I’ve noticed that there’s a lot more wax on birthday cakes in Japan. And it has nothing to do with the number of candles on the cake. Here’s the reason:

It’s the cell phone w/ the built-in camera….before candles are blown out or wishes are made, everyone has to take a picture — or three or four — of the cake. I don’t think that they even sell cell phones in Japan without video cameras built in. And this has become the Japanese person’s everyday camera. Whenever there is something noteworthy happening, all of our friends are opening their cell phones and clicking away. (Maybe this is already happening in the US as well – but it wasn’t last time we were home).

This morning we had a birthday celebration at our house church for four friend’s birthdays. All of their birthdays are within a week, so we celebrated together. Since our house church is called “Vineyard,” Eric and I thought it would be fun to make an appropriate cake: (for some reason the purple color came out blue in the pictures, but you get the idea).

It has been a long time since I have heard Eric get choked up, but he did this morning as he prayed birthday blessings on our friends. Keiko and Hiroshi are our church-planting partners and most-dependable friends; Aiko and George are two of our favorite people ever, and both have joined our family of faith this past year.

It was fun to celebrate them today…Keiko shared with me later that she used to hate her birthday coming each year because it meant she was another year older. Since we have come to Sanda, she said she loves birthdays now. Hey- if celebrating helps ease the pain, bring it on!

We have just had a really wonderful week with two new special friends from Hilo, Hawaii. Karen and Randy and two other friends, Yukie and Tim, had written and asked if they could come and serve with us in Sanda for five days or so at the end of their mission trip to India. We were excited to have all four of them come.
Their ten days in India were anything but dull…a car crash, illness, flat tires, and a strong sense of darkness were all part of their experiences. It was a special Hindu festival the week that they were visiting. Their last day in the village, they were traveling with an Indian driver to go back to the hotel for debriefing, when the driver made a poor decision to try and beat a truck across a small bridge. They hit a pole, and then the truck, and the car ended up perpendicular in the stream down below. The photos are amazing:

All four miraculously walked away from this crash, but Yukie needed to have surgery in India the next day for a severely broken arm. They all had various cuts and bruises, but were thankful to have been alive. They then continued on their journey as planned to Japan, but the second day here Yukie’s pain was so severe that she and Tim decided to return back to Hawaii early. Please pray for God to heal her arm and the nerve damage that was done during the accident.

Karen and Randy continued with the ministry we had planned, and we have been so blessed by their presence with us these past few days! They have served and loved and ministered along side of us. Because we had had two homestays planned for both couples, Karen and Randy agreed to go to two different homestays. The first night they went to one family’s home; and then the next two nights to our friends the Ms. (See previous posts about Ats., my silverware friend).

One of the funnest events during their time was yesterday, when Karen taught a wonderful Korean/Hawaiian cooking class. The class favorite? Pumpkin Mochi (mochi is rice cake). It was addictively delicious! There was a really special feeling in this class. We had it in a smaller facility than in the past, which limited the number of people. But we were able to really have good conversations with the twenty ladies who came, and Karen with the translation help of our friend Yas. really create a fun environment for everyone.

Last evening, we had a small gathering of church friends at our pastor’s home. Karen and Randy shared about some of their experiences. I was touched by Randy’s statement that several years ago, he just decided that he wanted to give his whole life to God. Even though he’d been a Christian for many years, he had never just given it all to God. Now, they use their vacation time each year to do missions work.

This morning, our missionary friends had our bi-monthly meeting at our home. As we gathered around Karen and Randy to pray for them, I sensed the Lord’s pleasure in their ministry and our partnership together. As they went to two homestays and slept on stranger’s floors in futons, and sat around Japanese dinner tables making conversation until late at night, we believe that Jesus came into these homes. Both of these special families experienced the aroma of Christ.
We are very thankful for the sacrifices and commitment of these four special friends, and continue to stand amazed at what God will do when we offer Him everything.

Before coming to Japan, I had no idea what a persimmon was. Now, it’s my favorite fruit, and favorite tree. We’ve eaten persimmons almost every night in salads this November, now that the fruit is ripe. Because we have a tree in our yard, I’ve tried different persimmon recipes. I recently made persimmon pudding, which tastes a lot like zucchini bread. Click here for some recipes.
The persimmon, in all its fall glory:

