Church

This is a picture of the pastor and his family. His wife, Mrs. Beth, is actually really good friends with my mom. (The baby's name is Naiomi and she is the one on my blog titled "yukata".)


Going to church in Japan was quite an experience. It is very hard to find a Christian church, most of them are Buddhist. When my parents were eventually able to find one it was very small with a lot of people. We had to take our shoes off before we entered, of course. Every Sunday there is a translator that comes for the people who do not speak Japanese, such as my family. We had a small elderly lady sit behind us during the sermon. She whispered to us while the pastor preached. It was one of the hardest things in the world to understand her while she talked to us. For one thing, the pastor was talking very loud and it was hard to hear her along with the Japanese words in the background.

No body told me that this stranger was translating for us and she was sitting in between my parents so it was harder to understand. So I simply ask "Are you talking to us?" because I was curious to know why she was interrupting. I was so embarrassed when my mother told me that she was translating.

After the preaching was over, the pastor closed in prayer. Well, the translator stopped talking to us when he started to pray so I didn't know what we were praying for. So I just prayed silently to God. When we sang afterward it was a little easier. Half of the songs we sang in Japanese, which I kind of just moved my lips for, and than the other half was in English, and it was songs that I was familiar with! So after that the service was OK for me. Of course, singing is always my favorite part of every Sunday.