On Saturday Eric’s men’s English class had a last hoorah before we go to America. One family offered to host a BBQ for the ten men and their families…Since it was raining, we ended up having a “nabe” party (pronounced na-bay)…which is a large hot pot in the middle of the table to which we add meat, soup, and vegetables, and as we sit around and talk everyone helps themselves to yummy cooked food.

Several families couldn’t attend, but we still had thirty men, women, and kids squish into a rather small home by American standards. The lunch event went until — 6 pm! And even then everyone went home reluctantly.

There was one table for the men, one for the women, and one for the kids. The greatest thing was — this group of 8 Japanese men (and Eric) – sat around the table and ate, and talked, and laughed and talked and ate for five hours. They rarely left the table. The wives and kids had fun too- but it was as much fun to watch the men interact. Eric said that a number times, the conversation naturally turned to Christianity and the Bible. There was one other Christian there, and as the men conversed sharing about faith was just a natural part of the conversation.

This is why we’re here! We recognize what a special opportunity God has given Eric to minister to Japanese men… it is extremely hard to build relationships here because men are so incredibly busy and committed to their jobs. This group is committed to each other, and they love being together.

Please pray for these men and these relationships. We are praying that even while we are in the US these relationships will continue to develop. Just as our one friend George came to believe in Jesus through this group of relationships, so we pray for others, as well, who will choose to know and follow their Creator.

I remember nine years or so ago, Eric and I happened to go by Baskin Robbins in South Pasadena on the free scoop day in May… it was worth the stop!

On Friday night we were shopping at the mall in Sanda and Eric noticed a huge line forming at our local…. Baskin Robbins!  It’s called “31” here, in honor of its original flavors.  And yes, free scoop day on May 9th is universal!  We had to make a donation (of any size) to Unicef, and were given free scoops.  The delight is clearly the same across the world, as you can see from our children’s smiles.  Even the Colonel, watching across the way, seemed to have a twinkle in his eyes.

For a number of reasons, I have been thinking a lot about heaven this week.

On Tuesday night, our family and our neighbor friends, the Ishidas, went to a barbeque at the Hajis’ home. We first got to know Mrs. Haji three years ago as she served as our postal lady, and we went through an interesting spurt of receiving lots of packages… Through that, we became friends with her family- her husband and three great sons. Two studied English with us for several years; their family has hosted a number of team members who have come through. The dad and two sons now are police officers in Osaka — good friends to have!

The BBQ was a fun chance to get caught up as well as to say goodbye for the next number of months as we go to the US. Mrs. Haji’s brother and family also came, who we’ve visited with a number of times. They have a two year old daughter who was born with severe Down’s syndrome, and most likely blind in both eyes (they still are not completely sure whether she can see light or not). As I held her in my arms for quite a while after dinner, I tried hard not to cry. I felt so angry — at someone or something. This isn’t how little Miku was supposed to be. Olivia was running around and laughing next to her… Miku should have been running around as well. When they fed her a liquid broth through her feeding tube for the thousandth-something time, I felt such a sweeping sense of sadness and near despair.

And I thought about heaven. Heaven is where Miku-chan will be redeemed. We don’t think about heaven too much when life feels good. And yet it is a reality- it needs to be a reality- that drives us and undergirds our belief system that God is not just redeeming us here on earth, but that He will redeem us when He embraces us face to face. As I held Miku and stroked her face, I longed to see the time when Jesus would not just hold her but redeem her body and allow her to see His face and His glory.

“[Heaven is] the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience…We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it.” –C.S. Lewis

The previous week, a neighbor friend came over to talk about the Bible with me and our Christian friend J. The issue of heaven and hell came up, and J. shared with her what she thinks the Bible says about heaven and hell. Later, she confessed to me that she struggles so much with heaven and hell because she’s not sure what she really believes about them. I think there is so much unknown about heaven– so much that is intentionally left blurry because our finite minds can’t imagine.

Joni Erickson Tada has done a lot of thinking and writing about heaven. She finds talk about halos and pearly gates very boring….but rather loves to imagine what it will be like. Her analogy to describe the glorification of our bodies: “Compare a hairy peach pit to the tree it becomes, loaded with fragrant blossoms and sweet fruit…” I so believe that Miku’s broken body will be like a beautiful peach tree, redeemed to be who she is meant to be.  And in the meantime, I need to keep musing about heaven, and working through my own theology of heaven.

