This past Wednesday, Eric was leaving our staff meeting in the afternoon to go pick up our kids when I got an email from the elementary school.  I went next door to Nozomi to check with the other elementary moms – we had all received it.  A tsunami warning, as a result of the earthquake in the Solomon Islands, meant that our school was following protocol and not sending the school buses down the mountain until the warning was lifted.  We didn’t know what this meant for awhile… but we received several more emails over the next hour that made it clear that no parents were allowed to come to the school;  we just had to wait it out.

The Nozomi and Be One staff joined together to pray.  There was a sense of fear — not so much because anyone thought that a big tsunami was going to come (the warning was for at most a small one), but because the memories of the 2011 tsunami loomed large.  I have learned – and begun to understand more — that the hardest thing for all my mom friends is being separated from their children.

As the minutes became hours, Eric and I exchanged concerns in particular about Annie.  Since the big earthquake and tsunami warnings several months ago, she has had increased fear of tsunamis – most nights talking about it.  She has continued to express concerns about our upcoming move because our new home will be in the tsunami zone.  We wondered how she was doing with no communication and this sudden event.  She wouldn’t necessarily understand if this was a real danger or a precaution.

There were many  worried, cold parents waiting when the school buses pulled in around 8 pm.  It was good to connect with most of our Nozomi mom friends and their children who had to come single-file off the buses, with a teacher checking off each name and confirming the waiting parent.  We found out that the kids had had some emergency-rationed rice at school (“it tasted terrible!”).  Annie said that many of the children in her second-grade class were crying.  I asked if it was because they missed their moms;  she said no, it was because they were remembering the other tsunami.

Both of our children seemed to be ok, though Annie hugged me for a very long time and did not want to let go.  We’ve had a few hard days with her since- it’s hard to know how much this has caused her moodiness.  I am very thankful for two messages that I received in the past few days to help Annie.

From our friend Shelly – this is a great thing for any parent to do – we never really know when our children may go through something difficult and we can’t be with them:

Sit each child down with you and Eric, then one by one take that child in your arms – like you might cradle a baby and tell them to close their eyes and just feel how good it feels to be held in your arms. Sit with them for 15-20 seconds at least – if they will tolerate it. Whisper that you love them, then whisper that you feel Jesus’s arms around both of you and He is with you. You might say something like “I think Jesus can feel our hearts beating” or something like that. Then the other one should do the same thing. Then tell the child that if they ever hear a tsunami warning, etc at school or when you are away from each other, they can close their eyes and feel that you are always in their heart and they are always in yours.

Don’t make promises that you can’t keep – like saying “I will always be there for you, or mommy and daddy will always keep you safe” – because you can’t do this. But reminding them how comforting it is to be in your arms, and that Jesus is with them in this calming way, may give them some strength in the future.

I love this!  Tonight I had some special alone time with Ian when I put him in bed and I held him tight and went through this exercise.  I want to keep doing this with each of our children and helping … to instill in them a peaceful and calming place to go internally – no matter what is happening on the outside.

The second email that I received was from my sister Hannah.  She wrote an email to Annie after hearing this story, telling her of a recent experience where she met a mountain lion in front of her car that really scared her.  She shared about her genuine fear, asking Annie to pray for her about this.  Annie listened without much comment, but wanted to see on the internet what a mountain lion looks like.  She was quite impressed by the size!

Yesterday she brought up the mountain lions again.  She wants to send an email to Auntie Hannah and see how she’s doing, and share about her recent tsunami experience.   Thankful for a community even worlds away who are walking with us.

I know from frequent updates from various friends and family on Facebook and emails that we aren’t the only ones dealing with winter sickness.  Last week Eric and Owen had fevers and colds;  just as they were recovering Annie and Ian came down with the flu (Influenza A), and a day later Olivia.  So I have been home a lot the past few days with sick kids;  all of us in one room that we are heating… we eat, study, play, and hang out here, so its fairly inevitable that the germs will get passed on.  I am headed to bed soon with a sore throat and runny nose – oh no!  am I next?

We have been thankful for the great work being done on our new home- the carpenters have been doing an amazing job – the walls are in and up – the outside siding and roof are finished… our friend George from Sanda is blessing us so much and is supplying all of the flooring for both homes going in from his company.  Today some of it is being delivered.  In two weeks our friend Mike P. and his son Michael will be coming from New Jersey to put in the flooring – woohoo!  We can’t wait!

