Yesterday was Annie’s opening ceremony into yochien/preschool.  It was a special day-a real blog to come soon about that.  It’s a HUGE deal in japan… all the moms dress up more for this event than even weddings.  Every mom wears a spring suit, high heels, nice jewelry…

The most interesting thing about the dressing up, however, occurs when we all have to go inside for the ceremony, and to go in to the classroom for the initial “meet and greet” time.  At this point, all the moms and dads reach into their bags and whala! pull out their favorite house slippers.  Although we’ve gotten used to it, I suddenly got the giggles in this large auditorium as I looked around at all these beautifully-dressed adults, decked with diamonds and pearls on top down to very expensive designer hose…topped off by – house slippers. It really is worth a good smile…

Last week our family had the chance to spend 4 nights in Okinawa, the southern-most island of Japan, and the most tropical! We went to visit our good friends the Wilsons, choosing this particular time because Mike, the family dad, was in the US for a month… we wanted to both help out/hang out with MaryJo and the kids, as well as soak in the sun. We had a chance to do both!

It was a great few days of spring vacation… we came back on Thursday night, and Owen started yochien (kindergarten) the next morning. Here are some favorite memories.

The kids love the adventures of travel! From finding our seats on the plane…to Owen helping Eric now get the luggage of the conveyor belt…each little step that we are so used to is still a big adventure for them, making it fun for us, too.

We stayed for 2 nights in cabins on the east side of the island, and went canoeing on a large dam there. Owen and Annie loved the chance to go out on the water…

That day, our other American friends, the Sonnenbergs, Nozomi, and Elizabeth, came to play as well… after canoeing we all went to the nearby beach, which was beautiful! It was also the lowest tide day of the year, so there were lots of locals who came out to the sea for a rare chance to gather clams and fish and other specialties from the low tide. Our kids had just as much fun with this rare chance to find shells and their own special treasures.

Olivia was a wannabe snorkeler… the kids had fun later doing bubbles with their friends Charlotte and Luke…and the last 2 days they were able to go swimming in a pool, which just added to their delight.

One definite highlight was staying near the Okinawa Aquarium, and getting to use some of their free facilities. We had a chance to see the dolphins fly, and all 3 kids enjoyed running through the kids’ fountains on a hot day.

The last day we went to an amazing pizza restaurant at the top of a long, winding road that we thought could only lead to a dead end. It was well worth the drive – it’s worth a trip to Okinawa just to experience the pizza and ambiance of this restaurant!

We loved each day… each part of our time. Thanks, Wilsons, for making our time so special. Sonnenbergs and Nozomi and Elizabeth- it was so great to see you and we appreciate your carving out time to see us. Even with typical kid mishaps (Olivia spilling her juice into my purse on the plane, etc etc!), I realized how much I love traveling with our family. This trip had the unexpected benefit of preparing me for our upcoming home assignment, which will hold lots of travel, and lots of adventures (both the fun kind and the juice-in-the-purse kind), with three little ones. God really used our days in Okinawa to take away the dread and fear that I had and to replace those with excitement and anticipation for what is ahead. More adventures, here we come.

April 14th is the day that one of our favorite stores opens near us in Kobe — Ikea! We passed it going to the airport on Sunday, and saw the huge size announcing it’s grand opening. We probably can’t get there for a few weeks, but it will be great to have it nearby (about 40 minutes or so).

Also, for those who have been reading some of the recent posts… in case you read about the contact incident, and read only some of the posts — I didn’t really find the contact – if you followed the link you would see that I wrote the post about finding the contact on April first…it was an APRIL FOOL’S joke.

(This was written on Sunday, but for some reason didn’t get published until Friday night)

We have had a really neat week. It was so great to have our friend Alene visit us, as well as her friend Jennie. Alene worked with Asian Access for a good number of years, and now she is living in Baton Rouge working with her family business.

As Alene interacted with our kids, and some of the neighbors who we met, and our (and her) friends the Thomsons, I was trying to figure out what makes her special. Alene is – unassuming. She has a “normal” job, a fairly routine life. But she has lived anything BUT a normal life. Ask me sometime to tell you her car wash story… or the story about the 200 streakers who surrounded her car… Her unassuming ways still somehow stir up a great deal of excitement.

But what makes Alene so special, I think, is how she loves people. She cares for people immensely – in an unassuming way. I loved watching her talk to our children- they felt like a million dollars, I could tell.

I’m reading a book right now called Anonymous. It looks at Jesus’ life, which was lived in large part in anonymity, and brings perspective to the “anonymous” time periods in our lives.

The iceberg is up to 90% invisible, Chole writes, mostly submerged and unseen. But because of their mass, and that proportion, icebergs are indestructible.

