I moved to Japan at a sensitive time, spiritually. I grew up in the Lutheran church and am a follower of Christ. But I find myself often still shifting to 'figure it out.' When I moved to Japan, I had spent the previous year and a half attending an Orthodox church, of all places. But that's another story.
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| Yokohama Orthodox Church, our current parish |
Orthodoxy is crazy different than the Protestant world. It took much adjustment, and I remember even experiencing something similar to culture shock. The Orthodox church I first attended regularly had inquirer's classes - a time when our priest was available to field questions and discuss orthodoxy. This was helpful to understand the differences, but there were still times of emotional adjustments - those times I would feel in over my head. I remember leaving in the middle of one of the Lenten services because it was just too much, too overwhelming. A friend of mine noticed and checked in later. He understood that I was freaked out. He said this was good, and it meant I was paying attention.
I was at a good place with Orthodoxy when we got married. That's a good thing, since we were married in an Orthodox cathedral. By three Orthodox priests. With less than a handful of Orthodox in attendance out of the 225 friends and family that were there. And I was then married to an Orthodox man. I was engulfed.
I say I was in a good place, but I still felt very new. We both (my recently converted husband and I) still had a lot to understand. I thought moving to Japan to fulfill military orders would mean a hiatus in our progress. That we wouldn't have the chance to continue pursuing Orthodoxy. I thought we would have to pick up where we left off when we moved back to the States.
Fortunately, I was wrong.
Who knew that we would be so welcomed at a tiny little Japanese Orthodox church? Who knew that we would be able to attend liturgy every week and still have the opportunity to learn about Orthodoxy? Who knew that I would be chrismated and convert at this church? And who knew our son would be baptized there as well?
This church has become a family indeed and we are once again engulfed in Orthodoxy.
We currently know the liturgy in Japanese better than in English (koei wa chichi to ko to seishin ni kisu, ima mo itsumo yoyo ni, Amin ... ).
We have lunch with this wonderful group of people after liturgy every week. Matushka (the priest's wife) hurries to finish her meal and grabs Steven so I can have a rare two-handed meal. He's been spoken to in English, Japanese, Arabic, and Russian (only a few of the nationalities represented).
This week, Miki San put on and tied my shoes for me since I was flying solo and already had Steven in a carrier on my abdomen, making it tricky to bend.
When I wasn't able to attend after Steven's birth, they sent Curt home with blessed bread for me. They also did this after I had my wisdom teeth taken out.
I am regularly invited to lunch out with the ladies I call my obachans, my pseudo-aunties from this church.
We are supported and blessed and we are in it. We are living Orthodoxy in a way that has little regard for language barriers and differences of background.
God blew this whole thing out of the water by allowing us to remain in the Orthodox Church AND grow in it, despite being in a land foreign to us. We have truly been provided for, and this community will honestly be difficult to leave. We've already talked about how much we dread it. This church, that is no bigger than our house, has brought to Orthodoxy two out of the three of us, leaves us walking on air every week and has truly been a treasure.
Silly me for thinking that the limits that I see actually mean something.
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