I finally got an outline ready in English for my sermon next Sunday. After a break to wash dishes and let ideas flow through my head I sat down to start writing in Japanese. The problem, I couldn't get started.
So, I decided to go to the Jazz Street concert at the station. This weekend is "Jazz Street" in our city. At about 10 different locations throughout town there are concerts going on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon-one of which our Gospel choir is singing in on Sunday afternoon. A gal from our choir also sings in another Gospel choir and that director works with another choir which was singing this evening. Since I was stuck in my writing, I went.
I figured out why I was stuck! About 9 people from our choir were there and after the other Gospel choir sang we got to chat for a while. I also got a feel for where we will be performing tomorrow. Also, we decided that the 5 songs we have been practicing were not enough so we needed to add one more. I am glad I was there for the discussion, I may not have checked my email to find out that we are singing another song!
While I was annoyed that I didn't get to start on my sermon tonight, God had plans for me just to hang out and enjoy some music! It goes with what I read in "The Rest of God" this morning! Buchanan said, "In God's economy, to redeem time, you might just have to waste some." He was reminding us to not be so rigid about time, to give ourselves permission to spend time.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
Safety Driver
This week I renewed my Japanese driver's license. It is a bit more of a process than in Madison, SD! The last time I renewed my license in Madison it took about 10 or 15 minutes. On Tuesday, here in Japan, it took me 2 hours-and that was the short version!
In Japan there are different levels of driver's licenses. The first one you get is the 'green' license and lasts for two years. Next you get a 'blue' license which lasts for three years. In order to renew your license from green to blue you have to sit through a two hour lecture. I did this when living in Kyoto. Apparently, Kyoto has a high number of motorcycles and scooters. The lecturer must have told us every five minutes that it is our responsibility as car drivers to watch out for motorcycles and scooters, be careful of motorcycles and scooters, pay attention to motorcycles and scooters. You get the idea. (The license itself is actually just white but has a colored line highlighting the expiration/renewal date.)
This is my sister pointing out the interesting English on the back of my car.
If you don't have an accident or speeding ticket in the three years then you get to get a gold license! Renewing from blue to gold is only a 30 minute lecture. I guess Osaka is not as worried about motorcycles and scooters. I did not hear one time to watch out for them. Part of our lecture was taken up by the man explaining some recent changes in the laws, which pretty much don't affect me. I learned that after about 70 years old no matter what color license you have you have to sit through a 3 hour lecture since old people are involved in the most accidents. And, the most accidents in Osaka are rear-enders. We saw a video about this.
Since I have no tickets and have had no accidents, I now have a gold license! They call the person who has a gold license a "safety driver." I found out at the end of our lecture that there is a special card for safety drivers that gives us discounts at various hotels and amusement parks around Japan.
So, I am now a 'safety driver!'
In Japan there are different levels of driver's licenses. The first one you get is the 'green' license and lasts for two years. Next you get a 'blue' license which lasts for three years. In order to renew your license from green to blue you have to sit through a two hour lecture. I did this when living in Kyoto. Apparently, Kyoto has a high number of motorcycles and scooters. The lecturer must have told us every five minutes that it is our responsibility as car drivers to watch out for motorcycles and scooters, be careful of motorcycles and scooters, pay attention to motorcycles and scooters. You get the idea. (The license itself is actually just white but has a colored line highlighting the expiration/renewal date.)
This is my sister pointing out the interesting English on the back of my car.
If you don't have an accident or speeding ticket in the three years then you get to get a gold license! Renewing from blue to gold is only a 30 minute lecture. I guess Osaka is not as worried about motorcycles and scooters. I did not hear one time to watch out for them. Part of our lecture was taken up by the man explaining some recent changes in the laws, which pretty much don't affect me. I learned that after about 70 years old no matter what color license you have you have to sit through a 3 hour lecture since old people are involved in the most accidents. And, the most accidents in Osaka are rear-enders. We saw a video about this.
Since I have no tickets and have had no accidents, I now have a gold license! They call the person who has a gold license a "safety driver." I found out at the end of our lecture that there is a special card for safety drivers that gives us discounts at various hotels and amusement parks around Japan.
