year following out marriage, Jihye and I attended his church in Koiwa, Tokyo. He was always fair with me, and was the contact who asked me to come back to JCJC following my time in Hokkaido. He was great to work with and for, and to be a part of his congregation for the short time that we were. He, like me, didn’t want JCJC to go under, but just as I, he had no power to stop what had been decided. We plan to go and tell Sakamoto-sensei personally of our plans to go home probably in March.

l Dr. Hitoshi “Paul” Fukue – We already miss Dr. Fukue. I have never known a more educated man and Pastor in all of my life, and he and his wife were very good to me during his sole year that he was president of JCJC. If Dr. Fukue ever asked us to, we would come and work with him again in a cold minute.

l Dr. Nobuhiro Kobayashi – I have been teaching him for almost four years now on Thursday Nights, and he has become a good friend (along with his wife who’s also a medical doctor), and, essentially, our family physician. We have good lessons together on Thursdays, and his daughter, Fukune, is a doll, and also has been fun to teach in recent days. We’ve not broken the news to him yet, but plan to in a few weeks…

l Many Friends – Too many to list, really, but a few, such as Kanime-san, one of the members of Lydia Club, a Bible Club at JCJC which, when we had Lydia Meetings, drew current students and graduates. Kanime-san was one of them. There’s also Motoko Soga, the Office Chief of JCJC. She became a good, good friend over my time of working there. I will miss all of my friends and former students who have become such. There was also a number of Japanese friends I made with the help of Denise Morris and the Pond Family. I cannot for the life of me remember their names, but their faces and the memories we have of them will live on. The church people that we are currently involved with, namely Chun Chuyong, and Pastor, his wife, and son, will be missed, along with Murata-san, who helped us find the apartment where we are currently living.

l My Students – I will sorely miss all of the students I have ever had in class and ever taught anywhere, form the babies and toddlers of Nozomi’s Day Care School to J-Mom’s 70- and 80-year-old ladies; from my eikaiwa (eikaiwa is “English School” in Japanese) elementary-aged students to JCJC’s grads to my students now at Takinogawa Private Girls’ school in Tokyo, I will sorely miss my classes and my students, and being with them. Though a few are and have been a bit troublesome, most of them are sweet as sugar, and generally leave me with a smile on my face and a load of laughter in my heart. My Junior-Senior High students, in particular, are all – to a student – very beautiful and sweet. It will be hard to leave them when we go. This also includes all the Sri Lankan students that we had at JCJC throughout the years. I still have two Singhala Bibles that I hope someone can teach me how to read when we go back to the USA.

l The People of Korakuen English Centre – This is the agency that I am employed through. They are good, good people, have been a pleasure to work for and with, and have helped me greatly in finding employment. The two people with whom I have worked most closely are wonderful, the gentleman in particular, like a Japanese Grandpa or Uncle to me in many ways.

l Rev. Yoshiaki Aoki – He is the man responsible for closing JCJC, and for, basically, all the trouble that has happened to the college since he took over as Rijicho in 1996. Yet, I’ll still miss him, mostly because he was the one through whom Father brought me to Japan in the first place and was instrumental in allowing me to come back in 2001 after spending a year in Hokkaido. He had a stroke last April (2008), and it is my hope and prayer that he will get things straight with the Lord before it is too late, and that he is totally recovered from his stroke. I’ll miss him, not because of his dealings with the school and Japan Nazarene District, but because there have been instances where this man has been very, very good and very, very kind, both to me, to my wife, and to my parents when they came for a visit in 2007. When I told Rev. Aoki of Jihye, and had asked permission and blessing from him and from the college to marry (this may sound like a crazy thing to do, but in Japan, it is customary and part of the deep, rich culture that an employee ask permission of his or her employer to marry; I did this because, despite his faults, Rev. Aoki was my superior at the time, and it was right to ask his permission and blessing), he not only agreed, but offered to pay for all of the costs of a reception at JCJC, allowing us to use one of the main halls to do so. I love this man for those things, and because I want him to be in heaven. I’ll miss Rev. Aoki.

l Mr. Shogo Furubayashi – He was the English Department Chair my first semester at JCJC. He left after 1998, but returned in the same capacity after I’d returned form Hokkaido and the Lathrops had returned to the US. Though we didn7t have much of a relationship in the beginning, by the time we both left due to JCJC’s closing, we had become closer, and his feelings, hopes, and dreams for JCJC echoed mine.

l Japanese People In General – They are sweet, courteous, helpful, beautiful people who will go out of their ways, quite literally, to help someone in need. Just Saturday (11*21) a man asked me if I needed help with directions without me even asking him.

