WHO'S WHO、誰でしょう

10枚の古い写真を見つけました。誰が誰か分かりますか？みんな変わったね～。

Here are 10 pics--can you identify anyone in the pictures? What do you mean, that's not fair, they're all wearing masks in the first one? 

最初の写真は、みんなマスクされてる,顔が見えないって？せめて姉の里子と西野たかし先生ぐらいは、分かるでしょう？

この2番目の写真撮影の時、先生は何歳だったのかな？

My parents and the Starins (with Baptist World Missions): parents and four children are all in there too.

Daddy used his own "Birthday Banquet" as a large outreach--many folk who normally have nothing to do with church, of course came to honor Daddy. このハイランダーの食事会と女声特別賛美、覚えていますか？

The next 2 photos only GBC church members--those who've been here a while--would be able to identify. この若いお母さんたち、誰？そして、この子供たちはだれ？なつかしい・・・

Can you find Kiyo in one of the earliest pictures taken at this church? She's in blue with the ribbon down the front.

The 4 elderly ladies on the left chose my name from scripture when I was born.

そう、そう、あの具志川バプテスト教会にあったイエス様のことば：「わたしが道であり心理であり命である」。

４５年前の平川教会時代でも、５０年前の古堅伝道所でも、現在の具志川教会・天願住まいでも、イエス様は、変わらないのね。

You can see by the first picture in this blog, Joycie is known as our musician. But all 3 of us were given piano lessons growing up, so Janice and I do a little piano too. Janice, in fact, is a piano teacher, and the pupil you see her instructing here has grown up to disciple others in hymnplaying in their churches.

Unexpected Hope Beyond the Grave

I don't know Yoko well, just know she is the mother of the little boy at a meal gathering--we'd had the traditional Okinawan pig intestine soup then--it may sound strange but is a special dish in that home. Here is the collage I drew, in black and white, of my Feb. '24 visit's last few days, not knowing I'd be back later that year to live on the island!

Nobody was aware that in March of 2025, we'd receive notice Yoko's mother had died. Janice was already back in the U.S. so unable to attend the funeral or convey condolences to Yoko. (Here's a crop in the sketched colors.) But along with the news of her passing was another bit of surprising information.

We found out her mother had made intermittent visits to a church on the other side of the island, a place she had gone to as a little girl. Of course, we have no idea if Yoko's mother received the salvation message for herself. But we had never heard Yoko's mother had any interest in things of God; it was a ray of light, especially for brother and sister Masaki and Sachie, mentioned earlier in this blog (Feb. 5, 2024 - this is their picture, posted here in black and white).

When my sister Janice befriended Masaki and Sachie, they were children and the only Christians in their family. Their parents found the Lord--their father just before he passed away. This is the sketch that was blogged Feb. 17, 2024, posted here in black and white. Now the siblings are in their 30's. and are hearing a brother's mother-in-law may've received Christ too!

We just continue to obey as we plant seeds of hope, turn the sod, sprinkle the water, and weed out varmints. The way God then chooses to bring us fruit is, well, up to Him.

THE CREATOR SEES ME TOO

I don't know if you remember a picture taken when Janice was still here, with 3 little kids in the front with their mother and grandmother. They come to GBC from time to time--happy to see them again, I hurried to the kids' room in the back where the children met during the worship sermon.

Sunday morning's children's lesson was on Creation, and Mami used the Japanese flashcards to tell the story. How good it is to know that the great, big God who rules the universe cares enough for little ole me that He would want to take a week to make an entire world for me to live in! 

After the Bible story, the kids could use the playpen or play games...Mami brought out the Jenga blocks this week!

The little 4-year-old wasn't interested in Jenga or the playpen and wanted his mother's attention--who, unfortunately, had her hands full with baby sister! But the God Who put the stars in space saw this little feller too, seemed to know he would have an affinity to the camera. He simply watched as buttons, toggles, dials were used; then learned to focus, zoom, even flip the finder to take selfies!

