This week is unusual

Tomorrow we are catching trains to our first in-person overnight mission conference in four years. It's 550km north of here, but we get to go on the super-fast Shinkansen, so it's a shorter journey than if we were driving. 

OMF Japan field has usually held all-field conferences every two or three years. We were about to gather in March 2020 when all plans had to be cancelled for the pandemic. Since then we’ve had two online substitutes, but they really have only been “better than nothing” events.

This is the grand dining room of the venue of
our last all-field conference, in 2018.

One of the best things about on-field conferences is actually gathering with other missionaries. It really is pretty exhausting, because not only do you have various meetings and gatherings to attend, you spend a lot of the “free time”, coffee breaks, and meals catching up with people you haven’t seen in a long time, but it's a "good" exhausted. This is our family-away-from-home. The noise is quite something! I think this one is going to be more overwhelming for me than they have in the past, because rarely, in the last 2 ½ years, have I been in a room with more than 20 people who are talking to one another.

Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to gathering with our “OMF Family” in May for the first time in four years. (Incidentally it will be first time in Japan that we've been to a conference without any kids—our boys are staying home.) This isn’t a full-field conference, but about two-thirds of our missionaries will be there. There will be many new faces, and, sadly, many faces missing—people who’ve retired or left the field for various reasons, as well as most of those who don't work on Honshu. It's going to be an all-masked affair, and I'm hoping that wearing masks all the time will not hinder our time together.

I don't get off with being just a participant, either. I'm running a writing workshop for an handful of people on Friday afternoon and playing the piano for a short while during communion also. But I'm okay with these! What I have had trouble with is actually believing that this is going to happen. We've had so many plans cancelled in the last 2 ½ yrs, it seems surreal to actually have something big like this really happening. And we've done our Covid tests, so we're really good to go! I'm packing my suitcase soon.

By the way, if you're interested, this was my blogpost after our last conference, in March 2018: https://mmuser.blogspot.com/2018/03/hokkaido-conference-is-wrap.html This time we're going to a much more bare-bones venue, a youth hostel.

Big historically significant park in Yokohama

We had online conference meetings for our mission from Tuesday to Thursday last week. Usually an in-person conference is five days long and very social. Online is much harder, so our leaders urged us to spend time with missionaries who live closer to us on the days surrounding the online meetings. In that spirit, we had lunch with another family with teens last Sunday (27th) and then last Friday (2nd) I met two colleagues for a day at a park in Yokohama. 

At the end of a week of being stuck to screens, of straining to connect with others in a large group, connecting really fast in small groups, and processing all the other information being given to us, it was a relief to get outside and hang out in nature. Even the train trip was good. Yokohama is a fair way from us, but from our local station we can catch a direct train there. It takes a bit over an hour, but I got a seat at the very start, so it wasn't a hard journey. At the end of the day I had usual end-of-week fatigue, but a whole day of nature and talking for several hours in-person had rejuvenated my soul.

I didn't get to blog about it last week, though. I spent Saturday catching up on some urgent things I didn't get done on Friday and Sunday catching up on rest. So today, I'm catching up on the less urgent things, including this. Here are some photos, with commentary. This is a fascinating park! I love history, and this park has a few centuries of history attached to it. I'm thankful that there were lots of signs around explaining elements of the park, and they were all bilingual.

This park used to be, as many of these old parks were, a private property. It has about 20 buildings, many of which were brought to the park in the early 1900s by the then-owner of the park, Sankei, a successful Yokohama businessman (silk). Many of the buildings come from the Kansai area (around Nara/Kyoto). Though it used to be the family's private property, the "outer garden" was opened to the public for free from 1906 (we had to pay!).

This is the "Main Pond". Intuitively named! It is the first feature of the park that you come across when you come through the main entrance. Note the red spider lily flowers, late-summer early-autumn flowers that we're seeing a lot of at the moment.

A small bamboo "arbour" that was unlabelled.

