Our friend Laura is here visiting us for the next ten days… if you look closely, you can see her with my cell phone taking the picture through the mirror in the far right corner.
What is the purpose of the sheathy thing over my head?

I’ll post the answer in a few days if no one guesses it right.

Last night we came back from our family first camping trip since Olivia joined our family. We survived the overnight adventure, and we learned quite a few things during those 24-plus hours. Here are our list of ten dos and don’ts, based on our recent experience:

Five Don’ts:

1. Don’t rely solely on your Japanese friends in picking a campsite. The places that were highly recommended to us we found out (fortunately before making our decision) that they are popular because they have amusement parks attached to the campsite. Not what we were looking for. One helpful neighbor friend recommended that we NOT go to Lake Biwa (where we went) because it was a long drive and their doctor had said that if children are in the car for 3 hours they will likely get a fever. (Our children survived just fine, no fevers. Phew). Here’s a map of where we went- you’ll see the lake near the middle to the right of Kyoto. Biwa is the largest lake in Japan…. We went to the northern part, and the water was absolutely pristine; the landscape beautiful.

2. Don’t forget your tent. Halfway there, we realized that it was still back in our shed. The good news was that the campground where we were staying rented tents. The bad news was that their version of a tent for 5-6 people was truly made for five very very little little Japanese people. Poor Molly didn’t get a wink of sleep as she got jostled from corner to corner in the midst of everyone trying to stretch out!

3. Don’t forget your stove. Yes. Upon arrival, we realized that we had forgotten that too. For having a very very full back-of-our-van, it was amazing the essentials that we didn’t have. Fortunately, the campground also rented us a burner. We probably could have stayed in a cheap motel for the price that our camping escapade became, but the salmon and corn on the cob wouldn’t have tasted nearly as good in a Motel 8 room.

4. Don’t trust your navigation system to get you home. After going about a half an hour on a small mountain road, we were able to stop at a little store and found out that our navigation system was taking us NORTH instead of SOUTH because it decided that we should really go home the longer, expensive way on all toll roads (that would have brought the camping trip costs up to that of a luxury hotel for a night). We weren’t in a hurry, so we turned around and went down back the mountain road.

5. Don’t waste a lot of energy when living in Japan looking for the ingredients for s’mores. No one in our family really liked them. Annie liked the marshmallows and chocolate right out of the bag; Owen loved putting the marshmallow on his stick, walking proudly over to the other side of the fire, and then eating the marshmallow OFF the stick. Go figure.

DO’s:
1. Take along a one-year old and a small dog if you want to get to know everyone within a one-mile radius of where you are camping.

2. Choose a location where your children will be happy campers because then you will be happy, too. Even without a ferris wheel, our kids had a great time. We were camping right on the lake, and so we could sit at our campsite and watch Owen and Annie having a blast for hours in the shallow water. It really WAS relaxing at times. I was amazed. And happy.

3. Take advantage of anything that will help you get extra sleep. When Olivia woke up at 5:30 am with the sun, we were ever-so-thankful for the small video machine in our van. I climbed into the car with her, put on a video, and at least was able to keep my eyes closed until Owen woke up 30 minutes later.

4. Continue to be surprised by the little things that can bring joy. Annie’s favorite part about camping was the little, green tree frog that allowed her to pet him and hold quite an extensive conversation with him.

5. Take advantage of darkness to allow God to speak. Even though it was a short time, God used this time in nature, and in darkness, to refresh our hearts. I have always loved a quote by Annie Dillard, who wrote:
You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.” (From“Teaching a Stone to Talk”)

After I spent some time in the tent getting Olivia to sleep, Eric took the two older kids into the tent to settle them down. I sat by the fire, and found it to be such a great time to pray. I prayed about a number of people who have been on my heart, and then about our recent huge prayer request to possibly move to another home in our same neighborhood. We would like to, but no home has opened up that would be suitable.

While I was praying, I was reasoning with God. (Thankfully I think God understands my need to reason!). I told the Lord that I would be really ok staying in our current home, and I would continue learning about contentment, if I knew that is what he wanted. But it would help to know if He really was going to provide a different home for our family, so I could emotionally prepare. So as I was praying, I asked the Lord if it was OK to ask for a sign. And in my mind i thought of a falling star- and asked God, if he would, to provide a falling star when I opened my eyes if he was going to provide a new home for us. If there was no falling star, I would know we should plan to stay where we are.

