Today, I got to experience something I probably haven't since I was a kid. Mom and I made homemade perogies and enjoyed them for dinner. WOW, I have to say they were incredible! You have to try them - words don't explain the deliciousness. You can as much enjoy the taste of something by reading a description of it, as you could enjoy music by smelling fresh-baked bread. Speaking of which, we also made fresh-baked bread today, too! Great way to end the year!
On the way home from Marukoma Inn, we drove out to Yuni. More icy road conditions but the Lord is faithful and protected us and kept us safe. Anyways, we got to church a little late but I wanted to take a picture with Yumiko-san and Harumi-san and my mom... and Steve! The Yuni ladies bought me this cute sweatshirt for Christmas and I promised I would wear it the next time I came to town - so here it is! It was another great ministry day, and we know that God is going to continue to do a work out in Yuni!
What an awesome blessing! One of my students hooked me and my mom up with a night's accommodation at an inn a few hours outside of Sapporo. Normally it would have been a beautiful, scenic drive... but unexpectedly, it snowed all the way there, and the road conditions were treacherous! God protected us and we got there safely.
What a beautiful inn! What a beautiful room! What a beautiful view! What a beautiful God! So we chilled in the afternoon, playing games, and then went downstairs for dinner. WHAT? An 11-course meal? Are you KIDDING me? It was all Japanese food, and while I can't say I liked it all, I ate it all! I'm so proud of myself! Mom ate as much as she could as well... but she has never been a picky eater like me.
Then in the evening, we enjoyed the beautiful and refreshing hot springs. Wow, amazing! The whole day was just a lot of fun... thank You, Lord, for providing such a great little getaway for us! I am hoping that if the weather cooperates, Mom and I can head out somewhere else and see more of Hokkaido before she leaves on January 6th. Wow, time is flying!
月曜日にいつも江別市に行って、英会話を教えています。この前はお母さんを連れて行って、生徒たちに紹介しました。あそこの一人の生徒は「お母さんがいる間、どっか連れて行く予定あるの？」と尋ねました。「うーん、天候次第だけど、支笏湖に行く事を考えてるよ」と答えました。すると彼はたちまちに携帯電話を出して、"Just a moment, please (ちょっと待ってください)"と言い、友人に電話しました。５分後に支笏湖の旅館丸駒に予約を入れてくれました。しかも、ただ！
On Sunday night, Calvary Chapel Sapporo had its first ever evening service. The location: ICF Lirabell wedding chapel. It is an absolutely gorgeous building and we were blessed to gather in such a place. Around 14 people attended and Steve spoke out of Luke 2. Worship was great and the fellowship afterward was also blessed. Praise the Lord! Please pray that we might find favor with the management there, and that somehow we would be permitted to use it every Sunday evening.
日曜日に礼拝に来てくれたのは、道外に住んでいる友人たちに海外に住んでいるお母さんでした。紹介します。The special guests who came to our service this past Sunday were friends of mine who live outside of Hokkaido, and my mom, who lives in Canada. Let me introduce them to you:
This is Ryota. He lives in Osaka, and I met him for the first time last month when I was in mainland. And sometime in between our two meetings, he has become one of my skype English students! It was great to talk to him in person, though! 上の写真は良太と私です。先月に内地に行った時に出会いましたが、いつの間にかスカイプを通して良太に英語を教えることになりました。今回は生で話せて本当に良かったです！
次は、道産子の美保子です。札幌生まれで今はなんと、沖縄県伊江島に住んでいます。私と逆パターンですね！僕は日本に来て伊江島に最初に住んでいたけど今は札幌！美保子さんに出会ったのは４年前でした。カルバリーチャペル宜野湾の礼拝に来てて北海道出身と聞いたら興奮しました。「いつか北海道に引っ越しするのは夢です！｣とちょっとウソついてしまった（笑）The next picture is of Mihoko. She is originally from Hokkaido but now she lives on Iejima in Okinawa! Just the opposite of my life in Japan! Anyways, we met about 4 years ago at Calvary Chapel Ginowan, and when I heard that she was from Hokkaido I got all excited and told a little white lie about how it was my dream to one day move there! And now it's happened!