This is the only building that we were allowed inside. It was designed for farmers, but is grander than what most farmers lived in.  It was large, but very dark and dusty inside this building. Not the warmest place to live in winter either!  

Pictured is part of an autumn-moon-viewing tradition, the purpose is to give thanks to the gods for a harvest (as best as I understand it).

This is the front of the same building. I'm not sure what was stored in the ceiling.

This fire is kept burning all day long. It was very smoky. I find it hard to imagine living in this house: with the smoke, dust, and draftiness!

This bridge had unusual "railings". Many of the structures in the park were damaged in the 1923 earthquake, rebuilt, then damaged again during WW2. Additionally, they've struggled with the flora. Several thousand plum trees were planted at one point, and destroyed by wind. Not to mention the proximity to the ocean, so salinity has also been an issue. It's quite remarkable how much work has gone into this park and understandable that it has been named an official cultural asset. The family gave the park to a foundation for its management and it was opened for the public again in 1958, this time the "inner garden" was also opened.

A bridge with a covered place to rest halfway across.

One of several water features.

This was our lunch view! Serene.

Beautifully manicured banks of the Main Pond.

This building was built in the mid-1500s at a temple in Kyoto, the same temple as the
three-story pagoda that you'll see if you stick with this blog post! This building housed

a Buddha statue. It was damaged by a typhoon after WW2 and disassembled.

In 1987 it was relocated to this garden. It is listed as an Important National Cultural Property. 

From under a wisteria trelllis, we spied a couple having pre-wedding photos taken.

And later we saw another couple doing the same thing (pre-wedding photos).

Cute gateway into the "inner" garden, where the family used to live in the early 1900s. Pictured are the two colleagues I spent the day with.

The garden is in a shallow valley, somehow all the noise from the nearby expressways, heavy industry, and closely built residential areas didn't penetrate the garden. The signs promised a view here, but though we could see the ocean, the foreground overwhelmed it. One of the original buildings on the property was built on this high vantage point (1887), presumably because of the seaside views at the time!

Lots of water features and bridges, as is typical in a Japanese garden.

This wooden pagoda was originally constructed in 1457 and moved to the garden from an 
abandoned temple in Kyoto in 1914. 

This little building fascinated me. It was moved to the garden in 1905, but was
originally build by a feudal lord (son of the first shogunate of the Edo period,
Ieyasu Tokugawa). It contains a stone monument to wish for his mother's
health and long life. In the foreground you can see thick moss.

It wasn't easy to take this photo. I discovered the dragonfly next to my leg and
tried not to move suddenly to startle it. I love seeing these insects.

In the Main Pond, they've anchored this wooden boat that the birds were enjoying. In the foreground you can see a big spot light. There were a number around. As the gardens shut by 5pm, I can only imagine these are for special nighttime events (the gardens can be hired for private events).

At this time of year there weren't many flowers around, but red spider lilies 
(and these rarer white versions) were looking brilliant. I love how they
randomly appear in the least likely places.

Well done for sticking around to the end of this post! A bit lengthy. But I enjoy the discipline of looking up some of the history to go with my photos when I do get to visit these historical sites in Japan. This nation has many many centuries of history. Of which I know only a tiny smidgen and have no hope of learning a large chunk. However, little tidbits every now and then is fascinating and gives a little more insight into this place I've lived most of my adult life.

Retreat musings

This year's theme: "Leaving a Lasting Legacy".
Though it's left me pondering whether thinking about
leaving a legacy might be the wrong tack to take, but rather following
Jesus to the max might be better and the legacy will take care of itself?

Before too much more time passes, I want to write about the retreat I went to last Wednesday to Friday. It's the ninth time I've been to this women-in-ministry retreat and I love it every time. It's a time to go away, be with friends, worship in English, and rest from work (although I usually come back tired, but not from work).

One of the friends who greeted me with a hug when we arrived.

It's part of my missionary-life survival kit. I especially love being with friends who know what this missionary lifestyle is about. No explanations are necessary. Though this time I did spend a lot of time answering the question, "How's your son settling in Australia?" That's what I get for blogging and putting my life up on social media!

