... has become the cornerstone.

This weekend I made a trip up to Ishinomaki.  I went up with Teammmates Garry and Weiling Kline.  Deciding to go up to Ishinomaki via public transportation is easier said than done, but we made it.  My going up was for a couple of reasons.  One is that Corey wanted me to see the area for myself, so he and I both can give report of what we saw while in the US.  It also gave me a chance to pray for the area IN the area.  I was also able to help do some things while there. 

Upon arrival we jumped into a group that was gutter cleaning.  I realize that when I say gutter cleaning that I might not be connecting with people what this is all about.  Under normal circumstances gutters area usually cleaned out once or twice a year.  We used to live in a neighborhood where once a year we would pull up the big concrete blocks that edged around the house on the street where we lived so we could scoop the junk out of it.  It was tiring work but not too bad.  Usually gutter contents would be dirt and leaves and never more than maybe 3 bags worth of stuff for area of street. 

The gutters where we were cleaning caught tsunami water and all that it brought up from the sea.  The muck is thick and smelly.  I did a fraction of what we had to do in the old neighborhood and filled 5 bags (a little too full--oops) full of junk.  It felt good to be shoveling up that muck.  What it means for the people there is that their gutters can actually take in rain water instead of flooding the streets and the smell level improves.  I can only imagine this improves the health conditions as well there.  In the afternoon there was a kids' event going on. I was able to...mud soiled clothes and all...help out with that. I helped kids with crafts and played around with some of them. Mostly I just tried to encourage an love on them.

After some clean up, we went to clean up.  This meant onsen.  It was nice to get clean and relax a few minutes in the hot spring water. This was followed by dinner.  We ended up at a Ramen restaurant where I enjoyed some of the best ramen I have ever eaten.  Clean bodies and full tummies we headed to the Karate Dojo to sleep.

There are quite a few volunteers from within and outside of Japan that are working with the group I went up to help.  While we were gutter mucking and playing with kids, another group was working at a house.  This house had been damaged by the tsunami.  By God's leading this house is being rented by the volunteer group.  In prior days groups worked to pull away all the floor boards and cleaned out the 2 feet or so of mud in the house.  Yesterday the workers got the floors down, insulation in, an Sheetrock put up for the new walls.  

This morning they had the very first of what is hopefully many worship services to come in that house.  It was an amazing time.  I am so thankful that I just happened to be there for that.  I do pray that that house we be the cornerstone of all that can be accomplished for the Kingdom of God in that area. 

 I had hoped to be an encouragement there, but I think I reaped the reward in encouragement for myself.  God is doing amazing things in Ishinomaki and all over Tohoku.  I pray this is a spiritual awakening, a revival for the country of Japan.  Something amazing is going to happen, and I am excited to see what it is.  Recently Skyler watched a video clip for homeschool that was asking people to pray for a "spiritual earthquake" in Japan.  Skyler heard this and responded, "That was March 11, mom." Perhaps he is right.  That day was a physical quake for sure as most of Honshu felt it, but perhaps it was a spiritual earthquake as well.  May we do all we can to shine the light of Jesus in this country.

My battery is getting low and the Shinkansen is making its way to Tokyo.  Hopefully I will get a chance to tell about my bus ride from Ishinomaki to Sendai later.  However, once I get home I have just a day to get our family packed up for the summer as we head across the ocean on Tuesday.  

This week promises to be just as crazy as the last several.  This week is not a full week for the International school students, but in the hustle and bustle of closing a school year it makes it busy.  In the process, we, too, are closing out the house for the summer as well.  This means making sure all bills are accounted for and amends are made for them. Refrigerators and freezers are reduced to nothing.  This makes for sort of eclectic dining right now.  For example, the other night on the dinner table we had both cold tofu blocks and grilled steak along with various vegetables that needed consumed. 

Corey and Skyler off to get teeth cleaned.  Maya is napping.  Tomo is chilling from a hot day of school.  I am just trying to get whatever I can done.  Laundry.  Meals.  Homeschool.  And yet still take a few moments to chill.  I think that I will finally get around to make my yearly batch of cinnamon rolls tonight. 

It looks like I am going to make a quick trip up to the Tohoku area this weekend.  Once home from that I need to pack up our bags to leave because the next day we catch a plan out of town.  Crazy life for sure. 

As for tonight...we'll be eating cold chinese noodles and inari (rice stuffed soybean pouches).  Not too strange.  The throw in item is since the yogurt needed to be used up before it goes bad I made up some mango, pineapple yogurt smoothies to go with dinner.  Since it is warm today, it will be appreciated. 

