Flat3D

Christmas!

It’s been a while since I last posted..  I wonder how often I start a post with that kind of thing?  But it has been a while, in fact it is almost Christmas!  And it is snowing!  I have been reliably informed that usually by now there is a good bit of snow, but this year it has come, gone, come again, gone again and has now come for a third time (maybe it came before I got here and this is the fourth…. I don’t know!).  This time it might stay however, the temps for the week are cold, there is a bit of rain in the forecast midweek though, but that could also change…

Anyways! Yes it is nearly Christmas!!!
I have been thinking about Christmas quite a bit this year.  I had a Christmas party in October at Steve and Emma’s place, organised by my friends in good ol’ Norn Iron.  Then in Singapore they were lighting up their Christmas decorations – it is hard to believe a month ago I was in 30 degree heat, sweating profusely while soapy, fake snow was blown upwards to sting children’s eyes and make them wonder why people think avalanches are dangerous…  And now it is this week.  This is the Sunday before Christmas.  Traditionally at this hour (6:30pm) I should be practising carols with the band at church and getting ready for the (super heated) service in the church buildings…  School or uni would be over, exams would seem far enough away to be insignificant, many Christmas dinners would have been consumed with the best yet to come, Indiana Jones and James Bond would feature heavily on the week’s TV schedule, the GCD day of Halo 3 would be fast approaching (a 2 year tradition for me, but a good one none the less)…

This year only one of those is true.
School has finished and we are having a party tomorrow…  But for most, Christmas in Japan is pretty much a normal working day, sure there is a commerical hype, but it feels like the same kind of hype that mother’s day or father’s day might get - people trying to make money from products that under normal circumstances would see them sell nothing and lose their lively hood because of their foolishness in buying bulk lots of winter scene greetings cards, small plastic trees and red socks…  But on Thursday in Northern Ireland kids will be up early to see what they got from Santa, mothers will be up putting a turkey in the oven while everyone else will sleep in.  Here everyone will be up early, kids going to school, business men to the office, shop keepers will open their shops as normal…  Banks, post offices, buses, trains, pretty much everything will run as normal!

So it got me to thinking what the big deal was about Christmas?
Christians here celebrate Christmas for the same reasons that Christians at home do - Jesus coming into the world for our sake.  Christmas is like Easter.  It’s about Christ.  Sure there is a slight secular commercial blitz around it, but it really doesn’t seem to attempt to link itself to a meaning of Christmas.  But in the west, it is also about family, goodwill, sharing, giving, receiving, eating, drinking…… etc.  The true meaning kind ofhas competition.  Sure they are all good things…  Many of them even stem from the true meaning, but for too many people they expand and replace it…  Why is that?  And what about me, why is Christmas always such a more prominent event in my mental calendar than Easter?

Well…
Christmas in the UK is much more than simple commercialism for non-Christians.  It is a big festival in winter!  At Christmas time the depressing shortening of days has come to an end and they are going to get lighter from now on!  It is a holiday after such a long spell with no bank holidays or public holidays…  The last time everyone had a weekday off was in August!  And it is a time to let go for a bit and enjoy rich food, warming flavours, heartening traditions, family time, fun with friends, giving and receiving presents even when its not your birthday… etc etc etc…  When I really thought about why I like Christmas so much I realised that it isn’t just as a Christian that I enjoy it.  But I love all of the other aspects as well.  Well most of them!

So what about Japan?
Well in Japan they have another winter festival.  New Year is a huge thing here, people get several days off work (a big deal here!) go home to their families, spend time together.  There is a religious aspect to it, people going to shrines and temples etc.  But I will happily ignore that side and focus on the chance to have fun with friends, eat good food, give and receive etc…

I guess the bottom line is that Christmas is about Jesus, but the rest of the stuff (within reason) isn’t necessarily wrong or bad unless we allow it to push Jesus out of the picture, or we don’t have Him there to start with.  I think for me, being in Japan will mean that it will be easier to keep Jesus at the centre of Christmas…  The paraphernalia can wait til New Years…

 

It’s turned out kind of like an interview hasn’t it?  hmmm….

