Tony and Marsha Woods

The other day someone who I greatly respect asked a surprising question.  He is Japanese, so that made it even more surprising.  He asked,  “Why do you love the Japanese?”
A whirlwind of thoughts went thru my mind and I stammered something like “I’ll have to think about that”.  I immediately flashed to a time long ago, when Tony had just spoken at a large church in America.  Driving home basking in the glow of a great service, we heard from the backseat the fairly conversational voice of our son Nathan who was about 15 (that glorious age when your parents are beginning to get on your nerves).  He said, “Dad, you’re such a hypocrite!”
Managing not to veer into the oncoming traffic, Tony offered a weak, “That’s interesting Son, why do you say that”?
“Well”, he continued, “you stand up in the pulpit and tell everyone how much you love the Japanese, but I’ve been there and listened to you complain about them, saying that they’re driving you nuts. I’ve seen your stress, felt your frustrations…. I know you don’t love them at all”.
I don’t often feel that God puts words in my mouth, but this time He certainly helped out as I immediately retorted (sweetly of course), “Nathan, do you think we love you?”
I held my breath until he finally answered, “Oh, of course!”  Then I was able to continue.
“Do we ever get irritated with you? How about this morning when we had to turn the car around because you forgot something?  What is it that you continually do with your dirty socks even though we’ve talked about it so many times?  Are there times when we don’t understand each other?  Remember  last week when I told you I just wanted to be alone?  Do you want Dad to ’share’ those things from the pulpit?  Of course not.  We don’t love you less, in fact, all that “good with the bad” stuff just makes us all love each other more, don’t you think?”
I saw him sheepishly nod in the rear view mirror. I grabbed my chance and continued. “You see, we are a family!  We’re close because we’ve chosen to be together and sometimes “us” is all we’ve got.  Sure there are times, but we always KNOW we LOVE you more than anything.  That’s the way it is with our relationship with the Japanese!”
I remember another friend, who was a second generation missionary to Japan.  She said wisely, “Whenever we begin to say ‘these people’ more than a few times a week, we know it’s time to get away and reflect on what God is doing with ‘these people’ and more importantly, with us as we live with these people.”  I had to agree, sometimes the differences in language, culture, and even personalities just about overwhelms us, but……. They are us and we are they.  We’ve been in this together for over 35 years and sometimes ya just gotta love em!
I told my friend the next day, “I love the Japanese because of our history together. Japanese people have been my life for over HALF the time I’ve been alive! How can I NOT love them?”

He seemed satisfied with the answer, and I had a few more questions to think about: Why do I love Tony, or my kids, or even the interminable business meeting I’m facing this afternoon? Part of that answer is history. That old “love at first sight” adage comes up short, in my mind. I might be immediately attracted to something or someone, but until I can get a few years of shared experiences under my belt, I’d hesitate to call it love. And that includes my relationship with God…and the Japanese.  Childlike faith is a good way to start, but it needs to be undergirded with a lifetime of living together before a real “love history” starts to take shape.

On that note, this week let’s  go out there and make history!

Blessings, Marsha

The other day I was out walking in the pre dawn chill and came around the corner to be assaulted by the distinct smell of Play Dough! I stopped and looked around, but could never find the source or even a clue as to what it might be, since I was pretty sure it wasn’t Play Dough. However, the aroma was enough to transport me back to my preschool teaching days….and later on to those days of picking play dough out of my own carpets as my children danced around me…………….

So nostalgic, this gift of smell that we’ve been given by our Heavenly Father. As I regrouped and continued my walk, I started paying attention to the smells: Fresh laundry on the line, someone cooking oden, plum blossoms beginning to bloom, Oops! Sewer……..hurry past that. Then the smell of an ofuro bath coming thru an open window, roasting chestnuts emanating from the door of our local 7/11, on and on the smells go………all the way back to my own front door where I found Tony cooking salmon for breakfast! Isn’t it amazing how our body works, how certain long forgotten smells can pull up your brain to remember something you barely noticed when it was around, and then give you the ability to associate all the feelings that you had during that period of your life.

