A Post With Pictures

This is a pic of us roasting marshmallows and making s'mores while Kaki was still here. The Japanese girls w/ us thought it was great!

This lighthouse is too far from the sea, it seems, to make much difference. It's in Shitooke and is a popular spot for tourism, I guess. People come from tens of meters around to see it! Here Aubrey, Michiyo, and Kaki are kaptured by the kamera.

This is a pic of the ladies at Shitooke Beach, our favorite beach.

I don't think this layout is turning out too well, but oh well.
Me on the bridge is at a remote (but cool!) restaurant called Tori No Yama, and the other one is me playing guitar at home.

A Post With NO Pictures

Well, it's early Fri evening and I don't want to study anymore and I don't want to lie down and I probably should write on this blog, so yeah.
Many thanks to Kaki for sending that video of your house church - we loved it! Other people should send us videos too - we love to get them!
My classes were tough this week, not only b/c of the interrupting cop (reminds me of a Knock-Knock joke) but also b/c my kids were either NOT getting the game I wanted to play or they were too busy disobeying my 5th request not to jump on the sofa. My rowdiest class on Wed. only had 3 kids and still one of them kept jumping on the sofa. I finally pulled him off and told him to stand in the corner and look at the wall (except I'm still not quite good enough to make it exactly clear what I wanted him to do). But he knew he was supposed to stand there in the corner anyway, and he flat didn't want to do it. I was ready to throw him over my knee, let me tell you! Got a really nice wooden spoon in the kitchen, too! He started crying and I knew that he could almost certainly get his way w/ his mom and any other authority figure in his life by crying. I let him cry for about 30 seconds before I invited him back into the activities - the class is only 30 minutes long, after all!
When I thought about Japan when I lived in the US, I was pretty sure that parents would be generally stricter than American parents are. Boy were we in for a surprise! Japanese kids run ALL OVER their parents! Yeah, it's not the stereotypical stern Asian father shouting down his kid whenever he acts up. Maybe in areas where academic performance is more widely regarded as important, for older kids it's like that, but at least here in Kikai, not at all. So my job is made more challenging b/c kids are rarely if ever disciplined. And I'm not talking just taking a spoon to their depraved little behinds (please note that I believe ALL children [and adults] are depraved until converted by the grace of Christ, but also note that children much more often display wanton selfishness and disobedience than adults do). But even steadfastly denying children what they whine and cry for b/c it's not good for them or it's impolite or sthg of that nature is rarely seen. Suffice it to say we don't plan to take Kikai parents in general as models of parenting, now that we're in full kid-wanting mode.
I had a convo w/ a young Japanese family on Tues night in mostly Japanese, and that was encouraging. When they talk slowly enough, I can start to have real understanding, and I'm learning alot more verb conjugations these days (and vocab) so talking is going fairly well. Aub's aural comprehension stuns me, actually - she's just talented! She's bummed that she can't speak better, but hey, I'm bummed that I can't understand better. Anyway, it was sad to see this young man (about 32) w/ a pretty wife and a cute 2-year-old daughter throw back 5 beers over the course of the evening (w/ wife and daughter present and accounted for). Equally sad was our convo about hobbies and sports on TV - he likes to watch tennis sometimes. Great, so do I! Love it, actually. He likes to watch Sharapova and Hingis. Hmm, wonder why. Later we were discussing American football and he was like, "Yeah, I really like to look at the cheerleaders!" Argh.
I was telling Aub about that afterwards, and she asked me why I didn't ask him why. That was frustrating - I always ask why! It's like my trademark phrase. But I forgot that evening. Maybe later.
Aub was talking to another friend of ours, a teacher, and told him she saw a pic of his wife (who lives elsewhere, which is very common for teachers) and that she was pretty. He responded, "No, she's not." Aub was like, "Yes she is!" "No, she's not." Aub: "Look, you can't say that about your own wife!" Wow - it's really amazing to hear sthg like that. I'm really hoping to get a chance to talk to him about that pretty soon.
Today I took about 90 minutes to go help the Board of Ed move their office to the new facility up the hill. Boy, were those desks dusty! They seemed to appreciate my contributions greatly. I was surprised upon my 1st entry into this brand-new bldg, which will house all of City Hall, to find that it really seems to be a low-quality construction, and the driveway wasn't very reliable-looking either...It's hard to describe, but I got that sense. So did another friend of ours who was a temporary worker in the B.O.E...she was also disappointed that the B.O.E.'s seating area didn't seem to be much bigger than the original. I have to agree; it is a little bigger, but not by much.

OK, I think today I'll post some more pics 'cause posting pix is playing to the crowd. And I never want to disappoint. See above for pix. Pix are nice.

A not so good day and an imbecile cop

So you might be wondering just what I did today.

OK, I'll tell ya. It's been a weird day, actually, a hard day. Got up at 5:30 am to meet the pastor of the small church down the road at 6 am at his house to go prayer walking. It looks like I'm interested in doing this w/ him about twice a week, getting up to go from like 6-7:10. It's a bit early but he likes to walk his dog and do it at that time, so I'm game 2 days a week I guess. I'm not sure IF he's praying, though I'm pretty sure he is. Even if he weren't muttering/singing under his breath, I wouldn't have much understanding of it anyway, but you know. So we walk and pray and when it's done smile, bow, and say see ya later.
The funny thing is that we've been going to that church on Sun mornings for 3 weeks now, having stopped for like 2 months for various reasons. But then God reminded me that it's tough to influence someone to be bolder for the Gospel if you're not around them, so there you go - we've started going back. It's not like we get a whole lot out of it really, but our attendance does boost the congregation's headcount by 50% (it increases from 4 to 6, w/ 3 non-members of the pastor's family instead of 1) and seems to please the pastor and his wife quite a lot. What's really weird is that for the 3 wks we've been going there, they keep giving us food. And then last week they gave us a whole bunch of spinach when they stopped by the house to say hi. And Sunday it was more food. And then Monday it was some brown sugar and something I don't even want to smell, really. And then today it was flowers, more spinach, eggplant, and something else. I'm getting a little suspicious and weirded out, to be honest - nobody else brings us stuff just out of the blue. Don't know what to make of it.

Anyway, he and his wife brought over those things right after I finished doing my newly-divided-into-2-groups-of-2 people adult English class this morning at 10 am. During the class, a policeman showed up at my door and started asking me some questions. I didn't really get it, but my students were helping me out. I finally comprehended that he wanted the names of the people who live here and their birthdates. So I felt weird, since I'm a conservative American and don't like the gov't snooping around (though I realise that name and birthdate is not asking for much). It was obvious that I was relying totally on my students to interpret for me, but then this cop asks me for the name and info of my neighbor. Ummm, right - ask the gaijin (that's Japanese for gringo) who understands almost nothing about his neighbor. Good call. I do know enough Japanese to tell him that he'll have to knock on their door if he wants to know that.

Then I had to plan for my English classes, which is usually tough for me, but today was quite tough. And I still didn't come up w/ a winning plan - I wanted to play a game outside since it was like 75 F today and sunny, but once we got outside it started raining and has been a downpour since. It's actually dropped like 10 degrees F since it started raining. So bummer, huh?

OK, I wrote all that before my last English class, and on Tuesdays the last class is w/ 6 4-year-olds. Today 5 came only, and that's a good thing, I'd say. The game I had planned for them didn't quite work out like I had hoped. Even w/ a Mom inside the house helping to direct traffic and me giving directions in Japanese from time to time, the kids were like, "Huh?" So chalk one up to experience. But I'm really getting the sense that when you have 5 or 6 4-year-olds in an English class, it's the thought that counts more than the actual learning.
However, like I mentioned, I had 4 classes today and the 1st was interrupted by a nosy policeman. And it turns out that he decided to return to disturb my fourth class! Sheesh - it's quite annoying, I must say. He wanted to know where we're from, as if it's not obvious! So I told him. Then he asked when we came here and I told him but he stopped paying attention to me while I was talking and started looking at the little girls running wild behind me. Then he turned back to me and was like "OK, when did you come here?" By this time I'm shaking my head. I tried again, though it's tough w/ my level of Japanese. The Mom inside also tried to tell him, but he didn't get it. I was amazed. I told him just go talk to Aub's boss at the Board of Ed 'cause I was tired of dealing w/ his incompetence. Didn't say that last part, though. Wouldn't know how to say it if I were inclined to. No, I was not inclined to.
It may sound like I had a bad day, and I'm venting a bit on the blog. I confess, I did and I am, but I kind of don't want to retype or fail to post this since I already spent some time typing it out. So we'll leave it as is.
On a positive note, I'm meeting a guy I just met for dinner tonight at my favorite restaurant, and I think we could really hit it off - he seems like a really cool guy. This is good b/c there are very few young men around here w/ whom I can be friends - my age group is thinned out from either people leaving to university or (more probably) leaving for itinerant farming or construction jobs.

