Seeing Eye to Eye

Note: I had an impressively long blog post set up as the next update, but my computer decided not to save it so this is version #2. I'm going to do my best to be thorough, although slightly more brief, but I will try to keep all the main content included. This post is going to be long, as it's an update from a busy two weeks, so if you're not going to read the full thing please at least read the wrap up at the end. :)

Building a storage tent for a local fisherman.

Much of the past two weeks has been devoted to building storage and army tents for Samaritan's Purse, an international relief organization. When the tsunami came more than two years ago, fishermen were hit especially hard and in a fishing community that impact is bad news for everyone. The storage sheds will give the local fishermen a place to store their fishing equipment and the army tents will give volunteers a place to stay while they work in the area. The plan for the project is to build dozens of these two types of tents all over the Oshika Peninsula near Ishinomaki, and is home to many small fishing villages that often get overlooked.

The finished army tent we built for Mr. Hiratsuka.

This army tent took a full three days to construct compared to the three or four hours it takes to set up a storage shed. But the benefit of the longer period of time was that we were able to get to know the Hiratsuka family a little bit better. Mr. Hiratsuka showed us a family photo as he told us about his children and I was a little confused because it didn't look like a typical family portrait. He explained that a photographer from the newspaper came to take pictures of people because many families lost most of their belongings, including many photographs, in the tsunami.

One of three amazing lunches we had at the Hiratsuka's home.

The food was incredible as was the company.

A Chinese outreach event. Homemade Chinese food in the foreground.

I never thought I'd be practicing Chinese worship songs in Japan, but I soon found myself learning to play some really catchy Chinese songs on guitar. There's apparently a decently sized Chinese population in the area, with people coming to Ishinomaki to work in the fish processing factories or attending international schools. A few of our volunteers made some really tasty homemade dumplings along with Chicken and a tofu dessert. 

Local children performing at a neighborhood festival.

Last year one of the Christian groups in the area held a children's festival at a small park nearby and it was such a success that some community members wanted another similar festival this year. There were game and food stands outside, and in a community room a number of local musicians performed and a group of GMT interns and myself were able to do a couple of songs as well. I ended up running the sound system for the day, which was pretty hectic and tiring but it was a lot of fun and it's always cool when random skills get put to good use.

A yakisoba food truck owner sharing his story of the tsunami with us.

After church last Sunday, the volunteers took a tour around Ishinomaki to get a better perspective of the impact of the tsunami. It was pretty hard to look at a huge expanse of weed-infested land and imagine 2,000 houses being destroyed in a short time, but that's the reality of the damage that the tsunami caused. One homeowner told us how he had to flee from the water by going up a nearby mountain which soon turned into an island with all the seawater that rushed in.

Performing at a small violin recital for the violin student of one of the GMT interns.

Later that Sunday, we hosted a violin recital for a violin student of one of our interns. The student started violin lessons before the tsunami and was set to have her debut performance, but because the tsunami came, her performance was cancelled. It's been long awaited but after almost two and a half years, the student is getting her first concert. It was a really great time. Seeing the joy on her face after the concert was so incredibly rewarding.

All of the work I've been able to be a part of while in Ishinomaki has been about spreading love in some sense, seeing what life is like for another person and loving them in that. Whether we were helping fishermen recover from a financially and physically threatening situation, serving food that reminds people of home far away, hanging out with the community at a festival, talking to locals about their experiences in the tsunami, or giving a violinist her debut performance, it has been such a joy to be among these people. That's what the theme of this month has been for me, and I'm not convinced that
that's not how the rest of life should be as well.

-Spencer

Needs no explanation, but I'll give it anyway:
The best ramen I've had in quite some time.

The gang's all here!

Heading back to the worksite after a delicious, home-cooked meal.

