Southern Japanese?

Two Sundays ago I gave a message in Japanese at my former church, Windy Chapel. I didn't have a lot of time to prepare, but as I was praying about what to speak on, I felt really impressed to talk about a topic that I had recently taught from The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren. Chapter 21 talks about protecting the unity of the church in really practical ways. So, I got the Japanese version of the chapter and studied it. I had to look up many Japanese words, but from that I decided to add my own comments to the points and read quotes for my message. I then had a Japanese co-worker look over my message and correct it.

That Sunday I spoke in both morning services and basically read most of it. The last time (2 years ago) when I gave a message in Japanese I had to read ALL of it, but this time I felt a little more free to ad lib in Japanese. I was just so excited to see everyone whom I had not seen since last year, and because everyone was familiar to me, I felt like I was with family.

After the second service, a friend introduced me to a new church member. Sayaka studied in the U.S. for four years and since coming back to Japan, she goes to Windy Chapel and is in the gospel choir that I helped to start. She became a Christian just before going to the U.S. but really became committed to Jesus while she was in the U.S. What really surprised me was that she studied in Mississippi so she speaks English with a Southern accent! During lunch, she really made me laugh when she responded to one of my questions with, "Yes, ma'am."