Comparing life between living in Japan eight years ago and now, one tool has made life much easier. Yes, a better understanding of Japanese has helped. Receiving regular financial support too. However, Google translate has become the most useful tool for living in Japan. When we first arrived in Japan, rather than taking stacks of papers to church for help, we could quickly translate virtually everything.

As with any tool, there are some drawbacks. For example, a paper from school translated as: “Under the guidance of the Board of Education, we will strive to spread the infection. For more information, prints will be distributed on the 18th for all children.” We do not consider the Board of Education an evil group of villains, so “to prevent the spread of infection” seemed more likely.
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In a text message, one person asked Andrew, “What do you think of Andrew?” Which is quite the reflective question, but rereading the Japanese, we realized it should say, “Andrew, what do you think?”

Usually, we work with Google translate to confirm our understanding of the Japanese. A few rare gems help little though: "Required Documents[for immigration]> Rebirth Food Certificate (for all households including children), Hibiki is a three-way taxpayer Certificate of employment of dependents who have reached the end of their careers Certificate of tax payment Certificate of love, If you go to the Niroko's soldiers, the three of the victims of the stalemate trunk (if any), and the tax change, write down your business policy. Laugh (Ko-no-Rokukyu Pod * --Shinsho Eto) * Please apply for 6 Sport. (* Required documents, etc. should be sent to the Tenshikan. The residence card will be issued by the Neck Management Bureau.” Thankfully, those are rare.
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In the end, we appreciate Google translate as a tool God has provided to help us serve here in Japan. Without it, other translation tools, such as this example from Facebook’s translator, might make life a little more difficult: “In the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the year of the On May th, the English service meeting has been cancelled because the general service was held in online service without collecting at the church during the declaration of emergency.” 

Life often takes shocking turns and living abroad definitely has provided many surprises. God has faithfully enabled us to live in Tokyo for two years now. As we reflect on living in Japan, a few things have stood out.

• Various unknown grandmas on the train may give your children gifts because they talked to her. At times those gifts may include fireworks she pulls out of her purse.
• Not knowing how to properly end a phone call makes conversations with delivery people awkward.
• Realizing that from down the street you can hear your child throwing a fit inside your apartment, even when the windows are all closed, is horrifying.
• Learning Japanese is difficult, frustrating, and time-consuming, but realizing that God helped you have an entire conversation in Japanese with someone makes it worth it.
• At other times, making an agreeable or “I’m listening” noise goes a long way in helping you through a casual conversation when you are struggling to understand the current topic.
• Trying a new restaurant or shop can be very intimidating, especially when you realize you are the only ones there, but it can be a terrific opportunity for developing a relationship.
• Mold grows easily on walls that face north due to condensation. In the winter. Inside the house.
• Giving gifts or even speaking English with someone may result in receiving a bigger gift in return.
• Love is universal, but how that love is communicated to others is sometimes different in Japan.
• Using American inch-based dimensions on Japanese metric-based printers can cause problems.

• Double check that the arriving train is the train you want. A train that arrives “early” may be a different train that takes over an hour longer to reach where you want to go. The same is true for buses.
• If everyone else gets off a train and no one is getting on, you should too, because you missed an announcement.
• The train station employees use long gripping tools to pick up wallets, umbrellas, or tickets that fall by the tracks.
• The words for “graduation” (sotsugyoushiki) and for “funeral” (soushiki) should not be confused.
• Neither should “South Korea” (kankoku) and “prison” (kangoku).

• In some places, including some churches, people will think a couple has a troubled relationship if they sit together.
• On rare occasions you might be asked, “Oh, you are a missionary? What percentage of the Bible do you have memorized?” (For the record, even if you memorized the entire New Testament, that is only 25% of the verses in the Bible)
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We have been told that it takes learning from a million mistakes to acquire a new language, and we guess that it takes another million mistakes to learn the culture. Sometimes it feels like God is having us get those mistakes out of the way quickly. However, we have seen Him with us each step along the way, which gives us confidence that He will faithfully watch over us for the years to come as well. Along with that, we are thankful that His faithfulness to us is yet one more example of His faithfulness to you, even if you briefly lose sight of Him in times of deep darkness.

Have you ever wanted to go back and become a child again? The carefree life may appeal, but linguistically, few would desire reverting to our childhood communication abilities. When we arrived in Japan, though, that is exactly what happened.
 
