Key this Saturday and Japanese Tests

There were ten minutes left in our Key meeting this Saturday when Jenae asked us, "What has God been teaching you recently?" Normally at Key we are struggling to figure out what language to speak in. We have a commitment to being bilingual...which really means we have a commitment to everyone understanding what's going on, not necessarily true bilingualness at this point. This often simplifies our conversation quite a bit.

Yesterday, however, a Korean church member came to Key for the first time. Without being asked, he started translating what everyone was saying. I am in awe. I enjoy translating from Japanese to English quite a bit when I actually know what's going on...but his first language is Korean. It would be like me going from Japanese to Spanish.

So, we were able to get quite a bit of depth. It was lovely! This is a group of people that has never been the same even one meeting...we are constantly getting newcomers. But with one question it was obvious we have managed to create a really safe place for people to share.

I also really enjoyed the fact that, even though I brought my guitar, I did not play one stroke on it, nor was I asked to. Ken and Sungbong had the guitar the whole time and were freely sharing their worship gifts with us. I love it when people just volunteer to play instruments!

In other news, I took my impossible Japanese test today.

A nice surprise was meeting up with a girl I knew when we got off the subway. We got to check in afterwards, bemoan what a hard test it was, and hang out for awhile to take pictures of the ginkgo trees with golden leaves at the university where the test was held. My friend said she thought it would be a miracle if she passed the test, but I had to think it wouldn't be a miracle if I passed...it would be a sure sign of some kind of error at the test center. ;-)

Actually, I think the listening section went okay. But the reading and grammar section was potentially the biggest joke in the world. I was filling in bubbles thinking..."I wonder why I am even bothering to do this? I could just mark all the answers "2" and then put my head down and take a nap and I'd probably do just as well."

On the one hand, I did understand a little of one of the reading sections...it was about a girl on a date in Roppongi who saw a cat in a plastic bucket, but she thought it was a penguin. And then she got mad at her boyfriend for laughing at her. At least...that was my interpretation of it. :-)

Perhaps one day I will be able to read Japanese, and it will be an awesome day. But for now, my two months of "intensive" Japanese study are over and I'm going to return to life as usual again. Yay!