So, I am now a 'safety driver!'
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Rest
August was crazy busy. September is not looking much slower. And, I have begun to add even more to my plate for October. What am I thinking?
But, gradually, I am being reminded of rest, Sabbath and God's reason for all of this.
A couple of weeks ago I ordered a few books from CBD. Since there is no more sea mail from the U.S. they got here quite quickly. The book I started reading first is "The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath" by Mark Buchanan. I read one of his books a few years ago, twice, "Your God is Too Safe." He has a way of taking what you know and reminding you of it and how to live in these truths.
There is so much I'd like to quote but there are probably copyright laws about that sort of thing! Plus, I don't have time to type up the whole book, I'd like to rest sometime!
One thing that really grabbed my attention was his talk about being too busy! I think I wrote something like that in a blog last month! He talked of a man from his church who was so busy that, finally, he just had to stop because of his health. The man said that he knew God was trying to get his attention, he just wished he could figure out what He wants it for. Mark thinks, maybe just that, attention! And then says:
"This is the essence of a Sabbath heart: paying attention. It is being fully present, wholly awake, in each moment."
Hmmm...
Then he talks about seeing God's bigness. Somehow he gets to sleep-a great topic! He says that the Jewish Sabbath begins at sundown-in other words, with sleep! Sleep, he says, is an act of faith. How vulnerable we are when we sleep! "We sleep simply because we believe God will look after us." Do you?
"Either God is good and in control, or it all depends on you."
I think I am going to try to live in the first half of that statement! I saw "Bruce Almighty" and I don't want that!
But, gradually, I am being reminded of rest, Sabbath and God's reason for all of this.
A couple of weeks ago I ordered a few books from CBD. Since there is no more sea mail from the U.S. they got here quite quickly. The book I started reading first is "The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath" by Mark Buchanan. I read one of his books a few years ago, twice, "Your God is Too Safe." He has a way of taking what you know and reminding you of it and how to live in these truths.
There is so much I'd like to quote but there are probably copyright laws about that sort of thing! Plus, I don't have time to type up the whole book, I'd like to rest sometime!
One thing that really grabbed my attention was his talk about being too busy! I think I wrote something like that in a blog last month! He talked of a man from his church who was so busy that, finally, he just had to stop because of his health. The man said that he knew God was trying to get his attention, he just wished he could figure out what He wants it for. Mark thinks, maybe just that, attention! And then says:
"This is the essence of a Sabbath heart: paying attention. It is being fully present, wholly awake, in each moment."
Hmmm...
Then he talks about seeing God's bigness. Somehow he gets to sleep-a great topic! He says that the Jewish Sabbath begins at sundown-in other words, with sleep! Sleep, he says, is an act of faith. How vulnerable we are when we sleep! "We sleep simply because we believe God will look after us." Do you?
"Either God is good and in control, or it all depends on you."
I think I am going to try to live in the first half of that statement! I saw "Bruce Almighty" and I don't want that!
Friday, August 31, 2007
Yeah, I know
Yes, I do realize it has been almost two weeks since my last post. Here is a sort of quick update on life since Youth Camp-with no pictures available.
The week after camp was the missionary/Japanese pastor's family retreat. We had a great time talking, studying, laughing, and enjoying fellowship together. One pastor and his wife just had a baby in June so I got to hold her-sort of distracting during the sessions:) We also went to Meiji Mura one afternoon-about the hottest day of August. Meiji Mura is a sort of open air museum. Buildings from around Japan built during the Meiji era-late 1800s-have been taken apart, moved and reassembled here. It is a great place. I went there the first time about 11 years ago during my first year here in Japan and loved it then, too.
This week I spent 4 days in Tsu, just arriving home about an hour ago. I went to help prepare for the Kramers, Tom and Lois, who have come for three months to fill in until our new short term missionary arrives. First we had to clean out the storage room so that we could put more furniture into it. (We is Luci Lengefeld and myself with Bill Lengefeld helping as the garbage patrol.) Since it appears we will only have one short term missionary coming we decided to close the second apartment providing a need for more storage space. Luci and Bill had asked a friend to help bring the furniture over to the Center so 'all' we had to do was put it into storage.