Francis Xavier, the first foreigner known to have visited Japan, has often been quoted as calling Japanese “the devil’s language.” All that I can say is — Amen to that!
These past six months I have been coming to terms with my feelings about this language that I am surrounded about and attempt to use a hundred times a day. What I’ve realized is: not only do I not like it, but it is also probably the area of my greatest insecurity in ministry. Having lived in Japan for about eight years altogether, and been associated with it for about eighteen, you would think that I wouldn’t have to think about it at all! But I think about it A LOT, and often it’s in terms of feeling inadequate.
I am comfortable using Japanese here. This means: I can converse with neighbors and friends in japanese; talk on the phone; have conversations with Owen’s teacher; attend our Japanese house church…you get the picture. But I am aware that while I’m conversing, I’m still making numerous mistakes (bad patterns that have a way of getting imprinted and reused over and over)…that there are still large chunks of vocabulary that I confuse or forget or misuse…that my writing and reading has digressed the past few years rather than increased. Yes- the devil’s language!
On Friday, Eric and I had our first phone coaching appointment with our good friend and fellow missionary, MaryJo. We have asked her to help coach us in Japanese…she is not only our best missionary model of fluency in the language, but she also loves to think about ways to study Japanese. Eric’s vocabulary, pronunciation, and fluency has really surpassed my own (which I’m so glad about it – thankfully this has never been a place of competition in our marriage)…but he needs to work on learning kanji, the Japanese writing system. So we’ve asked MaryJo to help us.
At the beginning of the call, MJ prayed for our time. In it she acknowledged the challenges of this language, but she said thank you to God for Japanese. Right then, it hit me. Recent thoughts on the discipline of practicing, and the very lesson of the previous Sunday (see One Point Lesson) was on giving thanks for the challenges in our life. I had never thought about – nor probably even wanted to – say thank you to God for Japanese. This goes WAY beyond challenges with our dining room set-up. Japanese – my thorn in the flesh here! Yet that is exactly the point.
“In everything, give thanks.”
That afternoon as I biked to pick up Owen at school, I made myself as an act of the will thank God for Japanese. Yesterday, when driving back from a Japanese study session, it was a little easier to say thank you to God for this. I can easily acknowledge that it drives me closer to God as I struggle. And somehow, thankfulness in this area helps to release some of the pain that has been associated with it.
MJ gave both of us some great suggestions, and we set up some goals for the next few months. We are going to help release each other every week for several hours of language study, focusing on the areas where we want to learn right now. You can pray for both of us — that we will be diligent and make some good advances in our studies, and that I will continue practicing being thankful. Maybe…in time…God and I can prove Francis Xavier wrong.

We all have standards by which we evaluate events and life stuff. I place a probably-too-high weight on creativity. My favorite movies? Clever ones. Favorite dates/gifts from Eric? Creative, imaginative ones. This also probably explains cat-litter cakes, macaroni-and-cheese-ones…
In my day-to-day world, I realize that I’ve always got my creative radar up– boring, normal days can become a lot more fun when creative juices enter in. This week there were a few events that -just made me happy. Pretty simple- but creative. And that counts a lot in my book.
Event 1: Wednesday was a special morning at Owen’s school – it was called miseyasan-go-ko. Parents came to school, and we went “shopping” with our children. All of the classes had spent the past few weeks making fake items to sell to each other. (Only the third-year students were the store-keepers). Each child was given ten paper money bills (that they had colored themselves); and put them in their specially-made paper wallets. Then they could go around and fill their bags with the goods that they bought. I was really amazed at the fun foods, flowers, and goods that these 4, 5 and 6 year olders made from plastic bottles, yoghurt containers, and milk cartons. Below: the flower stand; Owen’s sushi lunch; and Owen “biting” into a McDonald’s hamburger.

Owen chose Suzuka to go around shopping with. Her family has become friends with us- we loved watching them enjoy this time together.

It was all SO creative- so much more fun than real things to buy. Owen’s still enjoying his paper sunglasses; super-power helmet; and bowling game that he brought home.
2) I left Owen’s school with Annie to take her to her first Yamaha music class. I signed her up with two other community moms and their 3 year old daughters. I wasn’t really sure what to expect in this class for three year olds, but was pleasantly surprised by the ability of the music teacher to hold her attention for an hour.

We were sitting at electric keypboards, and the moms and children were taught lots of songs with hand motions, clapping, and singing. They aren’t going to be taught actually how to play it, but they play ON it. We did a song with ants running (one little finger played on the keyboard)…then snakes slithering…then crabs (two fingers)..and finally elephants stomping (you can imagine). Annie had such a great time, and came home and told Owen all about HER school.

3) Finally, it was fun last night to celebrate our friend Wendi’s birthday last night in a very simple, but somewhat creative way… Her family came to the mall food court for dinner, as is their normal Friday night ritual…but our family was there waiting to surprise her a bit! We had set up two tables with table clothes, banners, and napkins.


Owen and I made my mom’s famous recipe for black-bottom cheesecake cupcakes, and we celebrated Wendi. We stood out a bit, but we loved being with our good friends, and eating happy meals, fried squid, and fried octopus treats together. A little bit daring – a touch of creativity– and I’m happy. (I hope Wendi was too). Happy Birthday, Wendi!

Last night we had an overnight retreat for the staff working with our church here in Japan. It was fun to be with the staff from our mother church in Nishinomiya as well as our Sanda pastor and family, the Fujiis.

We found out the day before that it was our pastor and wife, Keishi and Kazumi’s 15th wedding anniversary over the weekend. I hadn’t made a cake in a few months- it was time! Anniversary theme cakes are tough. You can go with the ring idea, but rings, especially diamonds, aren’t as big a deal here as in the U.S. So, I found an idea on the internet. Eric helped me with the cutting, and Bobby helped design the label. I had to do it in a few hours before we had to leave.

