Beauty in my day

I've been over the other side of "town" at an OMF gathering. Christmas party/prayer meeting/fellowship day. It's been a full day and I'm about done in, but I just want to show you some beauty from my day. 

Though the temperatures are dipping lower and lower towards the depths of winter we still have some beautiful autumn colors. 

Plus some beauty from the meeting room. One of our members is especially talented in interior decorating and she made our meeting room a delight to the eyes today. 

Then, on my journey home I caught a beautiful sunset sky with a smudge that's Mt Fuji (from our train station). 

There's not a lot in the Bible about admiring beautiful things. But there are these two:

Luke 12:27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 

And from what the Bible says, heaven is an overwhelmingly beautiful place (see Revelations 21:10-27). I like to think that the beauty we enjoy on this earth is but a foretaste of what's waiting for us after death. 

Psalm 27:4 One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lordall the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. 

Do you have stress?

Last week I went for a follow-up visit to the gastroenterologist. I was quite stressed about the visit, the last time I met with him without a translator (my first visit) he was brusque and reluctant to give me any language allowances. I felt unwelcome in his consulting room.

Stubborn me wasn't willing to ask someone to take the time out to help me with translation this time, so I went alone. The truth is I can understand some of what's going on, not all, so sometimes having a translator seems like overkill. Sometimes being able to understand some of what's going on is a pain, because it's hard for someone else to grasp how much you're getting. The other annoying thing is that you can think you understand most of what's going on, it is the little things you don't understand that bother you.

But that's all an aside. I was stressed about this doctor's visit.

Thankfully he was much more willing to meet me part-way. With some help from my iPhone we managed to communicate both ways. My throat still is uncomfortable despite the medication I've been taking and despite there being little evidence from the endoscopy that there was a problem. He assured me that this is a sensitive area and it will take some time to settle down. Then he asked me the question that nearly had me on the floor laughing:

"Do you have stress?"

I hardly knew where to start, but it would have started with the fact that I have three boys, of course. Given time I could have explained that my stress was less than it was back in May-July, but all he wanted was an affirmation that yes, I do have stress.

If his English were better, I might have referred him to this blog post I wrote a year ago about stress and missionaries. I quoted an article that reports that missionaries generally live with stress that is at a dangerous level.

If my Japanese were better (and he was willing to listen) I might have said, "Yes, I'm living in a country that isn't my own, and I'm sitting here trying to communicate with you in a language that I'm not very good at, yes, I think I may have a little stress in my life."

This is a problem that is known to be caused by stress (unlike some of the other physical problems I've had in the past that I know are stress-related, but doctors don't make the link), hence the question. Hopefully as life settles down here, my health will too. The doctor assures me he isn't worried and I'm not to worry either. 

However I am a little concerned about what happens when we do this whole thing again in 2018/19, but that is a bridge that is yet to be built, let alone crossed. Meanwhile I'm still on medication (both Western and Chinese) as we wait for my symptom to totally subside.

Making my own cream cheese

I've been playing with a new "toy" in the kitchen. This one cost me 104 yen. 

It's a simple container with holes in the bottom. You line it with a coffee filter and fill it with plain yoghurt.  The result? Something that tastes a lot like cream cheese. Yummy! This is also a good substitute for sour cream (very expensive and a bit hard to find in Japan).

Here's another explanation on how to do it without a whiz bang 100 yen yoghurt strainer.

One way to learn about Australia

I don't remember how many years I've been reading to my family after dinner (it's more than 10 years, I think). We finished the long Billabong series while we were in Australia and wasn't sure what next, if anything, to tackle. 

But then I was helping my eldest with a Japanese assignment a few weeks ago (a speech about Australia and specifically ANZAC biscuits). I dragged out a couple of books I'd purchased about Australian history. You can imagine that there aren't many of those around in our local libraries. Our boys are learning US history and geography, and some about Japan but very little about their passport country. As one who loves history and my country, I think it is important to pass something of an appreciation for their passport country on to my kids.

One of the books was a little different to the usual history textbook. In fact it looked like it was written to be read from start to finish. So a few weeks ago I embarked tentatively on an experiment. I started reading Australian history to them. 

It's working. Immediately after I've finished eating my first course I pick up this book (they're usually still eating). Each chapter is only two to five pages long including graphics, and it's topical. So we've read a chapter about the installation of the telegraph line from Darwin to Adelaide. One about bushrangers (Ned Kelly specifically). One about the Gold Rushes. Last night it was start of cricket in Australia and especially how the Ashes began. Obviously from the photo on the cover we've got a chapter on surfing coming up. 

It's well written and David and I learnt things too. The boys still have trouble with interrupting but mostly it's rabbit trails associated with what we're reading. 

It's a clever way to write history: take a story of interest and weave other broader facts around that story. There have also been interesting connections we've made between this and the historical fiction we read in Billabong books. I hope that through this we'll all get a better appreciation of the history and culture of our passport country, but especially the boys. 

A couple of weeks ago I helped our youngest son's class make a Pilgrim meal, part of a unit they're doing about American history. One of the teachers told me she'd heard our son telling classmate about some Australian history (that he'd just learnt from this book). The boys like this kind of learning because it's learning without assessment! Yep, I'd say this is worthwhile. 

"Footpath" outside our house is green

While we were away at the end of last week they repainted the markings on our road. We've now got a distinct "green" line painted along one side which I presume marks the safe place to walk as there is no pedestrian-only footpath (US = sidewalk, UK = pavement).

The view from our entry. The road is pretty close. Thankfully most of the traffic is quiet: on foot or on bikes. The motorised traffic doesn't travel very fast either. The speed-limit is 30 km/hr, I think, or maybe it is 20...in any case you wouldn't want to be travelling much faster than that because there are plenty of obstacles to avoid, not just pedestrians and bikes. There are telephone poles and rubbish bins too!

Yep, and it is a two-way road too. We use this "footpath" all the
time. This is how the boys get to school. 

It's wider than the previous road we lived on in Tokyo, which is good, it means that visitors can park for a short while out the front. We can also park there while packing or unloading the car. Once the car is in the carport it is almost impossible to get anything sizeable in or out of the car.

Permission to spend?

I found a blog post last month that aired some taboo topics. It's covers areas that most missionaries secretly struggle with.

These permissions are areas other people
struggle with too. For example, my brother-in-law
is a farmer and he needs permission to rest. Our
camping trip at Easter with him and his family was
such a time when he felt able to rest. It was fabulous.

(This post) might reduce the pressure that becomes toxic to missionaries. Sometimes that pressure is self-inflicted—derived from the unachievable standards they levy on themselves. And sometimes it’s imposed by supporters and churches who mean well, but fail to measure the human toll of a life in ministry. 

So the onus of responsibility is twofold: on the missionaries who self-blame and self-shame and on the networks that back them, sometimes piling unreasonable expectations on people who work in circumstances they can’t fully fathom.

The author encourages missionaries to accept permission to: 

• be confused (about things like support, why the work seems to bear little fruit)
• be flawed
• rest 
• spend (this is one that I struggle with deeply)
• quit (haven't gone here yet, but the concept that God may call you somewhere else, even back to your passport country)

You really need to go and read the article for yourself: http://www.oscar.org.uk/oscaractive/articles/phoenix.htm

Kids Newsletter—December

It's time to send out our quarterly Kids newsletter. If you'd like a better copy, please email me.