Satisfaction in completing a project

Cover of our latest magazine, to be
mailed out next week.

On Tuesday we sent another magazine to the printer. Each of these issues is the culmination of about four and a half months of work of our team, so it's worth noting when each issue is finished. However, the magazine team is remote, so remote that five of them are currently living in Australia and the US. Different time zones and that we all hold many different responsibilities outside of the magazine combine to make it hard to do much at the same time at all. I don't even try for frequent all-team meetings.

A friend asked me on Sunday if I celebrate at these times, when we finish a magazine. My answer was "No, not generally." But when I thought about it later, I realised that if the weather is good, I'll often go for a ride to my favourite local park in the days following the completion of an issue. But this time of year it's hard as it's still pretty hot and humid. However my friend's kind question prompted me to take a moment...and so on Tuesday I rode to my favourite local coffee shop and enjoyed the treat of someone else making me a good coffee.

On Tuesday I also started writing our prayer letter, which, alongside this blog, is one of my favourite ways to reflect on recent events, as well as look forward to the coming weeks. Through doing that I realised that my Saturday mornings are extra busy in September (usually David and I try keep Saturdays free for relaxation and home-stuff). On top of that we've got a lot going on in October (three work trips between the two of us plus a camping trip and a one-day mission conference to speak at). Phew! 

I realise that you don't really want me to list all the various tasks I've got on my mind at work (though it helped me to list them anyway, but I deleted them before I hit "Publish"). Most of it is planning and preparing for future events or projects in the coming months. It all feels quite messy. In contrast, our magazine process has become quite organised and clear, and it's very satisfying to finish one and hold it in my hand. So I do often find it a bit of a challenging transition from the intensity of finishing off a magazine back to other (often less clear-cut) responsibilities.

In other news on the self-care front—I did go to the dentist today, and got the all clear for another few months. And I'm continuing the struggle with cooking too much food for us two...but enjoying the leftovers on subsequent evenings!

Unusual week, including my first podcast

In November last year I got an email from someone who does a similar job to me (digital content managing) with OMF in the US. He's been following this blog for a while and noted that I'd written occasionally about our upcoming home assignment. He's noted that it's an element of missionary life that is not well known and not often written about. So he asked if I'd be interested in writing an article about the process of planning for home assignment, with the intent of helping people who've never worked as cross-cultural workers to understand this (rather significant) element of our lives.

It sounded like a great writing project to sink my teeth into. One article quickly turned into six. I knew it was a big topic, but I think I surprised myself with how much I could write. It ended up in total around 4,500 words and took several months to complete because it was often at the bottom of my to-do list because it wasn't so urgent.

So this week the first of the series came out and you can read it here:

https://omf.org/us/what-home-assignment-means-for-a-missionary-part1 (they'll be coming out weekly, I think)

The new, and even more unexpected element to this project was the opportunity to record a conversation with Kesia, a colleague/friend here in Japan. She read my edited articles and then we talked about home assignments for 30 minutes while I recorded it. The tech gurus have turned that into a podcast, so you can even hear my voice (and my friend's):

Playing, amid the boxes. 

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/omf-us/episodes/What-Home-Assignment-Means-for-a-Missionary-e2696fh/a-aa2dv0i

And bringing this blog post back to the ordinary daily life of a missionary in transition. Here are the sorts of things we've been doing this week:

• Packing boxes: yes, we've actually got to that stage.
• Sorting: in a few weeks you'll be able to see the blog post I've written for OMF US that includes a scary diagram about missionary sorting.
• Things have been leaving our house: furniture we've sold to others, and the first van-load of stuff has gone to the OMF storage facility. Oh, and more plants have left too.
• Sorting clothes: the daunting task of packing for 12 months. I struggled through this on Monday so that I could empty the set of drawers in our room. I'm going to go back in a few days an reassess what I've done (separated my clothes into leave here and take with us).
• Medical stuff: a couple of doctor's appointments. Mostly regular checkups, but I've also got a bacterial infection that's being stubborn (and the sort of thing my body does when I'm in transition and stressed).
• Applying for rentals in Brisbane. This was complex and threatened to drag on for several weeks, but God was merciful to us and on Tuesday gave us the first house we applied for. For the first time we'll actually be present and part of the "moving in" of stuff to a house in Ipswich in a few weeks time. This has been a huge answer to prayer.
• HA prep stuff: photo and text for a prayer card, starting on a HA photo album 
• Administrative stuff: making sure our bond is paid to secure the house (which required an international phone call to our Australian bank who wanted to text our Australian phone number to confirm identity . . . but our Australian phone numbers aren't active till we're in Australia), re-entry visas applications, organising to do the transfer of ownership of our car, changing addresses, etc.
• Helping other people move: David and our youngest son have both helped others this week.
• Hosting. We had two of our youngest son's friends playing Monopoly in our lounge amongst the boxes yesterday afternoon. They both stayed for dinner and one stayed overnight.
• Goodbyes: I had afternoon tea with two Japanese friends on Tuesday. One of those ladies I've known since 2006. It's always difficult to say goodbye, but we hope to meet again next year.
• Naps: I napped after lunch for three days after conference!