But friends who've known you for a while in this mobile environment are worth their weight in gold. This was the 25th time this retreat has been held and as part of that they had photos from many of the past retreats, as well as videos from several ladies who've been a part of the leadership team in the past, but are no longer in Japan. It was bittersweet to see these as they are friends who I can no longer share sweet fellowship with.

"Red" sister fellowship.

However, keeping it positive, I enjoyed the friends who were there. One lady asked me, in a slight panic, on Facebook a few weeks ago if I'd be at the retreat. She saw me preparing to go to Australia and wondered if I'd be back in time. I was surprised that someone who I didn't know super well would be so concerned, but encouraged nonetheless. Missionary women go deep fast. Very often we know little about one another and don't have a lot in common (aside from where we work), but we can have deep, honest fellowship regardless. I don't fully understand it, except perhaps that we're bound together by our shared experience of living and serving outside our home culture and thus are more needy and willing to lean on others?

I felt very tired this time going into the retreat. (Maybe I've been overdoing it recently?) It was hard to stay awake during the first night's worship and teaching session. Sometimes I find it's easy to concentrate on the words of songs, but other times, like Wednesday night, worship is singing without engaging the brain very much at all and I've learnt that that's okay. It was great to praise God in English and I was glad for a nice mixture of old and newer songs that I knew as well as ones I didn't.

The retreat has an overabundance of slippers and
rules about where you wear them. They have dining room
slippers and toilet slippers, but also hallway slippers and
chapel slippers! To get from the main building to the chapel
 you change into outdoor shoes and then into slippers again!

The post I wrote at the retreat (here) contained some of the things gleaned from the speaker. I didn't take notes this year, simply trying to soak it in. Probably being so tired made me a little more grumpy and picky with this year's speaker than usual (I was getting grumpy at cliques and a little frustrated that she didn't spend more time in the Bible).

Retreat is usually a time that includes tears for me. Often during worship time, or during times of sharing personally with others. This retreat was no different. Obviously saying goodbye to our son was still quite raw, but the speaker's husband died a few years earlier, so she talked about grief and the loss of Christians in the prime of ministry also brought up tears. She also emphasised that we have a choice in how we react to painful situations: certainly we need to grieve, but beyond that we can choose our response to pain.

Thursday night was enjoyable, it was a celebration of the 25 years of Women in Ministry retreats. We heard from ladies who had gone before us and a little of the history of the retreat. We sang and prayed. We were entertained by a group who'd learnt a new song that day and a spoken piece by two sisters. And we laughed at two ladies who did a skit/song routine that showed the full span of a missionary lifetime, with tongue-in-cheek. Then we finished up with cheesecake (my favourite dessert).

I'm afraid that is a bit of a piece-meal review of the days away, sorry if it comes across like that. But I've come back to Tokyo refreshed in spirit and my love-tank full. I feel ready to deal with the challenges of life again (though I wasn't ready for being hit by a cold first day back at the "office"). I'm thankful that we're planning to be back from home assignment in time to go to the retreat again next year too (Lord willing)!

Fellowship that just makes you thirstier

Last year this week I wrote a post called Empty Chairs about the annual missionary women prayer and fellowship event that I went to yesterday. I've just reread it and it still holds true, though I wasn't as sad yesterday as I was last year. There will always be friends missing from my life, more than if I'd never gone overseas. But I think I'm in a better spot than I was this time last year about that fact, at least just now I am.

It was good yesterday to catch up with a couple of friends who I haven't seen in longer than a year or two. One of whom has now moved to Tokyo and I've got the prospect of seeing her more often, though she still lives 1 ½ hrs away!

It was good too, to help seven other ladies get to this meeting. We got another three hours of "hanging out" just by riding together in my van. I love that.