This one's going to be a really short post, but the rest of the PVBC team came a couple of days ago and Clark (my brother) arrived yesterday. So we're all going to be able to work alongside each other today! The work location is about an hour's drive away from where we live, on the Oshika Peninsula, in a small fishing village. I had my first day of work with the older (and wiser) men on the team yesterday, and the cooperation among the team was cool to witness. Between our youngest and oldest member there's about a 50 year age gap, and we all come from very different stages in life. I'm really looking forward to what I can learn with and from these gentlemen. :)

-Spencer

Why Music?

One of the GMT staff workers grooving out to some gospel music.

Why music? To be honest I asked myself this question fairly frequently at the beginning of my trip. It seemed like every other day, Grace Mission Tohoku hosted some kind of concert, whether it was classical music or gospel, in a temporary housing structure or under the summer sun. The team from Juilliard played at multiple temporary housing facilities and held a beautiful classical concert at a nearby church, and let's not forget the Ishinomaki Gospel Festival (because I know my tan hasn't). I wondered why we chose a lot of music-based events instead of teaching crafts or doing some other kind of activity.

I can't remember who said this or when, but regardless of the details it had a profound impact on my perception of music. Come to think of it I don't even remember the exact words they said, but the basic idea has stuck with me: that the beauty of music is in the creation of an atmosphere. Stories are reconstructions of what someone else has experienced, while music creates the experience itself. Don't misunderstand me though. It's a great story of change when people give testimonies of how God has worked in their life and speak about the joy and the hope that they now have, and I do think that testimony is a necessary part of telling people why God is so good. But I can't say there haven't been times when I've heard a testimony and haven't been in the right mindset to listen well, discounting certain valuable truths by thinking things like "Well, that's good for them."

The beauty of music is that it has the ability to strike people in a way that words often cannot, and usher them into a place where they can experience joy themselves rather than just hearing about it from someone who has. It's the difference between telling someone how to make a tasty cake and letting them sample a little piece of one you made. If you want to encourage them to make the cake themselves, they'll need to know the steps to make it and they'll also need to know what the end product tastes like.

View from the second floor at the gospel festival.

It's been wonderful to help people partake in the same kind of joy that I've grown to have in the past couple of years, and in a reverse sense, I've really loved the joy that I get from listening to all of the music that has been floating around all over the place.

-Spencer

Doing the best you can with what you have.

Yesterday I had the privilege of hanging out with this little lady (below) for a short while after a lunch gathering. The lunch gathering, or takidashi, was hosted by a local church and included a time for hanging out with local residents, playing bingo for prizes, and eating bento lunches. The takidashi started off as a necessary emergency response to provide people with food immediately following the tsunami, and it has since become a time for residents to hang out and talk and get a nice lunch. 

Noeru-chan!

Even with my limited Japanese, I was able to play with her for a little while as we waited for people to pack up and leave. She took my camera and took pictures of pretty much everything in the immediate vicinity. It was adorable. She also took a bunch of pictures of the trash and the bathrooms which was significantly less so, but it was a fun time nonetheless.

The rest of my day consisted of finishing up some flooring in the main house as gospel music blasted in the background. About halfway through our work, my friend Jeremy and I noticed an older man walking around the flooring we installed, as if he was inspecting it somehow. He looked our way and asked something in Tohoku-ben (or Tohoku dialect, which is conveniently very difficult to understand) and we had to shake our heads and tell him that we didn't understand. He smiled and closed his eyes with a shrug and shuffled back out the front door. A few floorboards later, I noticed him sitting alone on the retaining wall by the house and a few more after that, I saw him in the same place. The man looked over to me and waved for me to come over.

After much too much talking to figure out what he was trying to tell me, I realized he wanted to use one of our buckets that had been left on his property for a while. I said that I thought it was fine and then somehow, in a manner I don't well remember, the conversation slipped seamlessly into something more personal. I figured he was either bored or he wanted someone to talk to so I was perfectly fine with that. Between my broken Japanese and his heavily accented Tohoku-ben, we somehow ended up talking about his life and travels as a tuna fisherman, sports he used to play, and the volunteers that come in and out of the Grace Mission Tohoku house neighboring his. He asked where the volunteers came from and hopefully I said this intelligibly, but I tried to communicate that even though we come from all sorts of places around the world, we all came to Ishinomaki because we love the people here. The man nodded with what appeared to me to be understanding.

