ベサニー・キリスト教会

For those of us cliimbing Mt. Kongo on a regular basis, the first snow of the year is always an exciting time. Actually, snow can fall on Mt. Kongo as early as October-however, early snow almost always totally melts away. Thus, the thousands of people who climb Mt. Kongo during the New Year holidays do not always see snow. However, this year has turned out to be a good year for snow. The whole mountain is nicely covered. In fact, some of the parking lots are icy and hard to get to.

On thhe 3rd of January I made my first official climb of Mt. Kongo for 2009. The way the trees were snow covered and frozen was really really beautiful-I gave up counting the number of camera men with tripods and huge lenses. The cold and snow also brought out the wild birds who hoped for a hand out of seed from camera men who hoped to get the "picture". Quite a few birds came up to me and were not too happy that I was not a seed carrying camera man but just a plain hiker with nothing to give them.

The only problem with the snow this year is that it is not quite deep enough to make an igloo. The staff at the top of the mountain always make an igloo but this year they have started but still not been able to actually make an igloo.

However, there is plenty of snow for sledding so there were lots of happy kids around. Also lots of tired parents pulling their kids in their sleds. The kids looked perfectly happy but the parents doing the pulling had that, "Never again" look on their faces.

At any rate, the snow season has come to Mt. Kongo and it will be a busy time for the next few months. My rock climbing equipment is sitting sadly in my office with no use while my American winter boots are proving their worth. Not only in keeping me warm but in starting conversations. Most conversations start with "My, those are nice boots-where did you buy them?" This usually leads to some new friendships.

And so the time of snow has come to Mt. Kongo once again.

English service at the Bethany Christ Church
On Sunday the 11th of January from 4:00pm, we will be hosting our English serivice. It is an informal get together, praising and worshipping the Lord with our brothers, sisters, and friends. The service is conducted in English, with Japanese interpretation, so no one would be feeling left alone. Please come and join us. We also enjoy chatting over coffee and cookies after the service. See you there!

ベサニーキリスト教会　英語集会
1月11日（日）の午後4時から英語集会を行います。兄弟・姉妹・友達と共に、リラックスした雰囲気で賛美と礼拝をおこないます。集会は英語で行いますが、もちろん日本語の通訳も付きますので、どなたが参加して頂いても大丈夫。
是非ご参加ください。集会後のコーヒータイムでおしゃべりするのも楽しみの一つです。お待ちしています。

On January 26, 2009 the Christian Street Muscician Condor Sakata made his 50th climb of Mt. Kongo.Condor Sakata is an ocarina player of great talent who is also into outdoor activities. One of his jobs is to guide walking tours around the largest lake in Japan-Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. I did not know that he also was climbing Mt. Kongo but over a year ago he added that to his schedule of things to do.

A few days before his 50th climb he found out that I was also a Mt. Kongo climber and as a fellow Christian he wanted to share his 50th climb with me. I had first met him in November of 2008 when we invited him to do an ocarina concert at our church. At any rate, he called me up and asked if we could do this climb together as two Christian brothers. I told him that I would be very glad and honored to do so but that I was worried about my physical condition. If I was not in good shape that day we might have to use the ropeway. He told me that was ok so we set up our plans for the 26th.

The morning of the 26th greeted us with a nice blue sky though the temperature was way down there-in other words a perfect mountain day. The climb went perfectly with us enjoying great conversation the whole time. I think it was about 90% conversation and 10% climbing! At any rate we arrived at the peak ok and I took photos of him having his card stamped for the 50th time and also a picture of him in front of the snow igloo and also standing by his new name plate that announced to the world that he had climbed 50 times.

I remember how excited I was when I did my 50th climb-I was more excited then than when I did my 100th climb or my 1000th climb or my 1500th climb. Your 50th climb proves that you can do it. If you can climb 50 times you can climb 100 or 1000 or 2000 times or whatever!

On the way down, when the snow had thinned out, we found a comfortable place and he played several hymns on his ocarina. The beautiful sound of hymns being played on an ocarna in the middle of a mountian valley is just wonderful. I think the valley sides served to send the sound all over the mountain.

I am so happy to have yet another fellow Christian climber on Mt. Kongo. In Condor Sakata's case this means that the sound of Christian hymns will also be heard more and more. Wonderful! PTL

So much has been written about "TheShack" that I am sure I have nothing to add. However, I do feel that I need to say that I thought it was a wonderful book and really challenged me about the love of God and the character of God. As I am in the midst of fighting cancer the love of God and the plans of God are especially important to me and the book was very helpful to me.

I ordered a copy in Japanese and I trust that those in my church may also read it and be challenged by it. I am not sure of the title in Japanese but it is available and so whether in English or Japanese I highly recommend reading this excellent book.