We reeived really disappointing news last week, though – a call to confirm the timing on the water and sewer told us that it wouldn’t be ready until late March.  I am still praying that somehow this can change – and maybe I don’t want to know if this isn’t true.  We have several friends from Sanda coming in late February to help us move… I know God will give us grace if we can’t move until the end of March but right now it feels very hard to deal with.  So please pray, if you would.  The winter days have been particularly challenging in this home for a number of reasons.  We’ve loved the unusual amount of snowfall for this area but it has meant every morning leaving our home really early to commute our kids to their school bus stops – the normal fifteen minutes is more like thirty with bad roads.

Probably of much more importance than the challenges mentioned above has been the impression that God has been putting on our hearts of His special spiritual and eternal purposes for us being here right now.  Not just us, but the special collection of Christians whom he has gathered a) of Asian Access missionaries in the Tohoku region– there are twelve adults who in the past year have all moved into the greater Sendai region!  and b) the various lot of missionaries and long term volunteer/development workers who are in the greater Ishinomaki region.  At recent (separate) gatherings with both these groups, we focused on praying to understand and help fulfill God’s special purposes in bringing so many believers with united hearts to this location.  It is an amazing privilege to be here;  we do not want to miss any of His intentions.  Our focus on united prayer and drawing into God’s heart feels so crucial.

Last Friday, our Asian Access Tohoku team gathered and focused on praying for God’s purposes not just in our individual placements, but as a team – what are the unique purposes to which He has called us as a larger body of missionaries sold out for Him?  This is the largest team since our 1990 Tokyo years that A2 has ever had all living in one region.  This is exciting but as I have been reflecting on our group times together, I feel strongly that He has special purposes beyond fellowship and encouragement.  I want us to be alert to all that God has.

I was not able to participate, but last night Eric with Be One and the other Christians in our community gathered for a monthly prayer and praise time.  The group of 25 or so brainstormed different strongholds/obstacles particular to this area (fear, suicide, alcoholism, other addictions) and praying against these things.  It was a powerful time of seeking to bring more of God’s Kingdom to a place that desperately needs it.  We are excited about all that God wants to do here!

For updates on the Nozomi Project, please click here to see our first two blog entries on the Nozomi website with photos and updates of what has been happening.  Yesterday eight from our Nozomi team attended a local gathering of social enterprises.  It was great to be a team and see the pride in what our staff are making.

We’ve been really thankful for the people who have been getting the word out about the Nozomi Project!  Those of you who have shared on Facebook – it’s awesome!

Thanks to Jes, a volunteer who has come up in the past and helped out with Be One and the Nozomi Project, who is sponsoring a contest to help spread the word.  If you participate in her contest, you can win an amazing necklace.  (Contest is through Friday night, January 25).  Her blog has brought a lot of pr to our site this week.

It was totally an amazing and humbling thing to have Fuller Seminary feature a story about us and the Nozomi Project in their alumni news:

We’ve started a blog on the Nozomi website. Our first entry was aimed to thank those who have helped us get a great start (If you’ve been part of helping us – please find your name.  If we forgot your name- please please let us know).

And in the Nozomi workshop- we have had a rewarding and very busy week – especially today!  We had three Osaka friends visiting the NP who are making a video about God’s work here.  We had another friend Matthias over helping train two of our staff in the internet and computer issues.  Two of our staff were working on a letter and some samples going to a Tokyo department store (pray with us!).  Three children were there with moms.   One of our staff who has had personal and health issues and was out for the past two weeks came back (YES!).  Another member, Y., hasn’t been able to come the past few weeks because her husband with cancer has been in the hospital.  Today she brought her husband and little one in to say thank you to everyone for worrying and praying. A Japanese volunteer with us for six weeks was in- she is working on translating each of the women’s stories for us to use on the website and in different profiles. It was a full house today- but with a lot of energy and joy.  At one point mid-morning we gathered in a circle to introduce some of the visitors and to pray over the samples going to the department store and ask for God’s leading.  It was wonderful to feel so much anticipation.

We will slowly be putting the Nozomi staff women’s stories on the NP website.  Here is one that really touched me that will be going up later.  I wish you could meet Tomoko – you would love her as much as I do.

