Saturday 08-12-07

Something funny I keep forgetting to write about, is when the girls have a girly night, we still put the ladder up and then jump down. The hard part is getting back up to the loft to get the ladder back down again. We usually send Shiho up, I’m the base person who gets stood on. But Shiho isn’t so good with heights and takes ages to work her way up to it. She’s getting a lot better.

Today, we pushed her up, but then she got stuck between the 2 bars and wouldn’t let go to push her self up and out of the situation. It took lots of encouragement for us to get her to trust that we weren't going to let her fall if she let go. Good times.

On Thursday we were having our usual kind of day at uni – hanging out in YA for lunch. I was making friends with one of the English teachers over here (he’s from … somewhere in the states) and things were winding down with the students when i noticed someone go up to Andy and ask him something. Luckily Seiji (the Nagoya Director) was with him and said something in Japanese and the guy went away. A few moments later a security guard was circling our tables. Warning signs everywhere!! Then someone came up to me and asked if I was a student. *sigh* they always pick on the gaijin (forigners).

Anyway I said no I'm from a club in Australia, and he asked me if I was a registered club on the uni and I know we aren't so I'm humming and thinking and I grab Jody, and ask him to take over. So he does. The guy was from Admin, and was just checking up on us. Jody asked if someone had complained about us and they said no - so we think we are clean - but even so. They talked for while - Jody said we are here with Mr Kimura - who is a Christian professor who takes care of us if the admin step in, and they were ok about that, and then Jody offered to give him his number, but the admin guy was like, "no it’s ok..."

When he left, I saw him talking to a lady who was having lunch next to me and Pamela as we did a CE with Ayumi this morning - so maybe that's who said something - I dunno. After that, we split up and spread out a bit. Lunch was over, so we looked ominous all sitting together. I left campus all together but everyone else just tried to blend in. Jody went to see Kimura sensei, but he wasn't in. Apparently he was followed when he tried to do that. We all left fairly soon after though.

We got together and prayed at Nishin before biking over to Isha (where the Christmas party was going to be held that night) and then walking to the train station and getting the train and then the bus to Aichiu. We had a 5 min wait at Fujigaoka for the bus and so Andy and I decided to go to maccas. So he starts and I run to catch up with him but for some reason I’m unco today and end up compleately stacking it on the cement. My hands were all grazed and my knees (which were already bruised from falling off bikes) got new bruises! Hooray! We wiped my hands with wet tissues on the bus (I did make it to maccas and back in time hooray!) but some of the dirt is stuck in my hand making it quite painful. My knees look stellar at the moment – the bruises have come up nicely. ☺

English club at Aichiu was really fun, not as many students turned up because they all have tests this week, but we talked about Christmas – what it means and what different cultures do for it and then we headed over to the Christmas Party!

The Christmas Party was held at Isha church – apparently the 90 year old female pastor is currently in a coma, so prayers for her. It was the biggest church I’ve seen yet in Japan. All the Student Impact Students from Nagoya were there as well as a heap of Gaidai and Aichiu students! Hooray! After some fun games, the Christian artist Migiwa performed a concert, which included her testimony. It was about the same stuff that I’d heard on Sunday when she performed at Parkside. I think her testimony moved a lot of the students though.

We left the Christmas party (late) at about 9:45. I was really wanting to dance and so I did for a bit. I looked physco by myself dancing and pulling random Japanese people in with me. But it was fun. ☺ A whole group of us walked down the street to a Maccas and hung out there for a while. I was pretty tired, but biking home alone was not a suitable option (especially since when I was waiting outside with my bike (in a stationary position) I fell over :D) I just hung with everyone.

We rode home – yay for down hill! (honeslty God has blessed us so much in that area – whenever we are riding home late and night and everyone is tired – it’s always been down hill) and made it just before midnight. ☺

Friday we all slept in, aiming to organise Australian party stuff in the morning before heading to uni for lunch at 12:00. I took 3 Christmas puddings which was super heavy – ended up walking way more than I usually would. Andy and George took the 5 kg’s of spagittie and the other 2 puddings and the girls took all the light plates and soft animals and stuff.

We dropped the stuff off at Nishin and then headed to campus. I was still a bit worried about yesterday as we still hadn’t heard anything solid about our position on campus, but it looked so sus that I was the only one on time for lunch. The guys were hanging out in the Atrium anyway, but I was the only one there at 12:15. The girls didn’t turn up unill 12:45. Honestly.

