Day 5 - Japan - A Day of Awesome-ness!!!!!

Today was a full day of GA Business. At least for my committee. Most other groups got all of their business done early, but not us. While I would generally begrudge spending long hours at Committee Business, I was glad and thankful to be a part of the work of my committee. Should our recommendations be approved, a whole new course for the Cumberland Church will be set. It will actually be a very historical moment, but until it is presented on the floor of the Assembly I think I'll just keep it in my heart. I will share it at a later date, regardless of the outcome in Assembly tomorrow.

But on to other awesome stuff. The top photo is the Tama Center Parthenon. It's like a great big public building. It is where our meetings are being held part time. I guess because I got more sleep last night than any other night thus far, the next picture is ME AT THE TOP. Sort of Stallone-ish dont ya think?

The Third picture is of a the Lee's. Ji Eun (Sarah) and her husband David. Sarah is a pastor in Laos. I didn't even know the CP Church existed in Laos until I met them. They are really, really neat folks. And from what I have been able to gather, they have an amazing ministry. Though there are only about 30 members in their church, they are already sending out missionaries to other places. They work to convert a person and then once they are believers, they work to disciple them, with the final product being a mature Christian who goes out and repeats that process with another. Just amazing. Here, the American church dumps tons of money into evangelism studies and programs, and we're minimally successful at best. This one lady, following the example of Jesus, will be directly responsible for sending God only knows how many missionaries out into the world. Oh, how i wish we had the humility and the faith to simply trust in Christ like she does, rather than rely on all the wisdom of man.

The final picture is sort of my exclamation point on awesome for today. Bethel College's Renaissance Choir. These guys just never cease to amaze me. The picture was taken during a bluegrass number, I thought some of the folks at church would like that. The really neat part about Renaissance tonight was that everyone was showing up early for worship because it was threatening to storm. That meant that Renaissance' practice and warm-up time was invaded. Rather than get all huffy or ask everyone to wait outside, they just put on a "show." They did what they do best, they sang their hearts out to Jesus. It was off the cuff, unrehearsed and fantastic. My personal feelings are that at the present, Bethel College is one of the Big Bright Spots in the CP Church. I think a large reason for that is Renaissance. You can disagree all you want, but the proof is in pudding.

All in all, Japan has been a really good experience. This is the CLEANEST city in the entire world. There are 30 kajillion people who live here, and only one public trash can. And yet there's not any garbage anywhere. Not even a cig. butt. In fact if we get food to go, we often have to bring our trash back to our hotel room to toss it because there's nowhere out on the street to ditch it.

I do have one little complaint though. Somebody needs to show the Japanese people what real toilet paper is like. This stuff here is like a fraction of the thickness of American Kleenex'. It takes about 87 yards of the stuff just to get a good nose blowing wad that keeps your fingers snot less.

I'm going to bed. Still haven't got over the plane trip here yet!
He Has Made Me Glad!
jeff