Funabashi Immanuel General Mission Church, Rev. and Sister Saoshiro, Mr. Ohashi, and Dr. Inaba – This is the one church that I am sorry to have ever left. It was and is a rock-solid church with rock-solid Biblical teaching, and for the two years that I attended there, I learned much and gave to them　as much as I could. Rev. and Sister Saoshiro were wonderful pastors there (they are now in Shizuoka), and his messages were always enriching to my soul and spirit. Mr. Ohashi, with whom I worked at JCJC is a member here, and he, too, gave me much and great encouragement over the years. Dr. Inaba also helped me much.

Riding the Train – Call me shallow on this one if you wish, but I will greatly miss riding the train to and from Tokyo, and other places that are too far to ride by bicycle. I am a train person; I love trains. The first Christmas Gift I ever remember receiving was an Electric Train Set when I was five years old. Dad helped put it together, and he actually played with it more than I did on that Christmas Day in 1976. Since that time, I have loved trains, and coming to Japan and being able to ride the train just about anytime I wanted was better than a dream come true! In fact, in many ways, I think riding the train in Japan is better than driving, especially in Tokyo. Crowded roads are like parking lots, with waits being in the hours; crowded trains – no matter how crowded they are – are always moving. This past year, I have been given the privilege of riding the train to and from work five days a week, and it has never ceased to be enjoyable. I hope, before we leave, to be able to ride the Shinkansen – Japan’s high speed “Bullet” Train – at least once. The USA has nothing like the commuter trains that Japan has, and runs quite efficiently.

Tokyo – If you’ve never seen it, you really have no idea what Tokyo is all about. Though I consider myself to be a Country Bumpkin from the State of Kentucky, I have grown to love the Tokyo area, especially Downtown Tokyo. This may sound crazy, but there really is no better stress reliever – save prayer – than for me to have a day when I can go to Tokyo Central Station, and just walk to my heart’s desire, looking at all the buildings and the people or holing up in a second story coffee shop and just watching people walk by. I know that people get tired of a concrete jungle, but to me, it is never tiresome to go to Shibuya, Shinjuku, Shinagawa, Tokyo Station, or anywhere else that has major skyscrapers. It will be hard to leave Tokyo. Anywhere else – even New York City – will almost be a let-down by comparison.

Chiba City – It was my home for ten years, and is still very close by. When you think of Chiba City, think of Kansas City, only more compact, and with a beach and bayside. I love to go to Chiba City for the same reasons I love to go to Tokyo.

Hokkaido – I’ll probably get into a lot of hot water form my friends in Kentucky for this one, but if there is a place that is closest to being like heaven and home for me, it would be Hokkaido, and more specifically, Asahikawa City. This area of Japan looks just like Kentucky, near about to Morehead State U. or Richmond to the South of Lexington: lots of nature, lots of hills, and the mountains are VERY close by. On top of the land looking like Kentucky, the Winters are usually snow filled and cold. The year that I spent in Hokkaido, Asahikawa City received probably nine feet of snow for the entire Winter. In fact, between the day after Thanksgiving and the day before Christmas Eve (about four weeks) it snowed (quite literally) every day. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the snowfall let up, but from December 26^th until about January 16^th, it, again, snowed every day. It was the most WONDERFUL Winter I have ever encountered. Again, this may sound crazy to a lot of people – especially considering the work situation I had up there – but if there was a place where I could literally see myself living out the rest of my days, it would have to be Hokkaido, preferably Biei, Furano, or Nayoro…or even Asahikawa (Asahikawa reminded me of Lexington, Kentucky, minus the Wildcats, but with better mountains, better snow, and less heat and humidity). I had no allergy problems in the entirety of my time in Asahikawa, and never had a mosquito or cockroach problem either. Further, there was absolutely no need for an air conditioner in Asahikawa. I miss Hokkaido already! And despite my troubles up there with my employer, Seiji Ikeda and English Communication Services (ECS), and Rev. Hideo Goto and Asahikawa Nazarene Church, I will still miss everyone I ever worked with and taught. I will always remember Seiko Domae and her classmates, along with the other class I taught at the Nazarene Coffee Shop there in Asahikawa City, because of the great encouragement they gave to me, and the acceptance.

