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.

Life gets messy

February felt like we were operating from a base of jelly. We struggled to get our balance and figure out a schedule that would work for everyone. I think it took us all by surprise a little. The weekly schedule isn't the same as last year, for a few reasons.

David's part-time job
Last week David started lecturing at a tertiary education level. He's working with 2nd year primary education students teaching them about teaching maths. He's does this from Tuesday to Thursday, during the mornings and early afternoons.

He takes our only car and leaves before we're allowed to take our youngest to school. So that's put some pressure on us to do the best we can to make sure we don't need the car.

Music lessons
Two of our boys have musical instruments that need to go to school, on different days. One doesn't work well on a bike and the other we've spent the whole month trying to find a way for it to work (it's not easy to get racks to fit bikes here in Australia). Thankfully the third instrument doesn't need to go to and from school (percussion).

Sport
A variety of sporting opportunities have opened up for the boys (starting school at the beginning of the school year is to be recommended). Our middle son has enjoyed trying out futsal and touch footie. Both of which are after school. Our youngest son is doing AFL after school one day a week too. And they're all still doing wrestling training on Monday or Wednesday nights plus Saturday mornings. Our oldest has been attending cross country training before school one or two mornings a week and this morning they all went.

It's thoroughly confusing. Especially when you realise that sometimes we don't have a car available to do this, so bikes and good weather are necessary. Thankfully the two older boys are able to ride to and from school without us accompanying them.

School Meetings
Yep, each of our boys' classes had an information meeting, either on Monday or Wednesday nights, messing up our wrestling schedule.

Church meetings
The meetings that have remained the same are the church meetings. Bible study that David goes to on Tuesday nights, Youth bible study on Thursday nights, Ladies bible study on Friday mornings, and Youth Group/Kids Club on Friday nights. Not to mention Sunday morning worship, which we've actually been able to attend at our home church on most Sundays in the last couple of months.

Add all that together and you've got a bit of confusion. I don't think we've missed anything yet, although I did nearly miss one of the class meetings.

What we do have are boys (and a mum) who crave a more routine schedule than this and aren't getting it. 

Weekends are all different too. This weekend we're going to Canberra to visit a supporting church and missing: youth bible study, youth group/kids club, free dress day at school, cross country training, symphonic band practise, guitar and percussion lessons, wrestling, and going to church at our home church.

These are all things our boys enjoy and aren't that happy about missing.

There is definitely a part of me that wants to curl up in a ball. I know that being part of a family is about sacrifice. It's about everyone compromising so that we can function as a group. It just sometimes feels like there's too much to manage and that the young men in our family aren't flexible enough.

So today I'm thankful that I've been able to have a quiet day at home all by myself. They all left the house at 7.15. David drove them to school for the cross-country practise on his way to lecturing and will pick most of them up on his way home. It's dove-tailed fairly nicely today, even if one of them wasn't so keen to leave.

Tomorrow we're back to bikes and praying that it doesn't rain before or after school for the next two months on Wednesdays and Thursdays! And that my people management or calendar coordinating skills don't collapse either.

Friday Five

Lotsa stuff going on. Here's a roundup:

1. Blast from the past
I had coffee with a friend from high school yesterday. We didn't know each other very well at high school, but have built a friendship via Facebook (she's an avid reader of my blog too). It was a high octane time, where she asked stacks of questions she's been saving up. Thoughtful, searching questions. Wow! 

This is one of the articles I scanned.

2. High school reunion planning
On top of that she's spearheading the organisation of our 25th high school reunion for next year. So we talked about that a bit too.

I really didn't come away from high school with any friends who I kept up with, but Facebook has been a great place for at least touching base with some. It was amazing to get face-to-face with someone from that long ago! You realise how limited our view of the world was back then and how we only really saw some of each other's lives, but not a holistic view at all.

So we have a closed Facebook group where lots of photos and so on are being posted. I even scanned a couple of newspaper articles and photos to contribute yesterday. I pulled out my school magazines and loaned them to my friend too.

