READ THIS FIRST

It's hard for me to organize all my thoughts about my 2-week trip to Tokyo with OMF (Overseas Missionary Fellowship). When people ask me about how the trip was, I know that the 3-word summary would be: "It was great!". But I suppose people want to know a bit more than that.

For a high-level summary of the trip, just read the stuff in bold. I don't mind if no one reads the non-bolded stuff, it will be for my own personal documentation. :)

If the feeds from the slideshows are not working, press F5 to refresh the webpage. You can click on the slideshows to see a bigger version of the slideshows and to be able to read the captions. The slideshows do not start from the beginning so, after clicking on the slideshow, click "view album" in the upper left corner. Then click on the 1st picture.

This trip was not just a sightseeing/vacationing type of trip. It was a Christian mission trip (with some days of sightseeing included as well). There's things/thoughts about my trip that Christians will be interested in and things/thoughts about my trip that non-Christians will be interested in. To be honest, I don't have the time, energy or desire to make separate slideshows/blogs for the Christians I know and the non-Christians I know. :)

So I tried to keep in mind that not everyone reading this will be a Christian and I have tried to avoid using too much "Christian-ese". I think (I hope) I've kept things understandable and readable for both audiences and that there are posts that both would find interesting. But let me know if there's anything unclear or if it is fuzzy why people think the message of the Bible is so important. There's a blog entry called "Why I became a Christian" that should be (I hope) easy to understand? There is also a blog entry that addresses some questions that friends who are not Christians may have and/or conversation topics that may come up as a result.

Other things I did

• Went to a Christmas party organized by and for the young adults at Budonoki church. They even had a little 'talent show' time. The actuary guy juggled and another guy did a magic show. Wow... these Tokyo Christians are so multi-talented... It was nice to see how they interact just like brothers and sisters.
• Last minute running around Tokyo on the afternoon/night before my flight. I squeezed in some more sightseeing starting at about 4 pm on Sunday. I bought a Tokunai pass (day pass) and yeah... just poked around Tokyo
• Budonoki church had a Christmas service on the Sunday before Christmas. Thanks to Eline's translation, I was able to hear some testimonies of how God worked in people's lives. It was really encouraging. My impression was that Japanese people are quite private so it is wonderful to see that they feel so comfortable opening up about personal issues and difficult pasts in front of their church family.
• Late night talk with an OMF missionary from Singapore. She's a single lady who is going to be involved in counseling. There's a lot of marriage and parenting problems in Japan due to husbands putting in so many hours at work (as well as other factors). Talking to Singaporeans is nostalgic for me because of their accent and personalities. I feel like I'm talking to an older cousin or something. I'm not sure how to explain it but I have an affection for the way that they talk. I interacted with some other Singaporeans on this trip. Sometimes they insert random Malay words in their conversations. I just find them and the way they interact with each other very amusing. They tend to be very "matter-of-fact". And I find their sense of humor and very... funny!
• Passing out Christmas CDs with a Singaporean team. It is so interesting to contrast Singaporeans with Japanese. Singaporeans (at least the ones that I've interacted with) are so outgoing and excitable (I think). Japanese are so quiet and reserved.
• Babysitting de Boo kids. I really enjoyed it. It is kind of a nice feeling to tuck kids in at night. Enjoyed some VeggieTales with them too.