This is one of the masterpieces Noeru-chan took. My apologies for any nightmares this may cause.

In a perfect world, my Japanese would be flawless. Then again, a lot of things would be very different in a perfect world. The fact of the matter is that my communication in Japanese, at least for now (and let's hope it's only temporary), isn't quite so seamless and I'm coming to terms with that fact. As I think about it more and more though, it's encouraging to know that I can still be of some use during my process of learning the language and that I don't have to have perfect understanding of Japanese to show love for the wonderful people here.

I was thinking about connecting this example to the greater example that we don't have to be perfect to be used by God, but for now this post is much too long and my eyelids are getting a tad too droopy for my liking. 

Thanks for reading. :)

-Spencer

Reconstruction and Construction.

My view from the roof of a shed we built.

Two days ago my plans to help at the new cafe fell through so I ended up coming back to the main house to help build a storage shed. From atop the roof I had a pretty nice view of the surrounding area. There are many decently sized plots of land overgrown with weeds and grass and although it doesn't look too bad, I have to remind myself that until March 11, 2011 there were houses filling the empty space that now lies there. I took a break from screwing down boards and sat up for a second to feel the breeze (the weather was amazing yesterday) and I heard the tapping of hammers and the buzzing of drills pingponging off distant houses and across the empty plots of land.

Then I remembered all the gardens I've been seeing around the city. I don't know if it's a Japanese thing or an Ishinomaki thing, but it seems like some of the empty plots left from the tsunami are now being used to grow flowers or eggplant or peppers or other plants. Now it may be a stretch, but in this moment I saw symbolism.

The acts of reconstruction and construction involve building things up to how they should be, how they were meant to be. When I look at construction I see a provision for physical needs while gardening seems to provide for a more emotional need to create beauty and foster hope in an area that needs it. I love that the Christian ministries in the area do their best to provide for both of those types of needs, not only helping to build/renovate houses and set up tents, but also planning various events to help the community to grow closer together and support each other.

A local lunch gathering hosted by a local church, complete with coffee/tea time, bingo, and free bento lunches.

Lately I've been seeing a lot of the emotional provision at work in this city, now that much of the immediate disaster relief work has been completed, and the fruit that's been growing from it is truly a beautiful thing. I've had the great pleasure of seeing the impact music can have on the lives of the people of Ishinomaki. Yesterday, I went with a few friends to visit some older folks in the neighborhood. After one house visit, my friend played a couple of songs on her violin for the older couple. She concluded her set with a traditional Japanese folk song, a really nice one at that, and when I turned around the wife had tears in her eyes and told us that she was so moved by the song. It's so amazing to see how God's been at work in the city and it's so cool that music can play a powerful role in reaching the hearts of people.

Next week is going to be a busy week of building up, both physically and emotionally, with the rest of the men from my home church coming over and a kids festival planned for the weekend. It's going to be tiring, but so worth it.

-Spencer

Two Years Later, Plus Some Change.

It's been about two years and some change since the earthquake and tsunami hit Ishinomaki on March 11, 2011. Correction, there has been a lot of change around here. (I promise you the double meaning wasn't intended, but I like it so much that I'm leaving it in). 

If you're interested in what's been going on in Ishinomaki on a larger scale and where needs still lie, please take twenty minutes out of your day to watch this video. Looking back on the video, it's amazing to think that the various Christian organizations are so cooperative that I've worked alongside most of the people interviewed in the video although they come from different groups. 

