Trip to Tohoku

This past Friday, we returned from a ten day trip to Ishinomaki, Japan, within the tsunami disaster area. When we first arrived, to my fresh eyes, there did not appear to be that much damage, but our driver who was making his fifth trip up was telling us about how bad it was. As we drove further into the city, there were more signs. Then we crossed the river.

The river was lined with sand bags in the event of it overflowing its banks, and the far side had far more damage. There were no active stop lights and policemen were directing traffic. Buildings were missing huge chunks of their bottom floors. Boats laid grounded hundreds of feet from the river. Rubble was everywhere.

It is really hard to describe what it was really like. As we drove in further in, the destruction was found to be untouched. One day we drove towards the coast, and we came across ginormous piles of rubble, scrap, and debris like a common landfill back home. It is something uncommon to see here in Japan. Vehicles left behind look like a toddler's favorite toy sent to hell and back in a trash compactor. Foundations laid bare with no traces of former homes. It was interesting to see how some buildings remained while others did not.

We worked with a group of volunteers called Team Kobe, and most of our work was spent shoveling dirt out of drains along the sides of roads in different neighborhoods. While uneventful, it afforded a camaraderie among the volunteers and our group, helping build relationships. We honestly did not get the chance to talk with the residents that much, but we were able to pour into the lives of the volunteers and plant some seeds for the future. As our DTS leader told me today, "When we are still going up there in five years and building houses, those people are going to have to ask themselves the question, 'Why do they keep doing this?' And the simple answer is Jesus." Something like that.

Unfortunately for myself, I developed a great case of strep throat in Ishinomaki, which incapacitated me several days, but it ran its course before we finished working there, so I got to get my hands dirty for a couple of days. We also prepared a huge feast the last night and invited the Team Kobe people "over" (to our end of the evacuation center) for dinner. We were able to serve them a semi-traditional American meal and just love on them, which was a huge blessing for both parties. One of our team members ended up staying up talking with one of the volunteers for four hours about Christ! Even though the guy did not accept Jesus, I heard he said "pray for me everyday to have an encounter with Jesus." The people are hungry for truth, for life, for answers, and Jesus has them all! He will get him!

Another small blessing we had was a festival in Ishinomaki. One night they lit lanterns and put them in the river for the lost family members. The next night was a fireworks show, and it honestly was the best fireworks display I have ever seen in my life! We Americans have a long way to go and a lot to learn about how to do fireworks from the Japanese... I took a couple of pictures during the show and some video, but after a half hour (and half way through the show), I decided to just sit back and enjoy. Many of the people with me said the best part of the show was my reactions. I am not going to lie, I acted like a little school girl. What can I say? They were pretty, and they were cool. I got excited!

Here are just a couple pictures from the trip. No one really has that many pictures of us working. We all were working...

One of those "toys"...

Fireworks!

The pool house at the evacuation center (formerly a middle school). Most of the clocks in the school are stopped at 3:50, I believe marking when the tsunami hit.

Ishinomaki

The tall building against the mountain is the middle school where we stayed.

Most of the area visible in this picture is continuing life as normal.

David Crabb (left), Spencer Lamer (right), and myself sitting in the park as we waited for our "Be Blessed" lunch at a local yakiniku restaurant. To get an idea of what this meal was like, watch this.

Derick Domae, a Japanese American who has been serving with YWAM Tokyo for a little over two years, led our team. This was his fourth trip up north (I think). He is such a great guy! I love him.

Another blessing of the trip was multiple hours in a car to see the Japan countryside. I was fortunate to get to ride in the front of the van with Dave McDaniel, the DTS leader, for the ride back. I also love that man, and I look forward to running with him in the future here in Japan!

When they say that Japan's land area is only 25% inhabitable, they do not lie. Most of the island is mountainous, and houses are packed into the plains right up against the mountains.

Since I said it in one of my captions, I will be returning to Japan next spring as staff for the DTS! It is a two year commitment, and I look forward to the time. I will have to make another blog post in the future about my future plans, so be watching in the future! Wow, I just said "future" too many times...

Pictures from Hi-B.A. Camp 2011!!!!!!

This is Eric Matsumoto. He was one of the leaders for the team from Azusa Pacific University (APU). He is Japanese, but since he is also like 4th or 5th generation American, he does not speak Japanese. Neither does his parents. But during camp, God has called him not only to learn Japanese, but back to Japan for ministry!

These are the girls from APU! They were fun, super cool, and just a joy to be around. The girl in the white actually is not a team member but grew up in Japan and attends APU. The whole APU bunch was just a swell group of people!

Yep, that's all the pictures I took at camp.

But camp was a great experience. It started off rather trying because we had just returned from the Philippines Wednesday night at 11:00 p.m. Less than 48 hours later, Friday night, we were at camp, trying to get settled again. I know I was out of it the first couple of days; fortunately, the campers did not arrive until Monday, two full days after we arrived.