Some things I want to remember

• Prepping for an "English @ Work" class for young Japanese professionals using a Dutch version of Microsoft Word. Figuring out to insert a page break was sort of difficult...
• Trying to remember not to wear toilet slippers in the house or house slippers in the bathroom
• Shopping at the 99 yen store (twice!). 99 yen is about 90 cents. I think the stuff is better quality too.
• Stephanie and I trying to resist eating/drinking and walking at the same time (Japanese think it is rude/odd if you do that)
• Feeling like I was going to develop a British accent from hanging out with Stephanie and Kenton (Serve Japan coordinator) during the first few days of my trip. That'd be weird if I came back from a trip to Japan with a British accent.
• Taking trains (public transportation is not something we LA people do often). The trains are SO clean and it is kind of fun to people-watch. And it wasn't too terribly hard to figure out how to take the trains.
• Having German, Dutch, British and Korean OMF missionaries help translate Japanese into English for me so that I could understand what was going on!
• Thom de Boo (about 7 years old) did a great job in the church Christmas play. It is so interesting to watch a little Dutch boy reading his lines and doing his part to share the good news about Christmas! I have to say that I'm impressed with Berend (5 years old) and Thom's abilities to learn 3 languages so well (Japanese, Dutch, and English)! I think it is so sweet that they pretty much always used English when I was around so that I could understand.
• Dinner with the Aylings (British couple who take care of the guest home so well and make it so cozy). When Stephanie and I were over for dinner, there was a Korean couple who was also there. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to ask the Korean couple why they think that Korea and Japan responded to Christianity in such different ways. Among the factors they mentioned were historical factors and cultural factors (Japanese are more likely to be passive about some things and to conform to their surroundings and not stand out while Koreans are more passionate and more likely to act as individuals - I told them I heard it was because of the kimchee) :)
• During dinner with the Aylings and the Chungs (the Korean couple), they were trying to describe the taste of a certain kind of food. Both couples knew exactly how to say it in Japanese but were trying to find the right English word. After discussing it a bit in Japanese, they finally said "refreshing!". It was so refreshing to me to know that the reason why this British couple and this Korean couple could have this conversation in Japanese about the taste of this particular food was because both couples have been serving in Japan for 20 or more years. Away from the comforts and the languages of their home countries... To the point that Japanese has become so close to being a heart language for them...
• Japanese are normally reserved and usually do not start conversations with strangers. But one guy started a conversation with Kenton, Stephanie and I while on the train (he is a college student and is studying in the US - he was back for winter break). Another guy asked how old Julie was while we were in a restaurant. We gave him a Christmas CD. Julie is so good at using her cuteness to give us opportunities to have conversations with strangers!

Some people I want to remember

Some people I want to remember:

• College students who showed me and Stephanie (a British girl I met who was also doing a missions trip with OMF) around Tokyo - very sweet of them. Had some great ramen together too. It was nice that Stephanie was in Tokyo for a few days at the beginning of my trip so that we could poke around the city together.
  
• Good talks with the de Boos (these were the main missionaries I came to serve with). I feel like I could talk to Eline for hours. I so appreciate her openness about missionary life. I've learned so much about Japan from Eline and Geert. They've been in Japan for a few years. They are so proactive about sharing the good news about Christ to so many Japanese that they are reaching out to. Geert meets with a young man who got heartbroken by a girl (the cause of some of the suicides in Japan) who is the philosophical type and is interested in Christianity. The couple also meets with a young Japanese couple who are not Christians but come to their house to study the Bible and hang out. The de Boos are so hospitable. They left quite good careers in the Netherlands to give the prime years of their life to serve Japan. They love the Japanese, their kids, architecture, and the gospel. Oh, and they love Tim Keller sermons. It is so nice to see their partnership in marriage as well and how they are together committed to following this Person named Jesus Christ (I would definitely desire this kind of partnership in marriage, if I ever get married). I'm appreciative of all the meals Eline cooked (I hardly used my meal budget!) and even more appreciative of having the opportunity to watch the de Boos' example of faith, dedication, love and excellence in their ministry.
  
• Wolfgang and Dorothea Langhan - a German couple; the husband is the director of OMF Japan. Somehow I think they are such a cute German couple. Mrs Langhan made us so much homemade food - even the ice cream with fruit jam was homemade. Mr Langhan washes dishes with extremely hot water. He's very fast at washing dishes too. I really see his servant's heart. Even though he is the 'boss' (director of OMF Japan), after a farewell lunch for one of his staff, he immediately started washing the dirty dishes of his staff (also the dishes of me and other short-term missionaries after we had dinner at his own place).
  
• Dinner at the Langhans with Fanny (Hong Kong), Natanya (Northern Ireland) and Stephanie (England) and sharing how we came to be in Japan (including hearing how the Langhans ended up in Japan)
  
• Fanny: she works with youth in her church in Hong Kong. If she moves to Japan to do full-time ministry, she will be the first missionary sent out from her church in 45 (?) years. The people in her youth group encourage her to serve in Japan so that they will have an example (of a missionary) to follow as they don’t have any other examples. I love Fanny’s excitement and enthusiasm about serving God. She had to buy boots for visiting snowy Hokkaido because they don't sell snow boots in Hong Kong.