The Bible talks about the “Fragrance” of Christianity in 2 Corinthians 2:14. Sometimes, when Paul is cautioning quarreling church members, he might have wanted to call it the ’stench of Christian brothers” but he didn’t. Aren’t we glad that for the most part it’s the ‘fragrance’ that people are drawn to? So many times people comment on how “Christians are different”, etc. Just last week, a Japanese lady was sharing how she became a Christian in the States because her host family were just so honestly nice to her. I made the comment that Japanese people are ‘nice’ as well, to which she quickly replied, “Oh, but Japanese are never REALLY nice, they just ACT nice!” I’m not sure if this is completely true, but I’ve lived here a long time, and it does seem that there are often a lot of ulterior motives at play, the same as there are with all of us from time to time.

What can I say? God made each of us with a specific set of ‘gifts’ to use. Let’s all remember to be those ‘fragrances’ that bring people back to God! This week and next we’re in northern Japan spreading around some love and fragrance with a team of enthusiastic young adults from California Baptist University. They don’t speak much Japanese but we’ll pray that the love of Christ will just ooze out of them as they help these disaster victims. Have a great Mother’s day today! I know I did! I thank God every day for my children who gave me more than their share of ‘smells’…. both bad and good! They are a sweet fragrance to me now, as I remember them…. as well as all the rest of my adopted sons and daughters around the world (You know who you are!). Marsha

As you may know, we’ve been in the tsunami disaster zone for the last two weeks.  A lovely group of septuagenarians (and older) from Hawaii came with something like 20 extra boxes of goodies and literally worked our socks off!  I hope I have that much energy when I retire!  They were mostly second and third generation Japanese from Hawaii, which posed a whole new challenge.  They ‘looked’ Japanese but were true blue Americans with most of the same cultural/language barriers as all of our volunteers, but missing out on most of the typical Japanese help/pity, since their needs weren’t readily obvious. They didn’t let that slow them down, and as they leave today and I can honestly say they’ve been a blessing to everyone.
I was thinking as we were driving around all the temporary housing units the other day, just how much improvement there has been in these last 14 months.  We find ourselves narrating as we drive along, “Wow, this place was SO BAD before; there were houses and cars stacked up more than 20 feet!” ……or “This is where we saw that huge boat right here in the middle of the road”  …….on and on the stories go. One town, Onagawa, has decided to make a memorial out of the 4 story building that floated in on it’s side.  We’re relieved (in a sad kind of way) that they’re doing this, as we’re left with something to point to, explain the magnitude of the devastation.   Now in most places we go, the visitors see only what looks like a rural town………bare and sparse, with a house here and there, and flat barren dust or mud. Little can they imagine the density of the village that was there before.
The Japanese in their indomitable spirit are also, with the clean up, shoring up their emotional walls as well.  Where before, they were desperate for help and comfort, now they are getting back into that polite reserve……that, “Ikitara ikimas” expression that we used to hear a lot before the disaster. It translates, “I’ll come if I can”, but it really means “NO”.  Most of the people we encounter these days who still want to talk on a heart level are the old and the lonely.  The young ones, it seems, are finding things to do. Does this sound familiar where you live?
As I was beginning to be discouraged, I noticed a Daffodil blooming in the mud around where we were shoveling so much debris last year.  Spring is here.  That bulb had to have been placed there by someone last autumn.  Someone planted a seed, and now it’s blossoming into a beautiful flower.
We were filling the van up with petrol the other day (It’s over $7.50 a gallon for those of you who want to complain in the US and Australia, but I digress).  Anyway, we had gone out of our way to patronize the local station, which remains as the only standing edifice in the little  beach town of Hanabuchihama, where almost every house was swept away.  As he was filling the tank, the station master said to us, “I don’t know what we would have done without you Christians”.
I was tempted to shed a tear because in saying that, he too planted a seed of encouragement in my heart.  Everyone’s getting back to business, moving on, but the SEEDS of Christianity are there.  They are growing in the hearts of the refugees.   Because Japanese people just don’t think like we do, who can say if years from now a kid will say, “I got some Hawaiian candy from a person who said Jesus loves me,” and move on towards finding faith.  Just yesterday Hiroshi, who I wrote about last week, said, “I went to a Christian kindergarten, so I always knew in my heart that there was only one God and He loves me”.  Hiroshi finally found his faith when he watched his wife’s courageous struggle with cancer at the age of 50.
Of course I want instant results, but maybe what God wants from me is to plant the seed in the cold bitter autumn, knowing that there WILL be a spring someday.
On that note, we’re trading the Hawaiian team for a gang of California University students, heading up north again on May 10th.  We’ll see if they can outdistance the Hawaiians over the next two weeks!  Pray that we can keep up with them!  And PRAY for the Japanese, that they can still keep seeing Christ in all of this.

