Medley of thoughts before holidays

We're winding down here, on our way to family holidays. This weekend I'm walking away from my computer and email and other work messages for a couple of weeks. Oh, and daily language study too! A total break during which I can forget about what plate/ball I might have accidentally dropped. Ah, the bliss.

This is the park near where we'll be.

I've been working hard these last few weeks to clear my To Do list of urgent matters. It's quite a trick to managed when you are responsible for social media posts five days a week for your organisation, but I've got a good team and we've worked together to get the next month sorted ahead of time. I've also got a team working on magazine matters. Almost anything that arises in that realm can wait till I get back too.

And though I have generally felt okay recently, I think my body is sending me signals that it's time to take a break. It's been a very rough year for us personally, as you might have guessed (see this post about death and this one that includes a brief reference to the uncertainty we have faced over the last several months with one of our boys). 

On Monday we had our first COVID-19 vaccinations. So thankful! Japan is really getting a hurry on with these. Nearly 25% of the population has had their first injection, which three times what it was a month ago. The next day I had an unusual few hours of gastro upset. There were other factors involved, so it's impossible to say why, but I think it's time for a break.

We're headed to the same place we've had family (non-tenting) holidays twice a year in the last three years. I anticipate that our time away will be very similar to last year (see here). Which suits us just fine, especially the one who gets anxious about change.

We're also excited to have finally been able to book another camping trip for early August. We're staying pretty close to home, though, no new prefectures to add to our list, but still three nights in the mountains next to a stream sounds really good. It's cool today, but by then the stream will also sound really good (and they have showers too!).

When we come back the Olympics will be close to opening ceremony and it will be fascinating to watch that event unfold on Japanese TV. We no longer have our Olympic tickets; though we've still got two tickets for the Wheelchair Basketball and Paralympic Athletics in late August, in a couple of weeks we'll find out if we can still attend.

I've kind of dropped the ball on writing about "Come" (see my kind-of resolution from January), but I really don't think I have brain power to write anything on that today, so maybe later. Maybe I'll get an urge to write while we're on holidays, but I kinda doubt that. Usually holidays pass in a blur of reading, eating, sleeping, playing games, and watching movies with the boys. Generally taking a break from thinking about putting words together.

See you on the other side!

What do you cook for dinner?

So I've resolved this school year to blog at least once a week. But every now and then in my job I run into a quiet patch and have more time to do things like write here. It's an interesting phenomenon as I deal with many deadlines every week. I'm in the interesting position that many of these deadlines are set by me, so I do my best to keep things relatively manageable.

It helps, just now, that I'm not trying to "get ahead" due to any upcoming holiday time. Preparing for and recovering from holidays can be significantly stressful! These last two months have been busy with preparing for holidays and dealing with different family needs while they're all home here. Until this week I've also been going slower in the mornings and getting up at least an hour later. All of which means that I've been cramming more into less time.

Menu list
One of my summer goals was small: for reference when menu writing, to make a list of all the meals that I regularly make for dinner here. I had a list I wrote in pen many years ago, before I had teenagers. But it's a bit outdated and, as it lives on the side of our fridge, it is fading. 

Earlier this week I wrote up the list. I was surprised to find that I could think of 47 meals that I make at least once every few months. If you consider that I only usually cook five times a week (the other nights are usually left-overs), that's quite a lot of variety. I eat the same breakfast six days a week and that's the way I like it, but I prefer to have a lot of variety at dinner!

A favourite meal: wraps. Usually chicken
with simple salad. People make their own
(which I suspect is part of the fun).

Perhaps you'll be interested in the list, so I've posted it below. I don't actually make much Japanese food, there are only four or five below, though there are others I occasionally cook. I find many Japanese meals are time-consuming to make from scratch (which is how I prefer to do most of my cooking). But perhaps some of you could give me some helpful hints? And of course, living in Japan, when we eat out we often have Japanese! Eating out in Japan is relatively cheap (especially if you don't take teenagers with you!). 

My criteria for cooking dinner is that it can't take much longer than an hour and that most people in the family like it. For keeping a lid on the budget, my weekly menu usually consists of only three big "meat" meals and, for the sake of variety, those are usually each different meats (i.e. not two chicken meals in the one week). Other meals often include smaller portions of protein like bacon or eggs or both.

