My mother’s visit and homeshooler’s meeting in Tokyo

2009/10/18 Life in Japan No comments

It has been a while since I updated last time. From April 25 to May 9 in 2009, my mother visited us from California. She is now 76 years old with her perfect teeth.

best07.jpg

She flew from LAX to Tokyo, then to Korea, stayed there for 10 days. Then she flew back to Obihiro via Tokyo. We spent our time together doing different things like going to the mountain to pick some mountain wild vegetables which she loves to eat; or goint to beach for BBQ, etc.

best11.jpg

Both my wife, Ayumi, and my mother picking wild vegetables. Many Japanese also like to go to mountains to pick the wild vegetables for food.

In Sapporo, we visited our good friends Mr. and Mrs. Ikegami. There were the most faithful supporters for our ministries from 1995 when we first settled in Sapporo for a half year. They have a daughter, Arata, who is married to Mr. Fujii. They live very close to Mr. and Mrs. Ikegami.

The Ikegamis

The Ikegamis

It was vey nice to stay with them since it gave both of us encouragement.

Arata had a friend who worked at the flowershop. Miss. Numasawa came for the dinner and we had wonderful time together. She just lost her mother last year and lived with her father in Sapporo. She had been in many countries including North America.

Arata has two chirldren. They are so cute and God’s love toward them were great. Samuel played with them very nicely.

The food on the table as you can see were very delicious.

We flew out of Sapporo to Tokyo. My freind has a micro-bus that can hold upto 29 people. They came to pick us up at the airport with the micro-bus. Now it was about time for 3 family homeschoolers meeting time.

Homeschoolers meeting in Tokyo

Homeschoolers meeting in Tokyo

One of our common goal is to train our kids to send them as a short term missions team. There are 9 kids with 3 families. Their ages are from 1 to 22 years old. Very widely spreaded!!

3 fathers share very similar vision for our lives. Somehow the Lord led us together and we often talk about our plans.

Some of the kids are coming to the summer international camp this year too.

My mother enjoyed a lot with these familes.

Of course, she cooked some Korean dishes for them. They were favored by many.

I was blessed to have them as friends.

At the botanical garden

At the botanical garden

We went to the botanical garden since my mother likes flowers. There were lots of beautiful flowers.

Above all other flowers, my wife is the most beautiful flower out of all the other flowers in the botanical garden. (You see!?) （夫バカ）

My mother shared her testimony before some of the non-Chrisitan friends at my friends’ house.

At the botanical garden, the entrance fee was free since it was Midori no hi (Green Day – a national holiday). Yeah!!

We went around the garden and took lots of pictures.

Fujiyama Hotsprings

Fujiyama Hotsprings

Then, we went to Mt. Fuji area for several days. One of the highlight was to going hotsprings.

It was good time of relaxing and take away some load of tiredness.

Kids enjoyed outside hotsprings (rotenburo露天風呂)

After that, we had dinner together. Yes, all Japanese food. They provide the clothings for change.

Shiba-zakura Garden 芝桜園

Shiba-zakura Garden 芝桜園

On the way back, we stoped by the Shiba-zakura Garden (Moss Pink)

The mountain behind is the Mt. Fuji.

We all enjoyed the view and the shiba-zakura all around us.

Nice time for us since we prayer for the rain to stop and it really stopped for us. Thank God for that!

From this trip, I was in awe of His Goodness to us.

I thank for Horii brothers who hosted us during this special time of homeschooling together for a full week.

May the Lord bless us as we pursue for God’s direction for His missions to be accomplished.

Abraham@gospel house

From University to Immigration to USA

2009/04/16 My Story No comments

My University time was really meaningful one. My life was established with the teachings from the Bible and I began to be disciplined by juniors and seniors at Student Christian Movement (SCM) from my freshman year.　They were my big brothers. My understanding about God and His reality was very vivid in my heart. There were many great opportunities for me to grow in the Lord. Of course, there were many distractions also. However, m y heart was straight forward toward God andHis guidance.

One week schedule was very tight from early in the morning till the bed time. However, I felt so much of God’s presence in my life and I was fully enjoying my life without loosing my time in wasting on other unnecessary things. So, I was well content with what I was during that time. God was there to hear my prayers and in many occasions, I was in awe how God worked things out for me.

Of course, there were lots of questions unanswered, but I could not deny His existance by what I was going through. If I could make detailed stories of what had happened, it would take weeks after weeks. But I would like to say that God is real and He is alive.