“The most influential life in all of history reflected the iceberg equation. Ninety percent of his life on earth was spent in obscurity. Ten percent of his earthly life was spent in the public eye. And all of his life was, and still is, absolutely indestructible.”

I’m not very good at being unassuming. I have a lot to learn from friends like Alene, and Jesus. Thanks, Alene, for the way that you live, and love. You’ve once again touched me!

Some photos with Alene, Jennie, and the Thomson family at a picnic together…

We found it! The missing contact. It was a bit messy to find, and a bit messy to clean, but it’s working just fine in my eye and you’d never know the journey it’s been through. This will make a good story to remind Olivia about when she’s older! (Please follow this link for the original story if you haven’t read it yet, and then BY ALL MEANS read this link for the very latest contact update.)

These recent weeks have been a season of lost and found in our family.

I have decided that either I need to be tested for early Alzheimer’s, or Olivia is one of the most amazing children at figuring out what is important to us and hiding those things in unimaginable places. As it turns out, maybe both are true.

Over the past few months, we have not been able to find several remote controls. (Thank goodness this isn’t our former home in Sendai, where the toilet was controlled by a remote!) We eventually found the TV remote in the pots and pans cabinets, hidden in the very back. (This was after the TV company had replaced it for us). We are still missing the DVD remote control, meaning if we rent a movie that has been dubbed in Japanese we can’t change it on the remote into English.

There have been things that we didn’t realize were lost that we found in the places Olivia placed them… the chicken consomme in my shoes by the front door; my hairbrush in Owen’s backpack; our spoons in a coat pocket. You get the idea. (Below- Olivia escaping in her pajamas with the plastic Easter eggs).

In addition to numerous remotes and random things, in recent weeks we have been missing two more expensive items: Eric’s cell phone, and my keyless remote key for our van. Eek. We became convinced that Olivia had thrown away the cell phone (she LOVES to put all kinds of things in the trash!); the keys we just had no idea where else to look.

Well, these two more expensive items, as it turns out, have been found, and are most likely a result of Olivia’s parents forgetfulness than Olivia! We found the cell phone last week tucked in the door pocket in our car; and the keys were finally found last night in the side pocket of the diaper bag! Sorry, Olivia….

Perhaps the most unusual lost came on Saturday morning, however. I was scrubbing the bathroom, and came out to find Olivia sitting on top of the dining room table, with my contact case open! I checked quickly, and the right contact was missing. I ddin’t see it on her hands, so I asked her where my contact was. She opened her mouth, and pointed inside… I was a bit in disbelief, but after checking everywhere, I believe that yes, Olivia ate and swallowed my contact. Now this is one item that we have decided we will NOT be searching for…

My cousin Charlie sent us an email last week about a seminary professor who had an atheist student, Tommy, not interested at all in theology. (You can read the whole story, and verify the story’s truth, here). On the last day of class, Tommy stopped by the professor’s desk and asked the professor if he ever thought he would find God. The professor, without looking up, answered, “No.” The student stopped, surprised. Then the professor said, “But I am absolutely certain that He will find you.”

Six years went by, and the professor got a call from Tommy. He had terminal cancer. But God, indeed, had found him, and Tommy’s last weeks were a wonderful testimony to the power of God’s love.

I was thinking about this story a lot last week. As we interacted at our Easter picnic with very dear friends who don’t know Jesus yet…I began to pray differently. Instead of just praying that they would find Jesus, I have been praying for them that they would know that Jesus has FOUND THEM.

Luke 19:10 is amazing – “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” His whole job is finding the lost. He is there, on our behalf, on behalf of humankind…seeking those who are lost. It makes our job, which sometimes feel daunting, filled with so much hope.
So, I pray today for our friends Naoko, Keiko, Kiyoko, Naomi, Y., Natsuko, Na-chan, Atsuko, Shiho, Yuko, Asami, Yuri, Ikuko, Tokiko… Jesus- find what is yours! Find these precious ones who are lost.

And certainly- this prayer puts into perspective things like remotes, keys, and contacts.

For those of you who think that we dug the contact out of Olivia’s diaper and I’m wearing it now-

April Fool’s!  I was tempted, but…instead I went to the eye doctor to replace it.  The staff asked what happened to the original… I started the story by saying, “You’re probably NOT going to believe this, but…”  When I told them, they were quite surprised, and one of the staff dutifully asked, “Is your daughter alright?”

She is fine.  We’re thirty dollars poorer but I can see again.  Happy April first.

We just had our Easter outreach five days after Easter. We invited adults and kids from four of the English classes that Eric and I are teaching. It was supposed to rain, but as the morning progressed it became sunnier and we had a beautiful day. Thanks to those who prayed for us!

