I’ll be honest - our first draft goal for 2019 was “slow down, say no.” We ended 2018 worn thin. Gotta do less, we thought. Take better care of ourselves. Shrink in a little. And then the pastor preached on Matthew 5; “blessed are the poor in spirit; You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world” Eugene Peterson’s commentary says: “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. . . . Here’s another way to put it. . . . Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By open up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father.” And as if that wasn’t enough, as I read the text of Matthew 5 on my phone in church, a text popped up on my screen from a single mom I met in rehab and hosted at my house shortly after. After that first visit, she told me by text that she is often too emotionally overwhelmed to get out of the house--her son, like ours, has significant limb differences. This time she texted, “let’s get together again soon!” Ok, ok. So. Seems like life isn’t going to slow down; we need deeper wells, bigger pools of wisdom and courage.
Here’s our new goal: (drum roll...) deepen our pools of prayer and wisdom. Rather than shrinking our life down to what we naïvely assume we can control, we allow that we weren’t in control of anything anyway (eye roll... I know..), and God is stretching us for his own glory. But bigger trees need bigger roots; a very deep taproot. As our life and ministry expand, we yearn for our cloud of witnesses and advisors to also expand. With this growth in mind, we’re announcing some changes; we’re excited and nervous!
When we started this monthly newsletter, we had one small child, we could barely order at a restaurant in Japanese, and we both taught full time at Christian Academy. We wanted to reach out and stay connected, so we started sending this newsletter to . . . basically anyone we thought would like to stay connected. I know . . . we probably should have asked you first! Sorry about that.
Now, seven years later, our family has doubled in size and - largely thanks to our various local school communities - our horizons and vocabularies have opened to embrace not only CAJ classrooms, but also our neighborhood, our local churches, our parks, our hospitals, our city office and our city as a whole. In addition to teaching 100 or so CAJ students, we now also have friends and connections at every intersection in town. I can’t go to the grocery store, post office, flower shop, dentist, or park without meeting someone who knows us. Although I’m proud to say my Japanese level is the worst in my family (no way can I out-chat my daughter’s four year old preschool buddies or do my son’s second grade homework), as a family we can navigate our lives in Japanese: hospital, rehab, grocery, church, school, PTA, library, homework, pets. While the neighborhood watches. Life in a fishbowl, anyone?
So, here’s the vision: there’s this gorgeous tapestry of grace all over this green globe. The threads are silky thin, iron strong, the pattern so beautiful takes your breath away. Through this tapestry, I am privileged to serve a young woman in Thailand who is finishing her teaching degree and hoping to return to her own little village to serve her community. I get to dry my dishes with a towel made by a woman in Kenya and wear gorgeous earrings handmade by a woman in northern Japan. I don’t know these women, but because I know Rosie, who connected me with the young student, and I know Ikuyo, who brought the towel from Kenya to my church in Tokyo, and I know Sue who started the art therapy organization in Ishinomaki Japan, I get to be a tiny sliver of these women’s lives. And my life is ever so much richer because of I’m woven into this tapestry.
Do you see it? Because you know us, you have a connection to the tapestry at work in this city. We invite you to partner with us, to weave your prayers and your resources into our neighborhood, our classroom, our students’ lives, our playgrounds, our kitchen table. Partner means being committed to praying for us, allowing us to keep in touch with you, and possibly supporting us financially.
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| This REALLY is the only recent picture of the six of us.... |
We believe God is tugging on more hearts to look toward this corner of Tokyo, to the work He is doing here. As our partners, you have the opportunity to connect with our school and students, this city, and for those of us who live and work here.
We’ve been incredibly blessed by generous one time gifts, and we’re very grateful that Japan’s welfare system provides some support for our special needs son. We could not meet our immediate daily needs without these one time gifts and without city welfare. But God has called us to commit long-term to this work, so we’re also looking long term and seeking to engage hearts willing to invest in this place. Prayer follows financial investment. We are looking for more financial partners to join with us in our daily work. Specifically, we are looking for 20 more partners to support us at $100 per month.
We know - because we’ve met you and we’ve sat over coffee tables and living room couches - we know that you are the kind of person who cares about lonely, hurting people. If you lived in our neighborhood, yours would be the house with the light always on. You would have a seat at your table, a welcoming classroom, a spare moment in your day to check in with that kid who just looks extra fragile. The beauty of the kingdom of heaven is that each of us is entrusted to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our own tiny neighborhoods. And because we love and trust each other, we also get to be the hands and feet of Jesus in each other’s neighborhoods, with each other’s neighbors and lonely friends.
And finally: What does this mean about how we stay connected with you?
- Instead of this more general monthly newsletter, we will now be sending out a quarterly family newsletter that we mail out and post on social media.
- Partners will receive monthly or more updates, a more personalized version of what we've been doing here, plus face to face/screen to screen connections as often as we can!
- At the encouragement of various advisors and Christian Academy in Japan, we’re making a change to our sponsoring organization. Previously, we used Japan Christian Academy Association, an offset of Christian Academy, to process donations. From this year, we’re joining a new organization, Resourcing Christian Schools International. RCE Int’l is set up specifically to help international Christian school teachers ministering overseas, and offers an array of resources including counseling, financial and retirement planning, home assignment support, and international living that we have already found to be so helpful and beneficial.
Will you join us? If you would like to opt in to our partner community, please reply to this email or click on the link below. We know each of you is incredibly committed to your own communities and everyone feels stretched thin. Please know that your reply will not change our relationship and we love you no matter what!
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