gambatte

...that's one of our favorite japanese words...gambatte...roughly meaning "let's go" or "fight on!"....gambatte captures the sense of determination and discipline that characterizes much of japanese society...it also captures our sentiment and spirit of perseverance as we study and stumble through japanese basics....

...with gambatte in our minds and our first meeting with our private language teacher in our day-planners, we set off to settsu-motoyama (about an 1 hr by subway) to meet kitami-sensei and our friend, hiroko-san (below), a language teacher herself who referred kitami-sensei to us...

...more on hiroko later, but now, with respect to our first meeting with kitami-sensei, claire and i both picked up the impression that kitami-sensei approaches her work with a high degree of professionalism and preparation...that'll be a good objective complement to our subjective gambatte-ness...but it'll definitely be a little different (and scary) when we mess up in front of her (unlike the casual intimacy and deflective laughter we've developed with our language helper friends)...she started correcting us the first minute we started speaking...

...now back to hiroko...following our introductory meeting with kitami-sensei, hiroko took us out for ramen in a nearby place...

...not only the ramen, but the decor was appealing...

...in this cozy setting, hiroko-san shared her testimony of coming to believe in Jesus Christ through the power of God's Spirit...as a college student, she joined a group of peers on a volunteer clean-up project to neighboring south korea...while working in a remote village, an elderly christian man -- a complete stranger -- came up to her and said, why is your face so sad?....why is your heart down?...you must believe in Jesus...the first thing that struck hiroko was the fact that she was miserable and in deep need of God's love...the second thing was that this grandfather was completely blind...

...to this day, hiroko-san treasures the time she spent with that elderly man....she firmly believes that God revealed himself directly and powerfully to her through the man's words...and this "Damascus-like" encounter with God (cf. acts 9.1-19) continues to form and frame hiroko's christian faith, her witness as an english teacher for many students, and also her prayers for japan: that God would use not only church events and programs to save many japanese people, but also that God would reveal himself to people by the Spirit-governed power of signs and wonders (romans 15:19)...

...as we've been praying for our community and beyond, hearing hiroko's heart-melting testimony inspires us to pray as high and wide and long and far as the unsearchable, inexhaustable power, purposes, and promises of God as revealed in his word (ephesians 3:14-21)...