Looking ahead to 2026

Happy New Year to you all!

I started 2025 by writing that it wasn't going to be a dramatic year, and it really wasn't, compared to the previous two years (during which we moved countries twice and transitioned two boys to independent living outside of our house). But we did fly to Australia three times during the year, which is more than we've ever done before. It was also our first full calendar year in Japan without any kids with us.

This was the scene outside our apartment when I went
out at about 7.30 on Monday morning to head over to
OMF Japan headquarters for our monthly prayer and
fellowship meeting. About five cm of snow fell on
Friday night and some that was in shade all weekend hadn't melted by Monday morning.

Looking ahead to the next year, the main "big rock" we know about in 2026 is a 10-and-a-half week home assignment (HA) mid-year. In our 25 years in this missionary life, we've done four year-long HAs and one six-month one. Each of those involved a lot of work in Japan as we handed our roles over to others before we left and rented somewhere to live in Australia. In this new phase of our service, we're going to try something doing a much shorter one. There are several reasons for us, but we hope it will mean we can catch up with supporting churches and keen supporters without a big disruption to our ministries in Japan, and it won't mean renting somewhere in Australia. It also means we can keep our apartment here in Tokyo, which is a huge advantage. I'm sure I'll be writing much more about this topic in the coming months, but for now, that's the big thing that we know is coming this year.

But, aside from that, going into 2026 feels like it's going to be even less dramatic. There are few changes in our immediate lives that we can foresee, though we'll be watching our granddaughter grow (from a distance).

Some changes in focus

I'm working on some changes in the things I focus on in daily life, some of which I've listed below.

Lots of reading, as usual, but with a smaller goal to allow for longer books. I've aimed at (and achieved) reading 100 books a year for the last six years. This year I'm aiming at 90, but we'll see how that goes.

Regular walking (and riding) with my husband, but I'm considering if I should add something else to the mix.

Investing more concentrated time in writing is one big change I want to make. I'm pretty skilled at writing short pieces in-between other things in my life, but as I wrote here back in November, I've been challenged about writing a book. But to make progress on that I need to make more regular time in my weeks to write, otherwise this is going to stagnate as a goal. How that will look, I'm not sure, but I'm trying out different ideas and see what progress I can make before I go on the writing retreat in October.

Unlike other recent years, I didn't listen to sermons in English mid-week during 2025 because we've started going to a church that is in English, but I did listen to the whole Bible through the year. I haven't found myself a Bible reading plan yet, but do intend to get back into this again. I haven't set a specific goal, but do intend to continue listening to podcasts by John Dickson (see here: Undeceptions).

Lily pads

It's been a while since I referred to the concept of "lily pads". It's a helpful concept for maintaining mental health and includes things that you've got planned for the future to look forward to. Here are some of my lily pads for 2026 (the one's I know about now):

• trip to Okinawa this month with the high school girls wrestling team from school (you'll hear more about this later in the month)
• missionary women's retreat in March
• personal camping trips in March and October
• writing retreat in October
• the aforementioned HA during which we'll see family and friends and hope that will include our granddaughter

So, let's see what God brings during 2026. No matter what, I know that he goes before me and will be with me and I have no need to fear (Deut. 31:8).

This was on the inside of our toilet door in
November last year. A great verse to read every
time I used that tiny room.