A PARTIAL REPORT

I asked you to pray God would keep the temperature down and my health up to be able to make it out to church today. 

Altho' they have made sure I can always "fellowship" via  livestream (like on the left), there are some things that can be done in person only. So...

I asked God to make today's visit to physical assembly possible. Well, I'm sure you've heard the Biblical phrase, "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think". May I give, in this post, a partial report of the answers to our prayers? Mrs. Kishimoto, the lady in the middle of the photo, offered to pick me up for the worship service.

Of course, the obvious first answer to prayer was that altho' Okinawa is already in air-condition weather, God winked, allowing a sprinkling mist to envelope the island for Sunday and yanked down temperatures to what it was like 2 months ago. Joyce commented you could even don a cardigan, it was almost cold!

And through the worship service and visiting preacher's message, I felt perfectly fine. (I kid you not, it was when we began taking group photos afterwards my head began bothering me, and a few minutes later, I realized I needed to lie down!) It was after waking up from my nap refreshed and feeling much better I recounted various blessings and wrote this post.

One of the mothers was not staying for the fellowship and meal but leaving right away for an errand and, seeing I needed to go home, offered to drive me. God had, of course, hand-picked her to be my driver that afternoon. Her children had interest in art but didn't go to art school either, and on the way home, she showed me 2 places to get art supplies.

Also, she had a friend who has problems with epilepsy, so it felt easier to talk with her. Oh--this is an old photo of Rieko, from one of Daddy's Birthday Banquets. Rieko's husband, now with the Lord, is in the center of the picture. He loved art too.

FOR THAT MATTER

"Boy, do I feel old, a 'Gen Xer' (born 1965-1980) commented. A Milleniel was born 1981- 2000, and the Generation Z was for those born 2001-2020. 

That means most Gen Xers will remember the Twin Towers Attack of 2001, but few will know about the Watergate Scandal, which us older Baby Boomers (1946-1964) can't forget...or the vice president's complete pardon, for that matter!

Hm. I guess you can pretty much forget the other stuff, but a complete pardon is pretty important, isn't it--no, not for a temporary earthly scandal, but for offense of eternal consequence, from which no demographic cohort is exempt, for that matter!

*   *   *

The weather forecast said the temperature's going to come down 2025-5-25...probably the last cool Sunday in a while until the fall, I'm guessing, remembering what it was like in 2024. So I'm really praying God will keep my health strong and the weather cooperative, so I can get out to church ONCE before I "hibernate" from physical assembly until the cooler months of the year. This doesn't even fit with the rest of the post, I know. Actually, the above is something I kinda threw together because I wanted to put this up. Please pray! Thank you....

I wanted to draw the glass tube of a room thermometer and do an anthropo-you know, the thing you personify it, but I was going to shorten it too...and I didn't have enough time to make it look right. And it's Sunday midnight already. Well, you'll just have to imagine and pray anyway, okay?

Why I want Gustav Dore's Pictures

Recently, I got a hold of a "Collector's Set" of some black-and-white Bible Story Illustrations by a Master Artist. A part of me wanted to give it as a gift to an artist friend who I knew thought highly of this Master Artist. But...

She would know no more than the item's artistic worth, I realized. She wouldn't be able to see the Bible characters and think:

JOSEPH had his brothers turn on him and send him off to foreign soil, yet God used it to save their lives in the end.

Can we not have our faith strengthened, when we see Gustav dore's pictures, altho' we can make no sense of circumstances today, that the God of Heaven is in control of all our tomorrows?

Rahab (mother of BOAZ, husband of Moabitess Ruth), was a prostitute, yet God chose her to become part of the Messianic line! How many children today, born into broken families with drunken fathers who abuse addict mothers or have to live in hiding from bill collectors and do not know a drop of sanity or stability growing up could see these illustrations and think there would be a ray of hope for them too?