I'm really glad that I spent time last week just me, my Bible, and the Lord. That made yesterday easier. Sometimes I find these group-directed events don't necessarily meet me where I'm at. I still remember just a week or so after the big floods in south east Queensland I went to a prayer meeting here where one phrase that came up a few times was "flooding". It was supposed to be in a positive way (eg. pour out your Spirit upon me, Lord), but it was a negative trigger word for me at the time. (As an aside, it is interesting that the word "flood" is almost entirely negative in the Bible, the use of it as a positive word in worship songs is a modern thing.)

These "one-day" events often feel too short for me. You spend a lot of time getting there and getting home and the time spent actually being present is not so long. Yesterday we were there a good five hours (with only three hours of travel for our group), which is good, but it still felt short.

One thing, I think, that makes it feel short is that you're having a lot of short, sometimes random interactions with a variety of people who you've known for a varying length of time. I find it's a bit unsatisfying to have short conversations with some. Yet there were other conversations that couldn't end fast enough (Trump...really?).

After lunch was a couple of hours of free time. Many of us went for a walk in the local area. I joined the group that went to this delightful forest just down the road.

The weather was warm (about 27 degrees Celsius), unseasonably warm, actually. So it was delightful to be outdoors. Even more exciting to be only 28km from home and be on the edge of the mountains and the forests that live on them. This is the area where our eldest son is hiking and camping these four days.

I am, however, really glad that we're going camping with friends this weekend. I'll get a decent dose of the two things that yesterday just made me thirsty for: gorgeous nature and deep fellowship. 

Oh hang on, did I tell you that we're going camping? I don't think I've mentioned it here. But that's another post on its own . . . some time before we go.

Lots of talking and listening

The four of the last five days have been busy and involved lots of talking and listening.

Thursday I drove a van full of women to a day of prayer, worship, and fellowship. I listened and talked from 8.20 till 4.15. Phew! But so much fun and blessing. These were some of the people I missed during our year in Australia. We are almost all living cross culturally, and though our backgrounds, ages, life stages, and nationalities differ, the bond of living a cross cultural life is strong. 

Friday David and I met our "boss" and her husband, our Japan field leader, for our two-year review. We spent three hours talking about how life and ministry was going. They have four boys of similar ages to ours, so we have much in common. And again, the bond of living life cross culturally. 

The beautiful setting for our fellowship and worship
time on Thursday.

On Saturday I went to our middle son's cross country race with another couple I've met through school. I don't know them super well, but we spent more than two hrs in the car talking, getting to know each other, plus chatting with them and other parents during the races, and afterwards I had lunch with them and two other couples. 

Yesterday, as I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, I caught trains to the other side of Tokyo for our mission's monthly prayer meeting and fellowship time. That felt a bit like my "home coming" in Japan, in terms of being with "family".

I'm an extrovert with a strong introvert shadow. I love to spend time with people, especially one-on-one. So these days refreshed, stimulated, and encouraged me. Here are some topics covered in the last five days:

• The regrets about education-related decision (future blog post).
• Frustrations with our children and their schools.
• Weird cultural observations (common topic with people living cross culturally).
• Heard about children's weddings, study experiences, one boy changing schools, 
• I explained why Australia was originally settled (to some Americans).
• Explained a bit of Australian climate, geography, food... "Where's Brisbane?"-type conversations.
• I learnt more American geography and history.
• Comparing Australian and American food, starting with bacon!
• Discovered Americans with Japanese descent in Hawaii are different to those in mainland us (due to wartime experiences).

Some topics are a bit different to those covered when I got together with friends in Australia. But some are just substitutes: the ones about Australia are generally substituted by questions about Japan when we're in Australia. But then other topics are similar, like talking about our children and their struggles and experiences.

However the "strong introvert shadow" in me feels a bit socialized-out. But now I have a pile of non-social work on my computer that needs attention.

Wonderful hosts

Thank you for the support and prayers for our family after yesterday's post. We scaled back our expectations on "tourism" today and mostly had a day at home, aside from a foray to a local shopping centre looking for shorts for our eldest, who's grown out of the shorts he wore the last time we had a full summer (August last year). The job wasn't easy. He's very tactile and specific about the length and feel and even the weight of shorts. 

