Wow! I didn't realize that it's been so long since my last update!
July has been an utter whirlwind. The first week took me up to Okutama Bible Chalet, a camp
and conference center owned by SEND up in the mountains on the very very outskirts of Tokyo.
It
was the SEND annual family conference. What a great blessing to meet everyone who is so faithfully serving the different areas of mid-eastern Japan! A team from Faith Church in Indianapolis came to serve and run the children's program and it was refreshing to get to talk to
people about familiar faces and places. It was also refreshing to simply be in the mountains. From my apartment in Higashi Tokorozawa, I can see the mountains in the distance, but seeing them and being a part of them are two different things! The mountains feel just as much like home as my apartment in Lakeshore did!
The week was blessed with a nitty gritty study of the book of Mark, a chance to share and
present what we're each doing in our ministry, plenty of time to fellowship and get to know the other missionaries, a rafting trip down the river, and of course two 3 am World Cup soccer games. It was a good, good week.
There was one week of semi-normalcy wedged between another week and a half away from my home already away from home. July marked the midway point for my time here in Japan, which also meant the end of my welcome here as a tourist without a visa. So, last week, Anne Marie and I headed out to Taiwan. It was the first time there for both of us and we had quite the experience! We met several truly fun characters, witnessed the glorious beauty of God's natural creation, and sharpened our nonverbal communication skills as neither of us speaks Mandarin or Taiwanese!
We flew into Taipei and made our way around the island by train over the course of 9 days.
We hit Hualien and the Taroko Gorge, Kending, Kaosiung, Tainan, and Taichung. Each area had its ups and its downs, but my favorites had to be the scenery in Hualien, the beaches in Kending, and meeting up with the SEND missionaries in Taichung.
I feel so blessed to have been able to be completely immersed in culture and landscapes
that are nothing like my own twice this summer! Taiwan is a stark contrast between beautiful
mountains and oceans more blue than anything you'll find in a travel magazine, and the grime and stench of a developing country. Heaven and Hell
clash together like the waves on the shore. The amount of traveling we did from one place to another left much time to absorb where I was, where I am, what I was doing, and what I am doing. Where I will be and what I will be doing. One theme is gleamingly apparent: God is good.
I praise God that I am not, nor will I ever be, in control of my life. One year ago Japan was barely in the picture and Taiwan was a country I'd forget to mention when listing off the Asian countries. My sight is so limited. My physical sight, my spiritual sight, my emotional sight--limited. Limited and flawed. How blessed are we to serve a God who transcends all of it. All sight is His. All things are His. All is His. From the dingy streets of Taipei to the marble walls of the Taroko Gorge to the bustling square in Shibuya to my little apartment at the SEND center to Farmers' Fair in Dillsburg and the Indy 500 in Indianapolis. It's all His. I couldn't have it, I wouldn't want it, any other way.
Taichung brought two wonderful surprises: my old friend Tina Lin, and two new friends in Scott and Leslie Powell. Up until we arrived on Friday, we had thought Tina would be out of town so it was a wonderful surprise when we walked into the SEND office and saw her standing there! Tina serves here in Tokyo and lived with me in the SEND center until she left for home service in Taiwan in June. It was so wonderful to see her smiling face again! She was one of my first friends here. The Powells are the Asia Area Directors. They are gracious, hopeful, and faith-filled. They invited us over for dinner on Friday night and shared their story with us. After a rough year, they sat at the table praising God for His majesty and sovereignty.
How could I ever dare not say that God is good?
So, so good.
Saturday brought us back to Tokyo and I was so glad to be home. Thought I enjoyed the trip, it was time to be back! I had a brief delay in customs where they grueled me for half an hour with questions like: "Why are you here?" "Where's your return ticket?" "Who are you staying with?" "Where do you work in the States?" "Why did you come back so soon?" It was nuts. But they let me through eventually and it was only another two hour train ride from there back into Tokyo.
Sunday was a great day as well--the folks at Chuo sang me "Happy Birthday" and they all signed a card. I had to fight back tears, it was so special. It was a hard service for me to sit through because I hadn't been able to sleep much the night before, feeling a little sick. I was trying so hard not to nod off! But I made it through church and through lunch and through the drive home, where I decided that I could make it a little bit further--Janet had called to invite me downtown to join the team from Grace (my church in Indianapolis) who had just come in. So I headed down to Harajuku and waded through the Oriental Bazaar and up and down the streets lined with Dior, Chanel, and LV. Again, how nice to spend some time with people from home.
Today saw me down in the office working on powerpoints, scrubbing my apartment, fixing the vaccuum cleaner, doing laundry, unpacking, washing dishes, sorting out gifts for my classes, filling out addresses on postcards, returning Facebook posts and emails, and updating updating updating. It's been a long day and I feel myself dragging to finish so I should stop here.
Goodnight, friends :)
(Though you're all just waking up)