While I really thought I would be prepared for camp since I had worked at one in the past, this was SO different. These kids... When they had nothing else to do, they were inclined to pick up a guitar and play worship songs. They asked great, intentional questions. They loved Jesus. Back home, you would not dream of leaving kids alone for half a minute. These kids, you never worried about leaving them alone except it might make you look bad for not participating.

So with that said, my camp experience really seemed like all I did was hang out, play games, run around, worship God, talk about Jesus, and have fun. I felt like I did not really do anything to contribute, which afterwards I realized to be an attack of the enemy for me to condemn myself. I had a great time altogether.

So now we head out for the last time on "Outreach", yet outreach is far from over. While life is still the same as when I left, my view has shifted so much! Jesus is returning; He said He would. Why are we not like David, who swore an oath to not rest until a dwelling place for the Lord was prepared? If we are now the temples of God, should we not be preparing places for the presence of God to dwell in the nations by bringing people to Christ? It is hard, that is certain. But can you tell me what on this Earth is worth keeping in comparison to the insurmountable riches that await us in eternity with Christ? You know what is even more amazing? That we receive those riches now, our inheritance now, when we pursue the Kingdom of Heaven while on Earth! It is incredible! I tweeted this earlier:

Do you realize that if God never did another thing for you the rest of your life, He is still worthy of an entire life of praise from you?

He is that good, that holy, that worthy. That is the God who loves us. Each and everyone of us with perfect love. Love that took Him to the cross. To the grave. And all He wants is for us to love Him back! So let us return to the first command: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is our calling! This is our purpose! Amen!

Photos from the Philippines!

Back in Senzoku!

Kon'nichiwa! It is good to be back in Senzoku! For the past two weeks, we have been working with International Hi-B.A. (pronounced high-bee-aye) with a program called Gospel Team. Everyday, teams would leave before 6 a.m. to take trains to different stations to hand out flyers to Japanese high school students with invitations to rallies that would be held in the nearby area. Afterwards, the day would be spent in quiet time, practicing, planning, and participating in the rallies. As DTS students, we played two roles: we were either "students" or "support team". Students were considered the same as the Hi-B.A. students we were working with and were asked to hand out flyers and participate in the rallies; the support team took care of the teams by doing laundry, providing a small prebreakfast before the teams left to "tract", charge the train passes, and clean up the locations we were staying in. Although I was serving as a support team, I also was able to go tracting several times, see some of the rallies, and hang out with my team. Our team had an amazing chemistry, and one of the most enjoyable things from the two weeks was seeing the hunger inside each and every one of them! I fully expect to look them up in a few years and see how "dangerous" each of them are! I am unsure of how many students accepted Christ after the two weeks, but I do know several did! How exciting!

A lot of the staff made GT out to be a very rough experience, but a big difference between this year and past years was we have some many more DTS students than in the past. The support team members honestly did not have enough work for all of us. So in my experience, all of the problems I had during GT were not GT issues but personal issues for myself.

At the beginning of the second week, God spoke one of the hardest words I have ever received, if not heard. I had stayed behind the team to clean up some more at the church we were staying at in Hiratsuka, and I got to the station a little before 7. The next train leaving for my destination was leaving at 7:11, so I made my way to it and was luckily able to find a seat. I sat down, and waited, but at 7:11, nothing happened. I looked around, not really sure what was happening, so I watched everyone else to see what they were doing, which was waiting patiently. So I stayed. Then an announcement in Japanese came on over the train and out in the station, and afterwards, a few people would get off the train and walk to the other side of the platform. But some stayed, so I stayed. This would happen about every 6-8 minutes, and finally after an hour and a little frustration, I said, "Okay God, what is going on?" He replied: "JP, you are willing to sit and wait on a train for an hour, in faith that it is eventually going to move, watching to see what everyone else around you is doing and doing the same, yet you are not willing to wait on me?" Wow. Ouch. It was super cutting, yet so dead on. So I asked, "Alright, God, what do you want me to do?" "Get off the train." "Okay." So I got off and asked, "Do you want me to get on the other train?" "Sure." So I got on it, did not even look at the time at this point, even though I was supposed to meet my team leader at 8:45 and the train ride took 30 minutes. I would be cutting it close, but I was following the Lord. I knew He would take care of everything. So fast forward: I get to my destination, it is 8:45, and I ask God, "Alright God, how am I going to find Aaron?" I look up, and there he was walking through looking for me. It was pretty crazy.