Our host took us on a walk on Saturday after
our long flight. Our boys had a great time
interacting with our hosts's children. Our big
strong wrestler is a favourite with little children
and he's fair game for shoulder rides, piggy
backs, and "tackling" (see below).

We eventually found three pairs that were close to "perfect" and within our budget, so it was a successful trip. Making it a bit of a special treat for the others too, by stopping for some choose-your-own frozen yoghurt.


The rest of the day has been "at home" and lazy. Though we did get the younger boys to do some "homework" that had been given to them by the school because they're missing five days of school. Our eldest didn't get anything, not sure why. Possibly because he wasn't proactive in talking to the teachers about this planned absence?

Now, at 4.30pm, we're ramping things up as we prepare to go out for the evening. A meal at the home of a couple who pray for us and then a small group. I'm excited about the opportunity. Small groups are often more rewarding than large church meetings. Just a little more relaxed and generally full of meaningful interactions. The boys are, predictably, less keen, but not as hostile as on Sunday. 

As I carefully explained to the boys what was happening tonight (as far as we knew) the comments were, "Why are we always 'running things'?" and other less savoury things.


I have to note here the wonderful help of our hosts. We're staying with a family who visited us last year on their holidays in Japan. They're a part of a church here that's supported us since we first left for Japan in 2000. And they've created a wonderful peaceful place for us to stay. Like most missionaries we experienced a variety of situations when staying with others. Some wonderful, others okay and some best described as "not to be repeated if at all possible".


The best situation is when there are kids about the ages of ours and when the hosts are willing to allow us to have privacy and rest (not talking all the time). When hosts have children around the ages of ours, they also have toys and books that our boys enjoy, so it can be a much better experience than a sterile motel room with nothing to do. 

Our hosts this time have been keen to cook food that our boys like, to entertain when appropriate, or let us rest when we need to. They have respected our boundaries and allowed us free access to their kitchen. On Thursday night we have two different meetings at two places about two hours apart. They've volunteered to pick up our kids mid-transit (between a morning and evening meeting) and look after them all evening. Wow! Such a gift.

My devotions this morning included the last three verses of 2 Corinthians 4:

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (NIV)

Wonderful reminders about what's important and what's permanent and what's momentary (parenting troubles as momentary). And a reminder about where I should keep my eyes focused.

Refreshment and Unity

We were at an OMF Japan Conference most of the week. We had a guest speaker and his wife, missionaries in Japan with another mission. I was sitting with Anne, the speaker's wife at one meal. She asked something that got me thinking: 

My name tag for the week, with our theme verse.

"How do you do it? The mission conferences I've been on with our mission have mostly been full of business meetings."

As I've thought about it I realise that OMF is full of specialists. It is also not a democracy. We're church planters, youth workers, short-term worker coordinators, medical advisors, teachers, leaders, etc. 

One of the worship teams (yes, I got to play this gorgeous
piano).

Most of the mission business is dealt with by our leaders and representatives of the members, not talked about between members. Matters that involve individuals—like where they will work, or when they will go on home assignment—is discussed between the relevant parties. I can only imagine that that makes life easier for the leaders because amongst 125+ missionaries, there could be about 100 different opinions! Essentially we trust the leaders to make decisions that are in the mission's best interest.

So conferences are therefore about refreshment and expressing our unity as one "field".


The refreshment is primarily spiritual and social. Most people find conferences physically exhausting (late nights talking). So conferences include Bible talks, time for prayer, and time for interacting with one another over meals and snacks. We spend time getting to know one another. 

It was lovely to look out of the chapel
where we had all our gatherings and
see this tree beginning to bloom at
the start of spring.

It is also a time where our leaders inform us of important things that are going on, for example, the impressive list of people who are working towards getting clearance to come and join us in Japan. This year we spent a couple of hours discussing important changes to our structure.