• Also, cf the captions for the pictures in the "main slideshow" and "things I want to remember" for more great people. This list is getting long!

What I learned

• Japan definitely has its own culture. Just because I'm asian and they are asian does NOT mean we are exactly the same. Actually, I saw much more differences than I was expecting. Not just different ways of doing things but also different norms and personalities. For example, compare Koreans and Japanese. To me, Korean churches and Christians are much more outwardly expressive than Japanese ones.
• Eline made a comment that I've been thinking about. Just in talking about the different denominations of Christianity, she mentioned that sometimes certain Christians can have some differences of beliefs in some of the more minor doctrines of Christianity. When you are in a country where less than 1% of the people are Christians, it becomes even more important not to 'major on the minors'. I realize people have different views on what they see as minor. It seems to me that time spent maturing as a Christian can help with knowing how to distinguish 'major doctrines' from 'minor doctrines'.
• cf the other posts - I embedded some more lessons I learned in the other posts

Why was Apostle Paul's spirit provoked by seeing idols?

For those of you who saw that caption in the slideshow and found it... disagreeable, I just wanted to quickly address the question of "Why do Christians always think that only their religion is right and everyone else's is wrong?"

There's a presupposition here that should be discussed. Namely, the presupposition that all views are equally valid. I'll borrow a quote from Greg Koukl:

"If all views have equal merit, then the view that Christians have a better view on Jesus than Jews is just as true as the idea that Jews have a better view on Jesus than Christians. But this is hopelessly contradictory. If the first statement is what tolerance amounts to, then no one can be tolerant because “tolerance” turns out to be gibberish."

Thus no one on earth is "tolerant".

For more info:

http://www.leestrobel.com/channels/anySubCat.php?category=Other%20Religions

Well, how do we know Christianity is right. For me the clincher and the reason why I could not walk away from Christianity is because I don't think a person (or a book) can consistently predict the future and be accurate unless there was something supernatural about the person/book. If the book is supernatural and is saying some serious things about my life and afterlife, then I better consider what it has to say. If I reject it, I better be able to give myself a good reason for why I can ignore it.

For more info see #34 on this list (note: NT = New Testament portion of the Bible):

http://www.carm.org/objections.htm

At least click on this link to see the picture in the upper left hand corner... :)

So what does Christianity have to say about my life and afterlife? Here's another link:

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1989/668_Joy_Recovered/

I would be more than happy to continue this discussion with anyone who has read this far :)

p.s. Another link:
http://www.juststopandthink.com/questions.php

Some things to pray for

• First of all, thanks for praying for my trip (if you did). Even though I went as an individual, God helped me rely on Him for strength and courage (which was a specific prayer request I had). I wasn't too scared when having to do public presentations, etc. And, even though it was an individual trip, I had a lot of interaction with people. It was a very fulfilling trip!
• Churches in Japan are so small. My church in LA has about 250-300 adults (and lots of kids). That would be a mega-church in Japan. In LA, it is just a medium size church. Churches in Japan are around 50 people. Budonoki church was about 70 people. When I asked the Korean couple how big their church in Tokyo was, they smiled and said "normal size!". But they are praying super-hard for their church and their faith is so... courageous. It is so nice to see that they don't get discouraged. I asked them how they avoid getting discouraged. The wife said "I enjoy my relationship with Jesus Christ every day". From the way that they responded, I just really admired their attitudes and their perseverance. I also was touched that, even though historically Korea and Japan have not always gotten along and there are some deep wounds, this Korean couple and their supporters in their church in Korea have so much love for Japan.
• Pray for more pastors to come to Japan and for more Japanese to desire to become pastors. The current generation of pastors will retire soon and there's going to be a shortage of pastors unless new pastors rise up. Being a pastor is not a glamorous job anywhere. But, especially in Japan where people are relatively rich, people have a hard time understanding why someone would want to become a pastor. You won't make a lot of money. Pray for God to provide.
• One of the missionaries commented that her and her husband faced some difficulty in getting some of the people in their home church to understand why they wanted to go to Japan. Some people think: "Japanese are rich. Why can't they just buy the gospel?" I guess I had kind of thought that way a little bit before too. But - the gospel is free. Even if they pour money into publishing Christian books and CDs and building pretty churches and getting the best missionaries - those things would help but... hearts are still not open and cultural barriers to becoming a Christian are still imposing. So... that's why we pray I suppose...
• I got to give a Japanese Christmas CD to a lady & her daughter who were sitting next to me on the plane ride home. I offered her a cough drop because she was coughing and then she struck up a conversation with me. Wow! If cough drops are that useful, maybe I should carry them around all the time! Due to language barriers, we didn't have a long conversation but her and her daughter were very sweet. I really hope God uses the Christmas CD. It shares the good news of the gospel and also includes the "Jesus" DVD. I feel like... who's going to share the good news of God's grace with this family in Japan? The probability of them knowing a Christian in Japan is much smaller than if they lived in the US or some other country...
• Pray for the church plant that Redeemer Presbyterian Church is doing in Tokyo. They are working really hard on the church plant. A Redeemer church plant in Tokyo is going to look different from Redeemer in mid-town Manhattan. Japanese are SOOOOO different from New Yorkers. They both ride trains. That's all the similarities I can think of. Oh, and they are workaholics. Ok. That's it. I pray that Redeemer can really build a strong church in central Tokyo, making the necessary cultural adjustments as well. Redeemer has done a lot of church planting so I'm sure they have a lot of experience. But I know they'd appreciate our prayers.

