Looking back at 2009

It is somewhat traditional to look back over the year on New Year's Eve. Here are a few things that came to mind yesterday as I thought about 2009:

• Lots of transition, mostly surrounding our move to Australia for home assignment. Change of country, house, schools, roles, and even time without children.
• Our youngest began attending Pre-Prep or kindergarten 3 days a week. For the first time in 10 years, I've had regular child-free time.
• Two new nephews born into our families.
• Some answers about one of our sons.
• First time in several years that we've been together with all our families.
• Trip to Manila. As a result of dreaming about the future with our youngest heading off to school, I've been moving in the direction of writing and editing. The foreseeable future involves working with the editor of Japan Harvest, a magazine by and for missionaries in Japan. My trip to Manila was a definitive step towards that goal, attending a Christian magazine editing conference.
• I began blogging this year. It has been an interesting foray into a different mode of communication with people who support us (and many who don't). My goal - to help people to see what a missionary's life is really like.
• 40 is coming closer!

I guess my next post will have to be looking forward to 2010!

Food for Thought

The New Year is the greatest festival in Japan. People of all classes and occupations in the entire country celebrate it, but it is an intensely personal family affair. Members share the many firsts of the New Year like the first sunrise; the first shrine visit and the first food. No cooking is done for three days with the exception of the hearty New Years soup. Fish, black beans, rolled omelette and vegetables are prepared in advance and served from beautifully decorated multi-tiered trays. The dishes served to celebrate the New Year have special meanings, and with some variations, are enjoyed in every home in the nation. Datemaki, sweet rolled omelette, symbolises many auspicious days ahead. Kazunoku, herring roe eggs, symbolises fertility and are eaten to fulfil the desire for many children in the family. Kuromame, black soybeans, typifies good health, longevity and the ability to work willingly and skillfully. Tazukuri are small dried sardines cooked in soy sauce. The fish were used historically to fertilize rice paddies, and eating it symbolises a prayer for an abundant harvest. Renkon is lotus root and with its many holes it depicts the idea of ease in seeing through things and perceiving a bright future ahead. To let the overworked stomach rest, nanakusa-gayu, a seven-herb rice soup, is prepared on the 7th and 15th day of January! After three days of families doing everything together, slowly over the next two weeks, work and studies are commenced with new promises, intentions and ideals for the year ahead. Source: Neil Verwey jm@japanmission.org

Bits n pieces

We're at the end of a week in my in-law's territory. I choose 'territory' carefully. They all live close or in a small town in central Queensland. A long way from where we usually live. We've hovered between my batchelor (divorced) dad-in-law's place and my sister-in-law's - almost neighbours but about 17 km via a dirt road apart. My mother-in-law has been staying with my sister-in-law and my brother-in-law lives and works in town (40 km away). Lots of 'in-laws! It has been a little weird to try to manage a family around an elderly man who usually lives alone and has his own ways of doing things (and own standards of hygiene). A challenge to help him cook dinner while he's hovering over your shoulder! We haven't done too badly, but we're ready to leave tomorrow. In top of all this, I managed to bite the inside of my cheek a couple of days before Christmas and it became infected. My face has swollen on one side and eating and drinking is pretty painful. Sleep comes after Panedine is injested. Oh the joys. I did get fairly prompt medical attention at the small local hospital, though. Better medical treatment than I've experienced closer to home. The boys have had a great time in the Aussie bush. Tractor rides, introduction to REAL guns, riding 4 wheelers, mowing lawns (yes, they have them - bore water is amazing up here), dogs, cows, utes, water fights etc. We are glad they can connect with rural Australia. Neither of us were brought up in the country, but our parents did and we therefore spent parts of holidays in the country and feel some sort of connection with that part of our large country. It is a good experience for any kid growing up in the city, especially in a foreign country, but who lays claim to being Australian.