Have a blessed week,

Marsha

Last week, I promised you the ‘rest of the story’ about our new friend, Kunio, and HIS friend, Hiroshi.  If you’re just tuning in and are seeing this on the web site at www.mywoods.net, scroll down to read about Kunio and his experience with the movie “Shiokari Pass”.
As the gang assembled last week to see this much anticipated movie, a tall lanky, almost ‘rangy’ man shuffled in.  He introduced himself in halting English simply as “Hiroshi”.
What a story he had to share.  From Hokkaido (the furthermost north island of Japan), he had grown up with Kunio, but had never happened across the movie himself.
He went on to explain that his wife had lived most of her life as a militant member of Sokka Ga Kai.  If you’re not familiar with this sect of Buddhism, consider yourself lucky.  As I’m typing this I have shivers running up my spine, because these are the guys who take their “evangelism” seriously.  You might know it as “Nichi Ren” in western countries.  We missionaries refer to it as the ‘Yakuza’ (mafia) of Buddhism, and we’re not far off. We’ve known of at least one individual who simply ‘disappeared’ after leaving the faith. But anyway, back to the story….
Hiroshi went on, “A few years before my wife got sick, she converted to Christianity.  The change that came over her was unbelievable … and fantastic! Even while she was sick, and suffering terribly, I could see that she had found a strength I knew nothing about. I decided that it was time for me to join her in her faith, and so I was baptized into the church right before she went on to be with the Lord.”
Tony and Hiroshi continued talking for a few more minutes and then the movie began.  As I mentioned last week, the story is about a man named Nagano, who worked for the railroad in the 1930’s, right before the war. Becoming a Christian largely because of his childhood sweetheart, Nagano was on his way to his own wedding when the train he was riding came loose from the engine and began slipping backwards down the track. To make a long story short, he gave his life to save many and it’s become a great story throughout Japan.  The church featured in this film (and in reality) is named after the town it’s in, Asahikawa.  The church is called “Asahikawa Kiristo Kyokai”.
When the movie was over, and people had settled in for more snacks and conversation, Hiroshi and Tony picked up where they had left off. Then something occurred to Hiroshi, and he pulled out his phone.  “I just remembered, I have a picture of the church where she’s buried!”
There on the sign out front, Tony read, “Asahikawa Kiristo Kyokai”… the very same church featured in the movie we had just seen!
What are the chances? A new Christian, grieving over his deceased wife, leaves his hometown in the far north, joins his friend a thousand miles away in Tokyo and gets a job as a taxi driver. Then one night, at his friend’s suggestion, he goes to the home of some strange foreigners and there he watches a movie which features his wife’s church in Hokkaido.

And by the way, none of this has been missed by his friend Kunio and his wife, Yuki. They are discovering daily the truth to the old adage, “When God’s people pray, coincidences happen!”

