Amazing day (8/6)

Today was an absolutely, incredible, wonderful and amazing day. If you want the simple version, I'll give it in one paragraph here. I went to Chuetsu church in Sanjo this morning and several prayers were answered in a big way. Then I went to the band competition in Joestu, had some very good bonding with band members, and we won first place. I came home, made dinner, then went for a walk and watched the Sanjo fireworks from afar while spending some incredible quality time with God. It was truly an amazing day.

The longer version here will include a bit more detail. It's only been a month since I last went to Chuetsu, but it still felt like a long time since I had seen many of them. I arrived a good half hour before Sunday School, and pastor let me warm up on my horn first. Then he and I had a very good, insightful talk.

Sunday school was nice, especially since I sat with a good friend: a little girl in first grade whom I used to be very close to when she was at the kindergarten and in whom I had seen genuine faith. She is still as sweet as ever, but I almost felt like her mother, helping her find the page and reminding her to fold her hands rather than fidget with the bible when we were praying the Lord's prayer.

After Sunday school finished, I turned around to see the newest teacher at Sanjo kindergarten sitting in the last pew! I haven't gotten to know her very well yet because she wasn't here all the times in the past when I would have the teachers over for dinner. So I chatted with her for a little bit and learned that she's interested in joining the band as a percussionist.

I turned around again, and there sitting next to me was a young Japanese lady whom I had never seen before. So naturally I greeted her and introduced myself in Japanese. She also introduced herself in Japanese, but then began speaking in fluent English! She explained that she had lived in Indiana for four years and went to Pastor Going's church, and now she's back in Sanjo and attending Chuetsu, which happens to be Pastor Going's former church. I learned that she is a Christian, and told her all about our cell group, and she's excited about coming this week because she's been looking to connect into a bible study. Two prayers answered at once!! I've been praying about potential Japanese Christians for our group since the one we have had is moving to Korea as a missionary as early as next month.

By then it was time for worship to begin. The sermon text was the story of Abraham's servant going to find Rebekah for Isaac, and even though I've often had difficulty understanding this pastor's Japanese, God spoke to me in spite of it. And the poor pastor lost his place in his sermon notes and couldn't find it again, to his great embarassment, and so he completed the sermon time by talking about something totally different impromptu that I couldn't understand, but it gave me time to process what God had revealed. I fought my fears that the service would go too long and make me late for the bus to Joetsu: God provided for me in a similar situation not two months ago, so I could confidently trust that it would all work out today, too. And it did, but I still had fears creeping in that needed fighting.

The service ended by 11:30am and then announcements and I exchanged contact info for both ladies and promised to ask someone in the band about the one who wanted to join. Since I'll likely forget, I'll skip ahead to say that by the end of the day, it was established that we do need another percussionist, that my teacher friend will come to the next rehearsal this Friday, and that she and I will go out to dinner together that day before rehearsal.

So after exchanging contact information, I took off to meet the band and get on the bus. I arrived in plenty of time (okay, ten minutes early), but they didn't leave exactly on time either. There was a flurry of activity, Kay was there and went with us to help out, and I got to help carry our bass-clarinetist's chair onto the bus.

On the bus I sat next to a young lady whom I had started to get to know, but she has seemed a bit distant over the last several months, so I was nice to chat and connect with her. Once we arrived, everything went very quickly. We went in, pinned the tags on our sleeves, and got our instruments out. Before long, we lined up and went up to our 'tuning' room. When it was time, we went back downstairs and backstage. We waited nervously while the band before us played.(As it turned out, they only got silver. There were four golds.) We went onstage, set up, played our best, and went off. Then it was outside for a group picture, back inside to put our instruments away, and into the audience for the awards ceremony. For some reason we were the last group to perform, maybe because we are the biggest. In any case, we took first place and will continue to the regional competition, which is being held this year in Niigata city, and coincidentally on Kay's birthday.

At various intervals, I also saw other people there, which may be why the time went so quickly. When we first arrived, I saw another horn player friend of mine from the orchestra, her group had just finished performing. I saw and chatted with her later too; her group took second place, so they will also go to the regional competition. She also introduced me to a friend of hers who has good English and has been to Nozomi Lutheran church for coffeehouse. When we were lining up to go to the tuning room, I saw a Shirone church member whose daughters were performing in the competition.

Another general highlight of my time with the band today: they light-heartedly joke that 'Betsy is Japanese.' The way that I use the language constantly when I'm with the band, down to even saying 'oops' and 'ouch,' my mannerisms and the fact that I can eat anything, prompted one of the horn players quite a while back to begin saying that, even though I may look like a foreigner, I'm really Japanese. That began maybe almost a year ago. Today several other people said a similar thing. I've always taken it as a compliment, and it's encouraging to feel that I'm fitting in to their lives and their culture while still retaining my 'saltiness.'

That's a prayer that God has been answering more and more day by day since I came to Japan nearly four years ago: may I become like the Japanese to win the Japanese for Christ.