Ruth Kim in Kesennuma

May 11, 2012

The English Picnic (May 1st – as you can tell I’m behind on posts T.T) went well. The weather was perfect (we were worried about the wind but it was just strong enough to be cooling because we were sitting in the sun). Pictures are below.

The spread – I wanted to make it an American-style picnic so I made roast beef sandwiches, BLTs and PB and Js. The peanut butter was… different but it worked. ^_^ Then I tried to keep it healthy with fruit and some cucumbers/carrots and a some cheese. Everyone liked everything I made! (What a relief!)

At first, I was a little worried because no one came, but we ended up having 4 people! One person was a friend of my student – she came from Sendai for some kind of Toastmasters event and we ended up talking about a hobby of hers. She was collecting stamps from various shrines (or temples – there’s a difference but I forget which one she was getting them from) in order to help her gain entrance to heaven. Basically, she had to pay 300 yen for the monks to write something in calligraphy (some kind of short, philosophical phrase) and then put that shrine’s stamp by that phrase. The goal would be to collect all of the shrine stamps (there were around 80 or 85 shrines total if I remember correctly). When I asked her if she truly felt that she would go to heaven if she got those stamps, she said more than anything, she just liked that there were “nice words” written in her book and that it was more of a hobby than anything (her attitude was very much “well it can’t hurt to do this – just in case”).

It was interesting for me to see up close how religion was views – it is very much a tradition more than an actual belief system and it’s so ingrained into Japanese culture that deviating I feel is almost like deviating from part of who they defined themselves to be. Although I’ve seen it before, I really felt like it was all the more clear how difficult it is in Japan to become Christian. It also made a lot of sense as to why Christians in Japan are so strong in their faith – they have to be. This is similar to how I found it surprising that one of my students who is half-Christian (he pretty much believes but isn’t ready to confess) had difficulty believing because he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to go to his friend and family members’ funerals because they are traditional Buddhist funerals.

I did talk a little about Christ but Osawa-san’s friend seemed pretty closed to Christianity so I left it at that.

Below is a picture of everyone (from left to right, Setsuko-san, Suzuki-san, Osawa-san and her friend, Sakai-san):

A picture of the ladies:

I also took a picture with Setsuko-san:

I’ve been so blessed by her – in so many ways. I briefly talked to Pastor Wordell (we had the Cafe again! It went really well~) and apparently the Satos had been somewhat distant in being involved with the center for a variety of reasons. One reason was that in such a small community of very traditional Japanese, if something bad/negative happened and they’re connected to it, they would be branded for life in their neighborhood – by God’s grace all that we’ve been doing has had very positive reception. However, because it was a new venture and they didn’t know exactly how things were going to turn out, I’m sure they were hesitant to openly show their support, especially since Mr. Sato isn’t Christian (please pray for him to become Christian!). After I came (much thanks to the work that Jesse did in setting up the English classes), many people in the neighborhood know more about us and some even have come in for English classes and what not! I’m slowly getting to know more of the people in the neighborhood and Mrs. Sato (Setsuko-san) has been inviting people left and right to come to our events! She invited someone who works at a bank to come to our cafe tomorrow (I will post about it once I catch up on posts. T.T).

Prayer Requests:

- Please pray a prayer of blessing and peace for Mrs. Setsuko Sato! She’s been such a blessing this whole time I was here.

- For continued success of the cafe (we will have cafe tomorrow as well)

- For the success of our future events!

- For continued synergy between Anna and me (it’s really been such a HUGE blessing to be with Anna – if I manage to catch up with my posts, I will post about how awesome it is to have a fellow Christian up here with me – I touched on it, but I think I might devote an entire post to it. Well, more to come hopefully!

Ruth Kim in Kesennuma

April 25, 2012

These past two days were the busiest I have ever been since I’ve come to Japan. However, it was the good kind of busy, where I felt like I was really actively helping out where I could. At times, I feel like teaching English only goes so far. I keep wondering, what else can I do? What else is there that can be done?

God is so good! One very awesome idea kept coming up was crafts. I’ve been talking to the next volunteer, Anna (we’ll be working together for the month of May – I’m very excited!) and she mentioned that art was an effective form of therapy and I’ve been looking into what kinds of crafts we’d be able to do here… Then, during the first day of the cafe (I will get more into that in a bit) the wife of one of my students came and we got to talking about some origami that someone had made and left at the center. I found out that that someone was her! She ended up going back home and getting some origami paper to show us how to make a top out of three sheets of origami paper. She said that she loves hand-made crafts. There were other women who came the second day of the cafe (today!) who mentioned the same thing. Hm. I think God’s prodding me to have some kind of craft event! Please pray so that we can come up with some viable ideas that will help further His kingdom and glory!