I had only one purpose in my life: to share the Gospel to others who did not know about Jesus and God. This thought and decision kept me going to newer places. From S. Korea to America, then to Japan.

It was during these years at the university when my parents visited America for two months. Since my older sister came to US when I was in Jr. High, my parents were welcomed to my sister’s place. They took the whole two months of exploring America. In those tho months, they decided to move to California where my sister lived back then. So when they came back to Korea, they called each child of 3 and asked if we wanted to move to America. It was 50/50 in the beginning. My brother had very good chemical company after his discharge from the military service. He was newly wed and the first son was about to be born. My sister had a boy friend. She was about to graduate from her graduate school. I was finishing up my freshman year at the university.

In those time, I went to one of the evening service at the church on Sunday. The pastor opened the Bible and began to read from Joshua chapter 1. As he read the chapter, somehow for the first time in my life that God spoke to my heart that I was supposed to go the America. I did not know how this was happening, but I knew in my heart that God was speaking to my heart about this. After the service, I ran to my home and told that I was going to go to the States. Then all of a sudden, everyone came to an agreement. It was like a magic. Then it took about a year from the application to actual move to US.

The time to go to America came on Feb. 20, 1983. I was on the plane to Los Angeles with my brother and sister. My parents came to America before us to prepare our place to stay. As soon as my plane landed at the L.A. International Airport, I felt that I came home instead I arrived a foreign country. Yes, it was true.There were about 100 brothers and sisters in the Lord from my university at the airport sending me off. There at the end of the gate, I exclaimed “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”

The last message I remembered was that the blessings come through sufferings. As the plane took off, I was meditating on this profound truth not knowing what was ahead of me. At the airport, our favorite brother-in-law came to meet us. Anaheim California was our first place to live near my sister’s place.

After we arrived, the first thing we all did was to take the driver’s license. We all passed with the help from our brother-in-law. We all were endebted to Mr. Chin, our favorite brother-in-law. So our life in California started this way.

Meeting the felt needs of the small town as a ministry

2009/04/02 About Hokkaido, About our ministry, Missions in Japan, My Story No comments
Urahoro town from the mountain top

Urahoro town from the mountain top

After we moved to Urahoro town with less than 6000 people, I began to realize how important it would be to meet the felt need of the town. Number one need for this town seemed to me was that they needed to have profitable businesses so that they could provide the basic needs of the society. Many people left the town since we moved to this town. When we arrived here, the population was 6200. Now it is 5900. What had happened between now and then within 3 years period? Many older people died; some bankrupped; some businesses closed down; some committed suicide. Each year about 100 people left the town. One of the reason why my house was on sale was because the branch office of a company in Urahoro where the previous owner worked for closed. Many still struggle for their business management. Somehow the IT could be a way to get away from this bad cycle.

Urahoro Shopping Area

Urahoro Shopping Area

The town’s shopping area has pretty much of what you need. Recent addition of home center perfected what a small town could offer for shopping.

The picture on the left shows what it is like on this major shopping street. Drug store, electric shop, cake shop, etc are shown at this picture.

There are about 200 businesses registered to Urahoro Chamber of Commerce. As I shared about one of the construction company CEO committed suicide last year, the management of the businesses were not running well. One of the major reason was the highly priced yen now.

Urahoro Camp Site

Urahoro Camp Site

They need to come up wiht better plan or better management. There are great need to improve the management and creation of new businesses. There may be some governmental fund available for new businesses and current businesses. However, much is not used from this town I suppose.

How can I help this town? This is one of the major question I ask to myself many times. I ask God to bless this town since the prosperity of this town means the prosperity of myself according to the scripture.

“Work for the good of the cities where I have made you go as prisoners. Pray to me on their behalf, because if they are prosperous, you will be prosperous too.” Jer. 29:7 (TEV)

Abraham Lee@Gospel House

Ainu People in Hokkaido

2009/04/01 About Hokkaido No comments
At Ainu Festival

At Ainu Bear Festival

While I was at the museum in Shari, I took some pictures of Ainu cultural exhibitions.

The picture at the left is very important Ainu festival relating to bears. They consider bear as an important symbol for their lives. Each year they celebrate this festival and keep the bear at the festival.

Spiritually bear is worshipped as a form of god.

Every museums I visited around Hokkaido, I could see this kind of pictures on festivals for bears.

There must be very strong tie with bear in Ainu’s life style.

