But I Looked for Carp, Not Minerals...

I couldn't find it! Usually, the local church worship service is streamed on Discord, but this morning, the church icon wouldn't show on Discord...I looked and looked until I managed to find it.

YESSS--! I KNEW it had to be here! Then I looked forward to the honey I knew my heart was going to get treated to for a while.

That was what I remembered doing at the park up in Iwatsuki. I'd go to the creek, to a certain spot just around the bend where I KNEW there were carp under the brush and peered hard.

At first, I couldn't see anything, but after a while, I would see something move and then something else.

Then I could see them clearly, sweetly--about four or five carp--because I was EXPECTING to see them there. Other people walking thru' the park would look in the water in the exact same place but see absolutely nothing. These people would scratch their heads, look at me kinda funny, and walk on. Of course, they would never hang around to see the baby carp come out from the back or witness delightful rare antics of swimming things!

EXPECT God's blessings, we're told, and "mine for wisdom as for silver, gold, or precious stones. (Job 28)" But I know how to look for carp in the water, not mine for minerals in the earth...

LAST FEW HOURS

This was part of an e-mail to my sister yesterday:

The gas man was supposed to come turn off our gas at 5, and we were supposed to go to Omiya at 6:30, but it was 5:30 and he wasn't here. I asked Kinya if he wasn't coming after all, and he said he'd said he'd be late. I'd hoped we could be early and maybe stop by and say hello to my friends at the park. I could go now, he said, just be back by 6:30. I'd been hoping he'd say that and had been wiping myself down with a Gatsby sheet, making it cool, rushed off to the park--God kept it amazingly cool today!

There, I said out loud--and I didn't really care if people around me thought I was looney for talking to the animals because I was going to be moving anyway--I was moving, going to Omiya tonight so had to say goodbye, would not be coming to the park anymore.

And Jannie, call me crazy, but I think the animals responded and came out! I'm attaching photos of Snorkel the turtle, Speckles the carp,

Alabaster the egret, and Peter the Kawasemi, but there were much more. The crow, GBH, various dragonflies, spider, sparrows and pond skimmers were out, and probably the mosquitos, altho' I never see them. But I had to hurry because I had to go back home by 6:30. And altho' I usually don't take photographs of the Kawasemi--and he knows that--this past month, I've asked if I could take pictures to remember him by, and he seems to pose for me. He did so today too.

--

When I got home, Kinya brought me out here to Omiya. First, we ate at a Mcdonalds, then we checked in at a really. nice hotel he'd found for me--one of those that has security elevators you have to put the card key up on a panel to operate, and you put the key in the pocket in the wall at the door to turn on the room lights.

But the first thing I did when I got to the room was find out if they had Wi-Fi then get MCC prayer meeting. Of course I was late--they started 7:30, and it was already 8:30--but they were still going strong, so I got to ask the Japanese group for prayer as we went down to Okinawa, then switch to the English-speaking breakout group. Did I tell you the head deacon of that church is the grandchild of the chairman of the mission committee that was part of Daddy's ordaining committee, also prayed for his ordination service? We were done with everything by 10:00.

I took a nice hot shower in the hotel's nice little bathroom...ahhh. But then I didn't think you'd be that interested in seeing a photo of just the bed, so I took a picture of the hotel's complimentary bottle of water, which I use to take my medicine. And in packing, our house wall clocks got taken down, and I learned to keep looking at the cellphone for the time, so Goya-Boy, the mascot you gave me, takes his responsibility seriously to remind me to take my medicine every time the cell alarm rings!

Tomorrow morning, Kinya and Keima are supposed to come around 10 AM and call my cell. I need to check out by 11 (they cannot come up on the elevator, since I have the key!) I will go down, and we will bum around the stores and probably eat at Mac again, take our limousine bus at 1 for Haneda. Our flight doesn't leave until the P.M., and people are worried typhoon might make the flight cancel. We shall see. Either which way, I need to have my quiet time and get some shut eye and be all purtiful by tomorrow's tyfoon, yes?

WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU HEAR US?!