SAMSON was a playboy by no means godly, exemplary, or disciplined, yet he wanted, deep down, to live for God, and God knew that.  JONAH was an insubordinate, bitter servant, yet God used them because HE LOVES and is Merciful. Can any child of God, in viewing these reprints, think himself too sinful for God to use for His Purposes? After seeing these, the question wasn't who we are, but WHAT GOD IS.

The God Who was able to bring a little rhinestone to me (yesterday's post) could bring this "Collector's" set to my artist friend if He really wanted her to get it.

He'd brought it before my eyes. He wanted me to get it, don't you think? So I cut off some of the top and bottom of the pictures and made my own wallpaper. Do you recognize the two pics from the Gospels?

A TINY RHINESTONE

"What's this rhinestone doing here?" I picked up the shiny round thing and placed it on the chair cushion next to the bed. Maybe--it fell off the rhinestone bookmark I was using, and God brought it to me so it can be put back? It's not too hard for God to do something like that, I thought. Let's do that later.

I read the memory passage, "As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities them that fear him," thinking how most people think of "religion" as a citizen-judge thing humans have with an unfeeling divinity, would never understand it to be the father-son relationship God intended it to be.

Even that little rhinestone...wait...I looked at the butterfly bookmark my sister Janice gave me, and sure enough, there was a gap where one stone of that specific color would fit! I picked up the little round piece and carefully put it into the bald spot--perfect! Thank you, Father! The lyrics of a children's chorus, "When He Cometh" came rushing to me. God would One day make up precious jewels for His crown. 

What was that verse? I was in the middle of my quiet time, but I turned to Malachi 3:17, since it talked about God making up jewels. But the last half of the verse made me smile. God was saying He would spare them as a man spares his own son that serves him.

It was as if my Heavenly Father was whispering, "Yes, I saw the rhinestone, and I saw your Father-child thoughts too. And YOU June, are My Rhinestone. I know exactly where you are and belong." God knows sometimes I get in these moods of feeling nobody-loves-me-everybody-hates-me-I-think-I'll-go-eat-worms (okay; it doesn't get that bad). But I really have no right to stay very long in those moods when I have a Heavenly Father Who cares about me like this.

Oh--if you plan to look up the Bible passage, you'll miss it if you're not careful. It's short--altho' larger than a rhinestone--right next to Zechariah, before Matthew!

THE TOKKURI TREEトックリきわた

 Here's a bilingual photo story promised yesterday of the Tokkuri tree across the road:

1 Forgotten Flowers花が泣いた

2 They're CottonCandySeeds綿菓子の種？

3 Plant Named DecanterTreeCotton名前トックリ木綿

4 That's trunk and fruit, but what about the flower？木の幹・実はそれでいいけど、

花は？

COOL DOWN AND REFLECT

Lush, robust wildlife is all over the place in Okinawa--I did not realize it when growing up here. The past few months, however, I have been immersing myself in another kind of aesthetics: the visual arts. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the artist attests...altho' I've enjoyed being able to experience a new kind of appreciation, I've also developed a wariness to the mindset that would permit any individuality and call it good quality. I think it is a slap in the face of the actual skilled artist to accept any and all in that way.

I don't know exactly how to state this, but I know what I mean. May I give a little example? I have an artist I highly respect who can take the folds of a wilted flower and give them the worth of gold with the atmosphere, character, texture, feeling she can bring out of even that.  I have seen some of her paintings and can only imagine how she must've first felt when she saw lifeless plants and the time she spent infusing them with the life she did, how it made her feel when she was done (but then true artists are never fully satisfied with the work they do).

     

Every work is worthy. But not all attain to the same quality--not hardly.

Let's put that aside. Even the top gold medalist would not be able to jump as high as the moon. Those flowers blooming in the Tokkuri Kiwata tree in front of our house show a glory no gold medalist will ever be able to attain. And that birdie in the tree several paces to the right would cock his neck up to look up at the moon in the sky. The moon doesn't even shine with a beauty it has worked hard all these years to give off, but it simply reflects the glory of the SUN, doesn't it?