There's probably a number of things on the list that you don't know, either. I'm happy to explain or even share recipes! The notes in brackets are recipe book nicknames.

An extract from our latest newsletter

Yikes, feeling frustrated about my blog. I truly want to write more here, but find that my days fill up and come to an end before I get here. 

Though I am excited that I actually got to do some actual writing today (of a blog post for OMF). Most of my writing recently has been emails as I finish off the summer issue of the magazine I manage. Writing to authors, editors, designers, etc. Answering messages from people who we've stirred up with our social media posts. Chasing articles that should have been sent to me, etc. About 60 emails this week thus far. 

But a lot of time has been spent editing other people's writing. It's crazy how much time that takes. Not necessarily because a writer is bad, but it includes things like checking details. For example, in the last week I've researched how jasper is created, whether "Kingdom Hall" should be capitalised or not, and sought the publishing details on several books for referencing. I've found out that you don't hyphenate "ly" adverbs before adjectives, discovered that Hawaii is discussing whether an apostrophe should be officially added to their official name (i.e. Hawai'i), and learned some interesting facts about serotonin.

One of the social media posts I created in May

Last week ended up so busy that our prayer letter, that I'd intended to do, didn't get written. So I did it on the weekend instead. As a result, I didn't get as much rest then as I'd planned.

However, in the midst of all that I've managed to spend time with significant people. I find that I need time with people to keep me working effectively, but it is a real challenge to get the balance right, especially when I face daily deadlines in my editing/writing work.

However, today I can give you an extract from our prayer letter that might be interesting and explanatory about my job.

In Australia our main job was mobilisation—connecting with prayer and financial supporters face-to-face—telling you about what we’d been doing in Japan and the ongoing needs here. In doing so we hoped that you would be encouraged to continue to support us and our work. 

Wendy’s job in Japan the last couple of years has included mobilisation. Mobilisation is similar, but broader than recruitment. Just like we do when we’re on home assignment, we’re mobilising people to get more involved in mission, however that looks for them. But we especially pray that more people will come to join the work in Japan, for there are still only around 1% evangelical Christians in this large nation. 

But how does she do that from our dining room in Tokyo? The current mobilisation strategy in OMF Japan is to use social media to reach people around the world. Wendy manages and edits a blog by our misisonaries. This means that every week she’s putting a new article on our website.  

She’s also managing our social media content, so at least five times a week posts are being shared on Facebook and Instagram about Japan, our work, and the needs here. Some are lighthearted, some are heavy. Some are calls to action, some are simply points of interest about Japanese culture or food. Most of our posts in May were seen by more a thousand people, some posts were seen by many more than that. 

Each month we have a theme that guides a lot of our content. In May we focused on partnership. Partnership is a big part of being a missionary. We partner with you, our prayer and financial partners. But it was fascinating to see the various ways that OMF is partnering with individuals and other groups in Japan. 

Recently Wendy helped guide a Singaporean short-term missionary she first met in Brisbane last year. Together they conceived of a short video series about the lives of missionaries, showing some unexpected backstories. We shared the first short video on May 31. 

We’d love you to come and learn more about Japan by interacting on Facebook or Instagram, or to to our website to see the articles there? Maybe even sharing what you find with others?

Ten year anniversary post

I've been blogging now for ten years and one day! Well, I didn't really get to this yesterday! I was probably subconsciously waiting for more people to respond to my plea for input, but it didn't happen. Nevertheless, I press on. 

Here's what a couple of people sent:

Reader 1
"Congratulations on your faithful blogging for 10 years.

I cannot pick one blog out that’s completely memorable  (not a reflection on your writing – more my memory) but I recall being challenged after reading your blog to by what you write:

             a) to pray for you and your family more regularly

             b) be more intentional in my dealings with those around me – in my conversations and my actions.

I've also been encouraged when I read your answers to prayer – (like being able to go back to Japan after this  Home assignment) – God is faithful, He answers prayers in His own way – whether it’s a ‘Yes’, a ‘No’ or a ‘Not yet’

Thank you for your blogs and for keeping ministry real in the humdrum of life. Here’s to the next 10 years!

Reader 2

It has been wonderful following your journey! 

God’s great faithfulness is what shines through all the cultural and distance from home issues that affect you!