Tags: asian, christmas, commercialism, east, japan, new year, northern ireland, tradition, west

Japan – Land of the refreshing air!

It’s nice to need a jumper in November!

I have arrived in Japan!  The plane landed in at around 5pm, I got through immigration and customs, Met Wolfgang Langhans (the Field Director here) and we arrived at Japan HQ at around 7:15pm!  Now one very tasty dinner (with Wolfgang and Dorothea) and a short dander around Ichikawa later and it’s almost time for bed…

It’s great to be back in Japan, the train ride back from the airport already brought back the sounds and smells of Japan!  And some of the sights, even thought it was dark…

Leaving IHQ wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be as it was early so my brain wasn’t working yet!  OC was something I would rather have done without when I was looking forward to it.  But in reflection it was a very useful time, getting to know people who are going to different places, getting to know OMF as an international organisation (getting to know the bit inbetween the homeside and fieldside) and getting to kow the people who are working at international HQ

Tomorrow Emiri and her parents are coming!  Emiri is in Ibaraki at a friend’s wedding and she is going to come to morning worship at the Chapel of Adoration here tomorrow! They are going to arrive here quite early and so I will leave it at that and head to bed!

Tags: chapel, emiri, ichikawa, japan, OMF, plane, travel

Let it “snow”

You’ll notice the picture on the right (or here if it is no longer a recent pic) is a snowy christmas scene…  But it’s not quite right, there is something not quite normal about it…  The snow isn’t snow at all, but instead is a sort of foamy, soapy snow-substitute that makes your eyes sting and needs to be washed off in the handy portable shower when you are done playing in it (if you are a child, or wish you were a child…).

This is Singapore, less than 2 degrees north of the equator.  Yet when you go into Starbucks you find Toffee Nut Lattes, “Christmas Blend” coffee like at home, Santa Claus wears heavy red winter clothing in the humid, 30+ degree weather, there is an attempt at an evergreen Christmas tree (all the trees are evergreen around here, there is no autumn!) and all kinds of other things that are Christmas-y.

But why are they Christmas-y?  In the UK (or US, or wherever in the Northern Hemisphere) they are Christmas-y because it is the middle of winter and that is the season in which Christmas falls.  The only green trees around are evergreens, Santa needs to keep warm because he’s going to be braving a mid-winters night to get all the kids their gifts (or coal!)…  We put nutmeg and cinnamon into stuff because it is warming, sweet heavy toffee-nut lattes are wonderfully warming on a winter’s afternoon…  Snow falls (sometimes!) and is cold and crisp and doesn’t even make your eyes sting!

But here in Singapore it isn’t mid-winter.  It’s as warm as ever and sticky to boot!  Why make trees that look like evergreens, why not use local trees?  Why not have Christmas Ice Cream, or something that is suitable to the season in which it falls instead of winter warmers?  Why not put Santa in a t-shirt and shorts (aside from the fright kids will get from a fat old man not wearing enough…)?  Why not forget the snow and just make your own Christmas traditions and festivities based on the festival and the context it is being celebrated in?

This is the aim of contextualisation, when we as missionaries take the gospel to another culture.  When we attempt to bring it to a new place or develop it in an existing stronghold we must be careful not to simply transplant our traditions and practices into the new culture.  To do so would mean that Christianity would remain a western import, something that is foreign and strange, unsuited to the culture and society into which it is being brought.  Sure the society may adopt these traditions and practise them, but their initial contextual meaning will be lost in a society without the initial context.  Much like our Christmas-y things being based around the context of winter, here in Singapore that context is lost and so the reason behind having snow, or having an evergreen tree, or soothing and warming coffee is lost.  It is simply being done because that is how it is done.  How can they even hope to be guided through these meaningless, contextless paraphernalia to the meaning behind the traditions?

