ewilliamson's Xanga

Osaka

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 21:50:49 GMT

Everyone, I'm in Japan with an outreach team. We got in last night and we were going to try and immediately head over to a church, but we ran into alot of traffic on the bus ride into downtown Osaka from the airport. That delay coupled with the sleepiness of everyone (else) made it an unwise decision to spend forty minutes walking (roundtrip) to visit the church an hour late. So we went straight to the base. I thoroughly enjoy the fact that I did not have to stumble around trying to find my way. It is a nice feeling to just grab the right bus and train and walk straight to the door of the base. I think the best part is the team not getting worried and antsy over wondering if we are going the right way.
Catch you later,
Eric

Three days left

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 22:47:43 GMT

Well, I'm off to Japan for two months on the 21st. We get there on the 22nd (I love the international dateline).
We get in at 4p.m. and if we get through customs quickly and if we can easily ship our bags to the base then we might be able to make it into downtown Osaka by 6 or 6:30 and then a twenty minute walk and we can attend a church service geared at unreached Japanese college students. And then we could stay as long as we are able to stay awake and then head over to the Osaka base and fall asleep. It should be a great way to start outreach if it works out.
Unfortunately, I have three days before that happens and all the typical outreach prep stuff to get done before that happens. Including my personal stuff.
However, I don't have to pack up my entire life this time around. Which is pretty dang cool.
A travel backpack, a carryon pack and maybe a laptop case for two months. oh and something like 12million people of whom only at most like 5 % know God. Life for the next two months. God is good.

It's been awhile

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 23:03:16 GMT

OK., for once my parents won't blame me for not putting a post up here for awhile. They know the reasons why. And being the impish person I am I shant tell you my reasons.
Get Over It. Jeez.
So we are just at three weeks before we head off for outreach in Japan. As per the usual I am once again trying to set things up three weeks before outreach. Not that I just started now, but even when we work way in advance the places to stay don't seem to materialize until this last couple of weeks. I think it has to do with the priority being on what is happening in lecture and the students.
Right about now is when the pressure starts to shift towards outreach. It might have3 to do with momentum as well. If we start focusing to early then by the time outreach hits the excitement has worn off and we would start on a downward turn.
In other news we have had to dismiss one student. That is/was hard to do, but I think necessary.
Alright, catch you later.

Paul

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 07:32:24 GMT

My friend and current boss (sort of), Paul Childers, is teaching on the Bible this week. We are talking about Inductive Bible study which is near and dear to the hearts of anyone who has done SBS or SBS core course.
SBS stands for school of Biblical studies for those not proficient in YWAMese.
Today we started using the tried and true starter book - Philemon. I enjoy watching people start to ask the interpretation questions. Paul wouldn't let me answer anything before that because I have done SBS CC. :(
But everyone in the class asked good interpretation questions. Some of them would have been answered without being asked with background information, but this was good for getting everyone involved.
And I have figured out a way for us staff to put Japanese subtitles on movie clips the speakers want to use. Luckily I won't have to be the person translating. so I can figure out the process and then let another master it.
Well, I was up till around two last night figuring it out and it is ten- thirty now so I'm gonna go to bed.
Peace, good night and goodbye, Oyasumi. whatever...

Christ?

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 20:54:52 GMT

David Hamilton was speaking yesterday about how God limited Himself by becoming wholly human. He took on a physical body thus limiting himself to learning one language as a baby. being in one place. Walking to and from the temple where he learned about God and memorized the Torah. It's a crazy idea on the surface.
It challenges concepts that we just sort of internalize as we grow up.
It makes the verse about "emptying Himself..." much more meaningful. What would it be like to empty yourself of infinite knowledge to then learn over the course of two or three years how to speak just one language?
Did Jesus retain his infinite knowledge and understanding when he became a man?
If He did would this have made it a fair testing of his perfectly choosing God's Will and not sinning?
And a bigger question raised yesterday was that He retains his physical body even now. That for the rest of eternity Jesus limited himself to a redeemed perfected body.
The finite can never become infinite for it has a beginning, but the infinite can become finite. So if this is true then can the infinite that became finite become once again infinite as it was originally? And if it can then did it ever truly become finite?
This is not what David Hamilton said but it is where my mind went. Although he is touching on it right now.

