1. We found out last week that because the Japanese government is concerned about declining test scores in the school system and are adding on hours to each day and school days in the year, the last day of school before winter vacation is: December 25th! Owen (technically) needs to go to school on Christmas.  (Do we — not send him that day?  Or as a family just choose to celebrate on the 26th?)

2. An update on Annie’s eyes:  We were given some good advice and feedback from a Christian Japanese eye surgeon who is practicing in Australia but was visiting in Japan last week.  He affirmed the need for her surgery, and suggested that we see a Japanese eye dr. in the area as well to test her eyes now as well as for follow up after the surgery.  Based on his recommendations, we have an appointment with a Japanese eye specialist for Annie on May 23rd. At this point we are thinking that I will take her back to NJ for the surgery in mid-August. We’ll keep you posted.  Thanks for praying.

3. We received this email last week:
“do you like obama? no he is too arrogant”
That was it. From who? My 82 year old Dad- his first email. Ever. You sure can teach new tricks…But maybe you can’t change their political opinions (if you wanted to).

4.  This morning I read a great paragraph that I think gives us a really helpful description of how to experientially spend time with God (I’ve been using a wonderful devotional since coming back to Japan that I highly recommend for drawing near to God:  Pilgrimage of the Heart by Catherine Martin).  If you have a few minutes sometime over the next day or two, get alone with a Bible, journal, and try this:

 “Perhaps today you need to hear the words of Jesus:  “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place” (Mark 6:31).  Find a quiet place and talk with your Lord.  Tell Him everything on your heart.  As David did, lay your requests before Him.  Ask Him the questions that no one can seem to answer.  Don’t be araid to dream big dreams and ask the Lord for the impossible.  Perhaps that dream deep in your heart was placed there by the Lord.  If it’s His dream, He will make it live.  Maybe He will change your heart.  Lay before Him the sin that keeps nagging your heart….  As you talk with the Lord, keep your Bible open.  Sometimes He will bring a verse to mind.  Turn to that verse, and think long and hard about what it says.  Ask the Lord to speak to you from his Word.  Turn to God’s promises as you talk with HIm, and read them out loud.  Keep your Journal open to write any insights, ideas, or prayers as you sit with the Lord.  Thank God that He hears when you speak and actually delights in your company.  He loves to be with you.”  (p. 143)

I love that.  Sometimes people ask HOW to spend time deepening our friendship/intimacy with God.  This paragraph is a wonderful way to spend some time with Him.  Enjoy.

5.  In the past five days, Olivia has:  1) picked off a piece of gum from under a table and McDonalds and chewed the life out of it before Eric discovered her secret;  2) gooey-kissed a pill bug she was playing with;  3) done an AMAZING job on (around, above, below) her eyes with my mascara;  4) eaten a chocolate chip pancake by holding the whole pancake up to her face and eating just the chocolate chips out of it, leaving chocolate chickenpox all over her face;  5) several hours ago while playing kitty cat with Annie I found her down on all fours, lapping the water out of Molly’s water bowl that I was just thinking really I should throw in the dishwasher sometime soon… 

Have a good day.  Thanks for being with me, through this blog, in the midst of life’s daily in and outs.  Thank God for his promise to each of us in Psalm 138: 8:  “The Lord will fulfill his purposes for me…”  And praise God that applies to pillbug kissers, too!

Last night we had a rare chance to experience night life, Japanese style.  Our good friends, Atsu & Ken (read more about my growing friendship with Atsu here)  went on a double date with us to a yakitori restaurant (skewered grilled chicken).  It was actually an izakaya – or a small  restaurant that is often used by business people and others who want a place to hang out and drink the night away.  The owner and chef of this establishment is a friend from our neighborhood — his daughter is Owen’s special friend from schol, Y.    He was awesome, and made some amazing chicken….

You really can’t guess all the special kinds of chicken you can eat on a stick besides thigh meat!  Liver, heart, stomach, skin… and our new favorite was the raw chicken -this was a first.  (Actually I had to spit half of mine out!  Our friends are holding the dish,  below)

What was fun about this three-hour event was the great time that we had with our friends.  Sometimes it’s hard to imagine finding hours of things to talk about in Japanese with Japanese friends!  As Eric and I drove home that night, we sort of marveled at how easily the conversation flowed as the server brought us different plates of chicken delicacies… We talked about many things with them… how we’ve changed since getting married; vacations we’ve had and ones we dream of (they are hoping next year to go to Hawaii and visit friends of ours –  a Christian couple who had done a homestay with them last year); parenting issues.  