But then- I couldn’t open my eyes. I realized that I didn’t have faith that God really could answer. So I kept praying, asking God to give me faith that He could choose to show me a shooting star if He wanted to, or he could choose not to. Finally, I felt able to trust God either way. I opened my eyes.

I looked across the sky above me. I sat for a minute. And then I thought: “well, that was a silly sign to ask for! You can only see about five stars out here tonight…” And then it happened. A huge, glorious, beautiful star shot down from the very center of the sky. I could hardly breathe. I said “Oh. My. Gosh.” in a loud voice, making Eric in the tent wonder what had happened.

Eric came out a little later, and we talked about this. We talked about a lot of other things. I grilled a few more marshmallows in the fire. The whole time we sat there, not one other shooting star appeared.

Coincidence? Depends on who you ask. If you ask me, it was a most generous and gentle God responding with love to the petty prayer request of one of His own.

It’s good to get away and into the darkness sometimes.

For those of you who have been following our avocado plant that was snapped in half (see planting and snapped in half), we are happy to report that after two weeks of looking like death, there is life again. There are six tiny little sprouts coming out of the sides, and one in particular is taking the lead.

It’s taken time, but through a different sprout, new life is coming back. I’ve been thinking about one of my closest friends who has recently- and suddenly- lost the one most dear to her. There may never again be life nor joy from that painful place of loss, but I am praying and trusting God that there will be new places of life and joy sprouting with time and with passing seasons. It is God’s way with all of us to bring life from death and to do new things.

On another note, I shared in the original entry on planting the avocado seed about my neighbor friend, Nats. She and I read the Bible on that day for the first time – the beginning of God’s Word entering her heart.

Last Friday she stopped by our house to borrow some camping equipment. She was supposed to leave the next morning for a family camping trip with another neighborhood family- their first camping experience. Unfortunately, on this day-before, she shared that her 3-year old daughter had suddenly come down with a fever. Her son had been sick for 3 days with a similar summer fever. She was sad, but still hoping. As she climbed in her car, she looked in my eyes and said, “please pray!” I assured her that we would pray. Our family prayed at dinner.
That evening I text-messaged her and asked her how her daughter was. She replied, very discouraged, that her fever had spiked, and the weather was looking very rainy for the weekend, so she doubted that they would go.
Before bed that night, I felt a strong urge to pray – to really pray that God would somehow enable them to be able to go. And that through the reality of God’s answered prayer, she would move one step closer to believing in a personal, caring God. I got on my knees, and quite honestly wrestled between unbelief (realizing that this fever was humanly speaking going to last three days, and the weather forecast was even more dismal); and belief in a God with whom all things are possible. I prayed until I sensed the belief side win out.
I called their home the next morning, hoping that no one would answer. I was sad to hear Nats. voice. But she tripped over her words with joy: she had taken her daughter to the doctor that morning, who said it was fine for her to go and the fever would not last much longer… there was a break in the weather… they were leaving after lunch…and thank you SO much for praying and caring.
I hung up the phone and just wanted to hug God. A little thing – but it’s those little things that help people of unbelief become people of belief (even myself).
On Monday, I ran into the neighbor friend who had gone camping with them. The first thing she said to me was, “Thank you so much for praying. Nats’s family was able to join us and we heard it was because you prayed.”
Little sprouts. You go, God!

When certain family members see that I have posted this video, it might not remain here too long, but while it’s here…which of my boys do you think is the cuter singer in this video clip?
The video is featuring a game that we received last year from our friends the Bernards. My kids LOVE this song, so Owen sometimes will pull it out and play it – and sing it – for the girls. The friend in the background is Megumi – she’s the one who first suggested I video this (so Eric, it’s her fault!). Please only play this one time, or else the song will be stuck in your head FOREVER….
(Sorry about Olivia’s fussing in the background).

