Questions corner

Here’s one I prepared earlier. Our youngest son is moving out tomorrow and it’s been busy!

I've mentioned before that I write 11 prayer letters a year. I've been writing them since October 1998, so it's gotten to be a habit. The way that I manage to churn out so many is by using a template, and by making it in a newspaper-type format. Here's an example from five years ago. There are "regular" sections that I just fill in each time, like a calendar; a prayer list; a "on the home front" with personal news; and CAJ corner, which David writes about the school and his work. 

But when we're in Australia we change up the "CAJ corner" to something else. This time it's become "Question corner" where we answer good questions people ask us (or questions we wish people would ask us!). Here are some we've featured:

So, how’s Japan?

This is an impossible question to answer when it comes at the start of a conversation. It usually comes from someone who wants to engage with us, but isn’t sure where to start. In case you want to ask us a question when you see us, here are some suggestions of questions you could ask us in casual conversation:

Japanese BBQ we use while camping

• What do you miss about Japan?
• What’s something funny that happened to you in Japan?
• Tell me something you love about Japan.
• How is the Japanese church doing post-COVID?
• What’s a small thing that brings you joy in Japan?
• What’s the climate like in Tokyo?
• Tell me about a regular day for you in your work in Japan.
• Are Japanese people worried about the political situation in the region?
• What do you do to relax in Japan?
• We’ve heard you love to camp there, tell us about camping in Japan.

Is Japan’s population shrinking?

According to worldpopulationreview.com, “Japan’s population is projected to lose 20.7 million people between 2020 and 2050. The population is expected to shrink from 126.5 million to 105.8 million, a 16.3% decline. Japan’s population has been falling since 2011 due to very low fertility rates (1.42 births per woman) and an aging population.”

Fertility rates in wealthy countries around the world are dropping. Japan’s is the fourth lowest in the world. Pair that with proportionately the oldest population in the world (29.2% over 65 years of age) and you’ve got population shrinkage.

There are many cultural factors to this situation, including an education system that demands a lot of parents, especially mothers; low childcare support; and a nation that works hard and sleeps little, so there’s often little time or energy to find partners. A recent survey also revealed that around 50% of unmarried adults under 30 don’t want children. And Japan also accepts few immigrants, though there are pushes to change this, it probably won’t change quickly.

Japanese people are concerned about the future of their country. Pray that they’ll find hope in God.

Why are so few people coming to know Christ in Japan?

This is a really hard question to answer—people have written whole books on it. The truth is, we don’t know why the Holy Spirit is not moving more people to become Christians in Japan. It’s possible to discern various factors in individual stories, but the same set of factors don’t apply to every person. For example, one person might not want to let their family down by abandoning the family altar they are responsible for, another doesn’t feel the need for what appears to them as a foreign god. Many people are held back because they don’t understand grace and forgiveness, or don’t see themselves as sinners.

The pressure to conform to the group is strong in Japan and while Christianity is such a tiny minority (under 1%), it is hard for people to consider stepping outside that. Many people have never heard the gospel. Will you pray for this nation of 125.7 million people?

Why go with a mission organisation?

We’ve been greatly blessed by being members of OMF International. Here are a few reasons why:

• OMF has provided so much on-the-ground support in Japan and in Australia. They’ve helped us when we’ve had medical needs, provided fellowship vital to longevity, guided us in important decisions, provided professional development, admin support, and language training. They also sponsor our visas and have helped us find housing.
• The local knowledge and experience that they’ve got as an organisation helped us get to Japan and settle there in ministry.
• They’ve provided us with a means to get the money people have given towards our support in Japan, in a way that doesn’t look like international money laundering.
• They’ve got a much wider platform in Australia than we have personally, enabling us to develop a wider prayer and financial support team that would otherwise be possible, but also to tell more people about the needs in Japan.
• They’ve supported us through challenges with our sons in recent years and given us much grace to do our best to support our kids, even when that meant taking time off.
• Possibly the most important thing to us is that being members of OMF means we feel part of a greater whole—a body that is working together to reach Japan for Christ. That sense of purpose, and of working together with others is very important to us.

Why do parents send their kids to CAJ?

CAJ was founded to serve the children of missionaries, and that remains its main purpose. About 40% of the students come from missionary families (it varies a little from year to year). These missionary families are seeking education for their children in English, and with a Christian emphasis.

There are various reasons that these missionaries don’t use local schools. Sometimes they arrive in Japan with older children and it’s too difficult to start Japanese school at a later age when kids don’t have the language. Others try Japanese schools for a time and find the culture difficult, or maybe the students just don’t do well. CAJ provides an alternative option so that missionary families can stay in Japan.