So...as I'm not satisfied to celebrate this milestone with just two responses, I guess you get my thoughts after all.

Looking back on ten years

I look back at when I started this blog and I was in a very different spot. I had three boys under 10, and only one at school. I had very little going on outside the home. We were heading back to Australia on home assignment that year and I was quite stressed about it. Our middle son was about to graduate from Japanese kindergarten and I was about to embark on three months of full-time home-schooling our him to prepare him to start in the middle of grade one in Australia.

Since I started this blog we've made six international moves (= three home assignments), had three sons graduate from elementary school, two from middle school, and one from high school. One has moved out of home and started university in Australia. 

I've moved from being a stay at home mum with almost no ministry outside our home, to holding down two demanding part-time jobs. I've moved from being a fledgling writer to one who has been editing a magazine with an audience of over 1,000 for 8 1/2 years now.

Two years and nine days after I started this blog, Japan experienced one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded. We were in Tokyo at the time and experienced one of the craziest times of our lives. Blogging at that time was both a great release and a help to others as they sought news about our safety and wellbeing.

We've said hellos and goodbye to dozens of friends in these last ten years. Some of our colleagues and one of our family members have passed away.

What hasn't changed

One of the reasons I started this blog was that I had a desire to write about life here, but didn't have a venue or an audience. I really wanted to tell others what it was like to live our ordinary lives in a rather non-ordinary job. I gave the blog the title—on the edge of ordinary— because it seemed to encapsulate the life we were called to. That's still true. 

Life has changed, yet remained remarkably the same for us.

We're still serving the Lord in Japan with OMF. We're still living in Tokyo. My husband is still serving at CAJ on the teaching/admin staff and feeling as though that is what the Lord's called him to long-term. My roles have changed more remarkably: from a full-time mum of little ones to a mum who juggles a lot more, including the tricky role of mum-of-teens. But I'm still committed to serving the missionary community here, I've just been given more freedom to do so as my boys have become more independent.

What have I learned by blogging for ten years?
I've learnt how to write quickly. I've learnt a lot about editing quickly too, to get my words into decent shape in a reasonable amount of time. For the first eight or so years of this blog I was writing here almost every day. To do that, and still do everything else in my life, I had to write and edit fast. Much of my writing and idea formation happens in my head before I even sit down. I usually sit down to write a blog post with a formative idea or topic in my head, something that I've found as I've gone about whatever that day has held.

My blog-writing pace has slowed since mid-2017 when I took on greater responsibilities with OMF Japan for their website content, especially in the form of editing a weekly blog post written by OMF Japan missionaries.

I've met new friends and been able to network with people through my blog. Though I often don't know who reads this as usually people don't comment, periodically I've met people through this. I know that people have been helped by it because they've told me.

I have done a lot of processing of my own life here. It helps me to be able to write things down, to think an issue through to a point that I'm able to put it into words. By doing so, I've often found that other people have appreciated my thoughts on whatever it was that the Lord had been putting on my heart.

I have a lot more words in my head that I can possibly load upon my family or friends. Here has been a safe place to put them. 

I also continue to learn the subtle art of writing in such a way that I'm not violating other people's privacy: my own family's or other people who I encounter in my life. I'm happy to say that I don't think those around me are worried that their private thoughts will end up here on my blog.

At this point I think I've run out of things to say, which is always a good point to finish a blog post. I have no plans to stop blogging. I'm not sure if I'll last another ten years. Only God knows what we'll be doing in ten years and where we'll be. But if my writing here continues to help me and to help others—and it fits into whatever else I'm called to do in the future, then it's a pretty good bet that I'll be continuing for a while yet.

Your help needed to celebrate 10 years

It was with a bit of a shock that I realised a couple of weeks ago that it is ten years on Saturday since I started this blog! This is the 2,951st post that I've published! And I'm certain that I'm the only one who has read them all :-)

I was pondering what I should do to mark this event and a friend suggested that I ask for your input. Even if you've only been here a little while or only stop by occasionally, could you write to me at the gmail email address in the sidebar with a memorable post or favourite memory from my blog, or perhaps an overall impression? Tell me how God has used this blog to help you, encourage you, or challenge you. I'll write a post on Saturday with your responses and a few of my own thoughts on this blogging journey and what I've learned through it.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

So many unwritten things

I've got several topics of many unwritten posts in my head. It's a writer's dream or nightmare, depending on which way you look at it. 

