Getting close to leaving for our 6th home assignment

Three years ago I wrote a six-article series for OMF US about home assignments, particularly about all the preparation that goes into one.* When I was finished with that project, I realised I'd written 4,500 words! I didn't realise I had so much to say on the topic, but clearly I did.

I think this is the actual plane that took
us back to Australia for our first home 
assignment, the first and last time we travelled
with just our eldest two kids between Japan
and Australia (our youngest was born during
our first home assignment).

We're now two weeks out from our sixth home assignment and I have to acknowledge that this is something I know a fair bit about. We've spent 4 ½ years of the last 25 ½ years actually "doing" home assignment. We've spent at least that much time again "planning for" home assignments. That's about a third of our missionary service and a good chunk of our adult lives!

We're now staring down the barrel of 13 more sleeps before we fly to Australia for an intense nine weeks of speaking at gatherings and meeting people (plus two weeks of holidays in the middle). 

Back in February, I wrote about why we've decided to do a much short home assignment this time.The preparation phase certainly been a lot less intense and also shorter, a good portion of that is due to not having any kids at home anymore, but it's also due to the shorter length of our absence from Japan—because we won't be away all that long, we've not really had to hand our jobs over to anyone and we're not having to move out of our house or organise a rental in Australia. As a result, it feels a lot more like a short visit to Australia, than a home assignment like we've known in the past. 

In the past, as we've crept closer to leaving for home assignment, my body has shown indications: especially infections, poor sleep, and headaches. Not to mention a skittishness that comes with having to split one's attention between two different locations—finishing here and thinking about landing there. Up until this week I've had none of that. Because it still feels like a "short visit" rather than a "home assignment" I've been a little surprised this week at how my body is giving me small hints that a change is coming. I've been struggling a little with sleep and also the ability to concentrate on harder tasks. Hopefully it won't become a major issue and I'll be able to continue with working through next week because there's plenty to do at the moment.

Today I had meetings pertaining to the two main ministries I'm involved in (Japan Harvest magazine and OMF Japan social media) and both involved planning for the coming months. Naturally I want to get as much as I can done before we pack our bags and leave for Australia on the 20th. I'll still have work on both of these ministries to do while we're in Australia, but I'm hoping it will not be too much. Most of the 20+ "events" that we will be present at will be on weekends or evenings, so we're planning for downtime during the week. 

It's going to be another home assignment like we've never done before (just like our last one). I called it an experiment in our most recent news/prayer letter...one that we will reflect on when we get back in August and decide what we'll do next time!

* You can find links to them all here: https://omf.org/us/what-home-assignment-means-for-a-missionary-part-6/

Two large books!

I don't read paper books very often these days. Ebooks from the library are definitely more within my budget! They have other advantages too: like being able to read in bed without a light (works for camping brilliantly!) and being able to read without physically holding the book (works for reading while eating).

But somehow I've ended up reading these two large physical books at the same time. The total number of pages between them is more than 1,000! I don't have big hands and they're definitely both a handful.

Dominion is much more of a mental "handful" than Homecoming, though. For starters, the font is, I think 9! Which puts it at "dictionary" or "Bible" level. It's small. But the topic is what makes it a real mental challenge. It's covering around 2000 years of history in its 500 or so pages. 

"The book is a broad history of the influence of Christianity on the world, focusing on its impact on morality – from its beginnings to the modern day. According to the author, the book 'isn’t a history of Christianity' but 'a history of what's been revolutionary and transformative about Christianity: about how Christianity has transformed not just the West, but the entire world.'" (Wikipedia)

It moves fast and the Zoom lens following events shifts in and out rapidly. The author uses big words and assumes you know a fair bit of history already. I've had to try to read quickly, which sounds counterintuitive, but by reading quickly I can catch his drift without getting bogged down by the details and lose track of where he's going with his meta narrative. I've heard this book referenced numerous times in the podcast I like: "Undeceptions". When David found it at a bookstore in Australia last year when I was "redeeming" a book voucher, it seemed like a good challenge to set myself for 2026.

Homecoming is a family saga set mostly in Australia (the font is larger, 12, I think). I think this book was given to me by a friend who was packing up to leave Japan for a time. I'm enjoying it and moving through it at quite a good pace, I might even tackle another one of this author's books in the future. 

Dominion is more of a "it'll take at least six months" kinda book. Because my work involves a lot of reading and editing, I am pretty picky about the quality of the things and the genres I read in my spare time, but also prefer easy-to-digest reading. Reading Dominion is hard work and I don't always have the mental capacity to digest it after all the reading I've done at work.