3. Musical instrument dilemmas 
We've finally had all our boys learning an instrument this last six months. As a musician from a very early age myself (4 years old I began piano), it's not been easy to sit back and wait for the enthusiasm needed to take on instruments. 

Our youngest son took up piano at five. He's taken a break this least six months. Unfortunately he's making lots of noise about not wanting to go back to it when we get back to Japan next year. Instead he wants to jump over to trumpet. I'm not sure what to do about this. I'm happy for him to try trumpet, but feel sad that four years of piano will be thrown away.

Our middle son took up percussion last year when his whole class was expected to take up an instrument. He's continued that in Australia and done well.

Our eldest son has not showed an interest until the last 18 months when he's been interested in guitars and other strumming instruments. He's taken up lessons in Australia. It's been a really good move, one of the few things he's looked forward to in school at times has been his guitar lesson. Yesterday he asked if he could take longer lessons next year and today he's looking at the possibility of buying a guitar, because he's had to give the school's guitar back today. That passion makes my heart sing.

4. Pondering writing
I've been working on a couple of articles for two different magazines. They've not been easy to write! 

I'm also rereading Stephen King's "On Writing", a writing book, and finding it quite inspiring. We'll see where that leads.

5. Summer stuff
The cricket is on in our lounge room (same room as my desk) this afternoon. This is like comfort food. Summer sounds. I grew up with this and it's been largely absent in Japan. Wonderful to have this running in the background of our day (though not good for productivity here). Additionally fun is that all the boys are absorbed by it, asking all those sorts of questions about the game that I used to ask my dad when I was a kid.

I've been eating a mango every day. That's summer too, and divine! I haven't had mango for five years.

School is finishing for the year in the next two weeks for our boys. I'm not quite ready for that. Christmas plans are coming together. It's been five years since we've done Christmas this way. We've spent so long in Japan now that Christmas in summer is no longer normal. It seems like a shadow from the past. Familiar, but unfamiliar at the same time.

Many thanks

We're coming to the end of the boys' first full week of school in Australia. We have many things to be thankful for. Here are just a few:

The two younger boys seem to have friends at school that they're enjoying. Our youngest has a friend there who's been asking for four years, "When will he be back?" This is a wonderful answer to prayer. 

This is usually what we see when we step outside our house
our house in Japan. Vastly different from what we see now in
Australia (see photos below).

Our middle son is continuing to learn percussion here and has joined the senior primary band. Yesterday he practised with them for the first time. Yesterday afternoon the first thing he said to me when I saw him after school was, "Band was a blast!"  This is huge, for our most change resistant child. So thankful. 

Along our riding journey to school we pass a paddock
with two horses.

Our eldest has started guitar lessons at school and seems to be enjoying picking up that. In fact as I type I hear strumming and plucking. Wonderful! This is something he's been interested in for over a year, but no teacher was available in Japan. This is a great opportunity for him, especially as at least two of his mates in Japan are really into guitar. 

We've ridden to school four out of five days. It is a 7 km round trip that includes hills, David

Part of the path we ride along.

and I take it in turns to ride with the boys. We're still working out some challenges on this front, but in general it is such a great way to enjoy our Australian surroundings. We ride through some bush on our way and it is a balm to our concrete-jungle-weary hearts. Good for our fitness too. We're certainly not used to hills, Tokyo is built on the largest plain in Japan and is generally pretty flat. 

The house is working out pretty well. Our eldest said the other day he prefers it to our Japan house. We're still getting used to the relatively vast yard we have, but are sure we're really going to appreciate it, even if we aren't the best gardeners. Just the serenity of the area is soothing and the many birds we hear is lovely. 

The routine of going to wrestling half an hour away is taking some getting used to, but all the boys are enjoying it and are being well challenged.

There are more, but that will do for today. What are you thankful for this week?

What have you been doing?

Today I've allowed my mind to wander back over the various noteworthy "doings" in our household this week have included (starting from now and going backwards, just for fun).

