Language

I've joined an online community for women who serve overseas.  Mostly I read the blog posts everyone else writes.  It has been good to read thoughts from other women serving overseas.  I have been challenged to think more about my life, ministry, and God.  Each week they choose a theme and people blog about it or contribute art or whatever.  I keep thinking that I will write something sometime.  So, this week I am going to write.  The theme is language.

Karuizawa Japanese Language School

Of course, when I first started to think about language, I thought about learning Japanese.  Learning this language has been one of the hardest, most challenging, most fun, most frustrating things I have done in my life.  And, I am NOT done yet!  I am pretty sure I will never be done learning this language.

Graduation celebration with some of my language teachers

I don't remember when it happened exactly, but I remember sitting in church one Sunday thinking, "Hey, I am understanding some of this sermon!  I am not just listening to pick out the words, but am actually getting the main ideas here!"  SCORE!  I was floored!

I know there are tons more languages than English and Japanese, but it is pretty cool that Jesus understands both of the languages I speak.  He hears me when I call out to Him in either language.

My first Sunday in Japan I remember sitting in church thinking that I had no clue what was going on, but Jesus did.  Now I not only sit in church understanding most of what is going on, but I also preach in this language!

Listening in church still takes much concentration

After I thought about these things for a while, the theme of language started to take me on a different path.  Language is absolutely necessary.  We need to communicate somehow, and language is the vehicle for communication to take place.  When I sit in my apartment by myself, I use language.  I think about what I need to prepare for tomorrow, I listen to music, I watch TV, I read a book.  All of these need language.

When I go to the ocean and sit on the beach, I use language.  I listen to the ocean, the birds, the wind, other people, God.  Different languages, but all needed for communication.

Maui

When I meet my friends or go to work or go to a meeting, more communication happens.  Some communication is non-verbal, which sometimes speaks louder than verbal communication, however, if we want to have conversations, make decisions, make plans, we really need to use verbal communication.  And, there is language again.

Languages are fascinating and amazing.  I am hoping we will keep our languages in heaven and yet be able to understand all the other languages and be able to learn them.  That would be so cool!

I know that learning Japanese has helped deepen my understanding of God as I learn Japanese words and phrases and study the Japanese Bible.  I can't imagine how my understanding would improve if I learned more languages!  Especially Greek and Hebrew!

Anything that deepens my understanding of God is worth the effort and hard work.
(I say this again to myself today to remind me of its truth and importance!)

Talking about things I love in one of my sermons

Believe

It was my turn to share the message on Sunday morning. We are working our way through John and I finished up chapter 4 this week. I focused on the word believe. The kanji (Chinese character) for believe is really cool and has an interesting history, according to Mr. Suzuki, one of the former teachers at the Karuizawa Language School.

The kanji looks like this:
信

The character is made up of two parts. The left side means person and the right side means word. However, the character for word also has two parts. The top part is heart and the bottom is mouth. Mr. Suzuki said that the whole character, therefore, came to mean the agreement of a person's deeds and words which come from the heart. (I think Jesus said something about what comes out of one's mouth comes from the heart-see Matthew 15:18).

This character is also one of the two characters in the Japanese word 'faith.' The other character means to look upward at something or someone, to look up to someone or to God, to respect, and to adore.
Just a little Japanese lesson for you today!

A Reunion of Sorts

Friday I went to the Karuizawa Language School's semi-closing ceremony. The school in its current form is closing. Later this year it will open in a new form with a new name: Language and Culture Center for Missions-or something like that.

It was fun to be back in the old building and remember how cold it is in there! The smell of mold is still there. I am sure it was that strong before, too, but I think I was a little bit used to it back in the day.

I had a chance to talk with my former teachers and thank them for all they did for me and other missionaries, all the patience they had with us! I can't imagine the amount of patience it takes to teach someone a new language from zero 5 days a week for two years! I always wondered if they did a little praise the Lord dance when a student finished and left:)

Here is a picture of me with Miss Takei. One day she walked all the way up to my apartment to give me the homework that she couldn't find during class. Wasn't that nice of her! Maybe she drove up, I don't know, I wasn't at home at the time. She was famous for her hand drawn homework pages. She knew how to review a concept until it stuck!


I tried to take a picture of all the teachers but I guess I didn't have the camera on the right setting so it isn't the clearest picture, but here it is anyway!