Yesterday was quite the exciting day. I have firework remains stuck to me and smell like something blew up in my face (yes it is 10:30 the next day and I still haven't had a shower...) but it was worth it. I went to Omigari with three friends yesterday. Omigari, for those of you uneducated in Japanese festivals (I don't know how you could ever be educated on those things because during the summer it seems like there's a different festival every day), is one of the biggest firework competitions in Japan. Thirty companies were competing for the title of having the best fireworks, and every year tons of people come to that one town/city to watch it. I say town/city because I'm not sure what it's like without all those people. Apparently the population is only around 40 000, but every year about 700 000 people come to watch these fireworks. I have never felt more like a fish in my life. A very white fish in a very asian sea. (I think it was not unlike what the Exodus would look like.)
Our train arrived at around 3 in the afternon and we followed the masses the 30 minute hike (in the intense heat) to the firework grounds where we found a place to sit and wait for the afternoon fireworks to start. I had never heard of afternoon fireworks before either, but apparently some genious figured out how to make it work. It's really just a lot of colored smoke and bright flashes in the sky, but it was pretty neat. Then, when it got dark, the real fireworks came. Canada Day in Sasky has nothing on these fireworks; it was quite the show. Someone figured out how to make shapes with the fireworks, so sometimes, amongst the already amazing fireworks you could see cats, or angels (really they were some sort of edible sea creature that look like angels...), stars, hearts, apples, the Qoo drink mascot.
And, someone way back figured out that fireworks are much better when they are choreographed with music. (One set even featured the Aladdin song "A Whole New World" which I may or may not have sang along with really loudly just because I knew the song; and hey, it was Aladdin, who can't help but sing to Aladdin? And all the people around me may or may not have been staring...but hey. I'm white. I can get away with a lot in this monolithic society. And I told the people I was with that gaikokujin are just naturally louder than Japanese people; they agreed.)
Occasionally the wind would bring firework shrapnel the way of the crowd. When it first started coming I was like, 'I want to catch a piece!' and then literally 10 seconds later a big one came to me, falling from the sky, and I snatched it right out of the air. I was elated. It's my newest souveneir.
But just one thing I was a little disappointed at. Fireworks are really hard to take good pictures of I've discovered. And finally after over 4 hours of taking pictures, reviewing them, erasing them, waiting for a good shot, taking it, and then erasing it because it was horrible, my batteries finally gave out. ...Right before the big finale. How disappointing. None of you will ever get to see what it looked like, but trust me, it was amazing.
There is one advantage about living in the country: not many people live there. When the fireworks were over, the train station staff were coralling people according to what train they were taking to what city, the lines were absolutely overflowing with people...except our line. Us countryfolk got to just walk straight through, past the hoards of people, straight up to the front doors and onto the train. I have never felt more like a movie star or some other famous person in my life. All these people held back behind metal gates while you get to prance right by them and into your mode of transportation. But that was definitely a train-full of countryfolk. I'd hate to see the other trains.
At a little after 2am I finally got safely home (with only a minorly exhausted head from hearing and speaking Japanese for over 15 hours straight)....just to wake up a few hours later to go to church. But it was amazing.
And I think tomorrow when I wake up I'll have a shower so I don't have to smell like a bomb anymore.

I Wonder...

I sometimes wonder what I'll turn out to be.
I wonder what my life will be like when I get older, and where I'll end up living and what I'll be doing. I have lots of dreams for myself, but God has dreams for me too.
I wonder how they'll intersect, and what kind of super-life that will be.
I wonder who will still be my friends in 10 years, and I wonder how many countries I would have visited.
I wonder what God is doing in me here in Japan, and if I'm even accomplishing anything for Him by being here.
I wonder if I'm making a difference at all, or if I'd be just as useful at home.
I wonder why God called me here, the boonies of Japan, when I was still just a teenager.
I wonder if I'll end up coming back and living here for a long time, and I wonder why that scares me. I wonder what's actually going on in the spiritual realms right now; what battles are being fought, and which ones have already been won, which ground has been gained and which is still under attack.
I wonder what earth really looks like under all these false pretenses.
I wonder what a real Christian would look like, who wasn't scared of being different and who loved God with their whole heart.
I wonder how religion would change if Christians started acting like Jesus instead of just pretending.
I wonder how many people could be saved if just twice as many Christians as are doing it now stepped out and started living for God and not for themselves.
I wonder how the world would change if everybody wasn't so greedy with what they have, or don't have but want.
I wonder what the world would look like if everyone stopped living for themselves and actually thought of other people.
I wonder what the world would be like without fear.
I wonder what good God possibly sees in my heart and how he's going to make it more like his.
I wonder how many people I've told about God without even realizing it.
I wonder if it's just the easy way out by saying that we don't need to say anything to tell others about Jesus, that they see Him in the way we live.
I wonder if there's more I could be doing here, or even in this world.
I wonder why my main job here seems to be to teach people how to say "I like blue" instead of "Jesus loves me".
I wonder if I'm doing all I can for God right now, or if I'm really only doing part of what He wants me to do.
It's been quite the day...

