Kyle and Erika Move In

Erika - my fellow Earthquake/Tsunami adventurer - and her husband Kyle are getting ready to PCS.  During our infamous adventure in Tokyo Erika had wondered how her fish fared in the Earthquake. She also commented that they'd need a new home when she and Kyle PCS'd.  The movers come tomorrow.

Tonight....we brought their fish to our home. We've decided two of the four fish have to be named Kyle and Erika....we're still debating which one will be which and why....stay tuned.

OK - still not a puppy - but we're all excited to have pets again.....though Zander has mentioned several times that our fish only live two days. NOT SURE WHY HE THINKS THAT!

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

L....L...L...Letter!

After Stacia's recent infamous phonics lesson, we were thrilled to pick this up on base.....

It's writing on paper, in an envelope, with stamps on the corner and we picked it up at the post office. It's a L....L....Letter!

Grandma G came through.....and I'm looking for ways to be sure she receives more "letters".....for those who asked....as a matter of fact all her birthday cards WERE electronic or given to her by family here. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

I Said No

Life always gets a bit hectic when Michael is gone. I pick up some of his commitments (teaching Sunday School class),  the kids are home alone (which makes it harder for me to be out and about as I feel much better about them having Daddy time than I do about them being alone), I don't sleep as well......


I knew going into this week, it would be a crazy one. I have something every night of the week on the calendar AND the girls and I are leaving for a 4 day trip at 0 dark thirty on Thursday. Regional Conference Prep pace has picked up. Many new things have begun (school year, Bible Studies, ministries, Sunday School). Hair cuts, doctor appointments.... I should have known I couldn't keep this pace with Michael gone....but I'm nothing if not valiant (and a bit dense).


I've been determined to blog more - this meant saying no to hourly FB updates. ::snort::

I'm determined to keep a steady pace in school  - this means saying NO to hourly email checks.

I'm determined to keep a balance of relationship and  service...this meant saying YES to onsen....and restructuring my FB time.  ::snort::

Last night I was up until 12:30 a.m. answering emails that collected all day.

This a.m. we headed in to the base for Bible Study (20 min drive), as we neared the base I realized I'd left my ID at home. This added 40 min to the a.m. and made  us  late. Thank GOD for lovely women who realized I hadn't shown up when I would normally show up and set up my study (it was GORGEOUS) as well as the homeschool room (Arielle runs it).  Later I forgot to pick up my thyroid meds. I began to suspect it was time to say no to tonight's outing and stay home.

The thing is I LOVE our monthly book club. This month's book was quirky, silly, and yet had some profound thoughts in it and I looked forward to sharing with all. {The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow}

I scrolled through status updates and caught one titled, "I said no." I thought - "Yeah, maybe I should read this, I probably should stay home." I read the linked article. Good thoughts. I decided I really wanted to go and would go anyway.

 As I continued to debate tonight's activity a friend who is moving called. We are adopting her fish. We need to get them tonight or tomorrow. Tomorrow already has 3 appointments and 2 trips to base....as I went about figuring out how to add getting fish to the schedule....I clearly remembered, "I SAID NO."  I could say YES tonight (something I dearly wanted to be able to do) but it would add craziness to tomorrow.

I SAID NO! It was downright liberating! muhahahaha  I know it's a small thing, but it was big for ME to say no to a women's activity...afterall I love my PWOC Peeps. I'm also a bit of an extrovert and am recharged by spending time with these ladies...but I knew early this a.m. I should say no...and I'm thankful the Holy Spirit stayed with me until I followed through.

The truth is saying no at appropriate times allows me to say yes to more of my 5% activities.

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Youth Mission Trip

Misawa's PYOC/Cross Training (Protestant Youth Group) took another trip to Miyako. Their mission was to take 1000 kilos of rice down to the area, and to play with kids - displaying the love of Jesus in action to an area stricken by the earthquake/tsunami. 


They ran into an unexpected delay on the way down. Evidently the rice got the better of the tire. LOL

The kids amused themselves while waiting.  (Nolan in green, Arielle in tie dye and Jared in the brown.)

Unloading rice in Miyako.

At the school the kids played ball.....

...worked on crafts...

...told a Bible Story, Lance speaks Japanese.....

  

Miss Kim to the right is the kid's youth leader and is really getting them involved in some great things. 

and loved on kids.  (Jared has a new friend)

We wondered, as we were shaking so often here in Misawa, if they would be feeling them even more as they were "in the zone."  The kids report that they didn't feel them at all. LOL 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Intimate Delight

"Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of the term. But exposition may be carried on in such way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and  unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts. " 

A.W. Tozer, "The Pursuit of God," p 9-10. Emphasis mine.

We can fall into several errors towards the Word.

