Landed, luggage and language!

I am in Sapporo!

I arrived here on Tuesday and luggage came too.  My big box from the UK hasn’t got here yet, it is taking it’s time through customs with a complication or two…  But DHL is keeping me up to date and I hope it will be here next week!
I have moved into my new apartment.  It’s great!  Actually larger than I expected and really nice…  I will post pictures sometime soon I promise!

I also spent some time today talking to Miriam Davis, the language co-ordinator here.  We were discussing the syllabus and how things work for me in terms of language study.  I was also introducted to Saito-sensei who will be teaching me Japanese for the next while.  I will start before Christmas with two lessons a day, including some kanji (the chinese characters) and going up to three in the new year…  I am really looking forward to this part now!  I think I will enjoy language study!

While I was on the plane from singapore I saw an episode of Flight of the Conchords and this song made me laugh.  So practise your french with the Conchords!

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…!

Night Safari

We have been getting on well on our course this week, things have started to gather pace as people overcome their jetlag and settle in, getting to know one another.

Last night a group of us headed back to Singapore Zoo for the second half of the experience, the Night Safari!  This is something that I think more zoos should do, but it wouldn’t work so well in Belfast I think (too cold!).  The safari starts at 7pm, you go along and they have paths around the zoo dimly lit and some tours by tram around various areas.  Going to the zoo at night time opens the opportunity to see animals that normally don’t show their face during daylight hours, but only become active, or visible, at night.
Obviously the night safari isn’t really conducive to photographs so much and so the three meagre offerings below:

Night Safari

The real adventure, however, only began as we left the Zoo and began our journey home…  Going to the zoo we had taken a “direct” bus promising a 30 minute journey straight to the gates of the zoo.  After a lot of zig zagging, going in circles and taking out public railings, changing bus and catching a mini-van, the drivers finally got us to the zoo, only 45 minutes later than expected!  Quite unusual for Singapore…
On the return journey we sought to avoid the inconvenience of the direct bus by taking the indirect public bus/MRT (mass rapid transit) route back to IHQ.  The first bus worked well, but we arrived at the MRT station just after the last train had left and so we headed back to the bus stops to plan a route home, some of the elder folk and those laden with sleeping children took taxis back, but the rest of us were much more intrepid and sought to select a bus route to get us home.  With some expert map reading and clever interpretation of timetables, we got on the wrong bus and headed off to somewhere else.
After we realised we were on the wrong bus we didn’t get off…  Not us…  We asked the driver how to get home and he (along with some laughing) kindly told us where we should get off and get another bus back towards the road we are staying on.  We just made it and got that bus (now after midnight, the last bus on the route), and made it back to the vicinity of IHQ, with a shortish walk back home!

The night safari really was great though!

The Zoo, James Bond and other things

The course is well underway now, we started on Thursday with an introduction service and continued on Friday with some introduction to OMF, to the health system and other delights.  Friday night was a “getting to know you” night with the usual kinds of games and some icecream to follow, more than welcome in this climate.

Saturday and Sunday are days off,  spent Saturday at the Zoo with some other guys on the course…

 

Zoo

 

The evening was spent at James Bond.  The movie itself was good, as most of you will know!  I had heard that Bond’s usual dry wit didn’t make an appearance, but it reared it’s head quite a few times. It was also my first time to see a movie at a theatre using digital projection, which was nice!  Lovely smooth gradients and transitions in the CGI sequences!

Later today (Sunday) we are heading to Little India for a “cultural experience” no doubt there will be more photos ensuing!

Singapore…. back online

The internet is now up and running in IHQ, so I can post a bit more about things here!

I arrived early on Monday morning, the first of the OCers (OC = Orientation Course) and have been looking around and getting to see a little bit of Singapore as I recover from jetlag and settle in.  The weather is hot and humid, it isn’t as hot as I thought it might be though.  High 20/low 30s most of the time, but it is pretty humid.  This is the rainy season, though there hadn’t been much rain on Monday or Tuesday.  Today is a different story, after a clearish morning there was a burst of thunder and the skies opened!

Singapore itself is interesting, the OMF IHQ seems to be at the swanky end of town, yesterday I headed up to Little India to see an electronics store and stepping off the train felt like stepping into a different country!  The most curious thing is that English is the common language, and signs, labels etc are all in English.  Which almost makes it feel as though it’s somewhere tropical and American, like Guam or Hawaii or somewhere, but the English is all British!  There are all kinds of hints to the colonial past as well…  My only experience of Asia really has been Japan, and so to arrive in Asia, go to a shop and be able to understand everything, be greeted in english and answer seems a bit weird!

So that’s about it really so far, it’s been quite uneventful, but the real stuff starts tomorrow!

Singapore

Just a quick post to let everyone know I’ve arrived in Singapore ok!

The omf web connection is down as they work on a systems upgrade, but I’ll reply to emails etc when it’s back online!

