ARI was established by the United Church of Christ in Japan (UCCJ). While it is now more ecumenical (one of the participants is Muslim) it retains its Christian character. The ARI community frequents several area churches associated with ARI staff members. Because the Japanese population is about 1% Christian, the churches tend to be small.
We have attended three churches so far. The Nishinasuno church is the largest. It is a UCCJ church. The service is bilingual. We call it “Masa’s church” because the ARI Farm Director Masa drives the bus.
Today was ARI Sunday at Nishinasuno, which means an ARI participant gave the sermon and another gave testimony. The ARI community turned out in support.
The church community fed us with a curry lunch after the service.
The most amusing part was during the closing announcements, where an earnest woman gave the entire congregation instructions, button by button, on how to use the new toilets (she projected on a screen a diagram from the user’s manual). It was funny to listen to Masa translate the instructions into English.
The other UCCJ church in the area is the Nasushiobara Church. We call it Jonathan’s church because it is where the ARI staff member serves as a missionary. On Sundays when he attends the service is bilingual.
The third church is the Otawara Christian Church. It is affiliated with Conservative Baptist Alliance of Japan. It has an English service every week. We call it Uncle Timo’s church because ARI’s chicken wrangler is a leader there.
Many of the congregants are alternative-language teachers (ALTs), foreigners who teach their native languages in the Japanese schools. We got a ride to church from Kamika, from Jamaica, who teaches English. Her teenage daughter Neveah is a community volunteer at ARI; she helps on the farm one day a week.
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