I was living at my sister’s house.  When the earthquake hit, I was with my son.  He and I went to my daughter’s school.  My sister went to get our grandmother and came to school.  We were all at the auditorium where there were over 100 people.  Children were all panicky and crying.  Water came into the auditorium, so we had to stand on the stage or up on the gallery.  We had very little food and water.  Next day my sister and her two sons went to get futon from the house.  My mother, brother and his child came to school.  They were caught by the tsunami but able to survive.  Sadly, my brother’s wife didn’t make it. 

The following day my sister’s husband came looking for us.  He had to walk long hours since no one could drive around this area.  We went back to our house.  The first floor was flooded, so we slept on the second floor.  We didn’t have kitchen, so we lived on snacks and juice for a long time.  Eventually we fixed up the first floor. 

I met Nozomi because my daughter is in the same class as Sue’s son.  After the tsunami I wanted to do something but didn’t know what to do.  I was a little hesitant about working at Nozomi because I have never made jewelry before.  However, I received a lot of compliments during the training time and started gaining confidence.  It was such good timing and a healing process.  Nozomi helped me take steps to move forward in my life.  If I hadn’t met Nozomi, I would have been stuck in hopelessness.  I don’t even know how to express my gratefulness towards the Nozomi staff who have cared for me.  I enjoy working at Nozomi and relating to my coworkers.

God is at work – this is truly something to talk about!

This past week we have been with friends working through the loss of their Japanese dads.  

Yesterday we visited the family of N., one of our Nozomi women, whose father passed died on New Year’s Eve.  She and her family are still physically and emotionally recovering from the tsunami.  Their home was washed away;  Eric and a team of guys last fall helped move a few of the remaining trees and large rocks from that property to where they are living now in downtown Ishinomaki.  She had been carried with the house, in the tsunami, her body held under the freezing water by wet tatami flooring for many hours.  She continues to see a doctor for her leg that was barely saved and the depression and panic she has fought against.  One of our jewelry lines, Yuzu, is named after her beautiful granddaughter.

Her father had been recovering in the hospital.  We all shared N.’s joy when she showed us a picture in December of him finally able to eat again on his own and the prognosis looked good.  Just before the New Year’s start, he took his life.  The family is still reeling.  N. cannot come back to work for awhile, as she doesn’t want to leave her mother alone.  Yesterday I met her mom for the first time, and instantly loved her!  She is gracious, kind, beautiful.  And so sad.  There were no words.  But as we were leaving, Eric asked N. if we could pray for her.  She called her two daughters, granddaughter and mother to the table, announcing that “Eric is a pastor and is going to pray.”  (He’s not really, but whatever).  We held hands and prayed for this dear family who has had wave after wave after wave of pain doused upon them. 

Last weekend we had a team of five Japanese guys from Osaka drive up for the weekend to help out.  It touches us so much that there continue to be volunteers come up regularly to be part of God’s healing work.  On the way up, they hit a fox that ran in front of their car, causing them to swerve and damage the car.  On the way home, they hit the crazy snow storm that hit most of Japan, and it became a twenty hour drive.  But their short time here was so awesome…

On Sunday morning we somehow crammed about twenty five adults into a living room- awesome! 

 Keishi, one of the Be One leaders in Osaka, shared during our sunday morning worship about his dad.  There were a number of Ishinomaki friends who came because of their relationship with him.  (Photo below:  Keishi, left, with the president of a noodle company in Ishinomaki who has been helped by Be One).  

Here is a short summary of what he shared with us:  Keishi had a very unhappy childhood.  His father was abusive – punching in walls, pulling down cabinets, angry. When Keishi was seventeen, he made a plan to kill his father and then kill himself.  He wanted to protect his mother and this was the only way he could think of.  He went outside on the night he was going to pull this off, and passed a church.  He decided before he died that it was worth going inside and praying once.  As he sat and prayed in desperation for the first time in his life, he suddenly felt God fill his chest with hope and glory.  Never been in a church before.  Never read a word of the Bible.  But God came and met him in his deepest pain, prevented this tragedy, and brought new meaning.  Keishi began following Jesus from that night on.

Fastforward thirty-some years.  Keishi changed, but his father didn’t.  So Keishi and his wife have taken care of his parents – financially, physically – many ways over many years.  They have prayed without fail for God’s work in his dad’s heart.  

Keishi’s dad got cancer.  His last months were in a hospital.  The nurses hated caring for him because even in the hospital he was abusive and difficult.  Keishi would sometimes get calls from the staff, “can you come in – we can’t control him.”  He hated those calls.