Thanks for the emails though!!!

Small groups…

Marky wrote about small groups on his blog recently (Voiced Thoughts in the Blogroll list on the right).  My own experience of small groups varies from church groups like the group Mark was writing about, but I think the period that small groups affected my life the most was while I was an undergraduate at university…

My experience of small groups at uni was a little more wide ranging than most perhaps.  I was living in Queen’s Elms in first year so I went to Halls Group that year, the next year I helped out leading the group, so I was in it a second year.  At first I went to an English dept small group because I had friends there and they were encouraging me to go along to a small group aside from the halls one…  But I switched over to the Engineering group in the Ashby a little later.  It was through the engineering group that I met Mark who spoke at my commissioning, Budgie who commented on the last post there and a whole bunch of other folk.  But there’s more!  Between second and third year in my degree it was required to take a year of professional experience.  This interupted small group attendance for most, but Ben (Later of SU Presidential fame) lead a small group for those on their year out working.  It was all guys, but we had an awesome year, heightened by the lack of CU attendance and department groups and so on due to work, meeting later than normal and discussing how things were relevant to working life rather than student life was probably one of the most benefitial years I had in small groups…  Then more recently, while I was at Union I attended a small group at my home church, this was very different to the previous groups as people were from all kinds of backgrounds; nurses, drivers, designers, programmer-cum-theologians, missionaries to the Philippines…  And again it was great!

So now I am pining for small groups!  There is a reason for this though…
Irene approached me a while ago asking if I’d be willing to partner up with a small group from Queen’s University, the small groups were going to partner with missionaries and pray for them etc through the year.  So tonight I went and met the group who got (landed with) me!  The group is Steve and Sam’s medical small group (as in medical students) and is part of the CU at Queens.  The meeting tonight was great, there was, of course, a time of bible study, time to spend together and chat (with unpaid for coffee…), time for prayer and all in the kind of relaxed attitude I remember of small groups!  It’s a time when bible study mingles with banter, when fellowship mingles with accountibility, when prayer mingles with honest concern and love for those you are praying with.  It is an excellent small group with great members, pulling together Christians and making it a quality time.  It’s great to have been able to meet them, and it’s great to know they will be partnering with me in prayer as I head off.  Thanks guys!

So yeah, now I’m pining for small group ministry.  I can’t wait to see what God will make me part of out in Japan!

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!

Head in the clouds…

So I have received confirmation from OMF that I will be heading out in November (assuming there are no problems between now and then!).  It’s pretty much certain really!

In preemptive preparation I have been doing a bit of organising etc.  Today I got Office 2007 (Can’t find the discs for the student edition of 2003 I bought, so I’m taking the excuse!).  I got the “home and student” edition simply because it is ridiculously cheaper than the other versions, and was glad to find it has powerpoint (the home version didn’t have power point when my brother got it, or when my dad got it…hmmm) but also found it didn’t include outlook.  Now this is no big loss.  I had used Outlook for my calendar with it syncing to my phone and, recently, my iPod Touch but thought it would be a simple matter of telling things to sync to Windows Calendar or something.  No such luck!  For all their ease of use and anti-Microsoft following, Apple have decided that the iPod and iPhone can only sync with Outlook (2003 SP1 and above).  So I started to dig!

While digging I realised that I should get all my contacts together and store them safely (having experienced the misery and difficulty that missionaries experience when their harddisk or similar crashes and contacts are lost or even just temporarily unavailable for a week or two).  I reckoned that a cloud solution may be what I’m looking for.  I already use GMail and Google Reader, and am quite fond of the intrusive, privacy neglecting, big G so seeing as they already know everything about my email and browsing habits, I may as well give them my contacts (most are already in GMail) and calendar too!

While scouring the net for potential, I happened upon this nifty site which can be used to set up an in-the-cloud Exchange service that is able to provide Exchange style access to (among others) Google’s online services, designed specifically to give people mobile access to these services through Windows mobile and Apple handheld devices.  It’s in beta at the moment and can allow pushing of calendar and contacts, with plans to introduce email making use of GMail’s IMAP service.  Once set up I can access my google calendar and contacts direct from my iPhone syncing via Wifi and no need for Outlook or other expensive stuff!

Following that success I decided to look into laptop access.  So that I can still get at my calendar on my PC, make appointments, get contact info etc when I’m not in range of a usable hotspot.  So I tried a few things, mostly unsuccessful, until coming around to something I should have thought of at the start.  Mozilla Thunderbird.  Well truthfully I downloaded Mozilla Sunbird and set it up for my google calendar (with the relevant addons) then downloaded Thunderbird to do contacts (and IMAP gmail… maybe…) and realised I should just use the Lightning extension with Thunderbird.  So I did that.  And it works!

So now my calendar and complete contacts have joined my email in the Cloud!  But I still have a synchronising copy of each on my laptop!  Marvellous…