Japan – Land of the refreshing air!

It’s nice to need a jumper in November!

I have arrived in Japan!  The plane landed in at around 5pm, I got through immigration and customs, Met Wolfgang Langhans (the Field Director here) and we arrived at Japan HQ at around 7:15pm!  Now one very tasty dinner (with Wolfgang and Dorothea) and a short dander around Ichikawa later and it’s almost time for bed…

It’s great to be back in Japan, the train ride back from the airport already brought back the sounds and smells of Japan!  And some of the sights, even thought it was dark…

Leaving IHQ wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be as it was early so my brain wasn’t working yet!  OC was something I would rather have done without when I was looking forward to it.  But in reflection it was a very useful time, getting to know people who are going to different places, getting to know OMF as an international organisation (getting to know the bit inbetween the homeside and fieldside) and getting to kow the people who are working at international HQ

Tomorrow Emiri and her parents are coming!  Emiri is in Ibaraki at a friend’s wedding and she is going to come to morning worship at the Chapel of Adoration here tomorrow! They are going to arrive here quite early and so I will leave it at that and head to bed!

Let it “snow”

You’ll notice the picture on the right (or here if it is no longer a recent pic) is a snowy christmas scene…  But it’s not quite right, there is something not quite normal about it…  The snow isn’t snow at all, but instead is a sort of foamy, soapy snow-substitute that makes your eyes sting and needs to be washed off in the handy portable shower when you are done playing in it (if you are a child, or wish you were a child…).

This is Singapore, less than 2 degrees north of the equator.  Yet when you go into Starbucks you find Toffee Nut Lattes, “Christmas Blend” coffee like at home, Santa Claus wears heavy red winter clothing in the humid, 30+ degree weather, there is an attempt at an evergreen Christmas tree (all the trees are evergreen around here, there is no autumn!) and all kinds of other things that are Christmas-y.

But why are they Christmas-y?  In the UK (or US, or wherever in the Northern Hemisphere) they are Christmas-y because it is the middle of winter and that is the season in which Christmas falls.  The only green trees around are evergreens, Santa needs to keep warm because he’s going to be braving a mid-winters night to get all the kids their gifts (or coal!)…  We put nutmeg and cinnamon into stuff because it is warming, sweet heavy toffee-nut lattes are wonderfully warming on a winter’s afternoon…  Snow falls (sometimes!) and is cold and crisp and doesn’t even make your eyes sting!

But here in Singapore it isn’t mid-winter.  It’s as warm as ever and sticky to boot!  Why make trees that look like evergreens, why not use local trees?  Why not have Christmas Ice Cream, or something that is suitable to the season in which it falls instead of winter warmers?  Why not put Santa in a t-shirt and shorts (aside from the fright kids will get from a fat old man not wearing enough…)?  Why not forget the snow and just make your own Christmas traditions and festivities based on the festival and the context it is being celebrated in?

This is the aim of contextualisation, when we as missionaries take the gospel to another culture.  When we attempt to bring it to a new place or develop it in an existing stronghold we must be careful not to simply transplant our traditions and practices into the new culture.  To do so would mean that Christianity would remain a western import, something that is foreign and strange, unsuited to the culture and society into which it is being brought.  Sure the society may adopt these traditions and practise them, but their initial contextual meaning will be lost in a society without the initial context.  Much like our Christmas-y things being based around the context of winter, here in Singapore that context is lost and so the reason behind having snow, or having an evergreen tree, or soothing and warming coffee is lost.  It is simply being done because that is how it is done.  How can they even hope to be guided through these meaningless, contextless paraphernalia to the meaning behind the traditions?

Of course I haven’t even touched on the more basic issue of commercialisation at Christmas.  We see it in the west and it has obviously had a huge effect in the east, certainly in Singapore.

Anyways… it won’t be long now til I am in Hokkaido where Christmas will see plenty of real snow…!

Christmas…. In October?

I had a great weekend this weekend!

Firstly, as every good weekend does, it began with FAYC on Friday night.  It was a little sad as my club nights are numbered before I head off in November…

On Saturday I was determined to go kayaking, I had thought of surfing, but the forecast wasn’t great and so my heart was sinking as I knew most people wouldn’t be too keen to go.  But thankfully it rained all day Friday and come Saturday the river was nice and high, not so high that it was life threatening, but high enough that it was exciting and there was plenty of potential for fun at the weirs.
So Andy, Tommy, Jake and I set off on a great trip down the river.  It is probably the last bit of kayaking I will get to do for a while…

Following that I headed home, got washed down and Jonny picked me up as we headed over to Steve and Emma’s place for a night of foof and fun.  I was expecting a chinese take away and a game of cranium or a DVD or something.  When we pulled up at the Little’s place, Jonny reached back to me and said “Here, put this on” and thrust a red hat with a white bobble on the end in my direction…  Surely not…  We walked in and found a fully decorated Christmas tree, Christmas tunes on the stereo, the smell of hot apple punch and a fresh log fire.
If that wasn’t enough, we filed through to the dining area and sat down to a full Christmas dinner, including turkey and ham, sprouts, stuffing, the works!  Followed by a veritable feast of desserts.  All of this was provided by an array of talented chefs, who had slaved for days, well at least hours, to get it all ready…
After dinner we retired to the living room for a suitably fixed game of pass the parcel.
The most incredible thing of the whole night was that once in the house with the door closed, Christmas music on and punch in hand it actually felt like it was Christmas!  It was almost a disappointment when the reality of October would resurface.

The Sunday morning saw a youth club service at the church involving stories of mountain biking accidents, plenty of fun to play songs and jam doughnuts!

In the evening it was my commissioning service.  Mark came to speak, I had asked the band to choose the music and I was commissioned as a missionary with OMF to Japan!  So now I’m actually a missionary I guess…
It was a great night, a lot of meaningful people took part and my friends and family were there.

Thanks to everyone involved at any stage of the weekend, particular thanks to those responsible for the Christmas extravaganza on Saturday, something I doubt I will forget any time soon, and those involved in Sunday evening, thanks for a special, memorable night!

You can see photos of my commissioning on First Antrim’s website.  Hopefully I can get some of the Christmas night to put up somewhere!

Oodles of Noodles…

This week the Holiday Bible Club was on in the church, so there were 150 odd kids running about and screaming each morning…  Great fun…  I was only free to help three of the 5 days as I had work, and I have fallen a little behind on my dissertation as a result.  But it was great fun really!

On Thursday I left the club and headed off to Belfast to go to the library at college.  I arrived in the town and hunted for a parking space (building work has the college parking restricted to staff etc), parked and abandoned I left the car and strolled down Botanic avenue to get some lunch.  I was thinking about getting a sandwich, but I remembered a small noodle bar I noticed there a week or two ago and decided to give it a go.  On arriving I spied the chalkboard rendering of “try our ramen!”  Now I love ramen!  Ramen is delicious!  So I hastily ordered some up and waited eagerly only to be presented with a bowl of soup with slim udon in it… definately not ramen…  It was still tasty though!