OKINAWAN CAKE WRAP?!

I took these photos April 4, intending to do a photo story, then promptly forgot to post them--sorry!

1 Pastor Ishikawa brought Chiffon Cake...

2 Wait a minute...

3 Aren't those Shi-sahs...

4 Whale Shark...Angelfish

5 That's the Yanbaru Kuina!

INCLINES

Just a tiny marble rolling around on a slanted floor. Have you seen those toys where you try to get all the little marbles to fall in the right places by tilting the board?

Sometimes, I think I'm really BIG STUFF, dedicated to living for God. Then I have to laugh at myself. Unless God actually inclines my heart to want to seek Him, I'd probably seek to put myself forward, and that's all I'd think about! Who do I think I am?!

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is...well, the very beginning of the verse of I Kings 8:58: "That he may incline our hearts unto him..." prayed by Solomon, when he dedicated the temple before anyone even stepped foot into it.

Speaking of "inclines"...this isn't the verb, but the noun "incline". Here are pics of that incline where I had my spill last Oct., as well as the vending machine nearby with the Shi-kwa-sah drink.

JUST KNOTTED TOGETHER THEN

I'm glad I took a photo of it before.

I posted about my nephew coming to Okinawa on Oct. 28, and we'd gone to a nearby sushi store. It had been decades since our families had met on the other side of the ocean, but it wasn't like meeting strangers at all, and the Lord gave us a really enjoyable time. (I don't know why JOYCE is the one in the picture left holding the bag of take-out sushi I ordered! Sorry, Joyce!)

Since Michael--that's his name--and I both have this thing about preferring paper books to digital ones, one of the gifts he gave me was a metal cutout bookmark of the Boston skyline (yes; that's where he lives). I used it to keep place for Bible memory work so saw its shiny red tassel every day. Last week, realizing it had been almost half a year since they'd been here, I took a picture of the and e-mailed Michael hello.

I'd sent along a photo of the remodeled store we'd gone to, wondering if our families might be able to get together again. He sent a pic showing he'd already been seeing relatives on that side of the globe! Here he is with his sister's children.  (No, I haven't seen her since she was a toddler either! I wonder if her family will ever visit Okinawa.)

As I was thinking of responding,  I noticed...

that bright red tassel just plain came off! I don't know how it was attached, because it's not the frayed ends of the red cords of the bookmark, but clearly merely a designer's add-on at the very end (literally), to make the product more marketable. I liked the red tho', didn't want to do away with it entirely, so simply knotted the end and decided to keep using it that way.

God loves us, uses us broken, attached, knotted, whether we get it together or not...doesn't He? He just waits for us to turn our hearts to His love and surrender our lives to Him completely.

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life" (Psalm 23:6)

IS DADDY 10 YEARS OLD IN HEAVEN?

I'm sitting in Daddy's Study looking around, wondering how they measure time in Heaven, because Daddy's been there 10 years today.  The signs and books in Japanese attest to the many years God worked through his life, I suppose, and the old photographs testify to how Providence moved through the century and in relatives' hearts to provide land and living across continents and generations.

Oh...that #1 Dad mug. Could it have been over half a century ago that Daddy was taking Joyce by the hand and leading her back and forth across the street so she would have confidence and be able to do it herself...how he pulled out a poor report card to cheer up Janice when she was brokenhearted about not getting the A she so wanted...Daddy showed me how to run the 400 meter and was proud of me after the race altho' I think about it now, and he might've been disappointed I didn't win but came in second.

I told Daddy I didn't want inheritance money, just his books. For months, we'd been sharing a lot of things in Lloyd-Jones' writings, and Daddy had even been mailing some of his hardcovers up to Koriyama, where I'd fallen in love with them. I was thrilled when he said he would leave me, not just his books, but his entire study. But he didn't put it in writing; I don't know how this will work out if powerful legal men step in. Well, whatever God wills will happen, so we'll just see.

At any rate, David Martyn Lloyd-Jones has ended up being a favorite author, and his book of sermons on Ephesians 1: "God's Ultimate Purpose", simply blew me away. I never thought I could love a book about stuffy doctrine, but this one just plain surprised me. And...if you've read my post "Lord Senility", you read about how I tore off all the pics my dad had on the books and in the study. But those were all dorky to remind himself not to take himself too seriously. This one's better, don't you think?

