Getting close to leaving for our 6th home assignment

Three years ago I wrote a six-article series for OMF US about home assignments, particularly about all the preparation that goes into one.* When I was finished with that project, I realised I'd written 4,500 words! I didn't realise I had so much to say on the topic, but clearly I did.

I think this is the actual plane that took
us back to Australia for our first home 
assignment, the first and last time we travelled
with just our eldest two kids between Japan
and Australia (our youngest was born during
our first home assignment).

We're now two weeks out from our sixth home assignment and I have to acknowledge that this is something I know a fair bit about. We've spent 4 ½ years of the last 25 ½ years actually "doing" home assignment. We've spent at least that much time again "planning for" home assignments. That's about a third of our missionary service and a good chunk of our adult lives!

We're now staring down the barrel of 13 more sleeps before we fly to Australia for an intense nine weeks of speaking at gatherings and meeting people (plus two weeks of holidays in the middle). 

Back in February, I wrote about why we've decided to do a much short home assignment this time.The preparation phase certainly been a lot less intense and also shorter, a good portion of that is due to not having any kids at home anymore, but it's also due to the shorter length of our absence from Japan—because we won't be away all that long, we've not really had to hand our jobs over to anyone and we're not having to move out of our house or organise a rental in Australia. As a result, it feels a lot more like a short visit to Australia, than a home assignment like we've known in the past. 

In the past, as we've crept closer to leaving for home assignment, my body has shown indications: especially infections, poor sleep, and headaches. Not to mention a skittishness that comes with having to split one's attention between two different locations—finishing here and thinking about landing there. Up until this week I've had none of that. Because it still feels like a "short visit" rather than a "home assignment" I've been a little surprised this week at how my body is giving me small hints that a change is coming. I've been struggling a little with sleep and also the ability to concentrate on harder tasks. Hopefully it won't become a major issue and I'll be able to continue with working through next week because there's plenty to do at the moment.

Today I had meetings pertaining to the two main ministries I'm involved in (Japan Harvest magazine and OMF Japan social media) and both involved planning for the coming months. Naturally I want to get as much as I can done before we pack our bags and leave for Australia on the 20th. I'll still have work on both of these ministries to do while we're in Australia, but I'm hoping it will not be too much. Most of the 20+ "events" that we will be present at will be on weekends or evenings, so we're planning for downtime during the week. 

It's going to be another home assignment like we've never done before (just like our last one). I called it an experiment in our most recent news/prayer letter...one that we will reflect on when we get back in August and decide what we'll do next time!

* You can find links to them all here: https://omf.org/us/what-home-assignment-means-for-a-missionary-part-6/

Early home assignment plans for 2026

In the last few weeks we've been working on putting a new-to-us plan into action. We've spent 4 ½ years of the last 25 years on home assignment in Australia. It's a requirement of our organisation to periodically spend time in our passport country visiting supporters and supporting churches. Yep, we did that in 2004/2005, 2009/20010, 2014/2015, 2018, and 2023/2024. Three of those five times we packed up and moved out of our place in Japan. That adds up to a total of ten international moves.

The bookmark we gave people before we
left the first time for Japan

I've written here a lot about the strange institution of home assignment. If you've seen some of that you'll know that it's an exhausting, stressful, all consuming thing. The purpose behind it includes you getting rest in your passport country, but an awful lot of work goes into getting there to get that rest.

But I'm at risk here of not toeing the party line . . . Home assignments have numerous good things about them, including staying connected with family and friends. After our only six-month home assignment in 2018, I wrote a post pondering: Was it worth it? It was a difficult home assignment (we had two teenagers still at home, just for starters). The blog post was pretty brutally honest, but I did come up with some really good things that happened because we took the time to go to Australia.

The world is changing, though, and short home assignments these days are far more common than six- or twelve-month ones. And we're feeling quite jaded about these huge international moves. Now that we are in a season where we don't have to consider the schooling (or mental health) of our kids and it's just two of us moving around, we've decided to try out a short home assignment, one that will last 76 days, or just short of 11 weeks.

This has numerous benefits:

• we don't have to move out of our beautiful apartment in Tokyo (massive benefit, I hate moving)
• we don't have to find somewhere to rent in Australia or find a car (also massive benefit)
• the above two points means that moving between countries will be smoother with far less exhaustion and practical details needing to be arranged
• we have minimal handover to others for our jobs in Japan (also a huge benefit)

One of the downsides is that we'll be moving faster in Australia and have less rest there. We'll also have less time to spend with our home church, family, and friends.

So, I've been contacting our main supporting churches and getting some 'big rocks' in place. David's bought plane tickets and we've been communicating with key people. It's actually been amazing—since the start of the year the following things have fallen into place quite easily:

• dates to visit eight churches in Queensland and Western Australia
• places to stay throughout our visit
• cars to drive
• a place to have a holiday and a motorhome
• time to visit both sides of the family (and hope to see our granddaughter)

We're arriving in Brisbane on May 21 and then fly to Perth on July 24. Then onto Tokyo, arriving in the hottest, most humid part of the year on August 4.

Closer to the time we'll decide on some "open day" type events where people who live in SEQ and Toowoomba can meet up with us, rather than us racing around to see many people in such a short time.

But for now, we need to put our heads down and live here and now. This morning I've set aside for writing, especially putting time into a first draft of this book project I'm working on. So I'd best move onto that now...but I'm looking forward to seeing some of you who live in Queensland and Perth in a few months time.