 I think that is a long-enough list. And now I think I need another nap . . . or maybe a coffee?

But first, something that's good for me to remember in this turbulent time of transition. In preparing this blog post, I stumbled about a great quote from the retreat I went on in March:

On a daily basis we're faced with two simple choices. We can either listen to ourselves and our constantly changing feelings about our circumstances, or we can talk to ourselves about the unchanging truth of who God is and what He's accomplished for us at the cross through His Son Jesus. (C.J. Mahaney inThe Christ Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing")

Lists, a book, and more lists

Birthday present from
one of my sons!

A birthday

On Monday I celebrated another birthday. I've had a lot of them now! It was a busy day on the other side of Tokyo with OMF colleagues, something I'm thankful for. I didn't have time for much navel-gazing or feeling emotional about how many decades have passed.

Great book

When God doesn't answer your prayer this is the title of a book I finished reading recently, actually on the train on my birthday! It's one of the easier books on prayer that I've ever read (and perhaps the shortest). But it was also hard to read: because it brought to mind the many griefs: people who've died, people who are alive but struggling with overwhelming problems, and other people who don't walk a path of faith in Christ. Not to mention those things that happen that just don't make sense.

The author, Jerry Sittser, comes to the topic from a place of deep pain (losing his daughter, wife and mother in a car accident and then being a single parent to his remaining three children). There are no cliches or glibness. It's very honest. He writes:

I view suffering with horror, and I recoil from it. I have seen too many people fail to bounce back. Yet I cannot fathom what we would do without suffering either. I have come to this conclusion with great hesitation. Adversity strips us down, exposes us, and breaks us, all prerequisites for genuine growth in the spiritual life...it drives us to God.

His theology is sound and he's happy to admit where he struggles and where he doesn't understand. The book has encouraged me to persist in prayer, to be more honest (God can take our complaints), and to be more willing to ask God to change me than to change the world around me (though that is a hard thing to pray).

I'd love to read it again, perhaps with one or more other people (it has questions in the back for groups). I'm delighted that this is in my local Australian library as an ebook!

Daily life

After over a week away from my desk I had to face my growing list of "to dos" on Wednesday. As home assignment gets closer, the lists of things to do continue to grow. Some lights are glowing dimly at the end the proverbial tunnel. But it does feel like the train is going faster and faster.

Lists and more lists. This is how I cope with an overwhelming number of things to remember to do. This week, amongst my usual work, I've also added arrows to calendars and made a few lists of what is in my head that I need to pass on to others who will take over my various roles. I've answered emails and written messages and emails about potential commitments in September, and March 2024.

Today, Good Friday, the Christian Academy in Japan, our school, has taken the afternoon off. I worked this morning at my computer and this afternoon has been a mishmash of various home and work responsibilities. This evening, we're meeting colleagues/friends for dinner at a local cafe.

Upcoming stuff

Tomorrow we've got our last Saturday sports event ever. I have mixed feelings about that! (We've got one more athletics meet at the end of the month, but it's a mid-week event.) We're hoping that the rain that is forecast will not eventuate!

On Sunday afternoon we're taking a short walk down the road to look at a possibility for our next abode in Japan (from next July). Still very much only a possibility, but I'm keen to take a look.

And then Monday it's back to my desk, and continuing to add and tick off items on my to-do list on my phone. The items on the list aren't just busy work, they are things like: 

• write 100 words for OMF Japan's monthly prayer letter about my ministries
• flat plan for HA photo album
• follow up with three people (after the 18th) about a topic they might write on
• list the processes for OMF blog editing
• write a call for proposals for the next magazine

Another online list (on Asana) tells me I also need to 

• edit blog posts by Megan, Simon, and Peter.
• get back to an author about his edited article

Important bits and pieces related to all sorts of things that I'm responsible for. And having them on the list means I'm not wearing myself out trying to remember it all. Hopefully, it means that the balls that are my responsibility to keep in the air and usher eventually into the right hands aren't dropped.

I'm well aware today is Good Friday, though nothing much of what I've done has been particularly contemplative. We aren't especially big on elaborate traditions in our family. But know that what today represents in the death of Jesus Christ, son of God, is central to my faith and my life, every day. Some people look at us and the various things that we have faced, especially in the last few years, and wonder why we're still here when in some ways it would have been easier to "give up and go home". The truth of the matter is that it's because of Easter.

