A (ping pong) RACKET IN CHURCH

Yesterday evening, my sisters and I made an unusual visit to the Gushikawa Baptist Church. The pastor, Takashi Nishino, is a semi-professional table tennis player, and, in the past, young hopefuls have been drawn to church by his encouragement in the sport. Tonight was a ping pong session, complete with an automatic serving machine (like batting machine, except for ping pong).

The junior higher there so reminded me of my son when he was on his school team in jr-sr hi, I had to speak to him. Before going home, Pastor Nishino said he was probably closest to the top of junior high ping pong players on the island. Please pray he will find himself drawn close to the King of Heaven.

Right. Ping Pong Rackets are often called "paddles".

EARLY BIRD off the mug

In the past, whenever I got back to Iwatsuki after a visit in Okinawa, I got knocked off balance with any problem Satan hit me with. I realized it wasn't so much because they were HUGE problems he was attacking me with but because I'd gotten so spiritually weak. Let me explain.

In my visits to the island, my days have always been filled with blessing and ministry; rich answered prayer and fruit from previous years of missionary work... It hit me for those special weeks, I forgot about scripture memory completely--I'd gotten so excited about what else God was doing, I couldn't think about anything else. The missionary--Christian worker in any way--has a tendency to want to meet others' needs and neglect one's own heart condition--when I read about this caution, I felt it would never happen to me--ha!

When I recognized what happened, I asked friends for prayer before making this trip, that it wouldn't happen again. God had to answer all their prayers for me--not only does He wake me early morning every day for date time with Himself; He also showed me a yummy warm beverage; He made sure one of the mugs here have birdies painted on it...some groggy mornings, the big black one seems to caw good morning.

The one in the CENTER! (I'm on the right...)

"That looks just like her," my sisters said of the drawing.

The new friend God showed me had a name that sounded like "SHE WON!" And I believe that's what He desires for each one of His daughters as we delight in His Word. After my first worship service in Okinawa, I met a person presently putting parts of scripture into the Okinawan dialect. Shee-wan, a believer from Hong Kong saved and trained in Canada, had come to the island--I didn't get the full story in one short visit--through God's working she is walking in part of His design.

We ended up talking in English...altho' we were in a Japanese church in Okinawa! Oh--can you see the miniature church bank and track rack that Scott Garner made (Nov. 30,'22 post) in the background? There has been so much happening--I'll just have to keep on drawing and writing.

I wanted to tell you about the bird...

Please continue to pray for us here in Okinawa. I'll be here until Feb. 5, when Janice and I will be leaving, she to return to the U.S., and I to return to Saitama.

I told you I wasn't feeling too well in the middle of the week and had a slight temperature. I'm better now, and yesterday went to the church ladies' meeting to share my testimony...but Janice (the one who I pictured collecting shells in Izena) had regurgitation problems the night before and had to stay home and rest...I'll put up a post without illustrating it today, because I want to tell you about the bird altho' I don't have time to draw anything.

For a while now, I've found myself on the road without my camera when I've caught sight of a bird--I never thought anything of it when I lived here, but I realize now: anywhere else in the world, its plumage is grayish brown, but only in Okinawa, it has blue-and-copper coloring.

Friday, to make a long story short, GOD SENT THAT BIRDIE TO OUR WINDOW! "Please don't go anywhere, Sweetie," I said, while I rushed to get out my camera and focused on it. It posed for me and seemed to stay until I was satisfied with the best shot, then flew away. So--I'll post the photo of the bird that came, ok?

The same Heavenly Father Who lines birdlings' nests is the One Who provides pillows for His children to lay their heads--how good it is to be His own.

WE WENT AGAIN FOR ONE DAY

Maybe we've had too much activity. I felt a little under the weather and had a bit of fever recently, had to spend some time in bed.