Looking ahead to 2026

Happy New Year to you all!

I started 2025 by writing that it wasn't going to be a dramatic year, and it really wasn't, compared to the previous two years (during which we moved countries twice and transitioned two boys to independent living outside of our house). But we did fly to Australia three times during the year, which is more than we've ever done before. It was also our first full calendar year in Japan without any kids with us.

This was the scene outside our apartment when I went
out at about 7.30 on Monday morning to head over to
OMF Japan headquarters for our monthly prayer and
fellowship meeting. About five cm of snow fell on
Friday night and some that was in shade all weekend hadn't melted by Monday morning.

Looking ahead to the next year, the main "big rock" we know about in 2026 is a 10-and-a-half week home assignment (HA) mid-year. In our 25 years in this missionary life, we've done four year-long HAs and one six-month one. Each of those involved a lot of work in Japan as we handed our roles over to others before we left and rented somewhere to live in Australia. In this new phase of our service, we're going to try something doing a much shorter one. There are several reasons for us, but we hope it will mean we can catch up with supporting churches and keen supporters without a big disruption to our ministries in Japan, and it won't mean renting somewhere in Australia. It also means we can keep our apartment here in Tokyo, which is a huge advantage. I'm sure I'll be writing much more about this topic in the coming months, but for now, that's the big thing that we know is coming this year.

But, aside from that, going into 2026 feels like it's going to be even less dramatic. There are few changes in our immediate lives that we can foresee, though we'll be watching our granddaughter grow (from a distance).

Some changes in focus

I'm working on some changes in the things I focus on in daily life, some of which I've listed below.

Lots of reading, as usual, but with a smaller goal to allow for longer books. I've aimed at (and achieved) reading 100 books a year for the last six years. This year I'm aiming at 90, but we'll see how that goes.

Regular walking (and riding) with my husband, but I'm considering if I should add something else to the mix.

Investing more concentrated time in writing is one big change I want to make. I'm pretty skilled at writing short pieces in-between other things in my life, but as I wrote here back in November, I've been challenged about writing a book. But to make progress on that I need to make more regular time in my weeks to write, otherwise this is going to stagnate as a goal. How that will look, I'm not sure, but I'm trying out different ideas and see what progress I can make before I go on the writing retreat in October.

Unlike other recent years, I didn't listen to sermons in English mid-week during 2025 because we've started going to a church that is in English, but I did listen to the whole Bible through the year. I haven't found myself a Bible reading plan yet, but do intend to get back into this again. I haven't set a specific goal, but do intend to continue listening to podcasts by John Dickson (see here: Undeceptions).

Lily pads

It's been a while since I referred to the concept of "lily pads". It's a helpful concept for maintaining mental health and includes things that you've got planned for the future to look forward to. Here are some of my lily pads for 2026 (the one's I know about now):

• trip to Okinawa this month with the high school girls wrestling team from school (you'll hear more about this later in the month)
• missionary women's retreat in March
• personal camping trips in March and October
• writing retreat in October
• the aforementioned HA during which we'll see family and friends and hope that will include our granddaughter

So, let's see what God brings during 2026. No matter what, I know that he goes before me and will be with me and I have no need to fear (Deut. 31:8).

This was on the inside of our toilet door in
November last year. A great verse to read every
time I used that tiny room.

Update + what awaits in Japan

I'm feeling pretty weary today. Yesterday morning I had a molar removed and abscess cleaned out under general anaesthesia. It took less than an hour and was less traumatic than having three or four wisdom teeth removed (I still have a "good side" to chew on). I'm thankful that the numbness lasted all day yesterday, so pain management wasn't hard yesterday. Today it hurts more. Overnight I slept fitfully, probably only got around four hours. Thankfully my brief is to rest for best recovery; I'm hoping for a nap after lunch. Hopefully this is the end of this strange health journey. The surgeon thinks that there was never an involvement of my salivary gland and that it was this tooth the whole time! I'm thankful that it seems this has come to an end before we left Australia and pray that there will be no complications that need to be dealt with in Japan.

Last week I wrote and sent out our prayer letter and intended to share some of that with you here. The "lead article" was:

What awaits you in Japan?

We plan to move into our new Tokyo apartment on 24 July, just two days after leaving Australia. A removalist (US English is "mover") is booked to shift our stuff from storage and there are OMF and other friends available to help us there.

The living area of our new apartment

We’re excited that our new apartment has better cooling (and heating) than our previous place, especially with another extremely hot and humid summer forecast. It’s smaller than our previous house—around 60 m², the size of a squash court. We’ll be doing a fair bit of problem solving to sort out where things go and if more furniture is required (we got rid of a lot last year). Thankfully we both love problem solving.

One of the first things we’ll do is buy bicycles to help us get around the suburb easily. Later we’ll be looking for a small car to purchase with money we’ve saved up.We will have about two weeks to get settled and then we’ll both begin work in our various roles.

We hope to have more opportunities for hospitality in this new season. Two new OMF families have moved to the CAJ area, so it will be good to spend time with them. We also have a few friends in the area who we’re hoping to invite to an Open House in our new apartment before school begins in late August.

We’re excited to start this new season. Though it will be hard to say goodbye to our sons, it’s been great to have this year to walk alongside them in Australia. We’ve seen God provide in tremendous ways and look forward to see what he’s going to do in the future! 

