Monday, January 23, 2006

of ureshi-ness...

(ureshi means happy)

So, I'm really happy right now. Today was a good day. It's nice to spend a day devoted to God. Granted, I'm really busy on Sundays, but somehow it's just really good. I'm so happy to have a wonderful Bible Class that is so eager to learn and who come every week to study Christianity for two hours in a foreign language. God is awesome. And the great thing about teaching this class is that I learn too. Today made me re-examine some of my thoughts about the Sabbath. It's interesting.

But Cell group went well today too. Of course I was a bit of a looser and failed to keep us on track, so we went over a bit, but we had good discussion.

But probably the reason I'm so happy is the final Blessing of the Day. So Cell group is supposed to end at 8:30, and granted one person does go home at that time every time (she has a family to take care of), but the other two like to stay after for some good old Christian fellowship and catching up time. This is good too. Normally, this is the part I look forward to the most. But lately I have been torn. Because the band only plays on Saturdays and Sundays (and the occasional holiday) I have very limited opportunities to see them. So I am often torn between wanting to spend time with my Christian friends, and wanting them to go home so I can spend time with the band. Well, when this all first started, I made a commitment to God. Christian fellowship comes first. I will not skip out early when I can spend good time with Christians to go see them. I will not kick people out of my house early just to see them. So far, I have done this in action, even though not always in complete spirit. But it is what I want. So anyway, tonight was a bit like that, esp since I got to see them for like 3 whole minutes last week, and it snowed yesterday and I couldn't see them. Tonight was a bit cold, so I seriously didn't expect them to be out late. Well, by the time we are finished talking, and everyone's ready to go home, I get to the station at around 11pm. I totally didn't think that they were going to still be there, but I checked the meeting spot anyway, just to make sure. I was so surprised to find a small group still there! It was nice. I had maybe about 20 minutes to hang out with them before they left. And we had good conversations too. I found out, two people wanted to invite me bowling on Friday night, but they had been afraid to e-mail me because they weren't sure of the English. (and I don't think they had my address). That just made me so happy. Because I was thought about outside of the regular meeting time and place. This means I'm closer to forming real friendships with these people. I'm so happy about this. My communication seems to be getting higher (their English and my Japanese both). So anyway, I came home on cloud nine tonight. I can only think that God is blessing my obedience. This has happened at least twice now, that after I spend time with fellow Christians faithfully, then I go to the band, God really blesses my time there. I'm so happy that God is allowing me to do this in my life.

Next Saturday is going to be one of my few days off. So far nothing is planned, so it looks like, if the weather is good, I'll get to spend some good old quality time with them. It's great. So, as they say in Japan... ureshiiiiiii!!!!! :-D (yeah, I know the spell checker's not gonna like that word...)

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