Our family came back from Hawaii after a really good, full week of time with family and remembering Eric’s Dad.  I so appreciated the graciousness of Eric’s family in welcoming all six of us  and doing so much to make the time special.　It was Ian’s first time to meet his Hawaii family!  We loved the time that we could spend with Eric’s immediate and extended family.

Besides the events surrounding the funeral, we had several fun memories.  One was driving to the Pali Lookout, a crazy place that funnels the wind through the valley– I have never seen wind like the day that we visited.   We all  just laughed and laughed as our hair — and clothes — went all over the place!

Our last afternoon we were able to go to the beach for a few hours.  It was Ian’s first beach experience… and a fun time to play before heading back to Japan.

The actual funeral events were special rituals in remembering, reflecting, and grieving as well.  I always remember a good friend of ours who worked as a hospital chaplain who said that it really bugged him when funerals were billed only as “celebrations” — because there also needs to be a time at a funeral for loved ones to express grief and loss.  I loved that the service for Eric’s Dad allowed for both celebration and for the accompanying pain of his being gone.  There were three or four hundred present; we were touched by the many who came to show their love, support, and to grieve as well.  Fred had been a bank vice president and I loved the stories I heard from different former employees who shared with me at the dinner following the ceremony what a great boss he had been in his individual care and love for the employees as well as their families.  Here are a few photos from the event.  I learned a lot about how those who live in Hawaii do funerals!

Here’s two of my boys wearing ties.  (One of them only lasted about ten minutes in his tie.  The one who didn’t have to talk in front of everyone).

Annie, at 6:04 (first photo) and then 6:05, when the jetlag kicked in.  (The funeral started at 6 pm).  Thanks Uncle Markie!

Eric and his mom.  I was thinking in seeing this photo how much strength and dignity she has.  She really amazed me last week.

Here is a photo some people would pay money for — Eric and his brothers all wearing suit and ties!  His sister Mona is on the far right.  I didn’t have the guts to take the picture, so Annie did (before she fell asleep).

During the closing remarks of appreciation, Eric moved most of us to tears as he shared a few remembrances of his Dad’s love and generosity, as well as the gift of hope that his Dad would want to leave with everyone.

The next morning was the burial.  It was the most beautiful cemetery I’ve ever seen.  We first went to see where Eric’s grandparents are buried.

Here is a rare picture, as well, of all the standing (somewhat) still — even Ian.

Eric’s Dad was a Vietnam war veteran, decorated with the Bronze Star.  We were so moved by the honor guard presentation of the flag to Eric’s mom, and the special thanks that was given for his service for our country.

At the very end, up on the hill was a lone bugler who played the Taps.  I think at some point in girl scouts I had learned the words:

Day is done, gone the sun,

from the lakes from the hills from the sky,

all is well, safely, rest, God is nigh.

Thanks and praise, for our days,

Neath the sun neath the stars, neath the sky,

As we go, This, we know, God is nigh.

I choked up with a thankful heart that even in this time of loss we are assured –yes — This, we know — God is nigh.

Great friends… lots of balloons…. dinner and cake…. and surprise guests! – made Olivia’s 4th birthday party memorable on a number of counts.

Olivia has loved the Pixar movie UP! since friends gave it to us over Thanksgiving.  So it provided a great theme for her party, and some fun ways to be creative in the celebrations.

Look who showed up — Carl and Russell!

The kids were thrilled….

Considering the fact that we had very few cast to choose from, Peter and Eric looked pretty good….

Others didn’t look quite as genuine, but cute nonetheless…

We loved it that our friend Hide called that morning and wanted to have us meet his girlfriend – so they joined in the festivities as well.

There was only one possible cake I could make for this event — Carl’s house.

We gave Olivia one of those gifts that you later sort of want to shoot yourself over… her own little Hello Kitty piano and attached microphone!  She LOVES to sing, and ever since our March retreat she has loved imitating the two wonderful female worship leaders, Jessica and Laura.  So we have had non-stop music in our house the past day or so.  Olivia certainly knows how to make a joyful noise, or two, or three.  We’re thankful that as she struggles to adjust to her first week of school that people who love her could celebrate the wonderful ways God has created her.

Eric bought me the funnest gift while he was in Utah two weeks ago — an apron.  But not just any apron — it’s a flirty apron.  It’s awesome!  I have become quite the apron housewife (keeps me from changing a few times a day while cleaning the kitchen, cooking, feeding a baby, etc.)  This is one apron really fun to wear.