Some activities I was involved in

• English at Work class - Eline let me teach it! I hope I wasn't too boring :P It was very nice to see two guys who were not Christians coming out to the class @ the Budonoki church.
• Tea and testimony (testimony = explaining how I became a Christian): just a little presentation for a small group of young adults @ Budonoki church over tea and snacks
• Church plant meeting. Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York (Pastor is Tim Keller) is planting a church in central Tokyo. I visited one of their church planting meetings. One of the things Redeemer specializes in is reaching out to cities. If you include suburbs, Tokyo is the largest city in the world. The meeting was chaired by Steve Sacks - he is a professional saxophone player / Harvard graduate who, through various circumstances, ended up in Japan -- I got to hear him play at a different event, a Christmas outreach event at a church. I enjoyed his music very much.
• Visiting Tokyo Baptist Church - one of the three large churches in Tokyo. It is a very diverse 'international' church. Besides the times I was at Tokyo Baptist Church, I found Japan very homogenous! (i.e. very Japanese)
• Going to a Christmas concert at Christian Academy of Japan (the international school that the de Boo kids attend)
• Seeing the political, financial, entertainment districts, one of the big Shinto temples in Tokyo, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Building and praying together with the de Boos and Stephanie for these places and for the people in these areas.
• Having tea with a missionary couple from LA! Per the husband, he adapts to the different road rules in Japan (drive on left) and the US by just following the person in front of him... hmmm... that sounds simple... It was fun comparing Tokyo vs LA with them... While we were doing our comparisons, I commented on how impressed I was with Japanese recycling. At Starbucks, there is one recycle bin for the cup and one recycle bin for the lid (they do something similar is at McDonald's but I couldn't read the signs at McD's). But the husband made a comment that the diligent recycling is just like "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic". They are missing the bigger problem. What use is it to gain the whole world (or recycle everything in the world) but lose your own soul?
• Small group for Japanese young professional women working in central Tokyo. They using a study guide written by an American author and told me to say 'hi' to her. Judith Couchman: If you are reading this - Zumpi, Yuko and Eline say "hi!". I thought it was really cool that they were studying the book of Esther in the Bible. Esther was so brave and that's what it takes to be a Christian in Japan (where there are so few Christians and where it is odd to be a non-conformist). The girls even gave me a study guide as a gift/souvenir!
• Christmas party / outreach for young adult group: Somehow we got into a conversation about sanctification (one of the Christian doctrines having to do with progressing in maturity as a Christian) and about the doubts that come up in every (or most) Christians' lives about their faith. It was really encouraging for me to see them having such fellowship and discussing these important matters.
• "Clean the church" afternoon. It was nice to see everyone helping out to take care of their little church building.
• Handing out Christmas CDs to Tokyo-ers with a group of Singaporeans who come every year to hand out these CDs. The busy businesspeople were not terribly eager to stop and get a CD. They were rushing around (probably thinking about all the important things they had to do). There were some students, however, who were very excited about the CDs. They were on a field trip. It took me a little while to muster up the courage to walk up to the big group of them. Some of them came back to me to see if they could get more CDs (which I happily gave to them). There was one boy who asked me a question I couldn't understand.

