POR @ UT & Yokohama

Day 3: Wednesday, 14 July 2010

by Bertram Goh

 

Konnichiwa! Watashi wa Bertram desu ka! That’s probably all the Japanese that I can remember. Day 3 is probably the longest distance that we had travelled so far, judging by the amount we spent on transportation alone, as we had to travel all the way to Yokohama city!

 

 

Day 3 started with a time of prayer and reflection led by the team consisting of Joanne, Angie and Alicia. Guess what? We made origamis! Alicia Ho taught us how to make origami boats and went on to share two stories about Jesus and boats. The first story is found in Matthew 8:23-27 where Jesus calmed the storm in the presence of his frightened disciples and the second story is found in Matthew 14:22-36 where Jesus walked on water. Although Peter courageously walked on waters too, began to sink when he was frightened by the storms. The team encouraged us to have faith. Why do we have so little faith when Jesus is with us on the same boat! By faith, we can move mountains. By faith, we can win Japan for Christ!

 

We took a walk around the University of Tokyo campus in the morning to observe the people and the environment. It was initially quite quiet in the morning with very few people walking around. However, after we had our lunch at the canteen, the campus seems to come to life with students walking around, taking pictures and even adults bringing their kids to walk the grounds.

 

In the afternoon, we took a long train ride to Yokohama City to observe the city and its people. We first headed down to the port front where the sea and a giant ferris wheel  on a theme park greeted us as we came out of the station. They sure do have lots of theme parks in Japan! As we walked around the area, we could see a lot of families with their children and couples just walking around. The pace of life here is much slower that what we saw yesterday in Shibuya and Shinjuku  where people in business suits were zooming across the roads and walkways. In contrast, the people dressed casually.

 

In the evening, we made our way to Kanagawa Loudou Plaza in the Chinatown of Yokohama where Pastor Funatsu and his wife from Kanazawa Christ Church minister to the homeless. Pastor Funatsu warmly greeted us at the train station and brought us to a commercial building where his services for the homeless are held and we could see a long queue of homeless people waiting outside the building waiting for the service to commence. As the rented room was not enough to accommodate everyone, 2 half hour services were held to deliver the gospel to them. During each of the services, Sing Tee gave a beautiful special number in Japanese which greatly blessed every single seat in the room. Pastor Dale shared a great message about John 21. He shared about how John Chapter 20 seemed to conclude the Gospel of John but John placed purposefully Chapter 21 to show Jesus’ great forgiveness for Peter and told him to “feed my sheep.” He then prayed for the homeless that they will receive God’s restoration and forgiveness and that they will be given a “Chapter 21” in their lives. After both services, we went down to witness the distribution of the food to the homeless. Today’s menu was pastries from an American bakery! It really breaks my heart to see the people queuing up for food. Some of them are quite young but they are so poor and even homeless. I really pray that God will make a way for them to have a new start in life.

After the food distribution, we were treated to a sumptuous meal hosted by Pastor Funatsu and his wife. The food was Oiishi!! After dinner, we were given some time to shop at Yokohama before heading back to our hotel! And we got back at 10pm!

 

Today was a long and tiring journey but I believe we all had a good and purposeful day and I am looking forward to the remaining days in Japan! This is Bertram signing off! Thank you for reading my blog. Arigato Gozaimasu! Ooo… I remember another Japanese Phrase.