And while wearing my flirty brown-and-green striped and polka-dotted apron last week, I thought about how God has flirted with me this year…

For about the past eight years or so, I have had the practice of asking the Lord in early January to give me a verse for the coming year.  It has been interesting how God has led me to these various verses, as well as the meaning they have come to hold even though in January they might not originally felt personal.

This year, it was on our return flight from Hawaii to Japan, anticipating the sudden and imminent arrival of our fourth child, that God gave me the verses for this year:

O Lord, be gracious to us, we wait for you.

Be our strong arm every morning,

our salvation in the time of trouble…

He will be the stability of your times,

abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;

The fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.  (Isaiah 33: 2, 6)

The idea that has grabbed my heart in particular these past few months is the second line:  “Be our strong arm every morning.”  The idea of God being my arm;  or His arm strengthening mine, has touched me deeply. God has known just how to woo me!  Since adding a fourth baby to our family, I have found great comfort in the very real prayer:  “O God!  Please!  Right now — be my strong arm.  I am tired and need your strength.”  I have felt very inconsistent in some ways as a parent and wife;  I love it that when I allow God to be my strong arm, He brings a stability not to be found in myself.  And how many times in recent days have I called out for His wisdom and knowledge when I have had zero of my own to offer.

In a devotional one morning, I read a verse I have never noticed before:

…Yet his [Joseph’s] bow remained taut, and his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob.”  (Genesis 44:22)

Spurgeon (one of my favorites!) writes:

That strength which God gives to his Josephs is a real strength;  it is not a boasted valour, a fiction, a thing which men  talk but which ends in smoke;  it is true — a divine strength.  Why does Joseph stand against temptation?  Because God gives him aid…. God is represented as putting his hands on Joseph’s hands, placing his arms on Joseph’s arms.  Like as a father teaches his children, so the Lord teaches them that fear him.  He puts his arms upon them.  Marvelous condescension!  God Almighty, Eternal, Omnipotent, stoops from his throne and lays his hand upon the child’s hand, stretching his arm upon the arm of Joseph, that he may be strong…

There is nothing as attractive to me this year as the strong arm of God.  Jesus placing his strong arms atop my weak ones!  Despite the urge sometimes to be:  the mom with all the boo-boo fixes (reality #1:  I get woozy at the sight of  blood!) , the missionary with all the answers (reality #2:  I’ve discovered that I’m not very good at discipleship and coming up with right answers!);  the Sue who used to like to hear people say, “How does she do it all?” (reality #3 – what planet was I on?) —  I do a lot better when I am real about my weaknesses and together we can focus on what God is doing in our midst.  Adopting our fourth child has more than convinced both Eric and me that we are weak vessels — even moreso when our lives are full! — and continually need the real strength given to Joseph and each of us who allows the Omnipotent to lay His arms on ours.

That’s flirty theology.

The school year has started in Japan!  The past few weeks have been full of preparing all three of our children for their upcoming new classes.  Part of the prep involves lists of supplies that parents need to buy for each child.  Here are some of the things we needed to buy for Olivia:

(If you look closely, you may see that her name is written lovingly 🙂 on each item, as required.  The box of wooden blocks with eighty or so pieces was the most fun.)

After each child starts school, the fun really begins.  Each child brings home an average of about 25 notices and letters from the school  for the parents– all in Japanese of course.  (I am fairly certain this is why Japan has such a low birth rate).  Here are the papers Owen brought home the first day:

We just returned from the sentimental opening ceremony for Olivia, as she begins her school career.  She started youchien today, which is Japanese 1-3 year equivalent for preschool and kindergarten, combined.  Annie is in her third and last year there, so the sisters will enjoy one year of going together.  As I’ve written before, entrances and graduations are really important events in Japan.  Everything is done just so; including “dress codes” for the moms:  pastel suits for entrance ceremonies; black suits with pearls for graduation.  We had a fun time as a family walking together to the event through the showering cherry blossoms (Owen woke up with a stomach ache so he went to school late – we were glad he was around for the photos!):

We loved having our close friends Y. and Mrs. I come and see us off:

Upon arriving at the school, Olivia’s new teacher pinned on her nametag that she will wear from now on.  She is in the bunny rabbit class!

The first five minutes of the actual ceremony were a bit hard to hear because of new children screaming and crying — for some it is the first time they’ve really been separated from their moms.  After things quieted down a bit, Annie and the other youchien children with younger siblings starting all gave (very) short speeches, and then joined the teachers in singing the traditional “Sakura” song as well as “If You’re Happy and You Know It” in Japanese:

We were glad that Olivia knows one little girl in her class from a “Mommy and Me” music class we took together last year.

