Volcanoes Earthquakes, and Language

October 17, Tuesday
9:15 a.m.

Nobby is coming to pick us up at 10 a.m. Today we are going to see a volcano that is still active, and afterwards, a castle. Speaking of volcanoes, they are one of four types of natural disasters occurring here. The first is typhoons, which correspond roughly to hurricanes. The second is the flooding that would be associated with the typhoons. The third is volcanoes, which, of course, are a problem quite rarely. Finally, there are earthquakes, which are not so rare. There was an earthquake here a couple of days ago, only a small one (about 2 or so on the Richter scale), but an earthquake nevertheless. I happen to subscribe to a free service on the internet that sends out emails with information on any earthquakes around the world of a magnitude greater than 3.0. I received a few notices of such near Japan prior to our coming. I have received one or two since we’ve been here. The closest was a 6.0 occurring about 1000 miles to the NE of Tokyo.

Nobby told me that earthquakes in this region are rare this time of year. Jordan, whom I mentioned earlier, observed that earthquakes are the reason why most utilities here are not buried underground. Natural gas pipelines here would be especially vulnerable. Consequently, homes and businesses make use of gas for cooking and heating from above ground tanks located outside and above ground.

Yesterday, Nobby drove me to see two nearby pastors and their churches. The first was Pastor and Mrs. Abe, who serve in a city called Ishikawa. Their church is called Ishikawa Baptist Church. The other is Pastor and Mrs. Koga, who served at Satogaoka Baptist Church in Iwakishi. Trust me, the names are confusing me.

On a side note, the Japanese often tell us to call them by American names. They understand how difficult and confusing it can be for us to keep Japanese names straight. For example, Nobby’s real name is Nobumasa. Stanley’s name is Masahiro; Bob’s is Toshihiko. While we were taking turns introducing ourselves at the English service the other night, I told everyone that my name is Randy but that they could call me Tsutomu. They laughed and laughed, because just the opposite had happened. I gave myself a Japanese name because “Randy” is so difficult for them to pronounce. They thought it was funnier than I could have imagined.

By the way, the letters “r” and “l” sound exactly the same to Japanese, as do the letters “b” and “v”. All of this can make for some humorous situations too, at least from our perspective. For example, Nobby’s wife’s name is Bev. Nobby told us that for a while he unwittingly referred to her as “Veb”, thinking, of course, that he was pronouncing the name of his beloved one correctly.

I need to sign off for now, because we will be leaving soon to go to the volcano. I hope to get this posted on the internet sometime later today. I will write more about visiting the pastors and their churches. Let me just say for now that the timing of our visit could not have been better. Not only have we learned so much that will be helpful going forward with our plans, but also the Lord is using us to encourage many who are discouraged. They need to draw upon our strength and encouragement through these difficult days of ministry here.