Finally, we're still considering our choice of another year here or an attempt for me to get the JET job. Still praying and listening. We'll letcha know when we know.

Tea party and taco party and a trip

I can tell from the slew of comments from the last post that SO MANY people are excited beyond measure that I, Alan, might indeed be coming back to the States for a visit that I might need to close the comments section temporarily.

I'll be thinking about it - don't call my bluff!

K, anyway, we're hosting an all-girl (except Alan) tea party this afternoon. This has been a full Sunday, and it was looking to be a full Saturday except my ping pong club was cancelled. Too bad. Actually, I don't know if it was really cancelled but I knew like 4 of the core members wouldn't be there including the coach man and there was noone available to drive me. So I coulda gone there on bike, but I'm guessing that's a good 30 minutes one way, in the dark, no streetlights, on a road that I know fairly well but certainly nowhere near infallibly. And the possibility was strong that I would arrive after a tiring run and find nobody there. Yeah, staying home was looking pretty good by the time my potential departure was rolling around. So I didn't depart.

We got to hang out w/ some friends yesterday and eat keihan, which is Aub's favorite dish around here. When and if I come to the States, we're gonna eat some at a get-together - you won't be sorry you came! Then we went out to watch said friends and some of their friends fly some toy airplanes and helicopters around in a big open field. That was cool - the planes were like 4 ft long and the copter was at least a meter, so it was really interesting. I met a 32 year old guy who works at the kinda-secret military installation on top of the hill, so hopefully we can hang out some more. This installation exists to monitor radio transmissions from _____ and ______ ______ (think: the two big military threats to Japan and the US in our area. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm) and thus was controversial. One friend told me that 90% of the island's population did not support the installation at its construction, but the politicos didn't care. That sounds about right, to be honest, but you can never be sure.

Today we went to church for the 3rd straight Sunday and then I did kids' Sunday School w/ the pastor and his wife afterwards while Aubrey went home and prepared for the tea party, doing an admirable job of cleaning and reorganising the house. It was OK, but the pastor's wife looked at me at one point and abruptly asked me to come up w/ a game to play w/ the 18 kids present. Oooofff. Ummm, thinking quick, I came up w/ musical chairs, given the piano present in the corner. That seemed to satisfy. Aub later told me that often, as a JET teacher, she has to be ready at a moment's notice to come up w/ a quick game/activity to keep kids busy at the request of a teacher/boss. OK - good to remember. Tonight, after the tea party and then my class at 3:45-4:15, we're hosting a big taco party w/ like 7 people. Should be fun.

So still not sure that I'm coming to the US but it's looking likely. My JET interview is scheduled for 21 Feb in Houston, so if we decide not to renew for a 2nd year in Kikai, I'll be coming. I'll spend 2 wks in OK, Dallas, and Houston. I'll keep y'all updated. Please pray that we'd know what to do. Thanks!

To destroy the Earth

If you click on this and read it, you're a nerd like me.
But it sure is funny!

Did I mention I'm looking into flights to come to Dallas and OKC and Houston and Tulsa? Stay tuned!

Japan so far (from Aubrey)

I was thinking the other day about how we have adapted (or not) to all the unconscious things that the Japanese do and want to blog about it before it becomes second-nature to me.
I have never had so many different shoes for different rooms. I could have more but I haven’t found the right ones yet. So, let’s talk about Alan’s since he does have a lot. He has outside shoes which are tennis shoes, and his hiking boots and such. Then he has shower shoes. He also has kitchen shoes. Now our ‘genkan’ (the sunken down entryway) is the ‘house’ for our outside shoes which leads directly to our small kitchen. Rooms are divided by ‘fusuma’ which are traditional sliding doors (not rice paper). The next room leaving the kitchen is the mysterious ‘tatami’ room. NO SHOES allowed is what we have heard and the room right next to the ‘tatami’ room is our bedroom which is wood floor. Houses are measured by ‘tatami’. The ‘tatami’ room is also our everything room where we read, watch TV (if we do), eat, have English classes, etc. So, you have to either break the heels of your new shoes or get slide-on ones, which is what I have thanks to a garage sale at Nancy Edwards’ before heading to Japan!

Food is of course quite different and not so different. I eat a ton more of rice here than I’ve ever eaten in the States. I also eat raw stuff more often though not sashimi or sushi everyday but I definitely could eat sushi every day. I love the ‘nori’ (seaweed) it’s encased in. You can even pick up a ‘bento’ (lunchbox) at any supermarket or convenience store. The bread though looks like Texas Toast that’s not toasted (sliced kind) but Alan says it’s just ok tasting. Eating out can get super expensive-especially if you go in groups. You are almost always offered an appetizer and can’t refuse it but the meal is served in small bowls, like Spanish tapas. Some of our favorite dishes here are hand-made French Fries, Suki Yaki, Kaiten Sushi, sushi, some sashimi, all the yummy fish, Oyakudon, Niku Jaga, Okoge (Chinese dish), and my personal favorite, Keihan. Chopsticks are definitely second nature even more so than in the States. I would say that we eat with them quite regularly.

Sitting properly at the small tables has been a real challenge for me. I have runner legs, which means a little more muscular than most, and the women usually sit on their feet for extended periods of time. We can sit sideways but it’s better to sit on them. Guys can sit Indian style. Funny how I noticed the other day that I was sitting in the ‘seiza’ (sitting on my feet) unconsciously for longer than normal before my knees down went completely numb.

Tea and drinking tea is an understatement in Japan. There are tons of kinds of teas -both hot and cold- canned, and in tea bags. People love their tea. At first, they chided me in Japanese (I could tell by their face but now I know what they said about my ‘wanting sugar’) about wanting to put sugar in the Green tea. That’s like putting sugar on your ice cream; it just sounds weird. Now, I’ve gotten used to that. Regular teas still get my sugar treatment though.

Doing without CHA has been more of a challenge than it was in Europe or Mexico. Even though we live on an island, sitting in front of a space heater is not my idea of getting warm. I bundle up to go to school and anywhere else (while it’s winter) because there is no space heater at school and moving is the best way to stay warm. However, they do have ‘hot carpets’ which are nice. It’s like an electric blanket except thicker and used on the floor. We usually put it under our ‘everything table’ so we can sit on it when we have company and while we are eating or studying.

And people do have cars here, and we could too but we don’t. We bike everywhere. We don’t really NEED a car here though sometimes we want to explore other parts of our island by ourselves and not by bus or bike. It is kind of cool to bike everywhere except when buying groceries and when it rains. People’s cars look like small Hot Wheels autos. Some are boxy and others are fancy. I think that a lot of people’s cars are actually nicer than their houses. Some people have DVD players too and can drive around during the typhoon (when one’s electric will most likely be knocked out) and watch movies to kill time…that seems odd to me.

And there are a ton of other things that I wanted to note, but I have already written bunches so I’ll stop for now.

And if there's anything else you want me to write about, just leave a comment and I'll write. Thanks!

--Posted by Aubrey

Nothing interesting.

It's another day in Kikai and I'm trying to think of a good way to take up some space.

First, a hat tip to Kyle for teaching me how to post several pictures at one time. I hope it'll work on this entry!

OK, so the pictures:
1) Me playing guitar at Sabani bar in Kikai on like 2 January or something. Had a good time, got to play a nice guitar. Discuss. Actually, I think I'll accept the invite to play again there - I keep having these ideas for songs I should practice and then play there, so I'll do it as long as I have ideas.
2) Kaki and Aubrey in front of a restaurant called Hana No Ren (which means "Flower Curtain") on Kaki's last night w/ us. We had a good time fellowshiping for the time she was here. Thank you Kaki for coming and thank You Jesus for calling her to come!
3) Us inside of Hana No Ren, and a big dead octopus is on the counter. We just thought the octopus was cool/weird/crazy-that-it-was-
right-in-front-of-our-faces-on-
the-counter and all... so we took a pic.
4) & 5) Pics of us eating at Tokumoto-san's house on 3 Jan w/ his daughters, w/ whom we have really hit it off. Hanako is at university so we've only met her thrice, but Naoko is still living at home, goes to the high school, so we see her alot. They're really fun and Aubrey and Kaki both loved hanging out w/ them.

Today a friend showed me a few empty houses that the Dept of Education owns in our town. We're going to ask w/in the next coupla days for a move to a bigger place. Hopefully that will work out. Don't have any idea if it'll work though.

Still have received no information from JET as to whether I have an interview in Houston for trying to be a JET next year. Can't believe it's taking this long - I'm just a TAD frustrated.

OTOH, I sent some money orders made out to Aubrey's name to my parents via the Japan Post Office and then realised I should have made them out to my mom's name. So I thought I was going to have to go thru a big process of getting them back, voiding them, and reissuing them - a big hassle and an expense. But praise God it went thru no problemo - I'm really surprised and glad!