A couple of hymn verses come to mind as we reflect and move forward:

I am trusting you to guide me;

you alone shall lead,

ev’ry day and hour supplying

all my need. 

(Frances Ridley Havergal)

Great is Thy faithfulness, 

O God my Father,

Morning by morning 

new mercies I see,

All I have needed 

Thy hand hath provided,

Great is Thy faithfulness, 

Lord, unto me. 

(Thomas O. Chisholm)

________________________

And of course, you'll hear about our settling in process in more detail than those who read our prayer letter (I'm excited that both WiFi and air con are already connected in the apartment). But let me know if you don't receive our monthly prayer/news letter and would like to.

Feeling off-balance, but okay

I started this week with some trepidation. We knew that on each of the first three days (Monday to Wednesday) we would hear news that was out of our control and each had the potential to change the plans we'd carefully made for the coming month. Of course, we try to hold our plans lightly, knowing we're not really in control, but it's still hard.

The three things were:

Car repair

Our car was in a minor accident when our middle son, practising for his driving test, was hit from behind on the approach to a roundabout. Not his fault and the offender didn't stop. On Monday the car was scheduled to go to the panel beater and be assessed for our insurance claim at to be fixed. Our main concern was: when would we get it back? With an already complex month, this was an unwanted extra complication. Thankfully the assessor thought we'd get our car back on the day that we start to move out of our house. No day was ideal, but that's not the worst it could be! Thankfully we'd bought a second car a few weeks ago, with the intention that it would become our middle son's car after he got his licence. So, we still have a car to get around in!

Driving test

For my non-Aussie readers,
this is the sign that you
get to put on your car in the
first year after you have your
driver's licence (then you
change to a green P for two
years). When learning you
have an L sign.

Our middle son had his second attempt at a driving test on Tuesday. Again, out of our control, though we'd done all we could to prepare him, including recruiting a number of prayer warriors to pray on Tuesday afternoon at 2.50! I vacuumed the house while waiting for news about how the test had gone: shouting out my prayers and frustration to God. It must have been a sight for any flies on the wall. (It's been a 2 ½ year journey from when he first got his Japanese learners, then was diagnosed with epilepsy and had to jump through medical and government hoops here to get his Australian learners, get his required hours, get credit for the hours he did in Japan, and then get a test date, fail, and get another test date.)

We're incredibly thankful and relieved that this time he passed. God has been so gracious to us this year in helping us achieve so many of the goals we set out to nail.

Ongoing medical saga of my jaw

The ongoing saga of the discomfort I've been experiencing on the left side of my jaw came to a head (this started in Canberra during our long service journey in mid March). By late-May I was unwilling to accept the GPs assurance that all was fine. So I went to a physio (thinking it might be muscular-skeletal). He suggested another go at a dentist, who took an x-ray and referred me to an oral pathologist, who referred me to an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon who sent me for more scans, including an MRI. Amazingly, all that was achieved during June! 

It's been a ridiculous journey that I wanted to end asap, preferably before we went back to Japan, where accessing medical and dental services just becomes more complex for a non-fluent Japanese speaker. 

I had my post-scan appointment on Wednesday and the final assessment is that this is an abscess under a molar. The tooth needs extraction under General Anaesthesia. This is now planned for next Tuesday. Phew! And amazingly, I'm not in much pain, certainly nothing like I experienced at Easter time.

No one knows how this has escaped the attention of so many professionals (in three months I've had four dental x-rays, two ultrasounds, two CT scans, as well as an MRI). But perhaps it was just God keeping me off-balance, and part of his growth plan for me to trust him?

What now?

Well now that most of that is decided, we forge onwards. It's only 15 days until we hop on our first plane. Things are steadily getting done. Today so far I've made an enquiry about getting our carpets cleaned, I've finished our last prayer letter for this home assignment, written this blog post, and done (all?) the paperwork for my day surgery next week. Next on the agenda is a coffee and some more sorting of boxes of stuff that are lying around (much is memorabilia and correspondence from many years ago that has thus far been stored here).

On Saturday we are doing something new: holding an open day here at our house. So between 9 and 4.30 we could have a lot of people visiting (or maybe hardly any at all?). It's a chance for local people who may not have seen us to briefly do so.

Yep, I'm still feeling off-balance. I think that's where God likes me!

Day 17: Bega to Dalgety

I didn’t want to get up this day. It was the first day of Australia’s four-day national long weekend: Easter (Friday to Tuesday). This weekend is traditionally a time that many people go away, and often engage in outdoor activities like camping, so  many services are closed this weekend.

I'd gone to sleep the night before hoping that today might be when we could find somewhere to visit a dentist. The problem we encountered in searching using Google Maps was that most places either were marked as usual operating hours on Friday, or there was a note that there was uncertainty about the hours due to the public holidays. Because we didn't find out this was potentially a dental problem until after most clinics closed for the long weekend, we didn't even get the chance to call clinics to find out if they were open, or if they knew of somewhere that was. This morning I even called Canberra Hospital to see if they knew of somewhere...but they did exactly what we'd been doing—Googled it, and came up with possibilities, but none of them ended up being open. 

So we ended up getting exactly nowhere in terms of making a plan. In the end we just carried on with the plan we'd had before: to spend the next two nights on a farm in the highlands near Dalgety on the Snowy River, about 80 km by road from Australia's highest mountain (Mt Kosciuszko).*

I didn't want to get out of bed. I was in pain, had nausea, and had difficulty eating (chewing and opening my mouth were both painful). But checkout time approached and I just pushed myself into that vehicle. I was drowsy during that journey because I also hadn't been sleeping well. Thankfully I didn't need to drive.