Last but not least, my mother. Of course you all know her by now if you've been reading my blog. She is from Canada and she is my mom and I love her. Great to have her here. By the way, this pic was taken at Sama, a soup curry place here in Sapporo. I thought my mom would like it, but I never thought she would say their curry tasted better than hers! (She makes amazing curry so that is a huge compliment to Sama!) 最後に、僕のブログを読んでくれている皆さんが良く知っている人です：マイ・マザーです。カナダから札幌に来た大好きなお母さんです。本当に一緒にいられるのは幸せです。ちなみに、この写真は札幌にあるスープカレーのお店の「SAMA」で撮られました。きっとお母さんがこういう食事なら気に入るだろうと思ったら、お母さんがなんと、このカレーは自分のカレーより遥かに良いものだと言い出した！（お母さんのカレーはめっちゃ美味しいなので、大した褒め言葉です。
This past Sunday, Calvary Chapel Sapporo gathered in my apartment building. Not my suite, but downstairs in the landlord's office room. He's a Christian and has his own architectural firm, so he has an office in my apartment building. But he almost never uses it. Since it is more spacious than our usual gathering place, and since we were expecting guests, we figured it would be nice to have a larger room. Well, we met at 10am and the service was a blessing! The messenger (some weird Canadian guy) spoke on Luke 2, and even though his message was long, I think it was Spirit-led! Praise the Lord for new opportunities and new people and new life!
The best Christmas present I received this year? Geez, I could answer this question in a lot of different ways, and none of them would fully express how I feel. But really, can you ever receive a present better than the one that Jesus Christ came to give us 2000+ years ago? HE is the reason for the season. What is this gift? Let me explain...
You and I were created by the God of love. The God who created the entire universe. He created us so that we could have a pure and perfect relationship with Him. But guess what... we are sinners. We have rebellious hearts and have consciously chosen to take steps away from God. Well, God cannot accept our sin, but He still wants US. But the punishment for sin is death. We are all carrying a death sentence. When we choose to rebel against God, we are choosing not life, but death. But God has given each of us the choice: Plan A is that His Son would pay the penalty that we deserved - death - and He paid it on a cross almost 2000 years ago. OR, we can choose Plan B, that is, we can say, "I don't need a Savior... I will take care of myself." Well, when you put it that way, you are putting yourself to death. Choose the cross, my friends.
On that note, I got a few sweet gifts from people I really care about... thank you all! You know who you are! And another swell gift was spending the holidays with my lovely mother... haven't been able to do this more than twice in the past 12 years! Sweeet! We watched It's a Wonderful Life in the afternoon, and we both dozed off during A Christmas Story (great movie, but after a satisfying meal, I guess we both felt groggy) in the evening. Overall Christmas score: 100. Thank You, Jesus!
On Thursday night we headed out to Yuni as we always do. But this time, we had more people and a bigger party! Not only was it our Christmas service, but it was Krisztina's 13th birthday, too! She invited a couple of her friends, and all the kids came out as well. And of course, my lovely mother was there as well. The ladies (Harumi & Yumiko) came as always, and Mr. Hayashi also came. We had a time of worship followed by the Word (Luke 2:1-21). Then Steve had the lights dimmed and we all got candles and lit them and sang Silent Night.
After that we had a delicious dinner (rotisserie chicken, risotto, yakitori, meatballs, salad, and lots of sweets for dessert, including birthday cake for Krisztina), followed by a gift exchange. It was such a joy-filled night, and we were all blessed to be a part of celebrating Christ's birth! Let's keep praying for the people of Yuni!
Today I got a surprise parcel in the mail. It was sent from one "Godbles Syou" from a PO Box in Okinawa City, and the phone number listed on the parcel was one unknown to me. Ah, a mystery parcel! A secret Santa! But after thinking about it for around 5 minutes, I nailed down who it was. Anyways, what a blessing to receive a Christmas package from the land I miss so much! I got lots of good Okinawan items, as well as some US base contraband! Thanks so much, Godbles Syou! May the Lord reward and bless you, and have a Merry Christmas!!!