Belief Tree

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 18:55:03 GMT

Aaahh, David Hamilton is speaking this week. We are starting with the belief tree. It's a useful concept for many arenas. the roots of the tree = your beliefs. the trunk = values. Branches = principles. Fruit = actions.
We apply it to our lives and YWAM, but it applies to any business as well. Oh yeah, it can be applied to other people's lives as well.
It's a visual of the concept that our beliefs give rise to our values which in turn grow into our principles which end in our actions which people see.
And I haven't heard this in the teaching. but then you have to wonder what the soil equates to. If our beliefs equal roots then the soil must be the sources from which we derive our beliefs.
So i wonder what sort of fertilizer we are using?

First Week

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 20:16:21 GMT

Everyone is here. 18 students and 8 staff. We all have a bed to sleep in and campus food to eat.
The seven guys discovered the weight room and I know some of them are still heading there at least once a day. However, all seven have taken to heading to the pool at least once daily and I know that several visit multiple times.
We survived the assigning of workduties with no casualties and only one or two injuries which have been patched up.
We found out the sound system is almost dead and so took it apart and put it back together with wires in the proper place. So now I can at least figure out what is going wrong and maybe fix it or at the very least work around it. Or so I thought yesterday.
This morning the "fixed" system didn't work as advertised. So either some person changed some settings or there is a gremlin/demon infesting the amps. Either way they work their damage when noone is watching. Personally i prefer the demon theory as it means I didn't miss anything. It just means i need to pray blessings over the system.
We are going to choose small groups this afternoon. They should be fairly small - 2 to 3 people per staff.
I am hoping to plan a guys night or afternoon this weekend. More pizza!! yes!

It was alright.

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 00:39:04 GMT

The pizza , that is. I had problems with the dough but other than that it was good. the lower temperature made the crust turn out better. I still need to learn how to make the dough a little better. Everyone who had a slice enjoyed it though.
I managed to lose my backpack on Friday. I set it down to help move a set of shelves and didn't grab it right away and it disappeared. Luckily it was empty. On the other hand it is a necessity for getting things from point A to point B on a motorcycle. Oh well. Life goes on. It was four years old anyway.
I tend to like my familiar used and faithful items. I have a pair of what used to be green shorts with a few large rips in a few less than strategic places. I still wear them though.
Don't worry. I wear boardshorts under them. But people never notice that they are boardshorts. Unfortunately for me one of the DTS leadership team told me to actually patch them or throw them out.
So being me I want to sew a cheap pair of boardies into them. In fact there is a pair of boardies in the Boutique that will work nicely.
No Dad, I don't think I will ever outgrow wanting to mess with people's perceptions.
The students start arriving tomorrow. It's four days early, but some people were accepted a little late and it was arrive on Monday this week or Monday next week. And early is better than late.

I already used the title I wanted.

Sat, 24 Jun 2006 02:45:09 GMT

This week has passed fairly quickly. A fair number of meetings. A research session on outreach locations - Japan and Brazil - which strangely enough co-insided with the match between Japan and Brazil in World Cup Soccer. Sadly, Brazil won. Which means Japan was knocked out.
We are getting rooms ready for students and preparing the classroom. Our campus phone system blew out during a power surge on Wed. This means that all the phone calls from students trying to find out last minute information got nothing. Except maybe a busy signal. They rerouted all calls to a few cell phone, but basically until the new system arrives and is installed we are severely debilitated. And we need to call students.
Cell phones it is.
Attempt #2 at Chicago style pizza pie occurs tomorrow evening. which means dough making at 11p.m. Oh joy.
And yes whatever Pizza joint you think is amazing this is better. Well the real thing is. Mine is just good enough for a substitute.

Another Week

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:35:25 GMT

Yeah, I received The Getaway in the mail on Friday and watched it on Saturday. I'm gonna have to go with this being not my most favorite McQueen movie. He slaps his woman around for sleeping with a guy to get Steve out of prison, he's a thief and killer. Fairly coldblooded all the way around. Sort of an antihero movie. Of couse I watched it with a different crew than I normally watch movies with so that might have affected it as well.
Don't get me wrong it wasn't a bad movie overall just not quite what I was expecting.
We had Staff training this week and that was decent if slightly boring at times. I don't necessarily do well with sitting for long periods of time.
My pizza pie turned out fairly good. I was full for the next eight hours after eating two slices. I do need to cook it at a slightly lower temperature though. the crust wasn't burned but just a bit tougher than I wanted.
Two pounds of cheese in a pizza is a good thing though.