"You'll Get the Rest Later"

I held in my hand what looked like a traditional heavy wooden kokeshi doll robed in brocade, but a note from my sister explained it was being passed around to write farewell messages/ encouragements to a church member who would be leaving soon. Wait...so it's not just a doll? I read more carefully. "Cute doll scroll," it said!

The golden cord at the doll's waist was untied, and the floral adorning revealed a roll of paper inside. SO IT WASN'T JUST A DOLL!

The person moving, Jun (I use my Japanese name Tomoko here so the church people don't get us confused), is moving to Kasukabe, about 5 mins. from where our family used to live!

Close in name, similar localities, and yes, Jun-chan talked with junior high girls that came to the Christmas Gift Exchange too.

But rats; my camera ran out of juice again, so now I can post only what I already have, pictures taken on that gift exchange day.

Jun-chan's been gone most of the time I've been here, so the only other one I have is when she opened up her surprise gift exchange of cup noodles. Sorry; half her face is hidden!

Maybe I can "spiritualize" and say we can follow God anywhere, even when we can't see His whole face (feelings and blessings sometimes follow)?

JAIME'S COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF

8 men Jaime sees every day--but never in church--came to his Re-enlistment Ceremony at Gushikawa Baptist. Here are some pics I took at the refreshments and photo shoot later. (I held a cell camera during the actual ceremony for Jaime's  friends and family viewing from the U.S., so I couldn't take any still photos during that time.)

There was plenty of pizza and cake afterwards (it was Jaime's b-day today) plus coffee and rolls. Oh--don't let the person standing next to Pastor Nishino, the person with "California" written down his sleeve, fool you; he's really from Pennsylvania!

We asked the men to get together up front and Pastor Nishino's wife had them smile for her.

Two other church folk, and Joyce and I were there too. Plus, of course, those who viewed proceedings from the U.S. were there "in spirit"! I wonder how many realized they were in a church started by a soldier that would no longer need to re-enlist but had finished tour duty and was Home with Jaime's Comander-in-Chief?

Oh--Pastor Nishino had been taking a video of Jaime's special day with the church video camera, and he sent me the YouTube link, so if you want to see it: https://www.youtube.com/live/uK6iTonTKqc (20.30-28.00 for actual ceremony and 31.40-32.15 Happy Birthday ♪, but the camera's running quite a bit before everything gets started). If you keep watching, you may hear "You raised him right" said to Jaime's mom visiting via cell or parts of the pastor's prayer before refreshments.

RUDE AWAKENING

"BEEPBEEPBEEP NOMOREBATTERY!TIMETORECHARGE!. . .BEEPBEEPBEEP NOMOREBATTERY!TIMETORECHARGE!"

It was about 5:00 a.m., and the room was pitch black. I found myself jumping out of bed; swimming around in the dark, disoriented, wondering where my cellphone was; finding it and hurrying to put it in its charging cradle in another room. But it was maddening to come back and hear the beeping in the room.

1 Where There's Sound

Kinya was awake by this time and had turned on the room light. We searched high and low until we found the source of the sound: the smoke alarm on the ceiling--it hadn't been touched for 10 years--was telling us its battery needed to be replaced.

2 There's Wire

By the time we found and had unscrewed the smoke detector and stopped the offending noise, it was 6:04. I guessed it was time for me to recharge. No kidding. I keep a reminder on the bed headboard that says, RECHARGING w/GOD'S WORD. It has memory work and prayer projects to keep me focused.

3 Time to recharge？

"Aim for nothing, and you're sure to hit it," an old adage says. What's an adage?

Pithy sayings like, "Where there's smoke, there's fire."

I can live a week without a cellphone

"I can do all things through him that strengtheneth me." Philippians 4:13

Lots of people think this means I can do profitable things like enduring the taunts of a bully, praying for good promotions, or claiming exceptional blessings. Isn't this what Janice did when she procured our free stays at the ritzy hotel? Or...

I looked over at my IT-minded son. To be fair, he is NOT one of those who is addicted to his electronic devices; but I have heard of people who cannot live 

without it. This made me think about a reading for Phil. 4:13 in context with the verses before it. What about--I can live a week without a cellphone "through him that strengtheneth me"?

That's what that verse was saying, wasn't it? I can be content in all circumstances!

This won't be a popular post...

THE HANDS THEMSELVES

In the back room, I listened to my sister giving piano lessons. 

I remembered the weeks before college I listened to a friend practice on the church piano while I listened in the back room.

I couldn't help but admire how she emphasized joyful lines but simplified the melancholic verses, careful to communicate the message and not draw attention to technique.

But then I wanted to cry. In my rebellion and depression--Mommy had called them my "Slough of Despond", I'd pretty much lost the good years.