I was going to compose posts for the blog and have them to be published automatically while we moved; but God seems to be telling me to go ahead and post them now, and readers would wait for me to get settled. so...

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"What do you mean, we don't know how to sing together？" the carp at Lower Bridge seemed to flap their fins and pucker their lips even more. They knew I wanted them to stay on the same song, but they all seemed animated in a different way. But it seemed they gleefully agreed with each other as they looked up at me: "We're singing in 10-part harmony with 5 descants and 3 simultaneous themes, can't you hear it June?!"   Groan. I give up, I thought.

But that's kinda the way it should be with the church too, right? Praising in multiple ways yet in harmony with each other, joyfully looking up in the same direction altho' activities may be completely iindependent and distinct. Sometimes, I think we can learn a lot from the living things at the park.

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Perhaps the reason I post the above is with our move to Okinawa, my sisters and I have been getting excited about the possibility of reaching those who have strayed from God or the church, those who we knew as children and grew up in the same Sunday School classes and participated in ukulele choir together.

And then there are folks like my daughter's family, relatives who do not know him at all, for whom it would not be a matter of returning, but of coming to Him for the first time. Might God use us in any way in their lives? My very limitation of not being able to get out in the summer or of being one who feels more comfortable talking one-to-one may open doors that have been closed before.

Altho' initially, my feeling was to go to Okinawa to get away from the stress of mainland Japan, to retreat to a simpler, quieter lifestyle; it seems recently the Lord has been tapping me on the back, reminding me I needed to be willing to:

"Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stetch forth the curtains of thy habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes." (Isa. 54:2)

Be willing to throw open your arms--as God does--and welcome anyone in. It seems like people today seem to need someone to listen and just say, "wow. I hear you."

FLYING BLACK CARP？ DUCKS？

I told you, didn't I, about the crows that called themselves "Black Carp" and stole the carp's food at feeding time? The animals there began calling them "Ducks" because these flying creatures were claiming food meant for swimmers (carp, turtles).

 

1 Oh look, FEEDING TIME!       2  What're you doing!

 

3 That's for Carp,        4 For "BLACK CARP???"

If God made me a crow (single, poor, female, minority, the only Christian in the family, what have you), I need to be satisfied being a crow, and not think I'm clever for being able to think of myself creatively, as a "black carp". If something were best for me, a pretty smart Creator God could manage to make it available for me, couldn't He?.

YOU STILL HERE?

I thought I was going to my daughter's today for my grandson's 3rd year birthday celebration. But he got a fever suddenly and had to be taken to the hospital. I got a call from my daughter asking if my husband and I could come next week instead. So, instead of today, it'll be next week. I hope the critters at the park won't be too disappointed to see me today.

"Our disappointments our God's appointments," my Mom used to tell me.

I remember when we were too little to understand, we had to pack up real quick and "go home on furlough". What we didn't know was that the doctor had told my parents was that my Dad had, due to overwork, begun to see double, and it had been up to my Mom to pack up everything, get everything in order, talk to all the church folks, take care of all the loose ends of all our ministries while we were away (we had multiple church and outreach ministries going), make sure she had three daughters' needs taken care of, contact all relatives involved, look to legal/international papers having to do with travel/moving; and whisk us off in several months' time. The doctor had told her there was no time to worry about appearances or to hem and haw about doing things smoothly, just get your husband needed rest NOW!

And she had done so. She hadn't questioned how disappointing it was that we were in such a fruitful part of our ministry or questioned what it would do to our testimony or future support OR ANYTHING.

In fact, wasn't there an Old Testament character--Gideon, wasn't it, that, got up and moved THAT NIGHT when God told him to? Ooh; that was my favorite Old Testament Bible story because Gideon was a timid one to begin with but decided to move when God called him. It's made me want to go read it again--Judges 6? 7?

ROOM FOR ONE MORE?

2 years ago, I remember thinking, AHA! I'd found two mallards hidden in the grass, and began sketching them. But their half dozen ducklings saw and wanted to be drawn too so surprised me by coming out of hiding. Adult caretaker mallards also came, so before I knew it, I needed to draw 10 birds. Dragonflies flying by wanted to know what was going on and perched on the reeds--2 more critters needed to be drawn. 2 basking turtles seemed to comment I had a big job to do. I found myself saying, NO MORE VACANCY!

