I just got back from Saitama prefecture. Grace Baptist Bible School was having its Bible Conference, and the board held its meeting the day before it started. Nobby Tajima, my missionary pastor (June 1, 2010 post), is on the board so offered to give us a ride, which of course, Kinya and I gratefully accepted.pic: Joyce, me, Kinya at Grace Baptist Bible School's Bible Conference, held at the Bethel Baptist Church (where my daughter Emily attends). Joyce is also on the school board. That's Becky Enterline in the back, a missionary wife, one of Joyce's co-workers.
We stayed in my daughter Emily's apartment while we were there and attended the Bible Conference meetings during the day. This time, I'd told myself, I would remember to get a photo of my sister Joyce (I didn't get one our last visit: April 7, 2010 post). While packing to get ready to go down for the trip, I made sure I took along the digital camera's recharger so I wouldn't run out of "juice" before I got it. I even packed a cord to be able to view it on a computer screen.
But when we got to the apartment, I realized I'd forgotten to take the camera itself! I would have to take photos with a cellphone. I'd also picked out clothes to wear to Bible Conference but had left them on their hangers at the front entrance of the home where I'd set them out. Ack! It's a good thing my sister Joyce lives in the apartment right below Emily; she lent me a skirt to wear for Bible Conference.
When we got there, one of the first things Kinya did was to finish fixing things he hadn't completed in our April stay. But something very funny happened then. He was tending to a refrigerator leak, when he noticed a strange shadow...it was a frying pan! What's a frying pan doing in a place like this, we wondered? Our guess was that the former users of the refrigerator had used it to collect some of the dripping water, had neglected to remove it, and in time it had shifted to a completely different place where it was no longer performing any useful function...just occupying space!A frying pan sitting under a refrigerator? Pretty ridiculous. I sure don't want to be like that, shifting out of a place of usefulness just to occupy space. But I suppose that can happen if I act, on my own, to get out of discomfort when I decide I can take it no longer.
pic: Kinya finding a FRYING PAN under the refrigerator!
When we got home, our clothes greeted us on their hangers...at the exact place we had left them. Clothes are inanimate so don't chuckle at people, do they? But it certainly felt like they did then.
