Photo Essay of the Women's Retreat

Now I'm home I really want to write a summary of my days away, especially the last three days at the women's retreat, but I've been playing catch-up today (buying groceries, and catching up on important emails and computer work) and I'm out of time today. So here are some photos instead. I'll write tomorrow.

View from my room. The sunset was actually better than this,
but my little camera didn't quite capture all the colour.

A wider view from my room.

The 59 beautiful women who attended the retreat. So many friends here. It was
my seventh time at this retreat and each time I get to know more and more people.
Not to mention deepening relationships that I already have. Friendship is
 the greatest emotional need for women, and one of the most difficult thing
for a missionary woman to get and keep. So to say I value these ladies is
something of an understatement!

Our talented worship leaders. Heidi, on the violin,
also was my room mate.

Jan, a friend, and OMF colleague, was
the MC of the retreat, and leader of the
team that ran the retreat. So thankful for
her and her team.

We were blessed with nine German-speaking attendees.
Here they led us in How Great Thou Art in German.
Actually the event is quite international. Only three
Aussies, but a variety of European nationalities,
as well as US and Canada. 

I loved the decorations in the chapel.
"Called not Driven" was the theme.

Edie, trilling on the piano! She blessed us with
some beautiful music.

Across the road is this peaceful forest.

A small shrine in the forest.

I tried to take a selfie. Sort-of happy with it.
Where did all those crinkles come from, though?

This is the river that ripples its way past the retreat centre. I love getting
out of the city! Thankfully we're back at the same centre in a couple of
weeks with our OMF colleagues.

Customer Service in Japan

I mentioned the dark side of Japan's customer service back a while, but today I have a great video example of the amazing service you can expect to find if you visit Japan.

This video doesn't surprise me at all, because I've experienced it. Back in the days before I became somewhat competent on Tokyo trains, I tried to put a 10,000 yen note (about A$100) into a machine that didn't accept them. If you watch the video, you can probably figure out what happened to me.

Moving forward into more retreating

In an hour or so the second half of my week away begins. It is the Women in Ministry retreat that I usually go to in March. This is my sixth time and I'm really looking forward to

it. (This was my blog post about last year's.) It brings together women from all sorts of backgrounds, countries, mission agencies, and ministries. The variety is refreshing, stimulating, and enjoyable.

As it's in the same venue where I've been running the Writer's Workshop/Retreat I hope that I'll be able to transition into it fairly easily. I'm looking forward to seeing some friends I haven't seen in a while and catching up more deeply with others I see occasionally.

Last year we had a speaker who told some very funny stories. I has some great laughter-therapy! I've already had some this time around too: at lunch today we had some fun going at our table. One of the great things about these retreats is the internationalism. I love the humour of my Scottish friend, Hazel, let's just say it's closer to Australian humour than some other countries.

I think, however, that I've done enough writing now. Aside from writing this blog post I've put together enough stories (nine) to talk for about 20 minutes. That's longer than most places will allow us to speak for, so I'm probably safe. I'm certainly feeling satisfied. That's a lot more than I anticipated being able to get done! Time to have a little bit of a lie-down before the Women's Retreat fun begins.

Euphoric about today

I've had a great day of writing. I love this — taking time away from my usual responsibilities to write is something gives me great joy.

This morning I taught a bit more about good writing, then at 11 we broke away to work on our own writing individually. I took an exercise break at 2, feeling the need to get my blood pumping a bit, but then came back to write until 4. Even though the time hasn't been an extended period, I'm really pleased at how much I've been able to achieve. 

I've now got seven 2-3 minute "stories" that can be built into talks to groups in Australia. After 4pm the other writers and I spent a couple of hours sharing small portions of our writing and getting feedback from one another.

This is the second favourite part of these workshops (the first being getting excited about writing all over again and having time to devote exclusively to it). I love giving missionaries the rare opportunity to get useful feedback from other missionaries about their work. It is something that most missionaries never get the chance to do. I am so thankful for my writing critique group, Truth Talk, for the honest, critical feedback they give me about my writing.

I've also edited an article about missionaries and loneliness that began as a blog post here nearly five years ago. This article I've rewritten twice in the past so that it would fit a couple of different magazines. Then today have edited it again to fit a different audience. I love re-fitting work I've done previously, it saves so much time!

