I have almost finished a week filled with a lot of firsts:
–the first time to design and teach a D.Min course (Doctor of Ministry);
–the first time to teach a one-week intensive solo;
–the first time to teach Japanese leaders
–the first time to teach in an academic setting using a translator the whole time.

It has been challenging. I knew it would be, but I think yesterday was the hardest day I’ve ever had as a teacher. I really thought it would never end. Seven hours of lectures is A LOT of time if the day is going poorly and you’re VERY tired of hearing yourself talk…and you have lost confidence that you are at all effective in any way.

I was reminded last night of words I had shared in the class by Mother Teresa – our goal is not to be successful, but to be faithful. There are many things I have learned this week that I would do differently, but that is all part of this being lots of firsts. It was, in a weird way, sort of a good thing to feel like I had fallen flat on my face and could do nothing about it. Last night in the shower I just sang, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus” over and over until I really could just trust Him with the outcome of all of this. It’s good to rest completely in Him….to be reminded that we are but very weak vessels.

Today, thankfully, went much better. My translator friend Yuko and I both sensed something different today than yesterday – we wonder now if there were some spiritual issues involved yesterday. We will finish tomorrow around 12:30. I am missing my family so much, but thankful for the opportunity to learn such a great deal in a short amount of time. It’s felt like an honor to teach these pastors who each have such amazing life stories. I cried as I prayed for them this morning, recognizing that I am in a room filled with people who God has specially and uniquely called into fulltime, challenging ministry for his purposes.

Here are a few photos of small group time:

I am in Tokyo right now teaching at a seminary for five days. Walking home from the train station last night to our friend Keiko’s home I passed this sign:

Basically, the sign says, “Warning: Perv*rt in the area: please call 110 if you see one”.
Haven’t seen those signs posted along Main Street, U.S.A….

Today the Thomson family came over for dinner and we were reunited with them, as they have just returned from a three month home assignment in Los Angeles and Seattle. I wish you could have seen Owen and Toby hug each other- they reminded me of old war buddies who hadn’t seen each other in twenty years. It has been a really fun reunion. Despite all of them having jetlag from arriving last night, things went quickly back to normalcy. You can watch our combined seven children enjoying life (forefront) and putting on a concert (background) in this short video clip. It should convince you:
a) that our kids really really love each other and love being together (even when they fight over toys)
b) to pray that God will provide a home that will allow for times like this to be a bit more….spread out.
Welcome home, our friends. We’ve missed you.

Yesterday morning, I was trying out yet another local coffee shop as I continued hammering out lectures for my upcoming course. Eric shared this story:

“I was sitting on the couch having my quiet time. Owen and Annie were sitting under the open window, enjoying Play-Do.
Annie said to Owen, ‘What’s that noise?’
and he said, ‘That’s semi‘ (Japanese for cicadas, which are quite noisy this time of year in our neighborhood). Annie continued with her many questions, ‘What are they talking about?’
With confidence Owen answered, ‘They’re talking about God.’
—-

There is a somewhat obscure passage in Matthew where the chief priests and the scribes see Jesus doing miracles of healing, and they heard “the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosannah to the Son of David.’ They became angry and said to him, ‘Do you hear what these are saying?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Yes, have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself”?’ (Matthew 21:15, 16)

Out of the mouths of babes… Even though she isn’t speaking much yet, Olivia has joined her sister and brother in singing praises. We often hear her from her crib belting out the melody of “Jesus Loves Me” using the “Ba Ba” sound (she’s surprisingly–mostly– on-key–you can listen below).

In the car, one of our favorite things is to hear the kids all singing worship songs together.

Out of the mouths of babes… we are constantly surprised by the quips and insights of our children. Sometimes their unorthodox or even outlandish comments bring us back to truths that we have become too adult, too rational to recognize. That rhythmical beauty in the droning of the cicadas – perhaps if I learn to listen better –to children and to nature- I too, will be more likely to hear the praise that rings and sings throughout creation.

Postscript: I came home today, shortly after writing this blogpost, and this was the scene that greeted me. Our friends Bobby and Claire had been watching the children for us this morning so I could study and Eric could help our friends with some yardwork:

The avocado seed that we planted several months ago is alive…and quite well! Last week, I realized that it was dry and has started needing much more water than it previously did. I thought maybe it was from the crazy heat we have been having the past few weeks…and Eric said that the water evaporates from the leaves, so since the leaves have increased and grown big, it makes sense that the plant would be needing a lot more water.

The past two weeks I felt a lot like this avocado plant…pretty dried up. The heat was on us this summer, with our leaves spread pretty far out… a good deal of excitement with a great team here — daily ministry activities, lots of people in and out of our home, a lot of driving and coordination of details…Juggling ministry, family, marriage, and not always doing a good job of it. We spread ourselves too thin and had no reserve left to give.