Tell me about your own chance encounters…

Marsha

“Excuse me, may I help you?” came a gentle voice to Tony as he stood holding his cup in front of the coffee machine in the local western style restaurant.  Tony was trying to figure out the complex apparatus, complete with enough bells, whistles and Japanese writing to make a person switch to tea.
The young woman helped Tony understand the machine and then explained, “I studied in the States a long time ago and I just saw you standing there looking lost……..”  I got up from my seat and joined them, pointing out that we have a group of people who come over just for coffee and fellowship and she’d be welcome.  I told her that we are Baptist Missionaries and saw the frozen look of concern cross her face, but she took my card and hurried back to her table.
‘Chalk up another scared rabbit,’ I thought to myself.  But no, a few days later she CALLED us!  “My husband and I have no interest in Christianity, but we’d like to come to your party if that’s OK,” she stammered.
“Great,” we said, and gave her the address.
Later that week, here they came, carrying enough snacks and soft drinks to cater a party for 50, with big smiles on their faces.  It seems that her husband Kunio, runs a Taxi company and had just got off a 14 hour shift.  I handed him some caffeine.
Immediately he cornered Tony in the crowded room and began, “Ok, so my friend’s wife died, and….and, well, I thought he would commit suicide, but instead he became a CHRISTIAN!  Now he’s different than before. Can you explain to me what happened?”
All evening as we talked and ate, Kunio peppered Tony with questions.  “What about the Trinity?”  “Why do people always corner me and ask me to become a Christian? I’m BUDDHIST!”….those sort of questions.
At the end of the party, we announced that we’d be showing an old Japanese film the next week, called “Shiokari Pass”.  Kunio jumped up and shouted, “I’m from that area where it happened. I’ve seen the film 3 or 4 times!”…..whereupon he began to tell the whole plot while I admonished him quietly, “Don’t give away the ending!”
You see, this movie is a true story of a Christian, back in the 1930s, who stopped a runaway train with his BODY!”  It’s such a famous story around Japan that there’s a monument standing at the place where he literally gave his life to save the others.
Kunio never acknowledged my comments, but as he led up to the final ending, he said it this way (in Japanese of course)……”Well, there were these folks, the train had broken away from the engine, and it was sliding backwards down the mountain, and well,(his eyes bulging out just a bit for effect)  they had to do SOMETHING!”
You can imagine we had a sell out crowd the next week. The people watching the film got more and more enthralled.  Remember now, these are people who for the most part, have never heard the Gospel, and certainly never understood it if they did. At the end of the movie, I was surprised to see that Kunio was on his knees at the end of the couch, his hands folded in front of him.  He just kept staring at the wall silently.
Finally I couldn’t stand it any longer, so I said gently, “Kunio, are you all right?”
As if coming out of a trance, he shook his head and looked at me.  “I’ve seen this movie 3 or 4 times, but today is the first time I realize it’s about Christianity….. and that’s why he did it!”
How many times Lord do they need to hear?  How quick we are to give up…………….
Pray for Kunio, that his curiosity will keep at him.  He’s definitely interested, and now even more so because his friend came with him, and that’s ANOTHER story!  Stay tuned next week!!!
Marsha

It’s a cool rainy morning here in Tokyo, and Tony and I are looking forward to an exciting day at church.  I wonder how YOUR church measures up to these guys? We start with a rousing song service, a message from the pastor that leaves no room for doubt: there IS a God, you’re not Him, so get saved! Afterwards, we’ll all toddle downstairs for Sunday School. (In a day when 2 or 3 of these elements are sadly lacking in a lot of churches, we feel blessed already). The pastor may be a bit tired this morning, since he and 10 others just got back from the tsunami zone. They drove 12 hours north, slept on floors and worked for 48 hours, then drove all night last night to get back in time for church. Energy output like this is normal for Shinkoiwa Baptist Church; we’re constantly humbled.
They divide up into about 20 Sunday School classes, mostly in the same big room, divided by bits of cloth strung up on plastic frames. The cacophony of voices is distracting; maybe many of you out there who are my age or older will remember when we often had church this way, all crowded into a small ‘fellowship hall’ for Sunday School. While the teachers take roll, we’ll be asked the question, “How many contacts did you make this week?  Did you remember to interject the Gospel message of your changed life?”  My numbers never come close to theirs (I’m just the missionary), but they act like they love me anyway.
But things are looking up. Spring is finally coming and WE’RE HEADED NORTH!  Next Sunday at this time, Tony and I will be back in our beloved town of Sendai, along with a  team of 12 Hawaiians, sharing the Gospel with lots of people who are still stranded in temporary housing, still working through the horrific loss they suffered last year, and still waiting for the day when they’ll be ‘free’ from their worries and hardships.
Tony was laughing the other day when he read from 2 Kings 9. Simply put, the story goes like this: the prophet Elisha sends one of his followers on a mission, saying, “Go find this guy, Jehu, tuck your tunic into your belt, go and anoint him king, then run for your life!”
What do I get from that “tuck your tunic into your belt” part?  Well, I hope we’ll find lots of people this next week with which to share a word or two from God. We’ll have our “tunics tucked”, suited up for whatever work needs doing, be it tsunami clean up or whatever …….  but I sincerely hope when they hear the good news we have to offer, we don’t have to RUN!
For the next two weeks, we’ll be out of pocket, but I want you to look forward to hearing about something that’s really exciting happening here in Tokyo, in the form of a taxi driver named Kunio and his friend Hiroshi!  Stay tuned! We’ll try real hard to find an internet signal to send the blog next Sunday, but in the meantime, thanks for your EXTRA prayers these next few weeks.
Loving Him,