Thanks. :)
-Spencer

14 Days in.

It's hard to imagine that two full weeks have passed already. Ever since the gospel festival finished I've been helping out in a variety of projects and each has shown me a unique perspective of Ishinomaki, some of which I may go into in later posts.

Last week I helped do some construction work at a local cafe/church that will open in a few weeks. I imagined myself standing behind the counter frothing milk for lattes and cappuccinos and such, but it was the atmosphere of the cafe that struck me. Cafe's are places for people to connect and relax and enjoy themselves, and knowing that I lent a small hand in fostering deeper relationships was encouraging to me even when my work seemed less significant than the contributions of more skilled volunteers. But the boards I helped sand were pretty smooth if I don't say so myself.

I also had the pleasure of leading worship for a networking meeting for local pastors and other people in the area. It was difficult to play and sing songs in Japanese because more syllables are often packed into the songs, but it was an uplifting experience nonetheless. The relatively tiny room was packed with some very refreshing cultural diversity though. We ate delicious, homemade Korean food, with Korean seminary students, English-speaking missionaries, and a handful of Japanese pastors and volunteers, and we sang worship songs in Japanese. It really was a beautiful example of the unity I mentioned previously.

Leading a tricultural worship set.

Last weekend was a whirlwind of fun, music, bonding, and heavy metropolitan traffic. We went to Tokyo to attend and participate in a worship and arts conference, where some of our team would share about the work that's being done in Ishinomaki through music. One of my friends shared about the Liberty Music Program, which seeks to help children learn to have hope and dream again. At the conference, we learned about all sorts of types of art and how they can be applied to the church. A group based in Ishinomaki called the Nozomi Project, had a representative share her testimony and tell about their work, which I will most certainly cover later. I snapped the picture below from a very high balcony in Tokyo.

Said photo from said balcony.

This week I helped out with construction on one of the sheds we have in the back of the main house and I had a revelation relating to the symbolism of construction. "Revelation" may be a bit of a stretch, but I thought the realization was neat. Today I spent a couple of hours working on Japanese worship songs for a prayer meeting tomorrow, which I'm pretty excited for, and then I went around with some of the other interns to visit some of the older folks in the area who may not be able to get out of their houses so much. It was so great to love on people in a really tangible way, and I'm sure it didn't hurt that we came bearing homemade Japanese sweets.

Thanks for reading. :)
-Spencer

It's been raining a ton lately, but with sunsets like this, I don't really mind.

Unity.

Late night ice cream run with the interns.

This is part of our happy little group of interns. It's been really cool to get to know them over the past week or so and find out what (or who?) brought them to Ishinomaki and why they decided to come. We come from all over the US (and Singapore) the age range is fairly broad as well, but we are united by our love for Ishinomaki and our desire to take part in God's work in this beautiful city. Though the differences can sometimes lead to misunderstandings, the conflict I've seen so far has been resolved peacefully and with maturity. Each person adds so much color to the group, and I'm grateful for each one of them.

John 13:34-35 says this:

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

And I've definitely been seeing a lot of love in Ishinomaki through my two weeks here. I take great joy in seeing the love that's among the volunteers in the Grace Mission Tohoku house as well as the great love for the people of this city, and that love is truly indicative of the love that we have experienced from God.

Volunteers and attendees singing and dancing together at the gospel festival.

I realize that I've drifted somewhat from my original topic of unity, but I'm okay with that. I challenge you as you read this (as I also challenge myself), to take the initiative and let someone know how you feel about them. Regardless of where you stand in the topic of faith, appreciation and love are expressed far too little in most cultures I've been around.

So in closing I'd like to thank you for your supporting me on this trip and for reading this post. God's doing some crazy things here in Ishinomaki and I'm so blessed to be a part of it, and I'm excited that I can share bits and pieces of what I'm learning. :)

-Spencer

Working Hard.

