The Church That Meets In a Bar

I've lived in Japan for 3 years now and have grown older, grayer, balder, and some might even say wiser. But the greatest growth internally for me is clear. Its my understanding of God's relationship with me. If it weren't for my relationship with God, there is no way I would have stayed longer than a year. Honestly, I would have never returned after the earthquake.  Yet I feel a strong connection in my walk with God still here in Japan.

It may seem odd because 99% of Japan does not claim to be Christian. In America, it would be hard to travel around and not see a church. Some places feels like there is a church on every corner. Yet here in Japan, there is a distinct absence. To me, its that absence that makes the presence so much more real. Often, I find the relationships that you have to seek and strive for are worth the most. In Japan, churches are not very easy to come by. So as a Christian, you have to be diligent in your search for the right one for you. For me its clear:

• A Genuine heart for God and worship of Him. 
• Bible Centered
• A passion and vision to build up its members and positively enrich the worldly community in a way that Jesus would. 

Its an interesting change for me. When I sought God as an after thought, my list would have been:

• short and sweet
• later start time
• not too preachy/judgemental

The simple change for me happens when I made the shift from church being a duty, something you gotta do before you fall asleep watching the Detroit Lions break your heart on Sundays, (Good luck Caldwell!) to a true joy. Church has become like a medicine for me. I show up and can feel refreshed. Its easy to make the excuses not to go but when you are actually looking forward to God's presence and worship, church feels less like a chore. All of a sudden you start looking for churches to check out when on vacation. Quick plug: visit The Street City church if you're ever in Wellington.

Now to the point of the post. Church doesn't matter where you meet or whether you have 5 or 500 people in the seat as long as it follows those first 3 steps. Since last January, I made the conscious effort to check out Praise Community Church for a month. I've been here for over 2 years at that point so I had heard of it and checked it out on multiple occasions. Some of my best friends here go there so it made sense to give it a real shot and apply myself there. 

One thing that was always evident there is a true heart and warmth for Jesus. 7 nights a week, this place is a Japanese/motown style bar. You walk in and see alcohol and tons of MoTown posters from years ago along with a DJ table. But the feel on Sunday mornings is very different. Its a place of worship. Its a place that welcomes anyone. As you get into church, you tend to forget the surroundings and feel His presence. 

Its also a place that dives into the Gospel. Taka, the pastor, thinks through his sermons and develops a message over several weeks. Its not the same old story every week. He also seamlessly blends great real life examples that can bring out the message from the Bible. I often am there and feel like something in the message is speaking directly to me. Sometimes its eerie... One time, I had just talked to a friend about the meaning of a Bible verse the day before(Matthew 6:21) and I thought about it just as I got out of the subway. I waltz in to church late (whoops) and as I settle in awkwardly, that exact verse gets explained. God likes to make my brain explode with "coincidences" haha.  The other great truth is that the message would be the same whether 5 or 500 people are there. I think Taka would stand up there and give the same effort if there was just one person besides himself showing up. 

It is this heart and drive that makes PCC special. At the heart of the church is an accepting soul that invites anyone to come. One day, a drunk guy even stumbled off the subway and came to church. I actually had to poke him everytime he started snoring so that I could hear the message. The church welcomed him with open arms regardless of his afflictions. PCC also has been plugged into the community in a God centered way to help and share God's love by regularly visiting homeless communities, people that have suffered through the tsunami damage, and English conversation times. These things are done with no strings attached but to simply show God's love to others. 

Through these strengths, I have seen both the vision and heart grow in this church so much over the past year. It's becoming a usual occasion to run out of seats on Sundays. I seem to see new faces that continue to return each week. Its been a truly amazing blessing to see this growth. With the growth, I've seen so many people take on leadership roles to take this church even further with God's blessing. I am excited to see the direction for this church which is a strong reason why I stayed for another year!  

* I also want to share that there are many other churches doing amazing things for the Sendai community and Japan. I believe that each is unique and has its strengths and a true heart for God.

Please keep the strength of all the churches here in Japan in your prayers.

   

If you're ever visiting the Sendai area, feel free to visit Praise community church. Heres the Facebook link that tells you when and where: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Praise-Community-Church/184494033495

New Zealand/How I spent my Christmas vacation

Every year since I moved to Japan, I've gone home for Christmas. Its almost become an expectation with my family and friends. It makes my life easy: the school pays for it, most of my friends are in the area, I celebrate my favorite holiday with the people I love. This year, I had it stuck in my mind that I didn't want to go home for Christmas. My parents came to visit in the summer and I was partially convinced that I wasn't going to stay here for another year (whoops). I started thinking of the main countries I wanted to visit before going back home and having that normal life. I came down to two countries: New Zealand and Italy. Italy because of all the historical cities and culture, and well because I think Italian women are beautiful ;). New Zealand because it gives me the image of a true backpackers paradise, so much country to roam and activities to do PLUS they speak English!  Long story short, I found a really cheap flight that left on Christmas to New Zealand so I went. 