Some pretty flowers from Toowoomba.
Unrelated to this post except that it
reminds me about some of the beautiful
things I've seen while travelling around,
and have been able to take photos of.
I'm taking my camera on this trip,
so hopefully there'll be some nice photos
to share with you at some point.

I'm shocked to realise that I've only published seven posts in October, I guess this makes the eighth. That means I've just surpassed July and September. Rarely in the last nine and a half years of blogging have I written so little.

The fact is, I've been busy, probably too busy. If I haven't had time to write, I've been recovering from being overly tired or I've been sick. But if you've been reading what small amounts I've managed to get up here, you'll know that. There's also been a bunch of stuff this year that I just couldn't share in this public forum, and that's clipped my wings a bit.

The crazy-busy metre is about to go up a notch, I'm afraid. I'm flying to Singapore tomorrow evening for a International Christian Writers and Editors conference. That's from Sunday to next Friday when I'll fly to Perth (closer to Singapore than it is to Brisbane) and meet David and our two younger boys. 

In Perth we'll be visiting five churches, most of whom have supported us for the last 20 years, plus a mission prayer group and an OMF meeting. Eleven meetings in total, over ten days! My guess would be that I'll probably have time in Singapore to write, but Perth will be more difficult, although most of the meetings are on the two weekends, so during the week will be easier. We'll be back on Nov 12, and I'll breath a sigh of relief that this "big rock" of our home assignment is completed.

In the meantime, for the record, here are some things I've been thinking about writing on:

• friendship
• Australian bush dance (acutally, I might get this one done in the next 24 hours)
• boundaries
• grief
• about this conference I'm going to
• Christmas on home assignment
• internally judgemental
• When are you next coming to Australia? (I just wrote a short bit about that in our prayer letter that I sent out this afternoon)
• Kid's newsletter (which has completely fallen off the rails)
• the books I've been reading: Awe by Tripp, Making Sense of God by Keller

So you see. Tonnes of material. Just no time or frame of mind to get sorted in my head and down in a form that's in any way presentable.

But for now: it's off to packing on this stinking hot spring day (forecast around 36C, but very dry at 25%).  Let's consult the weather of my destinations: 

Singpoare weather: excessively humid (>85%, so currently feels like 31C) but not stinking hot (forecast temperatures around 28C), however I will mostly be inside in their famously cold air conditioning. But, as it's a professional conference, I can't wear jeans all week. Hmmm.

Perth weather: it's jumping around between high teens and mid to high 20s, but is dry (today 50%). With lots of up-front events, I also can't be too casual in my clothing most days either.

Sounds like layers are the thing! But now I've got to do it! (We've got a breakfast meeting tomorrow, so there won't be too much extra time to spare...sigh, it's going to be a long day.)

Encouragement

Here's a couple of written exchanges about my blog that I've received recently:

Encouragement
Recently a teenager, who is the child of missionaries in Japan, sent me an email that completely made my day:

Random flower photo that I took this time last year.
I put it here because it's always nice to have a
flower to look at.

I meant to tell you . . . [when I saw you last] that I followed your blog but kept forgetting to, I'm sorry!

I wanted to say that I love your blog because I get a peek inside of a different missionary family's life, which I don't often get to.

I also love that your blog gives me reminders about God's word, and what he is going to do in my life.

In a blog post the other day, I read your poem "Dates" and I loved it! I like writing poetry and fiction. Your poem gave me an insight into what being an adult is like, and I enjoyed that.

Thank you for your wonderful blog. I'll be looking forward to the next update!

It's easy to be worn down by the routines and challenges of daily life (and writing and editing), so I love it when I get such encouragements. Having it written down makes it even more special, because it's easy to keep and treasure later (and easier to share with you too).

About why I blog

I recently had a colleague who discovered this blog and he asked me about the main purpose (he was thinking that the main reason a missionary might use a blog would be to update our supporters). 

This was my reply:

My initial purpose was to write about the “ordinary” life of a missionary, helping to readers (presuming them to be people who haven’t lived the missionary lifestyle) to see what our lives are like. As I’ve realised that a lot of missionaries also read it, it’s expanded a bit to be a place that also reaches out to other missionaries, hopefully in an encouraging, honest way, by telling about my journey.

