Japanese visit Day 1

Arrived safe and sound in Japan, where amongst other things I am representing the Methodist Church in Britain at the 38th General Assembly of the United Church of Christ in Japan which begins next week in Tokyo. I am spending my first few days in Okayama City with my son and his family. Okayama is a city of 750,000 people situated about halfway between Osaka and Hiroshima close to the Seto Inland Sea. It's famous for it's locally grown grapes and peaches, which I have been told are delicious, as well as the famous Japanese garden called Korakuen, one of the top three gardens in Japan. I have two Grandson's living in Japan, one of whom I saw when he was 6 months old and visiting the UK with his parents. My second Grandson I saw in the flesh for the first time yesterday. Grandad with his Grandchildren is shown in these few photographs. More later, as my stay in Okayama continues, prior to leaving for Tokyo... Alan Ashton 20th October 2012 (Lost in Translation)

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Papua New Guinea

I am at the General Assembly of the United Church of Papua New Guinea. This is a 44-year-old united church twice as big as our Methodist Church with a governing body that is half the size of ours, meets every two years with a participative committee-based style. The Bible studies each morning are led by Rev Garo Kilagi who has just returned from a circuit in Lancashire on the World Church in Britain programme. His reflections on life in Britain are proving fascinating to assembly members. My blogging will be erratic, I have no phone coverage and only very restricted internet. (The town has also had no water for the last five days and it took members so long to get here the assembly started two days late. I am looking forward to a shower when I get to Fiji on Thursday!) Steve in Alotau on Tuesday 9th.

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MURAL IDEAS?

The Methodist Church in El Salvador has just completed building its first school, a nursery. Mary Cook & Paul Collins, Mission Partners currently preparing themselves to go to El Salvador, will start work in the nursery in the New Year. In one photo we see the quadrangle foundations being laid. This will become a clear area where the children can play. In the second photo we see the rather bleak exterior facing the main street. The church plans to paint a mural on it and is asking for ideas. If you have a good one please let me know at quenett@methodistchurch.org.uk

Tom Quenet 

Cite Soleil

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Through mission partners John and Sharon Harbottle in Haiti I have received these images of Cite Soleil in Haiti. For me they illustrate that earthquake relief and rebuilding do not eliminate poverty and the consequences of it. I doubt if these photos have changed significantly from those before the earthquake. Except!! - if you look closely some shacks have tarpaulin roofs - this i suspect is an improvement and in the ditch you can see polysterene containers, this could be worse than it was before. The containers are on what food is distributed as aid or fast food is sold in. There is a lot of progress being made on cleaning up the rubble, rebuilding and recovering so much of what was destroyed. This is only the start of the real problem - the elimination of poverty.

Tom Quenet