On Friday afternoon, the kids and I went on a playdate to the home of one of Owen’s school friends, Suzuka. Her mom and sister and another family had come over to our home the week before (see what we had for lunch!). There were four moms, their kids, and us all gathered at Suzuka’s for lunch. Atsuko, the host mom, and Yoko, one of the other moms, have been friends since high school (and had even gone to Hawaii together on a school trip!). Now they have the wonderful opportunity of living in the same neighborhood with their families. As we were all preparing lunch together, I noticed the ease in which they worked together, spoke to each other’s children; knew what each other needed without it being said. Yoko knew where all the dishes, pots, and silverware belonged. She and Atsuko had twenty years of history — the best kind of friends.

Suddenly, as I was boiling water, I felt the little tears fill up in my eyes. Please God! Don’t let me start crying! I was really enjoying this time, and continue to be so thankful for the new friends God is bringing into our lives through Owen’s kindergarten and our neighborhood. But I felt myself longing for the OLD friends – the ones who know what I need without me having to say it. The ones who can guess where I keep my silverware because they’ve been in enough of my past apartments and homes and KNOW ME. I knew I couldn’t explain this to my new friends without them feeling bad. Thankfully, the boiling water and my sleeve helped hide the tears, and I pushed the thoughts aside to enjoy the rest of our lunch together.

This week I read a fellow missionary’s blog as he reflected on their family’s returning to Japan from a home assignment in the US. Michael Oh wrote about the bittersweetness of coming back to the land where God has so clearly called them, but needing to leave their beloved family and friends. He likened this leaving to the concept of fasting…choosing to remove oneself from something one loves. Oh wrote: In missions, we fast the blessings of family, friends, and all the blessings and opportunities of life in the US – because there is something even more essential to life – our relationship to Christ whom we follow and seek to make known. And we fast these blessings – because there is something more urgent than even our family and friends – the Gospel going to the perishing among the 2.5 billion who have little or no chance to hear the Gospel.

Eric and I feel blessed over and over to be in Japan. I often say we have the best job in the world! But the part of being far away from the “old” friends and our families – this is the part that doesn’t ever seem to get easy. I pray that with time and patience, Atsuko and Yoko might become the kind of friends who know where I keep the silverware. God has a way of weaving new friends into our lives when we are grieving the old ones, and we never quite realize when they, too, become old friends. But I keep special places in my heart for those who are part of me and our history, who know my kitchen, my children, and my weaknesses; and yet still love me.

When I was growing up, we used to have a framed cross-stitch in our dining room that said, “Make new friends, keep the old; one is silver, the other gold.” How thankful I am for new friends; but oh, you old friends are as pure as gold to me!

(Photos below: Owen with some “silver” friends from kindergarten, enjoying Jello; Olivia with her new friend Kazu from our house church)

It’s rainy season in Japan. And it’s been a true rainy season, with rain and/or clouds almost every day. It has started to affect me – I’m ready for it to be over….

This week my Japanese accountability partner and I have been reading Leviticus and Numbers- not bible books that we think of immediately as relevant! But I found some verses that helped me to greatly relate to the Israelite women as they were establishing their homes in a new land:

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘When you enter the land of Canaan….the priest is to go in and inspect the house. He is to examine the midew on the walls, and if it has greenish or reddish depressions that appear to be deeper than the surface of the wall, the priest shall go out the doorway of the house and close it up for seven days…If the mildew reappears in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house scraped and plastered, the priest is to go and examine it and, if the mildew has spread in the house, it is a destructive mildew; the house is unclean. It must be torn down – its stones, timbers and all the plaster- and taken out of the town to an unclean place. (Leviticus 14:33-45).

Well, we haven’t yet hired a priest to come in and declare our house unclean, but we have been feeling overrun by destructive mold and mildew. Rainy season and mildew are best friends! We discovered this week that under several of our carpets there is lovely blue mildew growing – on the floor and the underside of the rug. All of our walls are very textured, and the mold that has been growing in them is more than a challenge to get out. If you have any suggestions short of tearing it down and taking it to an unclean place, let us know. (My neighbor friends are promising me the rain should end next week. Sunshine will definitely help the problem).