Sunday
I'm working on gradually cleaning out the larder/pantry. That includes baking today. Using up all our chocolate Chips with ChocChip biscuits, our sliced almonds and mixed fruit with a Vinegar Fruit Cake. And frozen cooked apple by making an apple cake. That is the plan, anyhow, we'll see how much of that I'll get done today and tomorrow—a day-off school for a public holiday. Our last non-weekend day off before school finishes in five weeks. 

This afternoon I've tried making frozen chocolate fudge yoghurt. Jury's still out till this evening, but it promises to be exceptional.

David opened the computer and dusted it internally (the fan had grown very noisy).

This morning we watched our friends' baby dedicated at church. 

After church our eldest hurried off to meet friends to complete some filming for an English assignment (they'd lost some footage they did at school). He's not home yet. I believe there'll be more than just work done this afternoon, and I'm glad for it. Friends are so important!

Soft-taco.

Saturday
Last night I made soft tacos from scratch to use up some left-over mince for dinner. I love doing this, so simple (though a little time consuming), and so yummy. 

Yesterday afternoon our youngest went to a party for two female classmates. That meant we went shopping on Friday afternoon to buy presents. He continues to surprise me with how good a shopper he is. It was also another opportunity to help him learn about shopping to a budget. 

Yesterday morning I spent three hours at a preliminary handover meeting for the magazine. Doing something like this is always hard. I realised just how much I know, but isn't written down. Plus I realised how challenging it is to work with volunteers that you can't easily tie down to deadlines and timelines. However, taking this step was also encouraging because I realise how close we're getting to actually being free to go back to Australia! Not to mention being the realisation of many prayers as to how this could actually happen.

David's been investigating new microwave/convection ovens from some catalogues I gathered during the week. He pulled apart our dryer to discover why it has been leaking and discovering it need repair (will go with us to the electrical shop tomorrow when we look for a new microwave/oven). We've also been washing winter clothes and doonas (quilts) to put away. Sorting through old magazine piles and so on. Nothing massive, but gradual steps towards leaving, all the same. 

Friday
We went to the CAJ Parade of Bands concert on Friday night. We heard all four of the school's bands. Our middle son performed in the 5th Grade beginner band. Then sat through the other three. I don't think he's ever done that before. Plus, as a performer he  got to sit pretty close to the front, and he was captivated. Learning percussion and being part of a band this year has been a great experience for him. It's opened up another world of interest and belonging. He's spent this time today looking at my flute (amazing how all those "buttons" work) and playing around with a recorder that he rescued from being tossed at Thrift Shop last Saturday.

This week was the deadline for the summer issue of the magazine. So I've been busy, not just editing, but chasing up late submissions and other matters. I managed to write more than 60 emails on Thursday and Friday.

Original habitat

Escapee a couple of metres from
his home.

A side adventure has been the escapee turtle I found on Friday. He finally escaped from his habitat. But we've fixed that for now (see photo). Hopefully he'll be well behaved for the friends who will look after him for our year away. 

Thursday

New security on turtle habitat. Lid
clicks on, so not easily removed
by said turtle

On Thursday I also sent the monthly prayer/newsletter that I wrote on Monday. Our computer caused some interesting reactions by sending it to emails not on the list anymore and not sending it to others. 

Wednesday

9th grade PE class

7th grade PE class

Wednesday morning I went along to the middle and high school chapel time. I've got to say it was a world away from the sorts of weekly chapel we had in the Lutheran Primary School I attended. A band led us in some quite loud singing. 

Then the guest speaker, JP,  spoke. He was the reason I was there. A street dancer who teaches Hip Hop dance, he's also a missionary with our organisation. It was the first time I'd seen him dance live. 

After chapel I went up to greet him and Sharon, another new missionary, who'd come across town with him. I discovered he'd been snapped up by the PE dept to teach a class. It was a wet miserable day and the PE teachers were delighted with the rare find of a chapel speaker who could also take PE. 

So I stuck around, giving them some moral support. Then he was asked to do a much larger class (first one was about a dozen, second was all grade seven, about 50 students). Sharon and I stayed in the background, trying to keep up with the class a bit (I was sore for days afterwards), as well as hitting play on the music when required. Sharon was also taking video and photos for JP. It was an unexpected morning, but very fun. 

