"You, do YOU"

Cultures pervade our thought system so much. The more I am in another culture and meet folks from a wide spectrum of cultures the more I see how it shapes our thinking and actions. Being back in the States for the past 4 months has been more of a shock to me then I was expecting. What has been the hardest to come back in see is on particular pervading thought for my generation. It is summed up in a popular phrase "you, do you". Meaning don't let others tell you what to do and dictate your actions; you do what you want to do and are feeling. This is always said in the context of the search for contentment, joy and love; an affirmation in going after what you want to do more then anything.

At first I was like "ok. sure.. yeah seems alright" without much thought to it. But after a recent conversation with a new friend of mine I couldn't shake this phrase and how much it was starting to bother me.

Learning to live and work in another country can be life changing in itself; to do this in a disaster zone I am realizing is another story altogether. The experiences that I have lived through the past 2 and half years have reshaped my understanding of the world, God and changed my philosophy of life. It has made me realize how much a lie really the phrase "you, do you" is in our culture today.

Living in a pup tent for 5 months, clearing away debris, mudding out houses, figuring out meals for hundreds of people day after day, learning to shop and cook with the local items, make schedules for groups week after week, working on finances late into the night trying to figure out the kanji on receipts and what happen to the missing 20,000 yen($200 worth approx), learning to live with others and having different house mates in and out almost weekly, working with co-workers whose main language is not your own, leading teams from cultures from all over the world,  learning to share love across language boundaries, planning events, learning to live in a cold place, emailing, skyping with potential volunteers, teams and interns, taking the drivers' license test over and over again, learning to forgive daily and to love unconditionally.

These are few things that have taken that philosophy "you, do you" eaten it right up and spat it out. If I had done "me" I would have never stepped on that plane for Japan on May 18, 2011. If I had done "me" I would have never again gone up to Ishinomaki after my first trip up there a week after arriving in Japan. If I had done "me" I would have packed up and left after that initial first 2 weeks in Tokyo/Ishinomaki. The list goes on.

The ironic thing is that the more I learn to follow God and "do" His way the more contentment and deep joy I find. There is nothing special about what I did per say what is special about the whole thing is that My awesome God chose to have me experience those things so I could slowly start to see how much I need Him each and every moment. What is special is that He drew me into this incredible work that is happening and in this place that is called Ishinomaki, Japan. This work continues to humble me and show me how much really "you, do you" is a philosophy that will not satisfy my deepest longings.

Here are some verses that are shaping my life view. Jesus loved His father enough to die for us. That is a radical life changing philisophy:

Philippians 2:5-11

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Some Hard facts about Japan's 3.11 disaster

So as I am going about America sharing about the work in the disaster zone of Japan's 3.11 disaster I have to realize people have forgotten the massiveness of this disaster. So as a baseline I am going to use America's biggest disaster to date; Katrina. By using Katrina as a baseline one can read the hard facts about 3.11 and understand why I am still there and working to help with recovery and development.

10 facts on Katrina:

1. The storm surge from Katrina was 20 ft (6 meters) high.

2.  In New Orleans, the levees were designed for Category 3, but Katrina peaked at a Category 5 hurricane, with winds up to 175 miles per hour(282 kilometers per hour).

3. Katrina had 90,000 square miles (233,000 sq. kilometers) land damage.

4. 300,00 homes were destroyed or made unlivable.

5. Total cost of property damage $81 billion with the impact of economic lost around $150 billion.

6.. The final estimate death toll along with missing people was 1,833

7. Oil spills caused by Katrina 142 resulting in 8 million gallons of oil spilled (30.3 million liters).

These last three facts do not correlate well with the 3.11 disaster but however are important to know.

8. An estimated 80 % of New Orleans was under water, up 20 ft (6 m) deep in places.

9. However, 4 years and 9 months after Hurricane Katrina 20,000 people were still living in temporary dwellings.

10. Hurricane Katrina was the largest and third strongest hurricane ever recorded to make landfall in the U.S.

10 facts on 3.11 tsunami and earthquake

1.The waves from the tsunami of 3.11 went as high as 128 ft (39 meters).

2. The tsunami raced outward from the epicenter at speeds that approached about 500 miles per hour(800 kilometers per hour).

3. The impact of the tsunami was approximately 217 square miles (561 square kilometers) in Japan.

4.  1,098,628 homes were destroyed or made unlivable.

5. Total cost of the disaster was $309 billion dollars making it the worlds most expensive natural disaster.

6. The final estimate death toll along with missing people was 20,000.

7. 3 nuclear power plants had to shut down due to nuclear radiation causing a 12.5 mile (20 kilometers) radius evacuation of cities.