It was cool so we went out a little!

The weather forecast looked like I'd have to stay indoors for a few months and wait for the autumn...wait...NO!  The first few days of the week were going to shoot down into cooler temperatures when it would be okay for my medicine--YES! Impulsively, I shut off my laptop; asked Kinya if it would be okay to take a short jaunt outside; headed for my trusty push-cart, remembering to put my compact camera into its back pocket.

I wanted to remember to get snapshots while I was out. But, as I complained to Kinya, the camera lens just cannot capture vivid reds. It has frustrated me no end that the deep red hibiscus looks so blanched in photos. Well, I'll settle for the orange and yellow of the gladiolas spears growing by the roadside! These, to me, are just as attractive as the pricey ones sold in the flower shops.

Even my compact camera picks up the orange of the gladiolas, even if it can't manage red...what is that brick-colored thing in the back? Oh--the Okinawan Shi-sah. Only on this island would you find so many of them finding their way into unrelated photographs. This "Shi-sah" figurine pair guards a popular sushi store: the open-mouthed one invites good fortune while the closed-mouthed one rejects ill fortune.

Over the river on our walk home were the many " climbing carp", strung up in preparation for the popular Children's Day near the beginning of May. There are many carp in this river, not these colorful festive streamers, but real, live swimming creatures. Over half a century ago, this is where Daddy, not the carp, used to swim with the village children.

Nothing has changed. The God Who created the land, sea, skies, flowers, fish, creatures still lives and loves. And He is the Creator Who designed human lenses that capture vivid reds and offers g'zillions of them in pairs for free, unconditionally, to most human infants at birth.

THEY'RE BLOOMING AGAIN!

Recently, the associate pastor of a church I fellowshipped with in Tokyo came down to speak in several churches in Okinawa, and I took an online peek at one of his meetings. I recognized the Pastors as some young staff members of the mission school I first attended!

On my younger sister's prodding, I'd recently been gathering writing I'd done in Japanese about my own childhood, including many memories at Okinawa Christian School. I didn't write anything about the time OCS was still in only quonset huts in Camp Kue--after all, I was only in kindergarten then--but my sister's teacher, Mrs. Cherry, saw Joyce's potential and had her start reading in kindergarten so that she needed only the 1st semester of 1st grade, the 2nd semester of 2nd grade. This love of reading helped her, I think, do well in Okinawa's Spelling Bee years later. I found something scrapbooked (the old church name and address can be displayed because the place had been torn down since.)

Whew. After several hours' writing, I decided to take a break, and on the way back from the kitchen, I noticed the flowers. It had been something the church folks sent home with Joyce to cheer me up for Mother's Day--a pot of orchids--and Kinya had made sure the plant got water and sun because he knew I would let it die. Even after his heartfelt efforts, all the flowers fell off, I saw sadly, and I'd stopped looking in the direction of the plant...until that moment. THERE WERE THREE FLOWERS BLOOMING AGAIN!

It had been just one year. But I was ecstatic. The memory about OCS and the Spelling Bee had been over 50 years. But they gave me a really warm feeling I can't explain either. No wonder scripture says one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day. God doesn't measure things in the same way either, does He?

POTATOES

There is no way anybody could've known. Since our family moved down to Okinawa in Sept. '24, I've had this craving for a simple "potato salad" found at the nearby store with tiny dices of carrot, some onion, some chunks of potato and a lot of mayonnaise-y mash. Nothing else. I keep a large container of it in the fridge to be served in smaller portions practically every day.

So I've actually been eating potato pretty regularly. But one day, I realized there had been an oversight in the shopping--I'D LET THE POTATO SALAD RUN OUT! No biggy, right? Just get it tomorrow. That's the facial expression I wore, but I was thinking, "But I want it TODAY!"

There was a ring at the door. Pastor Ishikawa brought chiffon cakes from a local bakery for my sister Joyce and for our family. Then he handed us a small shopping bag of produce, saying he'd been given two bags, and the Lord told him to take one of them to the Saitos.

What could be in the bag? Potatoes! When I saw what was inside, I had to e-mail Yoshitaka Ishikawa right away and tell him what had happened.

