I went to church today, and the name of the church is Jesus lifehouse. It's a Japanese and English bilingual church situated not too far from the heart of Tokyo. Thanks to Shermayne's friend- Kat, that I am able to find a church immediately after my arrival in Japan. Moreover, the church is not too far from my dormitory either, it only takes about half an hour to get there by train. In Japan, this is considered quite close. There are four services surprsingly, people get to choose the best time that suits them. The one I went was the 1pm service as was suggested by Kat. This is a pretty good time for me as well.
The hall was smaller than I expected, but when I got there, the service had already started and was already filled with people. The music was quite loud though, people were singing, clapping and dancing around. Jesus lifehouse is probably a smaller version of Planetshakers in Melbourne, coincidentally that the English pastor is an Australian, too. Apparently he is from Brisbane.
Straight after the first service, I was invited by Kate to join her "life group", bible study group. The people in our group consist of Koreans, Taiwanese, Japanese, Australian, German and American. It was good to have a discussion group straight after the church service so there is no trouble in finding a time for people to meet up. Though, it was quite short, there wasn't much time to chat with other people and get to know each other more.
After the life group, I thought I was going home, however, some friendly people from our group invited me to join the welcome team for the 4pm service. Without thinking, I just instantly replied yes. In fact, I was quite surprised that everything went so quickily initially, however, people were quite nice that they explained everything clearly, so I was able to follow their instructions and just followed the crowd if I got lost with anything.
I am glad that I stayed for the second service. I quite enjoyed the preaching. Although the message was something simple and fundamental, but it was preached in a way it was easy to listen and I could concentrate in what he was saying the whole time without thinking about other things. It talked about "love".
That God is love and true love comes from God. It started with several examples of what people usually think "love" is. For instance, flower, heart shape, Titanic, Pride and Prejudice, followed by Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, and lastly Jesus Christ. The greatest of love that has ever demonstrated is no doubt the love of Christ. The main points we needed to learn as youngsters is to wait patiently until our true partner comes and know that God's love is sufficient and nothing can replace the love God has for us. We as humans are often blinded by the things in the world we do not see what can really satisfy our deep desire for love. We seek for many things on this earth that are only temporary, that only create instant love sparkles. However, we often do not realise they don't last long.
Overall, the church wasn't too bad apart from the loud music I haven't gotten used to.
P.S
While I was on the train back to my station, today for the first time ever since my arrival in Japan, the place where I am now seems surreal. Sitting on the train, looking around the people around me felt surreal. Probably for a long time, the scene I am able to see now was only seen in dramas and movies. The whole atmosphere, the way people dress, the way people act, the posters on the train, the mobile phones, the Japanese high school student uniforms.....everything. Just made me felt surreal. "Wow, everything seems so Japanese!! Wait, ain't I in Japan...??". Logically, I know I am in Japan, yet, there is a part of me that haven't adjusted to the reality that I am actually in Japan. Hence, the confusion appeared all of a sudden while I was on the train today.....
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