Similar reasons apply to an additional 40% of students who come from a variety of Christian backgrounds: some are local Japanese Christian families, and a good number of Christian foreigners who work in secular jobs in Japan.

The remaining 20% of students come non-Christian families who desire an education in English, but don’t mind the values that CAJ weaves into its teaching. Our prayer is that all of these students will serve Jesus in their lives.

How can I prepare to serve in missions?

There are lots of things you can do. When we’re asked this question we say:

• Read about mission: biographies, social media, etc.
• Connect with a missionary and pray for them regularly
• Find others who are like-minded about cross-cultural mission and spend time with them.
• Find ways to serve others where you are: in your church, and in other ways too, like with AFES.

OMF Japan recently shared some tips on their social media from a helpful article by an MTW (Mission to the World) missionary that also included these tips :

• Get cross-cultural (where you are, or on short-term trips overseas)
• Study Scripture
• Learn language/s
• Evangelize
• Be uncomfortable
• Live with less
• Pray more

Let's review your life #10

I'd like to get back to this park soon, it's
a good place for reflecting! But the lead-
up to our family holidays the end of next
week continues to fill with new things to do!

I've written before about one way our organisation takes care of us: Two Year Reviews. Having published a blog like I've done, for several years, it's great to be able to look back at earlier things I've written. In 2013 I wrote about the Two Year Review (TYR) process here, giving some examples of questions we have to answer (and then talk about with a leader). I also shared in that blog post about why reviews like this are really important, as well as the things I struggle with about them.

I've added a few of the questions below (it took me a good couple of hours to answer everything, as well as do the goal setting that was required):

Do you have a day of rest each week?

What do you do to maintain your spiritual health?

In what ways has the Lord blessed you since your last two year review?

Here is a list of emotions. From this list choose the emotions that have characterised your life since your last review. Feel free to add any that aren't listed.

What subjects have you thought about or studied since your last review?

In what ways has your marriage been under stress since your last review?

What are your challenges and encouragements concerning your children's education?

What encouragements have you experienced in your relationships with your family at home (meaning your home country)?

Describe significant friendships in your life since your last review.

When I mildly complained this week about the process (mostly that my "head hurt" in trying to answer these broad questions about the last two years), a close friend quietly rebuked me and said that this was a privilege. She's right—most people don't get the opportunity to answer questions like these, let alone have a leader with time to sit down and go through them with you.

There's a few reasons why missions do (or should do) these kinds of reviews:

• Missionaries often carry a load of extra stress, merely because of where they live and what they do.
• They are often more vulnerable because when you live outside your home country your networks are often thin and it can be hard to access appropriate help.
• Missionaries can be lone rangers and stubborn (the flip side of independent and persistent, two valuable character traits for serving overseas). These two factors can mean they don't ask for help till it's too late.
• Missionaries are rare. There really aren't that many of them in the world, that makes them important human resources that make sense to retain in good working order, if possible. (Not to mention the importance Great Commission...)
• And there's probably more...

This is maybe the 10th or 11th time we've done this, so we're a little savvy. Many of the questions I could have written several paragraphs, or even a blog post about. But no one has time to read all that, let alone talk about it. I also think we are being asked regularly enough "how are you really" for lots and lots of detail at this time to be unnecessary, i.e. our line manager is doing a good job of caring for us. This TYR is like a screening test to pick up areas that need closer attention.

I also tend to be a reflective person anyway, and also fairly self-driven, so possibly this process isn't as important for me as it might be for someone else. However, it's still a good process to have in place, even if I feel a bit grumpy about it at times.

I don't think I got any surprises as I went through the questions this time, although the question about "What subjects have you thought about in the last two years?" always flabbergasts me: no one really wants a detailed answer to that! And as for "What emotions characterise your last two years?" Yikes!

Can you think of a question that you wish someone would ask you, but they rarely ever do?

Emotional rollercoaster

The last ten days have been full of some ugly stuff for us. Three of the things that have entered our lives, via people we love, are stories that aren't mine to tell but are things experienced by many. Three things that have driven me to tears. Things that we wish didn't exist and make us long for heaven and perfect health and relationships.

The one that we can tell, I wrote about yesterday: the financial situation that means our plans for next year are currently on hold. That has been hard to take also, especially this close to our anticipated return to Japan. After many years of having sufficient support, I guess we probably took it for granted a little and so it was unexpected (not that we've ceased in all the last 20 years to pray for ongoing financial support). 

I've struggled with nausea and appetite during these days. We got the initial financial news last Wednesday just before we went off to one of the highlights of our home assignment: watching a live international cricket match (first time ever). Talk about emotional rollercoasters! I was lucky to get away without throwing up on someone.

In the midst of this rollercoaster, we've still been meeting with people and spent much of Sunday driving to a church on the Sunshine coast and speaking there.