Waiting. Waiting can be so difficult. I know I am an impatient person; I want a quick fix to all of my problems. Yet that is not who God is. He knows that when He gives a quick fix, you become focused on the fix instead of on Him. He wants to "know" you, just like any other friend wants to know you (at least good friends, that is. And I assure you, God is good!). He wants to walk with us. He does not want us to be like the child who is trying to ride a bicycle, keeps falling off, runs home for the band-aid, and runs back out to try again with no better idea on how to ride. He wants us to teach us how to ride! And I need to work on this so much! My life depends on it!

Fortunately, in three days we will be leaving for the Philippines for two weeks. We will be working in bar ministry, traffic-proofing young girls, and doing other manual labor at the YWAM base in Olongapo. There will be some structure to our schedule, but for the most part, time will not be a consideration. To explain, if someone says to meet up at 2 p.m., it will probably be at least 3 before they show up. It will be interesting experience, and I am looking forward to it! I am sure I will be updating y'all on it once we get back! Until then, God bless!

I Want To See Mountains Again, Gandalf!

So this past weekend brought out some things that were important to deal with before these upcoming weeks, so this post will be based on two quotes: the first you already have seen, and I will explain later; the other is "I feel like butter spread out over too much bread." Great way to start a post, right?

But it was truth. Undoubtedly one of the biggest strongholds in my life is striving. I have always been a hard worker, doing more than necessary, taking on responsibility that is not mine to take on, trying to find identity in what I do. You know what sucks about that? It is sin. Yeah, crazy, huh?


Our world is very much performance-based, but we are called to be in the world but not of the world. Those in Christ no longer have to serve American culture or Japanese culture, but we get to participate in Kingdom-culture, which is not about earning our salvation but resting in it! Romans 4 says, "Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness." Without Christ, we have no ability to do anything good and all of our righteous acts are filthy rags. So this is the thing: if wages are what are credited to us when we work, then all we are owed is death because of our unrighteous acts. But when we rest in God, trust in God, put faith in God, it is credited as righteousness! How awesome is that!

Matthew 11:28-30 also tells us about rest: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Christ tells us that when we take His yoke, we will find rest. What is better than finding rest in Christ?


Now, the catch is resting does not mean we do not do anything. The pure fact of taking on a yoke is work, but what we must understand it is about partnering with the Father to accomplish His purpose. Christ Himself partnered with the Father to do the Father's work. Satan wants us to be performance-based, to either be passive and do nothing or strive and try to do everything. But the Father calls us to rest, to abide, to not be anxious about anything, but to trust Him. And when we do that, we allow Him to move!


With that said, I was in need of a "holiday", so yesterday, I went to Mount Takao (pronounced taco) by myself, and hiked to the top. It was a great way to spend the day, and I got the needed break from the DTS House. The train ride there was about an hour and a half, about thirty miles away from the house. It is still considered to be within the metropolis, yet you can actually see trees and mountains! Here are some pictures from the trip:

View from the next to last station from the mountain.

 

The building in the back is the station for the chairlift up the mountain. The trail-head for the trail I took is to its left.

 

The trail I took was about 3.1 km and supposed to take 90 minutes to summit. I am not sure how long it took me, but I had to stop for people a lot. It was crowded. The summit is almost 600 meters above sea levels. Mount Fuji is more than 6 times as high.

 

Mount Takao has been a center for mountain worship for the past 1000 years for Shinto-Buddhist gods, so it was covered with shrines and temples. I took this picture while walking by.

Although this is not a picture of them, I am pretty sure I passed the local hiking club on their way back from cleaning up the trails. I did enjoy how nice the people were on the trail!

Nature!!! And not concrete!!!

 

It was sunny when I left the house that morning. You are supposed to be able to see Fuji from here...

 

The natural thing to do after summiting a mountain: eat ice cream! It was deliciously cool. And super expensive...

This cat is drinking water.

And the group that gathered when the cat did so. They freaked...

 

The Chacos did well!

 

 

 

 

This picture reminded me of the Matrix. Either that or it looks like they are farming apartment buildings.

I took the chairlift back down the mountain. It was worth it!

Do you like the hazy effect? I had just blown something off my lens!

Very direct. And helpful.

Yes, I enjoyed utilizing it! (Since this is an example of a "mistranslation", another one I saw that day was "Impossible is Nothing" on an Adidas shirt. I cracked up! I have also seen a shirt with each spelled as "ehich"...)

Back at the foot!

The day was a really active day for me honestly! After waking up that morning and jogging ~6 km to Shibuya Station, I went to the mountain and hiked over 4 km (3.1 km up on Trail #6, at least 1 km down to the chairlift), but I loved it! I totally fell asleep on the train coming back for a few minutes (the train I was on was awesome, too. It only stopped like 5 times over the course of an hour. Most trains I am on stop every 2 to 4 minutes). Hopefully I will make it back with some friends on a clear day, or better yet, I'll go to Mount Fuji!!!