Wayne's World

First of all, I have to say that my wise and lovely girlfriend told me never to craft a lesson/spiritual point around a story or joke, but rather start with the main message and then add your spiffy-spicy anecdotes for clarity and flavor. So, I'd just like to say for the record that the "serious stuff" came first.

For those of you who saw the title to this blog entry and immediately started spewing out quotes left and right--get a life. Do you remember that part where Wayne and Garth are traveling through time and space, enjoying themselves way too much, and commenting on the exotic places of the world? Parading around Paris, basking on the beach, skydiving in Saskatoon, loving life in Las Vegas! And then they end up in Delaware? They look around kind of confused/bored-like and say, "Hi, I'm in...Delaware." As if Delaware were the most bland and despicable place on earth! Maybe it is, I don't know, but ladies and gentlemen, I'm about to go there.

Wayne and Garth probably never saw this in Delaware. A white guy traveling around with six Japanese people. I have been volunteering at "Watage no Kai," an institution specifically for people suffering from social withdrawal, for about a year now. I play soccer with the kids on Thursdays, and teach an English conversation class on Friday. As we have slowly gotten to know one another, a quiet trust has developed. Several months ago the staff informed me that they would be going to Delaware (sister state of Miyagi prefecture) in order to learn how American's deal with this issue of social withdrawal. As they were explaining things I knew a question was lurking around the corner - will you come with us? I agreed, and now, after a lot of hard work and preparation, it is only a matter of hours before we set foot on the airplane.

Since I'll be doing a fair amount of translating during our research work, I decided to interview some of the staff in order to get a clearer picture of what they think of Watage. I was talking with Kenichi, a 28 year old staff member, about why he is working with these children. With tears in his eyes, he told me that each child has a sort of "gasoline tank," a place that needs to be filled with love and confidence and many experiences. He said, "My tank is full. I hope they will have a full tank." I was moved by their geniune care for these children. Indeed, they have a tremendous amount of influence in many many children's lives. A further reaching influence than I could ever have. They want these children to understand that they are valuable, that they are loved. If the staff only knew Jesus! What a deep, real, and enternal impact they could have on so many lives! More than anything, this is where my prayers lie during this journey.

I would ask this of you:
"Pray diligently. Don't forget to pray for me, that God will open doors for telling the mystery of Christ, every day that we're traveling together. Pray that every time I open my mouth I'll be able to make Christ plain as day to them."

Pray for the staff: Takashi Akita, Kenichi Akita, Katsumasa Harano, Akira Sato, Goto Sensei, & Yukie Chiba.

As they say in Japan, "Itte kimasu!" (Lit. I'm going and coming back!)