Today's modest achievements

Here's a glimpse of the pseudo-homeschooling that I mentioned back here. Someone gave us a small electronics kit called Snap Circuits (see on the right). The boys have had fun playing around with circuits on it (my dad would be proud, he's been an electrical contractor for a long time). Today the boys have also been doing maths online, reading, writing responses to their reading and colouring in (5 y.o.). I've continued to read the Narnia books to them, something I was doing anyway, even before the recent events.

The book our 8 y.o. read and reported on today.

Here is our white-board timetable which we've been updating daily. The school has offered open times where there are skeleton staff available. You can see here that today the Art room was open for three hours and kids were able to drop in and do various projects. The library was open for borrowing. But kids were also using the computers (families with several children are quite pushed at this time with much demand on computers to do online maths and other activities) and there were adults quietly working, some teachers, some parents.

Each of the school division were given an hour to play in the gym. Our elementary-aged boys played indoor soccer. Our middle school son played basketball. Very necessary physical outlets. I feel sorry for those who live too far away to take advantage of these times.

Wednesday is also the day the school usually has chapel for older students. Today they held an open, relatively unstructured chapel, mostly singing. Unfortunately it was very late (12.15pm) and a struggle for our hungry boys to manage before lunch. But we did appreciate attending as a family and focusing our eyes on God in the midst of our less-than-normal circumstances.

Even this tiny semblance of normality will end after tomorrow as the school goes into its scheduled Spring Break. We're sure we had a whole lot of things we were going to do in Spring Break, but we can hardly remember what they were any more!

 

As has been my common habit during the last 12 days, I went shopping. The shops are getting less depressing and generally have more in them. Two shops later and I had everything on my list. Not all the shelves are filled and there are still conspicuous things short in supply like yoghurt, rice and milk. Different things were difficult to get in different shops, strangely enough. Plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, for which I am very thankful. It is amazing how a situation like we've just gone through makes you thankful for things that previously you took somewhat for granted!

Believe it or not, our suburb hosts a flour mill. David went and got 5kg of bread flour and 5 kg of cake flour. So even though the shops are short on bread, we should be self-sufficient for bread for a while to come (we have a bread maker)!

Non-illuminated sign.

This evening I decided to take a night off cooking and we headed out to Maccas (translation = McDonalds) for tea (translation = evening meal). All good until dessert time. The much anticipated ice-cream wasn't in stock. What I said about dairy products is true at Maccas too!

Lights out.

So we wandered down the road to the 100 yen convenience store and bought some ice-creams there. I snapped a couple of photos to show you something of the effort Japanese are making towards energy conservation. You can see the usually illuminated sign outside the shop is not illuminated and many of the internal lights are not being used either.

This morning I checked the preview of my report for our mission's magazine, East Asia's Millions, and gave them the okay to print it. It is also going to be used on two OMF websites and in a report our director is making to our IHQ in Singapore. Wow, did I ever question whether God could use me as a writer?

I also met with the Japan Harvest Managing Editor to ask some more questions and check that I was headed in the right direction. That was a reassuring meeting and I continue to move headlong in an adventure I feel pretty unprepared for! However, God is providing stories, writers and editors in an amazing way. So not only do I feel as though I'm putting together other people's stories, I feel as though the whole magazine coming together will be a God-honouring story in itself. God loves to work through the weak, doesn't He? Reminds me of the Gideon story with the 300 defeating a whole massive army.

Well, that is today's modest achievements. School will taper down after tomorrow and we'll have to make some plans for recreation for the week afterwards. Because once that week is over it is a hard 10 week slog until early June when summer holidays begin.

Today was cold. Under 10 degrees here in Tokyo. We spent the morning in an unheated school and came home pretty chilly, but were thankful for our kerosene heater with oil in it. Tonight I'm remembering those who don't have enough clothing, food or heating tonight. And praying that they'll get the help they need quickly. Also praying that we get a warm change coming through soon.