It all started several weeks ago we went to dinner with our friends Bobby and Claire. We were telling them about my brother-in-law Anthony whose prized red 300ZX was totalled by a woman who ran a red light several months ago. This car was his baby (before Isabella came, that is)… he would spend LONG periods of time waxing, polishing, cleaning, and caring for her. So we were happy when he recently found another ZX to replace his red one… this one is silver, with customized doors that open from bottom to top. He is thrilled.

Our friends know Anthony and Allison, and were surprised that he has a sports car… their image of him was a family man, down-to-earth, mini-van type of guy. This seeming sports car anomaly didn’t fit who they thought he was. Which led us to start talking about — what is our own 300zx… something about us that, when people find out about it, strikes them as odd based upon who they know us to be.

This question has become great fodder for discussion at a number of events recently. Last week we went to a barbeque at our friends’ the Kohls in Kobe, and had a lot of laughs as we brainstormed each others’ ZXs…

So, here are some zxs that we have come up with:

Eric’s:  he is a somewhat obsessive shopper!  He loves shopping in stores;  he loves researching an item on ebay and amazon and finding the very best of its kind;  he does most of our family grocery shopping as well.  Would you have guessed that?

Friend A:  she hates to wash her hair!  Despite being quite clean, organized, even meticulous, she hates the chore of washing her hair.

Friend B:  She is a great home maker and mom…but loves to watch Jackie Chan movies (this really doesn’t fit her image)…

Friend C:  Another guy who likes all things cool, he is the one who buys Real Simple magazine regularly, not his wife…

Friend D:  A wonderful hostess, quiet supportive wife — she confessed to being a screamer!  When dating her husband, whose mom raised her voice, she freaked him out.  He said, “if you want to know what it’s really like, come one hour before any event and you’ll see what we mean.”  (We might have to try that…)

Friend E:  (this is my favorite one!) – he regularly flies internationally.  Rather than deal with all the challenging trash and recycle regulations in Japan, he keeps “Travel Trash” in a bag that he throws into his suitcase, takes it out of the country, and finds ways of leaving it behind in hotels, airports, etc.  While on a recent trip to Korea, he had a bunch of keys he was trying to throw away.  He left tossed them one morning in his hotel room trash, only to find them on top of his dresser when he came back to the hotel- the maid thought he had accidentally thrown them away.  So, when he flew out of the airport, he didn’t want to cause suspicion by throwing them all in the same trash can, so he went throughout the airport throwing them one at a time into different trash cans.  He’s offered to take some of our trash out of town with him the next time…

Here’s the problem.  Despite having this discussion with numerous groups – Japanese and American friends… we have yet to find a 300zx for me!  Everything we have come up with for me– friends have felt like it somehow still fits me.  The practical jokes… staying up late to make weird cakes… the fact that I can’t keep track of pairs of things (huge single sock bag… single rechargeable batteries, etc.)… none of these seem to “not fit” me.  I may need to have counseling when I go home, or pick up some new hobby that somehow would seem ridiculously not me (electrical engineering?).  So- if you have an idea that could help me to sleep better at night, please enlighten me.  And as you’re thinking, please share with us YOUR favorite zx…

We are always thankful when we see our children learning how to share, even in little ways.  Here is Olivia’s best attempts…

On Sunday night I woke up in the middle of the night with a bad dream that I couldn’t shake.  In it, Annie had taken a step and we discovered that she was standing on a landmine (we had just watched a war story the night before…).  I was standing about ten feet away with a growing crowd, and everyone kept telling me I couldn’t get near her.  I kept yelling, “stay still!  don’t move..” and hoping someone would come soon to rescue her.  Later in the day, I realized why I had probably had that dream…

After yochien (preschool), Annie came running over, hugged me, and told me the same thing she always tells me first upon greeting me:  “Mommy!  I didn’t cry today!”  On the way into yochien on the bike, we always pray for children who might be sad and who might cry when they leave their mom.  Owen and Annie try and comfort them.

Even though she didn’t cry, Annie’s teacher came to talk to me on the playground.  She said that again, like on Friday,(she had told me this on Friday as well) Annie would excuse herself frequently to go to the bathroom, but then – not come out.  After a while, her teacher would go looking for her and try and get her to return.  With her teacher there, I hugged Annie and asked her why she is hiding in the bathroom.  Her answer nearly broke my heart:  “Because I can’t understand. I hide in the bathroom because I feel sad.”

