As the karaoke box says, I really am a lucky girl. 2013 has brought me a lot of things to be thankful for. Probably first among all of those things has been the unlikely chain of events that led one of my best friends from college back into my life last New Years, who, six months later, got upgraded from best friend to boyfriend. Coulter has been one of my strongest rocks in the crazy whirlwind I call grad school life both in DC, and especially here in Japan, now that we are in the same country.
photo by Nick Lindeke
While his work has him stationed on a naval base far south of me on Kyushu, being in the same time zone and within range of weekend trips has made all the difference. It's hard to think back on the last four years when we were out of touch when I consider the blessing he has been to me over this last year. Coulter really brings out the best in me.
2013 was in the thick of grad school for me. I am continually thankful that I got to study development at the School of International Service at AU. It really is a phenomenal program that has crammed more than I thought possible into my head. It is to the point that, here in Japan, both my peers and professors consider me the resident 'development expert.' That is incredibly humbling to realize just how much more I would have learned if I had stayed around this year.
During 2013 I was also formally accepted to the dual-degree master's program with Ritsumeikan here in Kyoto as well as awarded the Boren Fellowship with finances my education here and allows me to take language classes on top of my graduate studies. Being abroad has had its ups and downs, but it has already offered me so many opportunities for networking and research for my thesis on the Japanese development sector.
I also have a lot to be thankful for in my wonderful network of friends all around the world. My involvement with the Rebel Legion, an international Star Wars costuming club that supports charity and community events, led me to a wonderful group of friends in Maryland and again here in Japan.
photo by Jason Colflesh
In DC, I was blessed by three lovely housemates and a wonderful group of friends from the DC Intervarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship. Through that, while I did not have time for choir, I got my music fix from blue grass and hymn music nights. Those were probably the highlight of each month for me.
This summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to intern with World Vision in DC. More than just the job experience and place on my resume, I made great connections, got a better picture of the development industry, found a place for my faith in my work and studies, and got to know a wonderful group of interns that I know I will keep in touch with for years to come. At World Vision, I finally got a feel for what it is I want to do when I grow up: work on donor and institutional coordination in emergency relief. At least, that is where I want to start.
Here in Japan, I have been blessed by being able to return to the same church community that I attended when I studied abroad near here six years ago. Though many faces have changes, the huge heart of AICF has remained the same.
Looking back, I really have had an amazing year. I have so many things and so many people to be thankful for. Here is to an even better 2014!
One of my Chinese classmates at language school asked me recently if I ever get homesick. It took me a while to come up with a good answer, because I can't remember being homesick since college. In college, a dorm room was just a temporary place to lay my head until I went back to my parents' house during the summer.
Living abroad, as a lifestyle, is a very different mindset. I had to tell Li-san, that, no, I don't get homesick, because I have a home here. Right now, Kyoto is where my life is. Going back to the US after I graduate here will not so much be returning home, as much as it is moving on to the next stage of my life; my next home. On the other hand, the wonderful thing about being a nomad like I am is that I can return home to Minnesota, Oberlin, Los Angeles, DC, or even Dharmsala. Returning to Kansai to study this fall felt like coming home too.
That isn't to say that I don't miss certain things about the various homes I left behind. Especially today, Christmas Eve, I miss the candlelight dinner with my family and singing with the choir at the Christmas Eve services at our church. I miss the ever-present music at Oberlin. I miss the smell of spices on the air at dinner time in India and the majesty of the Himalayas. I miss California avocados and the LA fashion district. I miss the AU library and the amazing consortium loan service that can get me any book I ask for.
More than places and things, though, I miss people. It is a double-edged sword that I have amazing friends literally all over the world now. My friends aren't just in the places I have lived, but like me, have continued their travels around the globe. Nearly anywhere I go, I'll be able to find someone I know. But at any given time, the majority of my friends are far away. Thank goodness for the internet and the international postal services. I am truly blessed to have the friends that I do that are willing to pick up where we left off when I drop through town or send an email in passing.
The thing with being homesick, is that there's very little you can do about it. You have to stay where you are and stick it out. On the other hand, missing friends is something you can do something about. Granted, we haven't figured out instantaneous teleportation yet, but it is easy today to pick up a phone, write an email, call someone on skype, send them a silly gif on facebook, or even put pen to paper and write them a letter, as I have been known to do.
I know from my own experience that it is easy to get wrapped up in life and forget about the friends I've left behind in the busier moments, but it is so important to me that whenever the thought comes to my mind "I wonder how so-and-so is doing..." that I try to take action on that thought and try to find out.
Friends, never doubt that, even when I am far away, you are still very important to me, and I miss you. I can't wait to get to see you again.
I wanted to write a little bit about the little church with a big heart that I attend in Japan.
