Where I Japan are Bob & Chris January 20 ?

Bob & Chris were back in Kibo-no Ie within the Kamagasaki section of Osaka, Japan on Tuesday, January 20th. They are in the process of reclaiming a room in the center for use as meditation room and chapel. On Tuesday also they participated with clients in ceramics and relaxation classes. At first glance one might wonder what a ceramics class and a relaxation class has to do with Christian outreach to the recovering alcoholics of Kibo-no Ie.
Ceramics class for Bob showed him again that he has almost no artistic talent. When given a piece of clay and told to create an animal from it he felt helpless. Then he remembered some artist or sculpture who used to say that inside each piece of stone is a figure waiting to be released. He decided in the clay was an animal waiting to be released. After a while he thought a seal was waiting to be released. What he created may or may not have been a seal! Chris on the other hand released a fish of unknown species and strange proportion from her clay. For the recovering alcoholic creating an animal reactivates a sense of creativity and imagination that has been consumed by the alcohol that destroyed their past lives. For them the creative process in the class is about recovering parts of their being that have been lost. Relaxation class involved instruction in Zen meditation along with some stretching and pressure point training. Bob and Chris found the multiple fifteen minute meditation sessions relaxing and painful at the same time. In the early stages focusing on silence was relaxing. Sitting in meditation positions however was somewhat painful towards the end of each session. The stretching and pressure points taken from Eastern medical practices were new and exotic. Bob and Chris participated in messaging parts of their feet in order to positively affect internal organs. It seemed especially strange to Bob.For the clients, the recoverying alcoholics of Kibo-no Ie participation in this class has greater therapeutic benefits. It helps to regain what alcohol has previously taken from them. This is the ability to sleep without the aid of a drug. Many alcoholics cannot relax enough to achieve sleep. Relaxation through meditation provides the client with a method to achieve a natural sleep state. Stretching and pressure points is a way for the clients to regain a sense of their own bodies. They relearn how to be in touch with their bodies and in the process how be better stewards of physical health.
Bob and Chris were thankful for being asked to be part of the classes at Kibo-no Ie on Tuesday. Their presence was an affirmation to the clients. For them it brought new understanding of the therapeutic benefits to recovering alcoholics from art and relaxation classes.

Keep praying,

Zen Ben