However it thoroughly distracted me from the fact that I had an appointment in the afternoon with my language exchange partners. Thankfully they messaged me and I was only 40 minutes late!

Tuesday

On Tuesday afternoon I had coffee with the newly dubbed "shout" club. A couple of friends who I've had coffee with as a result of a single Facebook status about what "shouting someone" meant. It's been a fun adventure this year, feeling free-er to have coffee with friends and making new friends too!

Monday

On Monday I made our first batch of frozen vanilla yoghurt.

You don't really want to hear about the other things that have happened this week, like the bad attitudes we've been copping. 

Turns out writing backwards isn't so easy...but I hope it was interesting, nonetheless. It certainly helps me realise why I'm feeling tired.

A Sunday morning mystery

Again, not a great photo. But this was the front of our church
this morning a few minutes before the pews filled.

I rarely write about church here. Not sure why. Perhaps because I'm ashamed at my poor Japanese.

We go to an independent Japanese church. The service is in Japanese, but is simultaneously translated into English for those who want it (and they use earphones). 

The worship is mostly in Japanese, though some of the slides include either alternative words in English or a translation.

After living nearly 12 years in Japan, I still can't explain very well what it's like to worship in a language I don't understand well. It isn't meaningless. In fact, it can be very  meaningful, but in a deep way that is not easy to articulate. Certainly different to being in a worship service where I understand everything that is said.

Today we closed the service with a song that's been translated into Japanese from English: Above All by Michael W. Smith. I sang in Japanese along with the majority of the congregation, and understood some of the words, but in the back of my mind was the English that I understood very well. Strange bi-lingual worship that somehow seemed doubly meaningful? 

Because, of course, a song translated isn't exactly the same song. It seems that generally it takes more syllables to say the same thing in Japanese, so often less concepts are included in a translated song than in the original. And often the concepts are slightly different, so you get a different slant in meaning. Does that make sense? Like reading the Bible in different English translations can make a passage more meaningful.

Here are the English lyrics of the song:

Above all powers, above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here, before the world began

Above all kingdoms, above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what you're worth

Crucified, laid behind a stone
You lived to die, rejected and alone
Like a rose, trampled on the ground
You took the fall and thought of me
Above all. 


English video here:

Japanese video here: 

I am looking forward to coming back to Australia and enjoying worshipping in English every Sunday, but after nearly 12 years here, there is a unmeasurable, inarticulate part of me that loves to worship my Lord in Japanese. In fact the odd occasion that I do get to worship in Japanese in Australia will often find me in tears!

My unusual afternoon

This afternoon, instead of hanging out quietly at home I accompanied my eldest to a wrestling practice. But, you say, isn't all that over?

Well no. Our son is part of a Japanese wrestling club (not sumo, freestyle wrestling) in the off-seasons. He usually goes on Monday nights, but as this is also Spring Break for Japanese schools, a special practise was held this afternoon. 

I went because it was at a venue he's never been to and we weren't confident he would find on his own. It took about an hour by train to get there, not too far by Tokyo standards!

Interestingly we arrived just as some other high schoolers were leaving. One of them we recognised as a very good wrestler in the international school's league. I guess they went to the morning training time, the training we won't allow our son to go to because it is at the same time as church. 

As I sat and watched them train, I was reminded of the many hours I've spent learning the piano. Particularly the hours spent at my teachers house. I had three hours of lessons a week, half of that was a group lesson. Piano is a very solo instrument. You don't usually spend much time with others when you're learning it. At the time I'm not sure if I valued the group lesson as much as I should have. 

But back to wrestling, it's the opposite to piano: there isn't a lot of training you can do alone. You can do "conditioning", strength training etc. alone, but you really need to practise with a partner to improve. But here's where it is the same as a musical instrument. You need to practise the moves over and over again till they become semiautomatic. Till you intuitively know what to do. 

Knowing all this makes it all the more impressive when you actually watch a bout. An awful lot of work has gone into refining those skills!