I think for me it was so fun to do co-ministry like this with Eric.  Going out on a date is rare for us here;  going on a double date with a couple from our neighborhood is a first.  For them, too.  Couples in Japan rarely go out together once they are married — we like it that these friends recognize the value of spending quality time together.  To be able to spend this time building friendships together was a special treat.

Incarnational ministry- it’s what we’re all about here.  We pray for more chances to nurture these friendships, and to continue to share our Hope.

On Sunday morning we always have a family worship time before our house church, realizing that our house church is still a play time for our kids while the adults worship (we hope this changes sometime, but for now…)  This Sunday, we played a video the kids like of a Christian band for youth, and they sang a song about faith the size of a mustard seed.  Eric used that as a springboard to help them understand what that means.  He showed them some very small items on a plate…

He had them finger the different seeds… did you know that a mustard seed is the size of the smallest seed on that plate (the celery seed?).  It is a very small commodity.  Jesus said it doesn’t take much faith…  Each of the kids and us then  shared the mountains in our own lives that we need faith for God to move.  For Annie, it is as shared below (Unzippering), having her mouth unzippered when she’s at school or with Japanese people… for Owen (we loved how vulnerable he was!) it is not being scared when he’s in bed at night at the door is closed and it’s dark;  Eric and I shared about our continued prayer for God to provide a new larger home in our neighborhood.  Then we went around and prayed simple prayers for our mountains.  

We have not told Annie about her eye problem at this point and so didn’t bring it up during this prayer time (it would make her incredibly self-conscious).  The next 24 hours after this family worship time, Annie’s eyes seemed to get suddenly worse.  That night three times when we were out, the weak eye seemed to get “stuck” looking away;  yesterday most of the day we noticed her eyes not matching up.  Last night, after the kids went down, Eric and I had to pull out our own mustard seeds and spend some time together talking and in prayer, asking God for healing, for wisdom, for direction.  We are trusting Him– we must trust Him!-  for guidance in terms of doctors, timing, and what Annie needs right now. 

Today- we hardly noticed any eye problems.  The doctor said it will be like a rollercoaster in terms of frequency until she gets this surgery.  But I am reminded by Eric’s simple object lesson that my faith does not need to be that rollercoaster.  

Thanks for your prayers and encouragement.  We’ll keep you updated.  

What’s your mountain?  Look again at HOW LITTLE those seeds are — mustard seeds are as small as the smallest in the top right of the photo!   Thanks, God, that you don’t demand more than we can give. 

I’d like to ask you to pray for Annie.  There are two areas this particular time where we need special wisdom as parents and where we need to entrust our daughter to God’s care.

The first — a phone call this week confirmed that Annie will need eye surgery sometime in the next few months.  Since birth, she has occasionally had one looked like a weak or lazy eye.   A pediatrician in New Jersey recommended that we take her to a pediatric eye specialist.  After a series of tests, he confirmed that it is a condition that is not correctable by glasses, patches, or exercises, but at some point over the next year or so the condition would likely worsen, requiring surgery.

The past six or eight weeks just that has happened.  We have noticed the problem repeatedly in one day, and other friends who see her frequently have noticed as well.  After calling the specialist in New Jersey late one night this week and describing the condition, he suggested that based on the description over the phone, the surgery has indeed become necessary, the sooner the better.  As the condition worsens, eventually without the surgery she will stop using the weaker eye.

So we are praying and thinking through the best way for her to get this surgery. We don’t want it to be a big problem at school– it has become more and more noticeable.  We are trusting God to guide us step by step.

The second area is her adjustment to Japanese language and yochien (kindergarten).  The other day I asked her if she had explained something to her teacher.  She said, “No, mommy!  You know I can’t speak japanese!  My mouth is zippered when I go into yochien!”  (Anyone who knows Annie knows that her mouth is NOT zippered when she’s home!)  Last week I challenged her one morning as I biked her into school to play with one person that day.  We were happy that she said she had played with two girls on the playground (but didn’t know their names).  The next day she wasn’t sure if she had played with anyone. I then challenged her to speak two words of Japanese the next day and she quickly reminded me that she doesn’t speak Japanese.

