Upon arriving to India, I quickly learned that I could no longer simply rely on my glimmering conversation skills to win people over. Luckily, the business people, teachers at the Rhino Centers and Calcutta Mercy Hospital staff that we regularly interact with do speak English, as well as Bengali and Hindi. This makes our job much easier whenever we need to collect information from patients at the hospital (almost all of the patients only speak Bengali) or when we need to tell the children to write from 1 to 100.

However, I have tried to learn some things in Bengali so that our time here in India is easier. So far the phrase that has stuck with me the most is “Shobo nobo borsho” (clearly spelled phonetically by my ears) which means “Happy New Year”! Obviously this is the most helpful phrase for me to know while in India. We learned this because a few weeks ago it was Bengali New Year, but the phrase can apply to any new year you would like it to. Or, if you want to take a page out of my book, you can make the phrase be an answer to any situation you do not understand. For instance: the guys in the office think it is funny to ask us questions in Bengali and they often instruct other people to do so. Once I run out oh ha’s(yes) and nah’s(no), I resort to “shobo nobo borsho”, I always find it answers the question about as well as I understood it.

More than just wishing people a happy new year, I have found that me speaking Bengali, no matter what I say, comes across as a very funny joke. At first, I was confused why most people would laugh and shake their head when I asked them “Kemon achen?” (How are you?), but by the fifth or sixth time I was no longer surprised. Finally I asked why it was so funny and the answer was “because it is so startling to hear Bengali coming out of someone who is so white”. Oh, oh okay.

Now I have learned to embrace this new power for laughter that I have discovered. Today as we were leaving the Paeds Ward (that is how they abbreviate pediatrics here) I said to one of the mothers “toneobad” (thank you), and was happy to walk out of the room to the sounds of her laughter.

So far, we have had the opportunity to interact with a great number of people in many different settings. We originally came here thinking we would be going to the schools and then coming back to our home and staying there, luckily this has not been the case. We make at least one or two trips to the hospital everyday to see new cleft lip/palate patients or follow up with the ones we have already seen and then we get to talk to the nurses and other staff we have formed connections with there. All of this, along with going to the schools and doing different tasks in the office has led to so many more connections than we ever thought we would be able to make during our short time here. We have felt truly welcomed and blessed by all of those we have met so far. So, whether it is by asking one of them how they are, or telling them “happy new year” weeks after it has passed, I am always happy if I can bring a smile to one of their faces.

But how great is our God that in our times of feeling so discouraged, he surprises us with an incredible day of unforeseen happenings. The professor at Seikei was a Christian man, a Hawaiian man, who had been living and teaching in Tokyo for over 20 years. His passion for Christ and the students at that university was so infectious, never before had I seen someone’s heart so clearly so quickly in all my time here. We then went to our Japanese class where we partnered with students one on one and they taught us some things about verbs that were very difficult. But the girls in the class were so sweet and we got to spend a little time with them after class eating ice cream and chatting. (Grace and I suggested the ice cream part of course). The professor from earlier invited us to one of his intercultural classes so we could talk to his students about America, Japan, and different views on the countries. The students were so great! I immediately felt so blessed to be able to share with them about how amazing the Japanese people truly are, and howI felt the entire country could see transformation if they were just more accepting of who they were created to be because they were created perfectly and with a purpose. I pray that they could sense the truth in that, and that they continue to ask the professor the same interesting questions that gave us an opportunity to share some of our beliefs. I’m so bummed that we only have one more opportunity to go to that class, time is running out!

In the evening Grace & I went to our church to help with the English class for the little kids. That class is so fun and the children are absolutely adorable. I kept trying to get one of the little girls to say “Vicki” but every time I would say “can you say Vicki?” she would respond with “Hi, my name is Minami.” So she didn’t really understand, but daijoobu. After the class we got to go to dinner with Pastor Nori and Chikako Sensei. They are so wonderful. On Sundays we barely get to spend time with them because they are so busy running the church so it was really nice to get to spend time with them. And before we ate dinner Pastor Nori says “So today is my birthday but you do not need to say anything special, I will treat you, I just ask for blessing.” I always knew how humble this man was, but it was so surprising to me that he hadn’t said anything about it being his birthday and then wanted to take us out to dinner and treat us on his special day. Very seldom would that happen back home. Dinner was filled with so much joy, laughter, talk about ministry, families, it was a really precious time. And in that moment the Lord spoke to me and said “See, Vicki, you pass judgement and think you know what each day will hold, but you forget that my plans exceed your tiny thoughts.”

I’m just so thankful that God has brought me to such an amazing place where there’s so many incredible people who have such a big heart for their country. The people of Japan surprise me everyday. Though my time here has been short and there’s only a few weeks left, words cannot describe how extremely blessed I feel being here.