Second Bible relevance lesson this week:
For Father’s Day, I ordered Eric a Hawaii Pidgin New Testament. It was on back-order, so we just received it this week. It’s for real- it’s not a joke! Its been translated by Wycliffe Bible Translators. We have had fun reading some of the verses:

Here’s the most famous verse in the Bible, in Hawaii Pidgin:
God wen get so plenny love an aloha fo da peopo inside da world, dat he wen send me, his one an ony Boy, so dat everybody dat trus me no get cut off from God, but get da real kine life dat stay to da max foeva. (John 3:16)

The first verse Eric read when he opened it was from Matthew 1 as the angel comes and visits Joseph:
But wen he stay tinking lidat, right den an dea, one angel messenja guy from da Good Boss Up Dea Inside Da Sky come by him, wen he stay dreaming. Da angel guy say, ‘Eh Joseph! You from King David ohana. No scared take Mary fo come yoa wife, cuz she hapai from God’s Spirit dat stay good an spesho. She goin born one boy, an you goin name him Jesus, cuz he goin take his peopo outa da kine bad stuff dey do.’ (Matthew 1:20-21)

It’s great! I love reading it and getting new perspective – anyone who has spent time in Hawaii can understand what it means that God has plenny love an aloha. More than enough love and aloha for each of us, any day. Enough for rainy season and mildew days.

The typhoon somehow missed us, although it left damage in its wake north and south of us. The earthquakes were also quite a bit north of here, as is the nuclear reactor that has been closed down.

Olivia got her first official haircut today.

Owen went first. We give Nana-chan, our hair stylist a lot of business – last week was our friend Yasko, Claire, me and Annie. This week, Owen and Olivia.

Then it was Olivia’s turn. They have a special mommy and child cape with 2 head holes! (Owen is taking all of these pictures):

She doesn’t have a lot of hair to cut, but it needed to be just generally evened out…

An important milestone in the life of our youngest…

Then, after naptime, Olivia found Owen’s yochien (kindergarten) hat, and decided to wear it into the living room. Owen got a kick out of it, and decided to dress Olivia up with his backpack and water bottle, as well. She looks ready for school!

She wasn’t sure that she liked all that baggage…

But enjoyed going into the front hallway to show her Daddy who was coming home.

These are fun memories of family time. But in between was a 40-minute stretch that I wish I could go back and do over again. I had to call Microsoft Office support about a computer problem. They had no English-speaking staff, so I was doing the whole call, and receiving all of the computer instructions, in Japanese. During this time it seems that all three kids started to go wacko. Eric was out teaching a class, and somehow I thought I could get this call taken care of – and still take care of all three kids. WRONG. I did get the call taken care of and our email problem fixxed, but I wasn’t a pleasant mom to my kids during that time. I should have called back during naptime or when Eric was around…. They needed my attention, and when they didn’t get it decided to fight, and just do whatever they could to try and get my attention!

I am right now reading a parenting book that my friend MaryJo says is the best book on parenting out there: “How to Really Love Your Child” by Ross Campbell. His premise is that most parents really do love their children, but often do a poor job of showing it, leaving their children unconvinced that their parents love them.

One of the important ways for parents to demonstrate their love is thorugh focused attention. He writes this:
“Focused attention is giving a child full, undivided attention in such a way that he feels without doubt that he is completely loved. That he is valuable enough in his own right to warrant parents’ undistracted watchfulness, appreciation, and uncompromising regard. In short, focused attention makes a child feel he is the most important person in the world in his parents’ eyes.”

This book has been a good reminder of what is important. These days with little ones are fleeting (everyone with older children tells us so!) –even baby Olivia is getting her haircut and will start school before we know it! Amost every day I ask where our baby has gone… I pray God continues to convict me when I get caught up in the many million little things that can pull me away from what I need to be doing on THIS DAY. Or when I forget to enjoy the haircuts and the dressups, even in the midst of craziness. Emily Dickinson said, “Forever is composed of nows.” We all have the many million little things–they won’t go away. But today will. What are the NOWS that those many little things are pulling you away from?

It is Saturday night and we are waiting for the big typhoon to hit. It has moved from Okinawa to Kyushu, and is on its way here. Most flights have been cancelled in the region where it is hitting. Tomorrow our friend Yasko is supposed to fly to LA via Tokyo. We’re not sure if she’s going to get out or not.
My highlight today was two new mom friends who came over with their daughters from Owen’s kindergarten. It was Owen and the girls today, but everyone seemed to have a really good time.