J[esus]ack-in-a-box

I am writing this for the sake of those who do not believe in miracles, and for the sake of God who deserves to have things like this told in his name.
Last year I got the pastor of a church in Camrose to pray for my knee to be healed, for my ACL to be restored. The elders prayed for me, but it wasn't my ACL that got healed; a few years before I had apparently pinched a nerve in my back playing soccer and my right hip was an inch further back than it was supposed to be. That was the thing that God wanted to heal that day. So as we all prayed and thanked God we watched my right hip rotate back to where it was supposed to be. And it was healed.
But then a month or two ago I noticed that it had gone out of place again, and my hip was back where it was before it had been healed. But I never really thought anything of it.
I was in Sendai for the last 5 days. On one of those days (Saturday afternoon) I was talking to Hannah and I showed her how out of place my hip was by the position of my legs, and told her what had happened before and how frustrated I was because my ACL didn't get healed when I asked for it to be. And then I didn't think anything of it again...until I was falling asleep that night.
I was laying there on my back on the futon, just talking to Jesus before I fell asleep when I felt my right leg start moving on its own. At first I was confused because that's not a very normal thing, but then I flashed back to last year when I was at that church, surrounded by elders, being prayed over for healing, and how my leg moved the same way. I started thanking Jesus for healing me; then I would start doubting and wonder what was going on, and my leg would stop moving; I would start thanking God again, and it would start moving again. Then it felt like someone grabbed my ankle and was pulling on my whole leg. Laying on my back, my hands were on my belly; with my hands I could feel the position in my hips changing. And then when it was done, still not quite believing, I put my knees up and checked if they were level or not (that afternoon they were definitely not level) and I had been completely healed!
Hannah was laying beside me, not quite asleep, noticed me put up my knees, and asked what I was doing. I showed her the difference in my legs and then told her God had just healed me; she was absolutely amazed - so was I; I still am.
Hannah and I talked for a bit until she fell asleep, and then God decided to fix my right shoulder as well (I had no idea anything was wrong with it). All of a sudden it was moving around and jerking, rotating up and down and up and back, getting into the perfect place; I could see it with my own eyes. Then God did the same with my left shoulder. And then my entire spine. It was like it completely straightened out; there was one place in the middle of my spine where it just, released, for lack of better words, or opened. If you could feel yourself growing I'm pretty sure that that is what it would feel like.
So I experienced God's healing smorgasbord, and I wasn't even asking for it. It was absolutely incredible, and it still doesn't feel real when I think about it. I would doubt the whole thing completely if Hannah hadn't have been there to see it.
I don't know why God chose that moment to heal me, heal me without me asking, and heal things I didn't even know were a problem. But I do know without a doubt that it happened. I have a big God, one who loves me and cares so specifically for me, even as I'm lying on a futon on the floor of a church in Japan, so far away from all I know as familiar. And I believe that miracles like that aren't supposed to be an oddity; they only are because we've tried to put God into a box on a shelf in a closet we rarely open.
But God definitely opened his box and jumped out, and I'm in no hurry to put him back in. You should open your box as well, Jesus wants to come out and play.

Kanto festival pictures

Here are some pictures of the Kanto festival in Akita City on the weekend. These tall many-lanterns-on-a-stick are supposed to look like rice stalks. The streets were just full of them.
And this one man was just so happy to have his picture taken with me. It makes me laugh inside whenever I see his face; he was quite the proud Kanto-er.

I See a Monkey

It's the monkey!! How exciting. Too bad the one of the monkey on the fence is blurry...
And I'm glad we didn't get monkey mauled when we got out of the car.

Nebuta

Here are some pictures of the Nebuta festival I went to in Aomori on Friday night. These huge floats are handmade out of paper, and then handpainted. Then teams of people pulled them around, going faster or slower, and turning them so everyone in the crowds could see. It was quite incredible. The whole festival had a lot of energy with so many people drumming and dancing.

Mission:Monkey...check!

On Saturday I went to a festival in Akita with a couple of friends.; Kanto it's called. It's a festival where especially talented people balance long long bamboo poles with branches almost, with many many paper lanterns hanging off of them. These things are like 20 feet tall, and have a width of about 6 or 8 paper lanterns across. (They're supposed to look like rice plants right before the harvest, with lots and lots of rice on them to encourage the gods to give them a good harvest.) But these amazing people balance these things on their hands, their shoulders, their heads, their hips, and it's just incredible. Hundreds of them do it all at the same time, filling this one street, while thousands of people are watching. After the professionals finished, normal people could try to balance the kanto. And I did it!! I got one balanced on my hand! Just on a kids' one though, not nearly as tall or hard to do as the normal sized ones, but hey, I'm proud. I even have a picture to prove it. One of my friends I went with got it balanced not just on his hand, but on his shoulder! It was crazy.