I have a note in my Bible: "This is why we serve him." It's in the margin of Isaiah 53:12— "Because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors" (NIV).

Here's a different way of writing it: "He has poured out his soul unto death. He was counted as a sinner, and he bore the sins of many, and he pled with God for sinners" (Living Bible).

With regards to the hard things that come our way, in the "unanswered prayer" book, Sittser writes:

The real heroes in life are those who respond to adversity with dignity, faith, and patience. All we must do is be attentive to the little irritations and problems we face every day, asking the question, 'What is God trying to do in my life?' And then pray, 'God, use this adversity to transform me.' This might be the most difficult prayer you will ever pray because of the circumstances you face. It might take all the faith you can muster just to say those words. I urge you, nevertheless, to pray them, and then wait for God to answer it.

I wouldn't count myself as a "real hero", and I surely am not good at saying "God use even this to transform me." But I hope that he is transforming me regardless of whether or not I pray this.

Not packing?

As manager of the "larder" I'm feeling quite happy at the great spans of
empty spaces on our shelves. Because we'll be back in six-months, some
of these things will be fine here. For other perishables we've organised
a See-You-Later-Party on Wednesday, which will double as a "Would you
like some ..." give-away party.

People ask at this stage: "So, have you started packing yet?"

The short answer is, "No, not really."

We're not moving out of our house, so not much packing is necessary. Just enough personal goods to make it through the next six months, on top of any work-related stuff that we need.

But, we've had plenty of other things keeping us busy. Here's a few from the last few days:

These shelves are usually very full. Some of the
containers on the bottom shelf are empty.

More empty shelves in the fridge.

• I coached the person who's taken over her job of posting the OMF blog posts as he worked on putting up the first post using Wordpress (I can hardly believe that I'm helping someone else with this...mind you, I just do the same thing every time, what I've been taught; nothing creative to see here).
• I rendered "inactive" one of the email addresses I've "manned" for many years now, the one that answers questions people ask through the oMF Japan website, someone else is doing that for now.
• David travelling to the Vehicle Registration office an hour away to officially change over the ownership (and number plate) of our new van.
• I (tried to) finish off editing a few last-minute things: several blog posts, and proofreading the Summer issue of the magazine.
• We've spent time fine-tuning our deputation material: both our basic up-front talk as well as our display stand.
• I have almost finished the photo album I created for our last three years of life and ministry and will send it to the printer soon.
• Answering questions and applying for houses to rent in Australia (this took more time than we expected).
• We hosted two friends of our youngest son for two nights. One whose parents were away for a few days and the other who is returning to live in Finland with this family next week. This was fun and they helped us eat up more of our food.
• David ordered a new phone and computer for me! Yes, new "toys". My current work computer will become our youngest's bring-your-own-device for Grade 8 when he starts at an Australian school in a month. My current Japanese phone is "locked", and so I'm unable to put an Australian SIM card in it, therefore a new phone was needed.
• On Tuesday, I rode to the park, and a favourite coffee shop: saying my goodbyes to these places.

Scheduling

I've continued to work on scheduling and communicating those schedules with the people that matter most: our family. Which meant creating a Google calendar for our family, especially so our eldest, who won't be moving back in with us, but rather spending some weekends with us, can know what we're up to. 

I've also begun writing "upcoming events" on a blackboard on our fridge so that our boys are a bit more informed about big things that are coming up. Scheduling also meant following up on some appointments and confirming, getting details straight for our diary. At this point we have three medical/debrief appointments in our first ten days in Brisbane.

I also did a bit of scheduling for our short holiday in Sydney for the first few days we're back in Australia. Booked a tour of the Opera House and read some background to it, and the discovery of Australia from a SOSE book we have in the house to the rest of the family.

That's enough of a list for you for now. It's time to switch of this computer and take down-time before bed. I've been quite tired and thankfully have been sleeping quite well. So thankful for that because many of these big transitions in the past have resulted in difficulties sleeping before the transition.

One boy thinking about home assignment

I found one of our younger two boys making this table the other day. He's processing what home assignment this year means in his life. I asked his permission to share and he asked me to block out the items he'd listed.

It is, actually, not too different to how we decided if going on home assignment in July for six months was going to work for our family. Following on from my post yesterday about making it up as we go, this is part of it: weighing up the pros and cons of any decision according to the information you have. The key difference, I think, to parenting in your home country is that you often have a lot less information to work with and a lot more unknown variables.

What's interesting about this list that you can't see is that some items appear on both the pros and cons list, for example "food". Yep, there are things about both Japan and Australia that my boys enjoy and food is one. But when we're in one country they do miss the other!

Post conference exhaustion

Wednesday during free time at conference, I walked to the
 "coffee shop on a cliff" and we were rewarded with a
delightful time of chatting with this view in the background.

