|
|
Konichiwa! Hello! My name is Katie Narum Miyamoto and I am an ELCA missionary to Kumamoto, Japan. I am originally from Minot and grew up in the Minot area. I finished my Bachelors at Minot State in Music Ed and El Ed. I went to Japan in September of 2000 and have been there ever since.
I work with the churches in Kumamoto with music and youth groups. I am also working with the Sunday school programs. We have an international English-speaking congregation that meets on Sunday evening. We are trying to get a children’s program set up for that group also. Right now, we have children (and adults) from the U.S., Australia, Korea, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and of course Japan. I hope to get something up and running later this fall. Email me if you have any advice!
I work full time at Luther High School in Kumamoto. Our campus has a kindergarten, junior high, high school and 4 year college. It is wonderful to be with the young people, teaching English, and helping them to not only realize their dreams (of speaking English), but realize that God loves them and is calling them to follow Him. The percent of Christians at our school, about 5%, is only slightly higher than the percent of Christians all over Japan, about 1%. So it is a wonderful opportunity to share with them about Christ, when they are fresh and new to understanding Christianity. However, it makes me get back to the basics of my faith when you are trying to explain who Christ is to someone who knows nothing about Christianity…
The Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church has 137 congregations and a little over 22,000 baptized members. It is small, but there are many active members who work with the ELCA and Finnish Lutheran missionaries. The JELC now has its own programs whereby it sends Japanese missionaries to Brazil, India, Bangladesh, and other places in the world. It is exciting to see the Japanese come and go, changing lives and being changed by the chance to go overseas.
Do you want to become a missionary? There are so many programs through the ELCA that will give you chances to share your faith and be changed in the process. Check the ELCA Global Missions website: http://archive.elca.org/globalmission/ Or email me if you are interested in my work or coming to Japan: k_sue_n2@hotmail.com
Peace & Prayers,
Katie Sue Narum Miyamoto (To go to Katie's latest letters, click on the dates below)
3-13-2011
3-17-2011
Katie coaches her students as they read an English newspaper.
The volleyball team, handbell club, and koto club at Luther Gakuin.
Photo at top of page: Kengun Lutheran Church celebrates Holy Communion together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OTHER MISSONARY NEWS
(Paraphrased from the latest email)
Dear Family and Friends,
Greetings to you all!
Today we got an email from yet another friend wondering when we will be going back. It reminded me that we have still not written you of our redeployment and the renewing world we find here now. With jet lag and five week's catch-up to attend to, we simply haven't made time!
A phone call on March 3nd took us from a perfectly dead stop to a rapidly moving chain of events that got us on a Delta flight on March 9th. We knew an ELCA team had been sent the week before to assess the situation, but we had no idea what they would find and had tentatively arranged church visits into April. Now the word was that the area looked, if not exactly normal, in any case reasonably safe, and we were urgently requested at the seminary. If we could be on a plane by next Wednesday, that would be great. It's always a bit bewildering to live in two worlds and to be jettisoned from one to the other so quickly, but we made it.
Indeed, things were not exactly normal, as we had been warned. There were miltary guarding the airport instead of the usual police, and we have had tank columns roll by our apartment shortly after midnight on two separate evenings. We understand it is riskier for foreigners to travel, and cars have been stopped and stolen out in the suburbs. We have been warned to keep out of backways, but we feel pretty comfortable on our morning walk to school. People are, if anything, even more friendly, and the unruly traffic that we are now used to honks reassuringly in the background.
The evening after we got back there was a celebration of the revolution at school. We were so thankful we got back in time to be a part of it. During the darkest days of the revolution citizens had banded together to protect their streets, and in the process big city neighbors who ordinarily didn't have much to do with each other got acquainted. The seminary wanted to strengthen its new friendships, so it invited the neighborhood over for an evening of sharing. There were Coptic priests from the church across the street, the Muslim imam from the mosque down the way, a lawyer from the apartment building next door, officers from the police academy behind the seminary, and on and on. Street kids were there. A Muslim matchmaker who brightly claimed to specialize in Christian marriages was there. The national anthem was proudly played and sung before and afterwards as folks stood at attention before a video of their flag, rippling in the breeze. I have never seen people so proud of their country. Stories of the shared guard duty and hopes for common action in the future were exchanged. It was a wonderful night.
The welcome of students and staff was overwhelming. Greetings ranged exclamations of recognition and warm handshakes to hearty double-hugs-and-kisses on each side of the face. Gradually I was brought to the edge of tears. Whatever else was happening elsewhere, what was happening here was good, and we felt so privileged to be a part of it again.
It doesn't mean the coast is clear. Today thre is a referendum to approve a proposed new constitution, and many intend to vote "no," holding out for deeper changes. Much can go wrong on this and many other days. We foreigners on the sidelines are going to stay inside, lest there be difficulties.
But as we shared with many of you, it is a "pregnant time for prayer" for this country. Please hold this nation in your hearts before the Lord these days that good things might emerge from their brave move. And hold us in your prayers as we toddle on in our life and witness to Jesus in this ancient but renewing land.
His peace be with you.