I was going to show you the Tokkuri Kiwata tree mentioned earlier to talk about it, but 3 mins. outside, and I felt my fever coming, so I had to come home. Man, that sun sure is hot! I'll tell you about the Tokkuri tree tomorrow, okay? I made and drank about a third of a glass of lemonade, splashed my face with water, and had to lay down for an hour's nap.

Yup, I slept, didn't work hard at all, dreamt about the time we grew up here, I think. Children are carefree, let their parents take care of them, do all the hard stuff. "Live for the Glory of God?" That kind of religious lingo little kids didn't think about.

NORTH-SOUTH OR EAST-WEST

"As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us." that was the memory passage I was reviewing today, I told Kinya.

I wonder if birds ever think about the direction they're flying, I thought as I saw a Great Blue Heron flying down the Tengan River in front of the house. After all, birds never use calendars or clocks to think about days or time. 

And does the Sparrow Hawk my sisters and I saw flying above the ocean just outside our hotel window notice, as a speaker once mentioned, that if you're flying "north-south", you end up flying in the opposite direction, but that verse says "east-west"; east is always east; west is always west. That never changes. Good to know, yes?

But I think that GBH was just looking for the Uken Beach which was at the end of the Tengan River.

ORCHID VALENTINE

When I sat down at my laptop to do some computering, I noticed Kinya stepped out the front door. He came back in, holding the pot of orchids Joyce had brought me Sunday night. They'd been given out at worship Service last week for Mother's Day, but I haven't been feeling well recently so was unable to go. My husband and son saw I was happy receiving the flowers, but I'd told them I'd probably kill them. 

So Kinya made sure they were watered plus took them outside from time to time for treats of sunlight--what a sweetheart!

"Thank you," I told him, "And even if the flowers can't speak for themselves, I'm sure God would say, "Thank you for taking care of my flowers."

"Maybe," he smiled, and added shyly; "but then they're probably going to die anyway."

This is the first time in my life I prayed for nice flowers..."for myself"!

MORE NOTES COMING HOME

On the way back from the doctor's, where we turn onto the road at the top of the hill, there's a bunch of banana trees. I'd asked Kinya if he wanted any banana, but he grinned and shook his head. I noticed the only one on the red-purple banana flower who was interested was a bee!

Along that river were a kawasemi (Japanese kingfisher), sandpiper, beetle, butterfly...but I knew most living things would disappear from Okinawa's heat and humidity until the fall. I took pictures of as much as I could--even if I wasn't getting good shots--just knowing I wouldn't be seeing my friends for very much longer this year.

I saw a family of turtles, remembering how, in mainland Japan, I wanted to spend as much time with them as possible before hibernation because I wouldn't see them during the winter months; would it be backwards now, did it never get that cold in Okinawa that they had to hibernate?

I mean, it never snows; the ponds never freeze over; and some people don't even own overcoats. I remember growing up as a little girl in Okinawa there used to be shops that rented overcoats--honest! I'd forgotten what the climates here were like and have to remember again.  

One thing I remembered fast I told Kinya about were the Okinawan outdoors afternoons, and how you had to keep moving if you sweat a lot, or the mosquitos ate you up.

Why I gotta make do what I make do

In the doctor's waiting room yesterday, I read a chapter from a book about a person trying to encourage a person with tuberculosis. She'd felt like giving up, but seeing the dried flowers gave her just the bit of extra energy she needed to keep going, she said. When this information came to light, of course more pressed flowers were made and sent whenever possible from then on!

On the way home, I wondered if I was seeing things--could that be a clump of pearlescent pink, orange, and purple dried flowers in the creek? But as I strained my eyes and looked more carefully, I realized it was the natural iridescence of the Japanese pigeon!

   

Altho' he wasn't thinking "TB", I saw a Eurasian coot (white-shield and partial-webbed bird) closer to the middle of the stream caring for its friend. After all, it stood guard while the friend preened.

We needed to say goodbye to the birdies and go home. I saw the rose-red hibiscus by the roadside but knew it was much too large to make anything with. (I have seen keyrings or bookmarks made with single hibiscus flower petals, however.) Maybe someday somebody will want me to make something like that for them too...