Lifting up cupped hands toward the ceiling, then spreading out my fingers a little and feeling everything had slipped through them, I remember praying, "Oh God, I have little left to offer You. I've lost most of it. But if you'll have ME, you can have all of ME."

Do you remember I once blogged about an MK, Kent Penner, who authored Finding Rest, a book about Japanese kanji? Sunday afternoon, the Lord drew my eyes to another book written by another MK, Erisa Funada. She had earned her masters, had raised two little boys, and translated Instruments in the Redeemer's Hand, for Christian counselors in Japan, and I had spoken with her several weeks before she went to Glory.

Her book cover illustration seemed to emphasize the answer God gave me in that back room. "It wasn't the things in your hands but the hands themselves I wanted, June." I sensed Him say.

Hands authored the book, Finding Rest; hands worked on the translation, Instruments in the Master's Hand; and finally, the hands offered to God--finished a semblance of the book...well, Daddy called it "Kimiko-Roy's Adventure".

Readers of this blog know a lot of stories behind the amazing work of God recounted in the book. Would you like to read what has been written?

Go to KIMIKO-ROY'S ADVENTURE.rtf on my One Drive. You will not need to create an account or register a credit card here, and the book will not disappear after 5 days but will stay there.

"Inori" Means "Prayer" in Japanese

After prayer meeting Feb. 19, Jaime began putting away the tables and stacking the chairs to get ready for the next day's ping pong ministry held in the same room. He'd told us about his trip to mainland Japan, and surprised us by telling us of some people he'd visited while he was up there.

Inori Takagi was someone I'd taught in Sunday School. In fact, several years ago, when I stopped in for an unannounced visit, she'd shed tears happy to see me. Despite the difficulty she experienced growing up in her Christian home, the Lord allowed us to have a good friendship.

When Inori was in elementary and learning to write the American alphabet, she copied a Bible verse in English and made a bookmark for me--of course, she herself could not read it! I kept her Labor of Love in my Bible, in the first page of Ephesians, the book I was memorizing when she gave it to me.

This spring, my sister Joyce and I will be going back to that church where the Bible School will be having a graduation service, and a former member of our Gushikawa Baptist Church will be graduating from Bible School this year. I wonder if Inori would come too? It's been YEARS since I've seen her.

WHO ARE THE GARNERS?

Some have wondered, from past photos, if God sent a missionary couple. He didn't have to. Scot and Chiaki Garner were faithful members of a church for Christian military families on the island, and God sent them to help at Gushikawa Baptist. They now have grown children who have families of their own. Scot, retired from the service, is an administrator of a Japanese air conditioning company and has helped many find jobs. Chiaki is gifted in the kitchen and full of church fellowship ideas.

Scot and Chiaki's seasoned walk, readiness to work and pray, also to build tender relationships (I know...these are two separate photographs. But Scot and Lilia really ARE best friends! This is something we see practically every week!) and keep confidences have become a vital part of the church. What can I say--I'd be happy if God always kept them here, altho' I'd feel happy for any flock He'd want to give them to...like He did when He brought the Garners to us here!

A Piece of Cake for the Creator

Yesterday, I shopped for chocolates for Kinya and Keima, remembering St. Valentine, who'd been imprisoned for secretly performing marriages between young lovers altho' the young men had been drafted to go to war.

Valentine's loyalty lay much higher: to God, the Creator of the shadows of the prison cell.

"You won't find a bargain like that again." Kinya had told me. My last laptop had been a high end one someone let go of for a newer model, and we happened to grab it when it first hit the market.

God, the Creator, had brought it to me for about a fifth of retail price.

(Husband Kinya to right, Church Member Kina-san below.) 

Let's just pray. You never know what God can do, I'd said, and asked someone at church for pointers looking at computers.

The Creator brought to me a computer bearing all the necessities mentioned by the person at church--CPU, SSD, memory--and after checking, it was learned this laptop would've cost about 8-9 times brand new!

Speaking of "new"...I found something "old"...a Prayer Card from 40 years ago!

My Dad had just gotten remarried, so Kiyo was the new Mrs. Oshiro, and we 3 J's are new missionaries, college graduates here!

Wow. You never know what God can do.

(Can you tell who's who?)

IF YOU NEED ANYTHING, I'M HERE

"Before we partake of the food, I would like to lead in prayer..." Daddy had announced in a loud voice to the other patients in the room. My stepmother hurried to the bedside and reminded him we were not in church, could he give thanks before the FAMILY ate? 

We changed gears, a little at a time. 

Daddy adapted to his new "wheelchair ministry" mindset of spreading cheer in a place dominated by misery. First, he hung the "Beginning Driver" sticker around his neck and rode his wheelchair around, drawing smiles everywhere he went. Then he made sure to ask names and thank custodians and caretakers, expressing appreciation to every staff worker.