me: "nihongo-ga wakarimasen" (I don't understand Japanese) "ego-ga...." (English....?)

boy: "ego-ga scoshi" (only a little bit of English)

me: "nihongo-ga scoshi" (only a little bit of Japanese)

At which point I think his friends were saying something like:

"Hurry up! Just say thank you for the CD and let's go!!"

Yay! My longest conversation in Japanese that I had in Tokyo!

I'm sure that boy knows more English than I know Japanese (his 'scoshi' is more than my 'scoshi')

Foooooood

Foods I want to eat again:

• Cheese and potato okonomikake (Japanese pancake). YUM - I have Japanese tastebuds (with the exception of raw fish, octopus and some other things).
• Okonomiyake (?) from a street vendor for only 200 yen (about $2).
• Ramen - I love ramen. At a Christmas outreach, we played a game that is sort of like telephone. We are supposed to state which things we like. I said 'ramen' but it got garbled into 'romance'. I corrected people as soon as I discovered what it got garbled into. Nothing wrong with romance - I just didn't want a whole room full of people to look at me weird or to think that that was my motive for coming to the event.
• Bulgogi Bake (from Costco). Tokyo Costco has that instead of Chicken Bake. I prefer the Bulgogi Bake. They also have Hokkaido Soft Cream instead of Super Premium Haagen Daaz.
• Pastries from the bakeries... yummm... so light and delicious...

Above is a picture of Stephanie with the Okonomiyake - we were with OMF people from New Zealand, England, Hong Kong and Singapore. I had a great time.

How I became a Christian

From: Testimony for Tea with Young Professionals at Budonoki church

Konnichiwa! Watashi wa Deborah desu. I am from Los Angeles, California. I am Chinese. My dad is from Taiwan and my mom is from Singapore. I went to the United States before I was 1 year old.

I decided to become a Christian when I was a very young child. I asked my dad later if he thought that that was when I really became a Christian and he felt it was. I remember that I had a fear of hell as a child. I also struggled with letting Jesus be the master of my life because I wanted to be the master of my life. After becoming a Christian, I have seen that Christianity is so much more that simply a way to escape hell. Also, following Jesus is the only way to have true joy.

In college, I started trying to tell my friends about Jesus. I think when you share your faith, you take a risk for God. Taking risks for Him strengthens your relationship with God. For me, it made me feel like my life was purposeful and can be used by God. I made a lot of mistakes when trying to tell my friends about Jesus. But eventually God helped me improve. Another thing that helped my faith grow stronger in college was having fellowship with more mature Christians. Being part of a strong Christian church family helped my own faith be strong.

After college, I started working for an insurance company. I became an actuary, which is a person who prices risk for the insurance company. I had to take very difficult examinations. They even gave me headaches! I wondered whether the Bible was really true. I wondered if this faith was really worth the sacrifice of my time and money and energy. Perhaps some of you have family members who do not like that you are a Christian. You may wonder if you are causing disruptions in your family life for nothing. God helped me see that the Bible is a supernatural book. There are many prophecies that the Bible predicted that have come true, for example, in Isaiah 53 -- which talks about Jesus. So many prophecies have come true that it seems obvious that the Bible is God’s Word.

Another thing I realized was that, without Christ, who/what would I live for? I remember getting into a religious discussion about the afterlife with my coworkers over dinner. I asked a question to one of them. He was a handsome guy who has a great family, a good job, a beautiful girlfriend, and lots of friends. When I asked him what he lives for, he paused and thought about it. He said, “I don’t know. I really don’t know.” It’s actually really sad! I realized that in Christianity, the benefits far outweigh the costs. The Bible says: “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matt 16:26)

Through the Bible I learned that God made me. I learned that I have done wrong things in my life and really offended God. And God will judge everyone one day. I wanted to go to heaven and be with God rather than hell and be receiving the punishment for my sins.

