This month I was interviewed on behalf of the Nozomi Project and featured on a missions blog about justice …
Read it here (and read lots of other great interviews on this site as well!)
What we do with our loss
Today was beautiful weather so we decided to take a family bike ride. We all biked over (Ian on the back of my bike, if you are wondering!) to a nearby family restaurant, and then we biked along the coast.
We wanted to head over to a playset that was built recently for the third anniversary of the tsunami by a friend of Be One, Mr. E. He had also helped to make some of the furniture for the park that Be One rebuilt last year. We were so surprised to find him there today, and we spent the next hour or more sitting and talking with him.
Mr. E is a pretty amazing man. He and his wife lost all three of their children in their tsunami. This is pain and grief that I cannot humanly imagine.
On the place where their house had been washed away, Mr. E., a carpenter by trade, has built a play-set. He wanted to create a fun place for children where so much sorrow had landed.
The ocean is just 100 yards away. The whole area used to be a thriving neighborhood. Now, he said, only four residents are living in this neighborhood. He sat with us and pointed to the empty plots all around us.
The land right next door had been the home of a seaweed farmer. He was out in his boat when the tsunami came. The boat was able to roll over the tsunami. The husband survived, and when he finally came back to shore and to where their home had been. He searched and searched, but found that his home and the rest of his family had been washed away. Three years later he is still unable to return to this location, but his sister comes frequently and leaves flowers in the yard in memory of the lost family members.
Across the street was a tofu shop. The daughters and the parents were killed in the tsunami.
We admired his yellow VW buggy. He explained: “My kids used to love to count yellow cars. One day my daughter was counting and said, ‘If I can see three in one day, I will be so happy.’ After they died, my wife and I just wanted a yellow car. It reminds us of what made them happy.”
I asked about his wife. She isn’t working right now. I wonder how she has strength for each day. I told him that I hope we can get together with them both soon.
He brought out from the trailer drinks for all of our kids. Then he led them over to a small tuft of wild clovers, and told them that he’s found a few four leaf clovers there. Olivia found four or five, and Owen found two five-leaf clovers! He gave each of our children some small wooden keychains that he has made from tsunami debris.
I watched Mr. E. as he so gently interacted with our children. There was only kindness. He must have been such an awesome dad.
Worship Japanese Style
This past year I have enjoyed Japanese worship more than at any time in my Japan experience. There is a fervor, a letting go, in the worship that is done in our Ishinomaki house church community. And I really believe that one of the keys is found in our mainly using indigenous worship music. Most of the songs that we sing have been written in Japan in the last ten years. I have been greatly encouraged by a movement of young leaders across Japan who have been meeting for times of prayer, worship, and revival… and some prolific worship music has been emerging.
Within our Ishinomaki community are many who have experienced great tragedy and suffering the past few years. Worship that draws us nearer to the Loving and Living God and to an eternity without suffering — expressed in colloquial, understandable Japanese — is so appealing. We are all drawn in. Our children love the times of worship… volunteers who come several weeks in a row quickly find themselves humming the melodies and wanting to learn the songs.
‘Indigenous’ refers to everything in worship that captures the heart of the faith community. Indigenous contains a strong sense of where and how the Spirit of God is leading. It also speaks not only of what comes from the people within, but what conveys to the people outside the walls of the particular church.
‘Worship’ is defined as the connection of the faith community, in its rather ordinary life, with the extraordinary mystery of God. God is active and worshipping Christians know that He is present here and now. God initiates a meeting, and we respond to his grace by bringing forth our finest offering. Worship is the ultimate goal of our faith, the releasing of our entire beings to the guidance and purpose of God. (Dr. Kelly Ballard, Beyond Worship)
I have learned so much the past few ten years or so about building relationships, house churches, church planting… but when we worship it’s not about techniques or doing, it’s about being… being in God’s presence. Sensing His pleasure. And our hearts are drawn together as we lift one voice in a common language– local friends, Christian workers from across Japan and other parts of the world — through this indigenous Japanese worship.
Here’s a short composite of some moments of worship from recent six months.
Unbelievable!
Happy Easter… one of my favorite days of the year.