Five years ago, at the beginning of our first time in Japan, we accidentally bought a strange mayonnaise and mystery meat sandwich for breakfast due to our inability to read the package. We also went to the wrong places at the wrong times, inconvenienced others, and bought other strange items by accident thanks to our Japanese skills.
 
This time, we arrived understanding Japanese better, yet we still make mistakes. We have taken the wrong amount of medicine, turned in documents at the wrong time, and continue struggling to understand the main points during the Sunday morning sermon. When someone asks us to pray before a meal, we feel helpless to express ourselves and praise God with our limited Japanese. Living in a culture that speaks a different language is humbling.

​We graduated with Bible degrees, yet we consider it a victory if we can successfully understand a verse in Japanese during Sunday School. We enjoy reading and studying new things, yet we struggle to understand Japanese picture books. We love talking with people and getting to know them deeply, yet our Japanese conversations die after a handful of sentences. We sometimes want to shout, “I promise we are much smarter than this!”
 
More than all of that, living here is exactly where God placed us. We have weaknesses. We make mistakes. We become embarrassed. We have our pride shattered repeatedly. Through all of this, God’s strength, glory, wisdom, sovereignty, mercy, and grace are clearly displayed. Our weaknesses make us strong because God gives us the power to accomplish what He has called us to do. We would not trade that for anything in this created universe.

Sometimes you just need delicious ice cream when you move. These are sesame (grey) and sweet potato (purple)

WeThis is on the walk to the station. We enjoy lots of green despite still living in Tokyo

We are getting to know this train map very well

Our children are adapting well to new modes of transportation

Our back balcony overlooks Tama and includes a view of Mt. Fuji

We continue adjusting to a new routine, including (almost) daily laundry

Our first night in Japan included a "The Teaching of Buddah" in the hotel room, but no Bible, a small reminder of why we came to live in Japan.

We arrived in Japan three weeks ago, welcomed by fellow missionaries. We experienced issues with immigration resulting from misinformation about which person we were supposed to see and from malfunctioning printers. Yet, God provided a smooth transition from America to Japan, and we (and our luggage) arrived safely.

The whirlwind began with shopping for essentials (bedding, towels, etc). The next day we tackled government registrations and purchasing more furniture and appliances. Getting cell phones took twelve hours due to a discrepancy in usage of middle names between America and Japan in the credit card background check. Yet, God has faithfully provided what we have needed, even if that was freeing our schedule so that we can spend a day getting cell phones.

We attended Megumi Baptist church, our new church home, for the first time in years and were welcomed with open arms. They have sacrificed time and energy to help us move to the area. We are thankful for and greatly appreciate them, but they are strangers. We still have trouble remembering their names. Yet, God created within the church a familial relationship that transcends cultures and language.

Despite living in Japan before, transitioning to a new culture and language is difficult. We praise God for His faithfulness to help us do what He has called us to do. We praise God for the strength He gives to navigate trains with two young children. We praise God that at the end of the day we can look back and see His hand guiding and protecting throughout the day.

Illiteracy is awful. We knew stepping foot into a new culture creates difficulty, but the inability to read labels in the grocery store caused frustration. Do you know how many types of spinach looking greens exist? Japanese grocery stores have at least four, because it took four tries to buy spinach. Add the frustration of illiteracy to the frustration of difficult conversation, different customs, and new manners to learn and life becomes difficult. “Culture shock” refers to the challenges of living within a different culture. Thankfully, culture shock wears off with time and exposure, but some transitions have permanent effects.
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The Bible explains that God became human, specifically that God the Father sent the Son to be born as a human. The One Who created the galaxies willingly became a baby, dependant on human parents to care for Him. How embarrassing, and yet what great humility He displayed. From that point on, the essence of humanity became part of the Son. For all eternity, He will be both God and man in one person: Jesus. 

Why go through such embarrassment? For the sake of God’s glory. God created this world for His glory and majesty. Humans were given a special place within the world, yet they chose to rebel against God. Rebellion deserves severe punishment, yet amongst the punishments, God made a promise to restore everything back to perfection and to destroy evil. Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise. In order to bring everything back to perfection, including humanity’s relationship with God, Jesus was born as a man so that He could die an undeserved death for the crimes we commit. When Jesus came back to life and ascended to sit by the Father’s throne, it sealed the fate of this world: He will return to destroy evil and reign as King.

Christmas is the time we celebrate the beginning of God fulfilling His promise: the coming of Jesus as a human baby. We hope each of you has a joy-filled Christmas, knowing that God’s plan will come to fruition and the King of kings and Lord of lords personally advocates for each of His own. Merry Christmas!