Marsha

It’s always fun singing English hymns which have been translated into Japanese.  Sometimes the words are spot on; sometimes … well, maybe not quite. For example the old hymn, “I’d rather have Jesus” starts in Japanese with “Jesus never changes”.  The other day, though, we were singing, “Amazing Grace”, and were so moved it almost made me cry. The translated phrase for “Amazing Grace”  is: “odoroku bakari no megumi”, which literally means, “Grace that just is so absolutely and completely astonishing!” But no, that doesn’t even capture it.  “Odoroku” means something akin to being “knocked off your feet with shock”.  MUCH more surprising and unsettling, possibly not even in a good way, than just simply “amazing”. Grace that’s so ‘unsettling’ that it knocks us off our feet.
I think, as I sit here on Easter morning, that’s exactly how we should approach the cross… Amazed and stunned. It says that in Matthew 28:8, when the women discovered the resurrection that they “hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell the disciples”.  In Luke 24: 5 it says, “in their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground…..”  The other two Gospels also record immeasurable joy mixed with stark shock.  This is the true meaning of ‘Amazing Grace’, that Christ gave his life for us, don’t you think?
But also as I sit here, musing about God’s goodness on Easter, I flash back  to a time years ago when I, quite by cultural accident, upset the congregation with quite a JOLT on a Easter Sunday morning.
I will probably always be, at the core of my being, an American.  There is also a large part of me that is Australian.  We CELEBRATE Easter with heaps and heaps of grace and rejoicing. (perhaps fueled occasionally by Chocolate?)
Maybe it’s our multi-cultural roots, taught by generations of those who really know how to celebrate, but I thought I would ‘dress up’ the church a bit by transforming the stately cross on the wall behind the pulpit into a blaze of triumphant colors in the form of satin and glittery starburst rays emanating from the cross. I should have taken a picture, but alas, I was too exhausted when the job was done and the ladders were taken away.  You’ll have to imagine with me how beautiful it was; Easter morning……..victory…….JOY screaming down from the cross, the rejoicing feeling of the fact that He is risen!!!! You can also imagine my satisfaction of doing all of this on my own just so that everyone would be surprised. (inject here a sigh with sotto voce saying “When will I learn”….)
Well, when the congregation filed into church, they were not only ’surprised’ they were “ODOROKU!!!”   I immediately got the sense that somehow they did not feel the triumphant ecstasy that I did, but that they felt that I’d rather turned their church into a cheesy nightclub!  There were strained and nervous faces as they struggled their way thru the service, trying to avoid looking at me or more importantly, the cross.
Taking my cue the next day, I got up on the ladder and took my masterpiece down.  Of course, it did not come down without a fight and the blu-tack left tell-tale grease spots all over the wall.  I started to slip into despair until I remembered that God is good (and forgiving) and we had a volunteer team of carpenters staying at our house.  I offered them pancakes if they’d ‘drop by the church’ and paint the front wall on their way to work.  They did.
The next Sunday, the church members had smiles all round because their simple and beautiful church had been reinstated to them.  I learned from this painful lesson that some people ‘rejoice’ in different ways. The Japanese lean toward a feeling of “shibuii” which might be translated, “quiet understated elegance”.
I’m not sure what to think.  Do we stop and think about Grace and the FACT that Jesus gave his life so that we could have life in such a way that it “absolutely knocks us off our feet”, or do we want our quiet pretty little neat life, where nothing upsets us or makes us uncomfortable?
If you google Easter, you’ll find that some people say that Easter is probably the biggest celebration in the Western world. Can you see that where you live?  Does Easter change your life? Does it rock your world?
Unfortunately, it seems to me, because Easter has not become a big ‘cash cow-secular’ holiday, it that non-Christians barely give it a second thought.
Especially here in Japan, where Christianity represents only 1.5% of the population, most people have no idea even what it represents.
Yesterday we had a different celebration called “Hanami” with several new non-Christian friends.  This is an age old Japanese tradition of taking a picnic to the park and sitting on the ground under the blooming Cherry blossoms, eating, singing and enjoying life.  I hid some dyed eggs around our mats and had the little kids try to find them nestled in amongst everyone’s shoes  (which of course you have to take off to sit on the mat). I tried to explain to the new friends that these eggs were symbols of the new life that we have because of Jesus and His Resurrection. I pray that somehow they heard me thru all the surrounding music and harsh spring wind.
Thanks for praying with us that the Japanese people can really truly find the “Odoroku” GRACE that Jesus gave us by his death and resurrection, so that we here in Japan can get really knocked off our feet with love.
Oh, and Happy Easter to each and every one of you, because of Him…….Marsha

