Comings & Goings

The team calendar is filled with them. There was only one airport trip last week, but this week, people come and go via Narita on four different days.

To me an airport trip is often like a mini-vacation:

• driving "my" back road through the landscape that reminds me of north Georgia,
• stepping into the foyer of the world of international travel,
• browsing the shops, while dodging suitcases being pulled by tired travelers,
• hearing the cacophony of languages,
  
• seeing English magazines, and
• feeling like I belong in this country, for compared with most visitors flying through Narita, I know how to count my coins or greet the shop clerks in Japanese.
  

But all of that only serves as anesthesia for:

• the emotional pain of what feels like a surgical operation to remove a friend from one's life (even if only for a time)
• or for the intense joy (and accompanying adjustment period) from what feels like receiving a transplant, as new people arrive or old friends return.

This surgery occurs almost weekly, enriching our lives greatly, while at the same time adding more and more points to our total score on a stress test.

Whether people come, or whether people go,
whether I'm here, or whether I'm there,
the only constant in my life is that
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

19 years ago this week

... I landed at Narita Airport.

• I did not even know that in Japan people still take their shoes off inside houses.
• I could barely say "konnichiwa," and even that was laughable, according to the American boys about half my age.
• I had never seen homeschooling in action, yet I was about to start pitching in with the homeschooling.
• I had never lived in a city.
• I had never ridden a train (other than as a tourist).
• I had barely eaten fish - and certainly not seaweed!
• I had never bowed as a greeting, and almost collided with the pastor when he came to meet me, and at the same time that he bowed, I stepped closer and extended my hand for a handshake.
  
• I had hardly met a foreigner - and now I was one!

19 years later, I take my shoes off at multiple front doors each day, I ate rice wrapped in seaweed with fish in the middle for lunch toay, I have learned to survive in a city, I have been squished on trains more times than I can count, I find it odd to shake hands, I am still laughed at by the children playing outside my apartment when I greet them with, "konnichiwa," I have taught more English-as-a-foreign-language classes than I can count, and successive generations of missionary kids have survived my attempts at supplementing their schooling.

And I am still a foreigner! And will be, no matter where I live, until I reach that city.

... having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

1000 Gifts, Vol. 2, #15

141. fresh-baked bread
142. a renewing Sunday afternoon nap
143. my times are in His hands
144. this coming week is in His hands!
145. protection from the flooding this week
146. sudoku & codeword puzzles in the Sunday paper
147. news of two new babies born to friends this week
148. working together with wonderful Japanese co-workers
149. the Body at work - a friend offering her gift of hospitality to host a Bible study I lead
150. still feeling the benefits of rest & time away

My Children

An e-mail, like so many others, was sent to the mission office in Atlanta and forwarded on to me.

The sender would be coming to Japan for a year with his job. Could we tell him of any churches nearby?

I sent the usual information, and he thanked me for my reply, adding that he thought he recognized my name, as we had met at a missions committee meeting at a church in city x, a city, which, in fact, I have never visited.

Some weeks later he showed up at Honda Chapel, put my face with my name, and said, "Oh, you're not so-and-so. But she is just like you, married with a few children."

Oh?!?

~~~~~

A year later, a man from our mission visited Japan. "Do you have kids?" he asked. Pondering how to answer in a way that wouldn't make his question seem uninformed, I exclaimed, "Oh, they're all mine."

~~~~~

I had dinner the other night with some of my many kids. I am very blessed!

1000 Gifts, Vol. 2, #14

131. waking up to a rain-washed earth
132. the relaxation that comes from a fun day of exploring
133. looking ahead to a new start in September
134. planning and looking forward to special times in the coming weeks
135. news from a faraway friend who is excited about what God is doing in her life
136. sharing a Costco run with a friend
137. good time to talk in the car
138. a little bit of sunshine peeking through the clouds
139. when the sun peeks through the dark storm clouds, it really does look like a silver lining
140. God is showing me some silver linings of storm clouds in my life

I am who I am

Today I visited the local branch of the city office in order to purchase a paper that proves that I am who I am. Well, not really; that's a different paper. I purchased a paper proving that my official seal really is my official seal.

When I stamp my personal seal on the documents to transfer my "new" car into my name, I will also file the paper I purchased today which proves that the seal used on the documents is indeed my official seal.

I guess it would be the equivalent of having your signature on file?

It's a quick and painless process, and a normal part of life in Japan. But I don't think I will ever think of it as normal.

7-11 Celebrates the Seasons

Last week I walked into one of the 7-11's on my route, and was greeted by signs advertising their Halloween goods.

Today I walked in and was greeted not only by the signs advertising their newest seasonal good, but also by the smell of that seasonal good. That's right. It's oden season!

Oden is a

Japanese winter dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs, daikon radish, konnyaku, and processed fish cakes stewed in a light, soy-flavoured dashi broth.

While your local convenience store may have a perpetually rotating display of hotdogs, mine has a simmering pot of oden, which I am sure causes people all over Japan to be happy and nostalgic and eager to eat their first oden of the season. I, on the other hand, am considering patronizing other convenience stores until the season is over.