Resident missionaries at a high school camp

A few day ago we came home from another camp. We spent four days in Samford Valley, just north-west of Brisbane. This one was a high school camp comprising mostly of youth groups from Presbyterian churches in north Brisbane. There were more than 70 campers. It was a fun camp where we were the official missionaries-in-residence. 

We got to run three 1.5 hour sessions over three days. The first one was for everyone, the other two were electives. 

We got to do our classic: divide the group into four and rotate between four different activities. My job during the rotations was to teach them how to fold an origami balloon: which was pretty challenging when you realise I had just 10 minutes and over 20 people in each group. David taught groups the Japanese words to go with Rock, Paper, Scissors game and one of the four groups learned how to play the "Jan-Ken-Poi train game". We had another missionary who came along to help, ran a chopsticks relay, and they were on their own with instructions on how to run a Japanese slipper relay.

With such generous amounts of time, we got to share quite a lot of stories, especially the story of how we came to be missionaries in the first place, one that originates back in the late 70s. And we spent time on our central theme: missionaries work in teams (at least those in our organisation do). We don't all spend all our time doing church and evangelistic ministry, but we help one another with lots of practical tasks that people don't often think about that are necessary for ministry overseas.

The hidden value of a camp is that you get to talk to people at all sorts of other times too. For example, over a bowl of cornflakes I got to answer the question: So what's helped you stay in Japan for so long? While eating sticky date pudding and ice cream I got cornered by a bunch of older teenage boys who wanted to know about street evangelism in Japan. So many questions: What food do you miss when you're in Japan, and when you're in Australia? How did you meet? Do you enjoy being a missionary? What's your favourite ice cream in Japan? Which convenience store has the best fried chicken (obviously from someone who's spent time there)?

But all this interaction is exhausting. I didn't get to join in all the fun activities because I was so tired, especially at the start of camp (strangely...I think partly due to sleeping badly the first night). We left after dinner on Wednesday night, the day before the camp ended. Yesterday I was fairly blotto. David came and helped me do grocery shopping (on his birthday). Today I'm feeling better, but I'm thankful we have a quiet weekend in front of us, and several days before we're speaking again (next Thursday).

Bush!

The other fascinating aspect of camp for me was that, while we didn't know many people, we had common connections with quite a few. Though we are no longer members of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland (the denomination running the camp), during the first 21 years of my life I went to two of the biggest Presbyterian churches in Queensland. There were a number of other common connections as well, mostly from our university and young adult years.

This camp was not under canvas, but rather we were in cabins. It was in a part of Queensland that we've never been before, a gorgeous large scout-owned site! I'm so glad we went. Most people start to consider mission as something they can get involved in when they are young. Having the opportunity to talk seriously to high schoolers about mission was an incredibly valuable opportunity. Surely more valuable than them just seeing us speak one-time for less than 10 minutes at the front of their church. Only God knows what the long-term effects of our time with these campers and adults will be. 

Campfires every night, with marshmallows on sticks. No s'mores.

This was a fairly central quiet corner of camp: the verandah on the side of 
the main meeting area. I retreated here a couple of times when my voice
and ears were tired!

In case you've never seen one: a paper origami balloon. At least one person 
began this activity saying, "No way, that doesn't even seem possible."

I didn't get the timing right for a full-on sunset, but this was close on the first night.

End of our Perth trip: it was good and hard

Birthday cheesecake.
A very rare occasion
when I didn’t make it myself! 

It’s only been ten days since I last wrote, but a lot has happened in that time. In terms of what we’ve done, we:

• Spoke in front of small and large groups (six times, once in Japanese).
• Had meals or “coffee” with people while answering questions about our life and ministry (eight times at least, I think).
• Spent about 40 hours at a church camp, interacting almost all the time we weren’t asleep.
• Travelled back to Brisbane (about four and a half hrs on a plane).
• Celebrated our middle son’s birthday with a family party on our 26th wedding anniversary.
• Spent a number of hours planning for future events.

Many evenings we’ve had things on: a dinner or party, an event to speak at, or we’ve been travelling. That’s been hard, because we’re used to relaxing after dinner. Talking intently to people until 9.30 at night doesn’t help with sleep!

We are, however, getting into the groove and I’m feeling more relaxed in front of a group than a month ago. But still, we long for a much more settled life. Alas home assignment is never settled. There is no routine, no “normal week”. We’re working towards the goal of going back to Japan in July next year, so there’s no incentive to get really settled here either.