This year feels like an important year for her to begin embracing the culture and the language which we are very much a part of.  Pray with us for a Japanese friend or two with whom Annie can enjoy being a 4 1/2 year old girl.  And pray iwth us for this sweet, sweet, strong-willed child  that God- with a little help from Annie– will begin unzippering her mouth — her mind– her heart.

This week I received Fuller Seminary’s quarterly magazine (Fuller Focus, Winter 2009), and was immediately drawn to the cover article written by Galen Buckwalter.  I never knew him when I was at Fuller, but I knew his soon-to-be wife Deborah.

Galen has been in a wheelchair since a diving accident in high school.  Shortly after the accident, he was transferred to a state hospital for disabled children that was a terrible nightmare for a year.  He wrote this about his parents:

“Were it not for the consistent support I received from my parents, I have no doubt I woudl never have made it through those interminable days in the hospital.  I loved to hear the “clock” of the automatic door opener down the hall at 7:00 p.m. when visiting hours started.  My folks, who were in their early 50s, milked the cows, finished all their other farm chores, and drove 50 miles to spend two hours with me.  That time was my lifeline to the world;  we talked about what was happening on the farm, how my friends wer edoing, and how my family was doing.  They were as emotionally spent as I was, but they missed only one night the entire time I was in the hospital…”

In  the next paragraph he writes of his parents:  “As I have since come to a better understanding of how relationships shape the adult brain, though, I see how their consistency was reshaping who I would become.  Every day that she and my father made the trek to be with me, often just sitting in silence, they got me out of my own small world and helped me see that there was so much to be grateful for – they were helping me see that life could be bigger than pain.”

The last two days I have thought a lot about these farmers in their early 50s who had to deal with the pain of suddenly seeing their active son so very inactive.  Through their consistent love that was manifested often in silence, Galen says that they reshaped him.  His parents helped get him out of his own small world.  Later he writes that all of his friends from that one year state hospital are now all eithe rdead or institutionalized.  But Galen is amazingly alive, singing, writing, working creatively.  He credits his wife, and his parents, “who are the constant of my life.”

. Yesterday in our missionary small group we talked about this article, and about a special school where Eric goes to teach English every week to junior highers who are severely disabled.  He reminded me that I originally didn’t want him to teach there because it wasn’t “strategic”.   (I repented!)  I love to think about him sitting with these kids and bringing them hope and loving them individually.

And I am thinking right now about what it means to sit with people.  To be a friend who is constant, who doesn’t need to necessarily give advice but who God can use to reshape the despair/pain in people’s lives… This morning a good Japanese friend N. came by to bring a key, and to talk about a camping trip we are planning next month with four families (stay tuned — the local mountains aren’t going to know what hit them!).  In the midst of our chatting, N. began to tell me about how her son had been hit by another student at school the day before.  She kept tearing up as she was telling me.  She hadn’t told her husband yet — she is afraid he will just dismiss it. I was so thankful she shared with me — that we could sit (or stand) together in her pain.  We actually ended up talking about forgiveness – she had never considered the idea of encouraging her son to forgive this student in his heart to keep the injury from growing further.  We had a really wonderful discussion about a topic that I could tell was very foreign to her.

I’m not always good at just sitting.  But I sure hope God continues to teach me more about how to do this, allowing me to be a reshaper.

Eric’s mom has been visiting with us this past week… on Monday we took her to the Sasayama castle ruins – it was the last beautiful day of cherry blossoms in this area.

So, since Grandma was here, we decided to celebrate Olivia’s 3rd birthday a week early and had a combined Easter/birthday celebration on Sunday.  After a very long worship service and church meeting after, we had about 17 for the dinner party, and started things off, of course, with an egg hunt.

Olivia’s favorite thing right now is — dogs.  She will just sit in the entrance way of our neighbor’s home for hours, if we let her, and hug their dog. If Molly (our little Maltese) would let her, she would hug her for hours too.   So, it was a dog-themed birthday…

She was delighted with the special present from Grandma – a sandbox! (It did go outside the next day).

She and the other kids have loved using it….

