Another Perspective

This is Randy Shannon's letter to his church this evening.............

As I write this it's 5 am on Saturday morning in Missouri (aren't your glad that I send email updates instead of making phone calls!) and it's 7 pm here in Tokyo. I "googled" Tokyo today and discovered that it is the largest city (by population) in the world--about 32 and 1/2 million people! I haven't met all of them yet but I worshiped with several hundred wonderful people at the Koza church at the opening worship of General Assembly today. Special music was just that..."special."

Worship was opened by a wonderfully moving drum solo. The traditional Japanese style drumming lived up to the program's description of "Praise By the Drum." Bethel College's Renaissance choir got our hands clapping and our hearts stirring with Peter Jeffrey's arrangement of "Days of Elijah." Just as moving, however, was the Japanese Presbytery Choir's performance of "Great is Thy Faithfulness" in Japanese.

Frank Ward, the previous moderator of the GA, preached a message that linked well with the theme that we are "many branches" but connected to One Tree. He had English and Japanese speaking congregants conclude by admonishing one another to "Stay Joined to the Vine" and "Stay Joined to Jesus." The message of being connected to One Tree was underscored by the sharing of the one Table in communion. Hearing the congregation all speaking the Lord's prayer, simultaneously, in their native language was another moving moment.

After a day of focusing upon the global nature of the church some of us returned to the hotel where we stopped enroute to eat at KFC and pick up a Frosty at Wendy's. I'm not sure if that is a sign of how far we've come or how far we have to go, but I for one am blessed to be making the journey with so many wonderful Cumberland Presbyterians.
Until next time
Pastor Randy