flavors of Japan

I just found these at the grocery store near

my house and about did a back flip! The only other

place I've seen them was on a visit to a craft village

in Morioka last fall. Kinako Bou is kinako powder,

mochi, sugar (etc.) swirled into a twist of sweet,

kinako-y goodness!)

Imoyoukan (sweet potato, brown sugar and gelatin)

I have yet to get the balance just right, like the guy

at my favorite dango shop can!

Sweet potato and bacon in an onigiri? Yes! I saw this picture while looking for

more sweet potato recipes and it made my jaw drop!!! Doesn't it look amazingly

oishii (delicious)?

Here's another favorite. Sakura mochi! The salted leaf

around the outside is from a cherry tree. The mochi is sweet,

as, of course, is the bean paste on the inside.

Kabocha is so delicious by itself, or with a little sugar and

soy sauce. Hmmm...there's been a theme in all of these....SWEET! :)

First relaxing weekend in a while

In the busyness that begins any first year at a new school, teachers find themselves spending a lot of extra time at work. I can't think of any place I would rather be in this season than CAJ and I have a lot to tell about everything that's going on there. During this fall break (and after the backpacking trip with the junior class during "School Without Walls" week), I took a long breather and it has been far beyond rejuvenating! Here are some of things I was up too...

First oden of 2010!

Oven-drying apples, pumpkin, pears, and oranges (at the very bottom)

I enjoyed a reunion with Sendai friends Emiko (in the green and whose new baby boy, Satoru Simon, I'm holding), her husband Nick (taking the picture), and Ikue (middle) in Akasaka on Friday night. Nick and Emiko brought Satoru down to get his passports at the embassy so they called Ikue and I to meet them at the hotel where they were staying. It was a wonderful blessing!

Thanks, Ben and Erica!

Grrrrr.

On the way to Singapore...

...with Gade (left), I stopped by Bangkok to see Ting (center) and Rung (right). It was a great reunion after Come Before Winter, the retreat in Chiang Rai for women missionaries in Asia.

When you ask Ball to hold your camera...

...magic happens.

Meet Ball

Ball is a new Christian who has been active in the church from the time he was baptized in April. He is hungry for the Word and wants to help the people around him understand the change that happened in his life is because of the grace and peace he found in Jesus.

He is a very gifted musician, teaching all of us all kinds of sings, especially Thai traditional ones. Please pray for his continuing walk with the Lord.

It was good to be with you

This entry is a tribute to my fellow interns this summer. We spent our mornings being transformed through communal prayer and study of spiritual disciplines. We spent our afternoons being made aware of every good thing we have in Christ by sharing our faith with students that came to the Zone for conversation about the Bible. I love you and miss you all!

Morning equipping time.

Saying goodbye to Naveen at the airport.

LST Cookie Party

No excuses. It's been too long. I'll start this massive catch-up process with telling you all about a few more things that happened at the end of my internship in Chiang Mai.

The last Let's Start Talking Party this summer was a cookie party. Lots of friends came to enjoy the snacks and games at the Zone. Here is our resident artist, Joe, hard at work on the poster for one of the games.

Meet my good friends, Becky and An. They both work at Grace International School in Chiang Mai and it has been so wonderful getting to know them and enjoying our mutual experiences as young missionaries.

This is the masterpiece I created for the cookie-decorating contest. It's supposed to be a portrait of Emi, my fellow intern who had just returned to America the week before.

Much fun was had by all!

lum yai

The crowd went wild after cell group tonight, when a friend brought in four grocery bags of lum yai, a sweet Thai fruit. We filled up the garbage can with peels and pits, and left the zone smiling!

Meet Nok

I'd like you to meet my good friend, P'Nok!

Nok is a Christian who usually worships at the Payap church on Sundays. We met through my friend, Gade, who thought it would be good for the two of us to spend time together and study English. I've been really blessed with Nok's expressions of faith in our lessons. She is filled with love for the children she works with at "House of Love" in Chiang Mai, an orphanage for children with HIV. It's a difficult and wearing job, but Nok finds refreshment in her journey with God, an encouraging testimony to His presence that others in Thailand need to see! Please join me in prayer for her endurance and rest in the Lord.

send offs

It's been the season of farewells lately.