We loved the whole event… about 18 adults came, and 27 or more kids! We started with a picnic lunch in which everyone brought a potluck side dish to share…Then two of our Japanese partners shared the Easter story using large drawn pictures to illustrate what happened. We loved watching the interest among our Japanese friends.

Eric then led the kids in some fun Japanese games…

Then, we did the long-awaited Easter egg hunt, with 140 eggs hidden…and Easter egg dyeing. For most kids, it was the first time to do either of these American traditions, and we loved watching how much fun they had participating.  Several little boys asked, “do Americans kids really get to do this every year?”

Perhaps the best part of the event wasn’t the activities, but the building of relationships that happened throughout it. We loved seeing our Christian friends and neighbor friends interacting in such a wonderfully natural way. Our goal in doing events isn’t to get a certain number of participants or even to “teach”, perse, about Christian events, but rather to build natural relationships, and create an environment that makes non-believers want to know more. By this standard, it was wonderfully successful!

This Easter picnic will hopefully be a tradition for years to come here.  The beautiful variety of child-created Easter eggs is a wonderful picture of the beauty and diversity of the church that God is building here in Sanda. God is so creative, and He is using all kinds of people, all ages, to communicate His message of love to the Japanese people. We’re so thankful He’s chosen us to be part of HIs plan here!

Yesterday’s Easter celebrations were special in many ways.

It started with a morning sunrise service for church members (6 am). Just Eric made it for that one… In the past we started at 7 am, and intentionally made it kid-friendly, but this year in order to see the sunrise they started earlier. Eric said the sun was a bright red ball rising, and was quite beautiful. Maybe next year more of our family can make it there?!

We then had house church here for worship and lunch. We had about twelve total, and enjoyed studying Matthew 28 and some of the realities of Easter. As we shared in small groups what God impressed on our hearts, I noticed for the first time the theme of fear versus Jesus’ authority in this passage. Three times fear is mentioned: after the earthquake, the soldiers are very afraid; the angel says to the women looking for Jesus, “Do not be afraid.” And Jesus himself says to his followers “Do not be afraid” and later “all authority is given unto me on heaven and on earth…”

I reflected on the many things I find to fear — small little things, and bigger things. Fear of what people think of me. Fear about decisions in the future. Fears about our children. The message for me this Easter — in ALL of these things, do not be afraid. We have the authority and the power of Jesus. Really really- this is enough.

***

Here are our kids dressed up in their Easter best, as well as a sweet picture of Olivia with Kazu-kun (and his Daddy, Hakase). These two youngest members of our house church are starting to interact more together.

Then, after house church lunch and fellowship was done, we had about two hours to prepare for our Easter dinner party! About 16 came over for some Hawaii favorites and beef roast…

Before dinner we had a fun Easter egg hunt for the kids:

And then, while the adults were in watching the sumo tournament finale, the kids came back outside and hid Easter eggs outside for all the adults… I think the kids had more fun hiding the eggs in sneaky places than they did in searching for them … and the adults sure had fun looking….

After dinner, everyone indulged me by singing my favorite Easter song, “Christ the Lord has Risen Today”, including our favorite kids’ version to that tune from Miss Pattycakes.

It really was a special celebration – good friends, good food, and a great reason for celebrating.

I love the line in Wesley’s hymn, “Soar we now where Christ has led.” Often in ministry — in every day life — I don’t feel like I’m soaring. Fear, busyness, many things can keep me down pretty low. But this promise is ours – for THIS day. May you, and I, find joy in following our exalted head.

Last week was Owen’s final few days of his first year in Japanese school. We all felt sad about the year coming to an end (the Japanese school year ends in March and begins in April). We’ve loved his teacher, Hirose Sensei, so much. She has been a great encourager, and ever-patient as Owen has gone from speaking almost no Japanese to being able to make friends and play in Japanese. On her last day, the moms all came to the school and we gave her presents.

Lots of the little girls in Owen’s class were crying about saying goodbye; Owen went over to one of his good friends Suzuka and started patting her head and comforting her.

The sweet thing about this past week was seeing new sides of our little boy’s heart. Owen had his first crush on one of his classmates! We’ve known it for some time, but this past week it was achingly obvious. Yui-chan and five other friends and moms came over to play on Wednesday. Her mom took a bunch of photos; Owen came over and whispered to me, “Mommy! Take some pictures!” I asked, “Of who?” “Why, Yui-chan.” Here’s just one (of numerous…)

and then, on the last day of class, her mom gave Owen a packet of photos. The photo of just Yui has since been framed…and that frame and all the photos line Owen’s windowsill. It’s become quite the — altar! He carries the frame up and down the stairs with him…

Oh, the pitter-patter of little hearts. How much wisdom we will need in the years to come…And we will probably not be able to write about our children’s loves much longer on a blog when they become old enough to know we are doing so. In the meantime, here’s to spring in the air and all that means…