It isn’t for supporters specifically, or for staying in touch with friends or anyone in particular, though some do read if for that reason. It is not something where I ask people to pray for us either.

He also wrote: "I only have the newsletter... Sometimes I wondered if I should make a Facebook group for me Facebook friends who are interested in what we are doing... But the more "mediums" one uses... - the more has to 'feed' them... "

My reply:

Yes, the more mediums you use the more work you create for yourself! I write because I’m a writer. Often writing on my blog is quite therapeutic for me, not a burden as it would be for many. It has helped me hone my writing and editing skills as to fit writing this blog into my life I often have to process and write very quickly.

Unexpected

Today I have "something I prepared earlier". I don't think I shared much here about what happened with my job in February, because that month was also somewhat dominated by taking our son to Australia. But I had some significant other stuff happening too.

So, I'm going to tell you a little now. One of my two main jobs is currently social media manager for OMF Japan. OMF is a world-wide organisation and at the moment the international communications team (based in the UK) is running monthly prayer foci (is that grammatically correct?). As in, each month they have a prayer focus that they post about throughout the month on social media. In February it was Japan, so obviously, though they had the lead on that, we had a big part to play. It was exciting to be working in a larger team on this and also to be using material that other people have had the time to create. It was also exciting to be able to re-use stories that I've worked on both on the OMF Japan blog and with Japan Harvest magazine. But on top of travelling and helping our son, it was also a pretty frantic month.

That's just background to say that this year I've been trying to dove-tail our OMF Japan social media with the international monthly focus, where appropriate (last month they had China, so that didn't work). This month, however, is "The Journey to Long-Term Missions", which we can totally work with. We've got blog posts coming up on those themes and I'll be working to create Facebook and Instagram posts that match the theme too.

The other day, to my surprise, I found that that the international team is using a series that originated on this blog. I wrote it as a series of answers for a friend I haven't seen since primary school. She was at Bible college and had an assignment to ask a missionary some hard questions. So I blogged my answers. That was 2012. Then last year I rewrote the posts to kick-start getting content up on our OMF Japan blog and new website (the first post of the series is here). Now, they are being shared this month on the OMF International social media channels. Their Facebook page is followed by more than 7,500 people and their Instagram page is followed by nearly 1,500 people. So that is a very much wider audience than this blog has!

It's always exciting to see things that I've written before being used again, and to reach a different and wider audience, especially if I've not had to write something new, or even edit the old! My husband faithfully prays every week that my writing and editing will be of help to others, something like this is a tangible answer to that prayer.

If you're interested in finding out more about OMF International's campaign this month about The Journey to Long-Term Missions, there is a succinct prayer guide here.

Nine years of blogging!

I was surprised this morning to realise that it's nine years today since I started blogging! This is my 2,818th published post. Who knew that I'd be still doing this nine years later? That means that I've been blogging more than half the time we've been in Japan (which was 17 years last December).

Lots has changed in nine years! For you too, I suspect.

Nine years ago:

• I was living in a different suburb of Tokyo.

• I had one boy in elementary school at CAJ, one in Japanese kindergarten (about to graduate), and one eager to start any kind of out-of-house schooling.
• I was home schooling the younger two in English.
• I was about to embark on full-time homeschooling for the first (and only) time.
• that filled the gap for our middle son between Japanese kindergarten and starting in the middle of grade one in Australia because...
• We were about to go on our second home assignment.
• Outside being a mum I had few roles:
• conversation English teaching at the kindergarten
• desktop publisher of a newsletter for missionaries working with Japanese outside of Japan
• critique partner for three other writers (which is where I started learning editing skills)

I was looking forward to seeing my youngest start school, so that I could do some other things, especially I was planning on starting work with the editor of Japan Harvest after our home assignment.

Well, things have changed a lot since then! I've now got almost too much on my plate, though admittedly my boys are a whole lot more independent than they were and I've got a lot more time to do things other than be a mum. Or that being a mum can be done in tandem with more than I used to be able to do, for example, I did a lot of editing work this morning despite having two boys home on a student-free day. That wasn't possible nine years ago! Mothering also isn't as exhausting as it used to be.