A faithful visitor was a Takashi Nishino, a quiet young man from church. Most visits, he'd greet my Dad when he arrived then wait at the foot of the bed, available to do anything if he was ever needed; then said good evening when it was time to leave. Most people wouldn't have the patience for this--especially young people--but Takashi did.

His mother, a Christian and nurse, had been told she could not give birth, but she had told God--as Hannah in the Old Testament did--she would raise her son to serve God if He would give her a child.

Her husband, a non-Christian, couldn't believe it, when a son was indeed born to them. In the middle of college, that son saw his pastor was no longer able to stand behind the pulpit, and dropped studies in psychology, announced intention to start Bible School!

Daddy went to be with the Lord in 2016, but I wish he could see the young man who came to the hospital, quietly asking if there was anything he could do.

For a while now he has been pastoring--was just married last year--and has been asking GOD if there's anything HE needs the flock to do.

Red or Yellow...Precious in His Sight

Itsuko Shimabukuro, the person who decorated the yellow hibiscus last week, is probably the oldest member of Gushikawa Baptist, the only one who was at the church in the old place where my parents established it, before we moved to our present location. Maybe she knew Mommy! I talked with her one week.

"Oh, but I never met your first Mom," she apologized; "She was already gone; your Dad had remarried; and Kiyo was the new Mrs. Oshiro by the time I went to my cousins' baptism at the Tairagawa church." (That's Kiyo in the blue dress on the end.) Itsuko wasn't a Christian then, got saved in 1986, four years later.

But these ladies at the church have been so faithful ever since! I met Itsuko's daughter, Wakana, only once as a single young lady--now she's a mother herself. Despite the indifference sometimes shown to her mother's talks about the Bible.... Excitedly, Itsuko reported that when it was time for her grandson to be put in kindergarten, the school Wakana chose, far from home, was a Christian one! The many years of seed sowing seemed to be bearing fruit. Wakana came to church for Dec.'s wreath-making activity; and anyone knows handcraft professionals can be found elsewhere if that's the only thing you really want.

Sunday, in that back room, Itsuko sat with children hoping to help plant seeds of God's love and life in any way possible. I guess she knows it doesn't really matter if it's robust red flora or Valentine-colored delicate hibiscuses or winsome yellow flowers; just plant the seed and then care for it; God makes buds bloom.

KATSUDON, ANYBODY?

Katsudon. That's what the Kinya ordered when Joyce took us out. (It's Pork Cutlet melted on rice with egg & onion) It is yummy, but not the most expensive thing on the menu. He could get anything he wanted for his birthday, he was told, but that's what he chose.

Katsudon is what my parents ended up getting "on their fist date". Actually, when Daddy went up to Yokohama from Okinawa for a missionary conference, he knew nothing about the city, and back in 1957, he knew only one restaurant in Yokohama with an English name which was way too pricey, so Daddy and Mommy ended up going to a nearby department store cafeteria and eating katsudon instead! (If you have time, maybe you'd look at "Kimiko's Travel Agent", a short narrative giving my Mom's testimony and telling about that "Forbidden City Rendezvous")

Altho' the Lord gave my Mom and Dad three daughters right away, all of us ended up going away to college, so there were a few years the house was empty of us girls. But the Lord sent jewels of ladies to the Gushikawa church who treated Mommy and Daddy as if they were their own parents.

Recently, I found photos of them during those years. Of course I barely recognized them! The one who lives just minutes from us brought over dishes for us quite often especially when Daddy was hospitalized. I realized she's the pretty young mother with the two boys. She is the one Daddy was baptizing!

BUILDING HOUSES

Sunday afternoon, when Joyce dropped me off at home for an hour's nap and took off for Uken, she wasn't going to the scenic coast, touring the electric plant, or just viewing roadside bananas. 

No; she was to meet Rieko Shimabukuro, one of the members at Gushikawa Baptist Church, about possibly buying a house. The pictures of Rieko are old--she is in her sixties, and the infant is now grown--but God has kept her faithful to Him. Recently, their family needed to move and began looking for a new home. Right about the same time, news came into our ears that relatives nearby were selling their house. Rieko's family was looking for an inexpensive place, but perhaps the buying price would be lower before realtor fees entered the picture.

Oh--the relatives? It was the house of Daddy's cousin Seiko, the only relative to accept Christ while he was still living! Seiko, his wife, and his son had been living there; but now that the parents were both gone, the house was being sold, and the son would live in a smaller place elsewhere.

King David was determined to build a temple for the ark of God before he built his own house. Well, another cousin gave property to my Dad on which to build our house, so it was built the SAME YEAR as the Gushikawa Baptist Church, in 1987.

That year is hard to forget. It was the same year Kinya and I were married!