AT ARM'S LENGTH

Shiny things. That's what crows usually give humans they consider friends. But apparently, several of my feathered friends in Iwatsuki saw me helping insects in distress and thought I'd like bugs more than most normal people. One day, I noticed they brought me a milky white ermine moth, probably traumatized from having been transported there between the beaks of its captor.

But another "insect" gift given me was a sparkly butterfly bookmark, not from the crows, but from my sister Janice. She had actually bought a craft set and made it for me, so there's only one butterfly like this in the world. I use it to keep my place in my daily journal, so I see it every morning. Yup, this butterfly sees the cold winter season too, unlike his living cousin. Oh--here's a photo of a little feller up in Iwatsuki. It frustrates me no end that the real thing is much prettier than what I can get with the camera, but even the photo is better than the computer image!

It was that same species butterfly I saw outside the hotel last year. I'd asked it to show me its wings on the inside because I knew they were so pretty, and it stayed still, then we could see it was straining to open them up for us. See what it looks like? There were no butterflies this year. Besides, my camera ran out of juice. But on the bridge, a teeny tiny spider came scurrying up to us. Outdoors and garden spiders are so pretty, I said to the spider, and got a pic with my old flip phone.

I think it liked me. After a little while, it jumped towards me, but because it's so little, its thread was too short and yanked it back. I wasn't exactly disappointed that it didn't make the leap, since my automatic reflex would've been to brush it off anyway. I like spiders and snakes, but only at arm's distance. Maybe God loves unconditionally, but I can only like them conditionally. I jump if they get too close.

I don't understand how that happened, because I still remember my sisters and I used to catch the termites in the woodwork of our first house--catch them and pluck off their wings. And don't we look like sweet little angels? We had everybody fooled!

WE PREFERRED THE JAPANESE...

"But the YouTube transcript couldn't tell us what you were singing in Japanese," a friend told me.

The original hymn was in English, but we actually prefer the Japanese, like only the English chorus--so that's the way we sang it.

This is kinda crazy, but below is a rough translation of the lyrics sung in Japanese! It's not arranged in proper meter, singable or anything, they're just meant to explain the meaning of the words, ok?

1. Stepping out into a new land/See, my heart is sure/(Japanese chorus) As with Joshua, I too declare:/"As for me and for my house, we will serve the LORD."

2. News that trials thickly enshroud the way / Gives no reason for the heart to fear.

3. An enemy horde means nothing to me if / Jesus stands at the forefront of battle / (English chorus) Dare to stand like Joshua, Dare to say the words,  / "As for me and for my house, we will serve the LORD."

4. Much territory must yet be won / Strengthen the heart; fight on! / (Japanese chorus) As with Joshua, I too declare: / "As for me and for my house, we will serve the LORD."

Better, kinda? This last pic is one Joyce used in a slide presentation on furloughs to show how we 3 J's grew up singing together. Can you figure out which one is who? Oh-oh; I messed up. People are going to be thinking about this instead of about the lyrics of the song, which is the really important stuff, right?

オレンジ？レモン？

このレモン、オレンジに見えない？砂糖いっぱいで美味しいジュースが作れるんだから、どっちでもいいじゃない。

与えられたことで喜びいっぱいになれるんだから、感謝じゃない。アメリカに住んでいたジュンコさんは（妹の友達）、ローン会社の仕事をやめて、お父さんの畑を継ぐために沖縄に帰って来た。

捨て猫の里親を探してあげたり、私達３姉妹に美味しい果物や野菜を分けてくれたり、先週は妹と一緒に熊本に行ってくれたり・・・。彼女の生き方、苦しい、損した、ガマンしている面影は全然ない。

もしかして、レモンは明るいオレンジ色だから？あの果物、黒かったら、彼女の性格も、もっと暗かったかも？

全然関係ないよね。

BITTERSWEET GLOW

They weren't just tumbling about and having fun in Sunday School. In worship service Jan 26, 2025, the Bates children got up on the platform and recited the church memory verse for the month.

Now nobody had an excuse not to try learn it too.

"Just want you to know, I'm coming through, okay?" I'd said to the mallards taking a walk in the park in Iwatsuki. I didn't want to scare them.

Sometimes, we learn the verses God sends...and we find ourselves stumbling over His blessings because of them. We trust and obey Him today, and, like Eddie and Nari, we may find stronger health or birds quacking across our paths or slamming into hotel windopanes as we serve Him. Maybe.

But I've learned better than to expect brighter days all the time. At the Iwatsuki Park, I found that in the daylight, some insects that looked like plain ole' beetles, when it got darker, were attractive fireflies! Hm; this month's memory verse refers to our being salt. But what if that means there needs to be a distasteful experience to highlight our winsomenes for the Lord?

GOD'S WIND AT MY BACK

Last week Mon, out the hotel window, I saw, on the other side of the inlet, a motorboat on the beach.

There would've been nothing unusual about that, except that it wasn't floating in the water.

It was sitting on some kind of pulley with tires, ready to be hitched to a car and towed somewhere.

Nearby, I saw a sailboat sloshing around in the water.

I guessed that was slightly better than the first vessel. But a sparrow hawk seemed to echo my thoughts:

A BOAT? NOT MADE TO TOW AROUND OR TO SIT IN WATER, BUT TO SWIM OR FLY OR SOMETHING!

So much happened all at once, I couldn't post about it all:

Remember I posted about Eddie and Nari, how they needed to trust God in their situation, with Eddie being in his wheelchair and Nari having her bout with cancer? They, of all people, had every right to "sit in the water asking for help" and not move until they got it.

(By the way, that's Janice's back you see going to the buffet for seconds!)