Tonight Mom was able to sit in on my English class at ULA. I wasn't sure if she would enjoy it or not, but I knew many students wanted to meet her and talk to her. Sure enough, there were 9 students the first hour (normally I get 3-4) and everyone had questions and wanted to get to know my mother! After the first hour, most of the students left but the four who stuck around for the second hour got to have a little fun. Afterwards I asked her what she thought, and she really had a great time! She said it was wonderful getting to know the ladies in the class. And one of my dear students even made a delicious cheesecake so we had some good food while we were chatting! Thanks for the fun night at work, ULA students!
Well, Mom's been here for 3 days now. So what have we done? What have we been up to? Not a whole lot... just much mother-son bonding. Friday she took a nap while I was at work, then we went to a little Christmas party. Saturday I think we spent the entire day just talking and playing games and eating. Oh yeah, we watched Amal... great movie! Sunday we went to church together, then before my "bridal fair wedding" that I conducted (which Mom watched) we walked over to the famed "clock tower" here in Sapporo. After the wedding we hung out with the Lorinczes until evening and then came home and played more games. Today I think we just continued chatting - skyped with the younger bro (mine) and the older bro (Mom's). Took a little walk, and that's about it! I'm off to work and Mom said she would play games and do little things around the house... hope she doesn't rearrange it too much! Having fun though... here's to another 17 days!
On Friday night (just hours after Mom arrived) we headed to Cafe Angel where there was a little Christmas party. Steve and Michiyo performed a few songs after Pastor John sang Christmas carols with us. Then came BINGO time! Well, Mom's bingo card was a LOSER right from the start - someone won before she even had one of her numbers called! So they awarded her a special prize because of her poor luck. Then I got one of the secondary prizes, and then Mom's bingo card caught fire (not literally) and she won a secondary prize as well... but gave the card to another lady who was also having a hard-luck kind of night. All in all we made away with some special blend coffee, bath salts, cooking salts, and edible oil (?). Good times had by all!
Last night I went to New Chitose Airport to pick up my mom. I had double-checked the flight number, the date and the time, and I knew that she should be arriving at 8:50pm. When I saw passengers picking up their luggage, I looked through the window to try to find the only foreign woman from that flight... and saw no one familiar. I waited and waited, and everyone left the terminal. No mother! So I checked my e-mail, and got a message: "The Vancouver flight was delayed so I missed my connection in Tokyo. I'll be coming in at 12:20pm tomorrow!" So today I went back to the airport, but was a little late. When I finally got there, I went to the arrival area, and could not find her! "Not AGAIN!" I thought to myself and kind of panicked. But then I realized there was another gate. So I went there, and sure enough, mom was waiting for me! Whew! Great to see her after 7 months! Looking forward to 3 weeks of fun together!
God has been blessing me with lots of new friends lately. It seems like everywhere I go, I am meeting new young people, and they are all so friendly! On Saturday night I went out to play futsal with a guy named Yuki - cool dude who lived in Ottawa for awhile. Anyways, I met a bunch of his friends and had a great time. Then today, my new friend Yuta invited me to the Munich Christmas festival at Odori Park... so I got to meet some of his friends, too! I hope I can continue to meet up with these two guys and their friends - many of whom do not know Jesus Christ. Maybe this is a chance God is giving me to reach out to new people! Pray that I would have courage and boldness and love for all the new people I am meeting these days! Here are some pics from tonight.
I know I have reported snow and the end of running season here before, but this time I think it's for real. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the weather forecast for Sapporo for this week:
So I saw that today was going to be a nice day (and it is) and decided to go for one last run. Have I ever told you I hate running? Anyways, what's done is done. It's been a great year for me when it comes to running... lots of new accomplishments, records, and equipment. I can only hope that somehow, I will keep this up in 2011. This winter will be my longest layoff from running since I started back in June of last year.
This is the second of just two updates I will do on the Christmas program... I ran out of battery on my camera after the Night De Light performance! Anyways, this band is born and raised in Sapporo, and I believe they are more talented than most of the bands out in Japan. The bassist is really skilled, as you might be able to tell from these songs. Anyways, enjoy the music as we did last night!