So we could eat potato that very day--yes!

Sometimes, a pastor's job is to prepare a sermon, at other times to study the Bible, or do hospital or prison visits. But many have learned they need to be sensitive to the Voice of God about even a bag of potatoes. Am I thanking God and being joyfully obedient with what He has given me, that He dare trust me with more?

"He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in that which is the least is unjust also in much." (Luke 16:10)

FORGET THE CAMERA

I forgot to bring my camera again! But one result was instead of photographing wildlife after going to the doctor's, Kinya and took the short way back home through the city...which meant stopping to pick up a few things at the stores. We could just put them in the push-cart I now used, I thought, but Kinya decided to use his backpack instead.

One of the stores we stopped in, I told him, was owned by the person who provided our church land. Years back, as a single young man, riding home on a bus after an ongoing stressful work situation, he happened to look out the window and see church lights. He got off at the next stop; attended the meeting (they happened to be holding special evangelistic services); and got saved. (He's the one in the blue.) It was after that that he got married and became owner of a nearby department store, then had a hand in our small group of believers purchasing a plot of land for the new church location.

Recently, I've been reading through quite a bit of things I've written in Japanese about what the Lord's done for me, and I've been trying to put them into digital format too. But I do know I can get carried away doing this reading and writing in the wrong posture and do all sorts of bad things to my already weak back; I need to be careful. BUT one of the things Kinya told me I could pick up at this department store mentioned above...was a lumbar support! I'll put this simply: all the things I've tried in the past really haven't worked. But this one is doing the trick!

In fact, I told my sister Janice it presses just the right spot in the right way and feels so good, it's kind of like a massage chair. The other day, after feeling a little sore after finishing cleaning up the kitchen, I remember wanting to come into the bedroom, not to flop onto the bed and rest, but to sit on that thing and have it press on my back! No, they're not paying me to advertise!

IN PAPA'S LAP

Isn't it infuriating when you KNOW something was "crystal clear" in a dream, but the moment you get upright, the body fluids rush out of your brain and you LOSE the whole thing?! I think if I were a film director, I would show tenants in the apartment of the head rushing downstairs and out the doors of the building, turning out lights as they go, showing what happens.

"In Papa's Lap." It was about those three words, about starting every morning climbing into my Heavenly Father's arms. It's maddening  because I've felt for a long time now how it is important to do so, but this dream made it so undeniably simple yet slightly different from anything I've said before. But...what was it? I sympathize, partially, with Nebuchadnezzar's feeling of wanting to know what his dream was. 

"For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that he himself doeth;" (John 5:20)

Daniel got it right. He knew the mighty God Who loves us is also the giving God who shows us the secrets of our minds and told Nebuchadnezzar so.

I was thinking of a book review of the "Giving Tree" that flashed across the pharmacy waiting room T.V. screen when we went Friday afternoon. Have you read it? 

Altho' this kind of giving cannot be maintained for Finite man, can the unregenerate mind make sense of how an Infinite Savior would empty Himself for self-centered man? Then He calls, "Come," (Matt.11:28-29); but many of us have found the very gifts He's given us keeps us satisfied from Him (Isa.57:10), and we don't realize it until we're worn out and all we can do IS rest in Him. But then, like that tree, He too is happy.

Here's an imaginary "epilogue" of sorts to that story: the boy dies, but the tree trunk offers long slivers of bark to weave into a wicker-natural coffin for popular back-to-earth burials; then its last bits of wood are ground into pulp for sheets of paper to keep stories about the boy alive  for generations in books such as The Giving Tree.

No; the God of Heaven didn't send me the continuation of a dream of a child on a Father's Knee. He sent visual images of a carefree little boy in the boughs of Grace.

Wow; Now THAT was a surprise! 

FLEAS AND PLEAS

It was time to go to the clinic again to pick up my medicine. But when I opened the front door and stepped out, I saw the little box to my right and remembered.

Several posts ago "Dead Grass", I told you about the stray cat that came to the house...well, it kept coming back. I realized it's not remarkably attractive but has markings resembling a newborn kitten we saved a while ago, which had been caught by another kitten who had mistaken it for a mouse and been playing with it rough enough to break its back. We rescued and tried to help it, but it had died on us that night. No doubt Kinya's heart strings had been pulled when he saw this cat--I mean, it was his idea to set out the box for the cat; and Kinya's the one who went out and bought the feeding tray and cat food without saying a word to me about it!

