"Strike!"

The Fellowship student group at Kanto Gakuin University has gotten off to a good start this year. Having begun the year with just a little over 10 students coming regularly, we now have nearly 20 coming to each meeting.

We decided to begin the year with a party to welcome new students--a bowling party. Wow, I had forgotten how bad I was at bowling. Bowled a 141 in my first game, but a whoppin' 69 in the second. How's that for consistency!?!

A big blessing is that many of the incoming students are women. For almost 4 years now, the Fellowship has been composed of 90% men! So it was good to balance things out a bit with this incoming group of students.

Each meeting, students lead a discussion based on a topic they've chosen. In each session, we've done a short devotion using Henri Nouwen's book "Bread for the Journey," in Japanese translation. We've got a few musicians who've entered the group this year, so maybe we can convince some of them to do the music for our opening praise time as the year goes on...

We're looking forward to a fun and fruitful year!

A Homecoming

Dr. Raymond Jennings served as a chaplain and missionary teacher here at Kanto Gakuin from 1948 to 1960. He and his wife, Irene, came to Japan with two children, and another was born here--she's standing on the left in this photo.

A memorial service was held in Dr. Jennings' honor at Kanto Gakuin Church on April 6, 2008. We had the opportunity to remember a wonderful family who contributed much to KGU and to the wider Christian church in Japan.

While Dr. Jennings was in Japan, he worked both at the University and at the fledgling Baptist seminary--at that time located right here at Kanto Gakuin. Though he was surely no stranger to debate, he seemed to have been loved by a great number of folks here, as his memorial service was atttended by well over 100. He was a broad-minded Baptist, and left a legacy of building bridges.

For more information on Dr. Jennings' life and work, see:

http://www.rayjennings.com/index.html

I was very interested to talk with two of his children who were able to attend the ceremony (along with their mother, Irene). They were raised right here on Kanto Gakuin's Mutsuura campus, and it appears that things were different back then! Yanagicho--a housing development near us--was a swamp; the large, busy road in front of the campus was unpaved; and Americans were getting 350 yen to the US dollar (over 3 times the current rate!). Ah, the good old days!

Volunteer Trip to Thailand, Spring 2008

Though Kanto Gakuin's overseas development and volunteer work began with an association with the Karen minority group in Thailand, for the last four years, we have also worked among the Akhas living close to Chiang Rai. In this trip, members of the Sigma Society and Olive Branch--two college volunteer organizations, helped build a multi-purpose building in Doi Chang, along with our partner organization, The Akha Churches in Thailand. The building will be used as a community center and as a disaster shelter, as well as a place for a church to meet. We went to Chiang Mai to learn about work being done for AIDS orphans and in the area of AIDS prevention, as well. It was a good trip, exposing us to the reality of life for people without full citizenship rights in Thailand. A real chance to reflect on our call to be the "salt of the earth."

Mr. Kanda, a graduate student and member of Soshin Baptist Church is the leader of these two student groups. From this year, I've become their faculty advisor.

Check out the picture gallery for a virtual tour of the tour!

http://www.davidsonjapan.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=476

"Anyong haseyo"

...is the way to say "Hello!" in Korean. A couple of times a year, the students in the Fellowship group at Kanto Gakuin University get the chance to meet up with some Korean counterparts. This January, for about two weeks, a group of 10 came from South Korea--all volunteers with the South Korean Campus Crusade for Christ.

These students are always a pleasure to be with--lively, joyful, and truly good-natured. This group was particularly strong and we had a good time getting to know them. But just imagine the communication hurdles. Times like these make everybody realize how useful English really is!

A moving moment in this group's visit occurred at the beginning of our last Fellowship meeting together, when we all sang the well-known song, "Give Thanks." With one of the Korean students at the piano, everyone sang the first verse in English, and the second in their native language--English, Japanese or Korean! A beautiful cacophany of gratitude for our many blessings!

It occurred to me again that the good news we have in Jesus knows no boundaries.

"Worship South" Kids

These are a few of the kids who come with their parents to a monthly English worship gathering we host here at the Kanto Gakuin mission house. We have always called this gathering "Worship South" for the strange reason that, when we started it back in 2005, there was a similar group meeting in central Yokohama--we were the southern group, thus the name. Unfortunately, though, the group in central Yokohama stopped meeting this year. Maybe we ought to change the name of our group, huh?

Every month we have a potluck meal at 5:30, then begin an informal, emergent style worship time at 6:30. One of our teens looks after the kids. 30-35 people usually attend, and we're from all different sorts of church backgrounds (some from no church background at all), so the discussions are always lively and invigorating. We've often used video to start discussions, a big hit being the "NOOMA" series by Rob Bell.

Last month, we had a "Thanksgiving" theme, so the kids made a "Thank You Chain"--each link is a prayer to God and has a "thank you for..." written on it by one of the kids. Of course, as for us parents, these kids themselves are some of the "things" we're most thankful for!

A Safe Place

KGU's Institute for the Study of Christianity and Culture recently sponsored a lecture by a 28-year old author of a book on bullying. The book came out of the author's personal experience of being bullied--an experience that eventually forced him to quit school altogether.

As he shared his experience with over 200 students and teachers, it occurred to me that having a "safe place" is very important for people. The speaker explained that when he tried to tell his parents and teachers about the bullying that was going on, they basically replied, "Are you sure it's not your fault?"

Interestingly, one of the students asked him about whether or not he ever used his school's counseling room. "Well," he said, "a school counseling room is an okay idea, but the fact that you have to go to it reaffirms the notion that you're 'different' and that you have 'problems' to discuss. What I really wanted wasn't a place to go talk about my 'problems,' but just a place where I could be normal with other people--a place where I was accepted for who I was."

This struck me as so true. We all need a place to be fully accepted for the special creations of God that we are--a safe place. Church is supposed to be that kind of place for people, of course, but in a culture like Japan's, where participation in church is not part of mainstream life, "safe places" are sometimes hard to find.

At the Kamariya campus of KGU, I've been holding a "Chaplain's Lunch" every Friday. There's no program--it's just a time for students to gather, eat and chat. Hopefully, it's providing a safe place to some of our students. Heaven knows we all need to find a place like that.

Fellowship group at KGU "Culture Festival"

Last weekend, we had the annual KGU Culture Festival--a fun three days of making and selling food and relaxing with friends.

This year, The Fellowship group on campus decided to do an "American food" theme--with Johnsonville brats, clam chowder, nacho chips and American soft drinks. All went over really well, though nobody seemed to like the root beer!?!

I asked the group after all was said and done, "Well, how much did we make?" "Hmmm...," she said, "I think we broke even." "Yikes! What are we doing this for?!" I thought. Then I remembered that we're in Japan and just doing something together is sometimes the point of it all. That's not such a bad thing....

Oh yeah. Here's something fun--a movie clip of one of the student bands that was playing on the green. The real Japan!

For more pics of The Fellowship's booth at the culture festival, see:

http://www.davidsonjapan.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=301