While all this is going on, there is a children and teens programme also going on. This is always a source of great joy for us. Our kids love getting together with their OMF "cousins", many of whom they only see once a year. And it truly looks like a bunch of cousins. A variety of ages, all hanging around together.

It is a joy to express our family-ness too. Now my kids are getting older I feel free-ed up to do things like cuddle other people's babies, or play with younger children.

The younger children having fun.

Irish-Cambodian and Australian "cousins"

One boy I met for the first time (a four-year-old Australian) really reminded me of my boys at that age. So full of energy, and prepared to play with a ball for a lengthy period of time He even tried to tackle me and wrestle me!

I've come home refreshed in soul and spirit, but rather tired of body. I made it through the week on an unusual amount of coffee for me. But thankfully I haven't developed the headache I expected today! 

I love my OMF family. I don't know what I'd do without them in Japan!

About today

The last four Saturdays running have been spent at wrestling meets. Getting up before the sun, driving, sitting and waiting, watching, yelling, congratulating, and driving home. Four Saturdays in a row!

I also baked some "Hundreds and Thousands"
slice for snacks this week.

It has been a great pleasure today to get up way after the sun rose, have a leisurely breakfast (after everyone else), and hear the boys having such a great time just staying home. I don't regret the four Saturdays away. Actually we all enjoyed them, but it did get tiring. The last month has raced past. All of a sudden it is mid-February and we're more than half-way through the school year!

For lunch we went to visit some OMF friends who also have three sons, one of which is in our middle son's class. It was a lovely time. We're so rarely invited into someone else's home here (we take up a lot of room in a Japanese house) that it is an absolute treat whenever it happens.

As is often the case in long discussions with other missionaries, talk turned to the future. Future including upcoming conferences (a big one in Hokkaido for us in June), summer holidays, home assignments (them–middle of this year; us–from the middle of next year), and even longer-term, education of our kids post-school, even retirement.

These discussions are interesting, are often repeated in various forms, and sometimes make me feel uneasy. On the one hand, I have enough things being concerned about what's coming up in the next week or month. On the other hand, these future events need to be thought about and planned for. Aspects of that make me uneasy, however. There are lots of unknowns that I struggle with accepting.

The fun part of the discussion was talking about camping. It amazes me how few missionaries have tried camping in Japan. I'm not sure why, maybe because there is an initial outlay involved plus the challenges of finding camping places (mostly in Japanese resources).

Another interesting part of the discussion was about our two very different types of home assignment. Theirs in Singapore, with a single supporting church in a small country. Ours in enormous Australia with dozens of supporting churches and individuals spread across thousands of kilometres. It makes for very different looking home assignments!

Just now, in the background two boys are wrestling in the lounge room. Thankfully it is mostly panting and giggles I hear. The oven is sizzling with some meatballs, and the heater is blowing out hot air to counter the cold below-5C temperatures outside. Upstairs one boy is showering and his father supervising, but probably also folding clothes that dried outside today in the sunshine.

It's been a good day. How was your Saturday?

Take heart

The retreat was great. But haven't I already said that? Let me see if I can figure out why it was so great.

1. The speaker was really good. I think her brilliance was in the simplicity of the message. The four sessions were based on one verse, John 16:33. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” 

• Session one: In Me you may have peace – remembering that Jesus promised to be with the disciples and us also, that he will never leave us alone.
• Session two: You will have trouble - during which we reflected on our collective trouble of March 11 last year and the resulting events, but also the various individual troubles that each of us carries with us or encounters.
• Session three: Take heart – remembering times in the Bible when all the odds seemed against the person/people concerned, yet God came through.
• Session four: I have overcome the World – in which we were reminded of many promises and truths, reminding us that we can have freedom from judgement, defeat, discouragement and fear.

2. The programme was uncluttered. Allowing time to rest, to get to know people, to catch-up with others, and to pray, read our Bibles etc. One special hour was after breakfast on Thursday which was designated a "Quiet Hour" when we were to not talk with others, but spend time with the Lord. I loved using that to reflect on what we'd been already given during the first session and ponder where we might head with the retreat's key verse. 