In December his dad’s health was steadily declining – he was often unconscious.  Keishi and his wife were sitting by his bed one morning and they heard his dad say, “Jesus.”  Keishi leaned forward – thought he heard wrong.  His dad said it again- “Jesus.”  Keishi couldn’t believe it.  He confirmed with his dad – His dad wanted to trust in Jesus.  I forget if it was that same morning or a few days later – his father was baptized in the hospital. 

A week or two later, Keishi felt God prompting him to leave work and go to the hospital.  His dad was strangely alert.  Keishi loaded him into his car, and together they drove around Osaka and looked at all Christmas lights and decorations.  They laughed, and oohed and aahed together for several hours.  For the first time in his life over those several hours, Keishi had a normal father-son relationship with his dad. They drove back to the hospital.  After that, his dad was never really conscious again.  He passed into eternity on Christmas Eve.

Keishi is a man of great faith.  He has prayed and seen God heal people.  He has seen many miracles.  But he said the greatest miracle of his life was seeing God change his father’s heart.  

Many in our service were touched by this awesome story.  Many in that room have difficult fathers.  We spent time after that sharing and praying together for our family members who need hope.  Thankful this week that we have a heavenly Father.  I pray God will continue to use our Be One extended team to bring hope and real transformation to the most painful places in people’s lives. 

It has been quite a week of reentering life at the Nozomi Project. It continues to be an exciting ride – in so many ways.
Yesterday morning I shared with our staff the verse Isaiah 43:19: “Behold, i am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” I do really believe that God is going to continue to do a new thing, and do things that only God can do if we trust him – like making amazing beautiful rivers in the desert. The image that came to my mind with this verse is that we are riding a horse, and if we let God lead the horse, and hold on tight, that we will have the gallop of our lifetime! But often our inclination is to not trust and to get off and try to lead the horse. T – R – O- U – B – L – E. A lot more fun to gallop and trust.

We came back to work on Tuesday and have had a few personnel setbacks. I do not want to go into details, but you can pray if you would for each of these: one of our staff called and said she will be out all week (personal issues), another called to share that her husband’s cancer has re-surfaced and he needs to be hospitalized (please please pray!) so she can’t come in for awhile as she needs to care for her little one; a third staff called and shared the untimely and tragic death of her father over the New Years (I can’t share details publicly but please please pray). All three of these are major setbacks for women who have already suffered greatly in the past year and a half.

Two women have been out with sick family members. Another staff Chi., came in today and was called to her son’s school when he sprained his ankle and had to go to the hospital with him. It has been a crazy week – we were expecting an over-crowded work room and instead it has felt pretty empty.

Today we celebrated the birthday of one of our newest staff, Emi. It was great to surprise her and see the tears!

It has been awesome to have Sandra McCormack working with us this week – face to face! She is our awesome web designer and is here until tomorrow. She and I have been working to get the website up with all of our individual pieces. Yeah! New progress. She has been such a gift to us.

Tomorrow we have a new woman coming in – the mom of Annie’s good friend here in second grade. Maybe another new staff soon as well. It is good for new staff to continue to trickle in – a chance to reinforce our values and to help things not to get too rigid. There are a few different possibilities we are praying about that could mean NP expanding.

There have also been some cool PR things happening. A few still in the early stages – I will share those if they continue to develop – but one that happened today — a fashion design blog run by two sisters called Nubry.com sponsored Nozomi Project and wrote an awesome article today, featuring our work and sponsoring a social network giveaway to put out the word about the project. You can sign up here or on Facebook. If you click like you are entered to win one of five of our necklaces!

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This is really the best. I was asked to share this – even non-eggnog people have loved this treat.

Separate five eggs. Whip up the yolks. Add a bunch of sweetened condensed milk (1/2 to 1 can… We use the whole thing!)) and 4 cups of regular milk. Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, pinck of salt. Mix well.

In a separate bowl whip up the egg whites. Fold into the milky part. Then whip up a small container of whipping cream (add some confectioner sugar). Fold that in with the rest. Top with some more nutmeg, and serve.

(Those who want to spike can figure out on your own what to do).

Happy New Year’s to all!

(Note- I started this entry multiple times but because of really slow internet access especially in the evenings it never got finished- I would get too frustrated and quit.  Catching up a bit now – and wanted to share this special joyous event with you).