I read a lot. I fell in love with books at an early age. They are my go-to for relaxation. Sometimes people ask me when I fit it in. I read if I'm eating alone (which is during weekdays most days), I read to go to sleep. I read during the night if I can't go back to sleep. I read in waiting rooms and on trains—another good reason to use ebooks, because I can access the library app on my phone as well as my Kindle, I don't have to carry a heavy book or extra device around with me. Basically, I read when I have spare time, but also mental capacity—I do play (logic, word, and puzzle) games on my phone too.

What have you been reading this month?

Living in Japan is very different to visiting during cherry blossom season

Recently I saw an article about a former Australian model, Anton, who has gotten into real estate in Japan. We're periodically seeing news about really cheap (or free) properties for sale. I don't know how much they are promoting them overseas, but certainly for young Australians who are a little bit obsessed by Japan and also facing crazy real estate prices in their home country and also high costs of living, it's a temptation.

As an aside, David and I ate a light dinner last night for a combined total of 1,250 yen or AU$11, we could never do that in Australia. Yes, the exchange rate yen to Australian dollar is good at present, but it is definitely much more possible to eat out affordably in Japan than it is in Australia.

This is where we formerly lived for 13 years.
They knocked the house down a year after we
moved out of it and built a new one.

But where am I going with this blog post? No, I am not looking to invest in property in Japan (or Australia). I'm sharing because Anton had some insightful things to say about Japan:

“Japan has an ageing workforce and historically a 'scrap and rebuild' culture rather than a renovation culture. Houses built before 1981 are often considered outdated due to seismic code changes, which affects financing. Banks are less willing to lend on older homes, which is part of why they’re cheap.”

We'd long noted that renovation is much less common here, although perhaps that's changing. 

He said the biggest risk was the misconception that cheap equals opportunity.

It's important to understand why the houses are cheap: 

“Many of these homes are cheap because towns are shrinking, demand is weak, demolition costs exceed structure value.” He said in many cases, the land has value but the house itself may have negative value.

A house can also be cheap if someone has died in it. 

“If someone thinks they can renovate and flip like in Sydney or Melbourne, they will likely be disappointed. Appreciation works very differently in Japan. You must buy for lifestyle or long-term strategy, not quick resale profit.”

Then he says more about life in Japan: 

“Ownership is easy,” he said, but “living here long term requires planning”.

"Living in Japan is very different from visiting during cherry blossom season. Japan rewards patience, cultural respect and long-term thinking.”

Living in another country is very different to being a tourist. I think this is where I run into difficulty talking with people who have only ever travelled overseas as a tourist. It is harder, but in many ways also easier to live in a country rather than be a tourist. When you live somewhere you get insider knowledge. You learn how (some) things work, you start to understand the unspoken rules. You start to operate in ways that create less waves around you. You find a dentist and a hairdresser, you have a source for regular medication. You know where to go to find what groceries you want to buy.

In any case, I read many things during my week and I take notice of the ones that my mind returns to. This was one that had some great wisdom, though admittedly it was buried way down at the bottom of the article where many would never see it.

See the full story here.

Unexpected hospitality opportunity

Yesterday I did something a bit unusual. 

I'm gradually realising that having extra free time gives me the opportunity to say yes to unexpected opportunities to serve and to connect with people. This month I've had coffee on two occasions with two different friends who happened to be in my neck of the woods and had time to spare. Both of them prefaced their invitation with "I've got this crazy idea"...and I was able to say yes both times and have precious time with them.

Then last Wednesday I got a message from a colleague about the five-day workshop she was organising at our OMF Japan headquarters this week. She was urgently trying to make sure the 23 people attending had lunch each day and they'd suddenly found themselves without someone to make lunch one of the days. As it turns out my work this week is pretty slow, so I had the time to go and do this. 

It was a big task, though, because it takes nearly two hours to get to the OMF headquarters on the other side of Tokyo by train (there's currently no car parking onsite due to renovations). So the decisions I had to make as I executed this plan were:

• selecting a meal that I could quickly make with easily accessible ingredients in the kitchen (two microwave-sized ovens, a two-burner stove, but lots of bench/counter space)
• budgeting—using two cheaper stores that I have close to me that I know they also have near JHQ
• figuring out quantities for this number of people
• figuring out timing, which included me buying the ingredients after I got there on the day, using a borrowed bike, and then doing the cooking

And then executing the plan. I couldn't do much prep at home or take much with me because of the train travel (and most of them quite crowded).