Aussie Jingle Bells

Wondering about Christmas in Australia? Here is a small slice:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz_KlcDXvqQ

Christmas contrasts

Last Christmas we were in cold Toyko. No snow, but still close to zero degrees outside. We ate a baked dinner with friends we'd known less than six months. The closest we got to family was on Skype. When we looked out the window we saw one or more houses very close by. This Christmas we are in rural Australia. Sweltering in heat hot enough to make running around outside under sprinklers a fun activity. We're spending it with family - most of whom have known most of us since birth. Cold ham, salad and pudding is on the menu. When we look out the windows of the house we're staying in, we cannot see any other house. No tarred road in sight, in fact. No internet access either. Lots of contrasts, in fact the two experiences are about as far apart as is possible. However, there is more than one similarity. Of course we are celebrating the same event, the birth of Jesus Christ our saviour. But there's another: a small degree of loneliness. That might be obvious for our life in Japan, but here in country Australia there is very little understanding of our life in Japan. Our passion for the Japanese just seems odd to most. We do our best to fit in with our family, but we really are the odd ones out. Nevertheless, we are really enjoying this Christmas in Australia. There is much more familiarity to it than we usually experience at Christmas time. We're relaxing and having a good time. I won't be back online for a while, so here's wishing you a happy and very special Christmas.

Adjusting to Christmas with family

We're on the road. Visiting our siblings and parents - all of whom live out of town. My side of the family this weekend. It is challenging to be physically with your relatives - even those you grew up with - when you haven't had that kind of relationship for some time. We've spent most of the last decade away from them and we've all changed and grown-up (and had six kids between me and my two sisters). I left home when my sisters were 10 and 13. Sometimes I feel like they are strangers. Now we have husbands and small children getting reacquainted seems like a large abyss that is hard to cross. Is it just me or once you have kids it gets even more difficult to be with relatives? Everyone has different ideas and standards and when you are closely related you feel less inhibited in imposing your ideas on others. Not to say that we've having a terrible time. Just that it is yet another adjustment we have to make. Another one that people often forget about. Tomorrow we're having my family's Christmas Day - present exchanges, big meal, etc. Next week on the actual day we'll be with David's family. More people to relate to and live with for a short time. At least I don't have to cook Christmas dinner this year. It was fun this morning to be in the kitchen again with Mum, like old times! And tomorrow won't be lonely - as our Christmases in Japan can tend towards.

Ninth anniversary

Yesterday we noted it was nine years since the day we landed in Japan as missionaries. Amazing. We've packed a lot into nine years. That day nine years ago involved four airports and three planes. All with a 20 month old. We began the day in steamy Singapore and ended it about 40 degrees cooler in Sapporo, with snow on the ground and below zero temperatures. Looking back it is actually amazing we survived our first winter in Japan. We were in a tiny, freezing apartment. We had no car, no TV or video player. Very few toys and limited personal space. To buy groceries, I had to trudge for about 15 minutes through snow on foot, carefully select our groceries (without much Japanese language), pack them in my backpack and plastic sled and carry/pull them all the way home. Since then we've lived nearly eight years in Japan. Most of them with a car! We've moved twice within Japan and moved back to Australia twice for home assignment. We've had two more children, one of them born in Japan. We spent more than two years in full-time (or nearly full-time in my case) language study, 15 months in a church planting team and four years with my husband teaching at the Christian Academy in Japan, a school for missionary kids. We've had our children hospitalised three times in total (in Japan), not counting the Japanese birth experience. The lessons we've learned in most/all areas of our lives would take more than this post to list. But here are a few that come to mind:

• It is a privilege to serve our Lord in this way.
• Dependency on God is a great way to live. Lots of surprises!
• Life is less predictable that you think.
• It is not necessary to own a house.
• "No debt" is a great place to be.
• International moves are tough.
• Raising children away from your home culture is very difficult.
• Missionary is not a synonym for evangelist.
• We don't have to be like other people - God values us as the individuals he made us to be.

I think we are in a better place than we were nine years ago. I certainly feel more settled with who I am and why I'm here.