Japanese Baseball Games – To be quite honest? American baseball fans stink! They have nothing on Japanese Baseball Fans! Most Japanese baseball teams have a dedicated crowd who chant, cheer, and make a lot of noise during a game. Think of Friday night high school football or basketball, and the student section. Japanese Baseball teams have basically the same thing. They can be loud, obnoxious, but they altogether make a game at the stadium or on TV more fun to watch. If Japanese people know anything, they know how to have fun during a baseball game (or a soccer match, for that matter: they are as raucous at Soccer Games as any European or Latin American nation).

Japan Christian Junior College (JCJC) – JCJC was my first employer after college, and was my place of work (if it could be called that: I think I far more fun as a professor at JCJC than any kind of “work”, if there really was any) here in Japan for ten years (1998-2001, 2002-2009). There are so many good and wonderful memories of JCJC, of the people I taught with, of the students that were in each and every one of my classes, and of the school and property in general. When the administration found out that I’d been a Campus Police Officer at MidAmerica Nazarene, they asked me to hang out there at the school late at night during holidays, and patrol as much as I could. All of the speech contests, spelling bees, cook-outs, sports days, open campus days, chapel services, school festivals, Christmas parties, Thanksgiving dinners…I cold go on and on. My time at Japan Christian Junior College was wonderful! I’d not trade a minute of my time there for all the money in the world! I miss JCJC already…

Takinogawa Joshi Gakuen Private Girls’ Junior-Senior High School (TJ) – Though I’ve worked here for just under a year, my time at TJ has been awesome! When things started going under for JCJC, I prayed that the Lord would put me in a high school or junior high setting….and he did both, and put me in a very good school, with very good students, and very good teachers. “Working” here (again, I use the word “work” very loosely, as it has seemed – as JCJC did – more like a working vacation) has been such a balm following the closure of JCJC, and a boon for me in that I have gained much knowledge and understanding about Japanese teens, in far greater detail than I learned at JCJC (by the time students reached us at JCJC, they were usually on their way out of their teenage years). I never knew I could teach Junior High or Senior High full-time, but this experience and time at TJ has really helped me to see that I love teaching any and every age of student, and any and every level of ability. My students are wonderful, beautiful, full of life and energy, and – especially the Junior High Students – very eager to learn and try English…and this past couple of weeks’ seeing them embrace Christmas has also been comforting to me and to my soul. These students are so hungry for the Gospel, for the truth, and for Jesus Christ, and most of them don’t even realize it! It is still my hope and prayer to be able to talk to them as a whole about the Love of the Lord Jesus Christ, most of whom, I’m convinced, have never heard of Him, but are thirsting for him as if they were poor, lost souls in an endless desert desperately seeking an Oasis.

Sushi, Takoyaki, Yakisoba, Ramen, Okonomiyaki, and other Japanese Dishes – I didn’t like Sushi in the beginning, but now both Jihye and I love it. My thoughts on trying Sushi in the US of A are akin to my thoughts of eating Mexican Food in the USA after having lived there: there just is no substitute for the real thing in-country (this is especially so for ramen: instant ramen in Japan is such a higher and loftier plane than anything anyone in the USA could even begin to imagine….and ramen in a ramen restaurant…words just cannot explain adequately…). Ditto for the rest of the Japanese foods I’ve listed…

Japanese Hand-Brewed Coffee and Mom-and-Pop Coffee Shops – In Japan, you can go to a coffee shop, take a good book, buy a cup, and quite literally spend the rest of the day there, without so much as a sideways glance form the establishment owner and employees. My favorite coffee shop in all of Japan (Doll Coffee in Ichihara City, near Goi Station, and something I blogged about in another publication) has already closed, and I already miss it, but there are other coffee shops in Japan that have a similar atmosphere and air to them as Doll Coffee did. One is named Coffee Poem in Ichikawa City, near Tokyo, and it, too, is a good, good place with excellent coffee. Even chain places, like Starbuck’s and Doutour, have good coffee and an excellent air about them. I’ve been to a few coffee places in the States during visits home for Christmas, and they just haven’t the same feel or air about them, not even Starbuck’s (though, I will admit, I’ve only been in, like, two Starbuck’s Coffees in America since coming to Japan, and from my brother’s in-depth description of them during a sermon some years ago, they sound pretty similar to Japan). As far as coffee in general, I thought that my time in Brazil, Holland, and Mexico had ruined me concerning coffee drinking, but Japan – again, especially so in the smaller, out-of-the-way, Mom-and-Dad places – does coffee very well. While I hope that great improvement in the quality of coffee has taken place in the USA, I’m not holding out much hope.