These last three facts do not correlate well with the Katrina disaster but however are important to know.

8.  About 250 miles (400 km) of Japan's northern Honshu coastline dropped by 2 ft(0.6 meters).

9. 300,000 people are still currently in temporary housing. The government is saying it will take another 5 to 10 years before everyone is out of temporary housing.

10. The 3.11 disaster was a 3 way disaster with an 9.0 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown all attributing to the overall destruction.



Sources:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1761942/Japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-of-2011
http://www.livescience.com/39110-japan-2011-earthquake-tsunami-facts.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/11/japan-tsunami-anniversary_n_2850983.html
http://www.dosomething.org/actnow/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-hurricane-katrina
http://www.livescience.com/11235-hurricane-katrina-history-numbers.html
http://media.wix.com/ugd/c2b835_41cb3ff700e987ed7aebe299f19e54cd.pdf

Little pieces of grace sprinkled throughout the day

So officially the summer "rush" has started for us here in Ishinomaki. Interns have flooded in and teams are coming(and have already came). As much as I have tried to work at preparing for the summer and everyone coming it doesnt ever seem like I am prepared enough. Yesterday, I was fighting all day the weariness that I quickly had discovered last summer that comes with the awesome craziness. It was amazing though how much God showed His grace throughout the day. Two particular stories I would like to share:

1) If anyone knows me semi-well you will find out quickly I am very adamant about not shoving the story about Gods grace into peoples faces. Yes I believe in Jesus and the Bible but I also believe God works through relationships and through the Holy Spirit. It is not up to me to make sure I have shared about this awesome story to every person I meet without first having some basis to our relationship.

While this is the case I do long to share with people I come in contact my reason for being and living.

God gave me this opportunity on Saturday at our weekly community cook-out event. One lady K-san who attends my weekly afternoon English class came up to me and wanted to practice our weekly memory verse. In attempt to try and connect better with her I had been learning the verse in Japanese. Well we proceeded to practice for each other the verse in both English & Japanese:
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
愛は何によって測ることができるでしょう。 友のためにいのちを投げ出すこと、これ
より大きな愛はありません。

There was a pause and K-san looks at me and asked me why did you choose this verse?(Amazing!! I understood her question!!) So in broken Japanese I explained how I read the bible every day and through that my relationship in Christ grows. That gives me peace to face each day. Her face just lit up with understanding and she was excited to hear that. We then got interrupted by her grand daughter so the conversation ended. But the whole experience was amazing. We grew closer together through it and I believe she grew in her understanding of God.

2) The second experience of Grace amongst a wearying day was going on a spur of the moment hike with our summer interns and some co-workers here. It was a gorgeous day and we had a couple of spare hours at the end of the afternoon so we met up and explored the mountain overlooking Ishinomaki. The mountain is covered with shrines to various gods. This saddens me every time I go up there. Why worship some statue that we make instead of worshiping the Creator of the mountain??

Anyways one of my co-workers suggested we stop and have a small study of a bible verse, then we sang and prayed. It was amazing! At one point I was looking around at all who were there and I saw how amazing God's grace was at that moment. That He would take us all from where we lived around the world and brought us together at this time to sing to Him praises on a mountain covered with false idols. 

Pretty amazing dont you think? :) 

First week of Liberty Music Project

Below are summaries of our first week of Liberty Music Project. Please be praying with us as we seek to meet the different needs at each school. All Glory for this project goes to God! A huge shout out to Ryo and Mami who work tirelessly on this project. It is such a honor to work with such gifted co-workers.

April 25, 2013 Thursday Excursion classes:

John Lucas teaching "Praise the Lord"
(website)

Minato Middle School:
Peformers: Jonathan Straker, Ken Matsuda & John Lucas
MCs: Ryo Amano & Virginia Lavallee
300+ students and teachers
The class went really well. John Lucas shared about what Gospel music is about and taught, “Praise the Lord” to all students. Teachers and students alike loved the class.

Ryo and I teaching a little fun English

Singing "Praise the Lord" for the kids @ Minato.
This group was an "instant choir".
(we sang together  for the first time that day.)

Watanoha Middle School
Peformers: Jonathan Straker & Ken Matsuda
MCs: Ryo Amano & Virginia Lavallee
40+ students and teachers
Was a big hit with the students. Jonathan Straker shared about Gospel music and taught, “Praise the Lord” to the students. All enjoyed the class.

Singing "Praise the Lord" to the kids @ Watanoha

Teaching the kids "Praise the Lord"'s motions!