Today we're in the still centre of the storm: we've sent out our prayer letter with the news, we've told our boys, and now we wait until a key finance person comes back from holidays next week and more discussion happens. Meanwhile, we wait and hope and pray. 

And—I need to say—recover. These blows have come at a time when we're feeling pretty weary. We've worked hard to visit many churches and groups in the last 4 1/2 months and are longing for our planned holidays in December. We also long for certainty about the future, but that will have to wait, though a decision will have to be made about our accommodation before Christmas.

Earlier this afternoon I posted a photo of the trunk of the gum tree (and I've used it here too) I can see from my desk in our front yard. I realised that I can't see the whole majesty of this tree from close up, not even my desk that is about five metres from the tree (with a small awning in the way). You have to stand way back off the property to see the whole tree well. Aren't difficulties we encounter like that? We can only see part of the whole. We certainly rarely can see much beauty in them. It takes time and distance to see any good out of them at all. So we wait. We don't know the end of the story of any of the ugly things that have happened in our lives recently and not knowing the end is really hard. But we have to trust.

"I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'" (Ps 91:2 NIV).

I'm also reminded of the great passage of Romans 8, especially the end: 

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (vs 38-39 NIV).

Weekend synopsis

I'm struggling to get time for this...the weekend was busy and I wanted to write a bit about it, but I've come back to the reality of several important things (including a magazine to finish) to do before we go away for holidays/visiting family.

So this will be a quick one. On Friday afternoon we drove just over an hour to a place we've been to many times before: Tamborine Mountain. It's a little plateau that Wikipedia tells me is eight kilometres long, five kilometres wide and 525 m high. Not really a mountain by the standards of most of the world, but we're talking Australia here, the flattest continent! 

It's a place that, for more than 60 years, has hosted Christian conferences and camps. Mount Tamborine Convention Centre is a familiar place to us, though we've rarely been there in the last 20 years when we were in our young adult years we often went to camps up there. The weekend was nostaligic in many ways, not only did the place bring back many memories, the event did too. In 1998 we attended a missions conference there, International Outlook, as newly weds. It was that weekend in March that we began the long journey to becoming missionaries with OMF, we started filling out application forms.

Over the weekend we also met a number of people who we have known for many years. The furthest back was a man I knew as a child, he left to go to uni when I was around 12, but I saw him one further time when I was around 19. It's been a long time! 

The property is beautiful and well cared for. Eucalyptus trees everywhere. When you've never left Australia you don't really notice them so much as we do. In Japan we rarely see these trees, but they are everywhere in Australia. I can't stop taking photos of them! The weather over the weekend was gorgeous too.

Times have changed in 20 years. A barista at a missions conference!

More packed bags and in the backgroudn is
an exhausted boy asleep (he arrived
back from a school camp just before we left
for the weekend)

It was different being there with teenagers. They would have preferred to stay home, though our youngest soon found a couple of other missionary teens to hang out with. There were actually few teenagers around. I can understand why parents of teenagers don't bring them to events like this, though. We had to be there for work and had no other option but to bring our guys.

We spent a lot of time talking with people. I'm not sure how much good we did. The journey towards mission is long and involves lots of conversations, so who knows what part we played. This lady in the photo browsed our OMF stand and picked up our prayer card. She then sat down and read it. I was intrigued. I'm pretty sure I had a conversation with her the next day about Japan and students.

This is a former WW2 aircraft hanger, the main meeting room, about which we also have many memories, including that first step of getting application papers for OMF (not dreaming we'd be back there 20 years later as "seasoned" OMF missionaries).

It was a good weekend, in that we were reminded by the main speakers of the great need for the gospel in this world. Many still have not heard and have no opportunity to hear the gospel. It's the message that booted us into missions in the first place, it is good to be refocused on that need again, especially while living in Australia where it's relatively easy to forget the needs of the rest of the world.

Kids newsletter March '18

My quarterly kids newsletter for your use.

Global Hymn Sing 2018

Have you ever participated in a Global Hymn Sing? It is something that OMF and Getty Music have hosted on one Sunday in the past two years. It simply means that churches (and other gatherings) across the world all sing a selected hymn on a designated Sunday. What makes it more interesting is that you can register that your church is doing it, so it appears as a dot on a world map.

Why? The goal is to raise awareness of the many across the world who haven't heard the Gospel, and to "inspire thought, prayer and action towards global evangelism."

Here is the official blurb:

29% of the world's population live in places with little or no access to the Gospel. That's over 2 billion individuals worldwide who need someone to share the good news of Jesus with them.