Speaking of using things up, does anyone need or want a sourdough starter?  I made one about 6 months ago and since then, the starter has grown to a very rich and amazing flavor for sourdough bread.  If you would like it, I would gladly give it away along with the recipe I use to make the bread.  Just let me know.  The starter isn't hard to keep up with at all and rather forgiving too.  I just can't keep it in the fridge until late August.

This has been a week for sure. So much has happened...surely life is seldom dull. Thinking back at all that happened...
Obtained re-entry permits so that we can come back after our trip to the US.
While on excursion to get permits, got the call that a CAJ senior was killed on a car accident.
Dealt with all the emotions that go into dealing with death. Trying to make sure that all our adopt-a-teens were ok was quite exhausting.
Lost bread paddle. It seriously just vanished into thin air.
Attended last Japanese class for a while- all the while wrangling Maya while studying.
Took Skyler for booster on a vaccination.
Took myself to doctor for the ongoing problems I have been having. Switching gears to a imbalance of bacteria, we'll see what comes of that.
Taught English.
Had parent/teacher meeting with Tomo's teacher.
Tried to ready house for endless stream of houseguests this weekend.
Only took one day off of homeschooling.
Done laundry at odd times to accommodate rain or others.
Welcomed various houseguests.
Saw one our our teens graduate high school.

That was just Monday to Friday. Happily, today I received a replacement bread paddle from my friend Laura over in Kashi. Thanks Laura. The weather is perfect today! The boys went next door to see a movie with a bunch of other kids. And I escaped to Starbucks to chill a bit and use a gift card. Now just need to go home and get the bread maker busy and get ready for church tomorrow.

Sorry, May is just plain busy for us.  My son left the world of single digits behind and has entered the world of double digits.  He is now 10!  It seems so hard to believe.  I am sure it was yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital.  Time flies.  In  honor of his 10th birthday, we had a Pirate Party for him.  Below Corey retells the story of that piratey night. 

---

The moment the kids arrived, they were told they werepirates aboard the ship “Windstar”.  Theywere also told the Captain was asleep in his quarters where he kept thetreasure to himself.  So naturally, wemutinied.  We stormed in, grabbed theCaptain, and made him walk the plank (threw him off the balcony).  We then grabbed the treasure (a brown papersack taped shut) and went downstairs.

The party seemed to be going normally from that pointon.  We had pizza and cake.  (Somebody set out fruits and veggies, too,but we were too smart to grab much of that!) All that was left was to open the presents and then the party would beover.  Skyler opened them one at a time,but when it came time to open the poor dead Captain’s bag of treasure, wediscovered only worthless rocks and a taunting note!

The Captain had expected a mutiny and told that hehid a treasure map and his journal in the cargo hold.  He also mocked us saying that we wouldn’tfind the treasure because it lies with him! We quickly found the map and journal. The map led us into the woods a short walk from the house.  We followed its instructions and found an ‘X’on the ground made from branches. Searching through, we only found another mocking letter.  The Captain left no more clues to follow!

We read through the journal on the return home, andagain the Captain asserted to himself that he found a way to keep histreasure.  The kids searched through hispockets but found nothing.  We wentinside to study a few nondescript maps and charts the Captain had layingaround.

One thing we discovered was that the Captain wascareless.  Every paper had a number ofholes.  He also signed his letters with aspecial symbol.  That gave one of thekids an idea.  Perhaps the holes of oneor more of these loose papers formed this symbol.  After much trial and error, 2 papers werefound that reproduced this symbol:  themap of the treasure spot and the map of the ship’s floor plan (the house).  These maps when placed one on top of theother, the ‘X’ of the treasure map showed through one of the holes of the shipmap, but when we went to that spot, it was an empty space with nothing tosearch.

Again we seemed at a loss, but then one of the kidsnoticed a trap door in the ceiling.  Astep ladder was found, and one of the kids opened it to find a shovel hiddenthere!  But where to dig?  They first thought to go to the woods again,but as we were leaving, they thought to check under the Captain’s body.  They dug and found the treasure!  (Tickets to Pirates of the Caribbean forSkyler, and chocolate for all!)

---

...and pictures, well, they will come sooner or later.

It seems the school year is winding down fast for some in our house.  All the end of the year activities are happening with a flurry of things.  People gone for tournaments, presentations, desserts, banquets, tests, and the like.  In the meantime, our family keeps plugging away at the things we need to do.  Tomo with his yochien...they have been going through all the body check stuff right now.  Skyler is wading through homeschool, and I am hoping to get a little more ahead in order that we can have more summer time off.  I only plan on a one month summer vacation,  but we will be gone to the US for more like 10 weeks.  Maya is over her recent illness and her orneriness is back in full force.  Need to make sure that Skyler gets his shot in that the city sent us papers for before we leave.  Really time is flying. 

