Numbers to measure your life by?

21, 29, and 43

The number of planes each of our boys have been on. Set to increase by eight before we settle back in Japan in July.

Who has conversations like this? Families like ours!

They also ask:

• "How many countries have I been to?"

Four for the two youngest (Australia, Japan, Hong Kong & South Korea) and seven for our eldest son (Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Guam). David  and I have been to ten between us, all in Asia.

Not so many really. And some of those were just airport stops. Mostly we've just travelled back and forth between Australia and Japan, and a little bit within both countries.

Other numbers that help define our lives?

• How long have you lived in Japan? About 12 years (for the three eldest people in our family).
• How old were you when you went to Japan? 18 months for our eldest, 3 months for our youngest and our middle son was born there.
• When are you going back? End of June.
• For how long? Probably for three years until our next home assignment.

Are you paid to do that?

My 8 y.o. asked me this the other day about my editing work. My first response was, "No."

But when I stopped for a second and thought about it I changed my answer to, "In a way, yes."

It was similar to an awkward question that a visitor from Australia asked recently. He asked, "Wendy, do you have a job...um, I mean, do you work outside the house, um, I mean not to say that being a stay at home mum..." 

Well, I put him out of his agony and said that I do indeed, "have a job that is beyond taking care of my family, but for the most part I do it from 'inside my home'. 

Other things intervened here and I wasn't able to give a more extended answer, however if I could, I would have explained that it is not a "paid job" as in no one from JEMA pays me to edit the magazine. No one from OMF pays me to head up the 31 Days of Prayer for Japan, project.

Being a missionary is a strange career when you compare it to most people's work. We're basically professional volunteers. We aren't living off our savings or an inheritance. But we aren't paid by an employer either, instead our needs are supplied by people and groups who choose to be a part of our story. Those people don't require us to submit time sheets,

This was taken at the very start of this overseas
adventure in 2000. Don't we look young!

or produce a tangible result for their contributions.

Our mission leaders do hold us to certain standards, standards that include pretty personal reviews (see here). They "pay" us, as in they handle the money that is given to support us and they put it into our bank account. The organisation is pretty useful financially-wise, actually. Most of that money is given in Aussie dollars, but we're paid in Japanese yen. Because our organisation is international, I believe we save a lot of money in international bank transfers (but don't ask me to explain that!)

The other big expectation of our mission is that we report back to our supporters. Not with a time card, or a written report, or a financial returns statement, but in person. That is what our home assignment is partly for: to reconnect with all those people who choose to "pay" us for what we do.

Of course the explanation here gets tricky. About half of our "support" comes from David's job as a teacher. A regular job where he has regular hours and regular employer's expectations upon him. That money gets paid to OMF and not directly to us, however.

So, anything I do as a missionary is on the one hand as a "volunteer" but on the other hand it is "paid". It's a tricky question! I don't get paid by the hour for the editing work I do, nor do I have a contract. But I wouldn't be able to do it except for the people who give so that we can be here (otherwise I'd have to have a job with an employer who did expect me to fill out time cards).

Such a great job to have! I really wouldn't like to exchange it for a regular job.

Different skin colours gets close to home

I had an interesting discussion with my two younger boys tonight as I put them to bed. They've noticed that the skin colours of their classmates differs considerably. They have African, Asian and European kids in their classes. And various amounts of each - so half-Japanese half-American children, quarter-Asian three-quarter Caucasian etc. Various shades of brown, mostly. Our boys are one of the few totally Caucasian children in the lower grades of CAJ.

They have also tended to call white people "English", meaning that that is what they speak (stemming directly from the fact that Japanese people speak Japanese). So the whole issue is rather clouded.

We've just started sponsoring a child in Africa. Our 5 y.o. keeps thinking he's seeing this young boy at school - because there are a handful of Africans there. Obviously the whole area needed some attention.

I needed to clarify why skin colour is different, especially that it doesn't relate to where you were born or what language you speak or where you've lived your life. That is comes from your parents. This was a particularly confusing point to them because our middle son was born in Japan, but doesn't look Japanese.

I pointed out to them that many Australians are not white - that there are African-Australians and Asian-Australians. When I pointed out that there were even Japanese-Australians, my nearly 8 y.o. was quick to say - "Like us?" So, while he is not Japanese on the outside or even sound like a Japanese person, he obviously considers himself part-Japanese!

They have friends of all sorts of colours. There is no real racial bias. It is merely understanding why people look different. What a special opportunity we have to do that. I think it is pretty special that our children can consider themselves part-Japanese too.

Ignorance is bliss?

I am pondering our 3 yo's question: "Will we eat in Australia?" I don't even know how to start to expand this bright child's understanding of the massive move that we are about to make. We'll be in Australia for a year, but ignorance is bliss?