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We had the wonderful privilege of being the guests for a sukiyaki feast this last Friday night. After our first week back at our schools since Winter break, it was nice to get together with everyone, especially the family, and celebrate Christmas and New Years. Enchou sensei and Tomoko sensei (Mr. and Mrs. Maki) were cooking all day for us, and we could tell. The food was incredible...and copious. I've never eaten such large strawberries (which are apparently just in season, in January...due to Japanese greenhouse growing). The sukiyaki was incredible, as well, and quite the experience. Thankfully, we had a three-day weekend over which to let our stomachs shrink back to normal size.
Now, a little bit on how we're feeling coming into the New Year. We've both come to the place where we are moderately comfortable in what we're doing, and now the challenge seems to be to maintain an attitude of intentionality with our lives. It's easy to drift into doing only what's comfortable and easy. When one experiences such cultural fatigue nearly every day of the week, then it becomes easy to makes excuses for just spending the day (or weekend, in Adam's case) on the couch watching movies. Sometimes this is what is needed, but I'm realizing that sometimes I'm just lazy. This year, I want to shake off that lethargy and be more intentional about things.
On Thursday we talked a little about how fast life goes by. Every moment is a gift. We don't know when our last day will be, or when someone else's will be...and this should stir in us an urgency and intentionality in how we live our lives. The verse we studied in Bible study was "the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." Living in the Japanese countryside, we see how at harvest time, people drop everything to get it in. You don't have a lot of time to waste, or whatever you're farming can rot in the field. This truth struck home in a new way.
So, we've written our lists of new goals for the year. Some are prayers for us individually, for us as a couple, for our team, and for our work. We both have some personal goals for ourselves about our daily life, and please pray for strength and faithfulness for us in these areas, but mostly, please pray for us to become more invested in those around us this year. We really want to be there for our teammates and be there for new friends who God might lead into our paths.
Thanks again, everyone, for all your thoughts and prayers. Our Christmas email update should be on the way soon! God bless.
p.s. - Check out the ministry of Second Harvest Japan (www.2hj.org) This is a great organization that redistributes wasted (but still good) food to people in the Tokyo area.