I managed to get Skyler signed up for camp.  This will be his second time to go to Camp Allendale.  He was able to go the last time we were in the US, but this will be his first week long stay.  I am an Allendale kid and am glad that I can share some of that tradition with our kids.  However, Allendale has changed so much!  I am going to have to do research to figure out where the campsite actually in there.

Some of what has to be done is to square away bills and the money left behind to pay for them and the people to pay them for us while we are gone.  Fortunately this country is pretty flexible about bill paying, but still we want to be timely.

Went to class today.  Finished one reading section and starting a new one.  The topic of this reading is blood types.  Blood types is a popular topic here.  It is popular thought here that blood types are indicative of personality.  I don't really get into all of that, so I guess that makes me a skeptic.  I do know that whenever I get asked what my blood type is, I get a sort of surprised, somewhat negative reaction when I tell them what my blood type is. 

And the big news of the day....Maya's lost shoe has been found.  She managed to pull it off while in her stroller while on a walk about 3 or 4 weeks ago.  I didn't notice it until we got home, and I wasn't sure where she had pulled it off at.  I figured that sooner or later it would just turn up.  Ok, maybe a little explaining is in order.  Japan is a country that if someone finds a lost item, then that person with set it or hang it near where it was found.  In this manner, if you were to come and look around, you might find house or bike keys dangling from light posts just waiting for its owner to claim it.  Mittens, cell phone charms, and the like.  In our case, on the walk home from Japanese class, I happened to look up at a concrete property fence column, and low and behold...the lost shoe!  Not bad, shoe was in good condition AND she can still wear that size of shoe.  She has been wearing her sandals because I was hesitant to buy a new pair of shoes...in case the lost one showed up again, and she just wasn't ready to move up a size yet. 

Guess I should get a jump on our one pot spaghetti for dinner tonight while the little ones are napping and the bigger ones are gone.

This weekend was very busy. Let me back track just a little.

Maya had a fever for three days and no real other symptoms. She was not overly unhappy, actually very good natured about the high fever. By the third day, she seemed a little more moodier and a very slight case of diarrhea, but the night of the third day her fever broke. In fact, she woke up late in the night cold and her temperature had dived from 38.5 down to 35.0. I held her against me and wrapped a blanket around her to get her a little warmer and then she was able to sleep. The next day, as if on cue, a rash broke out all over her body after her afternoon nap. Ah ha. Roseola. It all made sense. Fortunately, was the rash takes the center stage, she was not any longer contagious. (Me breathing a huge sigh of relief.)

Because on rash day, we had game night. We had an extremely high rate of acceptance to our invitation for people to come. In all, we were a group of 23! We were a motley crew of Americans, Japanese, and Australians. Age ranges from 5 months to well, um not sure what our age cap was but there were plenty of middle-aged adults as well. Corey fried up some beer battered fish and others brought in sides to help round out the meal. We saw a couple friends we hadn't seen in a while and hold the little baby I have been wanting to get my hands on since I knew that her mama was pregnant with her! What a cutie! I really will get some pictures up, but today is just not that day. I was also extremely impressed with the Japanese papa who came and brought his son and daughter with him. I am so glad that he did. His boy is one of Tomo's best buddies and a family we are really hoping will come to a saving faith. It was a great night all around.

After the Saturday game night, came Sunday. This Sunday brought us a new family to our church. Let me just say that I love this family. I have been getting to know this family for about 2 months now, and I am so excited about the potential of our relationship. Skyler has also found himself another good buddy! This family has two children, boy and girl. The boy is about a year younger than Skyler and the girl is a little older than Tomo. The mom and the day are such beautiful people. I am so blessed to know so many great people! And to think, I get paid to do this job. We are praying that we can continue to grow in our relationship with this family.

Church behind us, we moved on to the next weekend event. Anniversary. Corey and I celebrated 12 years of marriage! Our teammates very graciously watched our little ones while we went out to dinner. We didn't end up catching a movie, but we did get to spend some nice uninterrupted time together. We went to TGIFridays where I was able to indulge in a Pepperjack stuffed Swordfish. I love swordfish. You could give it to me about any old way and I would probably eat it. It was so delicious.

Here we are back at Monday again. But the twist in this week is that my oldest turns double digits. We will be having a sleep over party for him on Friday night. This year's theme...PIRATES!!! I am not huge into pirates, but I am actually kind of excited about the theme this year. Now to get on that piratey cake.