We love you, sweet Olivia.  May God use you to bring joy to many people this year.  We love your heart to worship and how you love to sing to Jesus.

We pray the reality of the verse that we chose for you when we named you:

Psalm 52:8
But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever.

Owen started first grade.  This significant rite of passage has not gone unnoticed among our friends in Japan.  Many friends hav been checking in to see how his first few days have gone.  So far, so good.  His biggest complaint is — the long walk to and from school.  (About 12-15 minutes or so).  In Japan, once children start elementary school their parents are not allowed to drive them to school — they need to walk in pre-determined groups from their neighborhood.  His first two years of going to yochien he was ridden either on the back of my bike or, on rainy days, in the car, so this is an adjustment.  

We were so thankful for Hajime, his group leader.  Hajime came with his mom a week or so before school started and introduced himself.  As the sixth grader, he’s been elected the group leader, and he has gone out of his way to help show Owen the ropes.  All across Japan there are these small groups of children who are assigned to walk to school together.

Perhaps the most common question asked to all soon-to-be first graders is:  “Did you get your landoseru (backpack) yet?  Perhaps the most important symbol of this rite of passage is the expensive leather backpack that the children are required to buy and tote on their backs to school.  Until a few years ago, all boys had black ones;  girls had red.  Recently, there has been a trend of expanding the color options… you’ll see Owen above wearing his marine blue one!

When we came back from the U.S. in February, our special friends, the Ish. family told us that since they are our children’s Japanese grandparents, they would like to buy the backpack for Owen.  We found out that it is the normal custom here for the grandparents to make the big purchase.  We were so touched!  And later discovered that this is about a $400 investment.  These are very special friends, indeed.  Here is a photo of the night that Owen received his special present:

Last Wednesday was the opening ceremony.  Mrs. Ish. and Yas. came down to take pictures and wish Owen well.

All the first graders wear – not uniforms — but blazers and shorts of some kind.  And what I have been discovering is that the moms at these opening ceremonies ALMOST ALL wear pastel colored suits.  I finally had to break down and buy one, too, knowing that I still have quite a few opening ceremonies to go here.  (Just for the record – it is a pink suit with shiny flecks in it- it will probably never see American soil, but works here for its purposes!) Here we are, off to the big event!

It was somewhat of a shock to go to the elementary school, see all the staff and teachers, compared to our last few years at the yochien (kindergarten).  The staff are mostly quite a bit older… and there is a more austere sense about the school.  But we were thankful that some of Owen’s good friends are in his class.  (Owen is about in dead center).We were all a little sad that his special friend, Y., is in the other first grade class!

After the ceremony, our family had a fun time at the park celebrating with our friends the Thomsons.  Their second son also has just entered first grade in a neighboring elementary school.

Now, my Japanese language learning is all about elementary school vocabulary, and figuring out the myriad of paperwork that is coming my way each night.  With each new stage in our family’s life are new chances to learn, and many new relationships to foster.  It was exciting on Friday as a group of moms and i were all waiting at the park for our first graders to come home… and as I walked up two of the moms who I hadn’t met yet called me over and started chanting, “Please teach us English!”  They will be joining my Thursday housewive’s english class, and their children will participate in Eric’s kids classes.  Who knows what God has in store for us, and for them?  

Please join us in continuing to pray for Owen and Annie (who just started her second year of kindergarten today)… as they make friends, continue learning Japanese, and adjusting to change.

Last night as Owen was talking about the following morning, his first official day to go to elementary school (yesterday was the entrance ceremony which I’ll write about later); he said he wanted french toast and natto.  Anything for the school boy on his first day!  Natto, as most of you know, is fermented beans.  They smell terrible.  (Read an earlier blog entry on natto here). French toast and natto.  What a combination.

So, this morning, when I got up Eric and Owen were already eating rice and natto.  What a start to the day!  I was thrilled things had already gotten started- less time I would have to smell it.  He passed on the french toast – the natto had filled him up.

We got him off to his first day — with a few little hidden tears on my part — and I was ready for the day.

Annie woke up and decided that she, too, wanted natto.  So Eric served her.  I was in the living room when I heard Annie scream “it’s stuck up my nose!  It’s stuck up my nose!”  I thought she was joking.  I saw Eric get down on his knees and check out her nostrils.  I didn’t even want to ask.  When he assured me it wasn’t a joke, I started gagging.  It was a natto bean.  Slime and all.  Stuck up her nose.