I said good-bye to Amy, Melody, and all of our other Chinese friends last week. They left from the Zone early on the morning of July 5th. It's been surreal. Whenever we turn the corner on campus coming back to the Zone after lunch, we expect to see our friends in uniform buying fruit or bread on the corner...then we remember they're in China again. We are so thankful for the time we were able to spend with them, as well as for the time they are now able to spend with their families and friends in China.

Here's a picture of the students leaving in red taxis from nearby the Zone. We miss them! Please pray for our friends with us, for the seeds planted in their hearts and for God's message of love to continue to reach them in China.

Mit, one of the Malaysian interns, left on Monday morning to prepare for attending university in Singapore soon. He is such an inspiration to all of us in how fervently he loved people, studied language, and spent time in the presence of God. He truly shines in so many ways and we are excited for him to be salt and light in Singapore! Mit is the first to head home of our team of nine...

...and Grace, from Singapore, is the second. This lovely, talented, natural leader leaves to spend time in America with friends before also beginning university in Singapore. It's been my absolute joy to be her roommate during this time, and am amazed at how much I've learned from from her. She is wise, motivated and talented.

The rest of the interns (five from ACU/Harding, one from Malaysia, and an LST team of three) have just about a month left, with plenty of parties and other activities planned in that time! Thank you for remembering us in prayer!

Meet Melody and Amy

I would love for you to take a minute to become acquainted with two of my very dear friends, Melody and Amy. They are both Chinese, and have just completed a program studying Thai at Payap University in Chiang Mai. In the nine months they were here, they came by the Christian Zone for many parties and activities and built relationships with our intern team, Robert (the missionary at Payap) and christians and non-christians that spend time at the Zone.

Melody has a beautiful spirit. She was always asking me how I was doing and sharing food or sweets she bought from the street-side vendors. She's had a really difficult childhood, struggling to survive and manage a household in the absence of her parents, who had to move to the city to work and support the family. This picture was taken at her birthday party last month, the first party she's ever had on her birthday. Although her circumstances have been incredibly difficult, she is a deeply joyful and resilient woman! I have learned a lot from her strength, independence, and positive attitude. She learned a lot from her LST teacher Phil, and continued those discussion in classes with me. She connected with the idea that God is our father, as she really misses hers and longs for reconnection.

I share a heart with Amy. We connected over and over again in our reading sessions, and I was awed to watch her emotionally and intellectually connect with what she was reading. She wonders why, if God made her and loves her deeply, that she is just hearing about Him now. She, Melody and I watched a movie from the gospel of John together, and I deeply enjoyed watching her have "wow" moments, particularly when Jesus fed the 5,000 followers and when he washed the disciples' feet. Amy says she doesn't know about becoming a christian, what that will mean for her life and if she can commit to it, but she wants to think about it.

Would you please pray for my friends with me? They are dear to my heart, and my attempts at contacting them in China have not been successful. I realize we may not be able to have free discussions about subjects regarding faith, but just to talk to them would be sweet.

Thank you.

aloha, group classes and "i do"s

It's been an eventful second week! The first Let's Start Talking team hosted their final party; a Hawaiian theme. Our Chinese friends who are completing a university transfer program at Payap University (some of whom are pictured above) have really been enjoying activities like this at the zone. We said "Aloha" (goodbye) to the first team and "Aloha" (hello) to the second team! We'll miss you, Toni, Greg, Captain Mark, Sharon and Kay Lee! Thank you for all your prayers, for your hard work and love for your readers, and for your commitment to the mission in Thailand.

Kathy, Larry, Phil, Kent and Sam arrived from Texas last week and have been hosting reading sessions and parties at the Zone. A few members of the team work for Abeline Christian University. They've been wonderful! At this morning's meeting, it was hard to hold back tears as we talked about progress with some of the nonchristians they are studying with as well as obstacles in their faith.