This morning we had a full house-plus at our Easter worship… It felt good to focus on the Resurrection of Jesus and partake together in the Lord’s supper. But I have to secretly confess that I have my homesick moments in missing some of the Easter traditions not just of my family but also of other church communities I have been part of in the past. There are a lot of things that I love about the house church, but particularly on Easter I miss today being a BIG DEAL, celebrated as the “pinnacle” of the Christian year. (OK, so I don’t miss the dressing up in Easter clothes, but rather sunrise services outside and special meals and singing “Christ the Lord is Risen today” kinds of things)… I also was bummed with myself that I hadn’t done more Eastery things with our children because of my own busyness and some annoying health things. I know I could have done a lot more personally to make Easter feel more alive today.
This weekend was peak viewing day for the cherry blossoms in Ishinomaki… so despite the chilly weather we had a picnic after worship under the cherry blossoms! It is still a somewhat bittersweet location, as the whole area below this hillside was washed away by the tsunami. Today it was nice to be with our community in the midst of beauty in Ishinomaki.
We all came home tired! Tonight before bed, though, we fit in one more Easter thing… we showed our children the short video that we had watched this morning in house church…. the old 70s song by Don Francisco, “He’s Alive!”. It is a video of the song that uses a re-enactment of the Resurrection story from the eyes of Jesus (find it here). Our kids really enjoyed it, asking questions as they watched. The six minutes or so depicted brief scenes of Peter’s denial followed by Jesus’ death on the cross, the deep sorrow of his friends, and then Peter’s amazement when Jesus showed up two days later following an empty tomb.
Olivia is a visual learner… and tonight she seemed to finally “get” the story of the Resurrection. When Peter hugged Jesus, she exclaimed with great joy, “It’s unbelievable!”
Easter seems to need to start with grasping what is humanly speaking, incredibly far-fetched — this is the faith piece — the leap that needs to happen. Now, Olivia is really ready to start believing. And, today, even without a bunch of traditions, I think we have experienced Easter.
Lots and Locks of Love for Olivia
Thursday morning, 5:45 am, something woke me up. I couldn’t figure out at first what it was. So I followed the melody downstairs. It was Olivia. She was dressed for school, right down to her coat and her backpack, dancing across the living room and singing one of her favorite Disney “Frozen” songs at the top of her lungs. (And completely on key, btw).
THIS is our Olivia! She is sweet, sassy, unpredictable. Sometimes as slow as molasses, but not thursday morning! I asked her to sing a little quieter and went back to bed for awhile…
Yesterday, she got her hair wish – and early eighth birthday gift. I took her to the salon and she got her hair cut – really cut! She is excited to send her ten-inch cut braid to Locks of Love to become a wig for a needy child. And she got a darling haircut! And it is funny how many people in the last 24 hours have said how much she looks like Annie.
Before:
After:
Today we celebrated her eighth birthday. Of course, we had do a Frozen theme! We invited three of her classmates and their moms who work with me at Nozomi, and then the females from our Be One team.
Because I do all my cake-making in Japan, I’ve never really worked with fondant (except for my Thomas train wreck). I found a company where I could order it, and so I had fun last night making Olaf, the cute-as-a-button snowman in the Frozen movie. The tress were Baskin Robbins ice cream cones… the pond came from my last box of blueberry jello. The most challenging part was the black parts of Olaf – I tried to paint on the color which made it sticky and left black stains that I had to try and get rid of on Olaf’s white body. I learn stuff every time I make a cake!
It was really fun. I was thankful for Eric, who cooked a beejiba bunch of food on the grill; and for our team who helped me so much when my back was pretty bad today.
Tonight, as is our family custom, I told Olivia her (adoption) birth story when she went to bed. One of my favorite parts of her special story…On the very night when Sarah from the adoption agency called to tell me that Annie’s birth mother was pregnant again, the passage that I read in my Bible was from Psalm 128: “And he will fill your table with olive shoots around it…” Five or six years prior, I had written next to that verse in my Bible, “God, can this be true for us?”
Yes- it can be! God has blessed us with a table full of olive shoots! Olivia is a beautiful, daily reminder of the amazing God who keeps His promises.
