April 28th

First of all, apologies for mistaking french for bad english in the previous post. The above is from the Osaka Aquarium where they have a whale shark! They were smaller than expected though...

Anyhow, I decided that I would make this post about joy. In particular, joy when suffering.

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:1-5 ESV

Recently I've faced a lot of rejection. Last quarter I recruited for summer internships and in fact am still interviewing with firms for a summer job. I applied to over 60 companies, interviewed with about 20, even had several final rounds, and currently have no offers. Two weeks ago I interviewed with Deutsche Bank in Tokyo. My interviewers all ended my interview with saying I interviewed pretty well or that they saw a lot of potential in me. I left Tokyo feeling pretty good about my chances, only to hear back this week that they won't be offering me the position. Time after time, opportunity after opportunity, each one seems to have slipped away right before me. With each rejection, the overwhelming feeling of uncertainty about the future has built ominously high with each disappointing rejection. In my imperfection and brokeness, I profess to the difficulties of the situation.

Yet I rejoice. I rejoice in having Christ Jesus as my Lord and Savior and the assured future grace and life eternal that are promised through faith in him. The sufferings of this life grow the faith in him that assures salvation. I rejoice for the suffering that has and continues to grow my faith.

James teaches, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1:2-4 ESV

Count it all joy. Rejoice. Through trials and tribulations, God tests our faith to grow our faith. Through testing our faith He produces in us steadfastness. That steadfastness refines us until we are perfected in heaven. Thus, every hardship is for joy. Every failure that tests our faith grows it.

The author of Hebrews teaches,"he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

God redeems all hardship for our good. He disciplines us to make us yield fruits of righteousness for Him! So "Why do bad things happen to 'good' people?" Because God loves them!

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28 ESV

Every act of hardship, pain, and suffering is for our good, and because of that, we can rejoice. Even though I've been through some rough patches with what seems like spiraling career prospects and a long line of never ending rejections, I can still testify to the Lord's righteousness, justice, and glory. How easy it is to praise God when life is going well. But even when life is difficult, we should still praise God with every fiber of our being.

Paul writes in Philippians, "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:11-13 ESV

While things might be difficult, I still turn back to God and sing Him praises. I rejoice for the ways my suffering have grown my faith to be even firmer in times of struggle. In truth, I am very uncertain of where God is leading me through all these missed opportunities. Yet I remain calm because of my faith. I know that through Him who strengthens me, I can accomplish whatever He holds for my future. Through trusting in Him with all my heart, I know He will provide. Proverbs teaches, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV

While what my summer and even future after graduation may hold remains uncertain, I thank God for the way that uncertainty has grown my faith. I trust Him that He will continue to work all things for my good.

Hopefully this post successfully updated you on some of the going ons of my life. Thanks again for your continued prayer and support! Maybe this post also revealed my favorite translation of the Bible...

Tune in for more next time!

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

Because it's okay to have fun

This is Jason's favorite store. Everytime we go, I feel like I'm taking Jason to Disneyland...or erm, UniqloLand. Though I admit I like their clothes. It's kind of like a higher quality h&m but same price.

This week for Japanese Religion and Culture class, we took a field trip to Fushimi Inari, which is famous for it's tunnel esque countless red tori gates. Here's a picture to get a better grasp of what I'm talking about.

I've been here before, but this is the first time I learned some of the religious background of the shrine. It's Shinto, though we ran into some other types of buddhist shrines along the way as well. People make pilgrimages here for religious and non-religious reasons (such as just to jog it for exercise, or to be tourists like us). I think the most interesting thing was that apparently people come to worship rocks which in Japanese are called otsukas...I'm not sure how I feel about that...but everyone definitely looked at me every time our teacher mentioned that fact. Here's an otsuka:

Later that day we went to Kyoto Tower Hotel for a welcome party hosted by Doshisha University. Here is the president of Doshisha.

The food was pretty great. Anyhow, maybe there will be a longer post about this in the future but engrish in Japan always makes me laugh.

Here's my attempts at translating

Beef Saute ala Japanese

Pork Kakuni

Mix Fried

We also had to wear name tags...which OF COURSE degenerates into this =)

And then after that we went to karaoke! Here is Jason Brown and Christian Ollano singing Telephone by Lady Gaga...

This is my 2nd cousin. He's doing a Fulbright in Kyoto and just graduated from Pomona, so we met up for dinner. And I found out he was in IV at Pomona! Exciting. And he did worship team. Legit. Hopefully I can talk to him more about it later.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Cor 10:31

Tofu Softserve?

I'm not sure if I'm ready for tofu soft serve. Back in the distant past of my long work history, my first job was working at cold stone scooping ice cream. Once the flavor of the month was wasabi ginger...in order to recommend with integrity, as employees we're required to sample every flavor. WORST ICE CREAM FLAVOR EVER. well, I don't even like wasabi in sushi so maybe I'm a little partial...but I'm a little skeptical when it comes to weird ice cream flavors...

