04/12/2007AD - Leaflet Drop

Date: 4th December 2007AD
Time: 10:00pm
Location: Sapporo, OMF Guest House
Current Mood: Tired, relieved, overwhelmed

What happened:
Began the morning with devotions from Ruth 1, which I shared. I focused on God’s sovereignty despite the tragic circumstances and how Ruth reminds us that God is always at work. How this would prove so true later this evening.

We then went leaflet dropping around the Satsunae Lighthouse church. We were paired off and I went off briefly by myself at some apartment buildings. Richard met with me shortly afterwards and we hit another block of homes. I got to meet a few people and also handed them some leaflets.

Richard and I got back around 12:30pm and chatted a little whilst we waited for the other pairs to get back. Come 2:00pm and we finally headed off to the OMF headquarters to have lunch – which was a mix of packet soup, bread and goyoza. We then had more meeting and planning stuff to do. Felt extremely tired throughout the whole meeting.

Peter and Mary then went to dinner with Steve and Saeko Manders, whilst the rest of us went to a local Jap restaurant for dinner. It was like a canteen – pick up your food on a tray and pay for it at the end. I’m glad that I ordered the large rice, as my condiment portions were, again, rather small. After dinner we then went to a nearby 100yen store to pick up 'hand warmers' (little heat packs for our pockets), which would be used for tomorrow’s leaflet drop.

I also had a very scary episode of having lost my wallet, only to find it later in my computer bag. Praise God! My wonderful wife redirected my anxiety and annoyance back to the devotion from this morning. How truly wonderful she is :)

Looking forward to:
I am looking forward to getting some rest and doing something other than meetings and planning. We’ve had almost four days of just meetings and planning, so it was good this morning to get out, but want to do that more. I also have to stop thinking of this mission as a holiday, since we are doing work!

Interesting thing I noticed today:

1. I’m totally addicted to all the ricecracker snacks
2. Japanese people tend to eat a heck of a lot of processed foods – and consequently also have tonnes of wasted packaging
3. Japanese food sizing is also much less than I’m expecting or hoping for – I should drink more water to compensate

Interesting food I ate today:
Nothing really of note. I had a Katsu Chicken tonight which was alright, but nothing spectacular.

05/12/2007AD - Lost

Date: 5th December 2007AD
Time: 11:55pm
Location: Sapporo, OMF Guest House
Current Mood: Tired but excited

What happened:
Another good morning’s devotion and prayer, people sharing their thoughts on Ruth and how great it is.

We then went leaflet dropping again for most of the morning. Brad and Richard and I got lost on the way to our designated 'drop' area and only found our way when we realised we were further North of the map than intended – this caused problems with the areas we were leafleting since we overlapped a little between the pairs. Lunch was from a Japanese equivalent of a ‘takeaway’ store, but of better quality than in Aus!

We then headed into town afterwards to have a coffee at the Radio tower in the middle of the city. Coffee was had at a restaurant which was almost metaphoric of Japanese identity – a grab bag of different things from around the world. We were, however, treated to a rather large coffee serving size as well as a great view of the Christmas lights as the evening light faded away.

We then took a brisk 20 minute walk to the Sapporo International Church, stopping by a ‘Lawsons’ convenience store to pick up dinner. We went to the SIC to help out with their English Corner type of ministry which included a bible study run in English. It was a highly encouraging time of getting to know new people, playing games and studying God’s word together. A timely encouragement in what has been a rather hectic couple of days.

Looking forward to:
Getting more rest and some time off together as a team. I’m also looking forward and getting excited about the Saturday night event (despite the concerns about rehearsals), and also excited about the possibility of returning to the SIC English speaking ministry.

Interesting thing I noticed today:

1. Whilst on our letter box drop, I noticed that hardly any Japanese people rug up to the extent as we did: jackets and scarves, yes – but hardly any beanies, no ear-muffs and there were plenty of high school girls wearing mini-skirts! Freezing!
2. Japanese people tend to look emotionless as they walk down the street. I have two theories for this – 1: The freezing cold weather has frozen people’s faces so it hurts to move or show expression. 2: most people feel a sense of hopelessness in their lives.
3. All the houses look the same

Interesting food I ate today:
Not much to report again: lunch was a beef katsudon – beef with egg and rice, which was nice and cheap.
Dinner was soba noodles from the convenience store with one morsel of pork, nice, but average.