Crossroads

Sunday was such a blessing.  The joy & comfort of worshiping in ones native language is amazing!  The message was thought provoking as well.  I have been pondering it off and on all week.  Yesterday when I was out with a dear friend we talked about it and this blog began to write itself.

Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV)

16 This is what the Lord says:

“Stand at the crossroads and look;

    ask for the ancient paths,

ask where the good way is, and walk in it,

    and you will find rest for your souls.

    But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

Stand at the crossroads.  Each and every day we stand at crossroads...  Many of these crossroads are small and may not make a big impact on your life...   Do I eat watermelon or have another hamburger?  Apple pie or peach?  Some of these crossroads are bigger... Do I go out with friends or do I stay home?  Do I buy ___ or save my money?  Some of the crossroads are huge... Do I marry him or not?  Do we buy that house?

The Bible tells us to stand at the crossroads and LOOK.  We should not make decisions lightly.  We need to contemplate our choices, even the small ones.  However the bigger the decision the more careful we need to be.  We need to stop & look.  We need to seek out help from "the ancient paths" - from GOD. From God's word.  From those who have walked with the LORD longer than we have.

We need to look for the "good way" and walk in it.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true,whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

When we do this, then and only then will we be walking in the Light.  It is then that the Lord will bless us.  However, like the Israelites of old, too many times we stand at the crossroads and choose to NOT take the right path.  Or we simply fail to stand and look, but charge full speed ahead.  Then we wonder why God has forsaken us.

If we chose to eat only junk food, we shouldn't be surprised when we gain weight.

If we chose to not reach out to people, we shouldn't be surprised when people don't reach out to us.

If we chose to buy that new shiny gadget that we really cannot afford, we shouldn't be surprised when we don't have money for important things.

When we ignore God's warnings & the advice of older saints, we shouldn't be surprised when the choices we made fall apart.

If we fail to stand at the crossroads and look, we set ourselves up to fall.  Fall on our faces, Fall away from God.

Each of us needs to remember to Stop, Stand, & Look to the LORD as we make the many decisions, big and small, in life.

Long & Short Of It

Seems to me that travelers are portrayed in two distinct lights; either all pulled together, fresh, perky, and clean or the Home Alone madman dash.  After just having spent roughly 2 full days, 45 hours to be more precise, traveling I do believe that much depends the combination of the group dynamics along with the point in transit.  Our group started at the pulled together, fresh, perky, excited and ended more sleep deprived & disheveled, but still excited.  Thankfully, there was no mad dashing involved!

The main part of the group met at the Kashiwazaki station at 3:30 Thursday.  We met up with our last member of the group in Nagaoka before we boarded the Shinkansen.  In Tokyo we met up with what felt like the entire population of Niigata prefecture all jam paced onto one train O_o  *Note to self, remember rush hour and Tokyo trains in general when making travel plans & reservations!!  We finally managed to arrive, check in, and make it to our rooms at an airport hotel by 9:30pm.  Yes, it took us 6 hours of travel get us to the airport vicinity!

Friday morning was airport time.  Baggage claimed (most of us had wisely shipped our bags ahead to the airport) we headed to the check in counter where we entered into a counter jumping contest.  Me to airport staff: "Which counter should we check in at?"  Staff: "Go to counter L"  Next Staff person: "Go to counter O"  Next Staff person: "Go to counter P. Use this scanner to check in."  Next Staff person: "Seems you cannot use the self check in,  Go to counter Q"  Whew, we still managed to gt checked in in a fairly timely manner.

On to Immigration...

The students whizzed right through.  I needed 3 shots to "whiz" through.  First time, I didn't have the correct form.  Things have changed and I did not see the tables set up with reentry paperwork so I went to the counter with nothing more than my passport, boarding pass, & foreign resident card.  The officer scanned my passport & foreign resident card and told me to fill out "THIS side" of the paper he gave me.  Second time... you must fill out the other side as well.  Third time, with paper fully filled out, I whizzed right through. 

In Dallas/Fort Worth the students got to experience the 3rd times the charm fun of immigration.  I must say that was more frustrating and stressful for all involved - even those of us who whizzed right through and had to wait!  BUT eventually everyone was allowed to enter the good old US of A.

We had two flights: Tokyo to Dallas and Dallas to Detroit.  Both flights were pretty typical and went without complications.  I did enjoy the privileged of flying without a special needs child.  I actually managed to watch, and even enjoy, 2 movies.  I slept some, read some, likely experienced what a normal person does on a flight...odd, very odd.

In Detroit we were met by Jenn.  Jenn was our summer intern a few years back and this year she is the state side coordinator for our home stay.  She is also the church bus driver!  She got us from Detroit to Butler, in good time.  We arrived at Christ's Church at Butler just after 8pm local time Friday or 9am Japan time Saturday.

Now for the fun to begin!

Reminders

Life is full of reminders or triggers.  Some are lovely, some are not.

Hear a song, go back to a special occasion.

Smell a certain smell, be transported back to grandma's kitchen.

See a special flower, remember a significant event.

While I was walking this morning I saw these lovely flowers and was transported back 9 years to the days after our big earthquake.  We were living at ECS and walking back and forth to the ECS apartment for cold showers, there was still no gas so no hot water.  There was a lovely vine covered wall of these beauties along the way.  They brought color and beauty to a trying time.

I hear the song Friends and go back to the days just before we came to Japan.  So many memories!

The Takayanagi Fox Festival in October will forever be a reminder of beginning of Joshy's battle with Aplastic Anemia.  He was in short stay so that we could do the 3km night hike.  We picked him up and he had a huge bruise.  The next day he was lethargic and became all but unresponsive.  This started what turned into a 6 month hospitalization and a battle he still fights to this day.