On an early morning run I took earlier this week (thanks to jet lag) I stumbled across more than a dozen fishing boats starting off one by one, passing under the bridge I was standing on, and heading off to deeper waters. I was reminded of the hardworking Japanese spirit and the pursuit of refinement in one's craft. In order to get a better appreciation for these men in the picture, you have to put on your empathy hat and remember that they are departing from ports in a city that lost most of them in the tsunami. Most of these men lost boats and even family and/or friends in the disaster as well, and still before most of the city had even eaten breakfast, these men are already out on the water.

The two gentlemen in the above picture were, oddly enough, some of my favorite people at the Ishinomaki Gospel Festival. These are the sound guys, and although my soundboard was a less than a quarter of the size of theirs, I could relate to their work and I was inspired and encouraged though few words were exchanged. These men invested upwards of eighteen hours at the venue itself, loading and unloading their trucks, setting up all the speakers and monitors, running the soundboard, and certainly nearly melting in the afternoon sun. Yet there was something so Japanese about their work ethic, silent and diligent, steady and methodical. The sole complaint I heard the entire day was about the heat, and said with a smile and slight nod, I'm sure it was meant to grow camaraderie despite the language barrier. I agreed, wiped my brow with added exaggeration, and smiled back.

Now that's not to say that strong work ethic and the pursuit of excellence are isolated phenomena in Japanese culture; it's just that that's where I attribute my semblance of diligence in my own life. Day by day I am constantly blessed by the service of others, Japanese and otherwise, and it's amazing to see people tire themselves endlessly in service of others because of their assurance that God's love needs to be shown in this city.

This is David Derek and Heather, a few of many people who's hard work has been a great example to me so far.  A couple days  before she left, Heather was literally in the kitchen cooking the entire day.

1 Peter 4:10 has been coming up a lot in devotions and messages lately. 1 Peter 4:8-11 goes as follows:

8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

And that's definitely been a theme for this trip so far, that each one of us is being responsible to God by using  our various gifts to serve each other in love through the strength God provides.

The sound guys and me wrapping up 12 hours at the festival venue.

The jet lag wore off a few days ago and lately I've been tired on most days, but it's a satisfying kind of tired, the kind that comes from knowing that you're able to give a hand, though small and callused, in a much greater work.

-Spencer

5 Days in.

That's not five full days, mind you, but for ease of counting I'll round up to five. I will be using these updates to post about the everyday things that we do here that don't really fit into a larger category yet.

Things here have been awesome. Really really awesome. The first hour I got here was a little intimidating, to walk into a room with 50+ people who I didn't know, but God really blessed that night. But first, a short aside about our living situation:

This is my bunk in the tent with the rest of the interns. The tent is outside of a  house that Grace Mission Tohoku rents and uses as a headquarters of sorts.

Anyway, back to my first night. I was walking around looking for something to help out with and naturally, I stumbled into the kitchen and naturally, there was some work to help with. Cooking turned out to be a really good way to meet a handful of people, while being helpful and comfortable at the same time. I met Heather, Ellen, Nicole, and my long lost brother Derek who I'll show later. And because the house was so packed last week with volunteers helping out with the gospel festival, there was lots of cooking to help out with. Never in my life have I ever seen such massive amounts of food go through a kitchen like ours. 

Culinary masters hard at work.

I have had such a great time here so far that it's hard to imagine that it hasn't even been a week yet. And the people here at the house give everything so much life. When I was working in the kitchen that first night, I was surprised at how many people knew a lot of Japanese! Now I've never thought that my Japanese is very good, but these people blow me out of the water. It's humbling in a really cool way. It has also been such a blessing to listen to people tell their own stories of how God has led them to Japan and how they grew to have such a love for this country, and in a similar way it's been really helpful for me to be able to share with others how God's been working in my own life. 

I'm already trying to plan my next trip back. :)

-Spencer

Ishinomaki Gospel Festival

Yesterday was the Ishinomaki Gospel Festival and today I'm sunburned, sore, slightly scratched up, but very satisfied. Yesterday was an amazing day. I started helping with setup at 6am, spent 6 hours listening to some really good music, and got a really gnarly tan... By "tan" I definitely mean "sunburn" but all of it was so worth it.