Ainu catching salmon

Ainu catching salmon

Ainu knew how to catch salmon from the rivers. Salmon was major food source for their winter survivor. They used Salmon skin to make their shoes. Dried or smoked salmon would be prepared for their winter.

So Ainu invented salmon catching devices very similar to fishing equipment. It is usually wooden spear with devices to catch or hold the salmon at the end.

As you can see in the picture, the fish can not escape from the trap and it is not piercing the fish, but it hooked the salmon so that it can not escape.

Very smart device for Ainu.

Ainu House

Ainu House

Here is a picture of typical Ainu house.

They made the house like this and there are many places where you could find the trace of the previous Ainu house.

They are nature friendly.

According to what I heard from some people who worked with Ainu, they said that Ainu take only what they need from the nature. When Ainu fisherman go to catch fish, they only take what they need  and they do not have idea of keeping them for sales. They live in a community so they share what they have caught.

This prohibited them from developing a capitalism in their society. Therefore, keeping accounting was not in their ideas.

Ainu's four seasons

Ainu's four seasons

Here is the typical four seasons for Ainu.

They did not develop rice growing since they did not have idea of sales. Whatever they could find in the nature, they caught or ate them as the provision from it.

It was only when Japanese came to Hokkaido, they began to have trade with Japanese. They traded their salmon or crane with mordern items from Japanese.

I find it interesting for Ainu to live in harmony with nature. They are peace loving people and have never initiated war against Japanese.

I just pray that Ainu people will come to know the Lord and have peace with God as they make peace with Japanese and themselves.

Abraham Lee@Gospel House

Summer International Camp is being prepared July 30 to Aug. 2

2009/03/31 About our ministry, Missions in Japan No comments
6th International Camp 2008

6th International Camp 2008

Now it is about time to seriously prepare for the summer international camp. Last year, we used two facilities for camp. One building from NPO Urahoro which is a 5 bedroom house. But it was not enough to host the participants. Another buidling was a cottage or cabin at the camp site. Both of them would be good for last year, but it will be more people this year. So, we are looking for another facility where we can host about 100 people.

As each year’s summer approaches, we always get busy to prepare for the camp. Our English classes continue as usual, and some of them will be participants for the international camp. Our goal is to have international cultural exchange through which they become aquainted with Christian lifestyle. This opens up lots of questions and leads into more conversation with clearer understanding of what Christianity is all about.

This year the camp will be held from July 30th (Thurs.) to Aug. 2nd (Sun.) It always ends with chapel or worship and it is good way to finish the camp. Many are the first time to attend any kind of Christian service.

We have about 30 minutes of praise and worship with short message to share the Word with practical applications. Then we all apply right after the message to close. At the end of the service, we give out the certification of participation for the camp. Then we take a picture for all who have attended.

Please pray for this camp to be blessings for the participants.

Abraham Lee@Gospel House

Shari Town

2009/03/30 About Hokkaido, About Japan No comments
World Natural Heritage Site, Shiretoko

World Natural Heritage Site, Shiretoko

Today, we went to Ayumi’s mother’s place. Its main reason was to go to Shari town with Ayumi’s mother, Mieko, for tour and for celebrating her birthday. Since Shari town was Mrs. Mieko’s place where she was grown up. World Natural Heritage Site, Shiretoko is very near from Shari. It is one of the reservation area for natural protection.

Her home town was called Iwabetsu, a small village near Utoro, about 40 minutues drive from Shari.

We visited the Shiretoko Museum in Shari where we found many interesting things in the history of Shari in the past 100 years.

She found the agricutural equipment she used to use when she was very young.

She found the agricutural equipment she used to use when she was very young.

She was very happy to find the kind of equipment she used to use when she was very young while her parents were farmers.

There were lots of interesting things in the past and she were very happy to see those things she used to use in the past.

There are several more pictures I would like to share and they will be very interesting to the readers I suppose.

We planned to take a bath at the hotsprings, but she wanted to take more time at the museum since she enjoyed lots of interesting things displayed at the museum. So that was what we did.

Inside of a house a long time ago in Hokkaido

Inside of a house a long time ago in Hokkaido

Here is another interesting place where it showed a room of a hundred years back in Hokkaido. The calendar, a clock, some furniture, a lamp, a folding screen, a kettle, a mirror, and other small items at the house.

They were very intresting to see how they lived in Hokkaido about a hundred years ago.

If you want to find out where Shari is, please click the following link:

http://www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/ks/skn/ssi/kakucho.htm

Above site is about Shiretoko area where it was named as The World Natural Heritage.