In mid-December we had our first annual Nozomi Christmas party.  Very thankful for special gifts to NP from John and Mona, and Larry, which went towards blessing these special women!

We made reservations at a beautiful french restaurant in Ishinomaki.  All but one woman had never been there before (one had gone on a date there twenty years before!).  Most of them rarely eat out at all….when we sat at the table they said they were so nervous because they didn’t know how to use all the silverware!

It was really fun to get dressed up… Nozomi Project gave each woman a necklace – they could choose the pendant and the style  that they liked – and it was fun to see what everyone picked out.  I found out at lunch that one staff didn’t own a skirt or a nice top and so used her recent salary to go out and buy one!  She -and everyone – looked bbeautiful.

They thought we were just having lunch – ha ha ha.  We laughed so hard playing several games that had all of us doing some crazy stuff.

While we had prepared special gift cards for each of the women, we didn’t know that they had prepared special gifts for us:  flowers, and a Nozomi necklace of our choice that they all chipped in and bought for us!  They had worked hard to keep this as a surprise for us.  Here we are with our flowers – our most current photo with all of our staff.

Of course, you can’t be doing this kind of business of making jewelry out of broken pottery, and eating in a restaurant with beautiful dishes – and not have every single person in that room at some point either think or say aloud — “Wouldn’t it be great if one of these plates happened to break?”  Here Chi. is caught redhanded! (pretending to drop it, not doing it for real).

As we gave each woman their gift card, we shared a memory or thought about how we first met them  – the special things that they bring to our group.  At the end, we stood in a circle, held hands, and sang “Silent Night,” the best-known Christmas carol in this country.  And then I asked Matsuri Y. to close our time in prayer. It was such a beautiful, heartfelt prayer to her Lord!  I was touched to our depths.

As we left in different groups – some to pick up kids, some to return to work for an hour or two before closing — I was so filled up. We needed that time together!  There have continued to be some internal strife and challenges among several of the staff.  But God is at work doing an amazing thing.  I can’t believe I didn’t know these women eight months ago. Now each of their lives are intertwined with mine in beautiful ways.  God is doing His redeeming work.

If you haven’t had a chance to watch this yet, here is a short video I put together recently that without words shows the development of God making beautiful things in our midst.

Today is the ten year anniversary of our becoming parents. Tonight I continued a tradition began by my mom — of tucking in the birthday child and telling them their birthday story. This year I gave Owen more details than I have in the past about his adoption and how God led us even to the point of deciding to adopt. And about the day exactly ten years ago today when Sarah from the adoption agency came to our Sendai home for a home visit (we were scared silly and I cleaned the upstairs like crazy but she never even went upstairs!). In the car on the way back from the train station I asked her if there was a particular child she had in mind and that was why our application process seemed to be so streamlined. She paused, and then she said, “Well, there was a baby we were thinking of, but we aren’t sure if it’s going to work out.”

Baby Masaru was born with his intestines and organs growing outside of his abdomen. As soon as this discovered, the doctor (at an excellent children’s hospital in Osaka) did immediate surgery, putting everything back in place as much as possible. They didn’t know if he would make it or what the prognosis would be. Sarah wasn’t sure if this would end up working out for us or not.

But on that day – 12/12/02 – God gave us a special love for that little one we had never met. He became ours as soon as he was released from the hospital (about 3 1/2 weeks after birth). And now he is ten years old big. He never needed another surgery (the normal number of surgeries for this condition of gastroscisis is four or five); he never had digestive problems (doctors told us he would likely have projectile vomiting); he has been a healthy, strong, amazing boy who has blessed us in so many ways.

Several weeks ago he and Annie went on a major hike with their school. They all had to make their own rice ball lunch; wear warm clothing under their gym clothes, and hike miles up a mountain. They were going to have lunch at the grounds of a Shinto shrine near the top. The day before, Annie had asked me in the car coming home from school what a shrine is. I explained that many people in Japan go to shrines because they believe that there are gods who will hear them when they ring the bell, clap their hands, etc.

When they came home from school, Owen and Annie told me that all the kids in the whole school lined up to the ring the bell. Except for two. Owen and Annie. I was a bit stunned. I hadn’t told them not to do that (not realizing everyone would be doing it). They knew they were different and they were willing to stand out. I was proud.

We have our hard parenting days, but God has blessed us beyond belief with the four amazing children He has brought to us in unique and wonderful ways. So thankful tonight for ten years of growing up with my son.