I started thinking about what I need to replenish my dryness. When the heat is on…and I’m weary – water for my soul includes:
**processing – Eric’s been good at talking through things; I’ve been committed this year to journaling a little bit each night…and blogging!
**perspective – preparing for the seminary course that I am teaching has helped bring perspective…see my areas of weakness… seek to grow from the challenges.
**quality time with good friends – I still feel like I need some more of this…
**Coffee shops–I’ve visited the five coffee shops in Sanda while preparing for my class — these renew me! (Though it is disappointing that only one has wireless internet access and only one has easy outlet access). Korea has prayer mountains; Japan’s most interesting coffee shop is God Mountain….good, strong coffee.

**affirmation — a strange one to include here….but a foundational leadership principle is that we all need affirmation from time to time. We can receive divine affirmation (falling stars!), ministry affirmation (George’s decision on Sunday), and/or affirmation from others.

On Sunday when our house church had a non-surprising surprise party for me, they went around as an ice breaker and all shared something about me. I rolled my eyes and thought, please no! I really really don’t like this kind of thing… But as they shared stories and reflections, I felt the Lord encouraging me to accept those words as a means of replenishing my heart. To know that despite my many weaknesses, mess-ups, and times of not trusting God enough — that God is with me; God is for me; God is continuing to use us in this place. I can keep growing.

My roots, and leaves, are feeling less dry. What about you – what do you need to replenish your roots?

This morning our house church had a “surprise” birthday party for me (one day early). I sort of figured it out when it was our turn to host house church but they changed the venue without a reason. But it was still so touching as we walked in and one of the junior high girls put a homemade lei on me, and then one of the women pulled out a beautiful fruit birthday cake that she had made, and everyone joined in to sing Happy Birthday. I really felt loved.

This was all really special. But there was something that made the celebration absolutely unforgettable. Today, during worship, our Japanese friend “George” prayed to enter the Christian life (read more about George in posts Learning and Loving and Transformers)!

We had broken up into small groups to discuss the Bible passage for the morning. Eric was teaching the kids in another room, two women’s groups, and then George and two Christian men from the group were meeting together. Suddenly Hiroshi announced what had happened…There was such a sense of peace in George’s heart and joy across his face. We all shouted and cried and rejoiced together.

Then his wife Aiko said, “we need to sing a worship song!” So we sang a simple, fun song from English camp, “Deep Down.” During the verse, we all sing, “Do you love your Jesus, deep down in your heart?” and then one person’s name is called to sing the next part: “Yes, I love my Jesus, deep down in my heart!” George’s name was called first and he sang it out. Then he called Eric’s name, following which George’s name was called again. Someone later apologized for him being called twice and he said, “I’ll sing it over and over — yes I love my Jesus!”

I read John 3:3-7 to George and the group… Jesus tells Nicodemus that he needs to be born again- its not enough to be born once. Today we celebrated my original birth into the world. That was nice. But there was such an amazing sense of rejoicing as we celebrated George’s re-birth, entering into the eternal Kingdom of God (Below: Aiko and Olivia, rejoicing).

George’s salvation is a wonderful reminder of the effectiveness of short-term mission teams. Last year, a mother-and daughter from our New Jersey team stayed with George and Aiko, and had a direct impact on Aiko’s becoming a Christian shortly after they left Japan. Last week, a father-and son team from California stayed with them, and really made a difference in George’s decision to follow Christ. Short-term teams: bring ’em on!

Tonight we found out about some close Japanese friends who are questioning our motives and vocations as missionaries here in Japan. It felt painful. And yet we are reminded that there will be opposition when God is at work. And He is –tonight, in a suburban home in Sanda, Japan, there is a new Christian couple praying together and putting God first. This is worth celebrating. Happy, happy birthday, George.

For the leadership course that I will be teaching at a seminary in Tokyo the last week of August (27-31), I would like to use a few video clips to help illustrate some of the significant points. One of the things I will be hopefully teaching these Japanese pastors and church leaders is that we need to be teaching in a style that is relevant to today’s culture with a goal of transformation rather than passing along information. I am trying to make my own teaching style as interesting and relevant as possible.

Since I am terrible at remembering scenes in movies, I’m wondering if a few of you might have some ideas that you could pass onto me (either by a comment or an email). The following are some of the topics that could be helpful to have an illustration from a video: (note that I will need to find the video in Japanese, so it can’t be too obscure):

1. Servant Leadership (ie a clip that shows a leader who is really serving his/her people)
2. The power of encouragement and praise
3. Teaching that was inspirational and transformational
4. A leader who goes through a paradigm shift
5. A leader or coach who goes the extra mile in encouraging/day-to-day training
6. A person who goes through a major transition and through that undergoes transformation.
7. The power of synergy/collaboration.

