Where in the World is Jen Brown?

Hello again. I apologize for taking so long to write. It seems I started writing this blog and then one thing after another came up and I never finished it. Well this lapse in time has proved useful because I am now able to share my experience celebrating Christmas and New Year's in Japan. This is a lengthy blog, but hopefully you'll find it interesting. The Christmas celebration was kicked off by a class speech day. Every year the missionaries taking Japanese lessons at the local Lutheran Learning Center have to give speeches. All of us new students shuddered in fear when we were first told we'd have to stand up in front of friends and speak Japanese. It turned out all of our fretting was for naught. We all spoke confidently about ourselves, our experience in Japan, and the things we enjoy. It was a great day. Cindy came, along with my pastor Saitou sensei, and another woman from my church Umeda-san. * I'll pause for a second and give just a little note about the use o...

This has been a very busy month. Since I last wrote we have helped lead an English language Bible camp and visited another island. We have also been amazed and excited about our progress in the Japanese language. Though we have so much more to learn about the culture, and language of Japan I thought I'd take this blog to share some of the joys of the past month. In the last post I complained about the difficulty of the Japanese language. Well a couple days after posting that blog, I was given a gift that has since helped me get through my Sunday worship services. This next story tells of the hospitality I've received here through the people of Ichigaya Lutheran Church. After  a couple weeks of sitting by myself in church I finally picked a seat next to another person late in October. This woman speaks no English, but every Sunday she arrives about 20 minutes before service and sitting always in the same seat she begins her worship in silent prayer. Well it seems the seat I had ...

This week marks the completion of one month in Japan. It's funny because while on the one hand it feels like I have been here so much longer, on the other it feels like I left the US just last week. Of course I'm way more adjusted now than I was one week after leaving the US. My first week in Japan was filled with anxiety (as well as excitement). I wondered every day whether I had made the right decision. Now my excitement and love for my host country grows more and more each day and my anxiety has left. I used to think that the Japanese custom of taking off one's shoes when entering a home was not just for the home but for entering any building. It turns out that one only takes off ones shoes when crossing a threshold. When entering a home or office, if there's a change in flooring, a raised entry, or slippers waiting these are all indicators that shoes must be removed before entering; different footwear is required beyond the threshold. This month has been about livin...

Well I've been in Japan a whole week now and I'm sure you've all been waiting to hear how I like it so far. So the following is a recounting of my initial feelings and a top 10 of things I like about Japan after 1 week. I hope you are all doing well in the US and have registered to vote. Please email me some time I'd love to hear from you. Also I hope to start a picture blog soon, unfortunately I can't do one here on this site, but I can add a link. In the mean time I hope you'll enjoy the pictures on this page. Speachless Having made my final call from inside the US I boarded the air bus headed for Tokyo's Narita airport. The ride was 10 hours from San Francisco. I sat next to a woman headed fro Taiwan, she seemed to speak limited English and slept the majority of the time. I on the other hand having stayed up late the night before so that I too would sleep the majority of the flight slept only in two hour increments. The lights remained low throughout the ...

Hello again. Well I leave on Wednesday that's less than 6 days away if you don't count the hours left in today and the hours before I leave Wednesday morning. How do I feel, you ask? Excited, anxious, sad, excited. The summer months have gone by quickly. WHat am I looking forward to? Other than the adventure of being in another country and all of the things layed out in the last blog, I'm looking forward to having my own apartment for the first time in my life. What am I nervous about? Being a horrible English teacher...okay I probably won't be horrible, but if I don't connect with my students I will most certainly feel like I'm doing a bad job. I do have a temporary address (remember the first six months will be language learning after that I get my "permanent" address and assignment). Please email me if you'd like to know that address. This summer I had the privilege of worshiping at a wonderful church in Riverside, California called Eden Luthera...

People always ask me: Why Japan? What made you want to go to Japan? So here's my answer. I first wanted to go to Japan when I saw the opportunity on the ELCA website in January (2008). There were no bells, no deep longing for the people across the Pacific, just an opportunity.  I've always had a strong desire to travel. I remember as a child wanting to have a job that would send me to distant lands. As a freshman my desire to be a minister of my Christian faith and my desire for travel seemed to come together as I heard the call of God to mission work. When I graduated from college I considered serving abroad, but after praying about it and considering my financial situation I knew it was not the right time for me to go. This past year as I was finishing up my time in Seminary the time seemed right. I had almost decided to enter an ordination process to become a pastor when I found myself tired of my experiences in the US. I knew I needed to get out of the country to examine li...

After 3 years in New York I graduated from Union Theological Seminary with my Master's in Divinity on May 16 of this year. It was a challenging journey, but one that produced in me all the things I needed, just as God had promised.  While the first year was full of wonder and exploration, the second was emotionally difficult, but the third and final year was a year of celebration with its culmination in actually graduating. Yet each year brought with its own benefit and challenge.  The first year was a year of opening up to a new way of being Christian. Being at a school with people of varying Christian traditions as well as faith traditions I was able to see that the way I had been taught to worship, think about my faith, and think about God was not the only way. That year I realized I'd unknowingly placed God in a box. It may sound strange, but I was actually glad to destroy the box and embrace God as mystery to be discovered not claimed.  At the end of the first year I expe...