And then there’s all the conversations that make me feel unsettled and uneasy. All the questions about our lives. Many of them are great questions, but explaining our lives over and over again isn’t easy. And it is exhausting trying to discern what someone wants to know, or what they already know about us. The hardest questions (aside from  the “So how’s Japan?” ones) are about things that I feel insecure or somewhat regretful about. They touch on what I, like these people, have imagined in the past a “perfect” missionary looks like: wonderful language skills (our kids included in that), amazing evangelism stories, and a clear, succinct answer on why Japan hasn’t been receptive to the gospel. 

Questions about how our kids are doing are constant and not easy. Some are from people who have read between the lines on our prayer letters and know that we’ve struggled. Others are from people who don’t know us at all. How do I summarise and satisfy people’s desire to know about us, without sharing too much that our boys don’t want shared?

It’s been exhausting, but, despite all my discomfort, ultimately very good. We especially like interacting with small groups. I think two of my favourite events in the last week were groups of 20 and 50. Both had atmospheres of informality and the kind of intimacy that invited honesty and excellent questions. After events like that, speaking for six minutes in front of a church felt quite flat and shallow.

We flew back on Monday, arriving home after 10pm. So grateful we didn’t have to take a red-eye like we’ve done every other time from Perth to Brisbane, but still tired. We’ve had a slower week, but still had appointments to get to, and next week to prepare for. 

Next week is another big one: from Sunday for four days we’re at a regional church high schoolers camp. These are usually great times to interact, especially with the leaders. But I’m going to be careful about managing my energy and taking downtime. At least we don’t have our own children to take care of at the same time, like we did last time we did a school-aged camp (?about nine years ago).

On the home front: our time in Perth was a big event. It was the first time we’d done an overnight ministry trip away without our guys, and we did it for 18 days! It was good for us all to experience that. Our two younger sons lived at home during that time and by all observations did well. They felt the pinch of not having a car at their disposal, but they got by. They’re gradually learning about life in Australia, which is good, as this is where they’ll be for a while to come. It was good for us as a couple to experience an extended time away from our kids too. We had fun doing some different things as we stand on the cusp of living life again as a couple after nearly 25 years of having kids in our home.

Our trip to Rottnest Is. was a highlight I mentioned
in my last blogpost.

We usually set up some kind of “table” display
wherever we go. We managed to squeeze some things
into our luggage for Perth. Packing for Perth is another
story: it was done at the end of an exceptionally
busy day and I didn’t do a great job personally. I 
wish I’d taken a larger bag and more clothes.

A sand bar at Point Walter on the Swan River.

Catching public transport, especially buses, in
an unfamiliar city was a new challenge.

This was the auditorium at the church camp. Very reminiscent of the place where we first started applying to be long-term missionaries in Queensland.

Western Australia work trip

It's over a week since we arrived in Western Australia and a lot has happened. In addition to speaking at five formal meetings in the last week, we've met a handful of people over coffee/meals, as well as enjoying fellowship with our hosts. On top of that I've had three Zoom meetings with people in Japan (and other places).

Anyone who's been following us on social media will know we've been enjoying getting out and seeing some sights in this region too. We spent a few hours in Kings Park, time in Fremantle, and a day out on Rottnest Is, as well as several walks around our local area in western Perth/eastern Fremantle. We spent several hours at the Western Australia Maritime Museum too. Check out some photos at the end of this post!

To be guests has been a welcome break from being the ones in charge of the household and meals. This is the longest trip away from our kids that we've ever had in 24 years, and it's been quite enjoyable so far. When we left Queensland we were wondering if we had been wise in planning this trip. It hasn't quite looked like we'd imagined, but have had to trust God that he's had things planned that we couldn't see or imagine.

This coming week includes six more formal meetings, a couple of informal meetings, as well as being guest missionaries at a church camp before we fly back to Brisbane on Monday. I'm guessing I'll be pretty exhausted on Monday and Tuesday, and maybe even Wednesday next week!

Enjoy the following photos from this remote part of the world. I checked out that by finding some statistics. We're 4,328km from our home in Ipswich, Queensland. That would take us around 46 hours to drive, according to Google. It's around 110 miles less than the distance from Los Angeles to New York, but that trip would take around 41 hours (same source). For a European comparison, the distance is from approximately the top of Scotland to Athens, Greece. Perth is closer to Singapore and Jakarta than it is to the east coast of Australia.