Tony heard a song the other day that surprised him.  Maybe you know it, the words go something like this: “I want to be dedicated to God, to go where He sends me, do what He tells me…….. I want to be expendable.”
That was a new one.  I want to be ‘expendable’?
I confess that I’ve begun to think of my self from time to time as INDESPENSABLE, especially as I look back on the years and years of work with the Japanese people we’ve come to love so much. If you read my blog last week you might have gotten the impression that I consider myself SO IMPORTANT to the ministry here, how would they ever get along without me?
But then I think of all those other men and women who have gone before me.  Remember that song by ABBA years ago?  It actually referred to a very distant but dedicated missionary of the 1800’s. If you can access the link, you can listen and read along with me; otherwise just consider the words:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiTTOAZv7M8
Went to buy me a paper at the local newsstand
And then I heard them laugh and say,
“Look, they’re gonna go flying way up to the moon now
Hey, what’s it good for anyway?”
So I said, “Fellas, I’d like to ask you a thing if I may,

What about Livingstone? What about all those men
Who have sacrificed their lives to lead the way?
Tell me, wasn’t it worth the while, travelling up the Nile;
Putting themselves on test. Didn’t that help the rest?
Wasn’t it worth it then? What about Livingstone?”

And all of those fellas at the local newsstand
Didn’t know what to answer or what to say.
So I told them about him, that he was just like
One of those spacemen in his way.
And if you laugh at them,
Then there’s only a thing I can say:

What about Livingstone? What about all those men
Who have sacrificed their lives to lead the way?
Tell me, wasn’t it worth the while, travelling up the Nile;
Putting themselves on test. Didn’t that help the rest?
Wasn’t it worth it then? What about Livingstone?”

Hebrews 11:8  talks about Abraham going to a place he didn’t know; but he did it because God told him to.
I heard a Japanese preacher liken the missionaries to that bottle of priceless oil that was poured on Jesus’ feet (Luke 7:37ff). It seemed like  a huge waste to the onlookers, but Jesus said it was a “fine and beautiful thing”. Then the preacher (who incidentally was Naoki Noguchi, from his recent book, Sacrificed) went on to say, “These missionaries are pouring themselves out at the feet of Jesus.”
And of course, as we enter into what many refer to as “Holy Week”, we have to recall the most extreme case ever of being ‘expendable’. Read what Paul has to say about Jesus in Philippians 2:6-8,”And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death…..even death on a cross.”
Thank you Jesus for making yourself ‘expendable’ so that we could find true life.
Have a great week.  We’ll have a very ‘unChristian’ week here in Japan where almost no one knows of Easter or the Man behind it, but as the cherries are beginning to bloom, the whole nation is thinking of “new life”. Pray that they will come to know the One Who has made it all possible.