The (Little) Spy who Loves Me
Our kids started school! For our older three, Tuesday was the start of the new school year. Instead of riding the school bus up to the temporary school, they are in the nearby school that has been fixed up after being damaged in the tsunami. They are glad for an extra fifteen minutes of sleep or play in the mornings. All of them have the same teachers — for some reason this seems to be the school’s strategy this year. So far they all seem to be welling back at school…
And then our youngest — it has been a big week! Yesterday he started youchien, or Japanese preschool. A very big deal in Japan, and for our family!
A few days before starting, I was trying to figure out how to help prepare Ian for the fact that this little boy who doesn’t know much Japanese was about to enter a Japanese world. So I told him he will be a spy kid. His teacher will say a lot of stuff in Japanese that he doesn’t understand, but he can be a spy, and investigate to figure it out… but looking around and seeing what all the kids around him are doing, and copying them. He was pretty excited about this…
Last night as he sat on my lap and we debriefed his first day, my little spy confessed: “Mommy, I was really scared before I left today, but I didn’t tell you.”
This morning he had to ride the cute little yellow school bus – ALL BY HIMSELF. As we were holding hands waiting for the bus to come, he looked up and and asked, “So Mommy, are you coming with me on the bus?”
“… so will you drive your car and meet me at the youchien?”
Once again… no.
Me: “How about if I pray for you before the bus comes?”
Ian: “No, no Mommy. Not now. Wait until I get to the school, and THEN start praying.”
Thankfully, he left happy, and came home happy. It was perhaps the spy’s mother who shed a few tears….
Back to school needs and prayers
Going through our kids’ near-empty pants drawers made me realize two things today: a) our kids are growing way too quickly out of their previous clothes, and b) we need to get some more basics before school starts — tomorrow.
A trip to Uniqlo and our kids have some clothes that fit. Phew. Schoolbags are packed and prepared with first-day-of-school stuff (do you know in Japan they need to take cleaning rags to school on the first day? Japanese school kids all scrub the floors, desks, etc.). They also need to take these red soft pillows that sac child has on the back of their chair. In case of an earthquake, they can use it to cover their heads. Smart.
Tonight we once again did our back-to-school ritual after dinner. Each of us shared a prayer request that we want to ask God to help us with this next year, and lit a candle. Then the person on the left prayed for them, and then they shared. We went around the table. It was great to have our friend Ray with us – he shared too. At the end, everyone blew out their candle.
My prayer request for this new school year is God’s wisdom in helping us step by step figure out how to best help our children in Japanese school as well as learning English at home, AND that I won’t drive Ian’s pre-school crazy with things that I forget to do (I was sure they would have banned any more Takamoto kids after our first year in Ishinomaki when my life was so topsy-turvy…). They prayed for friendships at school; for help with Japanese/kanji; our youngest prayed for his first year of school that he would “have a nice time and have good manners.” His teacher is going to thank God for that prayer!
One of the most touching things from this day happened earlier than any of this, though. One of my friends from the Nozomi Project, Mrs. M.*, called me. She said she remembered when I had prayed for her when she was sick, and God had healed her, and wondered if I could pray for her daughter today? Her 17 year old is starting her last year of high school tomorrow. She told me that her last two years have been incredibly lonely for Y.* She has had no friends, and each day she would each her lunch — all by herself.
Needless to say, Y hasn’t been very excited about going back to school tomorrow. She was dreading it. So her mom Mrs. M. asked if they could call me and have me pray about this. Y agreed. Y even got on the phone, and we prayed together.
At the end of the prayer, I asked Y. if she believes that God loves her and cares about her. She said Yes! She and her mom had been at snow camp and experienced the power of prayer before; I can see changes in her life. In my prayer, I asked God not just to bring friends to her but also to give Y. the courage it takes to initiate friendships… to find others who may be feeling lonely and show them love as well. And that she will know that God is walking with her, step by step.
I am excited for what God will do. I can’t tell you how amazing it is that Mrs. M. would call out of the blue and ask me to pray over the phone for her daughter. We have a God who loves to show His grace and His love when we ask as Mrs. M. and Y have asked! Please join me in continuing to pray for them; as well as for the many other children starting school tomorrow who need courage to go back tomorrow. (And maybe a little prayer for a four year old who is quite afraid of starting preschool on Thursday – for him to have a good time and good manners, to boot!)