Back in the US, the church that baptized me as an infant was an average size church that blossomed into something just short of a mega-church by the time I graduated from high school. It is out of that background, raised in the good hot-dish-loving culture of Lutheran Minnesota, that I first found my way to Agape.
The spring of my junior year at Oberlin College, I studied abroad at Kansai Gaidai University in Hirakata-shi, which sits about half way between Osaka and Kyoto in Japan. For perspective, that was about 6 years ago. Oberlin was where I really began to live my life as a Christian, as to be Christian at Oberlin was more counter-culture than Minnesota, so when I saw a flyer on the wall at Kansai Gaidai about Agape International Christian Fellowship, I decided immediately to attend.
Agape does not have its own church building, but it is a church all the same. Typically, on Sunday mornings, the church meets in a rented room above a train station. Though because of renovations at that train station this fall, we have been meeting in rented rooms of two different libraries.
That's a photo from the farewell gathering of when I studied abroad six years ago. Now, there are about 15-20 members attending each Sunday.
In the US, you might call this kind of church a house church, and indeed, it prompted me to seek out a house church upon my return to Oberlin, but that term is less relevant when meeting above a train station. One of the amazing things about such a small church is the way that everyone cares for and supports one another, both practically and in prayer. You are known and you are loved. Within the last few months, two members have been hospitalized, and I have been amazed at the intense prayer support at our little church as well as the way the pastor and other members have made sure to visit them and attend to their needs. It is a church that cares deeply and a church at serves.
A few years back, the church was able to acquire a little cafe building, which we call Agape Cafe, where we eat together and have fellowship after the service and prayer meetings during the week.
Another unique aspect of Agape, coming from Lutheran Minnesota, is that except for the younger generation, the majority of the members of the Church, both Japanese and international, have come to Christianity later in life, the pastor included. In fact, there are a number of regular members that have been attending for years that would not fully identify as Christian, yet are exploring their spirituality, which Agape welcomes and supports. Just this fall, two of those members decided to be baptized, which was a great celebration in and of itself. In bare, rented rooms, it is one of the most welcoming and loving environments I have ever encountered, no matter what a person's background. Christians only make up about 1% of Japan's population, after all.
After coming to Christ, Pastor attended seminary in Texas then returned to Japan to plant Agape. Several other members of the church have since gone to Texas to attend the same seminary before returning to Japan as well. One of the pastor's great gifts is that of language. Through that comes another of Agape's amazing, unique qualities: it is completely bilingual. At any given time, about half the congregation is Japanese and about half is foreign, from Kansai Gaidai or otherwise. So, all of the prayers, sermon, and announcements are sentence-by-sentence Japanese-English bilingual. When we worship together, led by the pastor on guitar, our lyrics are printed in both Japanese and English, and everyone sings, simultaneously, in whichever language suits them best. When we start the service with the Apostles' Creed, everyone recites it together in the language they are most comfortable with. I am fairly certain that the student from Hungary that was with us this last fall recited it in Hungarian along with the English and Japanese in the room.
Although the size of the congregation on any given Sunday is small, I think it is telling that at least once a month, someone who attended Agape in the past and then moved away from Kansai passes through for a visit. I am one of those who returned. Even when I was visiting Kansai for a few weeks a couple of years back, I made sure to attend Agape when I was in town, and it seems like that attitude is shared by many others. I wonder how many people there are all over Japan and the world that would consider Agape their church home in Kansai. It must be well over 100. There is something in the welcoming, loving community of Agape that keeps drawing people back.
I know I mentioned it before with the hospital visits, but Agape is also a congregation that serves. Because the library we have been meeting at for much of this fall is far from the train line, the pastor's wife has been picking me and a few others up from the train station every Sunday morning. During the winter, members like to go out and give rice balls to homeless people, talk to them, and listen to them. Last Christmas, they wrapped up socks and gloves and went out looking for homeless people to give them too. "Oh good, I've found here. Merry Christmas, please take this present," layering on as many as six pairs of socks to keep them warm. All this from a little church with a big heart. Just today, we hosted three little boys whose parents aren't doing well at Agape cafe after the service to give them Christmas presents, hospitality, and Sunday school. The church reaches out in small ways that could have a great ripple effect.
My way of serving has been through music. The church that raised me taught me how to sing and Oberlin college sharpened that ability, so I have been asked a few times to provide special music. The pastor's wife was explaining to me that special music is an opportunity for them to invite non-Christian Japanese friends to come to the service. While they might not have anything against attending church, they are not particularly interested in it unless something special is happening.
This is the song that I was able to sing this fall. The pianist is a woman who used to be a music teacher, but lost the ability to play the piano due to mental illness. However, after being baptized this fall, she was able to play again, which was an amazing thing to be a part of.
I feel so blessed to have Agape as my church home to come back to. Living abroad is never easy, nor is graduate school, and this little congregation has been the rock in my life since I have returned to Japan. It is a place of steadiness and love that I can always count on.