Still most of our contacts turned up and we had a good lunch. Afterwards we got a text from Jody. Mr Kimura had seen the admin guy and assured him that we were no threat to the students and we were safe to continue our mission – hooray! It was really good to know we weren’t in danger of being kicked of campus. ☺ *whew*

After that, Shiho and I went hunting for a chemist to see if I could get ear drops (my ear is really sore – I think it’s infected) and after 2 different pharmisicts told me to go see the doctors at the hospitial and all they could give me was pain killer we gave up and headed to Nishin. Andy and Shiho were the MC’s for the night, Andy in English and Shiho in Japanese (although they started by swapping ☺ it was funny) and so they ran through some things.

Everyone else turned up at 3 and we prayed for a half hour before starting preparations. I’m glad we started early, because we had a few technical difficulties, but everything was fine. Shubo and a Singaporean missionary along with Masayoshi turned up to help out, and ended up doing a great job with the cooking. It’s great to see Japanese guys wanting to serve. We made spaghetti and had Christmas pudding for desert.

It took ages for the night to get started, hardly anyone turned up until 6:30, but then things got rolling. We had introduction games and Australian Bush Dances (Amy you are a legend for giving me that CD ☺). All up we had 16 students come which was a pretty good turn out considering a lot of them had been out the night before too and all of them have exams.

For dinner I was at a table with Ibuki and 2 of her Aichui Med School friends – Emily, who I’ve met through English Club and Yukako, her friend, as well as Masayoshi (Nagoya missionary). The first thing Emily asked when she sat down was; “At English Club on Thursday we talked about Christmas – what is the real meaning of Christmas?”

How great is our God who just hands us spiritual conversations like that! Both girls were really interested in knowing. Emily also used to go out with the guitarist of Nishin Church (who’s parents are both missionaries). She said that she has noticed that a lot of people have faith and that she thinks it’s good and she needs it. The sad news is that she also thinks she needs to check them all out (Islam, Buddhism, Christianity etc) before she can choose. We had a lot of discussion with both girls.

Later on in the night, (our discussion was still going) we played a song about identity. The plan was that from this we could discuss about our identity and where it comes from. Our table was still stuck on the bible and Christianity so we ignored it for the most part. I used the chance though to go and grab my bible and a couple of KGP’s from my bag to bring out later. When I got back to the table I flashed the KGP’s at Ibuki just to let her know I had them and the next thing I know, she’s bringing them out and asking her friends if they want to see them.

It was amazing, both girls were really interested. Ibuki starts running them through (a little too fast maybe) how God loves us and how we are sinful and we slow up around the third point – Jesus. We did a lot of back tracking there and going into who Jesus is and how it works and what the bible says. Yukako actually went to a Christian school, so a lot of it for her was stuff she’d heard, but never really understood. I got the feeling she really appreciated actually knowing what Jesus was about for a change.

Both girls were really intellectual, so there was a lot of good conversation. Masayoshi also helped out heaps too. It was really good spiritual conversations. The next video was a Casting Crowns song, “Does Anybody Hear her?” and this one the girls did want to talk about. So we took a break from Jesus and talked about how people can judge us from our outside appearances. This lead on to Christianity again, and then Shiho gave her testimony as a conclusion to the discussion and then Kaji gave his testimony.

It was really good to flow from Kaji’s testimony, where he talked about how we all have a door in our hearts and we need to open it to God, back to the KGP. Masayoshi pointed out that the door doesn't have a handle on God’s side, we are the ones that have to open it.

With this we went to the 4th point of the KGP – our response to God. Yukako was very definite about wanting to move from a self directed life to a God directed one, and Emily was of the same mind although more hesitant, but when it came to praying the prayer, and actually asking God to come in and committing their lives to him they were both reluctant. Both girls said that they were not at a point in their lives where they needed God and said that maybe later on, when they have work and family and stress, then they would be able to pray. Emily went further with this and restated that she wanted to make sure she was signing up to the right religion before she did anything.

We kept talking to the girls and sharing with them our testimonies, and they were both excited about reading the bible and understanding it more. Ibuki and I ended up giving them both English-Japanese new testaments and both girls poured over the pages with great interest.

After Emily left, Jody and Ibuki talked more to Yukako, and challenged her to do a Christianity Explained course. She accepted which was great news.

Overall the night had 16 students come, everyone had a spiritual conversation, 5 KGP’s were shared and one CE has been initiated. ☺ hooray! Praise God for a great night.

We didn’t leave until 11:00pm and so we all enjoyed the long sleep in after our busy week. Today, the girls had lunch together (salad and ham sandwiches) and then Andy, George, Wai Ling and Shiho went to an event for Japanese people returning from being overseas for long term. Cecilia went to do a bit of relaxation shopping and Esther chilled in her room. I’ve been catching up on sleep, prayer and general Steve time. ☺ yay!