Conference was tiring. I always look forward to these events, but the exhaustion caused by conferences continues to slip my mind a little. Exhaustion was compounded, of course, by the trip home on Friday night. 

Thankfully we've had a pretty quiet weekend. I was even tired enough to have a nap for an hour and a half this afternoon. For those of you with little kids, I'm at a stage of life where it's not always the case that I'm so tired that I could sleep just any day, so being able to sleep is a sign I'm pretty tired.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed at the list of things I need to do (or potentially need to do) in the next few days before we leave for our camping trip. But I'm trying to stick with the strategy of just doing the next thing.

My list includes the following:

• mend tent bag
• work on camping list
• get eldest son's shoes mended
• write a prayer letter
• digest my new camera's manual
• do a critique for one of my writing partners
• help clean a friend's apartment
• a meeting to reorganise sign storage system for CAJ's Thrift Shop
• a visa run to pick up our visas
• new friends for lunch
• language exchange afternoon tea

And the biggest item on my to-do list:

• Do as much work on magazine editing as I can before we go (I've got three magazines on the go at different stages at present, so this point includes proofreading checks, checking edited articles with authors, plus answering questions from editors, writers, and designers.) Unfortunately this won't get finished to a point where I can walk away for the 15 days of our trip, so the computer will be packed too, though hopefully I'll be able to do just minimal work while we're away.

What's on my mind and to-do lists?

Today I'm feeling a little fuzzy-brained. I'm doped up on painkillers for, well, you know. I'm a woman and this happens every month or so. 

So I thought I'd write a list of some of the things that are running across my to-do-list at present:

• We have two sleeps till we go camping again. It's going to be cold. Single digits at night. The boys are excited. I'm excited! Things are piling up in our kitchen and entrance in preparation.
• Big picture thinking about the magazine. I've just had a Skype meeting with the Managing Editor. We did some dreaming, some thinking about the bigger picture than getting the next edition out. It wasn't easy, but I think we have a few ideas that we can begin to work on.
• We're organising a Tokyo based Writer's Retreat next April (like the one we ran earlier this month). Interested?
• Writing a Style Guide for the magazine, I wrote a whole post on it here. This is an ongoing project that gets pushed to the background (like my sorting our photos). I'm ahead on editing at present, so I've pulled this Style Guide out again. It is tricky because we're trying to accommodate writers from both an American English background and ones from a Commonwealth background, like myself.
• My finger nail has mostly come off (first injured on 14th September). It used to look like this. But now I have only half a fingernail. I'm not putting a photo because it has grossed out all my boys and my husband (who refuses to look at it). I'm happy because it isn't painful and I don't have to wear a Bandaid as I've been doing for more than a month.
• I just received my second paid writing publication in the mail in print form. A meditation with The Upper Room. Nice to hold it in my hand almost two years after I submitted it.
• Pulling together Christmas presents for our family in Australia and my husband and kids. A combination of shopping we've done over the last few months and some more recent internet shopping. And of course the compilation DVD of the year — fun to remember all those things we've done that we managed to capture on video. No longer the boys crawling on the lounge room floor. But videos of birthday and Christmas celebrations as well as camping, piano recitals, athletics meets. Fun to watch again and compile for family and friends.
• Thinking about trying out skiing during our holidays in the week before Christmas (I've never snow skiied before, only water and grass). Thinking I might show the boys some "learning to ski" Youtube videos.
• Yesterday I submitted an article to our denominational magazine based on this post I wrote over a year ago. I'm happy with it and am hoping to get it published in another magazine too. Need to change a few of the Australian language in it, though (like "how're you going?").
• Oh, and dinner tonight. Nachos to finally use up the salsa we were given back in June.

But now I have two of the boys home it is piano practise and homework.

Juggling

I know that every mum juggles. Indeed most people do. It just seems that I am juggling more than the usual amount at present. Seems a good time for one of my favourite things - a list! I am juggling:

• Homeschooling
• Care of three lively boys and one husband (he's pretty easy)
• Writing our personal prayer/newsletter letter
• Editing/desk top publishing a mission letter
• Switching computers and operating systems (read PC to Mac)
• Keeping up with email in the meantime
• Preparing for a two day retreat, including choosing five songs and practising them.
• Organising the care of fore mentioned children during the day tomorrow.
• Preparation for home assignment (flying in 8 weeks)

Is that enough? It is for me! Actually I am very thankful for the retreat at this point. It seems like an intrusion, but it will probably be very refreshing to my spirit and just might give me the boost I need to get over the hump of the next eight weeks. I am incredibly thankful for the two friends who are covering the care of our two youngest boys from 8.30 till 3.45 tomorrow!