One of these days, we're hoping to see more than just a tiny part of this giant state, just not this time. But a good rule to remember is to leave wanting to come back again some other time!

Perth: old and new, like many cities.

View of the Swan River from King's Park.

Another angle of the park with the river in the background.

This young magpie wasn't bothered by me or the reversing car on our driveway.

Black swans on a local lake.

Our national flower: the Golden Wattle.
This one had particularly large, vibrant flowers.

Australia 2,  the boat which famously won the America's Cup in 1983.
Located in the Western Australia Maritime Museum.

After wandering around Fremantle for a few hours we had a decadent afternoon tea.
This cake is called Death by Chocolate, and despite sharing it, we couldn't finish it.

Out on Rottnest Is. The colour of the sea was spectacular
all the way around the island. I used to associate colours
like this with tropical islands, but that's not true of Rottnest.

We had lunch with this view (180 degrees, actually), with almost
no one else around.

No private vehicles are allowed on the island, so if you're able,
bikes are the perfect way to see the sights. It seemed like every five minutes or so 
we were hopping off our bikes to check out a new scene. Stunning!

Quokkas are native to the island. The ones in the populated part of the island 
were quite bold, but we did see three in another part that were more timid.

Working: this group of around 50 people from two or three churches
 gathered on Friday night to hear about OMF and mission work in Japan.
They provided a yummy dinner too! It was a great evening, but I
came home exhausted!

Cliffs at Point Walter Reserve on the Swan River.

Cute shaded beach on the river. With my pale skin
a rare beach with shade is worthy of attention!

Different ways of working

For the last three weeks, I’ve had Tuesday morning free to go to our local library and write. This last week was different. We spoke at a growth group from a supporting church (the same church we spent Sunday at, teaching in the Sunday school, being interviewed up front by the pastor, and talking to people before and after the service). It’s a more immersive approach to reporting back to a church that we’re thoroughly enjoying. And it’s made possible by having no school-pickups or needing childcare.

That same evening we went to another growth group from the same church, the first time we’ve worked in the evening like this for a long time. We’re far more used to working during the day and relaxing at night, and neither of us are night owls. It took a long time for me to chill out enough to sleep Tuesday night, and a while to get moving on Wednesday. 

In fact on Wednesday, an admin and preparation day, it was really hard to concentrate and check things off the list of things we had to do. Neither of us are used to working in pairs for planning and executing plans. Both of us usually work on our own for the “thinking” parts of our jobs. It’s not that we mind working together, and in fact we complement each other quite well, but it’s another adjustment, quite a large one.

We had another big day on Thursday: several hours of talking with people at a theological college in the morning, time spent with a couple of different professionals in the afternoon dealing with family matters, plus over three hours of city driving. It was tiring. And then when we got home we had

We got the crowd at the theology college
discussing tricky questions.

to finish packing for our 18-day ministry trip to Perth (west coast).

On Friday we dragged ourselves out of bed with the sun and made it to the airport with time to spare, but not really on top of our game. The flight was good—on time and fairly smooth—but we happened to have seats amidst a group of very verbose older folk. Two of the ladies rarely stopped talking during the six-hour flight. It was wearing.

Now we’ve got mild jet lag, Ironic, really, that we can get that here, with a domestic flight, but not really when flying to Japan (one hour difference between Qld and Japan, two hours difference between Qld and Western Australia). I was awake before 5 am this morning, despite my fatigue. But, it’s mild and will resolve quickly. I can’t fathom what many of my international friends cope with, flying across multiple time zones!

The plan for our time in Perth is to visit supporting churches, individual supporters, and also to connect with the OMF network over here. It’s looking different to what we expected it might, but in a few ways that’s really good—when our expectations are foiled, we have to depend on God more, and seek what his plans are.

This is our first multiple-day ministry trip away from home without children. And the first time we’ve ever been away from our guys for more than five days. It’s different for us all, and will require some time to adjust to.

In addition to meetings, we’re planning some relaxing time. This is a beautiful part of the world that not so many people are privileged to see (many Australians never get over to the west coast), it’s always a special treat to be able to come here. One day we’ll plan it that we can get out of this small built-up part of the state and see some other parts of this massive state (the second largest in the world, Texas is only 26th on that list).

We’re missing our usual jobs and ways of working. Gracious, I’m even missing my newly formed Tuesday morning writing habit! But for now we need to be patient with ourselves and each other as we learn new rhythms of life and work for this season.