Rainy Days

Friday, 11th July, 2008 in Faith, Travel
Tags: Japan, GBIM, Grace Brethren International Missions, camp, Camping, Northstar, Norikura, Faith, Northstar Outdoor Adventures, Norikura Kogen, mountain biking, trail building

July is still rainy season here in Norikura Kogen. Here at Northstar, we haven’t had any guests for a couple weeks. We have been doing a lot of preparation work for the summer [which really starts in August] and fall. We have been able to work on a lot of other tasks that we simply do not have time for during the busier seasons, like dry-cleaning the futon mattresses in the back of a home service dry-cleaning truck. The entire back of the truck is one giant laundry machine. Weird huh. Too bad I didn’t take any pictures.

Every day is a guessing game to see if it will rain. This has made our trail building jobs quite interesting. We have been working pretty hard core to clean up more of the trails we use for guided mountain biking trips. I have been out nearly every day for the past week riding and cleaning. This has been good since I need to learn the trails better for next fall when we will be using the trails often.

As seen on the side of a tour bus.

 

The Natural Look

 

The locals - they live just down the road.

 

Economical - Would you like one?

 

We have been praying a lot to see God’s Spirit work in the lives of the people living in our community [Norikura Kogen]. Northstar and its staff are the only example of Christian faith most people in this village will ever see, so it is imperative that we embody Christ’s message. Most specifically, we have to be sharing Christ’s counter-cultural messages of love and forgiveness for which the Japanese really have no example. There has been a lot of really neat developments for Northstar in the past month and many of them have been community directed. We are truly looking forward to see relationships develop here in ways that will be transformational and life changing.

I have several things to share with you in hope that you will, as well, share with our Father. I have been sick for the past week with some kind of cold. I likely caught this from one of my students since I have been teaching them greetings the past couple of weeks, shaking hands with every student in the school, and giving many high fives. That might have something to do with it.;)

I will also be leaving on Monday morning around 3 A.M. to catch a bus to Nagoya City for an international flight to Pussan, South Korea. My visa paperwork has been taken to the immigration offices in Tokyo, but we are still expecting another possibly two to three weeks of waiting to hear anything back from the government. My visitors visa expires next week, so I will be taking a short tour probably with a bunch of 60 year old plus Japanese tourists. I’m not exactly sure what all we are going to do there, but don’t worry - I didn’t sign up for the casino package deal. I will come back on Wednesday. On Tuesday, a group of students from the director’s church in Hawaii will be coming for a two week missions trip. They will be doing service projects for Northstar and the community. I am looking forward to an awesome time together!

Thanks for all of your prayers. I have been so confident lately knowing that God is with me. Some days have been harder than others letting God teach me a new kind of trust, but those are the types of situations that are faith building. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Brad

P.S. Northstar’s newest full time staff, Seth, has just redone the website. You can check it out @ www.ridenorthstar.com to see what has been happening.