Nick the JET from the nearby island Amamioshima is here in Kikai for 4 days, so we hung out w/ him and the 3 HS English teachers tonight. Tomorrow night is a taco party at our house w/ tacos and Chinese spinach salad. Yes, I do realise that we're having Mexican and Chinese food at the same time and that that's kind of weird.

Moving on...
I would like to note w/ sorrow the passing of New Testament Research Ministries' regular blog and also bulletin board forum. Both were a great source of encouragement, knowledge, and help in my spiritual life and I will miss them. May the Lord provide others of His servants to fill the gap!

Aubrey is sitting in the living room working on a Japanese language test. As a JET, she has access to a certain curriculum written by JET and so periodically sends in a written test for grading and evaluation. She wants to do well on it for personal satisfaction, and I hope she is concentrating well. She knows the stuff - it's just a matter of putting it down in the right place (and sometimes for us, it's a matter of putting it all in the right order).

Now I'm gonna call it a night. W/o further comment. Except for that last one.

A Rant About Mardel

OK, I'm going now to rant about Mardel Christian Bookstores.

[specific rant]
You may be familiar w/ the just-released movie "End of the Spear," which retells the death of young missionaries (including Nate Saint and Jim Elliot) in Ecuador at the hands of the murderous Waodani tribe. The movie focuses in particular on Nate Saint, the pilot. However, the role of Nate Saint in "End of the Spear" has been filled by a Chad Allen, who is a gay activist and has starred in homosexual-themed movies and TV shows. He has apparently marched in at least one gay-pride parade in a large US city and displays no repentant attitude about his lifestyle or activities in his very recent interview on Larry King Live, where he was joined by Dr. Al Mohler and Janet Parshall.
See the transcript.

Also, please see also his official fan website.
On this page are posted not a few links to support groups for gay students, "2005 Queer Favorites," and other similar things.

A blogger I have come to enjoy (who is an asst. pastor from Colorado w/ a real live name) comments often on this film and has sent letters and a petition to Mr. Mart Green (the owner of Mardel Christian Stores) asking him to reconsider his decision to cast Mr. Allen as Nate Saint.

Looking at Mr. Allen's credentials listed on the movie publicity website, we see also that his production company did the play "Corpus Christi" in Los Angeles. I won't link to this blasphemous, ridiculous, biased, and highly historically inaccurate play (which, if you are unfamiliar w/ it, features a hard-drinking gay Jesus), but you get the picture. This Mr. Allen is no friend of the faith Nate Saint died to share w/ a people who were destroying themselves as a logical conclusion of their culture.

I am personally thoroughly disgusted by this choice to cast Mr. Allen as Nate Saint in this movie. I don't know whether I would see it in the theatre if I still lived in the States, but I just wanted to let all of you know about it - there may well be a good reason not to go.

[/specific rant]
[general rant]
Mardel is not alone among other Christian bookstores in its lack of discernment. Others, like Family Christian Stores, have made other bad decisions like refusing to carry Derek Webb's She Must And Shall Go Free b/c of the lyrics of this song, which is clearly imagery discussed in the Bible itself. Why Mardel? Nothing particularly better or worse in the areas that concern me than other retailers, although this movie ticked me off enough to blog about it.

A list of Christian retailers' offenses (off the top of my head):
-kowtowing to publishing houses' inundation of the market w/ "new and improved" English translations of the Bible. For God's sake, STOP! There are way more than enough! How about diverting some of that capital into projects like creating translations for languages that don't have one? I recently heard a joke about the new ESV, which I like quite well as a translation; that it's the NASB w/o semicolons.
-refusing to exercise much discernment in their stocking of music.
--I don't want to get too much into P.O.D., but the way they present themselves before secular magazines like Rolling Stone and Guitar is extremely disappointing and disturbing.
The list could go on.
--Amy Grant and Vince Gill
--Michael English
--Phillips, Craig, and Dean
--Jaci Velasquez

-refusing to exercise discernment in their stocking of books. The list is long and distinguished. Among the worst that come to mind:
--Benny Hinn
--Kenneth Copeland
--Other Word of Faith teachers like the Crouches, Kenneth Hagin, Fred Price, Creflo Dollar, Marilyn Hickey, Oral Roberts, etc
--T.D. Jakes
--The "Divine Revelation of Hell" and "Divine Revelation of Heaven" by Mary Baxter

OK, there are just a few reasons to be afraid, very afraid, when walking into your local Christian bookstore. And angry. Like me.
[/general rant]

That said, I thank God for them since they're great stores for browsing when you're a theology/apologetics dork like I am. But dang it, couldn't they do a whole lot better too?

Post-New Year's thoughts

Hi there everyone! I was going to title this post "Sorry I haven't posted in so long," but given how many times I will probably have to say that during our stint in Japan, I decided I didn't want to get to "Sorry I haven't posted in so long MCMXIII," so yeah.
This is a pic of, from left, Kaki, Erica, and Aubrey during our sumptuous New Year's Eve feast of sukiyaki and sparkling grape juice, which I've already mentioned. It's a good pic, so I put it in. Not that I've ever been shy about inserting NOT good pics...
OK, so it's been a longish week and weekend of trying to get back into a 'normal routine' and trying to improve thereon - New Year's Resolooshuns and all that. In point of fact, I haven't made a NYR per se in years, but often I tend to rethink things right around the New Year, so in practice it's the same thing. I suspect it's that I'm too crazy and counter-cultural to admit that I actually make NYRs.

Kaki took off on Thursday night on the ferry. It was a rainy night after a nice day and the ferry was fortunately not required to go to the faraway port, and we watched and waved and watched and waved for like 30 minutes from when she got on until the ship actually left. I think we both felt profoundly lonely, at the same time. It felt kind of final, really... Kaki moving back to Asia pretty soon and all that, but we knew that God is w/ us and these kinds of feelings fade eventually. And now, writing on Monday, I'd say it has faded, for which I'm thankful to the Lord Jesus, since I was feeling really alone for like a week. Reminds me of two other friends who are missionary-ing elsewhere in Asia and who, despite a recent refreshing trip to the Middle East (you know you're a weird mission-nerd when you consider a trip to the Middle East to be refreshing, but some family was there too. Get off me) are feeling a bit empty like they need a change. I can relate, brothers. Perhaps the change I need is to learn to speak Kikai-speak a little better. I must say that Erica, who is the middle young lady in the above pic, was quite inspiring to Aubrey and me for the 4 days she was here. Her Japanese was at a decent level when she came over here at the same time Aubrey did 5 months ago, but it has already taken great leaps and bounds, which is really cool. If we had had the same level, I think we'd be the same place, but we didn't so we aren't. But we thank her for the encouragement - I've been studying quite a bit more and intend to do much better w/ time mgmt so as to study better every day. The funny thing is, when you live immersed in the language and you learn some new words, you can usually use at least a few of them w/in a day or two's time. That's cool you can't buy.

My English classes are steadily increasing in popularity, so that I have a class of 4-year-olds, about 5 classes of 6-7-year-olds, a class of 7-8-year-olds, a class of 10-year-olds, and an adult class. I'm about to take a 6th 6-year-old class... I'm getting a bit cramped, actually. I am struggling w/ my enthusiasm about these classes, I must admit. Taking on another 6-7-year-old class doesn't bother me since I already have ready-made curriculum for them, given the other ones are months ahead, but taking on a different age group is a pain in the rear. That is definitely a subject of prayer these days.As is my constant fatigue. I've felt tired most every day I can remember for the last 8-9 years at least, and I thought that it was worse while I was working the night shift. When I got to Kikai, I was sleeping 8.5-9 hours every night for about 40-50 days. That was when I realised that I still felt about the same after 9 hours of sleep as I did after about 7. So I just decided to forget it and have been sleeping around 7-7.5 most days since then, but I'm sick of being tired all the time. I'm on the 4th day of a no-caffeine-no-coffee-almost-no-sugar diet, though I don't think I was all that bad on any of those counts beforehand. I'm kind of hoping that it helps the problem and kinda hoping it won't (b/c I miss eating sweet snacks)...

Today Aubrey taught at the high school and I ate lunch w/ her. The weather today was clear skies, about 75 degrees, light breeze.

I wore shorts.

In mid-January.

I think that's a fitting follow-up to my recent mention that we swam in the ocean on New Year's Day.

Speaking of New Year's, a monstrous hat tip to my little bro Steve for hooking me up w/ a website from which I can download college football bowl games. Y0u r4\/\/><0rz! And congrats on getting so many perks from your new company that it's like you're at double salary or something. You gotta tell me how to do that sometime.
Anyway, I've already watched about 3/5 of the Rose Bowl and am struggling to allow myself time to watch the rest. In time, all in good time. Next up is the Holiday Bowl and then the Shoogah Bowl. It's a little taste o' home. Yes, I do plan to consume some Chee-tos some time while watching - it'll be just like home actually.