View from my room, the chapel is on the left and the other
accommodation building on the right.

3. The location was centralised. Previously we've been in a location that had us scattered over rooms in on a steep mountainside. Not only did you feel like a mountain goat, it had the effect of making it hard to "accidentally" run into people and therefore potentially a lonely time, particularly during the "free time".


4. I had a great bunch of ladies in the car with me to and from retreat. We had so much fun. That alone extended the retreat about six hours!

Fun and fellowship around a fire, my boys would
be so jealous. Us non-Americans were also
introduced to the cultural phenomenon of
s'mores.

I tried to relax and just be me. You might find that a funny thing for Wendy to say. However fun this extrovert usually finds these retreats, I am a little shy and do struggle a bit with crowds of people who all seem to know everyone else. After a year of struggling with being comfortable in my skin and with who I am, I was able to relax and enjoy being me. I had many enjoyable encounters and many affirmations that I am okay just the way I am, without striving to fix this or that bit of me. Add to that the quiet whisper of Christ saying, 

Take Heart my beloved, you will have troubles, but I have overcome the world. And nothing can separate you from me, nothing is too big for me to handle. And, by the way, I am bigger than any mess-up you can possibly manage. 

I'm back

Just a short note to let you know I'm back safely! The driving went pretty well. We only got lost for a little while on the way up, but my navigator, Teresa, was hilarious and as we had no nervous nellies in the back seat, we had a lot of fun getting lost (and found a beautiful scenic tree-ed avenue as a result). Totally fine on the way home, although it rained gently the whole way. But now I'm a bit tired.

The 2 1/2 days away were wonderful, but I think I'll leave it to tomorrow to write about it here. Lots of laughter, lots of tears, lots of love. Missionaries are often stressed and busy, but also people who are largely misunderstood. The culture we're in doesn't understand why where here, the people we've left behind struggle to understand also. Often the deepest friendships and fellowship comes with other missionaries. So times like this are very precious.

However, to leave you on a lighter note, we were amused by this sign on the toilet door just outside the dining room.

Refreshed and exhausted

Somehow I find writing this blog daily is much easier than taking a break and then picking it up again. The last four days have been full and busy but also refreshing and relaxing. Interesting paradoxes. I didn't take as many photos as I could have, but the green with which we've been surrounded this week was a balm to my soul. Here is the view out of the window of our room:

The conference centre was a number of buildings on the side of a fairly steep hill, connected by covered walkways. On every side, out most windows, we could see green and it was fabulous. It helped me up and down those stairs!

One of my boys asked me why we go to these annual conferences. The easiest answer is: that it is close to compulsory! More than that, though, we want to. OMF conferences on the field are a combination of work and refreshment. We have biblical teaching and encouragement, we worship together and pray together, but we also do business. We hear from our leaders as to what is going on, things that would usually go into a newsletter, but it is nice to hear it straight from them. We also socialise. We catch up with friends and colleagues. We exchange laughter and hugs and tears. And all in English! (Which is good for those of us for whom English is our heart language but a challenge for those who don't come from an English speaking background, which means at least 1/3 of our members.)

Our room. The futons were a bit hard and I forgot my pillow, so I didn't sleep all that well.

This is the first year that we've really relaxed and enjoyed the programme, probably because our youngest is now school age. That means he is more able to do a lot for himself (including the stairs) and doesn't tire so easily. Which means that we hardly saw them except at meals, bed and bath time and free-time.

I need to mention exercise. My muscles are hurting, and have done all week. On Monday morning the boys were so excited about going to conference that they were driving us crazy. We didn't need to leave until 1pm, and didn't fancy a couple hours drive with crazy boys in the car. So we took them out for some exercise in the morning. It was complicated, but I ended up doing a mile run with my 12 y.o. cross-country runner. Ouch! It's been a while since I did that. Then I went for my usual half-hour session at the gym.

So, I started the week with sore muscles. Then we arrived at the conference centre and proceeded to climb up and down stairs all week; not calculated to give sore muscles any rest.