Wednesday had us cleaning apartments. First, we cleaned the apartment the Kramers are living in. Then, we headed over to the second apartment for final cleaning duty. We are really thankful that Becky was such a a good cleaner on a regular basis. We didn't have to do much scrubbing to get things cleaned up. Everything that day just took longer than we had anticipated which left us little time for cleaning up ourselves and buying groceries before Kramers arrived! But, it all worked out. We were really happy to see Tom and Lois get off the ferry from the airport!
Thursday was spent preparing teaching schedules and then calling utilities to get things shut off for the closed apartment. Thanks to Ayako we got all but one phone call made. Then the Kramers did the great challenge of the day-taught a class just 24 hours after arriving! I went with them to talk with the man in charge and just to make sure they arrived safely. Tom had taught the class two years ago when they were here so basically knew how to get there. I taught the class when I was a short termer so I knew a few of the students-they were very surprised to see me! We had a lot of fun.
Today was spent in red tape. We went,first, to get alien registration cards which went quite smoothly. Then we went to get cell phones. Here's where we hit the snags. Because they did not yet have the alien registration cards they could not get cell phone contracts. So, after several hours of that we were finally successful. In the middle of that I also got to call class contacts and make sure they were all ready for Tom and Lois to start classes next week.
Well, I guess that was probably more information than was necessary, but, that is what has been going on for the past couple of weeks. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!:)
The week after camp was the missionary/Japanese pastor's family retreat. We had a great time talking, studying, laughing, and enjoying fellowship together. One pastor and his wife just had a baby in June so I got to hold her-sort of distracting during the sessions:) We also went to Meiji Mura one afternoon-about the hottest day of August. Meiji Mura is a sort of open air museum. Buildings from around Japan built during the Meiji era-late 1800s-have been taken apart, moved and reassembled here. It is a great place. I went there the first time about 11 years ago during my first year here in Japan and loved it then, too.
This week I spent 4 days in Tsu, just arriving home about an hour ago. I went to help prepare for the Kramers, Tom and Lois, who have come for three months to fill in until our new short term missionary arrives. First we had to clean out the storage room so that we could put more furniture into it. (We is Luci Lengefeld and myself with Bill Lengefeld helping as the garbage patrol.) Since it appears we will only have one short term missionary coming we decided to close the second apartment providing a need for more storage space. Luci and Bill had asked a friend to help bring the furniture over to the Center so 'all' we had to do was put it into storage.
Wednesday had us cleaning apartments. First, we cleaned the apartment the Kramers are living in. Then, we headed over to the second apartment for final cleaning duty. We are really thankful that Becky was such a a good cleaner on a regular basis. We didn't have to do much scrubbing to get things cleaned up. Everything that day just took longer than we had anticipated which left us little time for cleaning up ourselves and buying groceries before Kramers arrived! But, it all worked out. We were really happy to see Tom and Lois get off the ferry from the airport!
Thursday was spent preparing teaching schedules and then calling utilities to get things shut off for the closed apartment. Thanks to Ayako we got all but one phone call made. Then the Kramers did the great challenge of the day-taught a class just 24 hours after arriving! I went with them to talk with the man in charge and just to make sure they arrived safely. Tom had taught the class two years ago when they were here so basically knew how to get there. I taught the class when I was a short termer so I knew a few of the students-they were very surprised to see me! We had a lot of fun.
Today was spent in red tape. We went,first, to get alien registration cards which went quite smoothly. Then we went to get cell phones. Here's where we hit the snags. Because they did not yet have the alien registration cards they could not get cell phone contracts. So, after several hours of that we were finally successful. In the middle of that I also got to call class contacts and make sure they were all ready for Tom and Lois to start classes next week.