The landscape was amazing, though. It changed from being usual "great dividing range" forest to a weird brown, barren land (see the photos). Turns out this is a naturally dry area in a rain shadow. It was weird.

Our hosts were very friendly, in fact, it was hard to stop them talking. I felt terrible and not at all like socialising, sadly! It was a strange place to stay, but also a peaceful one where we saw lots of sky and two beautiful sunsets. Nearby were two other sets of campers, but not so close that we needed to interact with them. Strangely here was a flush toilet sitting on top of a nearby hill. We were not connected to electricity, and basically self sufficient, so it was weird to have access to a flush toilet (though you had to manually fill the tank from a container).

I was thankful to have been able to make the journey there and then to rest, but was still concerned about what the "next steps" should be: should we go back to Canberra, press on to Melbourne, or something else? And was my condition getting worse (swelling in the neck area is always concerning). No answers were easily forthcoming and this overshadowed the two nights and one day we spent at this place.

*At least the highest mountain on the continent, there are others higher in the Australian territory of Antarctia.

Figuring out what God wants me to do

A close friend recently sent me a link to a very helpful Facebook post. It’s written by Martyn Iles, an Australia Christian who has had an unusually public profile in recent years (in Australia Christians don’t typically get much press). Who he is isn’t as important as the wise things he’s written, so I won’t write any more about him. He wrote this in a Facebook post, but sharing a Facebook post is only helpful if someone has a Facebook profile, so I’ve copied the text here (for my future reference, if nothing else):

How can I know what God would have me do?

When I speak to people personally, some variant of this question is possibly the most common question I am asked.

There is a four principled decision making framework which has never failed me yet.

Importantly, all four principles are to be discerned in the context of sincere prayer about the decision.

1. Circumstances

Your circumstances will change (or not), without your manipulation or control, in a way that enables or reveals the right course of action. Because God is sovereign and works providentially.

2. Scripture

If you are a habitual student of scripture, it is likely that your reading and study will speak into your circumstances in a way that confirms the right course of action. Because God speaks to us reliably in His word.

3. Peace

It may take time - it's often the final confirmation - but ultimately you will be at peace about the right decision. That is to say, it may be hard or daunting, but your conscience will quietly confirm it. Because the Spirit of God works in our conscience.

4. Patience

Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait!!!! STOP RUSHING! The scriptures are packed full with exhortations to "wait on the Lord." There are countless examples of God's slowness in the face of our hurry. Learn the discipline of patience or you will constantly make bad decisions. And you will *never* be worse off, or miss out, because you were patient. If you do, it just means it was never meant to be.

Now, you can be mistaken on one of the above - misreading circumstances, wrongly applying scripture, etc - but it is utterly unusual to be wrong about all four at the same time, especially in the context of patience and prayer.

When all four line up, that tends to be when I act. But often they don't, so I simply resist action, which is very hard.

Now, for matters of very great importance, I may have thought that all four principles were in alignment, yet the gravity of the decision was such that I was still reticent to make it.

In such circumstances, you can do a Gideon. You can pray for special confirmation and clarity - a "fleece." In His grace, God is ordinarily willing to provide it.

The alternative to the above is to plan your own way and make your own decisions, and expect God to catch up. That simply is not a life of faith. (End of the quote)

_____________

(Very annoyed right now because I've just lost several paragraphs here that I'd written here the other day...so on to to remembering what I wrote...)

What we see on earth is but a poor reflection of
what's truly going on (a much worse image than
we see here in a photo of the pond in the Japanese
garden at Mt Coot-tha).

I imagine that many people think that the decision of becoming a missionary must be one of the biggest we've ever made and that other decisions would be easy in comparison. While I could write much about the original decision, I will just say that there have been quite a number of times since then where decision making (and waiting for God's plan) has been hard.

A sample of times when this has seemed especially true in the last 25 years:

• When we were working towards to come to Japan and it took longer than we’d hoped
• When there was no teaching position for David in Japan for five years after we made ourselves available for that
• When my Japanese language ability never made it to a level suitable for working in it
• When I spent more time with sick kids than in doing any kind of outside ministry (or language learning) in our first term in Japan
• When our attempts to help our eldest learn Japanese language and culture by enrolling him in a Japanese primary school failed (we had to move him out after just 15 months)
• When we nearly didn’t get back to Japan in a timely fashion five years ago due to financial reasons
• When one of our sons encountered difficulties significant enough to derail our plan of moving him to Australia in 2021

Right now, as I've mentioned before, we're walking through the situation of seeking affordable rental accommodation for our younger two sons so that they can carry on their lives here while we head back to Japan. For various reasons we want to do that sooner rather than later.

What adds to the difficulty of this is not just that the rental system is under great stress here, but that our "public" lives mean that we've asked lots of people to pray about it, including our church. And people keep wanting updates. I want to jump straight to the end of the chapter and tell them a "success" story . . . but it's taking a while.

I really appreciated the wise older gentleman in our church who asked me last month, "Are you making progress?" 

This was a gentle and discerning way to ask and I could answer a wholehearted "YES". I felt encouraged, rather than needing to explain where we were up to and why we hadn't "succeeded" yet.