On the other hand...this sushi was delicious! Oddly reminded me of spam musubi. It was called "hamburger sushi" and basically was teriyaki beef on top of sushi rice. Delicious. Though spam musubi is definitely the one thing that 7-11's in Japan are missing.

I've been playing tourist on occasion as well. The cherry blossoms are about in full bloom now so it's quite pretty actually.

Also, I was able to make a return to Gion corner. The summer after freshman year, I had the pleasure of coming to Kyoto on a trip. One friend had really really wanted to see this show so we paid 3000 yen for it (roughly $30). It showcases 7 different Japanese arts: flower arranging, tea ceremony, traditional japanese instruments, etc. Anyhow, after watching it we felt like we had fallen into a tourist trap that overcharged us for an hour of culture center presentations...anyhow, don't recommend watching this one BUT revisiting brought back lots of funny memories of our faux pas (totally had to look up how to spell that)

also, this is a little old news now...BUT STILL CAN'T BELIVE YUNA KIM LOST. so disappointed. But it's ok! God will grow me through this disappointment.

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Hebrews12:7-13

End of Week 1

Hi all. It's been quite a first week! I feel exhausted already.

Anyhow, I've been eating lots of great things. Definitely one of the biggest blessings has been the food.

Here's a katsu curry I had for lunch.

This is a kalbi yakiniku rice burger from Mos Burger. It was delicious. It was also half the size of an in-n-out burger though. But 350 yen. So almost twice as expensive as an in-n-out burger.

Anyhow, I met this guy named Wataru this week. He's leading an bible study here on campus. I had seen his poster for International Bible Class and sent him an e-mail about it so then we met up and talked and I got to hear more of his testimony and what he's been doing on campus.

It was pretty nuts. He wasn't a good student or anything in high school so his chances of getting into Doshisha were pretty low but he prayed about it and felt that it was only by God's grace and blessing that he's a student here now and that God was planning to use him here on campus. He has a vision for forming a more seeker friendly bible study on campus since currently there isn't one. Since there isn't a cultural tradition of Christianity as there is in the United States, becoming Christian requires breaking out of the cultural norm so Christians tend to be quite serious about their faith.

Anyhow, Wataru had a vision for forming a more "seeker friendly" fellowship at Doshisha, since the Christians here are either "very Christian" or not Christian at all. Since there are a lot of international and exchange students at Doshisha all the time as well, he wants to minister to them and have both Japanese and English bible studies. Anyhow, he only started his fellowship last year and it has since grown from just him to 30 students! But he was praying for some international student to come and help him and teach him more about running this type of fellowship. Anyhow, I find it pretty amazing that I'd find his poster then and be able to meet him and tell him about InterVarsity, so I'm excited to see what coming to some of his bible studies will be like.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matthew 6:33-34

First Day of Class

First day of class! Yay?

Today I had my first Japanese class. I realize I’m terrible at kanji. But that’s ok! Maybe I will learn a bit while abroad.

This past week was pretty busy with orientation every day. I moved into my host family as well. I have a host mother and father as well as two older host sisters, though only one lives with us.

Here they are! They’re very nice. Actually the same family Mark Bocanegra stayed with last year.

Also they have a dog! His name is Kai.

Also went around to a couple places in Kyoto as part of orientation.

This is nanzenji (I think)

One of the auditors of my class is Yuuki, who I got to meet during orientation. There are auditors from Doshisha and Kyoto University taking some of our classes with us, so they had to come to part of our academic orientation. We then had to all go on a walking tour of Kyoto so that's when I got to chat with some of the auditors.

Anyhow, at the end there was a Buddhist blessing for all the students and Yuuki wasn’t participating so then I found out he was Christian and we both ended up just watching the ceremony from outside the temple. Anyhow, he’s a leader of a fellowship at Doshisha campus but his fellowship is really small, only 12 people. Only 0.5% of people in Japan are Christian.

But after the event, we were free to go but Jason Brown and I ended up hanging out with Yuuki for the rest of the day. We went to dinner where I got monjayaki for the first time.

We also had okonomiyaki. Yuuki ordered jumbo size. It was huge.

Also, after dinner, I found the most expensive dessert I have ever seen. It’s a parfait. The bottom one reads ￥18,000 (right now ￥100 is about $0.90).

Also, yesterday was Easter! I went to Easter service at Hope Chapel Kita. Service was good; a great reminder of the true meaning of Jesus’ resurrection. Service was almost Easter Bunny free but he made his appearance at the end as part of the snack ministry.

I went with Jason and my mom, though my mom had to leave shortly after service. Jason and I went to lunch with the church. This is the senior pastor, Pastor Ken.

Very suave guy as you can tell. Happy Easter!

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16