Well, I guess that was probably more information than was necessary, but, that is what has been going on for the past couple of weeks. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!:)
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Youth Camp
This picture was taken at the annual JBC summer youth camp which hasn't been held for a few years. It was really quite fun! I was the girls' counsellor and devotional leader. Only two of the eight campers were girls. This was a first for me, to be at a Christian event in Japan and have the boys outnumber the girls.
In Japan, in our churches anyway, youth means anything from middle school up to young single adult. So, we had one middle school student, two university students, a graduate student, and four graduated-working young adults.
We spent two and a half days singing praises, studying God's Word, playing Bible trivia, hanging out, going to the beach, and just generally enjoying each others' company.
The second picture is the whole group. The camp was held in Chita where the Stollers are working so they also helped out by shuttling us around and making food for us. Mrs. Higashi also helped with making food. Pastor Matsuura, right in the middle, was our speaker and Paul Ewing was the boys' counsellor.
Japanese Cicadas
I don't know if you can see the cicada in the middle of the tree in the picture, but the picture is taken from my veranda. I just stood at the rail-second floor-and zoomed in on the little noise maker. This guy and hundreds of his buddies with their little built in amplifiers, as Dave Barry says, have been my alarm clock for the past month. I usually begin to hear them about 5:30AM. Now that I am sleeping with the windows closed and the A/C on, I can usually sleep until about 6AM. The only benefit is that it makes me get up and get my run in before it gets just too hot to run. The past few days they have only been making noise until about 11AM, which is much better than the 3PM of a week ago. They are so noisy that in some parks I run through I have started going around the park because it is too hard to run and plug my ears at the same time! It is amazing how much noise a little bug can make. Of course, they are about 10 centimeters long so they aren't super little. I guess when I practice my clarinet in the morning it doesn't bother the neighbors so much because they can barely hear it!
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Busy, busy, busy
I have been using the excuse recently that I have been too busy to do things, like answer emails, write letters, send the baby presents sitting on my table, etc, etc. I am really tired of that excuse! This month is especially busy. I am really praying that things slow down, at least one click, next month!
Tonight as I was washing dishes, for the third time in 4 hours, God drew my attention to the flip calendar that is literally right in my face as I wash dishes. I have several flip calendars around, this one is quotes by famous people or Bible verses. Today's verse is Psalm 29:11 "The Lord gives strength to His people, the Lord blesses His people with peace." Wow! Here I am wallowing self-pity because I am so busy and there is God standing right next to me giving me strength! Then blessing me with peace. It caused me to break out in immediate song!
"Come, now is the time to worship,
Come, now is the time to give your heart...
One day every tongue will confess you are God,
One day every knee will bow.
Still the greatest treasure remains for those who gladly chose You now."
Yesterday between our two Gospel choir practices one of the gals gave me a ride from one place to the other. She is not a Christian but she had this song playing in her car-in Japanese. I hadn't heard it in Japanese yet. Wow, here was God speaking to me through a song translated into Japanese played in the car of a non-Christian Japanese friend.
I am still too busy to think straight, but peace has overtaken my heart tonight. I pray this verse sticks in my heart for a while!
Tonight as I was washing dishes, for the third time in 4 hours, God drew my attention to the flip calendar that is literally right in my face as I wash dishes. I have several flip calendars around, this one is quotes by famous people or Bible verses. Today's verse is Psalm 29:11 "The Lord gives strength to His people, the Lord blesses His people with peace." Wow! Here I am wallowing self-pity because I am so busy and there is God standing right next to me giving me strength! Then blessing me with peace. It caused me to break out in immediate song!
"Come, now is the time to worship,
Come, now is the time to give your heart...
One day every tongue will confess you are God,
One day every knee will bow.
Still the greatest treasure remains for those who gladly chose You now."
Yesterday between our two Gospel choir practices one of the gals gave me a ride from one place to the other. She is not a Christian but she had this song playing in her car-in Japanese. I hadn't heard it in Japanese yet. Wow, here was God speaking to me through a song translated into Japanese played in the car of a non-Christian Japanese friend.
I am still too busy to think straight, but peace has overtaken my heart tonight. I pray this verse sticks in my heart for a while!
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