Setting up. We used 2 big subwoofers,  10 huge speakers, and 12 monitors. The park is on the side of a mountain so if you go up the stairs on the left you get a really nice view of the ocean. 

Some local vendors. Tons of really good Japanese food. Also on the level above this there were a bunch of different groups selling crafts to support the victims of the tsunami.

Gospel musician John Lucas singing to an enthusiastic crowd, backed by a group of local middle school students.

The band members in the groups for the festival came from all sorts of walks of life. There were professional musicians and professional ministers, students from Juilliard and students from middle schools in the Tohoku area, Christians and people who didn't identify with the church, all coming together in celebration of music and the joy and healing it can bring. 

The turnout for the festival was slightly less than the venue could hold, but we still estimated that there were more than 500 people that came in and out through the day. Store vendors got so much benefit that they even asked the event coordinator to. "Please let [them] know if this event will happen more than once a year." Indeed, God is doing great things in this city. 

It was such a blessing to serve alongside my friends in order to give the people of this city access to the satisfaction and joy I've been blessed with through music and with God. In all aspects, I'd say the Ishinomaki Gospel Festival was a huge success. Yesterday was an amazing day, but I'm sure it's only one of many great joys to come for this city and for my own short time here.

-Spencer

                         

Finally here.

After roughly 19 hours of travelling spread over a day and a half in Japan, I finally made it to Ishinomaki! There were a handful of moments when I thought I was going to get lost, but everything turned out fine and I made it up here safe and sound.

This blog is going to be half about Ishinomaki (the tsunami that hit 2 years ago, the effects, and what's being done in the area right now) and half about my own experience here. I'll try to post as often as I find something to write about, which so far proves to be very frequently, but with spotty internet and a busy schedule I'll have to just do my best. Also there's so much more to write about than I have the time or the energy for so if you're interested in learning more, please please ask!

Even though I've been here for only about three days there has been a lot going on, so I'll try to make this first post short and I'll come back later for more elaboration.

I spent my first evening in Japan, very tired but excited, with my dad's cousin's family north of Tokyo and even though it wasn't easy, it was really encouraging to see that I could hold my own in Japanese conversation... at least to some extent. The next day was full of more travel, some time to think, and miles and miles and miles of this beauty:

And by the end of the day I finally made it to Ishinomaki! Because I'll be staying in Japan for a month while most other volunteers come for a week, I'm staying in a tent with the other male interns and staff workers who are here long-term. On Saturday we have a HUGE music festival going on so the main house we use for meals is packed with people from all sorts of places (Juilliard in New York and Calgary, Canada, for example).

(My friend Jeremy says hello!)

Because the event is tomorrow I'm going to be focusing on the music festival in this post. This music festival, the Ishinomaki Gospel Music Festival, is going to be insane in the best way possible. The festival, complete with local food and craft vendors as well as many famous musicians, will appropriately feature a number of performances from the children attending schools that were hit particularly hard by the tsunami. Their performance will come as the finale of the Liberty Music Program, a 9 week music education program that seeks to help children recover from trauma and learn how to dream and hope again. There are extremely powerful things being done through music and the arts in Ishinomaki right now, but I'll save that for another update.

Please be praying for the Ishinomaki Gospel Music Festival! We're expecting to see tons of people from the local community, and mainly the parents of the students in the Liberty Music Program. And we're also hoping that this event will help to further develop the relationship between church organizations and the people of Ishinomaki. Even in this short time I've seen how music can have such a profound affect on the people here, so I'm so excited for this event! On Japan time it will be on Saturday at 10am, but on Los Angeles time it will start on Friday 7/5/13 at 6pm.

And guess who was picked (by coincidence) to help out with running sound! :)

-Spencer