Day Six

May 6th

What a great day today! I will guess that today will be the highlight of my trip. This is the day I had been looking forward to before I even got to Japan. Today we would enjoy worshipping at Hiro & Chris Unno's church - Living Way Church. I will be preaching with Hiro interpreting for me. We weren't sure how many people would be at church since the pastor and most of the church were away at church camp.

We got to church around 10:00 am before the 10:30 am official start time. The first thing I noticed is that, in traditional Japanese style, we took our shoes off at the door and wore these slippers. Mom quickly changed with me when we realized mine were way too small and hers were a bit big for her. People started wandering in and soon we realized that there were quite a few people there - most of them friends of mom's that she knew before. I'd guess there were around 60-70 people there which is large for a Japanese church.

We weren't sure if we would have a worship leader, pianist, or any musicians, but at just the right moment, a pianist and bass player showed up. I could see the relief on Hiro's face. Hiro was the worship leader for the morning service. He did such a great job.

I thoroughly enjoyed the worship and found it especially meaningful. Here I was halfway around the world worshipping the same Lord! We would first sing the songs in Japanese then in English. The worship and praise songs were on an overhead since no power point was available today. After about 40 minutes (yes, 40 minutes!) of singing, we had some announcements and took a short break before the message.

I preached from Romans 8:29-31 "God's Purpose For Your Life." This was a message I had preached last year at Lakeview while going through Romans, but I revised it some to fit a new audience and a different culture and country. I thoroughly enjoyed preaching with Hiro as my interpreter. I could feel the presence of God in the room and preaching through us. I'm not sure how long it went, but at one point I looked down at the iPod doing the recording of the message and it was at 1 hour, 10 minutes! Yikes, I better wrap this up! But the people didn't seem to mind at all and I gathered it was not unusual to go so long. The main reason it was so long is that it takes twice as long with an interpreter.

Following the service, we shared a meal together which a couple of the ladies in the church prepared. It was so good. But the fellowship was even greater. Several people asked me to have a special prayer for them, which I was glad to do. One couple asked for prayer for them. Another man asked for prayer for a situation he was going through. Another woman asked for prayer as we were getting ready to board the train to leave. What a blessing and privilege to be used of God in this way!

Leaving Shizuoka was very hard. I really didn't want to leave, but it was time. We had about 10 people see us off. I believe someday I will return to Shizuoka, however, next time with Carol.

The train was quite crowded since this was the end of Golden Week. We had sent our luggage ahead to Ken and Miko Horikawa, where we will be staying the rest of the time in Japan. They live in Kawasaki. I wondered if Kawasaki motorcycles were made in Kawasaki, but I found out that Kawasaki motorcycles were named after the owner and founder whose name was Kawasaki.

Even though we had sent our luggage ahead of us, we had several handbags which made it difficult to maneuver when we got off. Fortunately, we had a kind man who was traveling with his son, help clear the way for us and make sure we got safely off the train. I had offered earlier to take a picture of he and his son when I saw him taking a picture of his son. He seemed to spark up, and his son, especially was glad to meet us. I noticed the son had a Seattle Mariners cap, so maybe when he realized mom lived in Seattle, he was quite interested. He even wanted a picture taken with me!

Miko and her daughter Madoka met us at the train station for the short drive to Ken and Miko's home. Ken and Miko have been friends of mom and dad's for 25 years. They met while dad and mom were teaching at the school Madoka was going to in Kofu.

When we got to Ken and Miko's we met with Jordan Nogaki, who we knew from Westminster Chapel, our church in Washington. Jordan has been living in Japan for the past two years and has settled in very well, from what we observed. We also met "Maple," Madoka's dachsund. Maple is an amazing dog. She eats things like fruits and vegetables, and appears to be a vegetarian. Madoka has trained her to do her "business" in a cage which is kept in a certain part of the house. Maple also waits to eat when she is told it's ok by either Miko or Madoka.

Ken and Miko have a house filled with modern amenities. It has an elevator which mom uses to get to the 2nd floor. It has the standard Japanese toilets, but one on the main floor flushes automatically. The home also has state of the art sensors all over the place, partly for security, and partly for comfort. One light toward the door goes on automatically when you enter the area and then shuts off automatically after a period of time. Ken also has lights that light up the narrow driveway when he backs in. By the way, Japanese generally back into a parking stall, and are quite efficient at it, too. Their bathing area is right off the bathroom, but the toilet is all by itself in a separate room right next to it. The bathing area consists of a rather large open area right next to the tub. I wasn't quite sure how it was to work, but found out you can just shower in this room and the water neatly drains out this hidden drain on the floor!

After a great Chinese dinner prepared by Miko, we visited some and then headed for bed. I am sleeping on a futon in the "tatami" room. A tatami room is made up of small straw mats on the floor. No furniture is in a tatami room. And you measure how big a tatami room is by how many mats fit in the room. The mats are 3 feet by 6 feet. The tatami room I am sleeping in is a 6 tatami room. All I know is, I was ready to sleep by the time my body hit the futon!