Month: October 2012

Music is not one of my talents

I, like many other humans, enjoy music. I just don’t have any skills in reproducing it in any way, shape, or form.

So, the reason why I decided to pick up a guitar last year was simple: the ladies. My school, populated with highly musical and attractive females, presented a perfect chance to test the waters with music! I convinced my parents to buy this nice guitar.

Thus began my evil plan to use music as bait for my very altruistic personality… *coughcough* NOT.

And that quest has been unsuccessful. The evil conspiring thing isn’t me, and it didn’t take off.

Now that I’m a JAM leader and actively participate in my high school youth group, I’ve decided to do something else: rededicate my guitar and fingers to God.

It’s interesting how being a part of these groups has forced me, in some ways, to take on roles I’ve never thought of doing before.

Hopefully by this time next year, I’ll be able to play a majority of JAM worship songs 🙂

And why did I write about this? Because if I make something public, I try to make a commitment to it.

 

 

GT 2012 overview/reflections

My Gospel Team experience, although different from many others, was great!

I know that I’ve grown both spiritually and intellectually. However, what’s most important: I have a sense of love and understanding for the lost people of Japan.

Overview

Day 1-3

GT training camp at hi-b.a.’s campgrounds focused mainly on how to communicate with Japanese high-schoolers and practicing games and songs. However, it wasn’t structured as an “educational camp;” rather, it was centered around having fun and sometimes competition between groups. On day 3, we travelled to Tohoku.

Day 4 & 5

We worked with Samaritan’s Purse to remove debris from the home of the Takahashis to be later rebuilt by a professional organization.

Day 6-11

During this period, we reached out to high-schoolers and pre-school/kindergarteners through music and food, then reaching out to others through service like cutting the grass that grew on the foundation of a home swept away by the tsunami and making other Christian facilities available for more volunteers to reach out.

Day 12 & 13

Travel days. We headed back south to Shibuya to make it in time for the GT Final.

Passing out tracts for the GT Final was a little depressing. I couldn’t get any students to take tracts (and it was my first time tracting in Tokyo, where people are so used to advertisements that you get the cold shoulder) but had a good discussion time with those interested in following Christ after the rally, then reporting to all interested parties how our team did in Tohoku. We later travelled home.

Conclusion

As part of the only GT team that went to Tohoku, our mission was fundamentally different from other GT teams; minister through service to mainly non-high-schoolers in the area. I believe it was the best team I could have been in because I was so numb to the tragic effects of the tsunami and hearing stories of lack of hope and loss in person impacted me hard. God gave me a love for the Japanese people that I still can’t explain 3 months later. GT has given me an even stronger feeling for wanting to live my life in ministry.

Long time, no see.

Wow, I haven’t written in a long time, considering that I believe that writing is a way for me to relax and let my feelings out.

Recently, my life has been marked with procrastination, both academically and personally. I have to redesign the main landing page. I have to unify the appearance of the WordPress blog and my “normal” website, write a report to the CAJ PTA about my GT experience… the list seems to go on forever.

I guess I have to examine the reasons for my procrastination.

First of all, my life seems to be picking up so much fun and work and it’s easy to get lost in all I do at school. CAJ is such an academically demanding environment, yet offers so many extra-curricular activities that I am sometimes marveled at students’ ability to juggle so many things.

Second, just like any other human, I love entertainment. I’m being unproductive if Twitter, Facebook, Tumbler, or reddit are open in my browser. And I basically put off homework until the night it’s due because I could just be entertained instead of working ahead on any assignments.

Here’s the killer: classes aren’t integrated. At all. This totally kills my desire to do any homework. I love seeing connections between various topics/subjects. Bible, PreCalculus, English, US History are all pretty much connection-less. This would have been availed by taking Humanities (done by my favorite teacher!) but I can’t because PreCalculus pushes it  off of my possible class list.

No matter how much I manage my time, if I never get the desire to do my assignments, I’d lose purpose in managing my time. Even if I forced myself to make unrelated connections it would be purposeless because I hate forcing things.

I guess that’s all for now. Great, isn’t it? I broke my writing hiatus by complaining. Marvelous.