Grace Ong (green shirt) arrived this week to join Mit (white shirt) and I in our internship training. We've gotten to meet lots of people coming to hang out at the Zone, join the group classes on the basics of Christianity for some of the Chinese students that Robert (orange shirt) leads, and begin our individual Thai study. In addition to helping out the LST team with parties and with getting to know their students for follow up, we take every chance we can to observe activity at the church in general to broaden our knowledge and experience base for missions in the future. I love my team! Grace and Mit already have a lot of deep relationships with friends at the Zone from being involved in the yearly Angkor of Faith mission trips to Cambodia. We had a brainstorming session at a coffee shop the other day to come up with some ideas for activities we can organize for this summer and I was really impressed with their creativity in and excitement for ministry.

It was a joy to be able to see Marvin and Oi, young Christians at Payap, recite their vows to each other on Saturday. The couple had already had their traditional Thai wedding recently, but also hosted this beautiful ceremony in a small park area on the campus. There were lots of family and friends to help celebrate, and the reggae theme made for a really fun atmosphere! If we're Facebook friends, you can check out my album with more of the pictures.

A big reason I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be an intern in Chiang Mai is that I get to spend time with Ying, Gade, and Gae (left to right). At some point, each of these three Thai Christian women have all come to Japan to be interns with Ibaraki churches. It's been really great to reconnect with these tremendously spiritual girls and use some Japanese again!

Thank you, Lord, for the opportunities to learn. Please continue to use me in Chiang Mai and open my eyes wide to open doors in ministry. In Jesus, Amen.

safely in Chiang Mai

I arrived safely in Chiang Mai, Thailand on Tuesday morning. It's been really great to reconnect with people I met last March and be a part of lots of activities that are happening at "The Zone." The Payap Christian Zone is part of the church here, basically a huge room on the first floor with a ping pong table and guitars lying everywhere. I was surprised to see a drum set pulled out of a corner last night, too! It's a really great place for young people to come hang out together. There is always someone around. College students at Payap University usually walk by the building on the way to their dormitories, so there are a lot of students who stop by to spend time at the Zone.

On the second floor of the building are the kitchen, Robert Reagan's office and a few dorm-style rooms. The auditorium for worship is on the third floor.

The first Let's Start Talking team is about to finish out their three-week project and the second team will be arriving to start their reading sessions on Monday. There will also be quite a few more interns arriving shortly, so it will be good to work with them, also.

My brother emailed to check on me, having seen the headlines about more deaths in Bangkok due to rioting. I'm so glad to be far away from all of the protesting and here in Chiang Mai with friends I trust completely. Let's keep Bangkok in our thoughts and prayers, hoping for peace and healing.

The only concern for my safety I've had to deal with so far was this little friend that came to hang out in my shoe yesterday...

the time in between

Hello again.

There are so many pictures and thoughts from recent happenings that I am anxious to post, like Christmas when my parents came to Sendai, finding out about my new job beginning in August, the year-end performance at the kindergarten and moving from Sendai to Tokyo.

For the moment, though, I am enjoying rest...and I just wanted to write and let you know that. March was busy. March has always been busy from beginning to end for the last three years. This year, I did much more for the end of the school year ahead of time, but moving at the same time more than made up for the advantage. It was a great kindergarten performance, and saying goodbye was a more positive experience than I had envisioned, but when I got on the plane at the end of everything, I was tired.

I've been at my parent's home in Leavenworth recovering from March and from leaving Sendai, resting, and getting ready for 3 months in Thailand from March and teaching at Christian Academy in Japan from August.

It's been incredibly refreshing to rest. I'm so thankful to my parents for providing me a haven to do that.

Look out! I'm 100% again and taking no prisoners!!!

Yeah...

...it's time for a new post. I just wanted you to know that I know. MUCH has been happening, trust me! In the meantime, here is a random picture of some pink soba I ate one time.