Sunday afternoon is usually very quiet for us. I generally spend a couple of hours lying down to read and play sudoku, Words with Friends, and Spider Solitaire on my phone. Sometimes I cross-stitch later. However despite spending more than two hours on trains today and then two hours sitting on a vibrating gym floor, I've had a refreshing time. I've been reading Looking for God by Nancy Ortberg.

 It's another compellingly honest book. I could quote many passages, but here is one that's close to my heart:

The greatest apologetic, the best defense or evidence of our faith, is the way we live authentically with God. Authenticity implies honesty, struggles, questions, desert times, shaking fists, and hopeful silences. I can only model what I'm experiencing. Anything else is either behaviour modification or "faking it" – neither of which is transformational.

We have this mistaken idea that living the Christian life is a series of mountaintops, a succession of grand faith adventures.  

It is not...God lives in the struggle. It is there we find Him. 

As school starts up again tomorrow I'm very aware that we're stepping onto a slippery slope. A slope that ends with us moving back to Australia. It's going to be a struggle. I hope I can struggle authentically. But it is encouraging to realise again that I can expect to find God many times in the slide. 

Today: feeling fragile, content, and hopeful.

I'm feeling a little fragile over here.

Got one of "those" emails from school yesterday and we have one of "those" meetings on Monday. I loathe "those" situations and have to fight terribly with my thoughts to remind myself that I'm not being judged (at least that's what they reassure me) by the teachers.

Then I had an uncomfortable conversation today with another missionary parent. One in which I felt judged about my parenting, as well as about the "outrageousness" of doing a year home assignment. Arggghhh. I hate conversations like that. Where the other person feels they are right and you are definitely wrong, and there is nothing that you can say to reconcile the two because the other person isn't open to understanding. We didn't argue, but I surely came away feeling yucky.

On the up-side, today I attended my first off-campus event as a CAJ parent-of-fine-arts-participant. Up till this year we had no one doing any group extra-curricular music at school.

Our eldest son has shown no interest in either musical instruments or choirs.

Our middle son hasn't been interested in giving up play time to join the elementary choir, which meets after school. But this year he's learning percussion in school time and joined the 5th grade band, which is also in-school time. As the band consists of beginners, we haven't seen them perform yet, though I believe that will be rectified next month at the Christmas Concert.

Our youngest son joined the elementary choir just as soon as he could: 3rd grade. Today I accompanied the choir to a concert put on by a neighbouring local government, in a beautiful venue.

The concert went for three hours, but as it involved kids they had two intermissions as well as some nice interactive stuff in the last hour. I particularly enjoyed the two bands that played.

It's a pity that we spent all day inside, however, because this hall is on the edge of one of our favourite parks and it was a gorgeous day! At least three members of the family were able to enjoy the park. David took the older two home before the concert was over, deciding that they'd be unlikely to remain content for the whole three hours.

I captured this on the edge of the park on our way home.

Tonight I'm looking forward to a quiet night. We've had a run of later nights. Wednesday is always late, with the younger two doing karate till 7. Thursday we went to a "Co-corricular Dessert Evening" to celebrate the accomplishments of those who  represented our school in sports and fine arts in the last few months. Friday night we had guests over for dinner. Tonight, however, there is nothing on. I'm happy! David and I might even get a 45 minute episode of CSI in.

Photo a Day. Week Two.

Continuing on with this photo a day prompt this week. I'm posting them daily on Facebook, but thought a weekly summary here would be fun too because the photos do reflect something of my daily life.

November 4: Table. 

The physical centre of our home, the one place we all gather together most frequently. If this table could talk it could tell you some really embarrassing things about us, and some fun things too. It was given to us by friends. After we received it we discovered it also opens out to fit 8-10 people around it. A hospitable table too! I love this well-worn piece of furniture.

November 5: I collect . . . nothing actually. But my eldest son collects dice. 

After I posted this on Facebook my husband called me on it and suggested that I collect stories. A friend also suggested that I collect green things, hence what I posted on Nov. 7. 

Another thing I could have posted was my collection of rulers, especially ones with photos in the  middle. That is a static thing, I haven't added to it in about 20 years, however the collection is in Australia and I don't have a photo!

November 6: Music. 