(*Changing even the initials just to protect my friends. But when you pray, God knows who they are!)
Date Night – dare you not to love it!
It has been awhile since our last date night – it was great fun to get out tonight! Being centered in the thriving metropolis of Ishinomaki, Japan, it is rare that we are able to find something to do besides dinner at one of the local restaurants. Tonight, however, we struck it lucky — there was a movie that our friend recommended (thanks Lora~!) that was playing at our local theatre at a time that we could make it. So woohoo! tonight was dinner AND a movie to boot.
I really, really, cannot remember the last time I enjoyed a movie so much. I just can’t remember one. Where I didn’t look at my iPhone — not even ONCE. I made myself not go to the bathroom because I didn’t want to miss a minute. The scenery was breathtaking. I laughed aloud (often we were the only ones laughing — not sure if the eight Japanese people also in the theatre got the humor or not?). I actually screamed aloud one time (ok – probably no one else reading this who watches the movie will scream aloud. It is a bad Sue habit when I don’t see something coming in the movie. It might have happened twice). It was surprising…sad (but not very)…. touching… it made me smile ear to ear. And the music was so so fun–Eric and I both said in the car that we want to buy the soundtrack.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Japanese title is just Life!). I dare you not to love it. Let me know.
Snow Camp!
We are still recovering from snow camp – but in a good kind of way. Our two nights/three days were SO MUCH FUN – i think for everyone. We had about fifty attend, and it was a wonderful blend of ages, from very little to high schoolers to parents in different life stages. It was unusual in some ways to have afternoons completely free for playing in the snow, going to the onsen, sitting around and talking, playing games…. My prayer for this camp was that participants would: a) have the funnest time they’ve had in a LONG LONG time, and b) that all would have chances to experience more of the love of Jesus. I think God answered!
Rather than lots of words, this blog is going to be — lots of pictures. You can see the snow fun…. One of our staff said on the last day that it was worth it to see the faces of sheer joy as they went down the hill on the intertubes. I screamed every time – it was as fun as any of my childhood memories.
It was really fun to do lots of games and skits that participants would NEVER expect! And what I loved was no matter how crazy they were — everyone was a great sport and willing to do what it took. Once again– I love seeing the faces of glee…
The camp staff were so awesome… it is run by two families, and all of the kids in the families are part of the serving staff. They touched us so much! They did whatever they could to make sure that everyone had a great time. Thanks to a scholarship fund that the camp had set up, all of our local Ishinomaki residents/survivors were able to go for an incredibly cheap price, allowing whole families to attend.
And I think… that in various ways– through the fun, the worship, the times of sharing about God’s immense and gracious love for us… that people experienced God in a new way. Getting away can be so, so good for the soul.
Along the coast
This is spring break, and today we spent a fun day with our family. It might not have been the wisest thing we have ever done, given the unusual circumstances of the day– but it was fun!
We decided to go for a family bike ride across the inlet to the San Juan Baptista Park. It took most of the morning to get the bikes de-winterized – pumped up – and ready to go. Then we were off!
It became really windy, but it was still so fun to be out together. I have to say that our third child whined the whole way up the very long and steep hill (walking her bike most of the way) – but a fun time was had by all on our picnic, most of the time!
What we thought about later was how it perhaps wasn’t a wise decision to take our family biking along the shoreline of Ishinomaki… since we had been under a tsunami advisory all day. Because of the major earthquake in Chile yesterday, this morning at 3 am there were the unmissable sirens and loud announcements over the area loudspeakers, telling those along the shoreline to evacuate and all others to be on the alert. As a result of the this alert all day, a number of our Nozomi staff could not come in… one husband was not allowed to go home to his family while the advisory was in effect. (The advisory was lifted around 5 pm; only small waves came in to northern Japan as a result of yesterday’s earthquake).
Also this morning — while Eric and I were talking about the middle-of-the-night warning sirens, we had a pretty strong rattle – this one from an earthquake in Iwate. It woke up our kids and got us all moving for our outing! I have been seeing a lot written the past few days about the ring of fire earthquake zone. The earth around us does seem to be moving quite a bit… I remain so thankful for the ongoing promise of God’s presence with us. It has been a good, non-predictable day.
The Takameter 