Marsha

Some of you may have heard our screaming lately, even from where you sit right now.  It all started when someone in our organization pointed out that we had not, (to quote him) “been evaluated in the language since 1981″.
“Ludicrous” was the first word that came to mind.  For crying out loud, we’ve given our LIVES to the Japanese for these last 35 years, WHO CARES whether we can speak Japanese or not?  Several of our friends here chimed in with comments like,  “Gee, if you spoke perfect Japanese, you wouldn’t be interesting!” Choosing not to be offended, we sat like Elmer Fudd, vewy vewy quietly; but eventually the directive came down: “Your language evaluator will be contacting you this week to set up an appointment.” He would be coming to our apartment. He would set up the tape recorder, and take notes while each of us in turn delivered a short devotional, using a Scripture text we would have gotten the day before. Then we would discuss our hopes and dreams, and conclude with a suitable prayer, all in Japanese of course.
Tony responded to the (Japanese) language evaluator’s email by correcting his (Japanese) grammar, and I thought, “Well there goes the match!” The man is a real sweetheart, and was actually our very first Japanese teacher back in 1979, but why put him on the defensive?!?
I thought about organizing my resistance campaign, but ended up preparing my devotional instead.  Of course that rebellious spirit in me kept saying, “How do they think we’ve survived this long without the language? Tony’s spent most of his career preaching every Sunday, even reading from Japanese manuscripts; and of course I preach all the time (make that “share”). And besides, I thought, not only are we plenty proficient in Japanese, but thanks to our two years in Bangkok, even managed to meet our mission’s minimum requirement in Thai! Of course, some of you may remember in my book “River Crossings” that we actually kinda sorted “cheated” on that score, by prompting our evaluator with the questions he could and could NOT ask us on the test. But hey! Surely we were were above reproach!
The evaluation day arrived.  I was in the bathroom.
They came.  The mission language advisor, as I said, is a real sweetheart, and has been our friend for over 35 years…. Well, friend  in that ‘ish’ way you might be ‘friends’ with your internist or lawyer……the kind of ‘friend’ that you find yourself quietly crossing the room to avoid contact with, lest you might be subjected to an impromptu evaluation. Fortunately, he brought his personable and engaging wife.  We drank tea and chatted about the weather.
Finally I interrupted and said, “Can we get on with this before I DIE?”  Smiling, they shuffled in their seats and Tony, on cue, left the room.
The rest of the 4 hours are a blur, I DO remember while I was reading the Bible, realizing that I’d skipped a WHOLE LINE!  I almost melted down right there, but am happy to report that even at 61 years old, I can still, as the Aussies say, “Pull up my socks and move on”.  We laughed together, we wiped a tear here and there. I stumbled on words that I had memorized only the day before just to impress and then had completely forgotten …….”Total hysterectomy”, “Unenviable depravation of man”,  simple stuff like that…….
Then it was Tony’s turn in the dock.  From back in the office, I could hear him playing his guitar and SINGING!
A few days ago we got our evaluation. The scale is something like this: Level 1 means, “Give up and go suck your thumb,” and Level 10 must be, “The emperor of Japan would have trouble with this.” I was a level 6.5  with ‘occasional gusts’ up to the 7s.   Tony did even better (was it the song?) with high 7s, and gusts into the 8s.  The point is we PASSED, and more importantly we (unless they change the rules again) never have to face this particular mountain again!
We had to chuckle at the comments. “Tony gently suggests a point, but isn’t pushy” (very Japanese, kudos here).  “Marsha seems to be searching for words from time to time” (reference above). My grammar isn’t the best either, but then have any of you tried to follow me in ENGLISH?
It’s over and we can move on.  The very next day I had a lady ask me “Why do you always end every prayer with, ‘In Jesus Name’……What does that mean?
Have you ever tried to explain total and unequivocal propitiation of sin thru Jesus’ blood, Who in fact, yes, IS God but still answers to………God???  I think she finally understood, but it took awhile……..
Have a great week speaking whatever language you do!
Marsha
PS,  I wrote the thank you note to the language evaluator in ENGLISH…. I figured it was his turn to try and understand!

We sat across the table from new friends; a Japanese couple we had met recently. The talk was light, but we knew they had something they wanted to share with us. Finally, she whispered to her husband, “Shall I show them?” He nodded, and she slowly removed a big bracelet from her left wrist, revealing a series of ugly scars, evidence of past attempts to end her life.

“The doctors treat me with drugs, with the idea that I will be too mellow to think about anything serious. We’ve been looking at the Bible; it’s full of things that give us hope, but ….. there’s so much we don’t understand.”

Her husband finally said what was on both their minds. “Will God heal her?”

That was not an easy question to answer. Tony said, “Over the years we have seen God heal many people of many things, things much worse than you are suffering. We’ve also seen people not healed in spite of much prayer.” I couldn’t help but remember that night as we had watched the life slip away from our son, even as we begged God for a miracle.

Tony opened up his Japanese Bible to Romans, turned it around and showed the couple the verses he had underlined. “To answer your question honestly,” he said, “I don’t know if God will heal you or not. But I do know this: the Bible promises us that His Holy Spirit can live in our hearts, and when that happens, He will never, ever leave us.” He read from chapter 8: verses 38 and 39. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“This is a kind of healing that is much, much better than anything a doctor can do. And I can say this with all confidence, Yes, God will heal your heart, and you will know His peace and joy forever.”

We talked on for another hour or more. I drew pictures on a napkin, trying to show them the whole Gospel story in a way they could understand. By the end of the evening, they promised to go home and consider all they had learned. Please pray for this lovely couple. You’ll notice that I’ve omitted their names, out of respect for their privacy; but God knows them well, and He’ll know who you’re talking about when you lift them up.

This week we’ve been observing the one year anniversary of Japan’s horrible earthquake. There’s a lot of healing to be done, and I have to say, the physical part had been pretty much accomplished. But there’s another hurt that has a long way to go before recovery comes. Please pray that the people in Japan will discover, as this couple is discovering, where real help is to be found, in the pages of God’s Word.

Marsha