Orient 1-10

Some of the class of 2012

Dateline: Tansho, Japan; August 29, 2010—It is late August so this must be Japan. How many years it has been eludes me now, but I have been coming to Japan in August for quite some time. Before last year I would make my way from Narita, the main international airport near Tokyo, to Maebashi and then climb to the cool heights of the Akagiyama range. There, amidst the bears and boars, the deer and tanuki, the pheasants and the tiger keelback, I would make my forays from Misawa to Okinawa. But this year the whole operation I work with called Nihon Kinsai Koiki (NKK) has moved down on the plain near Honjyo in the Saitama Prefecture. And down here it is hot. This is the hottest summer since records began to be kept back in the 1870’s. It is nigh unto insufferable.

Jet lag takes its inevitable toll. This time I began my trip in California so I had a few less time zones to traverse but just one hour is enough to send your circadian rhythms catawampus. Research has shown that the day after the time springs forward in those ill-informed countries still doing the daylight savings thing, there are 8% more traffic accidents. And the day after it falls back, meaning one extra hour of sleep, there are 8% fewer accidents. So, I am glad I don’t have to drive here in Japan, but for more reasons than jet lag. I’m sure I have commented on them before, but the common roads in Japan are a nightmare for the initiated. Narrow furrows of concrete cut so closely to shops and homes along the way as to make it hazardous for occupants to leave home. Sometimes utility poles impinge on the white line marking the edge of the road. One great thing about it all is the law that is a person is found to be drinking and driving, the privileges are revoked forever.

September 7, 2010: Got busy there for a while. Our first school was held at Saniku Gakuin College, the former Japanese Missionary College. It is up in the hills past Tokyo in Chiba Prefecture. It was a supper school session. It was phase one which means this was their first gathering. We will meet together twice more in the next two years. We have a week intensive session, give a ton of homework, and then repeat the same thing the following with a few tests thrown in for good measure. It is customarily very hard to interest people in such an endeavor. They have to take time off from their busy lives, travel to a campus that might not offer the amenities they are used to at home, they have to come up with tuition, and they have to sit still and learn all day. But we have had very good success. I would say over the last six or seven years we have had over 50 students. Not all have finished the course, but all have learned to live healthier lives.

One student in particular, was not a Christian. We don’t require that our students be SDA or even Christian, but they are required to attend whatever classes are being taught, and take whatever tests are given. As I was listening to the students introduce themselves, I was impressed that I wasn’t there just to teach about the laws of health and hydrotherapy, but I was to life up Christ. That was the verse that came to me very strongly, “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.” So that is what I endeavored to do in my morning and evening worships. Frankly, I benefitted by what I was sharing. On the last morning as the students were speaking of what they experienced with the course, this dear woman was tearful and mentioned, besides the blessing she had had at the school, that she was thinking of returning home and having some Bible studies. That makes the whole trip more than worth the effort, time and expense.

Wednesday the 8^th I will travel to Mt. Akagi and visit friends who work there now whom I met at Uchee Pines. Thursday Marty, an Army veteran, and a few others will travel to Mt. Fuji. There is a traditional expression in Japanese, “One would be a fool never to climb Mt Fuji – but also a fool to climb it twice.” Well, this will be my first time and I am thoroughly looking forward to the experience. That is if the typhoon which is making its way in this direction doesn’t get in the way. All the weather sites has it raining and storming Thursday. Bummer! I am fully equipped for the climb and in pretty good shape, so we will see.

On October 18^th I was to fly back to China and teach for another month there but the school will end after the second module and therefore my services will not be needed. What to do? Well, I can go to Aenon in Malaysia. They have told me they can use my services. And I can go to the Philippines where they need a teacher for the book of Daniel and endtime events. I like those subjects. Now, it would cost me a penalty to cancel the Beijing segment so I have decided to go ahead and fly in to China and then fly from there to either Malaysia or the Philippines. It would be much cheaper to fly to the Philippines but then I have no idea what island the school there is on. I like the Philippines but haven’t been there since my Marine Corps days. So, I have a dilemma which I need to solve in a few days. In the Philippines the staff and students are living in bamboo huts and that sort of appeals to me. So, we will see.

Monday I fly to Okinawa so I will bring you up to date about Fuji, Oki and beyond soon.

God bless,

Don