A Daily Life in Aomori

Welcome to my third blog post! Apologies to everyone for the late and sporadic blog posts - there are so many things to do here (work-related and fun-related) and I have been WAY too excited working and exploring.

Thanks again to everyone for your prayer and support. Tavi (my fellow German missionary), the missionary family, and I have been hard at work here at the Aomori Christian Center.

Through our and the missionary family's efforts, we have kept the Aomori Christian Center ready for student and church retreats to happen even despite the snowy winter. This past week, a university group held a retreat here, where we were the support staff. In a few days, a local church will also hold a day retreat here.



Here is Tavi hard at work shovelling the parking lot:






Luke made these beautiful snow block walls that encompass the parking lot:




We have also been working to prepare the camp grounds for renovations. In the next few months, several new buildings will be constructed, as the Aomori Christian Camp's functions are sometimes impaired by lack of proper facilities. Tavi, Luke, and I have been working to make sure that the camp grounds are ready for this.



Here is a picture of the Aomori Christian Center main building: 





And here is a picture of a young boy from another missionary family who visited our camp!




Tavi and I have also been helping a lot with daily functions of the missionary family, such as washing dishes, getting firewood, etc. The family handles a large mission camp, and as such have a very large amount of logistics to cover. In addition to responsibilities relating to the 5 children, it is very difficult for the husband and wife to stay up to date with all their logistics, even despite their hard work and diligence. By helping them with their daily functions, Tavi and I are enabling the missionary family to focus on more important logistics as well as missions and goals for the Aomori Christian Center.



I don't have any pictures of us doing daily tasks, so enjoy this picture of Josiah (the 4th oldest child) in a shopping basket!






This is what a normal weekday will look like for me:

6am: Wake up and do devotionals. I am currently reading through the New Testament and I am currently on Acts 3. Sometimes, though, I like to skip around and read random sections. This morning, I felt compelled to read verses relating to pride, and this particular verse stuck out to me:

Philippians 2: 3-4 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others.

During my time here and beyond, I will constantly pray for a mindset that puts others before myself.

7am: Work on logistics, read books, study.

9am: Arrive at the missionary family's house for devotionals. During this time we pray for local churches, study the Bible, and pray for each other. During this time, Luke (the missionary husband) will often share the history of missionary work in our area of Japan, which is a great learning opportunity for me. It also gives me a chance to understand the needs of the local area, which I pray for during my free time.

10am: Time to get to work! Sometimes, we will travel to local churches to attend services. Other times, we will work on administrative tasks relating to the Aomori Christian Center. For the past few days, our most common task has been shovelling the parking lots and walking paths. Tomorrow, a church will be holding a "day camp" at the Aomori Christian Center so Tavi and I will be up early to clear the snow from the parking lot/paths.

12pm: Arrive at the missionary family's house for lunch. Yuko, the missionary wife, is an amazing cook and works hard to always have a warm meal ready for us after we come back from work. After lunch, we wash and dry the dishes together. Then we have tea and fellowship time.

1pm: Back to work! Most of the time we work on logistics relating to the Aomori Christian Center or go back to shovelling snow.

5:30pm: Dinnertime! By this time, the 5 kids will have come back from school, so we have a nice family dinner together. Our dinner discussions are usually wild and interesting, ranging from theological topics to our favorite animals to the latest movie. After dinner, we wash and dry dishes together. Often, we will also go out to get more firewood.

7:00pm: By this time, I am exhausted and ready to pass out. I head back to my dormitory with Tavi and take a shower/brush my teeth. Sometimes, we watch a movie or TV episode, but most of the time I am so tired I fall asleep nearly immediately.

9pm: Zzzzz

Thanks for reading! If anyone has any specific questions they would like answered or are curious about the churches/Christianity in Japan, please leave a comment and I will answer it either directly or in my next blog post!