Heaven is a perfect place and only perfect people go there! That makes sense! I am not perfect. I can’t be perfect no matter how hard I try. But God has a solution. He sent His only Son, Jesus. Jesus died to accept the punishment in our place. I learned that I needed to repent. Repenting means to turn away from my sins and start following God. I needed to believe this wonderful good news. I needed to reconcile my relationship with God. I hope you will reconcile your relationship with God if you have not done so. He is a wonderful Father and wants to forgive you. You can come to Him today. Please feel free to ask a Christian how you can join God’s family!

Further notes to blog-readers: You might be someone who has been considering Christianity - for a while or just recently. To be honest, there's no good reason to delay and there's plenty of bad reasons to procrastinate (as an example - waiting 'til you are 60... what if you die at 59.999999 years old)? I guess I'm just thinking of the scenario of someone reading my blog who is ready to become a Christian but feels like no one is exactly explaining HOW. We'll here's how:

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1989/668_Joy_Recovered/

Letter sent prior to trip

Click on this link:

http://www.sojournersfellowship.org/Tokyo%20Prayer%20Letter_Deb%20Lee_Dec-07_for%20web.pdf

Trains and Japan's suicide rate

The trains are fairly easy to take. I think I get more confused with the New York ones. Or maybe my few experiences with the New York subway system helped prepped me for these trains. Sometimes the maps/signs are only in Japanese but usually I can find an English version. I like observing the people on the trains: businessmen reading newspapers, housewives doing errands, high school students. I don’t know what they are talking about but sometimes I can guess. Some people snooze. Some people are very absorbed with texting on their cell phones (or surfing the web). One sad thing about the trains: People often commit suicide by lying on the tracks in front of an oncoming train. Japan ranks #9 in terms of countries with the highest suicide rate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

The U.S. is #45. The screens in the train tell you which lines have delays. All the delays I have seen have to do with accidents involving people. It is possible that people have accidentally fallen on the tracks or are crossing the tracks when they are not supposed to. However, some could be suicide attempts (may or may not have been successful). I saw these messages far more than I wanted to. Sometimes I averted my eyes from the screens because I kind of didn't want to know. People on the train don't act like it is anything unusual to see a train delay message (in which the delay involves a person). One of the train lines has a barrier set up. There are doors that are part of the barrier that only open to let people thru when the train has come to a full stop. But most train lines I have seen don’t have these barriers.

I did see one guy on the train that looked upset. I wasn’t sure if he was sniffling because he was upset or because he was sick. I thought about giving him one of our free Christmas CDs. I told myself I’d give it to him if he started crying. It seemed like he was wiping his eyes so then I told myself I would give it to him right before I got off the train (so that it won’t be awkward for a few minutes if he said “no”). Unfortunately, he got off the train at the stop right before my stop (I hadn’t considered that possibility). I hope that someone will tell him how he can find hope.

Another time, I saw a business man who was so drunk that he couldn’t even hold himself up. His coworker or friend was holding him up. I had heard about businessmen often going out together after work for drinks. It is something that businessmen and businesswomen are expected to do with their boss and/or coworkers. Thankfully I have not (yet) been in a crowded train late at night with a bunch of drunk businesspeople (I heard the smell could be pretty strong). I also have not been on the train (yet) at a time when there are “pushers” (pushers are people who work for the train line who push people onto the train so as to squeeze as many people as possible into the trains during rush hour).

Another note about the suicides. Sometimes people make appointments (through meeting each other on the web) to commit suicides together. e.g. jump off a building together. Or they all get in a car, drive up to the mountains and burn coal in their car with the windows closed and die together from the carbon monoxide. I guess they find community in their last moments. Part of the reason for the high suicide rate is due to enormous pressure at school / work. There’s a lot of competition and pressure to succeed. A lot of students go to “cram school” (school after school). But, more serious than that: is that they have no hope. Buddhism and Shinto-ism (their main religions) cannot offer them hope.

For Vivian

Vivian: your penguin was everywhere. I'm not sure why it was playing a cell phone as if it was a guitar. I think you need to keep it under control.

In the Ueno train station, there was a giant hall (leading toward the bathrooms) and it was just covered with penguin ads on both walls (the last picture was taken in that hallway).