I translated this for her teacher, who told Annie it’s ok that she doesn’t understand everything yet, and she doesn’t have to worry.  She hugged Annie, and kept trying to reassure her that it’s ok. She said that Annie talks a lot in English and is quite verbal — in English.  I can picture her trying so hard to win friends and to be included and using what she does so well in her normal environment — talking!  But it’s not working…

Tonight Eric and I tried at different times to encourage her, and to remind her of the Japanese words that she has learned.  She seems to be fairly adept at language-learning, but we all know that language learning is a process.  I told her that I still feel sad sometimes when I go to a long meeting all in Japanese and don’t understand a lot of it… that I want to hide in the bathroom too.  But if I did, it wouldn’t help me to keep learning Japanese.

Would you pray for Annie and Owen?  We’re really proud of them for walking everyday into an environment that is completely Japanese.  It will get easier, but these first few days for Annie are probably going to continue to be a challenge.  And pray for her teacher, Aiko Sensei.  We want to love and encourage both of their teachers as well.

Thanks for your love and encouragement for us.  Even just reading the two blog entries below helps a lot.  We’re glad that we’re not in this alone!

The other day I got quite a surprise

Olivia and I were upstairs putting clothes away (I should say- I was putting them away;  Olivia was trying to take them all out again!).  Annie came upstairs and showed me her finger and said, “Owen broke the table and hurt my finger.”  There was a bit of blood and a scratch- nothing too bad. I assumed that Owen had moved the small Japanese table onto her finger or something… Olivia and I went downstairs a few minutes later and discovered this:

This is our antique coffee table (photo from above looking down).  It was a large wooden urn (?) used for pounding Japanese mochi (rice cakes).  It is covered with a thick piece of glass.

Owen and Annie were playing “travel” together (nice practice for the coming 9 months!), and they tried to put a big suitcase up on the table.  You can see what happened.

Well, these were smart kids!  They thought if they could fix it themselves, there would be no problems.  When I came down, all 3 large cracks had been repaired with glue sticks and scotch tape…. and 2 scratched fingers to show for it.

I wasn’t mad (I’m sure they were afraid I would be!) but we talked about why they need to call us right away when something breaks… That day, Eric called the glass man (we had had a previous break), ordered a new one, and it was delivered several days later.  In the meantime, it made a fun little resting/play spot for the kids…

That same day, I had been talking to a friend on the phone about her job.  There were a number of areas where she was not feeling content about it – some things clearly needed to change.  And I asked if she had talked to their supervisor about it.  “No… he just tries to fix everything.”

The next day, I was talking to another friend about some family problems she was dealing with.  Lo and behold!  Who was trying to fix things now?  Moi.  I had lots of solutions.  Of course, none of them were really going to “solve” the problems.  they probably felt a lot to her like — elmer’s stick glue and scotch tape on a glass coffee table.  I called her a few days later and apologized.

I love brainstorming ideas… helping people come up with options. That much, I think, can be useful. But my trying to find easy fixes is not going to help. Thank goodness for glass-makers…and, hey- our Maker.   God must chuckle sometimes at the things we try and do in order to maintain control and not get in trouble!  I’m sure to be one of His classic cases.  But He’s working with me… reminding me who to talk to right away when something breaks.

When our neighbor friend Naoko put the cute pink child seat on the front of my bicycle, I didn’t realize the controversy we were inadvertently entering! The front seat is for Annie; the back seat that has been on for several years is for Owen. Now, I can ride both of our children on our bike to yochien (preschool/kindergarten). Somehow, I felt quite proud the first time we went for a spin around the block — I really have ARRIVED as a mom in Japan! Although it’s a bit awkward to pedal the bike with a seat right at your knees, I have adjusted my riding posture and enjoy the extra challenge as I join many, many other moms across Japan who are transporting their children in the same fashion.

Now- the controversy. There have been a lot of news programs recently on the desire of the Japanese government to outlaw the 3-seated bikes because of safety concerns (it is a lot more challenging to steer with a child on the front). I’ve been told this past week that there is actually a law against this, but that it is not being reinforced because so many moms have thrown a fit. For so many, this is their main — only– method of transporting their children. One woman interviewed on the news said she needs to take her children 5 kilometers on her bike to school, and then go to work. Many who live in the cities in Japan don’t have a car because parking is unfeasible and too expensive.