I've been surrounded by music and musical instruments for as long as I can remember (especially pianos). This photo is of an inscription by my childhood piano teacher in a music book that she gave me. I owe a lot to her and my parents for putting up with me in my early years and giving me a solid musical foundation. That's not to say it was an easily gained foundation (she was very strict), but I'm grateful for it.

November 7: Yes! 

I love green, it always pops out at me saying "Yes! Look at me!" My friend April pointed out I could have put this as something I collect. It fits here too. I have many green things, from my precious emerald engagement ring to everyday cups and mugs.

November 8: Someone I miss.

Now this is a big ask for someone who's lived away from their home country for 11 of the past 13 years! And it isn't just people we've left in Australia that I miss, we've met many people overseas who we're no longer near-by who I miss too. I am very thankful, though, that in my 40 years, no one really close to me has died.

But when pushed for a photo on this topic, I'll include a photo of these friends. I miss the times we had together when we were "carefree" singles and childless couples. We've seen them rarely in the last 13 years, but even when we do, it's crowded and crazy. We've now got nine boisterous children between us (seven are boys) and it isn't quite what it used to be.

November 9: Mine.

My eldest son brought me this packet of Australian liquorice back from his recent trip to Guam. I was stoked that he remembered I love liquorice!

November 10: Book. 

This is a book I finished on Friday.  Most of the week it kept me up later than I should have been up. A crime thriller right up my alley. And bought cheaply at CAJ's Thrift Shop to boot!

Sons of Korah fans

My boys have become firm fans of an Australian band—Sons of Korah. I must say I'm a bit mystified as to why, but I'm not unhappy.

This is what the band writes about themselves on their website:

Sons of Korah is an Australian based band devoted to giving a fresh voice to the biblical psalms. The Psalms have been the primary source for the worship traditions of both Judaism and Christianity going right back to ancient times. With their unique acoustic, multi-ethnic sound Sons of Korah have given this biblical songbook a dynamic and emotive new musical expression.

They do have a unique sound and it obviously resonates with my boys. We had two albums that have been played repeatedly for months now, so over the weekend I bought another, "Rain" and that is also now being played repeatedly. I love Psalms, they are such great material, so raw and honest and full of emotion, so it is no hardship to listen to these again and again.

Here's my favourite Psalm (139), which appears on "Rain".

We have two ancient iPods and an old CD player, so both boy-bedrooms have access to all the music that we own as a family. It's been great, actually, to see them move on from "children-specific" music to musicians like Michael Card, Jars of Clay etc. They're not taking on classical music so much, but that's okay.

Here's a video of a live performance of Sons of Korah (Ps 117), some impressive guitar playing here:

Guitars and drums—Thrift Shop livens up our house

I have a tonne of stuff waiting for me to do, but I'm struggling to get into it all after the craziness of the last week. So, I'll knock some easier things off my list, including this blog post.

There are two other significant purchases that we made at Thrift Shop.

First we bought a drum! Joan, our awesome Thrift Shop coordinator saw me buying this and questioned my sanity. She told me I had to blog about it too! So, here it is. The reason behind this is that our middle son wants to take up percussion next year. We figured he might as well have a bone fide drum to practise on! We'll have to wait and see whether I need to go and buy some ear plugs too!

The other purchase relates to our eldest son who's shown no musical inclinations at all till recently. But now, he'd like to learn the guitar. A colleague suggested YouTube would be a good tool for teaching himself, but I found this book with some basics to start with. Trouble is, we're lacking a guitar. We didn't find one at Thrift Shop. Is there anyone around this area with one they don't want anymore?

You just never know what you're going to use

This week I've been putting together our monthly prayer/news letter. The way I do it, is more a mini magazine or newspaper style, rather than a long letter. There are different "articles" or "columns". (Why am I a little surprised that I've ended up a real magazine editor, I've been doing this style of news/prayer letter 11 times a year for more than 12 years now?) In any case, my husband writes a "column" every time called "Spotlight on CAJ". Yesterday he wrote this:

My grade 12 students are currently wrestling with thoughts about life after high school. They are looking forward with a mix of excitement and concern. They think it will be good to be out in the wide world, but they are not sure what that means. Just today, the discussion centred on how much more education do they need? I wonder the same myself. There are literally millions of people in the world who don’t have a high school education, let alone a tertiary one, and they are doing just fine. 