Back to the earlier quote, I really appreciate the emphasis on "wait". I am not naturally good at that, in general I tend to barrel ahead at considerable speed. Though I'd have to say that I have grown in this area in the decades since I became an adult. This particular waiting seems to be trying my patience and trust in God more than usual. But I'm trying hard to keep my eyes on Jesus.

I had coffee with a new friend this morning and we reflected on how we often don't know why God is doing something, or what his timing is, but we need to trust him regardless because he's so much wiser, more loving, and more powerful than us. That his thinking isn't the same as ours is clearly seen throughout the Bible, but perhaps no clearer than in the book of Job.

Here are a couple of verses I found along this line:

God’s voice thunders in marvellous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding.  (Jobe 27:5 NIV)

‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.' (Is. 55:8–9)

So, we still await the end of this chapter of transitioning our sons to accommodation separate from us. It's going to be a good one! I can't wait to tell you about it!

Retirement planning!

January is turning into quite a social month, as many people have a little more free time before school and many other activities start in a week or so. I’ve struggled to find time to write this week, but do have a post I started before Christmas that didn’t seem quite festive enough at the time. So here it is:

We've been working on longer-term financial planning these last few months. We do short-term financial planning each year as our mission requires us to put together a budget, which gives a set support figure to judge how our support is going. This is a complex, but helpful process that means we're using our resources responsibly, and anticipating future (near) needs as best we can, for example the need to fly to home assignment, or to go to a conference, or buy “new” furniture or a car after home assignment, or replace our aging computer. All these things are budgeted for well in advance. Australia is more expensive than Japan these days, so we budget for our living expenses over several years preceding each home assignment.

We don’t have much of a garden: in
many ways this is a blessing because
it doesn’t take much of our time, so
we’re freed up to devote ourselves to
other things. We do get to enjoy gardens
that other people maintain, though, also 
known as parks!

But as we've both entered our 50s this last term, we decided it would be good to talk to a financial planner about the longer-term future. We wanted an expert's opinion on how are things looking for a retirement in Australia sometime before we hit 70.

Well, we've been very encouraged. We found a Christian who has given us a significant discount for his assistance. And he's given us reassurance that, from what he can see and what he knows, from a worldly perspective, we'll be okay. Of course we have no idea what God will provide, but look forward to seeing that too!

It's at this point that we're very thankful that God led us to be part of a mission organisation that takes long-term member care seriously. And also that we live in a country where financial planning for the future is also taken seriously. So, both of us have had the organisations we've worked for contributing to our superannuation funds (US readers: similar to 401(k)) since we started working in our early 20s, yes, even when we've been working overseas, and these funds are adding up.

This part of life not something missionaries talk about very much. Most people only hear about finance from missionaries when they are in need of more financial support for the immediate future.

But also, in mission circles there is also an understanding that God provides in amazing ways that you can't anticipate. He has been providing for us for the last 23 years, why wouldn't he provide for us in the future, and into retirement too?

It's pretty obvious to us, as we come back each time, that most of our peers are doing things like buying houses, some even getting to the point of finishing paying off their mortgage. We don't own any property. The biggest thing we own is a car. We can't afford to buy real estate in Australia, partly because most of the time we can't live in a house we'd buy in Australia. But we also shy away from the anxieties that arise from owning property in a country where you don't live and from the stress of a mortgage. We've seen the stress that that can cause missionaries (maintenance issues, complex financial affairs that are hard to deal with remotely, tenant issue, etc.).

It’s easy to start to rely on the figures on a spreadsheet though, to trust in that, instead of our Heavenly Father. God has ways of reminding of us of that. But the best thing to do, when we’re distracted by all the dialogue around us (in the media as well as in conversation with friends) about real estate, mortgages, money, banks, stuff to buy, etc, is to go back to God’s word. One of the places Jesus directly addressed these things is in Matthew 6 where he said:

So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?”  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

We’re grateful we don’t have much stuff to take up a lot of our time to maintain, but it’s in the mental zone that we need to fight the battle not to worry (at least it is for me).

It's different to any home assignment we've done before

This is a different home assignment to any we've done before this. Mainly because we've got older kids who aren't in school anymore. We don't have school pickup or drop-off to take into consideration, we don't have to get them to after-school events or sport. They are pretty independent due to the location of our house and we are free to plan our schedule without them. 

When I'm able, I've been trying to come here to
write on Tuesday mornings. This library is a very 
short ride/walk from home. I love that this time
we're very close to a regional city centre,
 it makes it feel more like Japan than when 
we've had to drive everywhere.

September was a prime example: going to Perth for 18 days, and then six days after returning we went to a camp for four days. The camp would have worked when our kids were younger, because it was during the school holidays, but probably not when they were teens. None of our guys are very extroverted and as teens wouldn't have appreciated four days away from home with 100 unknown peers and leaders.

This Thursday we're leaving at around 7.30 a.m. to get to Toowoomba (my home town, about 1 ½ hrs west of here) for a 9.30 prayer meeting . . . and then we're staying the night, in fact three nights. In the past we would have taken the boys to school and then dashed up to Toowoomba and planned to be back by 3 the same day to pick them up from school.

This is a tiny glimpse of what last time looked like: It's a strange job

It's definitely easier in many ways this time. We only have to move the two of us around. And it's allowed a lot more freedom to what we choose to say yes to, in terms of opportunities to speak and serve. We did a lot more work in the evenings last month than we've done before.