Well, I've got no intention of ceasing blogging. As I wrote on the 7th anniversary of this blog: 

• [Blogging] helps me process life as it's going on in my life.
• It's fun to look back on things I've recorded (like a public diary, I guess).
• Connecting with other bloggers (though that seems to be happening less and less, I've outlasted many who were blogging seven years ago).
• It's a great vehicle for sharing things I'm learning.

I don't know if I'll get many replies, but I want to challenge you to write a comment on this post (or on FB, if that's where you came from). You can just say hi, tell us how you found out about this blog, tell us what you were doing nine years ago, or share a random fact. Got for it!

It's about how you recharge

Here's an article I came across 18 months ago about resilience. It asserts that resilience is "about how you recharge, not how you endure"

This is OMF's house, really it is three apartments,
we'll occupy the whole upper floor.

We often take a militaristic, “tough” approach to resilience and grit. We imagine a Marine slogging through the mud, a boxer going one more round, or a football player picking himself up off the turf for one more play. We believe that the longer we tough it out, the tougher we are, and therefore the more successful we will be. However, this entire conception is scientifically inaccurate.

It involves not just physically resting, but giving our brains a rest too. So when you're taking a break you're not looking at email, or mulling over a work problem, or getting riled up about politics or family problems (as best you can). For me that means that taking time to get out in nature, or being absorbed in a good book that allows you to depart from your work and family stressors, are good things. Spending time with friends, chilling out with a movie, and taking time to be creative also work. 

What helps you rest?

I'm about to do all of the above. From tomorrow we're taking our annual Christmas holiday. A week at an OMF holiday house in the foothills west of Tokyo. We've been holidaying in this area at this time of year since 2006, the year after we first moved to Tokyo. It's become a much anticipated and loved time away.

For me it means sleep-ins, lots of reading, hanging out with the family, simple meals, and a few fun outside activities like a favourite restaurant. And really leaving work behind. 

I'm a bit concerned this time, though. I had all my ducks lined up, all the work I needed to get done so that I could walk away for a week and leave my computer behind. But today, for reasons unknown to me I've lost administrator access to the OMF blog, so the three posts that I was going to put up for the coming ten days can't go up.

The main person who helps me through problems like this lives in the UK and doesn't get to work until 5pm our time, by which time I'll be out of the office doing errands and then going to a Christmas party. Maybe, if the problem gets fixed by tomorrow morning, I'll be able to squeeze them in before we go, but it isn't ideal. But "shouganai" as the Japanese say: there's nothing I can do about it right now. 

Aside from that blip, I'm doing my best to get everything else out of the way so that next week can be a great recharging week!

Celebration of things achieved

Before I move on to the next things on my to-do list, I want to celebrate the things achieved.

Cover of the new magazine issue.

In the midst of the last week of travel and workshopping (and illness), two projects that have taken considerable amounts of my time have gone to the printer:

• The latest issue of Japan Harvest
• A greeting card for the use of our Japan Members for mobilisation of prayer

It's easy to peck away at the keyboard here day after day and forget that things I'm working are actually moving forward. The magazine issue I've been working on since May. The greeting card came out of the realisation that the prayer calendar I usually produce for the field was going to be cost-prohibitive this year, something that I discovered back in March. It is easy to just say, "They're done" and move on to the next project, but actually THEY'RE DONE! After months of work, they are actually completed.

Other things that I've also produced have been published online in the last week:

• Three blog posts for OMF Japan: 
• Lessons from a Korean prayer team
• Don't mention the war
• The value of short-term workers
• And I've been getting more active on social media too, with re-posting relevant things on OMF Japan's page. One of my fellow workshop attendees muttered, "What used to be just for fun has become work." It's true. I'm doing Facebook for work now! That changes the things a little. Although, I guess, in a way I've been doing social media for work for a long time, this blog being a big part of that.

And of course now I'm already working on future projects:

• The next issue of Japan Harvest has been in the works for more than six weeks now, but thankfully I've only got one issue on my plate, instead of two for a few months now.
• More blog posts continue to come in for the OMF blog
• Another printing project for OMF Japan is on the horizon, I just need to kick-start it

I find it easy to think that I'm not doing much, but it's a lie. Perhaps I'm not doing what I do as fast as I'd like to, but I am not fluffing around doing nothing. What I need to find is a better rhythm. I'm not doing much in the way of exercise just now and it isn't helping my stamina nor, probably, my mental state at all.