“Wait... Didn’t the map say this was a short road?” While in Japan, we frequently scoped out our destinations and took pictures on our tablet to follow later; our trip to Kyoto was no exception. Each location, including our hotel, was ready for efficient travel with the help of our tablet. When our tablet decided to remain behind, apparently afraid of the night-bus we took, a problem arose.

We realized that our faithful companion stayed in Iwatsuki too late to retrieve it. A major inconvenience? Yes, but thankfully we had looked at the map enough to help us reach the hotel. With luggage in hand, we grabbed some breakfast and then set out for our short trip to the hotel.
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​In Japan, there are occasionally city maps along the walkways to help with directions. We spotted the general location of the hotel on one and counted four streets to cross before our turn. We strode down the street counting four roads and then turned. Twenty minutes later, we finally reached the block that curved the way we were looking for. “That seemed farther than it looked on the map,” we thought, but shrugged it off. We began looking for the hotel, but it was not there. We spread our search out a bit, but still came up short of either the hotel or a map. We finally broke down and began asking people for directions, yet no one knew of the hotel.

About an hour later, we finally found a security guard who was willing to search the internet. We learned that the hotel rested in a neighborhood about two miles south of our present location. We got specific directions, thanked him, and left to walk back. Confused at how far off we were, we finally arrived an hour later, luggage in hand, but exhausted.

Later we walked back to the station (this time only a ten-min walk), and tried to figure out what went wrong. Apparently, it was actually six streets between the hotel and the station, but two streets were too small to be on the city map. The moral of the story? Listen when your friend says, “Be cautious when using city maps.” Meanwhile, back in Iwatsuki, our tablet probably laughed.

We recently began a trip to visit some churches in the Southeast.  During the first major traveling session, we noticed that the brakes were not behaving well. It was nothing major, but we were heading towards the mountains of West Virginia, so we thought it best to have them inspected. After dropping the car off at a local branch of a known brand name, we spent time with some friends. 

A little while later, the phone rang and it was the mechanic.  The brakes required a bit of work, but nothing unexpected.  The mechanic proceeded to explain about a major issue he had found.  He discovered that out of four major bushings supporting the front half of the car, three were gone. To explain it simply: if that last bushing had broken, we very easily could have left our engine lying in the middle of the road. Skepticism may have been the initial reaction, but as he explained potential symptoms (some oddities in turning, some clanking sounds, etc), it became obvious that it was an actual issue with our car.  He was able to fix it and the car is driving noticeably better.

We praise God that He used something like checking our brakes to help prevent a major catastrophe that could have taken place while driving 70 mph in the mountains.  We could live in fear of potential unfavorable events, or we can trust in the sovereignty of God in each situation. 

A number of times we have been asked, "Why are you going to Japan?" Sometimes these people want to know how God showed us where He wanted us serving Him. Others want to know why we chose Japan instead of a different country. A small group wants to know why we are not helping American churches that also need help.

Japan is a beautiful country. It's a country that can allow anyone with a sense of adventure to climb a mountain and relax on a beach on the same day. It's a country where traditions mingle with modern fads.  It's a country full of wonderful people who enjoy speaking with Americans and often aid those who are staring blankly at a map trying to figure out where "here" is and yes, that is known from experience.  Despite being a wonderful country, that is not enough to justify moving to Japan.

We believe that God is the Creator and King of everything. The Bible tells us that everyone must choose to follow Him or be against Him. One day, every knee will bow before the Messiah and every tongue will proclaim that He is Lord, but right now He gives everyone the opportunity to choose Him. Many people in Japan have never heard the full story of who the God of the Bible is. If they have not heard, how can they make a choice? We want to share with them the story of the Bible so they can choose whether they will bow now and accept the gift of the Messiah, or if they will continue in their own beliefs.

Despite our plans to help American churches, God gave us multiple opportunities to spend time in Japan. He showed us the weak state of Christianity in Japan.  As a whole, only 2% of Japan's population consider themselves "Christians." (link: cia world book?)  Churches are difficult to find, even in urban areas.  Out of the churches that exist, the difficulty continues when seeking to find churches who preach the Gospel.  

We have had the privilege of attending services, meeting pastors, and talking with the people of solid churches.  God used those opportunities to show us that He wants us to live in Japan, share the Gospel with Japanese people, and help encourage the Japanese Christians.  When we shared these plans with our American church, they became excited and wanted to support the ministry. Now we move forward on the path God has shown us, completely trusting Him to continue directing us in the future.