Fortunately, for most of the latter half of this week, God had arranged our schedule such that there were no pressing engagements. I've enjoyed being able to slow down and take time to sketch. Yesterday's drawing was from last week's stay on Izena island. Today's composite is of the following:

The Hotel Resort at which my sisters and I stayed for one day earlier this week; its scenic ocean view & watersport enthusiasts; Yellow Walking Iris in my sister Joyce's yard; and my sisters & I pictured in the center of the composition.

The Iso Hiyodori (blue rock thrush, May 16 post) at the center front, I will tell you more about tomorrow.

IZENA BEACH REFLECTIONS

 I mentioned Mitsue-san came to the beach for our walks.

• It was beautiful--after being overwhelmed with the radiance and colors of sunset, man-made lights seemed pitifully small.
• My sister Janice found delightful shells to take home with her. What a thought--of billions of shells on the globe, the God of the Universe delights to bend down and choose to take us Home with Himself!
• There was a rose blooming across the street from my cousin Rumiko's home. Despite its thorns, the rose is known for its lovely attractiveness. Would God use even me to draw others to Himself? 

MORE GRANDMAS IN IZENA

The morning we left Izena, another grandma--in her 80's--came to Rumiko's yard to see us off. We'd met her at the community old folks' calisthenics' activity a few days before, and she had come to the beach the next day for a walk with us too. It seems like Rumiko made another friend and is praying about how God would use her to lead this new friend to Himself. Would you pray with us? Her name is Mitsue.

The small, two-room cabin in the background was something Rumiko's husband built with his own hands, dreaming it would be a church in Izena someday. Most of his time had been spent in reaching children, but Rumiko is praying some of them might hear a call to return to their home island. God is able.

Oh--the gray-haired person with the glasses standing next to Mitsue is me. I guess I'm a gramma in my 60's now.

No Wi-Fi for Izena Grandma Evangelism!

Well, I wasn't "at Grandma's"; I lived with my cousin Rumiko (Mar. 8 post) all last week.

Rumiko had decided to go to the small island of Izena where her she and her late husband had worked while he was alive, and that place is so out of the way, there are few cars there, only one traffic light on the entire island, and no Wi-fi in her home. When I went down to Okinawa, my sisters and I spent one week with her--and I went without my laptop or cellphone.

What a full week it was though. God had been helping Rumiko live simply and form special bonds with the elderly folk in the rural villages of Izena island. The first day we were there, she took my sisters and me to visit her hundred- year-old friend.

She had found the Lord, and on the day before we left the island, I was able to hand her a sketch I'd drawn from a photograph taken on that visit, along with words from her favorite verse, "In everything give thanks,"

(The hibiscus in the background were growing in her yard.)

MORNING FOR DADDY...FINALLY

I'm writing from Okinawa. When my missionary father was hospitalized and my sister Joyce and I took turns watching him through the night, there was one morning the view from his window was exceptionally pretty.

It had been pitch black out the wee hours of the night and gotten gradually brighter. Corners of buildings and mounds of earth shone gray but seemed to shine like silver, and edges of clouds, shaded with darkest rose shone hues of shimmering pink and gold. The thought that kept drumming its way through my mind was: DADDY WILL BE IN HEAVEN SOON!

The first time Daddy came back to consciousness, he was disappointed not to be in heaven. We talked, saying if God wanted him Home, no power on earth could've kept him away; there must still be work God wanted him to do.

Well, some people came to meet Daddy in the hospital--the mother and daughter had been saved during my Dad's ministry in the village church he started years ago. This father found Christ and was in church yesterday morning.

I DREW HIM JUST A WHILE AGO

"You're going to Okinawa?" It was Peter. I told the Step Creek mallards I sketched the mallards on the other side of the park then told them I'd be leaving for my sister's soon. He caught my attention on the branch nearby.

"Then you won't be able to draw me for awhile, right? So can't you draw me again right now?"

So I did. I wonder how many of us feel the same longing for things of God, that we just can't get enough, and even the most recent encounters seem too far in the past.