For two years Getty Music in partnership with OMF International have hosted a Global Hymn Sing, inviting churches to come together in their worship gatherings, in solidarity with brothers and sisters all over the world, and sing a hymn to inspire thought, prayer and action toward global evangelism.  Nearly two-million people in more than one-hundred countries have responded to the call to sing together with one voice, and this year we hope YOUR church will join that chorus!

This year the Global Hymn sing is on February 25 and the hymn is Jesus Shall Reign. 

Jesus Shall Reign has been a famous missionary hymn for generations and was sung by the great missionary and Olympic sprinter Eric Liddell (Chariots of Fire) at the train station in Edinburgh as he embarked on a missionary journey to China. While interned during World War 2, Eric served alongside China Inland Mission (now OMF) workers, along with other organizations. He even gave his running shoes to a CIM mission kid named Steve Metcalfe, who he challenged to become a missionary to the Japanese, which he did! Register your church to sing this great hymn and receive all resources FREE, including sheet music, orchestrations, audio, videos and MORE.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please email us (Global Hymn Sing Team) at globalhymnsing@gettymusic.com. Last year I participated in an unusual way in this hymn sing. I was asked to be the pianist for an OMF missionary choir at a memorial service for a Japanese missionary who passed away last April. The memorial service was held on the Global Hymn Sing date last year and the choir sang the designated hymn. You can see a short montage video of last year's Global Hymn Sing here (but we don't appear). Our Japanese home church is planning to be involved (the hymn is translated into multiple languages), as well as my parent's church in Australia. Maybe you could get your church involved too? The best thing to do is to register your church and they'll send you the resources you need.

Kids newsletter for December

I sent this Kids Newsletter out this week to those on our email list. Feel free to use it. If you'd like a better copy or even to be on the mailing list, drop me a line.

I'm also looking for suggestions for a theme for 2018.

Kids Musings September 2017

Here's another thing I published this week. It's my desire that you use it and pass it on to anyone it could be useful to.

Encouragement from our local church

This was our pastor taking a photo of the congregation of the
9.15am congregation on the 56th anniversary early this year.

One thing I love about our Japanese home church is that it is balanced. It has a wide range of ages—from babes to elderly and most of what’s in-between (a thinning in the teen to young adult range, though). The other balance we’ve repeatedly seen demonstrated over the years is its view of its place in the world. It is not insular.

It is rooted in the local community which is demonstrated in events like the annual summer festival and weekly café. They’ve just started an afternoon homework-type club for local kids.

It’s a rooted in Japan, demonstrated by concern for ministries going on in various parts of Japan, we regularly have had speakers from various ministries like Bible translation into Japanese sign language, hiBA (a high school ministry), university campus ministries. For several years the church sent teams to the post-tsunami devastated area of Tohoku.

It’s got its eyes on the rest of the world too. The church supports ministry and missionaries in other countries. It supports a school for disabled and abandoned kids in the Philippines. Missionaries in countries such as Taiwan and Turkey have spoken at church and the church supports overseas missionaries. I’m not sure how many (to say I find reading the finance report a bit difficult is an understatement), but it seems that we often have a guest here saying thank you for supporting our ministry.

It does all of this, while at the same time working hard to pay off the debt of the small block of land next to it that it bought in the last couple of years. But that hasn’t stopped it looking outwards.

Yesterday we were blessed with a guest speaker from Wycliffe. The speaker was not a translator with Wycliffe, he was a teacher of the kids of missionaries in Papua New Guinea.

It was amazing to hear the parallels of this family’s story to ours. Actually, I have worked with the wife at CAJ’s Thrift Shop, but hadn’t heard much of their story. The husband was called to ministry when he did a short-term mission trip to Indonesia (we also did a trip there in our early 20s). He was felt specifically called to teach missionary kids, as was my husband. They first went to Papua New Guinea from Japan in 1999, just a year before we went from Australia to Japan. He still feels passionate about the education of missionary kids, despite being called back to Japan to head up Wycliffe’s sending branch here.

I’m thankful to be a part of such a church. Oftentimes I struggle to feel a part of it at all. My language skills hold me back from knowing more people and what’s going on. But it’s a blessing that we can be present every week. There is a love there that goes beyond the spoken. I love standing on the sidelines and seeing what this church is involved in and quietly thanking God that his name is glorified in this place.

It’s good for us during the summer to go to more rural and remote places and worship in other churches, to catch a glimpse of how it is to be a part of smaller churches. But I continue to be encouraged that, in this country where the chance that you will meet a Christian is less than one in a hundred people, there are mature churches and mature believers. Churches and believers, that though they are seriously in the minority in this land, continue to draw their strength from God. They haven’t collapsed in the face of the enormity of the task and they aren’t looking inwards. It’s terribly encouraging.

Kids newsletter

Our latest Kids newsletter for your enjoyment. You can contact me for a full-sized pdf version. Feel free to use it however you wish.