So to get to the cafe and how it went. I have to say that the cafe was a complete and total success in every shape and form. I have a new student, bringing up the total tally of students who come in every day to 4 students! Now I have a total of 11 students! It makes things busy here, but that’s something to be thankful for, right?

Here’s a picture of the cafe “team”! Pictured from the top left in a clockwise direction, Takahashi-san, me, Tanaka-san and Miyazaki-san!

I was so thankful that these women took the time to come up. I really learned a lot from them in terms of what role I should play when trying to reach out to the people of Kesennuma. They prepared so much and so many small touches, like a tablecloth really changed the atmosphere of the room. It was wonderful. Thank you!!

The first day, we had three people come in the morning. As I mentioned before, we got to talking about origami and then we ended up making an origami top!

This top is what started it all:

It looks like a flower but it spins quite well!

The impromptu teacher:

The “class” making the tops:

She was quite a good teacher!

And I like this picture for some reason:

It’s blurry but you can tell what the picture is trying to depict. I feel like that’s the case with how I sometimes see God’s plan. In the moment, things are very often unclear, but when you take a step back, you can see that there’s a common purpose. They say when you look back at your life, you can see why and how God led you to where you are, right? I don’t know, I suppose that’s how this picture makes me feel. It was an unintentionally thought-provoking picture. ^^

Anyway, here’s everyone with their completed tops!

In the afternoon, two other women came and they stayed for some time and talked about their situations and what not. Unfortunately, I was unable to take any pictures – when I remembered, it was not the right moment to be taking pictures and then they left before I could remember to take their pictures! They were wonderful people – they had received quilts from us and they mentioned how thankful they were.

Today, the second day of the cafe, was a huge success. We had a total of 11 people come! There were 7 people that came by in the morning and 4 people in the afternoon! Some of them were also able to find some women’s clothing that fit them so we were able to give them out.

The next two pictures are of the 5 women who came after they saw the tracts in their mailboxes! Praise God! I was heartened to see that people actually read the tracts we handed out! I was immensely thankful for that.

The three women on the right were our visitors:

In this picture, the two women in the middle were our visitors.

They mentioned that even after a year, some of the things that they were able to talk about at the cafe were hard to talk about elsewhere. In the second picture, the second woman from the left is in the midst of saying thank you (that was how she posed for the picture).

Pictured below is one of the students (he’s the one doing a thumbs-up sign) and one of the women who helped distribute quilts to some other people she knew who needed them (in the pink and gray vest)!

Below is one of my future students (classes with her will start Friday – on the bottom left) and a relatively famous woman who used to do a cooking show (bottom right)!

Two other students stopped by as well! (The two people on the left)

The cafe really opened my eyes to the work that needed to be done here. I think the biggest thing that we can do, as I’ve been told over and over again, is to listen to the stories these people have to tell. It’s something that I knew but I feel like with this event, it really opened my eyes to what the people were going through. Everyone is having a hard time and it’s hard to even just talk about one’s situation when everyone else has had similar difficulties. Having this kind of event really helps people open up and be able to relax. I think one of the coolest things we had was in the background, Takahashi-san played the keyboard and it really added to the atmosphere.

Another cool thing about this event was the fact that we were able to bring two different groups together. There’s apparently some discord between the people living in the temporary housing and the people who still have their houses in tact because both have suffered losses but the government is only giving reparations to those in the temporary housing units (implying that the people who have their houses have at least that). At the same time, during the aftermath of the tsunami, so many people who had their houses in tact gave almost everything away to those who lost their homes that they ended up in situations similar to those who lost everything. Because the government is not helping them as well, there apparently is some discontent. During the cafe, we had two people who still had their houses and five women from the temporary housing come at the same time and they were able to talk a little about their situations. Hopefully these kinds of events will help reduce some of the discord between the two groups.

As has been told to me before by many people, the pacing in Japan is very slow. One must wait for the other party to come. Pastor Wordell mentioned to me (and I met some people) who have been studying the Bible for years and years before they decided to become professing Christians. After living in a country who’s unofficial motto is “hurry, hurry”, consciously trying not rush people and force my beliefs and ideas onto others is something that I’ve found myself constantly reminding myself. I must remember that one of the best ways to bring people closer to God is to simply be here, show them that I care and really let God’s light shine through the work I do here.

Praise God for the opportunity I have here and for opening my eyes to see that even if I’m doing something as simple as teaching English, or listening to a person’s story, I am still doing His work.