Mami's husband had preached a few weeks ago about how God had to come Down to humans who were building a Tower of Babel Up to Heaven. I had to smile at Mami who tenderly looked down at our junior cameraman's older brother who was building up the Jenga Tower, wonder if she even remembered that sermon.

Perhaps not. But no matter. The kids had made one promise at very beginning: not to touch the foodstuff on the table, because that was going to be put out after the baptism. That 4-yr-old had no problem keeping his hands off because he was busy photographing it! And a few minutes later, Mr. Kina cracked open the door, saying they were starting baptism; did we want to watch? Oh--that will be a latter post. 

WHO'S SMILING NOW？

What's in a name? I know my sister Joyce completely fits hers. The characteristic  every Christian needs to have, she often says, is JOY. You can know a lot about God and the Bible, be able to talk about truth and even be able to be a real practical help to people you're with...but if your life isn't radiating happiness, it's all pretty worthless. I think Joyce was born--over 60 years ago--smiling.

By the time I got to Bethel Baptist Church up in mainland Japan, where she worked for 16 years with co-workers Joe and Noney Mita, the believers there knew her for her "Joyce Smile". I found a photo of her last Dec too, down here in Okinawa last year, when we went to a nearby park in the evening for a light show, and I called to her for a candid shot. She quickly turned around, waved, and yes...she was smiling.

Yesterday was Joyce's birthday, supposed to be the nicest day of the year, but although she won't make a fuss, she wasn't feeling well. Instead of birthday cake and fizzy pop, I took her milk toast and soup on a tray with a "Happy Birthday Joycie" sign.

Some 60-year-old engines wheeze at night and the body tends to rust and not run as smoothly as before. (This photo was taken when we went out on a day she was feeling better!)

But I couldn't help marveling at my sister's way of living: she offered me no-caffeine tea, knowing I was looking for something that would not aggravate my restless leg problem. She wanted ME to smile; wasn't even thinking of herself!

How many people do you know who want others to be happy on their birthdays? Jesus was born because he wanted us to know eternal joy.

TO THE CLINIC

Cold weather had been forecasted, so I was going to put off my doctor’s visit for another day, but I opened the door Fri. afternoon and saw how nice it was out. Kinya and I found ourselves donning windbreakers and taking off for the clinic.

Apparently, we weren't the only ones who'd decided to go out today. I stopped in my tracks and got a picture, when I saw, down in the river we were crossing, a...Cormorant! I'd NEVER seen one there in the almost 10 years I've come here to visit!

The Common Coot nearby, I've seen before so didn't get excited about. This is the bumpy-toed bird that doesn't know it's not supposed to be able to swim well because it doesn't have webbing. His red-masked cousin, the Morehouse Hen, is the other non-webbed duck I've seen in this Tengan River. I told Kinya about the swimming birds. 

"Look! There goes the Kawasemi!" He motioned to a shiny blue dot flying across the water. I saw it as it was flying but lost it when it stopped. 

"Where?" I asked.

"There, in that brown area!"

I pointed my camera in that direction and pushed the shutter blindly. Later, when I checked the closeup, look: it was there!

I think Kinya and I work together well, don't you?

He goes to the clinic with me, spots the flying sapphire for me, and I get a nice picture. Okay; so he does all the work, and I get the happy results just by instantly turning the camera in the direction he said.

Isn't that the way it is with Grace?

THINGS TO TALK ABOUT

Now that I'm in Okinawa, I can talk about what I saw. The Iwatsuki Park is 1000 miles away.

I didn't tell everybody when I saw the Kawasemi mostly because I didn't want cameramen to come running to take its picture and scare the bird away.

But snakes, I dared not tell anybody, because I knew as soon as I did, people would just hunt them down to kill them.

So, when the beautiful albino snake DIAN showed up at the Irrigation Ditch; or I got to be good friends with LEGOLAS on the hill behind Quasi Pond, I said nothing.

Even when the large Ao DAIsho let me sketch her on the front park; I tried not to utter sound of it for a while, at least until she'd had time to slink away or be hidden in her shrub, where she'd be safe.

