We were met by the Nakagawa's at one of the bus stations at Furumachi. If I'm not mistaken, Mrs Nakagawa used to work for Doulos, and has been to Malaysia on one of their stops before. Her husband does mimes for events, and they have a lovely one year old daughter, Ki-Chan.
Jap babies look like peaches, don't they?
The service was entirely in Japanese, but Mrs Nakagawa was kind enough to translate for us. As this was my first time attending church in Japan, I felt like I found a place I could seek refuge in. Like a place to belong. You can always sense it when you meet like-minded Christians.
This is not Pastor Sato, but the guy playing the piano was Nakagawa-san, father of the peachy baby
Though Pastor Sato's message was simple, it felt like the best I've ever heard. Probably because I was hungry for His Word. I've already missed Easter service this year, and I definitely missed going to church.
The international students probably made up 1/3 of the congregation that Sunday
To see her express her desires to share the Gospel with the people of Niigata reminded me that it is still possible. Even though this church may be small, with an average congretation size of not more than 10, it is encouraging to see that they have the zeal for His work.
The lady on the most right is 94 years old, and still faithfully comes to church! Amazing what Jap food and God's grace can do
We had a little lunch after the service. Apparently, the ladies of the church had prepared them beforehand so we just needed to heat up the soup. I went backstage to the kitchen to help them so that I could get to know them better.
As they say, homemade food is always the best. That was probably the best lunch I've ever had since stepping foot here. Made with much TLC - tender loving care. Unfortunately I had to be polite and had to stop myself from asking for seconds, heh.
Nothing beats home cooked food
When they found out I could play the piano, I was asked to play a piece from their hymn book. I'm not very good at sight reading, so I tried to play a song from what I remember back home. For a moment there, I was blank, thinking what song I should play. It struck me that I might have forgotten how to even play the piano.
I quietly asked God for some inspiration. And slowly but surely, one of my favourite songs came alive on the piano. I can't remember the title, but it goes something like this :
Anointing, fall on me
Anointing, fall on me
By the power of the Holy Ghost, fall on me
Anointing, fall on me
If only I could go on playing. It felt like I haven't touched a piano for years, and I realised I missed serving in the music ministry.
No comments:
Post a Comment