Friday 21-12-07

Back in Australia!! AHHH!!

Tuesday I went to meet Haruka. She was late, but when she came through the crowds of people at Ueno Station, I was so happy to see her. She hasn’t changed one bit. Hooray! I love my best Japanese friend. It was so good to see her. We went out to lunch and talked like crazy. I love the way she still uses basic Japanese to talk to me – it’s so much easier.

Then we went to Akihabara and got model buildings to furnish my dad’s model train set. ☺ it was fun. Later on we walked around and talked more and more. We ended up walking past a heap of temples and things so I asked her about Buddhism.

After that, when we were eating bagels at a place in the station, we talked about Christianity. She said she can’t understand people who believe in things they can’t see. I said that even if we can’t see God, we can feel him. I asked her if she wanted to know more, and took out a KGP.

Reading though the first point, “God made us and loves us” she said “God doesn't make people, people are born from their parents.” So I explained that God makes that happen – or that God thought of that…

“So God made us?” she said. “I don’t want to think that God made us, because people make things all the time and then use them.” She picked up the plastic bottle in front of us and said; “people make this – there is nothing special about it”.

“For sure,” I said, “but God didn’t just make us like people make bottles. We will use this bottle and throw it away, but God made us with Love. He made us special and individual and he loves us – he doesn’t want to use us and throw us away.”

“So God loves us?” she asked.
“Yes” I said
“All people?”
“Yes, all people,”
“Even Japanese?”

Honestly my heart broke so much to hear her ask that. I wanted to stand up and yell to the whole shop – God loves all people – he loves YOU!!

Then she asked; “What about the bad people?” So I said, “Well, your mother loves you yes?” (she looked doubtful, but I continued) “Your mother loves you, and wants the best for you. If you start doing things like stealing and smoking, she will still love you, but she will want you to stop. It’s the same with God – he loves everyone but he wants them to stop doing bad things.”

We had to stop there because we had to go meet up with my homestay sister and get going home, but please pray for Haruka!! She said that she wanted to come to Australia this year, but had a fight with her parents about it (they didn’t want her travelling alone) and couldn’t. Then she promised that she would come next year. I can’t wait to see her again.

That night, Kana and I slept on the train back to Abiko and met Okaasan and Yuta for dinner. Then we cruised home for one last night. I went to bed early, and for once slept until 6:00, when I had to get up and get ready to go. Okaasan drove me to the airport and dropped me off. Check in was fine and George and Esther were even almost on time for their check in too.

We sat together on the plane – watching movies and what not as we flew to Bangkok and then on to Singapore. At Singapore we separated and I caught my final flight of the day home to Brisbane.

Yay – I’m home in Australia again! Hooray!

Thanks to everyone for praying for me and reading along with the fun journey of what God did in Japan while I was there. ☺