Don and Carol Love arrived this evening. As missionaries from Japan, they brought with them various curios (a visual display of the culture of Japan – I think that would be the more politically correct way to describe it – the word “curios” has this imperialistic sense to it!).
As if curios aren’t enough, they opened up a laptop computer (Gateway) and on it was the Japanese version of Windows. Now, I don’t read Japanese, but I know how Windows works. So, as Carol navigated through the various tabs and windows, I’m looking at squiggles. Nothing that I can connect the graphics to, at all!
Reminds me of the first few days of reading Hebrew (at least Greek looked somewhat familiar). As I looked at Hebrew, and realized you read it backwards (or do we read things backward, and they are reading things forward), I wondered if I would ever understand the language. 8 months later I had a rudimentary grasp and years later I can still pick up an Old Testament (Stuttgartensia is the one I use, for you afficianados of language) and read the basic text, with a lexicon in hand.
Tomorrow we get further instruction on Japan at an 8:00 breakfast, and we will take the family (they have four children) to the Goose Festival parade. In the afternoon we will talk a bit about a possible short term trip to Japan. On Sunday will be more exposure to Japan, along with a potluck. When all is said, and done, I’m looking forward to a greater understanding of Japanese culture and of how we can be a part of entering into that land with the good news that Jesus brings.