Prayer Requests!

- As always, please pray that all the students that I teach and all the people I meet open their hearts to Christ and become curious about Him.

- That any upcoming events be successful! I think the most important thing is to get people out here. If they don’t come, they won’t know about us! Please also pray for guidance in planning the events so that we can do events that will not only fulfill whatever needs the people have here, but that through those events, we may be able to bring those people one step closer to knowing Him and the beauty of the gospel.

Thank you for reading and as always, thank you for your prayers!!

Blog by – Ruth Kim

April 23, 2012

Hello all! This post is long overdue and I apologize. There has been so much going on and so much to talk about! I will try to post as many pictures as I can as well.

So first of all, the Easter event! Thank you all so much for praying for me! It’s definitely heartening to see so many people showing their support through prayers and it means so much.

The Easter event itself went well in its own right. It’s funny because I was worried that a lot of people might show up and not a single person from the temporary housing came. I think it’s time to rethink my advertising strategy… Thankfully I was able to gain two useful bits of information – one is that I should post events on bulletin boards. Apparently a lot of people look at them. Another is that there are many events for the temporary housing units on Sundays. I should be more careful when planning such events. There’s always lessons to be learned and always ways to grow from these kinds of situations, right? I definitely learned a lot from this first event.

One of my students has a daughter who has two kids and she was planning on coming with her children but they were sick that morning with a fever and could not come. She was kind enough to stop by and have some tea so we were able to talk for a bit and I was able to give her the “He Lives!” coloring bag (see pictures below). I told her to stop by to chat every once in a while – her English was pretty good. Hopefully she’ll stop by again.

There were a total of 5 people who attended the actual event. Ironically, there was only one child and 4 adults. It was interesting since all the activities I planned were for children but the adults had more fun than the one child who was there. In some ways, I feel like God wanted me to have this event for them because none of them had actually celebrated Easter. It was pretty cool that I was able to share that with them. Two of the people who attended were my students and the other two adults were the parents of the child. I was able to share a little bit of the gospel and a little bit of American culture with them (and why Easter is so important) and they seemed very interested.

To give a small breakdown of the course of events, the opening event was coloring these bags that Jesse so graciously donated. Below is the picture of the one kid coloring his bag. He discovered two eggs before the Easter egg hunt!

His finished product:

I feel like the bags were interestingly very diverse. I liked that. Below are pictures of everyone coloring and a picture of all the bags (I colored one in as well. )

Then we took a group picture of everyone with their bags:

After we colored in the bags, I gave my small spiel about why Easter was such a big holiday in America (it was in Japanese and I was worried that I wouldn’t be understood, but they were able to understand everything I said! ) and I had prepared flashcards to teach the children 10 words in English about Easter (the words were Easter, Jesus, rock, angel, cross, sin, hope, peace, salvation, and life). After that, we had our Easter egg hunt! Again, I think the adults had more fun with this than the child. Then we played Bingo using the 10 words I had taught them.

Below is a picture of what was in the Easter eggs and a Bingo card:

If we had time, I was also planning on teaching the attendees “Jesus Loves Me” but we ran out of time. However, now I have the lyrics prepared so if we have another children’s event, at least that is ready!

After Bingo, we made pudding parfaits! Thinking about it now, I should’ve related this activity to Easter (at least added some kind of symbolism. It was just a final event so that the attendees could have a small snack (thank you Kaori-san for the idea!). Below is a picture of everyone with their pudding parfaits and a close-up of a pudding parfait.

So what I got out of this event is the idea of learning and growing through experience. I’d have to say that this event really showed me that there’s a lot that I need to learn about how best to get people to know about the center and what we’re doing here. The best way, it seems, to get people to know about us is simply by talking to people and through word of mouth. One of the new students that I’ve been teaching was through a friend of a student. It makes me wonder what other kinds of connections I can make that I can pass onto the next volunteer…

At any rate, overall, the event was a success! I’m so thankful that I was able to hold the event. I think that the flow of events went quite well and even though Easter has already passed, perhaps another class on American holidays would be a good way for people to know about the church and about Christ.

I also want to take this time to say a big thank you to Aganai Church (again) for the Easter eggs! I feel like Easter egg hunts are integral to Easter and without those eggs, I don’t know what I would’ve done (apparently those empty plastic eggs are really hard to come by in Japan).

I also want to thank Jesse so so much for all the things he gave to the center – he got a laminating machine and several other really useful materials that I’ve been using – some colored pencils with a verse from Psalms that I gave out as part of the prize for winning Bingo, pencil sharpeners in the shape of a church and handkerchiefs that have “God is Love” stitched onto them as well as many other things! Thank you Jesse!