One of the ways we get to serve is teach alongside a teacher or on our own, my favorite moment is working with some of the older kids one on one, some of the kids are already taking classes on using computers and how to use them, reading different stories and explaining the meanings of words while working on spelling. The students at Tangra have such a desire to learn and right now they are preparing to use what they have learned in the exams to come, so reviewing past material is a main focus when we teach. And when we aren’t teaching in the class we are working on attendance for the various schools and on some bible study plans.

God is really amazing and I am so thankful that I can see a glimpse of what is happening through the Calcutta Mercy Ministries in Kolkata.

Most of what we’ve been doing has been relational. During the week days we head into schools to teach english and to connect with students. Mario, Shannon, and I have each met students in school who we’ve been able to form friendships with and begin praying for. Every chance we have we’re meeting up for coffee, tea, or playing sports with students.

This past week sports has seemed to have a lot to do with our ministry. In a small town called Humenne we met a few Slovaks on the street who were playing sports and we joined in with them. We spent time with some Somalian, Ethiopian, and Eritrean refugees and eventually beat them in a soccer match. Mario has been playing basketball with every other kid, and just this past weekend all three of us watched the Slovak Hockey Final with a large group of kids from the school.

One way or another, we’ve been doing our best to connect with kids. Some we hope and pray may come to serve Christ themselves, doing our best to show God’s tremendous love and the role it has played in our lives. We’re also getting to know as many of the people in the Church, working to be a blessing and an encouragement to them (I know many are very appreciative of the drum cage we helped to create).

I’m continually excited about what God has done, the fruit we have seen, and the things that he will continue to do. I’m adding a quick video we throw together just so you can see a bit of what we’re doing and where we’ve been. Here’s the link – http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10151549718650640&saved

Much Love,
Aaron

I really feel that building relationships is key with the Japanese. Even in our short time here, if we don’t see any direct results of a student accepting Christ, I think the relationships are extremely important as well. The students here are so hungry, kind of like in the States where the younger generation is taking a turn away from the traditional ways of the older generations and searching for a new way of life, the young Japanese are the same. They are so open and are really searching for something to give them purpose in this life. Especially after the March 11th earthquake last year, the openness to new things and finding purpose is on the top of the list for the Japanese.

From a very young age they are taught to learn, learn, learn, study, study, study, work, work, work, and if you fail, then you are a shame to your family. It breaks my heart that there are students who go through life with a fear of being a failure (Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world). So, if while I’m here all I do is make a few good friends and help them to feel loved, appreciated, and cared for, I feel like I’ve done what I came here for. And I definitely feel that I’m beginning to do that, and that has been my greatest joy so far. Of course, when I’m asked questions about God, and faith, and prayer and can tell that God is working in their hearts, and I know that that is all the Lord’s workings, not mine. I just feel blessed that I can be a small piece of all that the Lord has planned for this incredible country.

Liz, Arisa, Masa, Grace, Me, Tony, Ayaka, and Takami

We went to a young adult small group last week.  The people there are awesome.  Wish we were that cool.  But they had someone come in and make “sate” for us.  Basically it’s chicken shish kabobs.  We were told to keep count so we knew how much to pay for, but after about 20, Jon and I stopped counting.  Sometime a little while later we wanted to know who ate the most. Since we didn’t count, we started over.  We were so ticked every time the other one would pick up another.  I won by the way.  In the end, they totaled up everyone’s and subtracted that from how much was made.  The rest was what we ate.  Between the two of us, we ate 215.  After we had a little food baby in our stomachs, we all went to get ice cream.

There’s so much more I want to tell you all!  Hopefully sometime soon I’ll get the chance to write about it.

Miss you all and we’re praying for you!

It’s been 2 weeks in Japan! It’s been a week and so far I’ve knocked over a bike while running to the train, gotten on the wrong train probably 2 or 3 times, and used the phrase “sumimasen” countless times. That means I’m sorry, or excuse me, or let me off this extremely crowded train. So basically there have been a lot of trains, Grace & I have gotten much better at navigating them, but I still think they are very confusing. But Daijobu! It will be okay!

But anywho, being here has been so great– Tokyo is such a huge city but such a great city at the same time. All of the people here are really friendly, I think they are sometimes confused by seeing us but we just smile & everything is good. During our time here we’re working with Chi Alpha, which is campus ministries. We’ll be going to a few different universities each week and meeting/hanging out with students, and inviting them to Bible Studies that we’ll be leading on the campus. So far we’ve been to Todai, or U of Tokyo, Waseda University, and Meiji University. Todai is the top university in all of Japan (kind of like a Yale, Princeton, Harvard…and all those other smart people schools) and Waseda is right behind that. So it’s kind of crazy that we’ll be leading Bible studies on those campuses. Our schedule right now is kind of relaxed because school doesn’t begin until April but this will be the week where everything begins to pickup! So I’m excited, and slightly anxious about leading Bible studies with students who barely speak my language and barely know anything about Christ, but I have a feeling that God is going to surprise me and do some great things in these 2 months.

2 weeks down and several more to go! Let’s go To-kyo!