Any of these examples would be really helpful. If you could tell me what the actual scene is (and about where it is in the movie) that would be great. Thanks for your help, and your prayers as I continue to work away at the lesson plans!

Yesterday was a fun (but expensive) first in the life of our family… we took Owen and Annie to see their first movie in a theatre. Both of them had really liked the previews for the Disney/Pixar movie called Ratatouille. The only problem was- the theatres nearby where it was showing had it dubbed in Japanese. So we found a theatre in Kobe (about 45 minutes away) that was showing it in English, and made an afternoon of it. Friends watched Olivia, so we drove to Kobe, had lunch, and watched the movie.

They both really enjoyed the whole experience. Once in a while they would talk in loud voices and forget that others were around us, but we all enjoyed the movie and the (slightly stale) popcorn.

The bummer was later adding up how much the family date day cost us! Movie admission (about $8 each for the 2 kids; $15 each for us); one drink and one small tub of popcorn, tolls and gas to and from Kobe; a simple lunch; small gift for babysitter… and we’re talking $100. Honest. We are really really liking video movie nights at home. But it was still a special first.

This morning we spent time at a new friend’s home who lives nearby- she is our dentist’s receptionist. We are the same age, and quickly became friends during one of my many appointments recently for root canal. The kids played outside in a small pool for about half an hour, but even with water activity it was still way too hot outside.

At the end of August, I will be going to Tokyo for 5 days to teach an intensive D.Min Leadership course. Although I’ve been trying to prepare for it for a year, I’m down to the wire, and needing to spend time each day preparing. Place of choice? Starbucks!

I arrived about 2:30 pm, got my drink, set up my laptop, and began studying. It is a small drive-through Starbucks, and it tends to get a lot of traffic. At one point when I looked up, there were more than 30 people seated, taking up all the small tables in the shop.

After about twenty minutes, I began to feel a little fainty. And I realized – I was HOT. Despite air conditioning being on, the store was sweltering. There were skylight-style windows at the top of the store that didn’t have blinds. I could feel the outside heat just seeping in through the windows. I noticed the older women sipping coffee next to me were fanning themselves. Another couple on the other side said something about the heat and got up and walked out. I began to feel even more weak and warm. I lasted about an hour, and then had to leave.

As I drove home to study in our bedroom with an air-conditioning unit (no central air here!), I noticed that the temperature outside was 40 degrees Celsius. Or 104 degrees Fahrenheit. It has been one of (if not the) hottest summer on record. Even Starbucks can’t cool us down!

There are a number of interesting beliefs in Japan about summer heat. One is that there is an actual illness or summer fatigue that attacks when it gets very hot (I’m beginning to believe this is true, judging by my husband lying on the couch and my own lethargy)…and that air conditioning can be bad for you….and that it isn’t good to drink cold, iced drinks when it’s really hot out.

Here are the results of a Goo survey among young people in Japan related to summer heat:

Q5: Do you get “Natsu-bate” (summer heat fatigue) during the summer? (Sample size=546)

All 10-19 y.o. 20-29 y.o. 30-39 y.o.
Yes 67% 66% 71% 65%
No 33% 34% 29% 35%
Q6: Do you take any measures during the summer heat? (Sample size=546)

Yes (to SQ) 27%
No 73%
Q6SQ: What sort of measures do you take during the summer heat? (Sample size=146, multiple answer)

Eat nutritious food 64%
Don’t spend too long in cold air conditioning 61%
Get enough sleep 55%
Take exercise to nourish my body 43%
Eat hot food, drink hot drinks 30%
Slowly and carefully enter the bathtub 28%
Don’t eat or drink too fast 26%
Other 8%
Don’t know 1%

Q7: When summer comes, what do you particularly want to drink? (Sample size=546, multiple answer)

Barley tea 50%
Carbonated drinks 41%
Sports drinks 33%
Beer, beer-like drinks 26%
Mineral water 19%
Other teas 17%
Fruit juices, fruit drinks 13%
Chuhai (fruity alco-pops) 9%
Tomato or other vegetable juices 5%
Other alcohol 4%
Other 4%
Nothing in particular 6%
Don’t know 0%

Hmm… No one mentioned Frappucinos. Maybe it’s too warm inside…or too air-conditioned…. or maybe the drink is too cold when it’s this hot out…

What on earth are our friends Laura and Megumi sewing in our living room?

Later addition to entry:
Don’t ever leave your suitcase unprotected at our home! One of the short-term team members found his underwear sewn together (the leg seams) several days later when he went to wear them. He thought his mom did it- what was he thinking? Incidentally, there were actually 2 guys who left their suitcases here. The second one, however, was too challenging as we couldn’t tell what was clean and what was dirty. So we settled for just one.