She found the same machine she used to use at one of the corners.

She found the same machine she used to use at one of the corners.

Anyway, Shari near Shiretoko is a very nice nature-rich area where Ayumi’s mother was raised. I would like to visit Shiretoko at summer time to camp out in the middle of abundant nature.

Abraham Lee@Gospel House

Favor from the Lord

2009/03/25 Life in Japan, My Story No comments
Mr. Kinoshita (Right)

Mr. Kinoshita (Right)

When I first came to Urahoro town, Mr. Kinoshita welcomed us. He was the key man for this town to get to know others since he was involved in developing this town and vice president for Urahoro Chamber of Commerce. He invited us for his private party and he showed great interest in us.

He introduced me to all of his friends and he asked me why I came to Urahoro. All I could tell him was God’s leading. Then he began to tell others about me as a missionary and God led me to Urahoro. Interesting!!

He is very active in the town development since the population decreases each year. He owns a lumber business and an auto shop. Through him and others, we were able to settle down in this town rather quickly. He invited us to participate in the town events. These events made us get closer to the people around us.

I joined Urahoro Chamber of Commerce to get to know other business people. Through this process, I began to have broader relationship with other business people in this small town. That was great investment and I am very pleased with it. I also did some seminars on IT usage to be applied to their business in order to get new customers. This seminar was good since they could apply the principles to their own businesses. It is very effective since we have less population in a remote area. Urahoro Chamber of Commerce also introduced some customers to me too. So it was nice to be in a local body of commerce.

From there, I also had a couple as my English students. This couple is the head of chamber of commerce whose daugher lives in Hawaii. Since I lived in Hawaii for about 5 yeras, he opened himself to study English from me. He wanted to be the mayor of this town, but he did not make it. But his position and influence is there obviously in this town.

I feel God’s favor as I come to this small Urahoro town. God has paved a way for me to get in and He brings favor after favor as we obey His leading coming to this town.

May God continue to lead me!! I just have to give thanks to God for His Goodness.

Abraham Lee@Gospel House

Teaching Korean in Japan

2009/03/23 About Japan, Life in Japan, Missions in Japan No comments
Teaching Korean

Teaching Korean

When I moved to Satsunai area in Makubetsu town, God had put us in a neighborhood where people were very close to each other. In one neighbor’s meeting, Mr. Hama asked me to join the town planning committee since I was working with IT related work. He was working for the town office and wanted me to be a part of the committee and give some input at the 10 year projecting town planning meeting. So I accepted that position since I wanted to get to know people in this town without a church. What this led me was to introduce myself to town office about who I was. Ever since then, I was a town planning committee member from the year 2000 to 2009. This led me to be chosen to be a Korean teacher at the cultural enrichment classes offered by the town office. I gladly accepted their invitation since I was looking for more involvement with the people in the town.

Because of that, I could meet more people and the town recognized me as one of the good input source as a voice from the people in town. So it was win-win situation. I got to meet more people, the town would get input from me as a foreigner and as an IT specialist. From this Korean class, several of the people who took my class wanted to continue to study Korean. Then I opened Korean classes for them along with other English classes. One after another, many of them began to join the classes.

From 2004, I began to have an outreach team with mothers from Seoul, Korea to teach how to make Kimchee and we had overwhelming response from all over Tokachi area. Some came from one hour away by car. It was sensational since it was boom in Japan at that time where many Korean dramas and movies were introduced. At the movie theaters, one third was Korean movies. Many watched Korean movies and they wanted to understand Korean more. Because of this, many wanted to study Korean. But then, they began to drag their eagerness to learn Korean because of their daily routines and they could not take time to study. The only time they could study was at the class time. This was not the way they could learn a language.

Their quick decision to study Korean faded quickly. They dropped out. But still others who wanted to study Korean would continue to join the classes. Still that classes are open and I get more people to get to know.

I thought it was God’s move for Japanese to look at Korean with respect. Korean missionaries are number 2 after American missionaries in number now in Japan. It was after world cup soccer co-hosted both Japan and Korea, that the cultural exchange began between the two countries. Korea was governed by Japan for over 37 years since 1919 to 1945. During these years, Korean was baned and Korean culture was discontinued by force. Many rebelled against Japan and died to protest during the time period. I was educated not to favorably accept Japanese from school since the teachers laid out the cruelty of what Japanese had done to Korean in the past. The pictures and movies were shown around Aug. 15th when Japan gave up the war against U.S.A. after the atomic bombs were dropped on the Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The emperor proclaimed that he was not a god. Then Japan had to wave white flag gesturing the nation would not continue to war.

