When the everyday things trip you up

Almost 4 years ago I landed in the USA with no keys and no cell phone.  My parents graciously loaned me one of theirs until I could figure out what to do.

Figuring it out was not that easy.

I had come to the USA for one year, but the cell phone companies only had 2-year contracts. 

My cell phone plan in Japan came with 30 minutes of talk time per month (and no free nights or weekends).  I think the plans in the USA started at 400 minutes (plus free nights and weekends).

I didn't know what was considered average cell phone use here, nor could I predict what my usage would be.

To say I was confused would be an understatement.  Eventually, with much frustration, I signed a contract for two years, prepared to pay the (steep) penalty, and with an option to change the terms of my contract at any point (i.e., more or less minutes, but always still in contract).

It worked out, but not without much stress.

A few months ago, I upgraded my phone (from the free-in-2009, senior citizens' flip phone).  I had never upgraded my phone before.   I felt very American and enculturated to casually walk in to the cell phone store and without thinking about it, sign up for another 2-year contract.

While I did so casually, I was constantly aware that it's never been easy like this for me before, and it isn't easy for people just visiting the USA (even for a year).

When the clerk returned from the back room, where she transferred my contacts from my old phone to my new phone (--- again, something I had never experienced!), she informed me that my new phone doesn't have a place to hang my strap.

:)

I've never seen an American with a strap on their phone, but since my 2009 model had a place for one, I hung a strap (of Mount Fuji) from my Japanese phone, and have carried around a little bit of Japan with me these past few years.

Sayonara、携帯ストラップ！  (Farewell, cell phone strap!)

1000 Gifts, Vol. 4, #61

621.  the view from a highway built on a rise, looking down onto and across a field of corn recently tasseled

622.  chicory & Queen Anne's Lace lining the roadsides

623.  a neighbor kindly taking care of a package UPS brought us while we were on vacation

624.  taking time out between leaving our vacation spot and arriving home

625.  finally reading a book Ann Voskamp mentioned years ago (Buy it!)

626.  time with family

627.  God's grace in a tightly scheduled week (In the space of 5 days last week we scheduled: 3 doctor's appointments, 2 fasting labs, 3 professional appointments, 2 Bible studies, a hair appointment, picture for the church directory, and volunteering at a summer outreach)

628.  full moon rising out my kitchen window, against the backdrop of a midnight blue velvety sky

629.  pork chop dinner in the fire hall of a nearby village, followed by sharing a bag of kettle corn while walking through the festival area of booths & games

630.  sitting in our bag chairs between the road and someone's soybean field and watching the most fantastic fireworks show we'd ever seen ... 35 minutes' worth ... put on by said nearby village (population 700)

Reading together: God's Word

How do you help your non-Christian friends meet Christ?  Invite them to a big event at church? 

How do you help your new Christian friends put down roots in their faith?  Suggest a class at church?

How do you & your long-time believing friends grow and mature?  Form a special-interest group or study a certain curriculum?

That’s how we tend to think, and while those can all be great options, I recently read a book which proposes a different idea:  the simple concept of reading God's Word with one other person.

In his 75-page book titled One-to-One Bible Reading, David Helm reminds us of why the Word is powerful.  It’s powerful for the salvation of our non-Christian friends. James 1.21 tells us it “is able to save your souls.”  It’s powerful for sanctification of believers, teaching, reproving, correcting, and training us in righteousness (2 Tim. 3.16). 

Helm goes on to say that time spent reading God’s Word one-to-one can “be used to identify & train people for greater ministry responsibility.”  And, given our disconnected culture and the hunger for relationships of substance, reading God’s Word with someone can provide community in a way the world can never offer.   

In a survey reported in the 2009 book, Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them, 61% of twenty-somethings said “Yes,” when asked to disagree or agree with the following statement: “I’d be willing to study the Bible if a friend asked me to.”  42% of people over 30 said, “Yes.”

What if each of us reading this asked someone this week, “Would you have any interest in reading the Bible with me for a few weeks?” 

Helm anticipates the excuses we might have, and then role-plays how to ask a friend and how to have your first meeting. He includes two appendices of questions (that you can copy):   

8-weeks' worth of questions to go with a sampling of passages in Mark, and 

lists of COMA (Context, Observation, Meaning, Application) questions specifically for various types of literature in the Bible (e.g., Gospels, Old Testament narrative, wisdom literature, prophecy, etc.).

Any believer should be able to take these ideas and handouts and read God's Word with anyone interested (no matter where their reading partner is on the spectrum of belief & maturity).

God’s plan is to use His people to spread His Word.  Would you pray about who you could invite to read the Bible with you?  I’d love to hear how God prompts you and shows up to do His work through His Word!

Paperback Swap

1-1-1-3-1.

That's what Paperback Swap tells me.

