Month: December 2014

Christmas Full; Christmas Emptying

Sue Takamoto1 Comment

Today, December 25th:

  • It snowed twice:  beautiful big snowflakes this morning as our family was assembling to open gifts, and then driving home tonight from Christmas dinner with friends.  It melted in between but it was a beautiful Christmas morning and evening.  Something about snow is pure and new and touches me.
  • We had a crazy 5.5 earthquake wake us up this morning.  It is about the fourth one in the past ten days, which is unnerving.  Our friend Beth said that in light of the recent activity, she has updated her earthquake survival kit recently….
  • We were blessed with some amazing gifts.  Our kids had a really really fun day opening gifts and building/learning/trying on/imagining.  So so fun. So so blessed.
  • In the midst of it all, I got mad once at one of our kids, and had to apologize.  We made up.
  • I talked with my dad this morning.  All of our kids did.  It was his evening, which seems to be his hardest time in terms of being lucid.  He wasn’t making much sense to any of us, and then suddenly to me he said, “Hey, I read your latest four- page newsletter that came.  It’s exciting all the lives that are being changed!”  And my old Dad was back for a short bit, quick to rejoice over news of God at work. The dementia has not managed to take over everything!
  • I did a lot of cooking in between gifts and prep for Christmas day – made our traditional sausage breakfast casserole for brunch, and pot roast and chocolate chip cheesecake for dinner/dessert.  They all turned out pretty good, though the pot roast was a bit dry.  (It was still an awesome treat that we can’t usually get here!).  Oh – and our favorite homemade eggnog for dessert time.  I love it that our kids love it as much as I do!
  • We had a fun dinner/gift exchange time with our team tonight.  It was good to laugh and enjoy each other’s company, even though we were all tired.  We did a white elephant gift exchange, and I won a box of old-ish cans of tuna and some canned bread (entering the fourth year of its five year shelf life!) that I think will make perfect updates to our own survival kit…
  • My highlight of the day was between 2 and 3.  Our team all went to a local nursing home and sang Christmas songs and a few of our favorite worship songs.  We had prepped our kids, knowing it wasn’t easy for them to do this.  But I loved hearing their voices sing louder than the adults!  We sang “Kimi wa aisareru tame umareta” to them – “You were born to be loved.”  While we sang, we went out and greeted and shook hands with each of the attendees.  I got to one sweet woman, and there were just tears streaming down her face.  She couldn’t stop.  She hugged me and kept squeezing my hand.  Of course I couldn’t sing!  Jennifer came over, still singing, and then her voice broke.  Eric said that Ian (5) bravely went from person to person, shaking their hands.  They were all waiting for this little dressed-up Santa to come and greet them too.  I was proud of him and each of our kids. When we had finished our short time of singing and were saying goodbye, I went and sat with Mrs. Akio a bit longer.  She said a lot has happened in her life.  I looked at her eyes and could only imagine.  I prayed for her and promised to come back.
  • It was a wonderful treat to have our friend Y. go with us.  From the minute we started singing, the tears started flowing for her.  She was touched deeply today. I think we all were moved from our own self-preoccupation to focusing on these dear older ones who did not have the blessings that we currently have.  There was an emptying of ourselves that happened;  I sensed we all, like me, walked out a little lighter;  with a little less of me.
  • Many blessings today! That short time of giving our time and ourselves to people with more needs than our own shapes our perspective.  I was thinking about the old hymn that speaks of Christmas with the verse, ” 
    He left his Father's throne above 
	(so free, so infinite his grace!), 
	emptied himself of all but love, 
	and bled for Adam's helpless race. 
	'Tis mercy all, immense and free, 
	for O my God, it found out me!
  • It’s the Christmas story, isn’t it?  One who left his comfort for much for than an hour and emptied himself in a myriad more ways than we did.  But it is such an immense privilege to join him in the emptying process of loving. It has been a wonderfully full day.
    Merry Christmas!    IMG_6216

Shepherds and Angels in Ishinomaki

Sue TakamotoLeave a comment

One of my favorite activities each week on Thursday mornings is a simple bible study that we do before the Nozomi Project starts.  Six of us or so gather around our dining room table and study a passage of scripture and seek to apply it to our own lives.

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This month we have been looking at different passages of the Christmas story.  On Thursday, we were reading the story of the angels who came to the shepherds, and through their proclamation the shepherds were among (if not) the first to go and meet the baby Christ child.  One of the many beautiful things about the Christmas story – and most of the stories of the Bible – is that God loves to use ordinary people.  We were thinking about the shepherds – they were probably ruffian types; working all night; smelling like outdoors/animals.  But these were the first visitors to meet the King!