I did well on the first two of the above, not so well as the second two:

1. I bought too many ingredients. One of my biggest fears as a mum of teenage boys was not having enough food, so I've learned to cook too much! But because this was just day three of a five-day live-in workshop, there was plenty of scope for using the leftover salad and other things later in the week.

2. I didn't have enough time to do all that I'd planned on my own, but I easily found two wonderful helpers.

Sadly, the only photo I took of the whole event
was of the leftover ingredients at the end!

What did I make? Loaded potatoes: baked/jacket potatoes that you "load up" with various fillings. It was buffet style and I provided bacon, grated cheese, chickpeas, boiled egg, and yoghurt (cheaper substitute to sour cream). I also had a bunch of raw salad options that people could choose from to add to their plate as well as salad dressing, and a platter with the fruit that cheapest right now (apples, bananas and pineapple). It was a healthy, tasty, and economical meal that didn't require too much cooking and could easily be sourced locally.

It was a joy to use my ability to cook (again) to serve others outside of our household. I've been sharing baked goodies at church and mission events, and hosting people at our house for meals even so often, but this was another level of hospitality. Many who live close to JHQ do this all the time, but because of where we live, I haven't been asked to.

And, as I've noted many times in the past, an opportunity to serve practically like this provides many other opportunities to interact meaningfully with my colleagues. I had several good conversations that filled my heart with joy (and with things to take to the Lord in prayer).

Ordinary obedience is overlooked

I've continued thinking about the same topic I wrote about ten days ago: what to share during our home assignment. Some friends have been encouraging me to talk about ordinary life-stuff. One of them wrote: 

"...real impact often grows out of ordinary obedience, lived out over time." Just read this sentence in Martyn Iles' intro to his latest "At the Crux" podcast episode....referencing Daniel whose "faithfulness, integrity, and consistency were already visible" from the beginning (not just in the lion's den incident).

It's thought provoking, but also encouraging—that if we are faithfully seeking God and seeking to serve him in the everyday, it will shine through to others, even when we're not specifically speaking about our faith.

Here's an "ordinary" meal we had one 
night. I did make the bun from
scratch, though.

Therefore, I need to ponder: is it meaningful, as a missionary reporting back to supporters, if we talk about the ordinary things we do? Do we actually need extraordinary stories, or is reporting back about our daily life and work actually more meaningful and more encouraging? I'm thinking it might even be more relatable to those we speak to. After all, we're doing work that is more like what the majority of Christians do: working as a teacher and administrator, an editor and team leader, not church planters or evangelists. And on Sunday we're just a part of a church, much like most Christians are on a Sunday.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote this in our monthly news/prayer letter:

Here are some small ways we served others in March:

Wendy drove a car full of people to a women’s retreat. During the retreat she helped her roomie who was sick and held a colleague’s baby while she went to the toilet. She listened to a friend talk about her concerns about her boyfriend. The nights before and after the ladies retreat we hosted a young Australian lady who rode to the retreat with Wendy.

David drove a bus full of students to an athletics meet, hung around all day and into the night, before driving them home again.

We attended our church’s Wednesday prayer meetings, listened to and prayed for various church members.

David led worship on March 22nd and Wendy played. Later in the week one of the other pianists told us that the song “Meekness and Majesty” had been playing through her head all week (it was new to her and most in the church).

We spent several hours with a colleague in OMF leadership, enjoying fellowship and sharing one another’s burdens over food and games.

Wendy baked for our monthly church morning tea (David washed up).

David helped missionaries access the storage facility OMF rents not far from us to help meet the furnishing needs of various missionaries who were moving.

Wendy listened to a lady at church whose husband has recently had significant surgery and another lady who is seeking God’s leading in her career and personal life.

Most of this doesn’t seem all that significant. We’re not bragging about these things and definitely aren’t looking for applause. You have probably done similar things this month. It is good to remember that Paul told us to “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2 NIV). John Stott’s commentary on that verse is, “To love one another as Christ loved us may lead us not to some heroic, spectacular deed of self-sacrifice, but to the much more mundane and unspectacular ministry of burden bearing.” Let’s continue to love another in the small things. 

 Most people can relate to the above fairly ordinary activities. It's not all we did in March and I haven't listed the things that fall under our usual job responsibilities. But these aren't extraordinary and it's almost embarrassing to list them out like this.

What do you think? I'm sure that most of us don't realise how much of Christ is shining through to others and in many ways it's probably good that we don't, otherwise we might think it's because we're pretty special and get big heads! 

But it begs the question: are we metaphorically putting some actions on a pedestal and hiding others away in a drawer? That kind of dichotomy is unhelpful, I think. It encourages us have a dualistic system in our head: going to church and talking to someone about my faith is more important than faithfully serving my friends and family in practical ways. 