It is ironic if you think of the past history that Japanese baned Korean for over 37 years. And now I was asked to teach Korean to Japanese. What a change and what an irony this can be!! I could only think that this was the move of God and the chance given by God for His purpose. There was big change in my understanding about Japan and Japanese. When I only saw Japan afar, it seemed enemy, but when I am inside in Japan, Japanese are my only brothers and sisters. I am grateful to God who brought me this far with better understanding of who Japanese are for me. God has goodness in Japanese and has purpose for Japanese in their eternity with God’s destiny.

My understanding of God’s redemptive purpose for Japanese is that they are warriors to be the final thrust to reach the unreached area of middle east. Many of them will be added as martyrs for Christ and they will be business people with missions. This is what I want to teach and lead in Japan in the future.

Abraham Lee@Gospel House

Japanese TV programs

2009/03/22 About Japan 2 comments

When I first arrived in Japan, I could not understand anything at all. However, just as one of my friend from England said that Japanese TV programs seemed to be very low budget programs, I should agree with that. Some programs were worthless to watch like junk. Well, my impression about the contents of general tv programs were eating, taking bath (hotsprings), travel, laughing just for laughing’s sake, etc.

NHK in English

NHK in English

The only channel worthy to watch was NHK. They put things like real world. This particular program adds value to watch TV. Real life stories, economics, etc. were very helpful. But they are all based on evolution based thoughts. The Department of Education with current politics were tied to only show along with evolution theory as norm. Therefore, you only have to have one thought without any other opinions. So the average Japanese will live with this unified thought all through out their life span. No other options were allowed in education in Japan. That is so sad to know. It is pitiful that they do not allow other opinions openly. Therefore, even NHK’s perspectives were biased.

Above NHK English site, you can learn Japanese from there. The URL for this site is: http://www.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

My son likes to watch quiz programs or knowledge based programs on a wide variety of subjects.

Well, after Samuel started to do homeschooling, we decided not to connect to the TV and since then, we did not watch TV at all. It has been over 4 years now without TV. You can tell the difference in our family life where we have more conversation and productive activities like playing the guitar and the piano as we sing together as a famliy. Occasionally we watch movies. That is about it.

Much of children’s animation also lack good morality. This was one of the reasons why I disconnected TV at home. They seem funny, but lots of times, morally unsound. This creates the pitfall of watching animation in Japan. There were many times where I should have told Samuel where I stood on various issues and values as we watched TV together. Maybe this could be true in any TV programs around the world.

Anyways, TV programs in Japan generally put me off many times. So you can not expect much from Japanese TV in my opinion. We need to have more Christian influence on media with proper perspectives and values.

Abraham Lee@Gospel House

Yogurt became our favorite food these days

2009/03/21 About Hokkaido, Life in Japan 2 comments
Yogurt

Yogurt

Hokkaido is known for one of the best farm land in Japan. Tokachi district is where we live and Tokachi is a good brand for agricultural products. When these products are in Tokyo area, they can sell at higher prices because of its brand.

Before I came to Hokkaido, I did not drink milk much since I did not like the processed milk much. However, after I came to Hokkaido, I began to drink milk much because of the different processing process for milk in Japan. One of my dairy farmer friend gave us non-processed milk and they were very rich and I liked it. The dairy farmer friend showed us around his farm with lots of Holstein milk cows.

It was only one hour away to get to my friend’s farm. Lots of other animal were there. Anyways, Yogurt is fermented milk and they are good after each meal. There are many other brands for yogurt in Japan. We mix with liquid sugar from sugar beet before we eat them.

Recently we eat yogurt a lot and almost everyday we find ourselves eat yogurt. When yogurt is not in the refrigerator, someone will notice and we just go out to buy some.

My diet in Japan has changed greatly. First of all, I began to eat brown rice everyday. Since then, I lost about 3 kg (about 5 lbs.) Lucky! Miso soup and tofu, and other fish are very often on the table. Less meat and more vegetables. Specially from the spring to fall, we will have home grown vegetables. It is almost all-you-can-eat vegetables and they are good.

Hokkaido provides fresh milk, lots of vegetables, and delicious fish. You know also Hokkaido is well known for good food. You have to come and taste some when you come to Japan. Hokkaido is the place you want to visit. If you do, please stop by us.

Blessings!!

Abraham Lee@Gospel House

« Older Entries