Not speaking of New Year's, I'm happy to report that I learned Friday how to not stand in the middle of the court looking like an idiot while playing badminton. So now I may be an advantage, however slight, to my teammate during weekly badminton playtime. The guys around here take badminton serious, y'all. I've been hit in the face by one of those birdies a coupla times (actually, one time it was thrice in a 3-minute stretch by the same high-school girl. Maybe Aubrey embarrassed her in class or something) and it STUNG. So this ain't backyard badminton. But the upside is that I'll dominate when I come back to the States. At badminton. Fear the --thwing!-- of my racquet!

OK, my wrists hurt so I'm gonna call it quits. Love to all. 

You want religion? You got it!

Everything you could ask for in a religion. Is Next-Day Delivery OK?

So what are we doing these days?

Oh, we're mostly chillin'. You remember how I mentioned that I was going maybe to play guitar at this new bar in Kikai? Well, my friend said that I should probably just go there and maybe the owner, who's wanted me to play for some time, would just ask me to play right then. So I went w/ a bit of a mental set list at the ready, and sure enough I played from about 10:30 to 10:55 or something. I had a good time, got to play a nice Takamine guitar, played before about 50 people or so, had fun playing and am mostly happy w/ the way I sang and only made a few mistakes on the guitar playing. So it was good. It was a little annoying how the progressively more drunken patrons of the bar would occasionally let fly a whoop or loud whistle, but I didn't let it affect my performance. I was afraid that they hated my music, but whadduryagonnado? The owner invited me back to play "anytime." We left pretty much right afterwards b/c the smoke was kinda thick inside and we couldn't stand it well. Some friends, old and new, were there to observe, and they said they liked it. I'll never know if they really did. ;-) It was fun.

I took off of my classes today and only have the one class tomorrow, w/ 2 adults. Aubrey went to the office to "work" this morning, but we decided she should take the other 2.5 days of this week off for vacation - we're not really sure how many more opportunities we'll have - ever - to hang out w/ Kaki, since she's almost certainly moving back to Hong Kong after her grajeeashun in May (grajeeashun is where you get a piece of paper that says you're smart).

So yesterday we entertained two Japanese friends (whom we had seen at the bar the night before) for a taco and refried beans lunch. It was great, but kind of un-Japanese of our one friend, whom we had invited. She then called us 3 minutes before she was to arrive and said, "Is it OK if I bring a friend w/ me?" Ordinarily, we're cool w/ that, absolutely. But 3 minutes before? Well, it was OK, but it struck me as a bit strange. But no prob - we're always ready to welcome more peoples into our haus. And we had enough tacos, so no harm, no foul. Our friends ended up staying until like 5 pm after lunch, so that was neat, but I started feeling a bit tired, so I kind of reclined on my elbow on the floor. Then all of a sudden, I started feeling really dizzy and so pretty much retired to bed for the rest of the day.

And tonight Aubrey was "invited" to a Year-Beginning party for her office (which means that she was under quite a bit of pressure to go) and I walked her there. Once there, I was turning to leave but they invited me in. Not too unhappily, I joined the 40-strong dinner party in the community center. They had good food - big platters of sushi and fried shrimp and also some hot soup that was highly diggable. Some people played and sang, and Aub's boss asked me to go home and fetch my guitar, which I did quickly. I played one song and Aub sang w/ me and it went over quite well. Of course, I was offered alcohol about a zillion times, and one of those times 'twas the superintendent, quite a 'big man,' who offered. I refused politely and asked for more tea. He said "Mada kodomo?" (Are you still a kid?) Two thoughts - 1) Maybe I should re-grow my goatee. 2) How shallow are you, sir, to think that you're a man when you drink sake?
I don't know - it's just sad to see this. Aubrey reminded me that these guys seem all growed-up, but in reality they're more like still-immature high schoolers. She's right, you know.
So tomorrow, we'll visit the other American on the island and generally do more chillin', and some prayer walking. Talk to you soon!

Miscellaneous Notes

This is Kaki preparing to lift Kikai w/ her bare hands. This pic was taken at the Hyakunodai Park, which is the one on Kikai's highest point.

We've been having a pretty good time here.It is possible, though not certain, that I will performing at a bar kind of place (this bar is on the family-friendly side, serves coffee as well as alcohol) tonight w/ my guitar. That should be interesting. I guess people heard about me singing Christ-mas songs at the schools w/ Aub and told the owner and so he wants me to come play. So I'm kinda thinking of what songs I could sing...I think it'd go well if I get to do it. We'll see.

Also, I want to give a shout out to all of our friends and family who are living in wintertime. As for us, we went swimming (yes, swimming) on New Year's Day. We all biked down to da beach and took a dip and it was nice. A little chilly, but it wasn't bad at all (especially 'cause we had 3 bikes so I jogged down there, which is about 1.5 miles, and so was fairly hot by the time I got in the water). So I can say that I swam in the ocean on New Year's Day in the Northern Hemisphere. Cool. (Even though we're only technically in the N Hemisphere!)

Anyway, there's this hilarious 'documentary' on sushi that you simply must see. We laughed so hard while watching it - the humor is so dry! You'll be glad you did! 

Alan under the 300-year-old Sotetsu tree in Kikai. Didn't know it was there. But it's been there a long time...
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Alan and Aub at Shitooke Beach.
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Alan w/ a big stick.
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Kaki, Aub, two of Aub's co-workers (Umibayoshi and Michiyo) and Erica at Umibayoshi's house, enjoying the traditional mochi food. I take it that many Japanese eat mochi around New Year's.
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Mr. Umibayoshi pounding rice into mochi w/ his huge mortar and pestle.
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Wintertime in Kikai. Friday, only the wind made it chilly, but the wind was pretty strong.
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Kaki and Erica enjoying some fresh and sticky mochi.
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One w/ Chee-tohs, one w/ a tiny orange. In the mouth. You make the call.
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At Onotsu's swimming beach, where we enjoyed a windy picnic lunch.
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Aub and Erica enjoy their latest reunion.
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Waiting for the bus on the main road in the middle of town. Ready for picnicking outta town.
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Aubrey celebrates the reception of tons of gluten-free snacky foods from friends in America. Seriously - she has months' worth of supply. Thank you thank you!
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65 minutes to go!

Howdy! As of right now, only 65 minutes remain until the end of the worl- I mean, year. And I'm sitting here w/ a full stomach. A stomach full of sukiyaki, which is a lovely dish. And also s'mores. Yes, we had s'mores tonight, w/ marshmallows melted over a gas stove. Don't laugh - it turned out OK.
Anyway, our friends Kaki and Erica are here - Kaki from Oklahoma by way of Hong Kong and Erica from Kagoshima. And we're chillin'... We got a late Christmas load of gifts from our iMPACT group in Oklahoma (thanks for all the great stuff guys!) from Kaki's luggage and since they arrived we've been having a great time sometimes doing nothing and sometimes making our own fun and sometimes doing stuff w/ island friends.
They arrived on the all-night ferry earlier than we expected on Friday, but we were able to get to the dock not too much later than when they got there. We gave them a bit of a tour of the island and we opened presents and we ate a picnic lunch at the Onotsu beach and ate a big pot o' chili for dinner. Today we went to a friend's house to see how mochi is made (basically, you take a big pot o' rice and put it in a big pestle and smash it repeatedly w/ a big fat wooden hammer) and then took a very long island tour in another friend's car. And tonight, sukiyaki, sparkling grape juice, and s'mores. Just good.Later tonight, we're following our librarian friend's tip and are going to go up to the hilltop Shinto shrine at midnight. Apparently, there is some kind of ancestor worship or whatever going on up there, and we want to observe it. We'll also probably go up to the shrine tomorrow for a while - New Year's Day is a really big holiday for Japanese people. Aubrey's boss described it this way (loose quote follows): "We go to the shrine for about 5 minutes, usually dressed up pretty nicely. Then we put some money in the money box and pray for good luck for the next year. Then we pull the rope and we're done - it all takes about 5 minutes." If anyone out there still wonders why we harbor a deep spiritual pity for these people, may I present the preceding quote as a powerful exhibit?
Anyway, we look very much forward to more fun w/ Erica and Kaki over the next few days.
Finally, I would like to call attention to (w/ a nod to the Westminster Confession of Faith's Chapter XXV, sub-point VI) this photo of Satan Claus. And all this time you thought I was making it up!
Happy New Year! 