Saizeriya – For those of you who don’t know Japan, and have never been here, there is an Italian Restaurant Chain called Saizeriya. This restaurant has very inexpensive cuisine (I won’t use the word “cheap” because, when it comes to restaurants and their menus, there is a huge, canyon-like gap between what is “cheap” and what is inexpensive) but the quality and taste are EXCELLENT! It is possible to go into Saizeriya with less than $5 and have a good meal (trust me on this one, because I’ve done it). While I hope that Saizeriya has spread to the USA, I doubt it has, and will, therefore, miss being able to go here for lunch or dinner (and their coffee is also very, very good).

Goi Church of the Nazarene Kindergarten and Showamachi Church of the Nazarene Day Care School – I used to have a freezing fear of teaching children (and to this day have a great fear of teaching them, insomuch that I have to literally pray before each class), but in my time teaching for Matsumoto-Sensei at Goi Church Kindergarten, and my buddy Nozomi’s Showamachi Day Care School, I have come to enjoy teaching toddlers and kindergarten-aged children.　　I love picking them up, I love showing them the pictures I’ve drawn and using them in a lesson, I love horsing around with them after class, I love putting into practice everything my good friend Jay Kea taught and all that I learned through being a part of Gospel Station at MidAmerica Nazarene. It is a joy, and a great break from the routine to teach the children at the kindergartens. While this isn’t the case for all Japanese families, most Japanese fathers have little to no physical contact with their children, rarely if ever picking them up after they have reached age two or three (and very likely not much before then). It is always a joy to my heart and soul to hear a squeal form a two- or three-year-old as I hoist them up on my shoulders, or to hear a five- or six-year old laugh uncontrollably as I pick them up in their chair to use them as a lesson visual aid. I’ll sorely miss this when I’m in the States, though picking up my nephews and niece Samantha will assuage this to a great degree…

Indian Restaurants and Indian Cuisine – In particular, Lumbini Indian Restaurant, and Vicky’s Indian Restaurant, both in Chiba City (the former in downtown Chiba, which is another reason I’m going to miss Chiba City [see above]). I don’t know where to get good Indian Food in the USA, and have only ever seen one Indian Restaurant there, that being in the Kansas City Area. Both of the restaurants mentioned here have very, very good food, and the quality is wonderful. There’s also a smaller Indian Restaurant in Tokyo which I occasionally visit on Thursday Nights before one of my private lessons that I’ll also miss. I’m hoping that I can find a good place in the USA when we move back.

Doing Foreign Missionary Work – This is Father’s Call on my life, and while I agree that the USA is also now a huge and major mission field, and that there is much work to be done there, I will miss doing Missionary Work in a Foreign Country (though my wife and I may have the chance to go on a work and witness trip to Panama with our Home church in Olathe, Kansas). I’ve lived and worked as a Tentmaker here in Japan for the entirety of my time here, and though it has been difficult, seemingly bearing little to no fruit (that I can see), and the opposition strong and unbending, it has been a joy to work here, and do what the Lord asked me to do so long ago when I was a High School Senior (but initially rejected). I never knew the joy and the burden that would be Missionary Work. My initial views and ideas of doing Tentmaker Missions work were so jaded, so naïve; I literally thought to come to Japan and change everything, be a voice for those who had little to no voice, and make people sit up and take notice. While I do feel like a lot of that has been done, it didn’t happen the way I thought it would. I have sincerely enjoyed doing Father’s work, working out Father’s call, and living Father’s way during my time here in Japan, and would not trade a single second of it for all the gold in the world, or all the money in Bill Gates’, Ted Turner’s, and Donald Trump’s bank accounts combined. I truly praise the Lord and Father in heaven for taking me, an ignorant buffoon of a Kentucky Hillbilly Hick, and not only bringing me to a place I only dreamed of in my wildest and foggiest of dreams, but allowing me to “pick up the sticks” and “hold the nail bucket” for him in this so lost, very dark, and entirely thirsty-and-hungry-for-the-water-of-life-and-bread-of-heaven place that Japan is. It is my prayer and hope to come back someday, and continue the work that the Lord let me start here…

While there are many, many more I could name here that I’ll miss, this posting is long enough. I think of the friends I have that are not listed here, and want them to know, too, if they ever read this, that they will be missed as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read this! We hope and pray that this series has blessed you and encouraged you, whomever comes and reads this and these. We also pray Father’s special blessings on you and yours today!