Then I went to another festival tonight. Japan's crazy in the summer for festivals; I've been told it's in between the rice planting and harvesting, plus it's not cold, so they plan all their festivals for the summer. It was fireworks, but with live Japanese drumming behind it. There's something that makes fireworks so much more exciting when there's drumming too.

And I have an amazing thing to report: one of my missions is complete. I wasn't even hunting, and I found a monkey in the wild!! Yesterday we were driving to Odate for supper, and a monkey popped out of the bushes. We slowed down the car and Kaila rolled down her window. The monkey may or may not have almost jumped in the car... it was a big and ugly monkey. It stared at me with its wrinkly eyes. We kept driving because there were cars behind us, but I asked if we could turn around so I could take a picture. So we went on an impromptu monkey hunt. We got to take some pictures, and then it disappeared into the bushes again. I don't know what possessed us to do this, but me and Kaila got out of the car to go look for it. We kept the car door open in case of an emergency, and clung to each other out of fear of getting monkey mauled. (I was the kind friend and held her in front of me as we walked.) What an amazing day that was. God gave me a monkey, even though it was big and ugly and had a red bum and wrinkly eyes.

Oga Peninsula

Here are some pictures of the day we all went to Oga Peninsula. There's one of me at the top of the lighthouse, but that was in a little different place than the others, like half an hour away.



This lookout was absolutely beautiful. I've decided that a photograph just doesn't capture an atmosphere or an environment. But here is my attempt to show you God's beauty. It was one of those places where it was almost irreverent to speak.

I went to an aquarium a couple of weeks ago with one of my old students. I saw penguins and a Canadian polar bear. For Japanese people, I think going to an aquarium is not unlike going to a grocery store. At almost every single tank the lady I was with said that what was inside looked delicious and that she wanted to eat it.
And there was a tank full of Finding Nemo characters, like Dory and Gill (Nemo was in a seperate tank). But it made me happy.

Water Queen

These last couple of days have been so busy. But good busy. I like good busy.
Monday I went to the beach and swam in salt water for the first time in the Sea of Japan. How exciting. It was so calm it looked like a lake, but the water tasted disgusting. I got severely burnt. I think me and Kaila will be good candidates for skin cancer in 20 years or so.
Then we drove around the Oga Peninsula, which was absolutely beautiful. We got to climb up a lighthouse that was right on the tip of the peninsula. It's kind of a tourist attraction, so you had to pay 150 yen to go up. I pretended to be a tourist and didn't speak any Japanese to the money lady...or the girl at the top we got to take our picture. I'm a horrible person...but it's a pretty fun game. I kinda made us look like idiots though because when we went back down the lighthouse, I started speaking Japanese to the money lady who was closing up for the day. I forgot I was playing the tourist game.
Then we drove up a mountain to the most beautiful lookout I have ever seen. It overlooked the whole peninsula, and there was ocean on three sides. It was one of those places where a photograph just doesn't do God any justice.
Then Tuesday...oh Tuesday. I went to Sendai for a youth retreat. This is how my day started: me waking up to the phone call at 6:00am from the people who were coming to pick me up and take me to the bus station in five minutes; my alarm hadn't woken me up. And I conveniently hadn't packed the night before so I just had to throw a couple things in a bag and go. So I got on the bus and sat there falling asleep peacefully (as peacefully as I could with a horrendously sunburnt back), until I realized I didn't know what to do or where to go when I got to the bus station in Sendai; I had failed to receive a few important details like that. Four hours later I got to this city whose sidewalks are wider than the two lane streets in the town I'm used to (not unlike going from Rosetown to Calgary) and was completely lost. I phoned the Nordaas for help, but it didn't help much, besides learning that apparently I needed to take a train to the right suburb that the seminary is in. Once I got on the seminiary side of the train, I walked around lost, over and over, past the same buildings and down the same streets, trying to find this place hidden in these impossible Japanese roads. Two hours later, with the help of the 6th person I asked, I found the seminary. I was a little grumpy by the time I got there.
But the rest of the retreat was super fun. I played soccer a little, with cones and bare feet (my knee only hurts a little...). We got to play with fireworks (which were, in my opinion, just like glorified birthday cake sparklers, but fun). I was the female MVP of WaterWorld (like an afternoon of water games). I'm not sure I did so much to be amazing, but I was crowned Water Queen or 2006. How prestigious. I got flipflops and a tierra. I also had a fan club (it was only a couple 15 year old girls but still, it's a fan club none the least). One of the girls started crying today when I told her I was going home because I'm pretty sure I'll never see them again. The people there were so amazing; they had so much patience with my pitiful Japanese, and helped me understand things. I am very thankful for them, and I'm glad I got to go and meet all these new people; hanging out with people my age is very refreshing.
So what have I learned these past 4 days? God is definitely teaching me patience right now. These fruits, they're tough to get if you don't go to the right store. But good things Jesus is the manager of that store, and he gives the fruit free of charge, just a little growing pain here and there. But I guess it's worth it in the long run, as long as you get to be a little more like Jesus. And who would expect any less of the most recently crowned Queen of Water?