Day 207 { Preach / New friends }- Sunday, October 12, 2008

Day 207 { Preach / New friends }

Preach

Caught train to Okayama City to meet some persons where I should preach at their church. So they met me at the station and then dropped me to the location where I was supposed to do the preaching. When I got there, I assisted with the setting up of the equipment etc. Then my translator came. I met with her briefly where she told me that she actually traveled to Jamaica before and spent some time in Spanish Town. I was like “SPANISH TOWN!!!” ABUNAI (Dangerous)…(and unnu know dat to Pantons) We were there chatting about all sort of things that were totally unrelated to the message that I was to deliver, only to hear the pastor call us in because they were ready to begin.

So they started off singing some songs both in Japanese and English and they asked me to play the drum and help out with the English songs. Then about 10 minutes after this, it was time for me to give the message…Now I am the type of person that doesn’t force my personal Christian beliefs on anyone. So anytime I’m asked to preach, I try my best to keep it as simple as possible. I also surround my preaching on love, as my personal belief is that God is simply trying to tell us all to love Him and Love each other. 

I also don’t subscribe to the belief that because I grew up in the church and my parents were Christians, I should follow suit. I still question many many things. Unlike many Christians who believe that the Bible is a set of perfect, error-free books, I am one who don’t think that way. That’s because no matter how inspired these men were who wrote the books of the Bible, they were still MEN. Not only that, but if you should do a detailed study on the Bible we use today, you will see that it’s a couple of MEN came together at meetings and decided and deliberated about what books should be in the bible (Canon). It wasn’t one meeting but several meetings ordered by several councils over several years. So believe it or not, the Bible as we have it today was put together by some guys under the authority of  a Bishop. http://www.catholicapologetics.org/ap031100.htm

Ask any logical-thinking pastor or theologian, but not the dogmatic, “I am always right” and “listen to me and no one else” ones, please. There are many of those in Jamaica. Or you can simply research it yourself...

Anyway, my topic was – Living a Life of Purpose for God

With the following sub- topics:

Be Prepared – Pray etc

Don’t be Scared – don’t worry God is in control

Your life will be Spared – If God sends you on any dangerous mission, he will protect you. This ties in with the second topic about not worrying.

I spoke for 15 minutes in total and the other 15 minutes was translation. I also did a dub poem afterward … I wanted to speak some more to the lady who translated for me, but after the pastor captured me to play the drum, I could not move. Unfortunately, she had to go before everything was over. I helped them pack and they dropped me off at the train station.

New Friends

In the train, I saw 2 ladies walking around aimlessly then they suddenly sat beside me. It is scarcely often in my area that a Japanese person will come and sit beside me even if there is nowhere else to sit. So I found it strange that 2 of them came and sat right beside me. I noticed that one of them looked a little different from the average Japanese though. I then heard a phone ring and the not so Japanese looking one answered. I know my Japanese ain't that good but that was no Japanese she was speaking and she was talking very loud in the train. Then the other girl's phone rang as well and she too was on the top of her voice in a strange language….So not only was the language different, but you will hardly ever find a Japanese on a train speaking on top of their voice. So when they came off the phone, I asked them where they were from… 1 of them was from China and the other from Thailand… 

Hear the problem now, their English is terrible, worst than most of the Japanese people I know. So our middle ground language was, JAPANESE because they could speak it well. They wanted to take pictures with me and they even offered me some of their food on the train…They were both going to a city which was about 2 hours from my city and they had to change trains in my city. However, their train wouldn’t be coming until the next 2 hours…So I offered to drive them around my area for a while…Yes, Mr. Good Samaritan … So I took them to my favourite restaurant Joyful. And guess what? They actually paid for my food. :) I eventually let them chill out at my apartment then I took them back to the train station and they both sent me a text informing me they got home…