Owen and his school friend, Suzuka, had fun playing laser tag upstairs…

I made macaroni and cheese -a new favorite for both the girls and their moms! — and Atsuko, one of the moms, brought two homemade pizzas. What kind, you ask? The first kind- salami and green peppers. It was really good, but not as popular as the second one: curry tuna mayonnaise corn pizza. If you’ve never had it, you really need to come and visit- I am sure Atsuko will make it for you.

Last week I wrote about transferring our growing avocado seed into a pot with dirt. (see Planting) It’s been doing so well, and in the past week or ten days doubled in size, and began sprouting small leaves. Yeah! The kids have been excited.

But Annie wasn’t prepared for what happened next:

I snapped it in half.

thegardenhelper.com concurs with the advice I received from my sister about growing these plants: When the seedling reaches 12 inches, it should be pinched back to about 6-8 inches to produce a rounder, fuller plant.
Ouch. It was hard to snap it. It felt wrong. But it worked ten years ago when I grew an avocado plant, and hopefully the painful pinch will once again help produce a “rounder, fuller plant.”

I have been thinking about friends who have been in hard places. Our friend K. who we worked with here had a really hard placement that often seemed stifling. Members of her Japanese church were going through internal conflict, and not real excited about starting a new church. That is what she came here to do. I think she often felt, during her three years, like she had been pinched in half. But now- we’re waiting and watching- for how God, in his creative mercy, will use this to bloom and grow her. Only God can do that.

I think of times in my own past where I was sure God had made a huge mistake in where He placed me…or with who. A few other friends especially come to mind who are in the midst of painful times. Wondering – where is God in the midst? Would he really let this happen?

Hannah Whitall Smith writes:
it is true we cannot always give thanks for the things themselves, but we can always give thanks for God’s love and care in the things. He may not have ordered them, but He is in them somewhere, and He is in them to compel, even the most grievous, to work together for our good.
The “second causes” of the wrong may be full of malice and wickedness, but faith never sees second causes. It sees only the hand of God behind the second causes. They are all under His control, and not one of them can touch us except with His knowledge and permission. The thing itself that happens cannot perhaps be said to be the will of God, but by the time its effects reach us they have become God’s will for us, and must be accepted as from His hands.

There is great comfort in knowing that, even snapped in half, He will compel even this to work together for my good.

Here’s to hope that doesn’t disappoint. I’ll let you know how the avocado’s doing. I remember it takes a little while to come through the shock.

Today it was my turn to help give out lunches at Owen’s school. Two moms each day go in and assist for 2 hours. Finally — my curiosity abated! I found out what happens at Japanese school lunches! We do get a calendar every day of what will be in the lunches. But the system? Somehow the school of 150 or so preschool/kindergarteners manages to feed all the kids lunch, in their rooms, and clean up, with only two volunteer moms. Here’s how:

First, the 2 moms show up, wearing aprons and bandanas in our hair (Love the fashion statement! aprons out of the photo, but really there):

Then, we carry boxes containing smaller lunch boxes to each classroom, where the children are waiting at low tables and chairs, with their individual lunchmats, cup, and chopsticks laid out in front of them. (Owen is in top right)

Students all put their hands behind their backs, and the teacher goes around and sprays each hand with anti-bacterial spray. Half of the days students get milk for lunch; days like today the volunteer moms pour cold barley tea into each cup.

The teachers are overseeing each classroom (no lunch breaks for them!)…and what has surprised us are the reports that all the children eventually pretty much eat all their lunch. Owen came home from school one day and announced that he now likes onions. Amazing what they can end up liking after the variety they get in their lunches. Here was today’s:

(clockwise from rice: raw shredded cabbage and macaroni salad; one big fried scallop; a fish-dough ball; and spinach and tuna salad). Whatdayathink?
Next surprise: lunch, from beginning to end, is LONG… ittakes almost 1 1/2 hours… until every child has finished their lunch and cleaned up. Then- it’s playtime!
No lunch ladies (except for bandana mamas). No lunch rooms. (No pizza on fridays!) But it works. I continue to feel like our experiences at kindergarten give us so much insight into Japanese culture. From early on, Japanese children are taught order, cooperation, submitting to authorities, doing many rituals in certain, prescribed ways. Eric saw a documentary on Japanese preschool that explained that all Japanese children learn the exact method of how to take a bath, including scrubbing order and methods. Just like Owen is learning how to “do lunch.” And it works! (Owen with his buddies, after lunch, is on the right).