After talking through the story a bit, each of us shared observations.  Our most recent member, A-san, shared this:

“S. was like the first angel who introduced me to the Nozomi Project when I told her I was quitting my other job at (a local sandwich shop).  She led me here to the Nozomi Project. I  was always afraid to go deep with people, so I avoided relationships.  But by becoming a Nozomi member, I have been able to grow deeper in friendships.  The group of angels in the shepherd story are like the Be One staff members and our manager Yuko.  Day by day they share truth with me.  And now I’m here, studying the Bible each week. I’m changing from reading this.”

Then T-san shared:  “I never believed in miracles.  But then I met a member of Be One, and that was the first miracle I experienced.  Now I’m reading the bible and learning so much about life.  I’m so glad that I met God.  God entered our everyday world through Jesus, and He’s come into my normal life too. I am so thankful to experience miracles.”

My friend C-san.:  “I’m like the shepherd, and God keeps bringing angels into my life who share about the Message.  When our friend Nobuko came last month and shared, her message was just like that of the angels, and I thought, I want to try out this Christian faith.  It’s been a month and I still believe.  When I used to hear sharing from the Bible, I would listen but forget it in a few days.  Now I hear the stories and they stay in my heart.”

Those of us with the Hope of Jesus this season have an amazing privilege of being like the angels.  We had some laughs last week as the Japanese typically imagine angels as the little cherubim baby-face images with halos on their heads.  But the biblical angels are usually depicted as those who know the Glory and Sweetness of God and are sent as messengers to share that beauty.  This can be us!  While being far from perfect and without halos or glowing robes, we have an amazing privilege wherever we are of sharing with the ordinary people surrounding our every-day lives the realities of the Jesus -story.  We can bring them to Him.

But there is also something else that happens as we share the truths of God with people around us.  God continues to use the beautiful people in my everyday world here to lead me to Jesus.  They become the angels, and I am a recipient of their wonder and awe as they experience grace and living hope for the first time.  The stories I have heard since childhood become new and fresh again.  Like the angels did for the shepherds, they lead me before the Christ child.  And as we experience him together, all social structures are flattened and we together are transformed.

Christmas is a time of miracles.

One Pot Pasta Wonder

Sue Takamoto3 Comments

I just made the most yummy dinner ever.  It was simple and SOOO delicious- my whole family loved it.  I am hoping that my teammates will be willing to have us try and make this sunday for church lunch – for sixty people!  (I’ve already copied the recipe – times ten.  This recipe feeds six for decent portions.

The wonder of it – you cook spaghetti in a pot with your veggies and tomatoes and juices and herbs – you never drain it… and it makes its own yummy sauce.  So it’s not quite a soup, and not quite a sauce.  It couldn’t be easier.  And honestly- it really was delicious!  We thought the pasta would get all sticky but it was cooked perfectly.

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There are lots of different versions on the internet  – I liked the sounds of this one and tweaked it.  Thank you, apron strings blog!  I’ve copied the recipe from their blog.   (I couldn’t get basil at the store i went to so I added dry;  we had some sausage to use up so I fried that up and added it;  I added some white mushrooms;  at the end I added about 1/3 pack of cream cheese cut into pieces.  That made it – oh! so creamy and yummy.  Cooking time was literally as written – about ten minutes.  (Japan friends – I figured that the amount of pasta is about one smaller package – I added about 400 grams, and a bit of extra water!).

ONE POT WONDER TOMATO BASIL PASTA (taken from apronstringsblog)

Serves 4 to 6 as an entree

12 ounces linguine pasta
1 can (15 ounces) diced tomatoes with liquid ( I used zesty red pepper flavor style)
1 medium sweet onion, cut in 1/4 inch julienne strips (use an onion such as Vidalia or Walla Walla)
4 cloves garlic, very thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
4 1/2 cups vegetable broth (use regular broth and NOT low sodium)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 bunch (about 10 to 12 leaves) basil, diced
Parmesan cheese for garnish

Place pasta, tomatoes, onion, and garlic in a large stock pot. Pour in vegetable broth. Sprinkle on top the pepper flakes and oregano. Drizzle top with oil.

Cover pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a low simmer and keep covered and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes or so. Cook until almost all liquid has evaporated – I left about an inch of liquid in the bottom of the pot – but you can reduce as desired .

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add basil leaves and stir pasta several times to distribute the liquid in the bottom of the pot evenly throughout the pasta as you are serving. Serve garnished with Parmesan cheese.