I just realised that this blog turned five years old on Sunday. What an awesome journey. One of my goals in doing this blog it is to improve my writing, and I think I'm probably continuing to achieve that. I've certainly improved in my ability to take and idea and write about it quickly, and succinctly. That is a real benefit when it comes to writing other things, it means that I'm a more efficient writer.

So, I'm very excited and thankful for this day to immerse myself and others in writing. It is a largely solitary activity, but done like this with a group, it is very stimulating and even addictive. Tomorrow we're still writing and talking about writing until lunch time, and then there'll be quite a change in activities, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow's post to find out the details.

2014 Writer's Workshop

This morning I left home for five days. I've come up to a retreat centre about 150km north of Tokyo. Until Wednesday lunch-time I'm running a Writer's Workshop/Retreat. I'll tell you on Wednesday what happens next!

We are a cosy group of six and  it's working out really well so far.

I drove and didn't get lost and even got us here on time.

After we arrived we settled in, set up our seminar room and got to work. We've been talking about how to "write better". Particularly going through things that seem to trip up writers, like:

• unclear writing
• cliches
• flabby or cluttered writing
• unnecessarily complicated words
• long sentences
• passive or indirect writing
• repetition

Now, I'm really tired. Three hours of driving and then teaching this afternoon has taken its toll. I didn't include anything after 7.30pm on the programme, and it's a good thing, I'm pooped. So I don't think that I'm going to do much except take a Japanese bath, grab a fun book to read, and go to bed.

March: Reflecting in Heb. 12:1-3

As I planned to do as a resolution for 2014, here is something of a reflection on Hebrews 12:1-3.

12 Such a large crowd of witnesses is all around us! So we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially the sin that just won’t let go. And we must be determined to run the race that is ahead of us. 2 We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete. He endured the shame of being nailed to a cross, because he knew that later on he would be glad he did. Now he is seated at the right side of God’s throne! 3 So keep your mind on Jesus, who put up with many insults from sinners. Then you won’t get discouraged and give up. (CEV)

So let's do what verse three (in many versions) tells us to do: consider Jesus. Take a look at verse two in different versions, Jesus is described as the:

• "pioneer and perfecter of faith" NIV
• "Initiator and Completer of that trusting" Complete Jewish Bible
• "who began our faith and who makes it perfect" New Century Version
• "the champion who initiates and perfects our faith" New Living Translation
• "the author of faith. He also makes it perfect." New International Readers Version



I'm heading to a Women's Retreat
this week where we'll enjoy a campfire
like this. The retreat is a great place
to re-focus on Jesus.

• "the maker of faith, and the perfect ender" The Wycliffe Bible

I like that last one: "the perfect ender". Don't we always look for the perfect end? We can know the one who will provide that!

What else do these verses tell us about Jesus?

• enduring, persevering
• put up with shame and hostility and insults
• and did the first two because he could see the joy at the end of the suffering, "knew he'd be glad he did" in the CEV words.
• is now seated in a place of honour, on God's right hand side

And so we're exalted to think about Jesus, to keep our minds on him. Why? So that we won't grow tired or discouraged and give up, not flag in our faith (The Message), or lose heart.

That's what I want. Immunisation for heart that has a tendency to grow tired and discouraged when things are tough. The cure? Keep looking at Jesus! And when my eyes and faith-eyes grow tired, just look again.

That's partly why I've looked at different versions of the same verses above: to help keep it fresh. Because I tend to gloss over the words when I've read it many times, as I have for this passage.

When I'm tempted to think that my life is hard, it is a great reality check to look at Jesus' life, and others mentioned in the chapter just prior to this one.

Answer Photo Quiz #48

It's time to give you the answer to this photo quiz.

Jason got it right: 

Looks like one of the machines outside restaurants, where you order and pay for your meal, then sit inside for your ticket to be called when it is ready.

Japanese fast food restaurants often use these machines. We see them frequently at service stops along the expressways. You make your choice, put your money in and press the button. You often have to take your ticket to the counter to submit your order. It means that those cooking the meal don't handle the money at all. 

But as someone else mentioned, it can be tricky because they aren't always easy to read, especially for foreigners. The five of us trying to read the choices and make decisions about our choices often hold up a line!

This machine was found outside a tiny restaurant near two railways stations. A place where people eat on the go. Most often the fare will be noodles in soup or some kind of topping on rice.