Start of school 2017

Ordinary life today meant the start of a new school year, which was different for almost everyone.

Yummy satay chicken by our eldest son.

David: taught two classes (his lowest class-load ever) and did other various tasks that his new role of Director of Teaching and Learning entails.

Middle son: started high school (for the second time, due to a quirk of timing, he actually did six months high school in Australia, where grade seven is now high school). School was only half a day, then he did cross-country training (in 35C weather).

Youngest son: started grade seven (middle grade of middle school at CAJ). He also joined the cross-country training.

Eldest son: worked at the school all day doing various maintenance-department things including monitoring the electricity usage gauge (complex story, but to do with keeping costs down on this very hot day).

Which leaves me. I attended the school community prayer meeting from 8.30-10.00, which included catching up with friends I haven't seen since school broke up three months ago. 

Then I worked as hard as I could on editing at home in the silence of no-kids-at-home until 12.30. After that I had boys coming home for lunch over the next two hours, they all came home at different times. In the middle of all that I tried to continue working on formatting some of the 60 or so blog posts that need my attention on the new blog. 

Then, after the weather cooled down a little, I rode out for a quick trip for groceries to get us through the weekend. Since I got back after 5 I've been mostly on social media or playing a card game on my phone while answering periodic questions about the new satay chicken recipe that our eldest is making.

I have no first-day-of-school photos. Our middle son, never fond of photo posing, quietly slipped out before I could snap one this morning. So I compensate with a photo of the dinner we've just enjoyed.

Missionary Identity

Here's another thing that I did early in the summer—write three guest blog posts for our UK office about different aspects of identity that missionaries struggle with. 

The OMF office in the UK follows my blog and asked me to write a post on this topic for them. But when I sat down to write, I found there was way too much to say to fit into just one post, so I asked if I could write a series of three, and they agreed. 

These were published over three weeks in July:

Missionary: what's that?

Identity crisis

Where's home?

A new blog

One reason I've found it harder to write here in the last six or seven weeks (aside from being away on holidays and having my family in my "office" all the time) is that I've been in charge of starting a new blog for OMF Japan that links in with our new website. I've really enjoyed it. I do like blogging. But for this blog I'm the managing editor, rather than the writer, with the writers being missionaries serving in Japan with OMF. Although, to get things rolling early on, I've repurposed nine blog posts I wrote five years ago for "on the edge of ordinary", answering challenging questions about my life as a missionary and how I came to be doing what I'm doing.

I'd love it if you came over and had a look at the blog and the rest of the new OMF Japan website also (which isn't so much what I've been doing, although I did write or edit most of the content). Thankfully it isn't just my posts up there anymore, I've managed to get three other writers' stories up too. This is an ongoing project, with the aim to get at least one post up every Tuesday.

Hopefully we'll get some great posts that will give good insight into the lives and ministry of missionaries in Japan. I'll keep sharing the links to various posts here every now and then, perhaps you can continue to check them out and, if you like them, even share them with your friends.

Struggles missionaries have with identity Part 1

I'm a guest blogger on our OMF UK blog today (and the next two Saturdays). I've written three posts about the challenges missionaries have with identity. Here is the first one.

What's been going on in our house this week?

It's been head-down for me here as I try to get everything vital done in my various roles before we go away on our summer holidays on Friday.

This time last year we'd already begun
our epic camping tour. This year's holiday
will include less camping, but we will,
Lord willing, get three nights under
canvas at a lake up north.

I've been:

• doing final checking of the Summer issue of Japan Harvest magazine
• working on content for the new OMF Japan website (due for launch August 4)
• working on acquiring and producing blog posts that will feed content onto the above website (and you know how addicted I am to blogging—it's been a bit difficult to focus on anything else)
• learning new software: Wordpress.org in order to do the above
• editing articles for my writing critique group, and for the Autumn issue of Japan Harvest
• chasing up articles that are late for the Autumn issue
• editing my own writing for several different sources

So yes, really all text- and computer-based. My dream is that one day I might be able to ease into going away, rather than work to the last minute and pack with my head only half on what's to come, but mostly on what's not quite finished!