When the cat first came, she would flinch at your every movement, but not anymore. "We're going to the doctor's; you watch the house, ok?" I said when we left, and it seemed perfectly relaxed when we came back.

Kinya said the cat would even come inside, but he kept it out because he was sure it had fleas. Fleas in a stray cat--poor thing--I hadn't thought about that.

All I know is, I wanted a cat, and God engineered the situation so that Kinya himself is the one who wanted it here so I didn't even have to ask for it--thank you Lord!

THOUGHTS ABOUT JOHN 5:7

Every once in a while in my memory work, I step away from Revelation, right now, I'm reviewing John 5, about the healing at the pool of Bethesda.

May I share some thoughts I had from verse 7 while posting some photos taken on a walk earlier this week? Actually, this pic was shot blind; the sun's reflection kept me from seeing anything in the finder, so I just pressed the shutter.

Well, I guess there were blind folk at the pool of Bethesda (altho' that's not the person in verse 7), so it's kinda related? June...

"The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool;"

The individual may sense his own inability or lacks of human leaders, but that's usually best: it's GOD we need to keep our eyes on. Maybe I hesitate too much before serving, feeling I need some "green light", sign, or open door before stepping out--I want to see the "water troubled".

I remember hearing how some of God's doors say, "PUSH"; or are the kind that open automatically when the sensors catch people walking towards them in faith. God may want us actively obeying, not just sitting around waiting. "Put me into the pool"? Too often we seek the human answer to problems, not guaranteed to work, and sometimes the problems themselves aren't defined properly. 

GOD CARES FOR HIS OWN

It looks like I'm going to end up working backwards on telling this one. Because the first pic is of the cake and card made for Joyce this week--her birthday was on the 10th. The reason it's gonna be backwards is because of the thoughts that came. (No, I didn't have food coloring; that red was made with a cherry drink powder, and grape color turned ash when combined with margarine's yellow.) 

We see Joyce at least once a week because we use the same washer-dryer; that reminds me of how our washing machine began groaning a few months before we moved and shut down completely just a few weeks before we came here to Okinawa.

Our washing machine had given us its life's work. The city had bought it for us brand new when we moved to the Iwatsuki apartment in 2012. Because of road construction, all residents were requested to leave, and cooperation was financed: new appliances (which meant for us, a washer-dryer and 3 air conditioners) were purchased, and 3 months' rent was paid! (This is a pic of the empty plot of land after the building was torn down!)

There would've been no other way we could've made the move. I need to back up a little more: our family had just moved down from Koriyama after having fled the 2011 Quake with nothing but what we had in our backpacks; while others may speak of not having enough to afford what they need; we had only what was handed us. And God had given us a roof over our heads with the entire family intact, schooling for the children, bicycles (two of them!),...and I almost forgot to mention: Joyce was there in Iwatsuki at the time!

We'd had to move for a reason other than that city construction. Altho' church was about 15 mins.' walk away, Joyce had picked us up by car to take us to church most weeks. Right after she left for the U.S. for furlo' however, the church moved clear across to the other side of the city! There was no public transportation there, and it would take over half an hour walking one way. This is when God stepped in and let the government pay for our move to a home near the church's new location, with a brand new washer-dryer, three AC's, plus 3 months' rent!

So altho' it was Joyce's birthday, I couldn't stop my thoughts from flying in all these directions and marveling: we have a powerful, wealthy, loving Heavenly Father!

DEAD GRASS

Pastor Yoshitaka Ishikawa, because of our Dad's friendship with his family, has watched over us like his own little sisters, always checking on our electricity, plumbing needs, etc. We so thank God for Him.

The other day, he noticed the area near the stairs looked like a rainforest and came with his sickle and cut it all down for us--yes!

The cut grass served another purpose for a furry neighbor.

Later on in the week, I looked down in the yard and saw a stray cat had found the dry grass purrfect bedding after a recent deluge.

"Just dead stuff?" Maybe. But in God's Hands, it may be the PERFECT source of comfort for some exhausted soul!

All I know is, there's one kitty nearby that likes Yoshitaka.