2004-04-03

Introductions, Koreans and Shriners

It's still Sabbath, and I'm listening to Garth Brooks. Ooooooh, breakin' the LAW~! Actually, it's the song "Unanswered Prayers", which seems quite appropriate for Sabbath consumption and the only Garth Brooks song I've heard that I like. Well, okay, "Friends In Low Places" is fun. But I don't suppose THAT would be appropriate for Sabbath listening, although it might make a good illustration for a sermon talking about Jesus hanging out with sinners. Now why was I talking about this again? Oh yeah, to bore y'all with the minutiae of my daily life here.

Church today was centered around the introduction of the PMM group, which means something like "Pioneer Mission Movement". It's a mission program that is bringing Korean pastors here to Japan, having them live on our campus, and lettin' them loose on the Japanese public after a few years of training. The first batch just arrived last week and start Japanese classes on Monday. All of them are really nice--one couple stopped by my place a few days ago and introduced themselves, bringing along some of that seasoned seaweed stuff along with them. It's interesting--some of them speak REALLY good English, and one of the guys got kind of flustered introducing himself in Japanese so he switched to English. I like these people already. So much, in fact, that I cooked my first potluck dish (!) for the welcome potluck today. I made tofu patties that turned out really well even though I don't have the recipe here with me and the ingredients were a little screwy 'cause, well, I'm in Japan and everything's a little screwy here. OOOOOH layin' the smackdown, baby. Mwahahahahahahahaha.

Hee hee. I've been in a good mood because I've been able to hang out with Amanda a lot this weekend. I invited her and John to my apartment yesterday evening for Bible study. John showed up like an hour and a half late, so Amanda and I had a lot of time to talk. I know what y'all are thinking, and don't make me burst yer bubbles. Nothin' happened like that. Or like THAT, either. We discussed the lesson study and (of course) diverged a lot, mainly getting into instances from our respective past experiences that sort of reminded us of the SS discussion. I also got to give my usual dose of feminist propaganda, which was cool 'cause she's all independent and assertive and everything. I was impressed with some of her insights--apparently, this experience here in Japan has really helped her to grow spiritually. She got pretty passionate and feisty describing what she thinks of faith and church and such, and no, I didn't say "You're beautiful when you start preaching"...even though I COULD have. Shut up. I know I'm pathetic. John arrived and we somehow got talking about philosophy and some of the stupid arguments people get into in churches. I showed them my sorry picture albums and we just kind of talked about whatever. I shared with them the idea that Adam and Eve WEREN'T separate during the time of the Fall, that according to Genesis Adam was right there the entire time. That got her all excited and I think we're gonna get along just fine and dandy.

Then today I went for a walk with her and two of the students. Holly's been saying that she'd be interested in seeing pictures of Japanese shrines, and on the walk I found one small one and one big(ger) one. Pics up on the website. I also FINALLY got some pictures of Amanda, and yes, they're on the site too. Yippee! I mean, uh, yeah, go over there and have a look. 'Cause I know everyone has been wanting to.