The downside is that while school and our kids restricted our movements, they also provided some structure to our decisions too. In the past we've often taken school holiday times to do family-related things (for non-Aussies, we have four ten-week terms here, with three two-week vacation periods between terms, plus around six weeks at Christmas). 

Many people assume we spend our home assignment close to family, however that isn't the case. We both grew up in country towns and moved to Brisbane to study at university. The greater Brisbane area is where we have most of our support base as that's where we were located when we began this mission journey. So none of our immediate family is closer than Toowoomba, and all of David's family is a day's drive (eight hours) away. It's been harder this time to decide when to take a chunk of time to visit them. 

Part of the reason we haven't gone to see our families yet has been work-driven (the Perth trip was timed to get to a once-a-year church camp from a long-time supporting church). And partly it's because we've prioritised our sons. A number of the things we've done with them in the last 11 weeks (yes, it's 11 weeks today since we arrived in Australia) have been time sensitive. For example, getting a learners licence as early as possible was important because getting a licence here is fairly dependent on the volunteer labour of parents, as 100 hours of driving experience needs to be documented before a test can be taken!

But in October we're hoping to see most, if not all of our siblings and parents (although I won't get to see David's family until Christmas time, he's driving up there with our youngest son when I'm busy at a women's convention).

Of course each home assignment is different, especially when you have children. But when you only do this every five years, things change. Other things, aside from our children, that have changed this time around (big and small):

• some churches no longer exist or no longer want us to visit them and some of our supporters and friends are no longer with us on this earth
• we're in a different suburb (yet again . . . we're yet to stay in the same suburb twice!)
• we're now in our 50s, I think that makes a difference to energy levels
• deputising when you've been serving overseas for over 20 years seems different, and people are commenting on that length
• we've also got a lot more experience and confidence than we did when we started off in 1999, before we'd even set foot in Japan
• Australia has changed, in small ways and big ways. 
• There's been a pandemic, for example. Hint: if you want to stop people asking questions about you, change the subject to the pandemic and they'll talk for a long time about their experience!
• I'm pretty sure that there's been a change in what stores sell: some places that used to be more generalist (e.g. Big W, Target, KMart), are now more specialised? I've been more lost here than I am in Japan in finding some non-food things!
• Australia continues to get more and more expensive, it's vastly different to when we first left in 2000 (Japan and Australia have flipped in comparison to one another in 20 years)
• we get to take long service leave this time!!! (for non-Aussies and Kiwis this is paid leave that you get in our countries after a certain period of working for the same organisation and you'll hear more about it from me next year as we prepare to take off in late March)
• my parents no longer live in the house I knew from the age of 15, so visiting them feels just a little bit different
• I've got two friends in south-east Queensland who I've been communicating with almost daily for the last five years, that means I'm feeling less lonely and disconnected here than in the past

But it's time to go and pack my bag for yet another trip away. Thankfully this month we only will clock around five or six nights away, compared to September's 21!

Finally the day has come…

Yesterday was the day we've been working towards: it's the day we decided months ago that we would finish our work (i.e. magazine editing, social media managing, and—for David—teaching). It seemed impossible at times, but alas (or much to my amazement) we actually managed it! The only portion of all that that I will retain is an overall management of the magazine team and general "hard question" consultant.

I'm thankful that I was running ahead of schedule last week. That relieved some stress as yesterday didn't go at all as expected—a simple get-medication medical appointment at a hospital (usually takes under an hour) turned into a four-hour ordeal. 

Being ahead of schedule also meant that I could volunteer several extra hours to help the admin team for the magazine with the manual labour of packing, and this month's mail-out had a wrinkle that's extended the time it's taking to packing all the magazines up several fold!

This week has held other unplanned things: 

• Doing my first ever audio recording of a conversation with a colleague which will go with six articles I've written about home assignment preparation (looks like that recording and the articles will be published over the next couple of months, so I'll be sure to share them).
• Doing some serious culling of files on my computer so that I can transition to my new work computer (yep, my computer lied about how much it held, and we ordered a new computer that was too small). Why this week?
• Starting to hand off my plants to others! Just like with my work, I'm splitting my plants up between several people to care for while we're away. I’d planned to do it, but not as soon as this week!
• A pile of mending has suddenly appeared! Really?
• And various appointments that aren't related to us leaving: mostly medical, and dental, but I do need to remember to make a hair appointment.
• I don't remember when I found out, but not long before Monday I discovered that I was invited to a staff-family dinner that night. First time since COVID (for me). And it was followed by square dancing, which is very closely related to the Australian bush dancing we did as kids and was super fun (even if I was very tired).

And expected things:

• I'm starting to struggle with sleep: nightmares about clerical errors, waking up early with my brain whirring, etc.
• Finishing work today, of course!
• My last work meeting (aside from next week, which is basically a whole five days of meetings at our OMF conference).

After my long wait at the hospital on Thursday I was feeling quite off balance yesterday. I'm really glad that I planned ahead and handed things off early, it's really helped that that hard work of thinking things through to be done before this week!

David also finished work yesterday, and last night he pulled out a whole lot of boxes that we haven’t used in 13 years. They’ve been living in our attic. Now our house looks like we’re moving, even if we haven’t actually put much into the boxes yet. But I’m feeling pretty restless about it all. Probably the best way to deal with that is to get off my chair (and this blog) and actually do some sorting myself. Here’s my secret: I leave the actual box-packing to David who is a magician when it comes to 3D puzzles like this.