Tonight is the wake of a Christian brother.  He hadn't been feeling well and the doctors were trying to get to the bottom of the problem when he suffered a stroke on late Wednesday or early Thursday.  He passed away on Saturday evening.  He leaves behind a wife and two elementary age boys.  My heart is heavy for his family.  Saturday should be remembered as the 1st day of summer vacation not the day daddy went to heaven.  Tomorrow is Kashiwazaki's big fireworks display, it shouldn't be the day of a funeral.  I wonder if these special events will always bring back sad memories - I pray not.  I pray happy memories will cover over some of the sadness.

Please lift up the Sasaki family in your prayers.

Speed Of Sound

If one is a car, 0-60 in 3 second is crazy fast.  It's cool even.  

If one is a boy, 0-60 (0 = healthy / 60 = hospitalized) in a few hours is crazy fast, too.  It is, however, not cool!  Joshy seems to have this skill down to a science!   People think I am strange for noticing a single sneeze or cough.  Vick's Vapor Rub is also our constant friend.  At the slightest stuffiness the Vick's is pulled out and applied, even if no noticeable to the naked eye cold symptoms are seen, because by the time cold symptoms are truly present we are in the danger zone.  

This go around his excelleration was a little slow.  The first sign of congestion was Monday evening.  Tuesday he went to school with a slight runny nose.  Wednesday we kept him home with a very runny nose & a cough.  By Wednesday evening I called the ER because his heart rate was way high.  His Spo2 was still is the safe zone, as was his temperature, so we opted to ride the night out at home.  Thursday morning  he had reached the all I can do is sleep stage which earned us a direct pass to a ward.  Until last night (Friday) he was like this...

Last night he woke up.  He was happy, but not overly active.  Today is another story.  Just as he gets ill at the speed of sound he also seems to recover quickly once IV antibiotics are on board.  Today he has attempted to chew the netting over his IV.  He thinks the IV tubing is a lovely toy.  I mean, it makes cool noises when dropped.  The bits an bobbles are great to chew on.  If ones spins quickly enough it makes a rope to hog tie oneself... What's not to like???

Now that boy is feeling better being in the hospital is a full time job.  I am hopeful the doctor will decide that he is well enough to be sent home.  He does still have a cough and is not eating overly well yet, but he certainly is playing hard enough to work up an appetite!   LORD willing he will eat dinner, which will give me ammunition to help gain our freedom.

In the meantime, thank you for the prayers.  I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that prayer is the key to recovery.
 

Finding Rest

Everyone needs rest, but too often busyness takes over and rest gets pushed to the side.  Often we push the matter of rest aside for too long.  We stop listening to our bodies needs and force the good LORD to take matters into His own hands.  His way of providing rest isn't always to our liking.

Right now I am getting a bit of rest in a roundabout way.  I am keeping this guy company as he is content to sleep as he fight to overcome acute bronchitis.

I am content to sit here on his bed and read, play games, blog... As he snores.  I check his needs but for the most part there isn't much to do.

I know that this will change as he starts feeling better.  When he wakes up there will be entertaining to do, cords to keep untangled and attached, etcetera.  In the meantime I am attempting to rest.

Psalm 23:1-3

 
     The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
    he refreshes my soul.

Medical Merry-go-round

Saturday (7/9) Jerry saw the doctor - bronchitis.

Monday (7/11) I saw the cardiologist to get the lowdown on all my recent tests - all seems to be well.  Started a couple meds to get the fluid retention under control.  They are working well.

Tuesday (7/12) Was Joshy's monthly Cancer Center checkup - his counts are continuing on their climb toward normal.  He even gets to skip his August checkup!!

Thursday (today) I am back at the allergy doctor- Jerry shared his cold!  I now have antibiotics & cold meds on board.  I also picked up Kei & my asthma medicine.

English Camp starts tomorrow.  I am up to my eyeballs in preparation.  

The home stay to Indiana is fast approaching.  

Life is beyond CrAZy right now!

This morning, after dropping Joshy off at short stay, we headed to the mountains.   A missionary family we know are heading out on a 15 day camping adventure and their 1st stop is in our prefecture.  We finally settle on a plan to meet up at Naena Waterfall in Myoko.  Naena Waterfall is one of the top 100 waterfalls in Japan.  Jerry & I had gone there a couple years ago, and it just seemed like a good place to meet for a picnic lunch - we weren't disappointed. 

On the way, we took the time to stop at Imori Ike, also in Myoko.  Imori Ike is famous for it's view & reflection of Mt. Myoko.  There was a lovely, wheelchair friendly, path around the pond - something to keep in mind for some future outing with a certain young man.

 

 

 

Next we headed to the waterfall, a short 4.5km drive... IF your GPS doesn't decide to take you on an adventure.  According to the GPS we had arrived... ummmm... maybe at the top of the waterfall but not at the bottom where we were intending to go. We sent a message to our friends, turned around and headed back down the mountain, only to PASS our friends on their way up.  At least their GPS was sending them to the same wrong place! 

After arriving at the correct spot, we enjoyed a picnic by the river.

  

Lots of exploring, climbing, & hiking.

 

 

 Just to look at the various angles of this beautiful work of the LORD.

 

 We finished our time together with a treat at Cafe Gland.  

Thankful their food was much better than their spelling.

It was a wonderful time of fellowship & fun friendship building.  BTW - we are hoping that including the kids in the afternoon treat wasn't against the rules.

Laughter is good medicine!