Up north conferencing

Hi from Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan four big islands. Our "home state" in Japan. The island we lived on for our first 3 1/2 years in Japan.

But doing a conference in a hotel doesn't feel much like visiting Hokkaido, except I can see end-of-winter scenes out the window. Having just emerged from Tokyo's winter, I'm actually not too keen to go outside and experience and more "winter" cold.

It did feel, however, that we'd come a long way on Monday. It took us eight hours door-to-door to get here, including nearly two hours on crowded train with suitcases to get to the plane. Every time I get excited about travelling, but tend to forget that I actually find it really exhausting.

We've been in missionary circles a long time now: more that 17 years. It's starting to make me feel old because we're definitely above the average for length of stay. I've said before that I'm noticing more and more the absences. The seats that were once filled with people who are no longer here. It's a tiring life, the missionary life, where transition is the norm rather than the exception. And not ordinary transition like marriage or kids starting school, but major transition that involve regular country changes and as a result regular changes in friends, teams, and leadership. It's hard to feel stable in the middle of all that.

It is good to be here gathering with OMF Japan, but also unsettling because there aren't many of my "cohort" anymore (i.e. people who joined the field at a similar time to us). I am glad, though, that I've got an actual role within OMF now. Often David and I have felt a little on the outer as we're not working in a church.

Missionary conferences like this are intense, mostly because there are so many people to interact with. There are 270 here (125 long/termers plus ~60 kids plus childcare team plus short termers plus tentmakers plus others from OMF International). And my extrovert side drives me to interact while my introvert side gets exhausted.

It's also tiring because there are many meetings to sit through. And I'm afraid I'm not a good "sitter". I should have planned to bring something to keep my hands busy while I listen.

I need quiet time to process what's going on and there's not been much of that. We're sharing a Japanese-style room as a family.