Boxes full of packing material

On Monday we leave early to catch a couple of trains to catch a plane to Hokkaido for a five-day conference with OMF Japan. So we’ve also got to pack for that…and so, I’d better get going.

Looking ahead to 2023

I've had a full week to start the year, though perhaps not technically "busy". We spent NYE with friends playing board games and enjoying just being together again. These are our camping buddies and we've spent several NYEs together over the last few years. They hadn't seen our eldest son since his last visit here 3 ½ years ago, and we only got one camping trip in in 2022, way back in March. 

Then it was church on Sunday and recovering from "the night before"; I have never been good at staying up late. One Monday afternoon we welcomed a school friend of our eldest son, the only friend of his from high school who is around this area at the moment. Then just after lunch on Tuesday we farewelled them both—our son to Australia and his friend, well we're not sure when we'll see him again. 

It was great to spend 10 days with our eldest. We've kept in pretty good contact with him over the last two years, with weekly video chats on Sunday afternoons, but there's nothing like living together, talking over multiple meals, during car journeys and walks to really find out how things are.

Tuesday afternoon David took a colleague and his wife to the airport bus and then we headed into town for the evening to meet friends and see a big winter illumination on a race course. Wednesday was a recovery day, and then yesterday and today we've each spent time downtown with friends over meals. Oh, and there's been cricket since Wednesday too (when it's not raining in Sydney). I've been avoiding going back to work, but the deadlines are catching up to me and this morning I've had to finally get a bit more serious.

Therefore, it's taken till the sixth day of the new year to find the space to write this, though I've been thinking about it all week. 

Thinking about the future like this is
a little bit like looking at an unsigned path in
the woods. You have thoughts about where
it might lead, what you might encounter on 
the way, but you really have no clear idea
at all!

In fact, we've been thinking about 2023 for several years. It's the year that our youngest son finishes high school, which is significant for anyone, but for missionaries it can be massive. Juggling the education of our children as well as a specific demand of our job (that we periodically spend significant chunks of time in our home country) has gotten harder and harder as the boys got older. Australian and American high school education systems aren't super compatible, and jumping between countries with children isn't fun at the best of times. So, we've been juggling home assignments to try to minimise the disruption to their education. 

This year after June, for the first time in 20 years, we will have no one at school. I was asked yesterday what I was looking forward to in 2023, and my first answer was "my son's graduation". The lady who asked was surprised, she doesn't have children herself, but noted that many people don't look forward to their last child leaving school. So, maybe I'm weird . . . but I'm putting it out here anyway, because there are probably people out there as weird as me, but don't want to say so.

However, the whole process of doing a home assignment is no picnic, even if no one needs to be enrolled in school. It involves a lot of admin and planning, changing jobs, international travel, using up all the stuff in our pantry, and moving house. And in our case this year, moving out of the house we've lived in for 13 years, downsizing, and putting the remaining goods into storage for the year. Then, when we get to Australia, getting stuff out of storage there, finding a rental (which isn't easy at the moment in south-east Queensland), (probably) finding second-hand furniture and white goods, and settling into a new house for however many months we have left once we've done all that. 

During this 2023-2024 home assignment, instead of school issues, we also have the challenge of helping start our two youngest boys transition to independent life in Australia. A task for which no manual has been written . . . although we've done it once before, each young adult is different and it's not going to look the same for any of our boys.

Wow, I've just looked back at the equivalent post I wrote at the start of 2020. Pre-pandemic. Yep, none of us saw what was coming that year. I had an idea of what I thought the next couple of years might include, especially surrounding international travel and what my older two children might be doing. The ensuing years have made me much more tentative about making predictions about the future. However the one long-term thing that I did have in that 2020 post that seems to be accurate was going on home assignment in 2023.

It is the fifth time we've gone on home assignment. I now understand why more experienced missionaries don't like doing it (something I didn't get when I was in my first term and so, so homesick). It's a lot of work and thoroughly exhausting. But there's always mixed feelings about changing countries. In some ways I'm more comfortable in Australia, and there are special people there who I'm looking forward to spending time with.

So as I look at the first half of the year, I see a lot of hard work. I'll be continuing on with my usual job, but at the same time planning on how to hand that over to others. I'll also begin working on the admin of planning for the second half of the year: a lot of email as I organise different speaking opportunities and other things related to our move. We'll have to work on things like material to present at said speaking opportunities too. We're also still parents, so, in addition to supporting our kids emotionally, there are things like sports events to attend, and then various end-of-senior-year events too. Oh, and did I mention downsizing and packing?

Two "big rocks" in the first half of the year are:

• two-night women's retreat in March
• OMF Japan field conference in June in Hokkaido

I've also got couple of "big rocks" tentatively in the calendar for the second-half of the year.

Plus a big birthday milestone in April, one that seems like it should apply to someone else a lot older than me . . . but then I do have a 23 year old son . . . 

We're also hoping to go camping at the end of March, and maybe in July also.

Close friends tell me I tend to be quite "regular", as in, I do hold to a fairly steady schedule of my own volition. My life is fairly full and I'm pretty happy with what I've been doing, so I don't see the advent of a new year as a need to change much. And so things that I plan to continue to do as regularly as I can in 2023 are:

• regularly walk with my husband
• study Japanese
• read lots of books
• listen to English sermons at least once a week
• stay in touch with close friends regularly, and when I can, in person
• bake
• writing (though I've got a project currently, beyond that and this blog, I don't have a specific writing goal for 2023)

I've picked up my long-term cross-stitch project during the last three weeks also, but I think I'm probably reaching a little if I think that that's going to be something that I do much of in the next six months . . . though it would be nice to get it finished before we come back to Japan in 2024 (Lord willing) as a couple for the first time!