Last night at Sapporo Citizen Hall, many churches put on a presentation called Sapporo Citizens' Christmas. The program was pretty cool - a hula performance, a rock band, a guest speaker from Iran (who spoke amazing Japanese) and a choir of 52 people. Plus, the entire audience got to learn how to "sign" the first verse and chorus of Joy to the World. I had a great time and got to meet a lot of cool Christians. My prayer is that some of the non-Christians in the audience left the event changed, and desiring a relationship with the Savior of the world. These, by the way, are the videos of the Hula Performance. One is the Lord's Prayer spoken in Hawai'ian and the other is an interpretive dance of O Holy Night. Beautiful and graceful!
The Japanese are interesting. When someone catches a cold, or even when people around them are sick, everyone tends to wear masks. And since I work with little kids on Tuesdays and Fridays, and I have been battling a little teeny tiny cold, I had to wear a mask at work yesterday. Unfortunately these masks are not designed for the foreigner's face - it was so tight! Not only that, but it was really itchy due to my li'l beard. Ah well, good for a few laughs, I s'pose.
Well, for the first time in my life, I actually took great joy in the first snowfall of the year! (I know, I know, it snowed a month ago... but that doesn't count!) I decided it was time to go back to my roots - building snowmen and trying to have a little fun with it! On top of that, it was great to see people stare at me as they walked by. What's this guy DOING? He's got the body of a man but the brains of a child! And the snowman making ability of a camel! Well, I had fun doing it anyways. Before looking at the picture below, check out the video. OK? Trust me, it's funner that way!
Lately the topic of "name" has come up in my life a lot. Some of you have heard my rants about my name before, but for those of you who haven't, this is what it sounds like:
1) I love my name. It is unique, and as far as I know there is only one other Trevor Raichura in the world. Apparently he disgraced his rugby team in Ireland with some poor defensive play once upon a time. Anyways, the name is unique and certainly brings about interesting conversations: Where are you from? What's the origin of your name? What does it mean?
2) The Japanese people have a hard time pronouncing my name. There is no R in Japanese, nor is there a V. So my name (as you might have guessed from my blog name) is Toreba (with the 'r' sounding like something between an l and an r - hard for anyone to imagine such a sound exists, but it does!) I don't particularly care for the sound of "Toreba" but for people who can't speak English, I'm cool with it... gives me a kind of "second identity"...
3) For some reason, even when I write my name in Japanese, the locals tend to read it "Toreba Rachel"... the letter differences are チュラ (Chura) vs. チェル (Cheru) which to me look different enough that I would be able to distinguish the two! I don't like being called Rachel though! But my former boss, who is quite fluent in English, called me Mr. Rachel (with a good accent, too) and yesterday at church, I was introduced as Toreba Rachel "the missionary" despite the fact that I wrote my name out on the guest card correctly! And today, I got my receipt for my rent, and the landlord also wrote me down as Toreba Rachel! Maybe I oughta look into legally changing my name???
And here's something new: I am not the only Trevor in Sapporo, I discovered. I am not the only Canadian Trevor in Sapporo. I am not the only Christian Canadian Trevor in Sapporo. I am not even the only Missionary Christian Canadian Trevor in Sapporo! I guess I'm not so special anymore, am I?
Well, what does God have to say about names? One of my favorite promises in the Bible comes from Revelation 2:17 - He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.
God will give me a new name when I enter into His presence! And only I will be able to know what that name is! I imagine it'll be like, everyone calls me Trevor (Raichura, and not Rachel, I hope) but the God who created the Universe will whisper my secret name in my ear, directly, and every time I hear it, my lips will curl up in a smile and I'll know that I am deeply loved and unique and special. So, what will my new name be, Lord? Anything but Rachel will do just fine!
それはどういう意味かというと、私は神様に従って行けば、天に入る時に新しい名前が与えられるということです。しかし、神様と私だけがその名前を知っている。ほかの人たちに「トレバー」(or Trevor... but NOT Rachel! 天国にレイチェルって呼ばれない、ハレルヤ！) と呼ばれるかもしれないけど神様が僕の耳にそのスペシャルな名前をささやいてくださり、それで私はあまりにも神の愛に満ちあふれて微笑まずにはいられない状態になる！楽しみです！
Today I got home from my part-time job, and within 15 minutes my doorbell rang. Odd, no one usually comes by unexpected. Who might it be? Turns out there was a parcel for me. All-riiiiight! I love getting stuff in the mail! This time a former co-worker of mine from the Okinawa days decided to bless me with some comfort foods. Check the picture below for the inventory. Thank you, my dear friend! May the Lord return the blessings to you a hundredfold!
