Still walking....

Along my walk I see lots of students, from kindergarteners to high schoolers.  Like any place, the students show their attitudes!  I watched one guy noisily slopping along with his shoes only partly on.  Another with his pants so low they crumbled at the shoes.  Shirts out.  These were kids in uniforms, so I guess that by the time they reached school they were finished dressing!

Our neighborhood also has lots of Mom's on bikes taking their smaller kids to school.  There might be one child in the back seat, one in the front seat and one on her back.  All at the same time.  One day I saw a Mom with one in the front seat and one in the back seat and she was casually talking on her cell phone.  But the other day I saw the clincher!  A lady had one in the back seat and one strapped onto her back and the one on her back was leafing through a magazine!!!  Leafing may be a strong word (!), but he was looking at a magazine, so he must not have been a baby!  It happened so fast that I couldn't decipher it all and wished I'd had a camera!

I also meet many young people headed for a school for the mentally-impaired.  One has become my friend and greets me warmly, even giving me a prayer request!  For the most part they are unusually upbeat and happy.  I someetimes wonder if God has given them special personalities.

Early morning walking....

Yesterday on my early morning walk I realized how blessed we are to be living in the suburbs.  I regularly pass patches of sweet corn, beans, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes and flowers.  All are carefully tended.  Sometimes there are stands where vegetables are set out and you can take what you want and put the stipulated money into a nearby container.

They say you can take the girl off the farm, but you can't the farm from the girl.  So I guess that's what I've experience, but I must admit this had a limit once:

In certain areas there are small plots that people can simply use and grow their own vegetables.  My Korean friend, without telling me, signed up for a plot for each of us!  So during this growing period I had to go and "work" the land....plant seeds and pick weeds!  Grudgingly, I'll admit, because usually I cared for our yard and that was enough...and I could easily buy all the vegetables I needed!  Once I got a notice from the higher powers to go and clean out the accumulated weeds! 

I finished my year and she knew better than to sign me up again.  I guess there's a moral here, but I don't know what it is.

Letters to Mom and Dad

Recently I came across a bunch of letters that I had written to my parents from Japan.  On one, in Mom's handwriting, it said, "Letter #12."  On another, "Letter #13."  In looking at the dates, I saw that they coincided ith my arrival in this foreign country.

I know it must have been a big thing for Mom and Dad to let their only daughter go overseas at that time, especially to a country that was our enemy in a war just over.

The morning I left Mom prayed, "Lord, you know we are both glad and sad today."  They wanted God's will for me, but I was leaving and going overseas.  By ship in those days.

Then shortly after I got to Japan, Mom wrote, "Well, it doesn't seem like you are so far away since we got a letter in 5 days."  With today's technology and advanced resources it's hard to imagine that.  This morning I checked my e-mail first thing.  And a telephone call is only seconds away.  Last week my friend called from Brussels and another from Seattle.

But the best is that Jesus is even closer for us to keep in contact with!

You've gotta check in....

Seiko had just returned to Tokyo after going to school and working in Denver.  But just before she left there she was involved in a auto accident and had some bruises.  She didn't want her Mom to see her like this, so I picked her up at the train station and took her to my friend's vacant apartment. 

One day I dropped by to check on her and it came out that she had some official papers from the accident.  I asked if I could see them.

To my surprise, I saw that Seiko had a summons to appear in court in Denver on a scheduled day. She sluffed it off with,  "Oh, I'm just not going."

I came home and told Mark who happened to be here.  He strongly asserted that she better be there at the appointed time or she would never be allowed into America again.  She went and appeared and got it all straigtened out, and it's a good thing because her travels since have taken her to both Åmerica and Europe.

A Better Life

I had met Michiko just once through mutual friends and of course we spoke only in Japanese.  Then about a year later, the phone rang one day and I heard, "Hi!  This is Michiko!"  I was stunned.  Her English pronunciation was flawless and I blurted out, "Michiko, have you been in America?"  "Yes," she admitted, "I went to school there for a year and just returned."  She had previously graduated from a prestigious Tokyo college.

Michiko didn't want to live out in the country with her parents, so ended up living with us as she worked downtown.

A couple of months passed and one morning she and I were having an early breakfast before she took off for work.  Suddenly, as though she was talking about going on a picnic, Michiko said, "Well, today I think I'll commit suicide!"

Talk about dropping your cup of tea....I could have dropped the whole pot!

Needless to say, I canceled my normal schedule and spent the day with her.  Her inner feelings, so well guarded up until now, came tumbling out.  I'll never forget some things she said, like "As soon as I got off that plane back in Japan, something came over me.  Darkness.  I never felt that once in America.  There's  a heavy cloud hanging over Japan."  As we talked, when it seemed she simply couldn't continue living here, I chided her a little:  "Who do you want to do the Christian work in Japan if it's so hard, the missionaries?"

She sulked, "Your son asked me the same thing!"

Well, Michiko was marvelously spared that day and restored by the Lord.  She does live in the States and is in ministry for the Lord, serving him, and  taking care of her husband and family.

She Wasn't Adopted

Keiko was an energetic young lady who even pastored a country church when we first met her.She was born during the war years and life must have been very difficult for her family.  Especially since they were dedicated Christians and so didn't turn toward Tokyo to worship the Emporer, for one thing.  The were definitely in the minority.  Her Mom even said that Jesus once appeared to her in person, and she was so touched that for some time she went door to door witnessing for Him.

We became friends with Keiko's parents and were once invited to their home.  As I listened to her Mom talk about when she carried Keiko in her tummy, I was surprised.  Surprised because Keiko had told me that she was adopted!

I confronted Keiko and she became angry, maintaining that her story was right!

That upcoming New Year's time when they gathered together as a family, as most Japanese do, this adoption issue came out in the open and suddenly all 4 of the children admitted they thought they were adopted, but all had kept it to themselves.  Those were days when most people didn't discuss and ananalyze as is so common today. It seems possible that this was one way their unbelieving neighbors sought to make inroads into the lives of the children of this Christian family.  That New Year's time they got the air cleared and for years, until his death, Keiko's Dad sent us a present at New Year's.