One politician famously explained that it takes a village to raise children. The implications and influences of that idea are best left for people with more experience in politics than I have. However, the quote still came to mind as we visited the town and church where we had our one-year internship.
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Eight years ago, we worked at a Japanese church started by Baptist Mid-Missions missionaries. One of our primary responsibilities was English ministries, where we taught English conversation classes and helped start a children’s Bible and English club.

One of the students from conversation classes found our lifestyle to be counter to the typical American culture of materialism and wanted to know why. The sowing of gospel seeds in his life began a three-year journey of many other Christians pouring time and energy into both sharing about the Bible and showing him God’s work in their daily lives. He is now a growing Christian, faithfully serving at that church.

​The children’s class was successful in bringing in students, but again, only provided planting of seeds. Though averaging over six neighborhood children coming each week, it ended a few months after we left due to a lack of helpers. Over time, some church families said they missed the club and stepped up to run it.  The children’s Sunday School class now uses the auditorium because it is the best room for the number of children and helpers. The club also continues though Covid has recently made meeting in-person difficult.
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Whether or not a village can or should raise a child, I appreciate God’s gift to us, the church. A loving, God-following local church can and should raise Christians to maturity, both through ministries and through daily life with others. To God be the glory, because it is His work, not ours.

You know in the cartoons when a character’s jaw falls to the floor in shock? I am sure that happened to me as I gazed out our back window one day. I had noticed an elderly lady arrive home. The driver carefully helped her out of the car, handing her a bag and walker. She then crept over to a bench and sat down, as if to catch her breath. I thought, “Wow, she climbs five steps to get to her apartment? It must be hard.” Since the car drove away, I continued watching, partially out of curiosity, partially because I could dial 119 if she fell.
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After a brief rest, she slowly began to climb the stairs. She reached the first landing and I thought, “Glad she made it. Wait. Why did she not go in the door?” I then stared in disbelief as her head poked up on the stairs again. She must live on the second floor! Slowly, she worked her way up. Again, she ignored the door and shuffled towards the stairs. Sure enough, her head crested the wall of the stairs as she continued upwards.
 At every floor I told myself, “She’s home, right?” Every time, this elderly lady defied my logic and continued up the stairs. Her home is the fifth floor, the top of her apartment building.
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​In our area, many people have lived in their apartments for decades. They have raised their children, watched them leave home, and then continued living in the same apartment. That lady has likely lived in her fifth-floor home for decades, walking up and down them carrying groceries, children, birthday presents, letters from friends, and bills to pay. Climbing five flights of stairs became part of her life.
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For me it was a great reminder that doing something hard can become a habit. Struggling to do hard things when we are young (or younger) can provide the habits and strength to continue doing it later in life. 

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.

Glancing out the train window as we came to a stop, I noticed a man walking down the road while looking at his phone. Suddenly the man looked to his side, stopped, and turned. Following his gaze, I realized he was looking at a neighborhood Shinto shrine.  The man proceeded to bow his head towards the shrine, and then turned back to walking while looking down at his phone. Curious, I watched the shrine a bit longer and saw no one else around the area. He most likely prayed to the god(s) of the shrine.
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This scene struck me, because he was bowing his head the whole time, once to the shrine and twice to his phone. Sure, his motives differed between the shrine and looking at the game or emails on his phone, but from the train, I saw a man bowing his head towards two things in worship.

In this beautifully created country, we observe people praying regularly to physical, man-made idols, images with mouths that cannot speak and eyes that cannot see. We also see men and women who have made idols out of objects, careers, or people.
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Then the convicting through struck me: often I am focused on studying flashcards on my phone, coordinating my daily plans, or completing my to-do list, so I forget to contemplate the true God during my day. The walking man at least paused his activities on a busy weekend morning to say a prayer to the god of the shrine as he passed. Imagine what the living God could do with a heart completely dedicated to Him throughout the day.

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.

“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.