Not sure if anyone else would consider Nijuyonken Park a beautiful part of Sapporo - it's hardly any different from any other park. But I will say that it was nice to discover it - a mere 3-4 minute blade from my apartment, and it has a baseball field and playing area for kids. It was great to just sit and watch kids playing soccer, tag, whatever.
I think if I had come here a couple of weeks earlier, I would have seen some beautiful foliage! Just the same, it didn't look too bad from where I sat. Today was a beautiful day for blading - sunny and 15C... unexpected after last week's highs of 5C, and especially with winter right around the corner! It's supposed to snow 3 days next week! So I am thankful that God gave me this day to just relax, do a little exercise, get into His Word, and enjoy nature.
Today was just a blessed day overall. I woke up early (well, relatively) and got into the book of Exodus. Then breakfast while studying, writing a few meaningful e-mails, and trying to make more contacts in Sapporo. Part of that was visiting the Christian cafe located near one of my workplaces. Cafe Angel is a cute little place where you can just sit and chill and have a good meal or coffee. When I walked in, I went to a table and a guy called over, "You're the guy who came in a few weeks ago, right?" 'Fraid not. But just that was enough to get me talking to him, and it turns out he is a pastor in Sapporo - who speaks good English and has the Holy Spirit in him... I could just tell! Then the guy across from him said, "Hey you went to Canaan Praise Church last Sunday, didn't you?" 'Fraid so. (Not really afraid, though.) So we got to talking as well. Then the server came along and she said, "Hey, you're Sakiko's friend, right?" 'Fraid so. (Again, kidding.) And then another server comes along and says, "How you going?" (What? Japanese guy speaking with a thick Australian accent? Believe it!) So anyways, my time at Cafe Angel was filled with cool encounters.
Then I went running (no snow means keep trying to run) and after that went out for dinner with my English student, Shota. Overall it was an outstanding day. Thank you, Lord! And you better believe I will be back at Cafe Angel soon - great place to hang out! Full design points on the cake!
Well it's almost winter, and while that is the best season for running in Okinawa, it is easily the worst here in Hokkaido. Besides the snow piling up high, slippery conditions and the cold would make even the most avid runner stay indoors, or find some alternative way of staying in shape. So to avoid the pre-hibernation fattening process, I'm hoping to play some hockey and curling this winter. See you runners in the spring!
After our time at Kachoen, we sat down and enjoyed a beverage (well, I enjoyed ice cream and the boys had sandwiches) together. We spent some time sharing how God has worked in our lives, what prayer requests we had, and even had a time in the Word. I was so blessed to meet Paulo, Ryota and Keiko! Thanks for introducing your friends to me, Yumi! Afterwards, the boys left for their respective homes, and the remaining three of us went to Chinatown in Kobe. It was awesome! We ate pirozhki on the way there, and then had pork dumplings once there. We all felt like we could handle a little more food, so we then went to DonQ (pronounced Donku, so I hear) for some bread. We had an incredible time chatting and in prayer. Thanks for a fun day and night, Adullam crew! I sincerely hope to come back to Kobe to see you all again!
On Sunday afternoon after church, I met up with my friend Yumi and some of her friends (Paulo, Ryota and Keiko) and we walked around a place called Kachoen. The Chinese characters making up the name of the place say it all - Flower (花）Bird (鳥) Garden (園). For me this was a special treat, as I love viewing all of God's creations up close. Of course it is much better to see these things in their natural settings, but since that is not exactly possible (or easily done) in Japan, why not dish out a few yen and help support the economy?
So we saw all sorts of cool flowers/plants, and lots of exotic birds as well! Since I was unable to see the "promised monkeys" at Mino Falls, I was really excited to be able to get close to the birds on Sunday! God has such amazing creativity! Look at all the varieties of birds and plants, and you cannot help but be overwhelmed and humbled. He has made the heavens and the earth and the seas, and all the creatures therein. Awesome!
