I really don't want to be skeptical, but with my limited Japanese, it's hard to tell one from another. For the first 4 weeks, I have been careful to avoid them whenever they come knocking on my door. This family of 3 (the elderly lady, her daughter and son-in-law) have been visiting me and were being characteristically persistent.
To cut the long story short, all my efforts went down the drain when I actually ended up in their church because I misunderstood a grrl from the uni who happen to be their church member. If you would like to know the full version of what happened, please email and an unedited version will be delivered right to your doorstep. ;p
Anyways, I finally managed to contact an AG church in Niigata after much dead ends. During my 1st try, the guy on the other line couldn't really understand English and what I wanted. When I called again the week after, they gave me the Pastor's number but no one picked up the phone. Then I tried the church again just to verify, but this time there was no response. Even the emails I sent went unreplied.
That was why when I heard that the grrl above was a Christian, I got quite excited and somehow got myself invited to her church. I never had a personal encounter with the JW back in Malaysia, and on hindsight realised that I should've been less naive.
So anyways, after that JW incident, I decided to give it one more try. It was about 630pm and I had just woken up from my nap. I didn't expect anyone to still be in the office, but lo and behold, the guy not only understood English, but managed to get someone to contact me back.
Pastor Tsuchiya preaching at the Japanese service
This Sri Lankan lady returned my call within 1 hour and arranged for us to meet before going to the church. So it was a rainy day when I met her yesterday morning and she drove us to the Grace Chapel. The morning service was in Japanese but I could immediately feel the warmth of the atmosphere.
We had coffee and cakes at the Welcome Lounge after the service
They have a proper building with 3 floors, stage at the front, pews and a band for worship! It looks really modern and their 1st service had no less than 100 people in the congregation. It was all I could do to stop my tears from flowing when they started singing. It felt like home. I recognised some of the songs, and the music just flowed beautifully.
It was as if my thirst was finally quenched. I'm not looking for a superduper church with fancy facilities, just a place where the people are genuinely seeking God and simply enjoying His presence.
Some church members having lunch before the 2nd service
After the service, I managed to meet the American pastor whom I was trying to contact earlier. He had just returned from Tokyo with his family, and was pleased to hear my story. I also took the opportunity to tell him that I would like to serve in the music ministry. I realise I wouldn't have done that on normal circumstances, but you should've seen their expression because they were actually looking for a pianist to serve in the English service.
Even though I think I will settle down in this church, it's too early to say what I will do here. There are lots to be done, no doubt, but at the moment, I'm just glad I found one where the people are warm and receptive, where opportunities abound. And oh, they're having a little bible study group in the campus tomorrow evening. I'm gonna check it out and see how things go.
God is slowly but surely answering my prayers.
Joining new friends from the English service for a sushi dinner
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