I mean, she was nonvenomous and completely harmless, but huge so could be kinda unnerving.

I just remembered something else I needed to talk about.

In my book about Mommy and Daddy, Parts I-III had Japanese subtitles which were excerpts from a sign on Daddy's headboard (roughly translated: "Living in the Lord's Memory").

When Jesus walked the earth, His memory was of a time He was perfectly one with the Father in heaven, and He died for us so that we could live like this someday. How thrilling it is to think we are privileged to have fond Father-child thoughts with the King of Heaven!

Yes, He could've created us to be clouds, rocks, or even snakes (this is Legolas)--but He chose to have us born as human beings that we could have relationship with Him. Are we fortunate, or what?

We really need to be nice to these less fortunate slithering critters, don't you think?

They Don't Make Them Anymore

”Lookit what Yoneko just brought," Joyce said, hoisting a junior-sized accordion onto the table; "I haven't seen one of these in a while." We began talking about how 50 years ago, quite a few missionaries played accordions. After all, you could take those instruments into the jungles and villages a lot more easily than pianos and organs.

We thought about Christmas Eves with the Shuri Church in the 60's. Once, it got surprisingly cold, and Daddy had wrapped his head with a scarf to stay warm. Co-worker Aunty Edna had brought her accordion, playing beloved carol melodies with right hand keys while pumping out bass and chords with left-hand buttons.

Someone at church asked for recommended reading, and Andrew Murray's Humility was mentioned (Here is my stepmother's translated copy). Biblical humility, so different from what people think of as humility, is NOT mere contrition; it's stated in the book. It's having a vision of GOD to the extent self disappears.

It's kinda like the accordion, I think.

The accordion is not an instrument to produce beautiful sound calling attention to ITSELF as a solo concert instrument, but it is carried in order to lift other hearts toward GOD. 

When everybody starts singing, you're supposed to forget about it if you play it right.

TWO MORE PICS

Actually, these two pics are "from yesterday's post". See, these are what Joycie and I looked like before...but I wasn't sure you'd want to see any more pics of us when we were little, even if I did want to scream when I found these in Daddy's study. So, I didn't post them yesterday...but I decided to go ahead and put them up today. Go ahead and shoot me if you think I'm overdoing it!

Joycie was always a teacher, can you tell? Even when we were little--I mean when I was in diapers--she was teaching me things like when Mommy was about to have a leetle baby, how we needed to be good big sisters to our dear little sister.

ONE RUNG AT A TIME

"Sometimes I wish Mommy could hear what you're doing," I said to Joyce, marveling. "Nah; she's probably hearing much better stuff right now to be impressed by anything on earth."

She'd made sure all her girls got music lessons, insisting we'd be able to use it for the Lord.

"We are climbing Jacob's Ladder," I heard my sister do with one of her pupils as a piano duet for special music. But it wasn't just a "cutesy" musical number. After the song was over, the explanation was given how every verse was set in a higher key symbolizing how in life the Christian was climbing closer to God one rung at a time.

We all look down the ladder

and say we aren't that bad. I suppose the Godliest of preachers not only discern false cults but can scoff at the Holy Spirit's working thru' women. Those who see themselves as impartial in this matter may disdain other cuisines, accents, garb. People who have no problem being racist can call music unnecessary, and then some musicians turn around and shrug off artists and writers in ways they would never treat educators or professionals. 

Me? The other day, I was realizing how I needed to stop looking down my nose at "how shallow people can be" who live for looks and money.

But getting back to Joyce. Watching her teach the congregation made me think, "Only Joycie could do this!"

I feel so much would be wasted not to have her 40 years of music ministry recorded somewhere. I've begged her to show me what she has, and she's said OK!

Oshiro History has been basically journaled. I prayed, and God seems to want Joycie's Music Things stored next. 

Don't ask me why God chooses to use us when we're so blind to our own silly biases, just keeps showing them to us as we climb the ladder to Him. I'm so grateful He does anyway, aren't you?