I have one book to mail, one book I've requested, one book en route to me, three books I've mailed, and one wish list hold.

• Books to Mail (1)
• Books I've Requested (1)
• En Route to Me (1)
• Books I've Mailed (3)
• Wish List Holds (1)  

If you have any books taking up space on your shelves that you probably won't read again or won't use as reference or don't want to have on hand to loan out to others, consider listing them on Paperback Swap.

After you list 10 books, you start earning credits.  One credit = one book.  If you request a book from someone else, it costs you one credit. If someone requests a book from you and you send it, you earn one credit.

When you send a book, you pay postage.  When someone else sends you a book, they pay postage.

It's brilliant in its simplicity!

You can list 200 books on your wish list for free.  For some of the books on my wishlist, I'm first in line, but no other members have listed that title as one they have available to send.  For other books, I'm #16 on the list. 

Some months I have no activity in my account (no books to mail out, no books to receive), and then other months I feel like I'm going to the post office everyday. :)

You don't have to go to the post office everyday. When a request is emailed to you, you have a choice of accepting it or not, and of mailing it now or within the next five days. You can also easily put your account on vacation during busy times.

And, it's not just paperbacks. You can send/receive hardcovers and even audio books (though each audio book = 2 credits). 

I believe Paperback Swap is only for the U.S., but I've heard Book Mooch, a similar concept, is worldwide.

Taking a Challenge

Recently I noticed on Facebook that a friend is taking her city's 100 miles in 90 days fitness challenge.  I don't live in her city, and Tiny Town isn't having any such challenges that I've heard about.  But I printed a July - September calendar, posted it on our fridge, and started logging my miles!  Since we'll be gone so much in July, I started out doing more than a mile a day.  In the first 8 days, I logged 12 miles (mostly on our treadmill ... after months of no use), and started searching for a mid-to-late September 5K to walk.

Taking a challenge ~ even on my own ~ apparently motivates me.

Looking back, last November I took the Thankful for 100 Things challenge, though I never completed it. 

And last October, I took the Weight Watchers 8-weeks-til-Thanksgiving challenge (which I did complete successfully!).

Just a few weeks ago I also signed up for a 30-day challenge  from Revive our Hearts.  They offer several and send emails to your inbox daily.

During May, some friends and I did the de-cluttering challenge.

And, of course, there's my life-changing 1000 Gifts challenge from November 2006.

Yes, apparently I just need a good challenge.  What about you?  Do you work well with a challenge like these?  Do you have any challenges to recommend?
 

Getting my hymn fix

How do you get your hymn fix these days?

I love it when my inbox has an email from Discovery House Publishers, announcing a new CD release. 

Discovery House has consistently been a good source for me to find hymns.

I listen to all the samples, and, if I like it, it goes on my wishlist.  It may stay there forever, or it may become a Christmas gift. 

Recent releases include:

• Favorite a capella hymns   (the title song of which was based on a quote by Lilias Trotter [one of my all-time favorite missionary biographies!] who wrote, "Turn full your soul's vision to Jesus, and look and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him.")
•  
• Hymns with harp & vocals   (which has one of my favorites, "Come, Ye Sinners, Poor & Needy")
• 
  
• Bluegrass Baroque   (which blends my place of birth and my husband's love of classical music)  :)

The Longer I Serve Him

Perhaps the biggest difference I experience between life in Japan and life in the U.S.A. is the spiritual heritage of the people around me.   

 

Less than 1/2 of 1% of Japanese people name the name of Jesus.  So, most of the people around me everyday in the grocery store, on the trains, in my conversational English classes, and in my neighborhood were not believers in Jesus.  The Japanese believers I knew were mostly first generation believers and primarily recent believers.  

 

Contrast that with living now in a "Christian" nation and in a region that has a heavy Christian influence and in a rural area where farmers from hearty German stock have been good church-goers for generations.

 

While Jim and I did not have the privilege of meeting each other's grandparents, this spring I heard a recording of his grandfather singing a solo in a church service when he was in his late 70s or early 80s.  

 

You can watch and listen to someone else singing it here:  

(The words are below.)

 

 The Longer I Serve Him

Since I started for the Kingdom,
Since my life He controls,
Since I gave my heart to Jesus,
The longer I serve Him,
The sweeter He grows.

Chorus
The longer serve Him, the sweeter He grows,
The more that I love Him, more love He bestows;
Each day is like heaven, my heart overflows,
The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows.

Ev'ry need He is supplying,
Plenteous grace He bestows;
Ev'ry day my way gets brighter,
The longer I serve Him,
The sweeter He grows.

Chorus
The longer serve Him, the sweeter He grows,
The more that I love Him, more love He bestows;
Each day is like heaven, my heart overflows,
The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows.

We benefit so much from hearing those who've gone before us repeat that God is good & faithful!  Is that the message younger people hear from me?