Garrett and Hunter all over Dad while Mom looks on. That is a "Yes, that's funny, and I'm also glad it's you and not me" laugh from Mom on the right.
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The Maricles and host family at Chili's. It was really weird to be in an American restaurant w/ all the Americans around. Our waitress was actually Japanese but her English was really good.
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A busy offshoot covered market section of the Kokusai Street section. We got lost in there a few times.
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An expensive kimono on display in a store on Kokusai Street. Aubrey didn't try it on.
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Part of Kokusai Street.
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The little store where we ate some actually-pretty-darn-good Indian tacos for lunch on the 27th.
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The lovely and talented Aubrey on another part of Kokusai Street.
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Alan's momentary death-by-Lego-monster on the 26th.
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Caleb, Barry, Chloe, Dede, Aub and Alan on the evening of the 26th.
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Caleb got a camouflage hat for Christmas, and so I invited him to trade me for mine for a moment. My head's just a TAD bigger, so it made for a funny pic.
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The view from the pastor's friend's balcony on Christmas morning.
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Alan and Barry on Christmas afternoon. I had just finished showing him where Kikai is on the map that I'm holding in my left hand.
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It's about 10 pm and Aubrey is enjoying a well-deserved cold creamy (and all-natural) snack.
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Our Saturday night loot in one of the Okinawa base Shopettes. Yes, Cheese Nips and Breyer's Rocky Road ice cream make great midnight snax. Only Aub could enjoy the ice cream and only I could enjoy the Nips, but you take what you can get. The gaijin on the right is Pastor Bo - it's a great shot of his back.
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The ferry to Okinawa was really big (8000 tons), over twice as big as the ferry we usually take between Kikai and Naze or Kagoshima. So we were really high over everything when we were on the top deck. This is the Naze port, just before our 4.5-hour-delayed departure.
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The Friday sun setting over Naze.
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Aubrey enjoying a caramel macchiato at the cool surfer-style coffeehouse we discovered in Naze. The barista guy (Hiro) was a surfer, too, from Osaka.
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While in Naze, we attended a volleyball tournament for Jr Hi schools (forgot to mention that in the original entry). This is the team of one of Aubrey's most-visited Jr Hi schools, w/ our friend Midori on the bottom left helping to coach. The team got blown away, but it was fun to watch anyway.
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Our Christmas in Okinawa

Time to count some blessings. As I mentioned, we went to Okinawa for our Christmas break, and we were treated like kings! It was really cool. We took our first ferry trip to Naze and hung out there all day on Friday. It was a bit boring, actually... we didn't have a bunch of ideas, but we found a cool coffeehouse and did a little shopping and just kind of walked around. We stayed at our friend's house and then took the ferry the next morning. Only it turned out to be delayed 5 hours (original departure time was 6:30 am) b/c of, I guess, bad weather and high winds. Bummer. So we got on the ferry and it left around 11 am. For 8 hours we were pretty bored, but we got to spend time in prayer and reading and relaxing and stuff. This was a pretty big ship, and they even had a shower facility, so we enjoyed that!Once we got to Okinawa, our friend the pastor sent his son to pick us up and he drove us to the pastor's friend's house where we would stay the 1st night. It turned out to be a pretty nice house w/ a really nice bed and nice furniture and stuff. We felt like we were in a Bed and Breakfast! The next morning was Christmas morning, and the pastor's wife picked us up at 10 to go to church. Yay, church! Once at Koza Baptist Church, we found it to be a large Western-style building filled w/ mostly Americans, who seemed to be quite friendly. Many of them talked to us, and apparently quite a few knew who we were. Church was really great, and the pastor was nice enough, after the service was over, to preside over the ordinance of the Eucharist, which was our 1st time in 5 months. After the service was over, we went to one family's home, who was preparing a big Christmas feast to share w/ us and the pastor, his wife, and his son. This family also has two kids, 11 and like 8 or something, and they were really cool kids. We ate and ate and then played around and enjoyed coffee on their 2nd floor balcony. We really hit it off, and the kids also enjoyed my abilities in imitating the voices of Yoda and Gollum. Yes, my throat was hurting. That afternoon, Dad, Caleb and I played Risk, which was a Christmas present. The day after Christmas, we went onto a military base and we went to the Commissary, which is similar to a non-super Wal-Mart. We got some nice stuff there, including Chee-tos and American breakfast cereal! Mmmmmmmm. I also got me a meatball sub. All this time, it was really cool to be let into this family's life w/ such love and fellowship, and that was relaxing. Walking into this Commissary store was weird b/c there were so many Americans around. It was really crazy to say, "Excuse me" when I got in someone's way instead of "Gomen" as we must say in Japanese. I gotta tell you, you hear about missionaries who retire and go back to the States to live and never fit in again, and feel really strange until they can return to the country where they spent so much of their lives. I can relate, even after just 4 months... and I remember similar feelings when I came back from France. Just a fact of life for the international traveler, I guess.Later that day, we went to the other family's house. This family has 4 kids and the father is an officer in the Marine Corps; they live on one of the many military bases on Okinawa. I am accustomed to being a little taller than most people on Kikai (though not everyone) but found myself looking WAY up at the father, who is a big guy, and really nice. They made a really nice dinner for us including BANANA BREAD (that would be Alan's favorite!) and invited another cool couple from their church small group over to hang out.It may sound a bit boring since we didn't go anywhere special in terms of touristy stuff, but we really felt refreshed by the love and fellowship we experienced.The next day Kelly the mother was nice enough to corral all 4 kids in the minivan and take us the 1hr 15min drive into central Naha to drop us off on Kokusai Dori (International Street). The drive up was crazy, not from the driving per se, but rather from entertaining and being entertained by the 8, 6, 4, and 1 year old kids. I think my favorite part was when I videoed each kid and asked them random questions to see what they would say. The results were quite good. Also, the 8 year old took some time to explain quite reasonably why I couldn't eat the 4 year old even if I really was an alien. He made so much sense that I did not go thru w/ my plan... Kokusai Street was a pretty cool place w/ tons of shopping, and we enjoyed walking up and down it. We had some Indian tacos for lunch that were quite tasty, and later on we had some real Starbux coffee. I was SO glad that this Starbux had soymilk - I really enjoyed my almond latte, and Aubrey quite enjoyed her caramel frappuccino. We were able to do some post-Christmas shopping, mostly for Aubrey's family, and we found what seemed to be outstanding gifts for most everyone, which was encouraging since I think we were kind of in despair on that count. We also found a jeweler (out of the 12 we asked) who was able to engrave the kanji symbol of our baby's name (Sora) on a pendant, which I've wanted for a month. 4 hours later, Kelly the mother picked us back up and we drove to the Chili's Restaurant on base. Wow - a bloomin' onion and a cajun chicken sandwich did wonders for my tummy. Aubrey quite enjoyed her nachos and blackberry tea, while I was singing for joy at the taste of strawberry lemonade. I was REALLY full though - I forgot how big American portions typically are. Not always, but often.
So that was our trip. I hesitate to mention the 16 hour ferry ride on Wednesday to return to Kikai, but it coulda been worse - at least the ferries were on time and we got home by 11:30 pm on Wednesday (we had boarded the ferry at 6:45 am, just to give you an idea).
Many thanks, again, to the families who hosted us! We are so thankful for the love and welcome you showed us, and for your prayers.

At any rate, tomorrow Erica and Kaki join us in Kikai. Yet more coolness awaits! 

Merry Christ-mas!

The lovely lady beside me in this pic is actually away at one of the ubiquitous End-of-the-Year parties, this one for her office.
Which leaves me alone to blog! 'Cause we all know that I much prefer to sit all alone in a cold apartment and type than be w/ my beloved wife. Oh yeah. Whatever.
Anyway, that's our Christ-mas tree behind us, a store-bought plastic one that has fiber optic wires for lighting and pre-installed colored plastic ornaments. Yes, it is GHETTO. But that's what we got, man, and that's the whole thing. Thanx to friends, however, we also have some cool snowman candles, two little doll figures of Mary and Joseph, some nice-smelling candles (most of which we gave as presents to others, but a few of which we kept) and, um, what else? We also bought a wreath which we hung outside, and we took in the strings of blinking Christ-mas lights that had previously been lining our front patio and put 'em up inside. So we've had a nice Christ-mas ambience for quite some time now. Add to that the gift CD of Handel's Messiah and we're Christ-mas Central for Kikai. Now we just need an animatronic Satan Claus to move around and say "Ho ho ho! Buy stuff!"
OK, so the weather here is LOUSY. The winds were gusting to 40 knots today and the ferries were all delayed at least 4 hours in the region. Which means that, if the same holds true tomorrow, we'll not be able (read: have to) to lave on the 4:50 am ferry from the faraway town of Somachi. Oh DARN IT!!!!!!!!! You mean the ferry might be delayed and leave at 9 am rather than 5 am? Hmm, delays.
On the other hand, rough winds mean rough seas, and so we go armed w/ plenty of seasickness meds. And we're definitely praying for smoother seas and no delays the next day when we go from Amamioshima to Naha, Okinawa. The bummer is that the ferry leaves in the morning, which means that we can't sleep overnight or anything. On the other hand, even on a night voyage, the lights in the common sleeping rooms never turn out, so you have to have a blindfold, or you just have to bear the lights on. All things considered, these ferries aren't that bad, but the way they just leave the lights on is a pretty big downer. I'm not fond of the way certain older men seem to think that a ferry trip is a great chance to get schmammered w/ their buds and talk loudly the whole time. Is it just me, or does the prospect of consuming 5+ cans of beer on a rocking, pitching ship sound a bit nauseating? Maybe I just don't have the right sealegs yet. Once I do, tossing back a few cold ones on board will be no sweat. Mondai nai.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to doing several things, such as partaking of the Eucharist at the Koza Baptist Church in Okinawa and fellowshiping w/ other Christians and actually going to church. Should be cool. Culinary delights also await - one of our friends has promised me a loaf of homemade banana bread. Oh yeah - I like the sound of that. Also, American restaurants w/ American burgers and stuff are there. And Chee-tos (hopefully/probably). That's not to say I can't make a good burger here at home and that our homemade French fries aren't pretty dang good (especially now that we have some Tony Chachere's cajun seasoning - thanx Mom and Dadd!) or that the snack foods like chips aren't great here, but there's just sthg about an American burger sometimes. And I'm a Chee-tos freak. So there you go.