She had taken a tissue to wipe off the sticky beans stuck on the edge of her mouth, and in one up-swing motion had somehow gotten one stuck.  In her nose.

 I got a washcloth and tried to wash it out. It took a LOT of nose blowing for her to get the smell out.  I tried not to gag but to be a real mom.  I just never knew that natto could get stuck up a nose.  Only in Japan.

Tomorrow morning Owen becomes a first-grader, and spring break for the kids is offically over.  It’s been a long spring break  – almost four weeks! — between the end of Japanese kindergarten and  waiting to start Japanese elementary school.  Tonight in putting him to bed I was trying to get our rather non-verbal son to describe how he was feeling about starting school.  He said:  “I’m really really excited and a little scared too.” (Me too).

 These past few weeks we have been regaining our footing in many ways being back in Japan and reestablishing relationships.  Here are a few glimpses of highlights of our time this past week.

5.  Play-dates on several days.  Here are two sisters – H. is a fun friend of Annie’s;  Y. is Owen’s special friend.  They had a great time playing!  We are planning to go to their dad’s yakitori (chicken on a stick) restaurant sometime soon…

 4.  We have 3 little chefs in our home.  And much to the chagrin of all of our Japanese friends, our kids LOVE to lick the batter after making cookies.  Of course, we use my Dad’s favorite recipe — Tollhouse Chocolate chip cookies.

3.  We went to our favorite Italian restaurant with our  house church! We loved the fun and fellowship centered around delicious pasta and bread sticks.  It was a temporary farewell for our friend Junko, who will be going to northern Japan with their son to have her baby at her parents.  Her husband Hakase has a challenging job and wouldn’t be able to help out with the birth and big brother much, so she will be gone for six months.  We’ll miss them!

2.  Fellowship and learning with our house church!  It was great on Sunday to host house church at our home again.  We studied together the crucifixion.  What really caught my attention from the passage we read was that the women who followed Jesus to the tomb HAD to wait a whole day before they could do anything because it was the Sabbath.  They couldn’t visit the body, or wash away the stains from the crucifixion; or be sure that their Savior was getting a proper burial.  They just had to wait.  Our friend Scott S talked about Sabbath at our recent retreat, and Eric and I have been trying again to be committed to the right rhythms– work and rest.  There are times when it’s hard to rest — it often means waiting to DO something — but it’s still an important part of the rhythms of our lives.  

1.  On our Sabbath day off (Monday) we laid aside everything and had a picnic and afternoon in a wonderful park.  The weather couldn’t have been better — we all came home tired but so happy.  Even Molly!

Today the senior and associate pastors from our large church in Bethesda, MD (Fourth Presbyterian Church) came to Kyoto.  You should have seen the cameras clicking!

OK…so maybe there was really another reason for the picture taking (sorry Rob and Todd!).  We happened to be in Kyoto on the day when the city had advertised that maiko would make a special appearance in front of the blossoming cherry blossom trees.  Maiko are apprentice geisha who have already had years of training in the unique art of geisha.  We were pretty fired up about the timing, and that the special tempura restaurant where we ate was on this quaint street.  We only took Annie with us, and she loved the whole experience.

After lunch, we were able to join the paparazzi in taking some pictures of these dazzling, refined young women.

While the cultural experience was wonderful, our time with Rob and Todd surpassed that.  We ate the most amazing tempura lunch any of us had ever had — it was worth being led by our GPS to the wrong district, walking 30 plus minutes in the rain, overshooting it, and finally finding it.

While we ate all KINDS of tempura (ginko tree nuts, lotus root, clam, shrimp sandwich; shrimp-stuffed shiitake mushroom, fern, squid wrapped in shiso herb – topped off with tempura ice cream!), we were able to share some of the challenges we are facing in our church here.  We were both touched by Rob’s words after listening to some of what is going as he affirmed God’s timing in all the events, including our return from the U.S.–God sovereignly keeping us away while the crisis evolved so that we could return “untainted” to be able to minister now; our gifts, passion, and experience that God will use as part of his plan for healing.  We know it, but it is always good to be reminded that we really can trust Him with the challenges in our lives.

  A wonderful day;  timely words for us.