Thinking outside the box was helpful this week

A Pacific rhododendron I spied at
our meeting on Monday. Gorgeous!

This week started with a wonderful influx of people-time. On Monday we had a gathering of missionaries with our organisation. That was very busy with little time for free conversation, but after several months of not having the energy on the designated gathering-day, I was able to be there, which was great. 

The huge bonus was the 24 hrs following that time. One of my colleagues has become a close friend over the last couple of years. The main way we've invested in our relationship has been by regularly staying in touch through the week via texting. We have shared meals and picnicked with her family a few times.

But we've struggled to actually physically get together and have time for just the two of us, because we both juggle many responsibilities and live on opposite sides of the metropolis of Tokyo. It's over 1 ½ hrs by train or an hour by car, but the latter is expensive for one person as it involves tolls.

So after a couple of failed attempts, I jumped out of my box and suggested that I could have a sleep-over at her house after the meeting on Monday. My mother would have frowned at that if we were kids: I basically invited myself over to her house! But it worked. And we had a great time, in fact I struggled to leave when I had to head home again. Neither of us had taken a day off, so it was more like doing life together. I took my computer and we both worked between meals and coffee breaks. But it was great, and refreshing.

Since coming home I've struggled to concentrate on my work. That's actually been a problem throughout March, as we have been preparing for our trip to Australia mid-year. We've booked, cancelled, and rebooked flights; followed leads on accommodation and transport; lined up accomodation in a few places and found transport; communicated with family about schedule; investigated options and appointments for health needs; and many other things. It's been a buzz, but also a huge distraction. And then just last week daily life included accompanying my son to a passport interview and a medical appointment—that equalled more than a whole day of travelling around (not mentioning the stress plus recovery time from the stress). 

So just hanging out with a friend on Monday night and Tuesday felt like a calm amidst the storm, something of an oasis to mix my metaphors. I'm back in my boat in the storm now and need to get back to work, as crazy as that sounds.

Postscript: I wrote the above at the beginning of my working morning and after writing, went on to have a productive couple of hours of editing. I'm thankful. And sometimes writing works like that for me: it helps me process what's going on and then move on.

Adjusting to more spacious schedule

Strangely, I'm still trying to adjust to no longer being in a period with no margin. The first two months of this year were really a bit too much on top of a lengthy period over the last couple of years where I've felt powerless in certain areas of my life and unable to make plans. I am gradually recovering, but emotionally dealing with the changes that have come in the last few weeks is harder than I expected.

At work I've been coming to grips with needing to do some things that aren't exciting or urgent (for example, updating the magazine's style guide!), but are important. That requires a little less adrenaline and a bit more grit. But I am celebrating with my team as we put finished another magazine (print) issue this afternoon. I look forward to seeing the Spring issue in print in a couple of weeks.

This week, with a bit more of a spacious work schedule and the knowledge that our trip to Australia in June is coming up quickly, I've once again become the family-communication point-person for international transition (or at least parts of it).

Good news is that we've got our organisation's approval to come to Australia, and for me to work from there for a while after David and our youngest son come back in early August to start school. Yes, we did need their permission because we don't want to get in trouble with anyone for a "misuse of charitable funds"! 

I'll stay longer in Australia with our middle son to do some reconnaissance for his future. He's still deciding about what his next steps are, and I hope that an un-hurried period in Australia as a young adult will help him consider what he might like to do next. Last time he was there he was 16, and in a period of high anxiety and stress at school, so it's really hard for him to imagine what life in an English speaking country might be like as an independent adult. 

Oh, and we want to spend time with our 22 y.o. son, who we won't have seen for three years! I imagine those first hugs will be a bit emotional. A lot has happened in three years.

But we'll still only be there for three months, so a bit of pre-planning is required. I've been looking at leads on accommodation and cars, corresponding with service providers, and various OMF people. If you know of a car we could use, or a place with three bedrooms that we could stay in that's not too far from the Indooroopilly area in Brisbane, please let us know.

And just to be clear, we're not doing any home assignment time this year—so we won't be speaking at churches or making a concerted effort to catch up with many people. That will have to wait until after June 2023.

We are enjoying a break from the cold Tokyo winter weather. These last several days have seen temperatures in the high teens and low to mid 20s (Celsius). After three months of temperatures in single digits or slightly above, it's a welcome break. Tomorrow is supposed to be back down to 11, Saturday 18, Sunday and Monday 13/14, and next Tuesday 8! But that's spring here for you.

Last week, to celebrate the change of seasons, I bought a 100 yen flowering plant and finally got to do some repotting this afternoon after lunch (in line with the "more spacious work schedule"). Hopefully it will do well and cheer our spirits as we move up and down the stairs. I also replaced the hanging plant that looked like a sopping-wet rag and was clearly on its way out. In the midst of that, found a couple of maidenhair fern offspring that had taken root alongside another plant, so I gave them their own tiny pots. We'll see how this little bit of "sprucing up" of my window garden will go now that the temperatures are rising.

My new plant: Sweet Alyssum. First time I've
tried this one, my app says it's perfect for 
gardeners with brown thumbs, which sounds 
great to me.

My baby maidenhair fern.