On another note, I'm glad to be done w/ the Christ-mas presentations at the schools. Glad we got to do them, and we did like 16 of them total. Oooff. But now over a hundred people know the story of the Birth of our Savior who didn't know before, so I praise the Lord definitely for that.

Finally, I take a bit of time here to reflect on our recent miscarriage, since many of you our friends have asked and certainly more wonder about it. Aubrey is 100% physically healed up and feels good. Emotionally, I am the one who more often gets sad/melancholy over the past 2 weeks (we both felt fairly sad the first week). I don't always know why, but sometimes I see Sora's kanji name or think about her, or miss Aubrey being pregnant. Stuff like that, and I get a bit somber and reflective. Aub is quite understanding and is great at comforting me, to be sure. One might expect the woman to feel more of those feelings, I guess, but that's not the case so far. But I repeat that God is really helping us to move continually to an attitude of thankfulness for the gift of 8 weeks of pregnancy and also thankfulness for His having taken her home when He did. What can I say? He is all-sufficient and all-loving.

Praise be to God for His great condescending love and grace in clothing Himself in frail human flesh so as to save us, His good creation who have occupied ourselves w/ making ourselves less and less good every day. All thanks to Jesus, the Infant Savior! See you around New Year's! 

I know what I want for Christmas!

This.
I used to wear WWJD bracelets quite a bit when I was younger, so I gotta dig it.
And I'm only 10% joking, since it is clear that the violent tendencies for Islam are a logical conclusion from its teachings. Last but not least, let me register yet further disgust for the Palestinian people, who recently fired off AK-47s into the air in celebration and handed out candy on the streets. No, I'm not talking about September 11th, though the same thing happened then too. I'm talking about when Ariel Sharon fell ill w/ a minor stroke. Is it a noble thing to celebrate in such a way when a man has a debilitating illness? Sickening.

Speaking of bombs, the bomb was safely removed from near our house. We had to leave at 9 am on the coldest day yet of the year and go to a friend of a friend's house. So it was us, 3 Chinese ladies speaking sometimes in Chinese and sometimes in Chinese-accented Japanese, and their two kids in a super-cold house w/ only this heated table covered in blankets. We sat around the table covered in blankets and tried not to think about how our legs and backs were aching (Aubrey and I, that is. Don't know how the Chinese ladies' backs and legs were holding up). Seriously, that's one thing that I can maybe get used to here, but never like - sitting on the floor so often. Can't take it.

Mon-Wed I'm going w/ Aub to her schools and we're continuing the telling of the Christ-mas story (I'm sorry, I meant to say "solstice story"). It's great b/c like maybe 3 kids/teachers have ever heard the real meaning of Christ-mas. It's sad on 2 levels. 1) Nobody teaches the kids about Christ-mas, and so they won't learn about Christ. Which means that they may never hear of the One Who can save them from their sins. 2) Nobody teaches them about OTHER religions/worldviews either. Just a thought - it's for DANG sure that my kids (God willing) will know what Ramadan, Rosh Hashanah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Emperor Day, etc are.

A Bomb in Our Backyard, or Say Hello to the CIA Blog-Reader Bot

You'll never guess what WE get to do tomorrow!

OK, I'll tell you. We have to spend at least 3 hours outside of a 300-meter radius, whose epicenter is actually 25 meters away from our house. Why, you ask? The answer should be obvious. But for those of you who still haven't gotten it, I'll explain. It appears that a WW2 era unexploded bomb has been found 25 meters away from our house, and the bomb squad is coming to remove it. But just in case it blows up, all residents need to be out of their houses and businesses from 9 am to whenever on Sunday morning.

Merry Christmas!
OK, sarcasm over. I admit to being more than a little dumbfounded that this is happening and that this bomb has sat 25 meters away from our house for 60 years. And that it's so large that the authorities want everyone to move 300 meters away in case it detonates. Whoof. I'm VERY tempted to move my computer and other valuables to a place a bit farther than 25 meters away from the bomb's location.
We were going to go chill somewhere, like the community center, but it appears instead that one of my adult English students will take us on a several-hour driving-around-doing-whatever tour of Kikai, which beats sitting on our bums all morning.
The little comment about the CIA is just a sad joke...no doubt at all in my mind that the word "bomb" is going to register in some US Gov't blog-reading software, and maybe some agent/operative/bureaucrat will read it to make sure I'm not a wacko. In that case, Hi! Hope the weather is OK where you are! How was church last Sunday?

Just thought you all should know. Weird stuff happens even on Kikai.
Wish me luck and a smoooooooooooooth stroke tonight - I'm playing in a ping-pong tournament in Kamikatetsu (another town) tonight. Should be fun - I've never played in an actual tournament before. I went to practice on Thurs night and there were these two elem school kids there, one of whom was not a whole lot taller than the table itself. He had a good forehand though. I wish I'd been as good as he is by the time I was in seventh grade (and he's probably in 3rd).
Christ-mas is approaching - we're quite looking forward to it! And many thanks to Lana and Tak for the big box of goodies - we already gave tons of Christ-mas CDs and stuff to Aub's coworkers and students. And we very much enjoy our new Handel's Messiah CD.
Also many thanks go out to Aub's grandmother Meme, who sent me a birthday box o' bountiful blessings. Not the least of which was a box of Frosted Mini Spooners. I've always been quite partial to sugared hay.

Basket O' Kitties, or My Wife Is So Smart!

So, what’s up?
Not too much here, though it appears I may well be on the verge of writing a long blog post. Thing is, I wrote this nice post last night and then hit “Publish Post” and it promptly did NOT post. So now I have to redo it. When will I learn to type my posts out on MS Word!?!?!?!?

So this one I’m typing on MS Word, just FYI.

OK, so we posted about the pathetic state of our wild kitties and of our kitty pity last time. I’m considering all these ways I might help the kitties out – build a shelter for them, like a doghouse out of wood or something, I don’t know. Then Aubrey goes the next day and buys a laundry basket and a welcome mat-style rug. In the back porch is a covered area near our washing machine that is protected on three sides from the powerful (these days) wind and from the rain. So she takes the pretty nasty green pillow on which the kitties were formerly often napping and puts it in the laundry basket, partly b/c kitties in general just really like nappy green pillows (don’t they?) but mostly b/c they seem to be attached to it. So she was inviting them in. And it worked! Now the kitties are staying in there like all the time, and like 5 at a time sometimes! As you can see here, Tabi-Tabi, Shoyu, Satin, the newly-named Speckle (the kitty formerly known as Peng and No-Name Kitty), and Austin are cuddling for kitty warmth inside their new home. Aubrey’s brainstorm wins her the Brilliantly-Smart-Good-Call-Cutie-Pie Award for the week.

So yesterday and the day before I went w/ Aubrey to her schools in Somachi. They love us in Somachi, and we like going there even though it’s like the farthest away from our town. It takes quite some time to get there via bus. Anyway, we decided to explain the Christ-mas story to the kids in class, and the teachers were quite happy to allow us to do that. So we started off by explaining that Christ-mas is NOT all about Santa Claus. And the kids are like, “Really?” And we’re like, “Yeah.” And they’re like, “Oh.” And we’re like, “Yeah.”
Clearly a deep level of English was going on.
Anyway, we explained the Christ-mas story to them. It was cool b/c at the elem school the teachers aren’t able to interpret well, and so we had to do it mostly in Japanese. And it showed us that we are making progress in the language, so that was encouraging. The kids really liked it when I played Mary and Aubrey was the deep-voiced innkeeper and King Herod. And they loved it when I was the 3 Wise Men on the camels. I would clop clop clop around and occasionally “spit” at them and they would go wild w/ laughter. It reminded me of that scene in “Aladdin” where the Genie says, “…on your brand new… CAMEL! Watch out, they spit.”
Anyway, we’re hopeful that this presentation caused some to think. One of the teachers asked me in the office when Satan Claus came into the picture, and I told her. And then she was like, “Well, why is he such a big deal for Christ-mas?” Exactly. Seriously, we’re getting pretty sick of Jolly Ol’ SC, but anyway, I explained that Jesus is God and that means that we are responsible before God. SC is just a jolly old grandpa who gives us gifts and demands nothing from us. And in one of the classes, when we had opened for questions, one of the kids asked why Jesus came. Well, if you insist…

A few joyous things:
1) Kaki is in Hong Kong. We can’t wait for her to come here, and our friend Erica from Kagoshima is coming too! Coolness.
2) We get to stay an extra day in Okinawa. Instead of leaving the morning of 27 Dec, we’ll leave the morning of 28 Dec b/c there is a different ferry. We hope that we’ll be back in time to make the connection to the 2nd ferry to take us to Kikai that night. Here’s hoping.
3) I had a bad day yesterday from when I woke up to the time my first class started at 2:45 pm. And usually I don’t have a great time in my classes. But yesterday was the 1st day I really enjoyed my classes, and all 3 of them! So God used that to turn my attitude around, and I’m really thankful.