And it probably also means that we think of some jobs are more important than others: that a pastor is more important than an electrician, that a worship leader is more important than the church cleaner. And thus "missionaries" are elevated unhelpfully...ah, but now I'm heading into my own hobby horse territory, a topic that I'm writing about in my (possible future) book.

And so, we continue to ponder what we're going to share during our 11 weeks in Australia, when we take on the temporary role of "missionary speaker."

Home assignment prep: help needed

These last couple of weeks have been much more pedestrian than our Spring Break adventure. It's been time to start facing up to the reality that we leave for home assignment in just seven weeks!

This short home assignment is much easier to execute, for that I'm really thankful. Most of the "easy" stuff has been organised:

I need to keep finding ways to share the
gorgeous spring blossoms that surround us :D
This riverside plum tree was visible from
our lounge room a couple of weeks ago.

✓ Get permission from relevant line managers.

✓ Buy plane tickets.

✓ Organise accommodation and transport in Australia.

✓ Set up meeting times.

✓ Organise some holiday time and time with family.

✓ Get people to look after our plants and our apartment while we're gone.

But these tasks remain:

☐ Write talks for the 16+ public speaking engagements we've got organised.

☐ Organise our stories under a cohesive theme that we can present together.

Many of our stories can be used multiple times, but in at least three churches we'll have two opportunities to speak that will potentially include overlaps in people hearing us speak...so a bit of variety is desirable.

I have to admit to feeling a little bit dull about it all. This is the sixth time we've done this and there is little new under the sun that we can say. Our jobs haven't changed significantly. And we're in support ministries, which are hard to talk about. We don't have many (any?) dramatic stories. What on earth are we going to say that isn't going to bore people to tears?

I've come up with a couple of things today. But I'm interested in any ideas from you. What would you like to hear if we were visiting your church or small group?

Spring Break adventures!

Each year the school where my husband works has a one-week holiday called "Spring Break". This is an American term and tradition, one that we embrace as it's the only break in classes at school in the six months between Christmas and the end of the school year in June. 

In recent years our most common activity during this single week in March is to go camping. The weather is starting to warm up, though it can be a little volatile. We experienced it's volatility last week.

Tuesday

We left for our camping trip on Tuesday and the weather was great, if a little cloudy.

Our destination was the Boso Peninsula, east of Tokyo on the other side of Tokyo Bay. The fastest way there from our place, theoretically, is straight across the city and across the bay using the 15.1 km tunnel-bridge built 29 years ago. It features a 9.6 km tunnel, one of the world's longest underwater tunnels, and a 4.4 km bridge. The place where this transitions between a tunnel and a bridge is a tourist destination on an artificial island called the Umihotaru (literally "Sea firefly"). We'd decided to stop here for lunch, but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be enough parking for the traffic it receives and we crept for ages on the access ramp from the tunnel. Frustrating!

But we did get a yummy lunch and then a photo on the deck outside (it was a little chilly):

Location of the artificial island

Another photo of the island that is fashioned like a boat.

We got to our destination early afternoon and had fun setting up our tent. We had a fairly large site (for Japan) and therefore multiple layouts in which we could have set up our tent/tarp annex. It turned out later that our prediction of where possible wind might come from was wrong. We did have a nice view and didn't pay top-price for it.

I put the below photos here for reference for what happened later.

Beautiful sunset first night.

This is where we were located.

On the first night there were a lot of people around, especially young men. They weren't loud, but they also didn't sleep much either. We were located near the amenities block and often heard people walking past.

Wednesday

All our fellow campers packed up the next morning. It's often the case in Japan that people just camp for one night, so we weren't surprised. 

We went for a walk before lunch around the local roads, and then after lunch drove down to the beach for another walk. We played games (Scrabble and Red 7) and the weather was calm and very comfortable and a relaxing day. We were looking forward to more of that the next day.

This new sprout is apparently called a "Jack-in-the-pulpit" or Arisaema Triphyllum.

This is a sign at an archaeologically significant site near our campsite. Apparently
the site has evidence of habitation since around 5 or 6,000 B.C.

Here is the underwhelming (for us lay people) site.

Welcome sign at the campsite. Look at that blue sky.

Selfie on the local beach with my ever-obliging husband

We enjoyed camp pizza, a free hot shower, and then readied the campsite for a rainy night. Weather forecast is something we always keep a close eye on when we're camping and the forecast on Wednesday night was for rain to come in for several hours from around midnight.