• Devalue it's place in our life and base our "faith" totally on emotion, others words, and experience
• Become focused on a didactic knowledge of the Word and fail to be spiritually nourished by it

The Word of God is meant to

• Be a conversation with God
• Introduce us to God
• Nourish us
• Assist in our transformation into His image
• Provide a pattern for life
• Wash and cleans us
• Correct us
• Reprove us
• Teach us 
• Train us in righteousness
• Equip us for every good work to which He calls
• Give us great peace
• Keep us from stumbling and being offended as we surrender to the Lord of the Word

We must avoid either neglecting the Word or treating the Word like an academic subject. We need to approach the Word expecting to hear from the God of the Word. We need to learn to practice conversational/relational reading of the Word. As we do our "Bible study" truly will become an intimate delight.

May your Bible study bring you great intimacy and delight, may you be nourished, fed, changed by the time you spend with God interacting with His message to you.


Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

RAINY SUNDAY

Last night I prayed I would not be awaken by shaking....funny thing is at 04:44 I came WIDE AWAKE....sure there was a

in my bedroom.   I am using a new ap  - Textfree. It's great. I chose a stateside number and now I can text my folks and the kids FREE - and they can text back. I wasn't sure it was needed - we DO have Skype and Facebook....but thought it would be fun to try. The kids really like being able to text...it's that sort of society. So....since the iPad is always chirping at me, I wanted distinct sound to go off when I received a text. I chose a mooing cow....and at 04:44 I discovered I'd forgotten to turn off the volume on the ipad. LOL

Today was the first day back to RE (Sunday School) for the fall. Everyone enjoyed their new classes....from Stacia to myself.

I volunteered in our services 3 & 4 year old ministry today. I started the day teaching an adult class on parenting and then moved to loving on the younger set.

I was very proud of Zander who chose to stay in the service and sit with Ch and Jenn R rather than come play in the nursery!

It's been raining all day.....and I really do enjoy the sound of rain. I also love snuggling up at home.  We decided to grab some lunch and then head home to spend the day "inside".

The Lakeview Grille is on base. It overlooks the lake and is a great spot to sit and visit. It's usually quite quiet. We wanted quiet today - or at least I did. LOL I love their gourmet garlic chicken pizza. I'm lucky Jared does too - we manage to finish a pizza off between the two of us. LOL 

We stopped by the Post Office and discovered several school texts had arrived. Stacia was the most excited. While the rest of us worked on lesson plans, printed out lapbook material etc...she worked on explode the code. She wants to finish the book she's on so she can start the next ones.  I discovered a grievous gap in her education. 

"I'm thinking of something that is sent in the mail. A person writes a message on paper and puts in an envelope with a stamp on it."

She thought. "A package email?" (We usually get packages when we stop at the post office. Most our mail comes MPS...no stamps).

No. 

"A newsletter." 

"Warm."  ::grin::  

Arielle visited with friends outside. 

The younger two romped around a bit outside. 

Jared and I stayed focused on school. 

Mike Skyped. We miss him. 

I worked on a few SMALL conference projects. 

And we shook - at least a couple of times this afternoon - 5.9 and 4.9. 

I AM going to try to keep the blog up a bit more regularly once again. I've slowed down for several reasons - TIME, a few intense things to work through which I didn't feel should be shared, Facebook seduction....but I've realized anew this is a Family Keepsake and I need to give it more time than the quick bursts of "socializing" on Facebook. 

Choosing Joy!

©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Shake, Shake Shake

Michael is gone.

There are some things which are just "right". We should not shake when Michael is gone. There are shaking parts of the day and sleeping parts of the day. It is plain rude for the shaking parts to intrude on the sleeping parts of the day.

This is how our morning went.

4:26 a.m. a LONG 6.3.....did I say it was long? Long enough for me to wake up, figure out what it was, wonder if it would quit, try to remember where Mike left the NEO folder,  and realize we were still shaking. Not particularly violent this time though.... a lot of swaying. I like that better than the jarring ones. Nonetheless, I reached over and grabbed the ipad to check Facebook.

Why?

I suppose to confirm I was not crazy and was in fact shaking in my sleep.....and also, with Michael gone, I knew he wouldn't be recalled, (duh) but if there WERE a tsunami warning  there would be loud speakers declaring this on the base. I could rely on  friends to post helpful tidbits such as,  "do not go to the ocean," and "tsunami coming - run for the base". ::snort::  I realize I have a fun imagination, but I wasn't simply being fanciful...I did hear something on the public loud speakers out here in Oriase.

But THEN we kept having them. I wonder why it's been silent for nearly a month and then so many so close together. Ah well....this is the norm and the stillness worries me more than an occasional swaying.

For those at home wondering....if they say Iwate-ken  or Sanriku Oki or Aomori or Misawa-Shi - those will be felt by US....if they are over about 4...usually.  The numbers on the right in the above chart are the Japanese system....the others are the international numbers.

This is a time lapse map that is plain ole fun to visit when we're "busy".  You can get a feel for it by going to the site and when it loads clicking 12 or 24 hours and watching. This shows we DID have 6 over 5 between around 4:30 and 7:30 a.m. and one smaller one at 10:16 a.m. To find us....see the main island the most northern label is "morioka" and we're about 1/4 in north...

The older three kids are down actually in this area today on a mission trip.  I had wondered how the young ones would respond to waking up early to take them to the bus....that was solved by the shaking. ::grin::


Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...