Tomorrow and Wednesday, we are having the next event! It is called Cafe and it is a time for people to come and talk and do some crafts. Three wonderful people from Aganai Church have come up and have brought with them so many things in order to prepare for the cafe. It really is wonderful seeing these people come and show their support through their preparations and even just their presence.

Prayer Requests:

- For all the people that I meet and have the opportunity to tell them of what I’m doing here, that they get interested in either the English program or in Christ and start asking questions! Or that they spread the word to their friends!

- For Cafe to be a success in every way! We are having the cafe not only at the center, but at a rice shop – it was one of the first shops to reopen after the tsunami and many people would stop by to chat with the owner. Although the owner is not Christian, she has been a huge support to our cause. Please pray that she may open her heart to Christ!

Thank you again for all your prayers! God bless!

More updates to come very soon hopefully!

April 13, 2012

By Ruth Kim

It’s funny how God can be so responsive. I was a little worried about my role here in Kesennuma in terms of whether or not I was doing enough – if I could be doing more. I felt like I wasn’t having the conversations I should/could be having about Him and interestingly enough, that’s exactly what I had yesterday.

I had two interesting conversations. One was with a student (Mr. Takahashi) that will drop in just to talk when he has time – he lives an hour away but he takes the time and effort to come out to have these conversations. During the course of our conversation, we started talking about Christianity (he has been reading the Bible comics – he’s on Moses) and I remember hearing that he was interested in Christianity but I didn’t know if he believed in Jesus or in God. When I asked him, he identified himself as Buddhist because he said that if he said he was Christian, he wouldn’t be able to go to his friends’ or relatives’ funerals because they are traditionally Buddhist funerals. It was interesting to talk about his point of view in terms of what Christianity entailed. He told me that he believes in God and in Jesus (which by my definition makes him Christian) so I think he’s just working out what it means to live as a Christian. When I asked him why he was interested in Christianity, he said that it was “cool”. Since the ideas are so new and different from Buddhism and shinto, I think he found the theology behind Christianity to be pretty interesting. It was so heartening to see a person from a different religion and a different tradition become more and more interested in Christ. On his way out, he met with Mrs. Sato and she invited him to our weekly Bible study on Saturday. He said he was interested in coming out and would try to make it this week!

The other conversation I had was on the train on my way back to the hotel. I was looking for an open seat and found one by an older woman sitting by herself. At first, I was planning on just quietly reading the ride back, but we started talking and ended up talking the whole way back. She knew about Christians and Christianity (which was actually surprising for me since the percentage of Christians in Japan is pretty low). She didn’t seem interested since she knew about it and didn’t really say anything more beyond that (apparently there’s a pretty big church community in the Nagasaki area though). We talked about all sorts of other random things and she ended up giving me her number (”Call me if you’re ever in Tokyo.”). It was really unexpected since I feel like people don’t easily give their contact information out so hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with her in the future!

Praise God for these types of meetings and these types of conversations!

By Ruth Kim – April 11, 2012

Hello! My name is Ruth Kim and I am Pastor Young Ha and Margaret Kim’s youngest daughter. Pastor Kim is in charge of the only ELS Lutheran church in Korea, East Seoul Canaan Church. Although I was born and raised in America, I have been living in Korea for the past three years and a half years. I took Japanese in college and was always interested in Japanese culture. When I heard about the opportunity to go to Japan, I jumped at the opportunity that God sent my way. I can only hope that God continue to use me in a way that will help further His kingdom and glory! Please pray for me while I am here in Kesennuma!

I think that to sum up these first two weeks, the best word is thankful. These past two weeks I have been blessed in so many ways from the people around me and the situations I’ve been put in. Praise God for all the wonderful people I’ve met and for all the opportunities I’ve been given!

My first week in Japan was in Tokyo where three wonderful wonderful people (Ms. Kato, Mrs. Reika and Mrs. Kaori) from Aganai Church (I believe aganai translates to redemption in English?) opened up their homes to me. I got to spend quality time with each of these members and being able to talk to them about various things was not only a blessing, but a huge encouragement as well. I really look forward to meeting them again when I head back down to Tokyo to meet the next volunteer, Anna, in the beginning of May.