Windy night

At around 1 am we realised there was an excessive amount of flapping going on outside and David went out to check. One corner of our tarp-annex had collapsed from the strong wind. From experience he knew that it was best not to try to reconstruct the shelter at that point, so took the whole structure down to the ground and secured it over the top of our equipment.

Then we tried to get more sleep. But it was very broken sleep. I thought about stories from the Bible that involved storms, including the amazing story of Jesus sleeping in an open boat in a storm. And I tried to read my book on my Kindle to distract my brain from going into "what if" mode. The side of the tent our heads were close to was slapping us on the heads which significantly disrupted any sleep that might have happened. 

Around 4 am I was concerned by further noises outside and opened the door to our sleeping area to investigate. To our surprise, the front of the tent was not where it should have been (around a metre in front of the sleeping area): instead it was almost blown inside to where we were. Investigation showed that the pole holding the fly out there had split and was no longer able to do the job it was designed to do. The whole tent was flapping considerably at this point and it was very noisy. David also discovered that the kitchen had pretty much capsized, which put much of our dining equipment in the muddy grass.

At about 5 am we decided to abandon our sleeping bags and evacuate to the car. The part of the tent where we'd been sleeping was secure and nothing in there was wet, nor did it seem in danger of blowing away, but it was just very noisy and stressful being inside there.

The car was so peaceful in comparison, though I wish I could have gone back to sleep. We sat in the car and watched our tent, passed the time with games (including Scrabble), and ate a small breakfast (70g tub of yoghurt and a mikan/mandarin). Around 9 it started to calm down and we bought some caffeinated drinks from the vending machine at the campsite. 

Thursday: not so restful

Then we started to assess damage and try to make a decision about what to do: did we clean up (including a trip to the laundromat to wash all our towels, tea towels, and rags) and re-erect the tarp shelter and stay on one more night as we'd planned, or did we clean up, pack up and go home? In the end it was the weather forecast that decided us, and that this was supposed to be a holiday. More rain was forecast the next day, which would have meant that we'd be packing up wet the next day. Packing up wet gear has consequences when you're going home to a small apartment where it's harder to dry things, especially the tent. We decided to cut our losses and go home and try to salvage some rest in this short holiday period.

Around 4 or so David piled much of the kitchen stuff against
the fence that delineated our campsite from the next door one.
He tells me he nearly lost the tarp, but thankfully it
caught on a tent rope and he was able to grab it.

This angle shows that the back part of the tent (where we were sleeping)
was still intact, it was just the entry that got a bit demolished by the wind. 
However the wind was hitting the side facing the camera and knocking
us around inside.

Thus ensued four hours of cleaning, drying, washing up, and packing, done with sleep debt and not much food. But the power of water and soap is amazing. I picked up the fry pan out of the muddy grass, washed it up, and later cooked dinner at home with it!

We had conversations with the camp site caretakers who were very sorry that this had happened. They, like us, had not seen any forecast of strong wind (in the worst of it my apps were saying the wind was blowing around 27-37 km/hr, which may or may not have been right for where we were on an exposed ridge). 

Alas, I think the worst was to come. It took about 5 ½ hrs to get home (about 110 km). The congestion driving through Tokyo was pretty bad and Google maps was frustrating, more so because we were tired and hadn't eaten well. We got stuck in 5-10 km/hr traffic in tunnels under Tokyo where there is nowhere to pull over if you're tired.

I saw these guys when we stopped for ice cream after our beach walk.
I think they looked like we did after our windy night!

Rural Japan sight: a tiny tractor! Really just the size of a small ride-on mower.

Finishing drying out the tent in my office.

Needless to say we slept well on Thursday night. Disappointed, but also glad that we hadn't been so far from home and could bail out fairly easily. 

Friday and Saturday

On Friday we'd planned to meet a friend for lunch on our way home. After a slow morning we were still able to meet her, but sadly got stuck in traffic again. We did have a really lovely afternoon with our friend, though, and I came away feeling refreshed (and we had a good drive home). 

Saturday I had declared to be a "spring clean" at our apartment: tackling things that don't normally get cleaned, like windows, tops of high furniture, etc. But first we finished tidying away the camping gear. I also mended one of the tabs on the tent that had been ripped out by the wind. It was good to clean together and we finished the day feeling satisfied.

Most of our friends will wonder why we even bother with camping when things like this happen. But honestly, this is only the second time in nearly 15 years of camping that we've encountered such wind. And I'd much rather be dealing with this than walking down a very crowded street in Harujuku or going to Tokyo Disney (or be stuck in city traffic)! You take the good with the bad when you go camping and most often it is good. And certainly you store up lots of memories and stories!