Annie enjoyed showing Olivia the ropes…

If you’ve read this far, thank you! — and would you right now stop, and just for a minute, pray for our three school-aged children?  You could pray these three things for each of them:  1)  to grow in their understanding this year of God’s love and care for them, even when they are in challenging settings;  2) to grow in their understanding of Japanese language and culture (Owen and Annie are doing relatively well — Olivia only knows a few words so we know these next few months will be challenging);  3) to each mature socially and emotionally as they learn to interact with others in their school, through playdates, etc.  Thanks so much for praying with us.  We count on it as we entrust our children to the local Japanese school system, but more importantly into God’s hands as they go out each day.

We just returned home from our house-church worship service, held  in a rented room at a local community center.  We had broken up into three groups to share from the Word.  Two groups had been done for a LONG time… we were waiting for the third group to finish. And waiting.  And waiting.  Five minutes before we had to leave the room for the next group to come in, one of the members of the third group turned around and announced, “Saiko wants to be baptized!  She is ready to be a Christian!”  We all gathered round her as she prayed to her Creator and invited His holy Presence into her life.  When we called Annie and Owen over to share the news with them, Annie asked, “But Mommy, if you are happy why is everyone crying?”

Saiko had been attending a Bible study with Aiko, a newer believer in our group.  A month ago, she expressed interest in attending church, and has been coming with George and Aiko ever since.  Today, she cinched the deal — she has become one of the Lord’s children and is excited to be baptized.  Before the waiting group of older men artists came into the room they were waiting for, we sang (in Japanese) the first stanza of the only hymn in our worship songbook:

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine,
oh what a foretaste, of glory divine.
Heir of salvation, purchased by God,
born of His spirit, washed in His blood.
Chorus:
This is my Story , this is my song;
praising my Savior all the day long.

It is amazing assurance –Jesus is mine!  In this culture of many rules and codes of behavior, there is wonderful freedom to be found in becoming God’s child.  We continue to stand amazed at the Lord’s wonderful work inspite of, in the midst of, our small somewhat rag-tag worship community.

It was fitting to take a photo of some of our group in front of the “snowing” cherry blossom tree — perhaps Japan’s favorite symbol of new life.

Today we had beautiful weather and a special Easter outreach in the park.  It was a fun mix of old and young, with about twenty kids, complete with Easter egg hunting and dyeing, picnic, and lots of play and conversation.

Since Eric wasn’t able to do the Easter talk for our outreach today, I got an email on Saturday morning asking me to do the message.  I asked one of our Japanese ministry partners to share the Easter story from the Bible first, and then I shared a simple story for children in Japanese from my childhood.  Here it is in a simple English translation:

When I was a child, I had two favorite holidays:  Christmas and Easter.  Today I’d like to share with you my best Christmas memory; and my saddest Easter memory.

One Christmas morning, my sisters and I opened the presents under the tree.  We were thrilled and thankful.  What we didn’t realize, though, was that the most amazing present of all was out on the front porch.  What do you think it was?  It was two baby sheep.  We were shocked;  thrilled.  My Dad had bought them several days before and kept them hidden for Christmas morning.

My sisters and I raised the lambs to be sheep.  And then the female sheep became pregnant and gave birth to two female lambs.  One of them became mine, and I named her Sassy.

I loved taking care of her!  I would hurry home from school to be with her.  I was in little girl heaven.

The following Easter, our family went to Easter worship service, and then to my Grandmother’s for Easter dinner.  When we got home, we couldn’t find Sassy anywhere.  And then my Dad found a pile of blood, and truck tire marks.  We realized that Sassy had been stolen and killed.

I was devastated.  But it was from this event that I realized some important things.

Our sheep came to us on Christmas day and entered our world.  And on Easter day, someone killed my lamb.  Similarly, Jesus entered our world on Christmas day.  And on Easter day, some people killed this Lamb.

In the Bible it says that Jesus is the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

I was really angry at whoever stole and killed Sassy.  But Jesus, on the cross, prayed in the midst of his great pain, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”  Because of his example, I was able to forgive the ones who had stolen my lamb.

My Easter story is really sad, but the real Easter story has a happy ending.  Easter is the celebration of the day in which Jesus rose from the dead.  This is really amazing — really Good News.

I believe that Jesus is alive and living today.  AndiIf you have been hurt by someone, Jesus can give you a heart able to forgive.  This is really Good News!

Eric was preparing to give an Easter talk this morning for our Easter outreach in the park.  These were some of his thoughts, finished while in Utah with his family.

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If Jesus died to forgive the sins of the world, then his resurrection is proof positive that all is forgiven. Indeed if Jesus remained entombed it would have made the perfect tragic ending for a Japanese film, and in fact, it is this supreme sacrifice that commands the undying loyalty of many Japanese Christians to this day. But if it ended there without the “happy ending” of Easter, we here in this world would forever wonder if the sacrifice was enough.

