Happy New Year

Happy 2006 Friends and Family!
This Year Bec and I spent New Years Eve (day) with our friends Nathan and Josh in a quaint old temple city named "Nara" which was the first capital of Japan. It was nice to do some touring around and enjoy the massive temples, see the world's largest bronze statue (a Buddha), the freely roaming and fearless deer, and good company. In the evening we headed back to Nate's place in order to go to a New Years celebration at a Lutheran Church that he had become aquainted with. We met the American born Lutheran pastor and his Norwegian born wife, who have lived in Japan for their entire 30 years together, as well as their three Japanese-born children and two of their spouses. It is something amazing to hear the three grown children speaking fluent English and Japanese and Norwegian interchangably and with ease together. They really were one of the most amazing families we have met; however, the neat part wasn't their language ability, but how they welcomed us in as family, and truly made us feel like brothers and sisters. It is no small blessing to be welcomed as family when your own is continents away. We spent the night with a small group that included the family, as well as two Korean girls and a Japanese youth: eating good food, playing games, singing praise to our Lord and learning a few swing dancing moves from the children. It was a great evening of fun and fellowship.
Today we were able to go to church for the first time in four months. It was an awesome thing to finally worship among other believers again. The pastor's wife translated the sermon from Japanese into English for us so that we could enjoy it fully. Some of the hymns that were sung were familiar, and so we just had to try and remember the English words. As we were leaving the church the pastor's wife invited us to stay for lunch, and we were blessed again by being welcomed in as family. They fed us good Japanese cuisine (except Naato - fermented beans - I couldn't handle the smell!) and even sang Happy Birthday for me though it is not quite my birthday yet. In the afternoon we walked up to a mountain shrine to see what it is that the Japanese do on New Years. There were literally thousands upon thousands of people making the pilgrimage up to the shrines in order to get good luck amulets and other things for the next year. It was interesting, if not a little saddening, to see the rituals and traditions that were being performed time upon time. It was so nice to go with our new friends, who had a real grasp of what what going on as we walked.