So how do we help our students figure out where to go from here? I believe that through helping students discover and develop their gifts, we also help them discern God’s leading. It seems logical that if they are good at maths, or English, or music, or sport, or art, then that indicates a starting point. Try applying to a university that will teach them more, or a ministry training course that will prepare them. If God wants them to use that gift, then He will open doors that way.

It may be that they have to start something to find out it does not work for them, but I believe that is part of God’s work as well.

Please pray that God would make His desires clear to our students. They all show potential to serve Him, whatever their gifts.

As I pondered what I'd write here today (while I worked out at Curves, no less), these words came to mind. I'm more than twice the age of the students David is talking about here, so I have the luxury of looking back and seeing how God has used various gifts and learnt-skills in my life.

Here's a list

• This week I used my Occupational Therapy (OT) skills to assess a student and give the parent's advice.
• My experience as a parent of my particular boys gave my OT advice more content and wisdom than I could have done as a single 22 year old.
• I learnt the piano from the age of 4 until I left school. That skill has enabled me to help people worship on numerous occasions over the years. It is also now helping me supervise my youngest son as he learns the piano.
• Later in life God gave me experience in writing and editing other people's writing. That's now transferred into a significant ministry as a managing editor of a magazine.
• My mum taught me how to cook. I learnt at her feet, from the days when all I could do was lick the bowl, she allowed me into the kitchen. Now, I'm feeding a small tribe of growing boys, and enjoying the challenge (for the most part).
• Mum also taught me how to sew (along with my home ec. teacher plus one other short course one summer). I'm no great seamstress, but can do some basics that helps when one's raising a family on a tightish budget.

Then I think of a list of things that learning some of the above taught me:

• Persevering at piano all those years taught me to stick at something. To work at it and you gradually see progress.
• Occupational Therapy gave me many skills that I can hardly articulate because I've internalised so many. The way I approach parenting and life in general is shaped, in part, by my OT training.
• My first job as an OT taught me a lot about taking initiative, balancing many vastly different priorities, and being able to be productive without having someone looking over my shoulder. All skills that I'm using to this day.

And then I think of some of the things that I tried or enjoyed, but didn't go on with (for various reasons):

• athletics (or track, as Americans seem wont to say)
• maths and science
• history
• youth group/camp leadership
• English teaching
• acting in a musical
• choir

I'm sure that each of these endeavours taught me things too, even if it was, "This isn't really for you." 

Now what do I conclude? 

1. I'm grateful for all the things God has given me opportunity to try or learn during my life so far. 
2. You never know what you try that God will later use.
3. Even if you don't end up using whatever it is that you've tried, you'll can learn life lessons from that experience.

Awesome jazz concert

Woah, just been to a live jazz concert at CAJ by a professional jazz band. Awesome! I think I need to get myself some more jazz music for listening. Often I'm turning to my classical collection while I'm working because it has no words to distract me from editing or writing, but jazz . . . never really considered that as an option.

Here's a taste of one song we heard (different band and arrangement, of course):

Australian Christmas comes to CAJ's 1st graders

And one of the Asian kids even knew
what this game was!

Yesterday I went to CAJ to teach the Grade 1s about Australian Christmases. I did this last year too. What I did was pretty similar to last year, you can check that out here. It was a fun outing. I hope the kids enjoyed it too.

I especially love it that they enjoyed Colin Buchanan. I played a short part of his Christmas DVD, that included a segment of him talking to the kids about what is different about the Australian climate in contrast to some of the Christmas cards that get sent at this time of year. He made an instant connection with this international bunch of kids who'd never "met" him before. Such a great screen presence!

And of course we sang "Aussie Jingle Bells" with him.

If you want to "meet" Colin, go to the link I posted above. He's a fantastic Aussie Christian musician/children's presenter etc. that our kids have loved since they were tiny.