セムエルナイト：Samuel Night

On July 28^th and 29^th I was at the Lutheran retreat center at Mount Aso for Kengun Lutheran’s annual Samuel Night, a short get-away for the Sunday school students. We left the church and headed up to Aso at 2:00 in the afternoon, with a couple stops planned before we reached the camp. Stop number one was to get ice cream at a local dairy. It was absolutely delicious!

Next it was on to the swimming hole. I had been “briefed” on this particular swimming hole the week before. It is so cold apparently, that we were instructed to keep an eye on the kids and watch for hypothermia. I had been dreaming about this swimming hole for a week. Let me tell you something about Kumamoto in the summer. It is hot. Like really hot. Low nineties often, but it feels much hotter and the humidity is very high. I arrive everywhere I go completely sweaty and disheveled. Luckily for me, so does everyone else. So you can imagine my disappointment when the day dawned cloudy and with a chill in the air from the approaching rain. I was still determined. I was getting into that river.

I had a blast. Only the high school and junior highers were allowed back in the actual swimming hole area. Once you clambered your way up the side of a small waterfall and upriver a ways, you came upon the small pool. It was surrounded by boulders, perfect for jumping off of. Only three of us actually jumped; our new seminarian, myself, and one of the junior high boys. It is silly perhaps, but one of the things I felt most strongly was that here, where splashing each other with water causes laughter regardless of language, where jumping off a boulder into a freezing pool of water is fun and a bit of a big deal regardless of culture, here, I felt like I finally connected with the students I work with every Sunday. And we barely spoke more than a few sentences to each other. But we laughed and giggled, and splashed, and froze, and jumped together. I came laughing back to the main group with bruises and scratches and rather blissfully happy.

Next we went to onsen, a hot spring bath to warm our shivering selves. I connected here with some of the mothers who were with us and practiced my Japanese while they tried to remember the English they learned in high school and college. I love onsen. So relaxing. This one had an outdoor bath… heaven.

After the onsen we headed onward to the camp where all the effects were ready for a barbecue  Japan style. Can I just say that I adore how Japan does barbecue  Don’t get me wrong, I have been craving American barbecue since summer started, but I will totally crave the way Japan does barbecue when I come back to the States. I have already had in-depth conversations about how to get or make the right meat and sauces. Everything is grilled together, and everyone just mills around the grill (or in this case grills) and you pick stuff off with your chopsticks when it is done to your satisfaction, and put it in your sauce bowl. The sauce is brilliant, I have never tried anything like it. There are slices or chunks of beef, pork, and chicken, sausage links, and lots of vegetables. So tasty! Okay, on to other subjects, I am getting hungry.

After dinner Katie and Kazu left. This made me a little nervous, because my two other English speakers were going to leave me! I had to remind myself that I would be just fine, this wouldn't be my first time being the only English speaker. And it turned out I wasn't  Two of the mothers there spoke enough English for us to have a good conversation.

Later that evening the moms tried repeatedly to get their charges into their futons. It was quite a battle, but it was won eventually. Or so we thought. Just as all the adults had settled out on the veranda for drinks and food, here they came again…. We got eaten alive by bugs out there by the way, or at least I did. My legs were massacred, so much so that when we arrived back the next day, the church ladies who were waiting to greet us totally freaked out.

On Monday morning we got up to pouring rain. We ate breakfast together and then we made bamboo cups! So cool! I have a cup made out of bamboo! That I can actually use! I was so excited. What’s more, I wrote on it in kanji. It was all very exciting. Our new seminarian helped me practice my kanji strokes and he was a good and patient teacher. Then some kids came up to “help” and it turned into a kanji lesson for Caroline. Being taught kanji by first and second graders who don’t quite grasp the concept that you can’t actually understand what they are saying is very entertaining. Afterwards we all worked together to pack up the camp and put the futons away before lunch and then it was time to head back to church.

It was a long way back. Only about an hour’s drive, but we were all exhausted. Nobody had slept much the night before. Some of the church ladies were there to greet us when we arrived and they fed us ice cream while we unpacked all the gear.

It was only one night and two days, but I felt like, for the first time, I really got a chance to connect to the people I see every Sunday. I've said it before, but church is where I struggle the most. It has more to do with the language barrier than anything else, but I am quite determined to overcome that in any way possible. Since it doesn't seem that I will gain any proficiency in Japanese any time soon, I have to get creative. I am becoming more involved in church activities. I acolyte now, and am attending a bible study on Wednesday nights (that is really interesting to try with the language barrier, but, God’s looking out because one of the other attendees is an English teacher).

It’ll come with time. But until then, I will keep the good memories I have from Samuel Night and keep charging forward. For as it says in Hebrews 12:1 “… Let us run the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and the perfector of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame...”