December 15, 2002

Dear Friends,

Today instead of going to Nakatsu Church I went to Izumi No Sono where the day service section was having the first of seven Christmas meetings for the week. It began with a short talk by me, and then we had a candlelight service and hymn singing and lunch. Today I talked about Isaiah and tomorrow I will talk about Zechariah or concentrate there anyway. Everyday there is a slightly different group but some people come several times so I cannot use the same talk every day, just shift the emphasis a little. Because it is Sunday there were only two tables full of clients instead of the four that are full on most days of the week. Each day the lunch menu will change a little though two of the days main dish will repeat, and all of them are similar.

From 2:00 p.m. there was a wonderful men's chorus in concert at Seiai Home. Seiai has a large dining hall with windows to the second floor on two sides and a narrow balcony around two sides. Usually the musicians are under the balcony, but today they were down under the second floor ceiling so that fantastic harmony just reverberated around the room. I was directed to the middle of the front row so I had the concert in wonderful stereo. Part of the time it became even moreso when some of the women behind me began to sing along also. This chorus is a local one and has been in operation for 22 years. There were about 18 singers, and their balance was quite good.

They began singing in English "Sing Along" ("Let me hear a melody") and then switched to some old popular Japanese songs for the first section.

The second section was some religious music with words and music all by Japanese writers. This section was done by a few of the men and several women who were called "family" so I suppose it was wives and daughters. One of the songs was about the man born blind in the Gospel of John, and another one sounded very much like the prayer of St. Francis about being an instrument of peace.

Maybe a third of the songs were done a capella, and some were accompanied by organ and some by piano. The main director seems to be in his mid-fiftie's or older, and there was an assistant who looked more like 30 who directed some of the songs. The last section was some more popular Japanese songs, and after that there were three encores, the last two with the audience joining in.

I had thought it was a Christmas concert so I imagined that at least at the end we would all sing "Silent Night" together, which we did, one verse in Japanese and one in English. Thursday night I had a chance to attend a community Christmas meeting in Sasebo which is on the west side of Kyushu Island in Nagasaki prefecture.

I had gone over there for a board meeting at Chinzei Gakuin one of the Christian schools where I serve on the board, and I stayed over to visit some friends in Sasebo. There is a large U. S. Naval base in Sasebo, and the base Christian community and the local churches cooperated in this service in a large concert hall. There was an American chorus and also a Japanese chorus.

There were Navy chaplains and Japanese pastors leading prayers and reading Scripture though the sermon was in English with translation. The hymns we sang each in our preferred language, and the Japanese chorus even sang in Latin ("Adeste Fideles"). I am happy to report that these community Christmas meetings are growing all over the country, which is a good sign of a growing ecumenical spirit. I have never heard of one in Nakatsu however, so maybe I should see what we could do about that.

For the next six days I will be preaching at day service and also the usual three weekly chapel services plus the main Izumi No Sono Christmas program on Friday. My throat is feeling a little sore so I would appreciate your prayers that it will keep going throughout the week and beyond.

May you have a blessed week in preparation for the celebration of Jesus' birth.

Priscilla

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 185