But, on the news, they are saying that Osaka police are going to start cracking down this summer. Women are threatening to stop having children, thus further decreasing the declining birth rate in Japan. Who will win? Meanwhile, bike makers are exploring options for making safer 3-seated bikes. Our solution, for now, is biking defensively, but more importantly using bike helmets, hardly worn here in Japan. We’re hoping to start a trend at yochien. We’ll keep you posted!

What a day! — of great celebrations.

In the morning we had house church at the Sakamotos, and at the end they surprised us with a fun birthday celebration for Olivia.

Then, we rushed home to get ready for Annie’s music recital. She and I have been going to music classes for 3 year olds at Yamaha music school. Annie loves music, and it was a great chance to build relationships with other moms and children. Two of the girls in her music class are now in her new preschool class. The recital was at a brand new, beautiful concert hall recently built in Sanda. The only damper on the big event was the fact that the moms had to go up on stage with the children, and stand and sing behind them! Not my cup of tea, but I got through it and Annie did great. We thankfully found out in time that the kids REALLY dress up for this event, so we were able to get Annie a dress that made her feel like a princess! Megumi was staying with us for the weekend, so did Annie’s hair and even a little makeup….

Here’s a video of one of her 2 songs:

We were so thankful- surprised- amazed! – at the friends who came out to watch Annie’s first recital! Four friends from our house church, Yasko, Megumi, Bobby & Claire, and our family. Annie REALLY felt special.

We hurried home from the recital in order to celebrate Olivia’s 2nd birthday! It was a fun, fun evening with lots of food and lots of laughing… 7 kids and 10 adults gathered to celebrate and each other. Olivia’s favorite character is Scrat, one of the “supporting characters” from the Ice Age movies. Whenever Olivia sees Scrat on the movie, she just squeals with total delight… we sometimes will put on just the Scrat parts of the video to enjoy watching Olivia watch it. So, we had to do a “Scrat” theme, and everyone had a chance to enjoy watching Olivia watch Scrat for a few minutes before we pulled out the Scrat cake. Megumi helped me make it the night before — she has graduated from being a cake assistant to be a partner! Eric made the design, and we stayed up (2:30 am!) doing the decorating. It’s a crazy, fun habit.

As the party was winding down, Claire and I went upstairs to put Olivia to bed. She’d had quite a full day! And I couldn’t help but start crying. This night was the last family event we would have with this family… while we are back in the US the next 8 months, our friends Bobby & Claire, and Megumi, will be moving away from this area. They have SO MUCH been our family the last 3 years! It is hard to imagine celebrations without them. There is so much that I love about being a missionary, but I will never get used to the frequent goodbyes that are required by our lifestyle.

Despite the final shadow that fell on emotional me, it was a wonderful day. We are very blessed, and very thankful.

This week was Annie’s first week of school… the first for many, many years to come (If I try and add them up and times it by 3 children I might faint so let’s just leave it at many many years).

On Tuesday we had the special rite of passage, “nyuenshiki.” This is the opening ceremony of preschool/kindergarten, important enough to warrant businessman fathers with very few vacation days to take off work… the cause of many diets as moms try and fit into their best social suits. Hairdressers’ busiest days of the years are spring break as parents and children gear up for school opening ceremonies with the latest coiffure. (More about the dressing up at this previous post!)

Even with the smallest size outfit, Annie still swam in her new uniform…but her joy could not be hidden behind her hat and over-sized jacket. She was quite delighted to be joining her big brother and going to yochien! Our friends Yasko and Ishida-san came to see us off…

Once we arrived at the school, Annie met her new teacher, who pinned her name badge on. Annie was happy to greet several friends she has played with in the past.

Annie marched with her new classmates into the opening ceremony, where all the moms were sitting in chairs and all the dads were in the bleachers taking photos. There were a number of chidren crying, going through anxiety separation from their moms, but everyone seemed to somehow make it through the event. Owen was asked to memorize and recite a sentence in Japanese as one of the older siblings still at the school. He did a great job!

We loved watching the teachers up front leading in several songs. These are “our” teachers: from left to right, Owen’s current new teacher, his last year’s teacher, and Annie’s new teacher.

As much as I sometimes complain about the length and trivality of some events in Japan, I have to admit that I love the “ritualness” of such celebrations. There was no question for the young children, the parents, or the grandparents that this is a very significant event in the life of a child. The decorations, the order of events, the regality — all of these helped to create a significant ritual that will not soon be forgotten. We had some very tired children at the end; tired, but ready for the adventures of a new school year to start.