But they decided to live actively for God's glory, and well, it looked like God took over and gave them extra measures of strength and grace: when we saw them on Jan. 7th, Eddie was walking, and Nari's cancer seemed to be in remission.

There's only one way to manage vessels in treacherous waters, my sisters testify in their piano duet prelude Jan. 19:

https://youtu.be/Vu-QS-bcC1E

ブログは無理だけど、60 Yr-Olds Sing

先週は伝えたいことがあり過ぎたので、色々遅れてブログさせていただきます。

Jan 19, 2025 special music; "Janice will return to U.S. for new walk;"

１月１９日（日）の聖日礼拝に聖歌６２０の「あたらしき地に」を、姉と妹で特別賛美としました。来週の日曜から米国に帰る妹には、新しい歩みが待っています。

"Saito household begins new life in Okinawa; Joyce relies on God's Leading"

自分と斎藤家は、沖縄新居で様々な恵みを見ることになることでしょう。姉には、これから、どういう導きがあるのか、分かりません。

"With Christ at the Forefront; All we have to do is Follow."

ただ、「先立つ君はイエスなれば♪」・・・私たちは従って行けばいいと確信をもって、賛美できますね。

動画をブログに投稿するのは、自分には難しいけれど、YouTubeにアップする方法を,息子に教えてもらいました。興味ある方は、https://youtu.be/EPCFMiNZXK8で

見て下さいネ。

Remember the Christian's Battle is a SPIRITUAL thing, fought mostly on our knees--how else can three grammas in their 60's sing confidently about going out to war?!

SWEET TWEET TREAT

 "WHAM!!!"

I've got to write about Monday morning. I thought something exploded outside the window next to my pillow at the hotel and turned my head. A white pigeon fell onto the veranda and hurriedly scooted out of my sight. I didn't have time to think.

Janice, also an animal-lover, came to the side of the room, carefully pulled back the side curtain. She didn't want to scare the bird away. It had moved into the far corner and stood as narrow and still as it possibly could, comically hoping we couldn't see it.

After a few minutes, I ventured to open the glass door and spoke with my feathered friend. It must be used to humans, I noticed; there was a green band on its left leg. In the beginning, the bird had defensively tucked in its head whenever I looked at it, but after a while it stretched out its neck, seeming to say simply, "Nice day for a rooftop walk--good meeting you." And he was gone.

My sisters and I watched it glide--flap--sail--across the water and over to the other side of the bay until we couldn't see him any more. Just seconds ago, he was strutting across the veranda so close, Janice warned me to close the room door so he wouldn't come inside! I guess God sent that white pigeon to make sure I wouldn't forget this year's hotel stay. Thank you Lord, for this little treat.

Monday Evening with the Saito Men

When we got back from the hotel Monday, we went out one more time with the Saito menfolk. The first stop we made was where our parents are buried. My son Keima, has not seen the graves in Okinawa. Islanders, mostly ancestor worshippers and afraid of making ancestors angry by neglecting them, spend more money on the family tomb than on their homes.

The Gushikawa Baptist Church saved to buy one for the flock--altho' most U.S. tombstones have crosses, it is the only tomb in the Uken graveyard bearing one. The sign Janice is pointing to has the names of the people buried in the church tomb--about 80 people can be buried in one structure--and the scripture engraved behind Kinya's head says "I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE"

Then, Janice wanted to treat her brother-in-law and nephew to their "last supper" before she returned to the U.S. this visit. We saw on the roadside a young steer (bullfighter hopeful?) bucking around for its trainer who'd taken it out for a walk. Take it easy, big guy; we aren't going to a steakhouse for a meal of beef, but to a conveyor-belt sushi eatery, for "fast foods fish"!

TWO PHOTOS, BUT ONE LORD

I still had a few more minutes before worship service started, Janice had told me, so I had rushed off to the ladies' room. When I got back, I was surprised to see she and Joyce were at the piano playing a duet for the prelude! The person I'd asked to get a picture of us during our special number thought quickly and photographed the prelude plus also my giving the intro to our special music later on.

Pastor Nishino's message was a big encouragement. Just about every week, he gets into a gloomy mood, he said, but God lifts him up in such a way he finds himself unable to keep talking about it to his wife, who has to beg him to stop and let her go to sleep! Some people would say you need to be an even-tempered person to go into the ministry. Mommy said she was afraid of people, was the timid scientist type who preferred peering down into a microscope. It was also apparent someone used her flower-arranging ability--rarely associated with church--for God's service. Apparently, His work isn't dependent on what His servants are like, but on Who they serve.

"As for me and for my house, we will serve the Lord." we wanted to sing it as the testimony our parents must've felt when they left Hawaii and Canada to start the work in Okinawa. I was going to post just one picture of us singing and couldn't choose which one so decided to put up both. As long as it's just ONE LORD, that's OK, right?

THAT'S NOT WHAT IT MEANT

Thank You God, for such a rich, rich 5 weeks with Janice. It's hard to believe it's already over.  I still remember telling Pastor Ishikawa, when we fellowshipped at his place in Dec, she would probably be going home much too soon.

In the 5 weeks she was here, among other things, the Lord used her to felowship with Eddie, my classmate who had a stroke and heart problems, and his wife Nari who had a bout with cancer, and to prepare meals and plan activities for many home fellowships with especially the two most important men in my life (husband Kinya and son Keima)--oh that they would come back to Him! I know you'll pray with me they will--thank you.

Next week, on the way back to the U.S., she will go to mainland Japan with the person whose farm she visited and make rounds to mainland Japan.

Hurry back Jannie. Next time, it won't be just Joycie's apartment that will look nicer when you leave, but maybe upstairs too. After all, didn't the lyrics to our special music the last Sunday you were here go "As for me and for my House"...oh, that's not what it meant?

That's story for another post. Von Voyage, Jannie!