It was by far the strangest Christmas I had ever experienced even looking back I kind of forget that it was Christmas. I stayed in a hostel at Haneda Airport then flew out to Taipei, Taiwan at 7AM. There I was met by the guy who trained myself and several others when I first came to Japan. He is currently working as a missionary in Taipei. He took me around showed me the 101 tower and the night market. We also got a chance to talk about the foundation of the school I am a part of. I got to know the real heart behind everything we do. I can tell you first hand my school is run by people that truly believe in God and whose focus is to spread His message through the Bible. We had some very interesting conversations which I think was probably my favorite part of Taiwan.

• A few quick notes about Taiwan: The food is cheap and sometimes strange. You can have drinks and food with snake venom in it. Its supposed to make you feel younger. I was afraid to try it with my ensuing flight. The people are friendly and courteous. When I visited China on layovers, it was common to feel pushed around yet in Taiwan it was quite the opposite. 

Sooo there's a million ways I can go about writing about my time in New Zealand and the random stuff I did but I've heard lots of people tell me how they always wanted to go there so I figured it would be nice to give some tips from my adventure.

First some numbers: Here is what I did travel wise: Haneda Airport (Japan) to Songshan (Taiwan) 12 hour layover to Taoyuan (Taiwan) to Sydney (that was a surprise) to Auckland. Bus to Hamilton to Waitomo to Otoronga to hamilton to Rotorua to Auckland. Fly to Wellington and back. I stayed in and changed hostels 9 times. Used 4 different currencies. Visited 4 different Time Zones. Experienced America's Christmas in four different countries. 

TIP #1:  Have lots of time. Most people I met have been traveling New Zealand for months and some even began working there. Its not easy to get around when you are on a time crunch. 

TIP #2: Rent a car. Busses are pretty hard to come by and to fit your exact schedule. If you are looking to meet people and have lots of time then there are busses that can do your whole travel plans which is cool. Other than that, if you get a car you can go where you want and when you want. There is SO MUCH beautiful countryside/coastal area that you would never see if you weren't in a car. 

TIP #3: If you want a good central location in the north island that is easy to do pretty much anything you want, then choose Rotura. Its right by the beach and a nice touristy town and easy to walk around. It does smell like sulfur though. 

TIP #4: Have a general idea of what you want to do but don't be too locked in. Upon getting to places, I found myself wanting to change my plans but didn't want to lose a hostel i paid for or a bus ticket I bought. New Zealand is the perfect place to just go with the flow.

TIP #5: Make your own food. Everything is expensive. A candy bar cost $3. A bottle of water (tap is free) costs $3. An average dinner will set you back around $30. Pancakes or French Toast for breakfast at most places with coffee will be about $20. If you want a full meal for less than $10 look for Mc Donalds but even there lots of meals are around $15.

TIP #6: There is no such thing as coffee. If you want to make a barista's head explode just order a straight up run of the mill coffee. The first question they will ask is "What kind?" Coffee to New Zealanders is Espresso either as a long black, flatt white, americano, or a mocha all for about the exact same price. The only place I saw regular drip coffee was at Mc Donald's and Starbucks. Bonus tip: The best place for free wifi is Mc Donalds. Or if you are in Wellington, go to TePapa Museum. 

There's millions of random moments and stories I could share here about my experience. New Zealand as a whole is a beautiful country. The food is pretty great and reminds me more of American style restaurants. The tough thing coming from Japan is that I dive right in to the food that I never get in Japan which can be expensive. Seeing a Mexican restaurant is like Christmas for me.

My favorite thing I did was black water rafting. This is in Waitomo. I rapelled 30 meters into a cave then took a zipline from one part to another only to tube through these glow worm caves. Then I finished by free climbing up two waterfalls. Its definitely not something for the person that is claustrophobic but it was great!  My favorite was the free climb. I've developed an interest since rock climbing in Thailand last spring. The climb wasn't super dangerous but if you fell you'd get hurt. It kind felt like a grown up's jungle gym.

In Rotorua, I went and saw a geyser shoot off (no not some old man, the water volcano) along with lots of really cool looking springs. Also, I had a chance to beat both Aaron and Mallory (my soon to be married friends and coworkers also in New Zealand) in miniature golf. I had to throw that in there to rub it in. Unfortunately, we only spent 3 days together as we did different things and went opposite directions most of the time but it was good to have people I knew around. 

In Wellington, I went to see where they shot lots of Lord of the Rings movies. It is also where the movie premiered. Peter Jackson and James Cameron now live there so Wellington is becoming a second Hollywood. The tour itself was interesting. They took us to where they shot scenes and then took pictures of volunteers reenacting them. Like Katniss Everdeen, I volunteered of course (btw go see the second hunger games). 

Honestly though, one of the great things about this vacation was my ability to just travel and do what I wanted by myself. Traveling alone can be kind of scary. For me it wasn't so much fear of people taking advantage of me. It was more fear of having no one to talk to and to share experiences with. But it seemed everywhere I went I met somebody and made a friend at least in the moment of the event. I met tons of people from all over the world, mostly Germany. Many people joked that you can get around speaking German around New Zealand with all the tourists. Everybody has their unique story. Like this one guy who is literally riding his bike around the world or the guy who moved to New Zealand to open a Kebab shop but now wants to pursue his love of cars. But most importantly, it was a great opportunity for me to see that the world is beautiful and that there are friends everywhere you go even if you haven't met them yet.