Fall break just ended at my language school, so I’ve been back to studying Japanese all day every day. Over the break my parents came out to visit us (or more appropriately, Titus), as well as my brother and his family who are also missionaries, serving at a nearby church. It was great to see them and we had some wonderful family times.
For the first five months here in Japan I’ve been taking one on one lessons at my language school, but the time has finally come for me to graduate from that and enter into one of the group classes that are part of the main program at the school. However as it turned out I was way ahead of one class, and pretty far behind the other. My teachers decided to put me in the more advanced class, and after having me complete my second text book on my own over fall break, have set out a plan to help me catch up by working with me after class. They told me October was going to be rough, and after a week in the class, I can safely report they were right.
I think God’s helping me to learn humility through this experience; I can think of few more ego crushing tasks than learning a new language from the ground up in a foreign country. And now on top of that, I’m at the bottom of my class, which is filled with teenagers. I find myself often asking for help from 19 year old Vietnamese kids who have been very gracious to help out the giant, old, white guy in the class. All that said, my grasp of Japanese is rapidly improving, so I trust that God is still working through all this, even as I constantly feel inadequate.
This Monday we’ll be gathering together with many other missionaries serving in Iwate. It’s been 2 and half years since the Tsunami, and so many of the missionaries who have come are at a sort of cross roads. Some are making plans to return to their homes, others are trying to figure out how to stay, and still others, like us, have only recently arrived and are making plans to be here for the long haul. It will be a great time of fellowship, and, I pray, a time of further relationship building and a time for God to clarify our long term role here in Iwate.