Catch you soon! 

Kittypix as metaphor of Christ's mercy on us

As the weather has grown colder here in Kikai and the wind has grown stronger, our wild
kitties have not flourished. Here is today's picture of Austin, the newly-named Peng (he's the black-and-white one on the bottom of the catpile [since it wouldn't be proper to say "dogpile"], or as we say, "the pile o' kitties"), and Satin, the grey one on our left. They rested for most of the day on this spool that is behind our house. We have left a pillow on it upon which the kitties often lounge.
Today we were struck w/ a strong sense of compassion and pity for the kitties. Kitty pity. All joking aside (well, almost), these three kitties have gone from pretty darn healthy kitties to looking fairly sick and unhappy these past three weeks or so. Tabi-Tabi, for example, has exhibited mild asthma for quite some time, but now all the kitties have it. And they are all getting runny noses, and as you may be able to see, all three of the kitties pictured here have eye infections. Satin's are especially bad - they are nearly closed due to swelling and are encrusted w/ mucus. Austin's right eye is looking bad. Peng's eyes are red and his face has a few sores on it. Each's fur is looking much more matted and less shiny and clean than just a few weeks ago.
Today we gave them a whole bunch of food, which they seemed to appreciate, and yet that was all we could do. We don't know what to say to them to find out what hurts or why their energy is seemingly sapped. We don't have any idea how to fix their obviously-painful eyes. We can't communicate w/ them to let them know that they could rest inside our entry hall for a while, where it's dry and warmer, if they wanted, and that they would not be in danger inside. As it is, they are suffering.
It reminded of how we are beggars before God. We would love to become cats for a little while to extend an invitation of safety and peace to these wild cats outside our house. We could communicate w/ them in a way that they would better understand. It's an imperfect (or, more properly said, "lousy") metaphor of the Event that we will celebrate in mere days - the birth of Jesus Christ, the 2nd Person of the Trinity, in human flesh and in realtime. He went from indescribable riches to being the son of a poor carpenter. He went from a throne room where he heard praise round the clock from all sorts of angelic and beautiful beings to the dust and stench of ancient Roman Judaea, to wicked men who willfully misunderstood why He had come and eventually executed him in one of the most horrible ways possible.
Isaiah 53:5-7;

"But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth;like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth."

Strange that some stray kitties tugged at my heart today, but sometimes it's the simple things. 

Nearly Christmas thoughts

So what's going on?
I, for one, am glad to be in a country where it's OK to say "Merry Christmas." I won't get sued by the ACLU or fired by my company if I do. In fact, most people won't even understand me!
Well, so this week Aubrey has returned to work and she feels pretty good now.
We went out last night and got a plastic Christmas tree which has fiber optic lights on it and cycles through a cavalcade of colors, so we like it pretty well. We're gonna take the Christmas lights from our back patio and hang them inside our living room today and put out other Christmas decorations to complete the ensemble.
Kaki has left Oklahoma, carrying a suitcase full of goodies for us. Among said goodies are gluten-free cereal bars and gluten-free cereal (both for Aubrey), some long-sleeve shirts (since we don't have lots of cold-weather clothing), some Chee-tohs (for me), some Heath bars (b/c we miss them), and some other requested items. When she arrives, it will be total Christmas. Too bad she won't come until 29 Dec, but that's OK - at least she's coming! She'll be in Hong Kong for 3 weeks, so pray for her time w/ her family - only her little brother is a believer.
Last night, Aubrey was w/ a friend for Japanese tutoring, so I decided I'd go to my favorite restaurant for one of my favorite dishes (it's called "okoge" and it's to die for) and read a good book for a while. While reading, an acquaintance came out of a party room behind me and we talked for a while. I tried to explain the topic of my book (which is J Budziszewski's What We Can't Not Know, on natural law), but that proved pretty tough. Don't know if he caught it or not. Anywho, he asked if I wanted to join his party for awhile, so I said sure. Afterwards, everyone had gone on to their next destination (some kind of nightclub, I imagine) but Deki stayed there and we talked for a long time about Baby Sora, which led to the peace we have about her passing, which led to the Gospel. So we praise God for this divine appointment! We pray that he will take up the challenge to ask God if He is real that I laid before him.

Finally, we have been extended an invitation to join friends from a Baptist church in Okinawa to join them for Christmastime. We're pretty excited about it and are pretty sure we'll take them up on the offer. We'll have to take the ferry down there, which will be fairly long, but overall it should be OK as long as we eat light and take our seasick medication. And hopefully the weather will be nice so the boat won't rock UP UP UP UP UP and DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN all the time. Fortunately, the ship to Okinawa is 8000 tons, whereas the one between here and Naze (Amamioshima) is only 3000 tons. I think the larger size makes the boat substantially more stable. Cruise liners don't have very much rocking motion, I don't think, or at least not usually. That's b/c they're so big.
Bye!

Our day in Naze

Tuesday was our day in Naze, our day in the sun. Except it wasn't very sunny.
We got up at like 3:45 am and went to catch the ferry boat to Naze. W/ bad weather, though, the ferry doesn't come to the port which is right near our house. Instead, it comes to the port which is clear on the other end of the island. Argh. So we had to ask our friend to take us there, which she did graciously.
Given that the weather was so windy, the seas were pretty rough. Aubrey hadn't been bothered by that on the way back from Naze last week, so she figured she didn't need a seasick pill. I knew I did and was glad to have bought some, so I rested more or less peacefully during the ride. I woke up halfway thru to find Aub coming back from the bathroom - she had been very seasick and had to, um, expel her stomach's contents several times. Poor thing. But since she couldn't keep anything down, there was nothing to do but wait for the end of the 2.5 hour trip.
Once arrived at Naze, we spent just over an hour at the hospital, where the doctor gave Aubrey a clean bill of health. That's great, b/c she's had a ROUGH week. First the miscarriage and the recovery. Just when that started to get better, she caught a bad cold for two days. Just when that started to subside on the third day, she got terribly seasick (today). Sheesh.
Having left the hospital, we just walked around Naze for a while. When we passed my favorite convenience store, called "Everyone," where they have a good bakery and these WONDERFUL sweet rolls, we ducked inside for me to grab some. Yummy. While we were resting and I was noshing on my rolls, an older Japanese man wearing older, tattered, and dirty clothes started talking to us in Japanese. He didn't seem ALL there, but he wasn't really freaky or anything. I didn't want to talk to him much, but Aubrey reminded me, "You were praying for divine appointments, right?" Good call. So we talked and found out some more about each other, and I found out a whole lot when I asked what was in his ice coffee bottle (since it was far too clear to be coffee). "Oh, it's sake," was his reply. Ah.
Anyway, I asked him later what restaurant he would recommend for lunch, and he told us to follow him, which we did w/ some trepidation. He took us to a hotel restaurant and ordered us two keihans (which we love, and which were quite good) and a big bottle o' beer. We had told him we don't drink, but the waitress brought three glasses...and left only one. So we talked some more, and he seemed quite reluctant to talk about anything more than surface level stuff. Too bad, really. We had given him a Christmas music CD and a "Digest Bible," which is a summary of the teachings of the Bible, about 25 pages or so. Anyway, he said "See you later" after a while and walked out, and we thought that was strange b/c he had offered to pay for our lunch. We protested a bit, but we've learned after 4 months here that protesting is useless. When he left, we thought that he'd taken us for a free beer. Oh well.
We relaxed and read there a little longer, and while we were preparing to leave, he returned. We said goodbye again and it turned out he HAD paid after all - I guess he was just a really nice guy. But I was pretty concerned about him, since he had downed about 16 oz of sake by 12 noon and then 20 oz of beer during "lunch," during which he ate nothing. And then when he stood to walk away, he slipped a flask of whisky into his pocket. We couldn't help but wonder if his wife's death a year ago (which we are pretty sure he said) had driven him to the bottle.
Later we sought out a cafe that Aubrey had seen during a previous visit to Naze. We did find it, which is surprising. We spent about 2 hours there - a cute place w/ pretty decent coffee and really good hot cocoa. We spent alot of time conversing w/ the owner, and it turned out he was born only one day after my dad was born, same year, same month and all! He was surprised to hear that and so we had a good time talking. It was really funny.