Been a long day. Had a nice time of fellowship with some ladies this morning. Maya has a fever but no other symptoms. Not sure what to think about her. Hoping it breaks by morning. Tomo has a school trip to the park tomorrow. The next three days are quite busy. Meeting. Game night. Anniversary. It promises to be quite a trip. Every May is this way for us. Busy and eventful. The weekend will roll right into next week, where I see by the calendar that my oldest will turn 10. Time sure is pretty relentless.

Now it is time... time to empty the crackpot and store the yogurt in the fridge....and then...the night is done.

Plan to cool reactors revised but not timeline(5/18)

Meltdowns also likely occurred at No. 2, No. 3 reactors of Fukushima plant (5/18)

Tepco prepares to start pumping tainted water from No. 3 (5/17)

• TEPCO: Meltdown at No. 1 reactor started much earlier than initially reported(05/17)

• TEPCO rethinks flooding reactor No. 1 after leakage found(05/15)
• Government compiles timetable for dealing with Fukushima accident, evacuees(05/15)

(TEPCO-Tokyo Electric Power Company)

Some people have been wondering how life is now a couple months post catastrophe.  I think in our area it seems rather normal.  It is only when you got out to partially powered places that you are reminded of it all.  The TV is running ads about conserving power this summer.  People are not sure if we will have enough power to make it through our muggy hot summers.  I think it is when one dives into the media, that one gets the most reminders of life--now.

I pulled these headlines from two English websites of Japanese papers.  These are just a sampling of the headlines over the past few days.  The papers and news are filled daily with information, criticisms, and opinions about the nuclear reactors.  I have the Japan Times Online headline mailed to my email address daily, and this past week I was overwhelmed with the number of headlines just about the nuclear reactors alone. 

Naturally other articles are about tsunami victims, relief efforts, and the like.  It is plain to see that this is just not over with yet.  It is in the minds of people daily.  People are inundated with media news.  I suppose it could serve to numb you to the realities of this country.  Perhaps, it could be annoying to some.  Some may grow angry at the leaders of this country and how things are being handled.  For me, I think it is daily reminders of how much this country needs Jesus, and I take the media inundation time as times to pray.

In other, very ordinary news, Corey, Skyler, and I went to Japanese class.  Maya was there too with me.  Studying with a toddler on the lap has its challenges.  Maya likes to mark up my worksheets for me.  It would be great if the answers were correct.  She is a cutie though.  She greets all the people in the class with a bow.  This is Maya language for "Good morning."  The teachers and students get a quick out of her bowing.  After class, we stopped at the bakery for some lunchtime treats!  This bakery has very yummy sandwiches in addition to their sweet items.  Skyler and Corey will be headed out to karate this afternoon.  Yep, pretty ordinary.

I really would like to write more often but I am just too bogged down with other things, so I write when I can.

Really each day is filled with homeschool, helping out with church, teaching English, taking care of kids, taking care of household things, taking care of this that and everything else. 

I do recognize that the American school year is just about finished.  I know this for several reasons.  The calendar says so, but mostly I can tell by looking into the faces of the 4 extra people who join me for breakfasts and dinners.  They look like they have had it. 

I know the question comes up to what we are doing this summer.  The plan for this summer has always been that we would take a visit to the States.  With Maya's adoption behind us, we are free to head out.  My summer plans revolve around galloping around the mid-west visiting various churches, friends, and family.  The kids and I will stay until the end of August but Corey will be back the end of July.  We are trying to get the most out of our money because airplane tickets for 5 are an arm and a leg.  It has been three years since we were last in the US as a family and it will be good to introduce the newest member of our family.  I just wish it were not so expensive.

In another topic, that is probably completely out in left field, I have been trying out recipes from around the world.  It has been interesting to learn about food culture from around the world.  I found a cookbook of Middle Eastern foods.  I have tried out a number of Iranian meals as well as Greece and Cyprus.  Due to some of school studies that Skyler has been doing lately, the worlds of Australia and New Zealand have been opened to us as well. 

I am sure there is probably something that I should be doing now, so instead of rambling some more I will sign off.
 

Eight years ago today we landed on Japanese soil as a small family of 3. We flew into Kansai International and were greeted by missionaries Mr. and Mrs. Clark.

And so began our journey. In 8 years we have grown to a family of 5. In 8 years we have seen and experienced much. God has sustained us and provided for is in amazing ways. We have seen lives changed. We have made amazing friends and known amazing people.

Our seventh year on the field has been by far the most challenging. To name just a few things that have happened this year, Corey's mother died and also the Earthquake/tsunami/nuclear reactor disasters on March 11. There have been many other challenges along the way as well. Here we are, though, still giving praises to God.

This begins our eighth year, so I think we should call it Jubilee!