Meeting different members of the congregation was also a huge huge blessing. One lady, Mrs. Hirasawa was probably the sweetest woman I’ve ever met. Everything she said was to lift up or encourage me (or whoever she was talking to). She not only drove me to Koganei Park (a park that has all these old buildings preserved from the Edo period), she also prepared a bag full of snacks that we all could enjoy. Later, she gave me a neck warmer because she said it was cold up north. I was so moved by her gesture of kindness after all she had done that I almost cried. Here, this lady that I had only just met was looking after me as if I was already a good friend of hers. I think that in her eyes, I was a sister in Christ. To accept me so easily with such open arms was such a huge blessing. I was encouraged to be more Christ-like through her.

At Koganei Park, another member of the congregation not only prepared tickets so that I could get into the park for free, but she also took time out of her busy day as a volunteer there to explain the history of the various buildings. The following Sunday, she had printed the pictures that we had taken and put them into a small album with little captions.

Another member, Mrs. Miyazaki, was making small crochet squares to turn into blankets. She was inspired by the quilts that were donated and was gathering volunteers to make the squares.

All these things that I observed from these members, the activities they were inspired to do and the lives they decided to lead as a result of becoming Christian really made me reflect on my own faith and made me want to become like that in Kesennuma.

I also attended an MLP (Multi-Language Publications) meeting with Margaret Kim from Korea (via Skype) so that the MLP office in Japan would be updated on the translation work in Korea. It was interesting for me to see the different kinds of publications that were translated into different languages and I was able to take a tiny part in helping connect two regions (I translated for Mrs. Kim a little).

I think the coolest part about being in Tokyo and being able to spend time in fellowship and worship with the congregation there was the feeling of connected-ness through Christ. Even though the Sunday service was in Japanese, the flow of the worship was the same, the confession and absolution of sin was the same and the hymns were also the same (I had to have a little girl next to me help me read the Kanji because I’m terrible at reading the Chinese characters…). One of the most beautiful parts of the service was during Communion when a man, recently confirmed, said thank you again and again after taking the body and blood of Christ. He said it with such honesty and feeling, I was moved by his genuine expression of gratitude.

I attended a Bible study where there was a 3rd-grade elementary student studying with an older woman who had just recently been brought to faith in Christ.  There were three people who I found were regularly attending another Bible study to find out more about Christ. They were not Christians and they had some interesting questions. Just seeing all that the church was doing and the ways that they were reaching out to the community was very encouraging for me.

Most of all, I’ve been so thankful for Pastor Wordell, who has been a constant encouragement even while I’m in Kesennuma. He checks in with me regularly on Skype to see how I’m doing and if I need anything. Thank you!

Going up to Kesennuma was also a huge blessing. I got to talk to Mrs. Kaori (whose house I also had the privilege to spend the night in), who was truly a blessing the entire trip. She teaches Sunday school and helped me come up with a more concrete plan for the post-Easter event coming up this Sunday. Pastor Nidaira helped me get acclimated to the area and showed me where all the temporary housing units were. Pastor Nidaira took the time to show me around and introduce me to some people who had received quilts. I hope to meet with them again soon.

In Kesennuma, the Satos have also been so helpful. I’ve had a lot of questions and they’ve been patient about me getting used to the center. I’m so thankful that even here, there is a support network. It is so clear that Mrs. Sato wants to learn more about the Bible and be able to take part in worship. I recently showed her how to watch sermons online and she was so happy to be able to have access. We are planning on watching the services together on Sundays and in our own little way take part of the service.

I have around 2-3 classes in English every day and it’s funny because one of the students said that he believed in Jesus but he wasn’t Christian. I’m not sure what he meant by it, so hopefully we’ll be able to talk about that in the future. I’m also hoping to be able to start talking about Christianity to one of my other students that comes in every day. Her English ability is extremely limited (we practice writing the alphabet every day and I’ve been conducting classes in Japanese, which makes class very interesting) but hopefully because we’re in a language she’s comfortable with, I’ll be able to talk to her more easily about Christ.

As a new week begins here in Kesennuma, I wonder to myself what more I can do. Is teaching English, talking to the various people I meet and holding these events enough? I’ve invited the store owners to the center to learn English and look at the clothes we have, but I keep wondering what else I can do and what else we can do. Well, in all things, one must pray, right?

We have an Easter event (unfortunately, I was unable to prepare in time for Easter so it’s a post-Easter event) to teach children about Easter, the meaning of Easter and why it is such a big holiday in America. There will be an Easter egg hunt and the children will make pudding parfaits! I’m really excited about it!

There will also be a cafe hopefully at the end of this month so that people can come in and relax and talk with either me or people from Tokyo (I’m very excited to see people come up. )

All in all, a very blessed week! I’m so thankful for everything and I pray that God will continue to lead me so that I may work to my fullest potential for His glory.