It's nine days since I last wrote here and I'm definitely feeling more settled and am a little less "discombobulated". Yesterday I cooked two different meals in our friends' kitchen (successfully and without undue stress), I feel like that proves the point!
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| We've also been trying to keep up with regular walking. This part of Queensland has some beautiful spots to walk. |
Normal for July is that I'm balancing my online work with the Japan Harvest magazine and our organisation's social media with David being on "summer" holidays. What's not usual is that we're also spending time with people we don't normally see: the friends we're staying with, family, church family, and other friends. It's all very good and worthwhile, but also challenging to get a good balance. I suspect we'll be a little weary when we get back to Japan.
One interesting thing I've noticed is that the time frame that we're here for (5 weeks) means that people who really want to see us are more motivated to make the time, and we're more likely to seize the moment and go for it. Six months or twelve months provides a lot of time to get a better balance (and more rest) but less urgency to get things done.
Our main purpose of being here is to spend time with our kids, and you can see below that we've been very intentional about that.
Here are some of the things we've done in the last 10 days:
- Had a "State of Origin" party (high profile rugby league game between our state and another) at our youngest son's house with his brother.
- Met my parents for lunch.
- Met different long-term friends on three occasions for lunch or coffee.
- Wendy went to an afternoon tea fun gathering with other women from our home church.
- David’s gone to a couple of men’s coffee mornings.
- A couple of routine medical/optometry visits.
- Drove to 75 km to the north of Brisbane for an open night at a camp that our youngest son is at with Christians from his uni (and another local uni).
- Went to a movie with our middle son and had lunch at his place another day.
- David went to another movie with our hosts and youngest son.
- Most nights we've had dinner with our hosts.
Someone asked me the other day how often we come to Australia, and I had to say that there is no usual now, it's actually in flux as we figure out this new chapter in our lives. But as we go about life here this month, we're thinking about the middle of next year. Our organisation has a key value of ensuring missionaries spend time in their "home" countries. There are five purposes for that:
1. Reporting to churches concerning the ministry/work.
2. Participation in the mobilisation work of the OMF Homeside.
3. Rest and renewal.
4. Reunion with family, friends, and supporting churches.
5. Re-equipping for a more effective ministry.
There used to be a pattern of around four years of service "on the field" and one year in your "sending country" the latter year being called "home assignment". This has been changing in the 25 years we've been working in Japan. Now, for various reasons, it's less common to do one year home assignments and thankfully our organisation is flexing to accommodate. And we're re-evaluating our own plans in the light of our new season without children at home anymore.
This time next year we're planning to do a short home assignment, probably June and July. There are many reasons for this, which I won't bore you with. But we're hoping it will be a viable ongoing option for the future because the whole upheaval that goes with moving to Australia for six months to a year is a lot. We've done it five times now and are fairly reluctant to do it again, though we know the value of the above points!
We've got two and a half more weeks before we fly back to Japan now and it's probably going to fly by fast with more of the types of social engagements you see above. We're trying to seize the moment and be as present as we can as we spend time with precious people we would not otherwise see.
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