A MISSIONS IDEA

A past post begins with the label "Community Baptist Church" on a family quilt. 

Actually, there were a lot of quilts sent us growing up, but the church label I remember is one I actually saw as an adult, I realized. A supporting church's missionary circle, deciding to make Joyce their quilting project, had written her and asked what colors she liked, so it had been no accident she had been able to cover her bed with her favorite hues of purple, pink, and teal.

The time Joyce was here in Okinawa caring for her elderly parents, that lavender covering kept her warm in the downstairs apartment. Actually, I don't remember how many years I saw that blanket. TOO many years, I used to think. But today, she told me how personal a gift it was. Crowell Community had made that patchwork bedspread just for her! That was a special, special quilt. I rather wish everyone who worked on it could've heard Joyce.

Several things happened in my mind then:

1. Perhaps Joyce's reluctance to discard old gifts springs from an appreciation and regard  for, an unconscious desire to honor, the giver. It made me smile.

2. Are missions ideas attractions to put before the church about foreign work, or are missions ideas meant to encourage everyone to support each other in love to follow Jesus' command to go into all the world?

Do these ideas make God smile?

RIPPLE EFFECT

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations," the Lord had said, "baptizing them."   (Matt. 28:19)

But we see Jesus turned Everything around, Pastor Nishino showed us. After all, it didn't stop with individuals being set free from sin and giving testimony of it through baptism. They were the ones going out and spreading the message of life to others who in turn were baptizing others!

His mother was one of the first members baptized at Gushikawa Baptist Church. Medical professionals had told her she would never be able to have a child.

Her son, now its pastor, was baptizing believers into its membership.

One of them, who just graduated from Bible School this year, is getting married in the fall and leaving for Bangladesh where the Lord called her as a missionary--no doubt they will be baptizing others there who find new life in Christ.

Have you ever seen tsunami waves? Most don't have to be the big, scary ones you see in movies. They can be small but just keep coming, coming, coming; tsunami strength is in their relentless force. We need to be like that. Not like big spotlights, but just sending steady beams, beams, beams of hope into the dark.

Lord, let us ripple with energy, even little ripples.

FUNCTIONING UNDERWATER

"Will I have to hold my breath a long time underwater, perhaps be willing to die to show my dedication to God?" a new convert and baptismal candidate once expressed. Some Christians who have grown up seeing baptisms forget how strange the concept of ceremonial immersion can be.

Baptisms are occasions believers can invite unsaved to come see them--Sunday was another such occasion. Here are a few photos I witnessed online. (That's Joyce on the piano to the left.) You can see Shoko was beaming. 

Altho' it was the pastor and his wife who were teaching her from the Bible when she found the Lord, it was Jaime who spent the most time with her, and he'll be stationed in mainland Japan at the end of the year, so we're really praying. Jaime helped adjust things on the platform for the baptism.

After her baptism, Shoko gave testimony of how she had found meaning and life in Christ. Then a family who recently visited Gushikawa Baptist Church requesting membership each came up and gave their testimonies too.

I almost forgot to mention this. More and more Okinawan families are becoming cross-cultural. Joyce interpreted the English for the father and son while the mother spoke in her native Japanese. People can usually understand a family member's language without being fluid enough to orate in it.

If human creatures can endure short lifetimes to somehow function in foreign languages and cultures, surely the Creator of humans (Jesus is Creator; without Him was not anything made that was made) is able to let go, during his short early lifetime, of His Divinity (language and culture?) and function according to human time and reason.

...to be continued...

SAMUEL JACKSON

"Wow, it's a special day, isn't it?" I said, remembering. You may remember last year's post telling of a family that visited my Dad in a nursing home in 2014. The young lady, Norimi Jackson, in the middle nearest Daddy is now terminally ill and in hospice care, and Sunday, it was her son Sammy, returned from Bible College training in the U.S, who preached for us.

I could see Joycie was thinking hard, wanted to be as accurate as possible. Altho' Samuel Jackson knows Japanese, he felt all his "Church Life" experience was in English, and Joyce does have after all, over 40 years' experience working in the church, so he asked if she would interpret for his message!

Please pray for your missionaries...not just the usual requests like leading souls to salvation, but sometimes the very real struggles like interpreting too!

"JUST DO IT YOURSELF!"

Joyce was away for my Birthday and Father's Day. She said she wanted to take our family to Gustos when she got back, wanted to treat me for my B-day and treat Kinya for Father's Day. She'd treated Keima to Starbucks for his birthday in May tho', so all he got was pudding...just kidding. He got a full meal; it's just that his parents paid for it!

I knew Kinya wanted Unagi, but since it's one of the more expensive dishes on the menu, he was going to order the less costly ground beef meal. Oh, not for the meal Joyce was going to treat him to! I asked if I could order Unagi then and count on him to eat what I couldn't finish, and he relented and said he'd get it himself. After seeing him order, I put in mine for the cheaper hamburger patty. 

All the orders are delivered by kitty waiter now. I guess the novelty's worn off, and what used to be more brightly painted, I noticed, is just the store's round logo on a white background. Even the cat features which used to light up at least when the robot moved down the aisle no longer do; I guess the establishment wants to save up on battery expenses. And I suppose with commercialization, efficiency is the name of the game.

After the meal was over, Joyce went to pay for everything and realized we were facing a self-cash register.

Call me Old-fashioned. At 66, I'm allowed to be. When our family went out for dinner 60 yrs ago, we used to kid around with the waitresses (who learned our birthdays), took time looking at the menu, made a big deal about getting the order straight, and squabbled about the adding up the numbers. And I really think God smiled on us as we carried on like that, didn't think we were such a bother and left us alone to do it ourselves. We thanked him for such a blessed time too.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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?

TRUFUS MAGNETS

It was an adorable "I'm Sorry" magnetic bookmark. "What can I say?" the puppy said; "I didn't mean to. Really." He'd been caught in some act of mischief; chewing up his master's slipper, maybe. Aww; so cute. Only a cold-hearted owner could hold anything against him after this!

But I realized too often, I do the same thing. If, unfortunately, an offense I committed comes to light, I shift responsibility from my need to repent to the victim's unwillingness to understand me.

I found another magnet: a pump organ, the kind found in old churches. Tragic but true--those who line the pews of those places--I am one of them--tend to want to be seen as "not meaning to do anything wrong", as good persons.

It's taking me a lifetime to begin to see what the Bible has been saying forever.

The truth of the matter is, God is crazy in love with me just as I am, NOT BECAUSE OF WHAT I AM, BUT BECAUSE OF WHO HE IS.

So I changed the words on the bookmark to read: I DID mean to. Really. I'm a dirty rotten rascal. But can you find it in your heart to forgive me anyway?"