When I went to the same place today, at first, I saw two turtles, a carp, and a white butterfly. I decided to do the sketch, but as I was finishing, a tiny spider crawled up the boulder near me, so I drew him on the boulder near the carp...then I saw a tiny hatchling on a rock behind that boulder. so added him. After I drew the outlines of the background, another turtle climbed up on that center boulder. I managed to squeeze him in behind the first turtle.

Whew. As I was about to go home, 2 more dragonflies came! Maybe tomorrow, I told them. On the way home, I saw a mallard at Step Creek. (He was one of the first 2 in the grass.) He probably sat there and chuckled at what he saw, thinking, it's happening again.

Aren't you glad God always has room for one more?

CARP TREK PHOTOS

It was a breezy day, so altho' the temperature was a little high, it felt OK...the past few weeks, I've been doing things like this, telling myself I didn't feel poorly when I did the above. But this morning, when I felt achy & chilly and noticed the room thermostat showed I should be feeling HOT...well, I didn't really need the thermometer to tell me I needed to stay in bed today.

It's been only a week since I last posted photos, but now I can't exert myself doing a complete drawing (if you do serious art, you know how much it takes out of you), so here's another photo story from something in a folder, only 6 pictures this time.

This carp phenomenon sometimes happens in May after heavy rains, when the ones in the pond at back of the park instinctively head for spawning grounds on the higher level.

1 Fables say when water levels rise

 

2 Strong carp jump up the creek

3 Swim, shimmy, moving any way they can

4 In the shallow water

5 Until they reach Duck Pond

6 Dent knows it's not fable; she made that trek!

Some of my carp friends, like Dent, who made it to Duck Pond, were captured by human custodians and returned, a little at a time, to Deeper Pond. After all, there were 27 carp that came that year. I was happy to see all of them, but that was way too many for park personnel!

NO HARM

The forecast is hard rain all day. I found something from Nov. '23, a string of photos taken a sunny day at the park, and I was thinking on a rainy day, you might enjoy looking at this...but was it too long to post? Well, I remember liking looking at the pictures in a book, so there's no harm in posting these:

1 Tree - Wanna hear what happened today?

2 Mallard - I wanna hear! I wanna hear!

3Tree - The egret came back

3 But today, there was a Great Blue Heron too

5 Mallard - Isn't it too cold for herons?

6 Herons are usually gone by November,

7 Not fishing in Iwatsuki Ponds

8 Like these two...

9 WHAM!

10 Mallard - Gave me a heart attack!

11 Twist...Shake...

1

12 Down the hatch...

13 Mallard - So he really caught him, huh!

14 Heron - I guess there's no harm in

15 Staying here a while longer

Carp - HA! Some poor fish'll have "no more harm" EVER again...

That's all, folks!

THEY KEEP ME ON THE BALL

When I went to the park, I habitually mouthed the words, "Lord, empower EVERY ENCOUNTER." But when I saw the people inside, I almost felt my bones shriveling. There were high schoolers clowning around with a ball. Senior citizens, children, foreigners, even people of other religions or cults don't bother me...but I don't know what to do with teenagers that just laugh at you!

"POOM!" A misdirected kick sent the ball sailing behind the youths' backs and to the left of where I was walking.

I found myself taking a few quick steps to stop the ball after it had taken several bounces, then I lightly kicked it back to them.

"Did you see that," one of them said, and kicked it back to me, wanting a replay. The unruly group I had been afraid of had my full attention. God showed me again He could make inroads for me if necessary.

So, did I see this as an opportunity to "share my faith"? Not hardly. I think God was just trying to coax this timid turtle-like blogger out of her shell. But if I keep meeting up with my new teen friends, I will talk more with them.

Like someone else who came later. We'd talked last week about my drawings and the Kawasemi. 

This time however, we not only talked about park things; she asked me questions that led to my telling her how my real desire was to communicate through art, God's Love for us.

We ended up talking a long time before she had to go home for dinner--"home"--an hour's walk away!