Then, when we arrived at the hotel, we found out it was also Makio Sensei and Megumi Sensei’s anniversary last weekend (21 years). So, we added a banner to try and match the label. It was really fun to honor two of the Japanese couples we respect the most:

Even though we’d had this amazing crab buffet, everyone managed to eat some champagne bottle and bucket cake… and then we asked these two wonderful couples to share about how they met and decided to get married. As they shared, we got to ask them lots of questions.

What I loved hearing the most was both men sharing about how they changed through the process of marriage. I remember our pre-marital counselor telling us not to get married to change each other, but that for sure, when we got married, we would change each other. As I think about the last almost-ten years of our marriage, I can see many ways that I have changed. Thank God! I hope I keep changing. That’s worth celebrating!

This morning our pastor, Fujii Sensei, came to our house church and led us in a time of communion and a short-ish message. He talked on the idea of spiritual blessings (from Ephesians 1)…and ended with a story in which he and his wife had just found a place to live in Sanda – an apartment – and then they were told that they had to move out for 3 months while the heating units were being redone. They were so discouraged…but Sensei in his prayer times sensed the Lord telling him to “give thanks – even in this.” He resisted and resisted, but finally found it coming out of his mouth. He was able to thank God for what felt like a huge problem. And it became not just words, but a real sense from his heart of trust and thanks in God’s provision and care. As the story turned out, there was another apartment opened on the top floor, and they were able to relocate there. But the point was — finding a voice to give thanks for the problems in our lives that we can’t solve.

The lesson hit my heart. I had shared recently with several friends about my frustration with our dining situation. We have been looking for another, larger home in our neighborhood, but one hasn’t been available. In the meantime, we are using a fold-up dining room table and several fold-up chairs set up in the living room. I’ve tried to think through different scenarios- rearrange the living room? Buy a different dining room? Redo the Japanese-style area?

No – right now… I need to practice giving thanks for what is challenging. I can’t solve it right now…but I can entrust it to God and thank Him for what he’s doing in the midst of it all.

Since I’ve promoted the sale of 14 crockpots in our town in recent months (see Unrivaled Fun), I’ve been trying to explore new uses and original recipes for the crockpot…both for our family use and to have as a resource. So, unless I really can’t pull it off for some reason, I’m trying 30 days of crockpot cooking. I also want to type up the recipe that I’ve made each day, if it’s a good one… This will help me to further index the good recipes! Today is Day Seven — I’m making “Forgotten Minestrone Soup.” I’ll post it if it gets two thumbs up.
In the meantime, I’m going to post a few new favorites at the recipe blogsite, called suesrecipes.wordpress.com
New favorites:
chicken ole
chicken taco soup
spicy cheese soup
coconut salmon
Lasagna in a Crockpot
Delish Meatballs (check out the surprise main ingredient!)

Owen, Annie, and Olivia had two chances to wear their favorite costumes this Halloween season…on Monday night we had a little house party with our friends the Thomsons. Our collective seven children dressed up, and had to come find the adults hiding in different rooms (we need to be creative with American holidays!). Fun was had by all:

Then, yesterday our neighborhood children’s group had a Halloween party that created an American Halloween trick-or-treating event… we passed out treats to five different neighborhood homes, and in groups the kids went with their moms to collect the goods. It was great to create new special memories for our children with our American friends, and then with our Japanese friends.

As Owen was putting his shoes on this morning to leave for school, Olivia and Annie came on the step next to him. Owen said, “Hey mom! You should take a picture!” So I did. What a beautiful sight for our morning:

Then, as I was leaving to ride on the bike to school, Annie came to the doorway and said, “itte irrashai!” (please come home). And Owen without even thinking replied “Itte Kimasu!” (I’ll be back). These are the everyday greetings for anyone leaving home. Owen practices these often at kindergarten when he comes and goes; Annie has just picked it up from hearing her older brother. After listening and practicing a lot, she got every syllable right this morning.

When we pick up Owen after school each day, his teacher will often share incidents of the day with various parents individually. We’ve been really pleased with her accounts of Owen’s school days, which we aren’t there to witness. Last week she shared that his Japanese has improved greatly and she feels like they can really communicate – yeah! She also shared a story last week of when he and a friend wanted the same toy that Owen had first, but Owen was willing to let his friend use it.
Yesterday when Eric picked up Owen after school, his teacher shared that he had accidentally spilled his friend’s juice during lunch. His teacher asked Owen to apologize, but he was embarassed at his mistake and couldn’t say anything- he just started crying at the table.
In the car coming home, Eric didn’t reprimand Owen or make him feel worse. But he did a wise thing, I think: he had Owen practice saying “Gomen, ne” (I’m sorry). He told Owen that sometimes when we need to say something we can’t unless we’ve really practiced it a lot. So they said it over and over, ten times each. Owen is hopefully ready for the next time.
Sometimes, we need to practice something a lot to be able to do it.