David's been at school for part of most days. He's been doing things at his desk, while simultaneously providing access to the robotics room so that some scouts can tidying it up before the new school year, a service project, I'm told.

The boys are all very relaxed, going to bed late and getting up late. Sometimes hanging out with friends, but generally quietly doing things at home. Really very different to when they were younger. This morning both David and I left before anyone got up. I went to a coffee shop to work and David to school. It's very different, this stage of not having to have someone at home to supervise every moment.

Last night we enjoyed hanging out over a BBQ with nearby friends before we each leave town on our respective summer holidays. It's real bliss to have the freedom to do that on a Monday night!

We've also had a heat-wave come through these last couple of days. Up till now the temperatures have been in the mid to high 20s (Celsius) most of the time. But since the weekend it's been low to mid 30s, with high humidity. It was 32C in our bedroom last night when we went to go to bed. I bailed and we slept on our air mattress in the air conditioned lounge (we don't have functional air con in the bedrooms). That was after a bad sleep on Sunday night. The night started out at 30C and was down to only 28C by the morning.

These temperatures this early in the season are unusual, but it won't be long before it gets that hot and stays that hot until late August or mid September. It's a dilemma as to whether I dislike a Tokyo summer or winter more.

Now, though, it's raining. I'm guessing that the heat has broken for the time being.

Job changes

It's unusual for me to spend most of Saturday at the computer, but that's exactly what I've done today. Thankfully we're going out this evening for a BBQ with American/Canadian friends, so I'll get plenty of social interaction there. And some cultural appreciation, apparently, they've been wanting to invite us over for months now, keen to show us how they do BBQs.


One of the things I did this morning was send out our prayer letter. If you'd like a copy, please email me. But here are some snippets from it that talk a little bit about how our jobs are changing (yes, the first section is written in third person, as is most of the newsletter, so that our readers don't think it is just my letter).

Mobilisation in mission

This lady, Heather, is visiting Japan from the UK OMF office.
She has professional experience in website design and using
social media to promote companies. I was at a meeting with
her all day on Wednesday as we sorted out details on this
new website and blog.

One of the jobs of an OMF missionary is mobilisation. All of us are expected to mobilise people to pray for mission (hence our prayer letters and deputation on home assignments), but also to mobilise people to be more involved in mission in other ways, including going as missionaries. OMF Japan has an initiative at present called 200 by 2020. We’re praying for 200 missionaries in Japan by 2020 (a mixture of long-term and medium-term missionaries). That’s about 50 or so more than we currently have, so obviously there’s work to be done.

Wendy has taken on the role of OMF Japan mobilisation content manager. Which means that she’s been acquiring and editing content for the new OMF Japan website (to be launched in mid-August). A big part of the content of the website will be an OMF Japan blog that Wendy is developing, managing, and editing. We’re hoping to have fresh material up at least once a week. Stay tuned for the details. If you’re a Facebook friend of Wendy or David you should see links to the new blog appearing there soon.

Over the past decade or so Wendy’s also produced a small Japan prayer calendar that OMF missionaries have used to mobilise prayer within their own support base. This year it has become cost prohibitive, so Wendy is now developing one or two other publications that missionaries can use for mobilisation.

Our field leader in mobilisation, the wife of our former field director, has been on compassionate leave since early April, so we’ve struggled to keep going, but thankfully we have regained some momentum. 

It’s a lot of work on top of what Wendy’s already doing, pray for wisdom in use of time, especially during these 11 weeks when boys are on holidays (her office is our living area).

Leadership is Learning (CAJ corner by David)

I am always learning something, whether it is a new piece of technology, or a new batch of student names, and all the personalities that go with them. This coming year will be spent learning more about leadership.

My new role at CAJ includes a large percentage of helping others do their jobs well. To do that, I will need to understand my colleagues better: what are their goals, what are their desires, fears, strengths, and shortcomings. 

Leadership in God’s kingdom centres on serving, rather than commanding. I have learnt over the years that this involves listening and seeking to understand. In Jesus’ grace I hope to do that well for the people under my care this year. Thankfully, will have others to help me, including my predecessor in this role.

Pray for the school as there a number of job shuffles. Nearly 20 of us are doing something a little different next year!