The weather was chilly, a bit windy and sometimes a little sprinkling rain, but generally was fine since we had adequate clothing for the weather. So except for Aub's seasickness, it was a good day. We BOTH took a seasick pill on the way back and were in good shape when we got home (yes, we went home that same night on the ferry. And another friend was nice enough to pick us up at the faraway port). Actually, *I* felt a little unsteady on my feet from seasickness the next day. I am happy to say that last night (Wed night) Aubrey felt good enough after a day of work to spend a half hour modern dancing in our living room while I was cooking dinner. That's great! So we're so thankful for her physical recovery and for your prayers!

Ferry joyous occasion

For those of you who like bad puns - there's my contribution for the day.

So tomorrow we're going back to Naze on Amamioshima for a Dr. checkup for Aub. She was still feeling lousy today, but about 11.5 hours of sleep overnight and then a 2.5 hour nap and then some nice Tylenol w/ Special Ingredient Not To Be Named Here has got her feeling much better. Thank the Lord for that! She's had a really rough week, what w/ the miscarriage, the recovery, and then the cold.

The weather here is UGLY. It's been way windy for two days, w/ intermittent rain, and pretty cold. The ocean is getting all whipped up into lotsa waves. Speaking of fun waves, we're taking the ferry to and from Naze tomorrow! Which means that we may be getting into da boat at 5 am. And normally the ferry leaves from the dock near our house, and that's really nice. Unfortunately, when the weather is bad (like these days), the ferry docks at Somachi, which is the complete other side of Kikai island. Which means we have to impose on a friend to take us there and pick us up (which we do have, and which is a huge blessing!) and which means we have to get up at like 3:45 am or sthg to make sure all is ready - it's a 30 minute drive there or something similar.
And last week, taking the ferry back from Naze in bad weather, I got pretty seasick. It goes UP and then it goes DOWN. Then UP. Then DOWN. Then a little UP and then a little DOWN. Ugh. I was pretty green despite my usually-effective seasick medicine. Aubrey was in fine shape though, which is ironic, since she had been the one under medical treatment just beforehand. Hopefully tomorrow she'll be in good shape too. I'm thinking that it'll be another tough trip, based on how rough the seas were this evening.

Oooofff... not looking forward to it, but we'll see how it goes. Hopefully we can find a petshop in Naze where we can buy a larger cage for our cute little songbird.

The Word of the Day

Well, it's Sunday night and we're kinda frustrated/bored.
Not that we don't have stuff to do at our house. We have a good amount of interesting books we can read. We can always study Japanese, which is usually at least intellectually stimulating. We have a nice computer w/ broadband Internet. We have playing cards. We have a guitar. We have each other.
But when there's no energy, it's hard to do that stuff. And Aubrey right now lacks alot of energy. Her body is still recuperating AND she has a cold, which is making her pretty miserable. AND the weather is really lousy outside - it's like 55 F, w/ really high winds and a bit on the damp side. So we don't want to go outside. I mean, we DO want to go outside, and we DID for about 10 minutes, but Aubrey's still-not-70% status and the lousy weather mean that we're stuck inside.
So it's kind of a junky day for us. Hope tomorrow's weather will be nicer and Aubrey's cold will be gone.
Also, I was just talking to a friend who was driving up to the highest point on Kikai in order to pray to some dead relatives in heaven. He said that the higher he goes, he guesses the easier it would be for them to hear him. But he's not really sure about it. But he's going anyway. And he's going to offer them some candy. And this is a well-educated man - a schoolteacher.
The word of the day is, therefore, frustration. Write it down.

Some lost youth

You know, theology does matter.

This is pretty much beyond words. I am sitting here asking Aubrey just what we could say to help illustrate.
I guess I'll leave w/ this from Aubrey: "Germany doesn't surprise me anymore. Just b/c their society is stable..."
Amen to that. It's really ironic that this is taking place in Nuremberg. Nuremberg, you may recall, is where the world came together to say that there is a Law and the Nazis had broken it. How the mighty have fallen!

Hours of fun

If you love the Bush Administration, read this.
If you don't love the Bush Administration, read it anyway. It's pretty funny. Man, I gotta get me one of these things - it would be great for the 10-minute airplane ride to Amami next time I get over there.

Our baby

Hello all. Christ is risen!

As you have read, we made the announcement recently that Aubrey was pregnant.
Monday, however, Aubrey began to feel pain and to bleed, so we eventually took her to the hospital in Kikai and then flew to Naze (on Amamioshima), during which trip the pain and bleeding grew worse. Our baby did not survive the trip - at only 7 and a half weeks, she passed away due to a miscarriage.

Aubrey has had to endure quite a bit of physical discomfort and pain, including the labor-like contractions on the way to the hospital and the surgical procedure to remove the remnants of our baby and the baby's development from her uterus. We returned home w/ heavy hearts on Wed morning at 12:40 am and have been resting at home since then.

We are sad at our loss. Baby Sora ("Sora" means "sky" in Japanese) had already occupied a place in our hearts, though we had never known much about her, never seen her on an ultrasound, never heard her heartbeat, never felt her kick or move - she was far too small for that.

Talking to a friend after we had heard the news, our friend offered words of comfort, that Christ is risen, that Sora is w/ the Father and will never have to suffer, that God will bring good out of our pain. Then she added a qualifier: "...though all of that may seem to be empty right now..."

That, friends, is just the point. These are NOT empty platitudes. Empty is what we'll hear from those around us, most probably, in the next week or two. "It is so sad." "It will all work out." "Cheer up - you loved your baby and she knew that." "All things pass."
Empty is what the world offers, what is full of misplaced hope in whatever comes to mind, what is designed to re-direct our minds from the truth. And what could people who know of no truth about the afterlife offer in terms of comfort to the bereaved? This is precisely why Christ's "I am the resurrection and the life" is not empty but full, of promise, of true hope, of love, and of compassion.

[Aubrey's thoughts before, during and after the loss] The bleeding actually started Sunday night (light and little pain). We decided to wait and see how I felt the next day. As I did my quiet times with God, He kept bringing a lot of verses about trust and strength into my reading.
I was actually drawn to the passage in John 9 about the man born blind. The Pharisees were arguing among themselves and with Jesus if it was the man's parents or himself sinning that caused the blindness. Jesus told them that none of that was true but that the man was born blind "that the works of God might be displayed in him"(John 9.3b). Over and over that struck me but I didn't know why at the time.
As I began to get worse, Alan wasn't near me but at the store buying lunch for me. I texted him to come quickly. Providentially, the only other American on the island, Ariana (who speaks excellent Japanese), grabbed her sister-in-law who was a nurse and they drove us to the hospital. Kikai doesn't have any OBGYN facilities and I was surprised they even had an ultrasound device. It wasn't of such good quality
so, they urged us to catch the last plane (there are only three a day) to the neighboring island, Amami, to the hospital there. My pain had lessened and the bleeding was not so much but as soon as I landed in Kasari (50 minutes from Naze where the hospital was), I was in tears and was rolled out in a wheelchair to the airport entrance. Again, we were provided with another American who had not only superb Japanese but
had also had two kids in Amami and new that medical vocabulary. She drove us to the hospital. On the way, I experienced probably the most pain I have ever had. It was rush hour but no one was in a rush. In Japan, the roads are narrow and you can't really just put on your blinkers and pass...people just would slow down and cause more problems. Shelly took as many side roads that she knew to cut down the time. Each time,
I kept hearing 'trust me' over and over. The pain came in waves. I had guessed by now that the intense pain was actually contractions. I tried breathing and cried out to God out loud and silently...His presence was there amidst my pain. Alan was with me the whole time. I was admitted immediately when we arrived and after the test was done (internally), I knew. The Japanese doctor was kind but his eyes
were heavy. He spoke the little English he knew to confirm that I had indeed miscarried. As I tried to take in the blow, my body sunk into Alan's and the nurse's arms...I momentarily passed out. We stayed overnight there and it rained the whole time. Shelly was a super great help with interpreting. I think what stood out the most was that God was still there. I wasn't abandoned. He still loved me and His peace
plummeted me even deeper into an understanding about Him: He is still good, sovereign and working even though we see only darkness. His ways are higher than mine. And so, the blind man in John makes sense now. I wait to find out what wonderous works will be displayed even through Sora's death. We grieve and still are grieving but we have hope...because He has risen, so has she also; and that is the best comfort and truth I have ever known to be real-even in sorrow.