Ichi, Ni, San, Shi...

With five days left and Hitoshi, OMF Japan's General Affairs Manager, available to assist me, we went to the bank to close out my accounts.  I have the graphic above of the number 5 and the strokes in order as well as the readings.  Part of the reason I need someone with me when doing bank stuff is that there is one part where I have to write a string of kanji on the form.  I never have occasion to write this unless it's for the bank so I don't get much practice. I have to actually write it myself, so my able assistant clearly writes each kanji for me on a scrap paper larger than usual, but easy for me to see where the lines are to go. I always apologise to my assistant for doing the strokes out of order.  They assure me that it doesn't matter, but you can see them wince if you watch out the corner of your eye as you struggle. Today I didn't drag it out any longer than I had to, so we got done fairly quickly.  Much better than opening the account.

Today was also the day the post office came and picked up the four boxes I am sending by surface mail.  This is the cheapest method but takes the longest - two months.  Of course in the States the Post Office doesn't provide any service like this, either picking up at the house or sending by surface mail.  It will be interesting to see how long Japan Post does.

The rest of my day was spent doing things at the Guest Home as the Abts are in Yokohama providing child care for one of our couples. It's really difficult to pay attention to the needs of the Guest Home when my mind has so many other things to dwell on these last five days.  Today I didn't have any invitations to meals out and it has been a relief.  I had my apple and oatmeal for breakfast and a salad for lunch. Eggs for dinner?

Typhoons and Water and Guests, Oh My!

It's Sunday late morning here. I've been available at 8am to give the pastor the key so that he could get into the office building to make copies of the bulletin, attended the 10 am service and then talked a little with a friend who stopped by after. I just made a pot of chai tea so I could have chai latte while I type, and I have the Osenbei, rice crackers open at my elbow. Until my guest arrives late this evening I'm pretty much free.


This past week was pretty busy with guests and a typhoon and guests because of the typhoon, the return of the Field Director's wife who has been in Germany for several months helping take care of her frail mother and dad, giving her siblings a bit of an easier time. The typhoon was very similar to some hurricanes I've been near. The center travelled south to northeast a bit inland from here, so we got lots of wind and rain. They shut the trains down sometime during evening rush hour and started them back up sometime after 10.30. So the Business Manager and the new Accounts Clerk couldn't go home and asked to stay over. Another friend was stuck at Tokyo station wanting to go to Osaka, so when she could get here and not there, she asked for a room. We had a team of Americans here (3 men, 3 women, all middle age or older) who had been in Sendai helping with the relief work and had a few days before going home to California. One of their churches in the US had the secretary call me when they heard on the news that there was a typhoon coming to Tokyo. She was unconcerned that the time difference meant she had rung my telephone at 5.40 am.


One of our friends who pastors a church in Tokyo had scheduled to use our auditorium and another area all day on Friday for a kind of church retreat. They also wanted to baptize three people which meant I had to find out how to fill up the baptistery which is under the platform on the far end of the auditorium. Fortunately our pastor who has used it several times was able to consult with us on the method. The major glitches were that the hot water heating system has an automatic shutoff after running for between 45 minutes and an hour. It takes three hours to fill the baptistery - it's a lot bigger than it needs to be, but that's how it got built. So you have to be rather alert when filling it to get enough hot water. The pastor doing the baptism was sure I didn't have a clue how to do it, he wasn't far wrong, so he came out Thursday afternoon and filled the baptistery about a third of the way up then asked me to fill it up the rest of the way on Friday morning. when it was done, he pulled out a thermometer like you use to see how hot the ofuro water is before your bath. He was happily surprised that it was 32 degrees C.


This next week we get busy again with the Home Council's autumn meeting on Tuesday. Some of their members and those giving reports live far enough away that they have asked to stay overnight. We have several people here for a few days before they fly to their home countries for their Home Assignments. We also have people here visiting with an eye to seeing if this might be where they'd like to work. The first week of October is the autumn Field Council meeting which sees representative members from all over the northern part of Honshu and Hokkaido here for several days.


After that, around the middle of October, it looks like the pace might slow down a little for a while, or it may be that people are just now thinking they should write to make reservations.


I'd really like to go to Quilting Class this week. It got cancelled last week because of the typhoon. I need to get some kind of a project cut out or planned to take however. We'll see. I'd also like to go to the grocery store and fruit market. And, there's the ever present "stuff" that still needs to be gone through or to have a home found for it.

Full House

Actually, tonight is one of those rare occasions when there is no one at the Guest Home. Kenton left this morning, and JP is away for the weekend.  So, it's quiet here except for the three Sunday School classes using our buildings at the moment.

This all changes starting tomorrow evening when new guests start arriving and by Tuesday night all the rooms will be occupied. This is the way of the Guest Home in Ichikawa.

When I took over management of the place in June it was a sudden change for me and I had to jump into a schedule that had already, in the most, part been set for me. The busy schedule continues for another week or two and then glorious down time and perhaps an actual vacation!

The 10th of August a prayer partner from America, whom I have not met in person, will visit for 5 days.  Even though it is likely to be hot, I will try to show her the highlights of Tokyo. Just planning for this upcoming change of schedule is rather invigorating. It's something to look forward to.

Changing Times

When I was in college, many long years ago, one of my mottoes was "Nothing's Quite As Sure As Change" I have in subsequent times discovered that God never changes, but stuff having to do do with human beings often does.

This week and next I re-experience the role of Ichikawa OMF Guest Home Manager while the Aylings are in Hokkaido.  Yes, I have subbed for them before, but this time they are preparing for their imminent departure from Japan. When they go I will be in charge for real. True, I did run the Guest Home myself from 2000 to 2002, but then I was younger, the Guest Home was new, and not so many people knew about it.

So, now, I relearn the rhythms of cleaning, and greeting, and laundry, and bookings, and accounting, and shopping, and finding time off for myself. While this is going on there are still a few things I need to do in the Serve Japan Office from time to time. 

I'm praying that I can pace myself to run well in the race that is set before me.