On Wednesday afternoon we had five hours free-time. Free-time at events like this is always an issue when you have young children. Not likely to be restful. We decided to take advantage of a friend offering to take a group hiking to a local lookout. We didn't expect it to be a three hour hike, though! Our 6 y.o. dropped out fairly quickly - and my husband was wise enough to volunteer to walk home with him. That left me and two Eveready Bunnies who just didn't seem to get weary at all. All the way up and back, my sons barely stopped. Thankfully the leader of our group seemed equal to the task, not only of keeping up with them, but listening to their constant prattle!

Not much to see at the look-out. Too cloudy. But nicely cool.

The scenery was beautiful, but the boys moved so quickly I hardly got any photos.

Well you can guess how my muscles felt after this hike! Thankfully I took advantage of the Japanese baths at the conference centre. Yes - a "public" bath, but once you get over the embarrassment it is incredibly soothing to overtaxed muscles.

We had a Fun Night on the last evening. It was fun, lots of laughter! But I tired quickly.

When we arrived home yesterday afternoon we felt like we'd been away for longer than just three nights. Refreshed and exhausted, but glad we'd been.

Touching base from the mountain

Hi from the mountain. I made it safely through falling snow on Tuesday. Narrowly missed having to put snow chains on the car. The next morning I had to drive a short distance up a snowy track. The wheels spun and I wasn't going anywhere fast, but had a wise advisor correct my driving technique and then push me up the hill! I'm really not in a hurry to go back to snow country driving, granted if I lived here I'd probably have appropriate tyres (winter tyres), but it is just a tad scary!

As for the retreat itself, I'm having a great time! Socially and spiritually. Used a few tissues today, so that is a bit draining. Some of that is just the opportunity to worship in English. Other parts are considering the hard things in life and hearing others' hard things. It is interesting, actually, how open missionaries are willing to be with other missionaries who they barely know. Our lives hold very few opportunities for heart language fellowship and therefore when the opportunity presents we grasp it and go deep quickly. Pretty rare experiences back at home, I think.

Any case, this was supposed to be a short touch-base. We have one more day here, till Friday lunch. Then I get to drive the ladies back down the mountain and dive back into 'ordinary' life again.

According to my husband things are going pretty well back at home. They're all coping. This morning he not only got them to school on time and packed linches, but got the washing out too and then taught all day! Amazing man.



Well it's an hour till dinner, I'm going to have a bit of a lie down before then. Back later.

Our camping adventure

We've just spent three nights in the wilderness with friends. Four adults and five kids. No electricity (except in the showers and toilets, which were a few hundred metres away). No fridge! And a cheap second hand tent that leaked.

We (David and I) had to evacuate the tent the first night when our bed got wet. Thankfully our friends had room at their feet where we could squeeze in. Thankfully there was a spare tarpaulin that prevented the rain on the next two nights getting into our abode.

Before the sun rose on our first day, we discovered that tents hold in very little noise and let in a lot of light. Our boys were up and SHOUTING before five most mornings! If I hadn't been so exhausted by the night, I'd have been in their tents attempting to strangle them.
Strangely it didn't rain once during the day. The days were beautiful, actually. Not too hot, cool in the mornings and evenings.

We were located on the edge of a shallow salt water lake. On the second day we hired motor boats and spent a day motoring up a local river. There were not many people around and the water way wound its way through national park. It was gorgeous.

The worst part of the whole adventure was the packing up, really. And I didn't even do most of it. I ended up minding the kids. And as my resources to keep them busy were gradually packed away and their tempers worsened, it became a less enjoyable activity. Add to that the knowledge that we had a six hour drive awaiting us after we finished. It was a tiresome day. And that after a few tiring days - broken nights and early starts.

But worth it! Now we're contemplating getting into camping in Japan as a way to cheaply see more of the country-side. We'll just have to train up these boys to help a little more. And get some equipment. Especially a tent that won't leak in gentle rain.