Of course I haven’t even touched on the more basic issue of commercialisation at Christmas.  We see it in the west and it has obviously had a huge effect in the east, certainly in Singapore.

Anyways… it won’t be long now til I am in Hokkaido where Christmas will see plenty of real snow…!

Tags: christmas, contextualisation, culture, fake snow, missions, snow, tree

Christmas…. In October?

I had a great weekend this weekend!

Firstly, as every good weekend does, it began with FAYC on Friday night.  It was a little sad as my club nights are numbered before I head off in November…

On Saturday I was determined to go kayaking, I had thought of surfing, but the forecast wasn’t great and so my heart was sinking as I knew most people wouldn’t be too keen to go.  But thankfully it rained all day Friday and come Saturday the river was nice and high, not so high that it was life threatening, but high enough that it was exciting and there was plenty of potential for fun at the weirs.
So Andy, Tommy, Jake and I set off on a great trip down the river.  It is probably the last bit of kayaking I will get to do for a while…

Following that I headed home, got washed down and Jonny picked me up as we headed over to Steve and Emma’s place for a night of foof and fun.  I was expecting a chinese take away and a game of cranium or a DVD or something.  When we pulled up at the Little’s place, Jonny reached back to me and said “Here, put this on” and thrust a red hat with a white bobble on the end in my direction…  Surely not…  We walked in and found a fully decorated Christmas tree, Christmas tunes on the stereo, the smell of hot apple punch and a fresh log fire.
If that wasn’t enough, we filed through to the dining area and sat down to a full Christmas dinner, including turkey and ham, sprouts, stuffing, the works!  Followed by a veritable feast of desserts.  All of this was provided by an array of talented chefs, who had slaved for days, well at least hours, to get it all ready…
After dinner we retired to the living room for a suitably fixed game of pass the parcel.
The most incredible thing of the whole night was that once in the house with the door closed, Christmas music on and punch in hand it actually felt like it was Christmas!  It was almost a disappointment when the reality of October would resurface.

The Sunday morning saw a youth club service at the church involving stories of mountain biking accidents, plenty of fun to play songs and jam doughnuts!

In the evening it was my commissioning service.  Mark came to speak, I had asked the band to choose the music and I was commissioned as a missionary with OMF to Japan!  So now I’m actually a missionary I guess…
It was a great night, a lot of meaningful people took part and my friends and family were there.

Thanks to everyone involved at any stage of the weekend, particular thanks to those responsible for the Christmas extravaganza on Saturday, something I doubt I will forget any time soon, and those involved in Sunday evening, thanks for a special, memorable night!

You can see photos of my commissioning on First Antrim’s website.  Hopefully I can get some of the Christmas night to put up somewhere!

Tags: christmas, christmas tree, commissioning, ham, kayaking, missionary, october, OMF, service, stuffing, turkey, youth

Oodles of Noodles…

This week the Holiday Bible Club was on in the church, so there were 150 odd kids running about and screaming each morning…  Great fun…  I was only free to help three of the 5 days as I had work, and I have fallen a little behind on my dissertation as a result.  But it was great fun really!

On Thursday I left the club and headed off to Belfast to go to the library at college.  I arrived in the town and hunted for a parking space (building work has the college parking restricted to staff etc), parked and abandoned I left the car and strolled down Botanic avenue to get some lunch.  I was thinking about getting a sandwich, but I remembered a small noodle bar I noticed there a week or two ago and decided to give it a go.  On arriving I spied the chalkboard rendering of “try our ramen!”  Now I love ramen!  Ramen is delicious!  So I hastily ordered some up and waited eagerly only to be presented with a bowl of soup with slim udon in it… definately not ramen…  It was still tasty though!

Tags: College, dissertation, holiday bible club, king quest, library, noodles, ramen