Friday 26, 2013 Friday
Held first weekly class at Minato Middle school. We had 5 students and 1 teacher. It went
really well. We hope to continue to build these relationships and develop individual interests in various musical instruments. We had a great conversation with the teacher who shared his story about the tsunami. He lost both his mother and daughter to the tsunami. He also shared about the months after 3.11 how hard they were and the relief and recovery work went for him and his wife. It was a good time of listening and sharing. We will be going out with the principal and this teacher this week after class for dinner. Please in in prayer for this time with them.

Saturday 27, 2013 Saturday
Morning: Held first weekly class at Kamizoku Base for Watanoha Middle school. Despite having 1 registration forms and several saying they would come after Thursdays class we had only 1 student show up. Went through class session with student. We will be doing two outreaches this week with students from Watanoha. Please be in prayer as we seek to see how we can best meet these needs.


Afternoon: Held first weekly class at Amazing Grace Center for Yamoto Middle school. No students showed up. Held a praise and prayer session with Amazing Grace Center staff instead. Yamoto middle school, the music teacher there is very overwhelmed so it looks’ like that beyond helping us advertise she can’t help with this program. The principal is new and not interested in promoting this program. We will be talking with Amazing Grace Center staff to see about opening this class to elementary students as there had been interest from that age group for this class. Please be praying as this school is the hardest for us to reach.

 All praise to God for how this continues to reach people we dont expect and touch hearts through music.

Concerts & Easter

We have had a great artist Tomoko Murabayashi( Fourleafministry ) up from Osaka with us for the past 3 weeks. She is a christian artist living in Osaka teaching students voice and recording music.
She has been working with us in the continuing of building relationships in Temporary housing, other christian groups and planning for the Liberty Music Project. It was refreshing for both the Liberty Music Team and Tomoko to work together and encourage each other in our respective ministries. Please pray for this amazing Japanese Christian woman who is reaching young people through her amazing talent!

Thank you Tomoko for all the awesome opportunities you provided for us through your amazing singing and playing piano!

Tomoko leading worship.

Playing with Tomoko

Easter was a great time of sharing with local people. Many folks who have been attending the Saturday cookout came to Watanoha Christ Church service for the first time for Easter! It was great to be there apart of that sharing of Christs hope with these folks that we have been building relationships with over the past 2 years!

Suzuki Sensai preaching

Rimpei and Akemi leading a song during worship

Saturday Event Folks!

Tomoki and I enjoying Easter!

Liberty Music Project Video

In January 2012 a video team came in from MTW(Mission to the World) and put together a video for kids in America on the vision of the Liberty Music Project.

Liberty Music Project

To understand a little bit of the thought process and beginnings of this project please watch it!(keep in mind it is geared for kids to watch)

Please continue to pray for this project as the staff continues to meet with school officials, work with the artists that will come, ministries and many details.

Musings?- A non related work post

Several disclaimers:

I don't normally write a blog on my thoughts. For several reasons that I am not going to spend the time and write about. I apologize in advance for a badly English written blog.  This does and does not at the same time have anything to do with the work going on here in Japan. I am tempted to not post this but I want to share how faithful God is despite my brokenness and doubts.



In the last month and half my world has changed a lot.
The man(my dad) who has always been a driving force in my whole life had a serious stroke. While he will Lord willing continue to improve and heal he wont ever be the same. His love for Gods word and following Him always has had a huge impact on all of us kids. I could always count on him to be there to argue strongly against my ideas or support me in what I did.

Secondly, this past weekend my brother-in-laws sister suddenly passed away. While I was never close to her since we lived in different places the time I did spend with her put her as a lady I highly respected and desired to imitate. Her love for Christ, life and adventure inspired me. I hope to be able to explore the world some day like she has done.

I thought through the work(working in a natural disaster zone) I have been doing for the past two years I would be used to "bad things" happening. I should have gotten used to dealing with pain and sorrow. Used to hearing about death and sickness. I have seen destruction that I will never forget my entire life. Heard stories and experience peoples pain as they related those stories time and time again.

So why does everything within me scream out this is not fair? Why God would you allow this to happen??
While I believe it is ok to ask why and to struggle with that. In the last several weeks I have seen God reach out to me in ways I couldn't imagine showing how much He really does love and care. He has used people(most havent even realized) in my life, nature around me, kids, and His written Word.

A psalm that has really been close to me in the last week is Psalm 63. The whole psalm is amazing. But I will leave you with these verses in particular:

³ Because your love is better than life,
    my lips will glorify you.
⁴ I will praise you as long as I live,
    and in your name I will lift up my hands.
⁵ I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
    with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

⁶ On my bed I remember you;
    I think of you through the watches of the night.
⁷ Because you are my help,
    I sing in the shadow of your wings.
⁸ I cling to you;
    your right hand upholds me.