HE'LL TAKE CARE OF IT ALL

Ow! I woke up feeling...wasn't my tongue all sore and my head splitting? Yup, I'd had an epileptic seizure in the middle of the night, and when I looked in the mirror, there were ragged bite marks around the edge of my tongue. Did God know about this?

"Yes, I know about this," I almost heard. And he reminded me of the two young ladies who had accompanied me on the first half of my U.S. trip last year. 

One of them, the newlywed (in black) I just blogged about, named Aino, is gifted to play the piano by ear. You can remember her name by saying, "You-know-I-know!" She got married right after getting back to Okinawa.

Her friend Saya (pronounced like the end of Messiah,) finishes Bible School in the summer, and will be marrying and leaving for Bangladesh as a missionary in the fall!

Even a God Mighty enough to rule and regulate the heavens knows my name. And the smallest things that mean nothing to most people--but things I really need--make a difference to God. Would you pray with me that jewels like Aino and Saya will start out their marriages thrilled with what a kind Savior we have.

CAN'T TOUCH BOTTOM

For the May 4th worship service special music, newlywed Ayano Kina played "Wonderful Grace of Jesus" on the piano. The Japanese lyrics exclaim in the chorus, "Its width and depth are measureless!" 

Most Christians, if you ask if they believe God the Father loved Jesus the Son, they would have no problem answering something like, "Of course!" 

But if you were to follow that up with another question: does Jesus love Christians--you-- with the same love, most would hesitate: "Impossible." 

But Jesus said: "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you."

We forget: humans don't "love" objects unworthy of it; but true Love depends on the character of the one doing the loving--God will never run out of love for us!

I remember hearing once in a sermon that one of the hardest things for a Christian to believe is just how much God loves him. It'll probably take him a lifetime, the preacher said, so Ephe. 3:18-19 describes knowing the breadth, length, depth, and height of the love of Christ as knowing something that surpasses knowledge, as being way over our heads.

I think the ocean of God's Love is the only place I wouldn't mind drowning.

MATURE, LIKE JONAH?

Some people think that if you're just a young Christian, you can be excused for falling to temptation, but if you've been saved a while--say you're a missionary or a pastor--you probably got this sanctification thing down pat, right? And you set an example for all the Christians around?

Like Jonah? I mean, he was a mature believer and had so much scripture memorized, he could recite it when he was in the belly of a fish!

But even after the great revival of Nineveh, the Bible shows the veteran missionary Jonah had a pity-party! The sun was beating down on his head, but God made a gourd nearby grow a vine to make leafy shade for Jonah. But all it took was a hungry little worm to get Jonah suicidal--really! Read it--Jonah 4:8.

Do you think pastors and missionaries never have problems like battling depression? Think again. Until we get to Glory, every regenerate child of God will be groaning, along with the rest of nature, awaiting the time all things will be made right.

I mean, the other day, I was feeling down about having to wash my hair. Most people would NEVER imagine people who've walked with God for 60 years struggle with things like that!

KAZUE KAME!

I told you about how most of my parents' relatives rejected the Gospel, but how our house stands on property loaned my Dad by a cousin, Yoshiko Kawasaki. Her daughter Kazue, the rightful property owner, is only a few years older than my sisters and I are and lives about 3 mins.' walk away.

Kazue, Yoshiko, Kiyo

For Easter Sunday this year, Kazue agreed to come to church! Relatives from Canada were coming to Okinawa, and she wanted to meet them. Among those relatives was our cousin Paula, the daughter of my Dad's younger brother George. George had, with my Dad, spent two of his childhood years with Kazue's parents' family in the very spot where our house is now standing. It meant a lot for Paula to see where her Dad had lived. 

Kazue, Paula, Joyce

Perhaps One Day we'll all be able to live in Eternal Dwellings by a Silver River and reminisce about the time we spoke of a little house in Tengan by the Uken River. Will you pray it will be so?