The wages of sin is death and the cross was certainly meant to be the pay out for us.  Yet did it completely eradicate our debt to sin, or was there some part of this cosmic obligation that was left unmet?  Did death still have some claim on Him and thus us? The angel’s announcement that, “He is risen,” was a resounding proclamation to the universe that the debt was paid in full and that we were emancipated once and for all.

Still, we would have little reason to celebrate had he not done one more thing.  Rather than ascending directly to his Father, Jesus remained and visited with those who had lost all hope. He personally assured them in their time of great despair that he was now and would forever be with them. It was this demonstration of great love that once more captured the hearts of those who met him and caused them, and all of us who follow, to hope again.

This is why we celebrate.  Not because we have a hero who gave his all for a cause; not because we have a champion who conquered death itself; but because we have a living, loving Savior who shows up and fills even our deepest darkest days with hope.

Happy Easter.

Eric’s Dad  (72 years old) passed from this life into the arms of Jesus at 12:08 am (Utah time).

The hospital staff had taken him off of breathing machines earlier that day, after Eric and each of his family members had a chance to say goodbye individually.  That night before leaving the hospital, Eric read Scripture passages to his Dad and two brothers.  I love it that these were among the last words spoken:  Joshua 1:9:  “Do not be terrified;  do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”   What a great promise — even in the passing from life as we know it.

Eric and his family are filling out papers this morning and making arrangement for his Dad’s body to be cremated at a local mortuary.  The memorial service will be at a later date in Hawaii.  I think Eric will be driving back to L.A. with his brother Mark, and returning back to Japan on Monday.  He will then go back to Hawaii for the service.

Tonight at dinner I pulled out our green plastic “kampai” goblets, we filled them with rootbeer, and the kids and I spent some time during dinner remembering Grandpa.   They all remembered how he loved to give them popsicles at night; and made great portuguese sausage and hash browns for breakfast.   Annie remembered one morning in Hawaii how he came in and helped her wake up after the other kids had already gotten up;  Owen remembered fondly an afternoon when the Eric and Grandpa went with him to fly his new Christmas kite in a nearby park;  Olivia knows that Grandpa and Grandma gave her the special doll that sits in her bedroom.  I told the children that I love how Grandpa modeled generosity.  He was always willing to give when there was a need, and modeled a generous heart to all of his family that was contagious.  He will be sorely missed.

My heart has felt like it has been in sad waiting mode while my body has had to keep quite busy entertaining, and being entertained by, our four children while Eric is in Utah.  When we pray for Daddy and Grandpa they are quite intent on the topic, but within a few minutes their minds and hearts have moved onto other things.  And I realize what a gift children are to us — how while bringing mess and chaos into my world  they also have a remarkable way of bringing unexpected joy into our sadness.

So here are two videos depicting joy that our children have brought this past week.  The first will make you at least smile! — Ian has a very contagious laugh.

“Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects.”
Arnold Glasow

The second is from Annie’s dance recital dress rehearsal held last Saturday.  She has been working towards this for the past year — her first year of dancing — and we loved watching her up there!  She danced with utter abandon and no nervousness, unaware or uncaring of the four or five hundred people in the audience watching.  (You’ll see it’s still the rehearsal but its fun to watch anyway.  Annie is wearing yellow in the first dance; blue in the second.  She is usually over on the left side).

We have so loved the emails sharing with us your prayers for Eric and our families at this time.  We appreciate it so much.  I have forwarded them on to Eric, and they have greatly encouraged him.

Eric made it safely to Salt Lake City — a bit tired, I think, with out a lot of sleep on the plane.  He spent the afternoon with his family in his Dad’s hospital room.  The neurologist met with them and said that the problems stemmed from a heart arythymia (sp?) that caused him to stop breathing and black out (thus the fall).  After an EEG, he has very little brain activity.

Thanks for continuing to pray for Eric and family, especially his mom.  She is a dear saint and I pray that the Lord draws near to her in special ways during these days.  Pray that Eric and his siblings can find collective wisdom in the decisions that need to be made.

Yesterday another sweet thing happened in the midst of our days without Eric…. our sunny day turned suddenly cloudy, and it started hailing.  Then it was sunny again. And then it started snowing!  And then sunny again!  And then hailing.  And sunny… At dusk, we had about an inch of big beautiful snow flakes.  Our children were fascinated all day by the weather.  We have had only had a bit  of snow in Sanda this year, so it was a wonderful distracting welcome to our day.