On March 18, I could not find my glasses. We were supposed to leave Koriyama the next day, and I could not find my glasses anywhere . But I've misplaced them before, and they always showed up sooner or later. If I had lost something smaller, say, my contacts, I might have been a little more concerned. But my glasses? I knew I would find them in time for the long-distance bus out of the prefecture.
But March 19th rolled around, and my glasses were still nowhere in sight. The "magnifying glass" I wore to read ("I thought I said we wouldn't have gifts", March 22, written in Jan.) was the only thing I could take with me.
Here in Iwatsuki, one of the material blessings God gave me was the purchasing of bifocals--at less than half its normal price--yesterday. It was the day I went to my son's high school's first 授業参観 (jugyo sankan), where parents can observe classes in session. And I was so glad for the glasses then, knowing I would be able to see my son now!
Immediately after I had received the glasses and was riding in the car on the way to school, I realized that when I looked hard at something in the distance, it blurred. But that was only if I strained and squinted as I had done for a month of trying to see things on my own. When I relaxed my eye muscles and let the glasses do its work, I could see the very same things, clearly.
pic absence: I tried and tried to post a photo here of stressed eyes peering through bifocals and then another photo of them relaxed, but for some reason, I can't do it; you'll have to trust your imagination--sorry!
"That's like when we try to figure out how to do things ourselves instead of letting God do the work," my daughter commented.
 |
| Emily made Japanese Cheesecake and Cookies |
At Bethel Baptist today, we had pot luck for Mother's Day. Mothers were not to bring anything, only the men and children were. Even when the meal was over, all the mothers were "shoohed " upstairs because we instinctively helped clean or put away food; we weren't supposed to do any work for the day at church.
The food out on the tables looked yummy--but I remembered my first introduction to Japanese cooking: it looks good, but the portions are so small!
Cookbooks are perhaps the only books I would try to read in Japanese, mostly because I first look at the photos of the food before actually reading the recipes. (I found myself thinking this often, because most bookstores in Japan carry very little in English, of course virtually no Christian literature whatsoever).
Another type of book I would "read in Japanese" would be music books, including 聖歌's (hymnals). It is not pictures per se I look at then, but musical notes. And with hymnals, there are also lyrics which are much easier to read than the "denser" reading of "normal" books.
I know I am rambling. But bear with me a little longer. A huge unexpected blessing of moving here to Iwatsuki, just above my sister's place, is that she is now giving me pointers in hymnplaying!
When we lived up in Koriyama, there were times I envied the girls who could go to Bible School and study there, not just Bible and church courses, but also have hymnplaying lessons with Joyce. Sometimes I heard them, in their congregational accompaniment, implementing new things they had just been taught; and with a wistful smile I would wish I could learn things like that too...but we were much too far from Iwatsuki to get piano lessons from my sister.
 |
| Putting to Practice Hymnplaying Hints |
Little did I know then that one day God would move us down south; He would plop me down in the apartment just above Joyce's apartment; He would let me receive keyboard advice from her personally!
