5am?!

When I opened my kitchen window this morning around 7am, this is what I saw...

Our neighbors were out sitting on tiny chairs in the middle of their field, separating (I think) edamame from the stalks(?). Not long after, the grandma got up and pushed a wheelbarrow to their house/shed with two boxes of beans inside. I could hear her washing them. The grandpa stayed on to finish his portion and then went home.

While I was hanging up our laundry about a couple of hours later, the grandpa was walking toward his field. He has to pass by our laundry hanging area so we had a short conversation...




Me: Good morning!
Grandpa: Good morning!
Me: What time did you start working this morning?
Grandpa: (Tiredly sits down on some rocks, says no words, just puts up his right hand to indicate "five".)
Me: Five?! Wow!
Grandpa: Yes, every morning...
Me: Every morning?! Wow!

He's the younger brother of the owner of our house so I'm guessing he's in his mid-late 80's. The grandma tends to do most of the work and she's probably in her late 70's, early 80's. I'm not very good at telling people's age. :P The grandma is super healthy. I can always tell when she's walking past my kitchen window 'cause of the 4 people who often pass by that way (our owners and this couple), she walks the fastest. :)

EDGErs in Hiroshima

Pioneers has a short-term summer missions program called EDGE. There are currently 5 college students staying with our Area Leaders, the Hoisingtons, down in Fukuoka. Please pray for them as they experience first-hand, the need for more workers here in Japan. This is an excerpt from Dan Hoisington's recent newsletter:

"Please pray that the Lord will accomplish a great work both IN and THROUGH each team member: Anson, Dan, Nathan (Hoisington), Megan, and Ceilidh ("Kaylie"). Their activities here will be a combination of learning and ministry in a Japanese context. The schedule is demanding. Pray for wisdom and strength for Cindy, Stephanie, Brian and me."

Please pray that at least 2-3 of them will catch the vision and come back to serve in Japan long(er)-term.

After having lunch at a food court in a nearby department store where almost all of us were amazingly able to sit on one long row of tables, we took a group picture. "We" are the Hiroshima team members (4 Murrays + 4 Ohs + Jess), Fukuoka team members (2 Hoisingtons + Stephanie + Brian), 5 EDGErs, and a Korean JIFH (Japanese International Food for the Hungry) missionary who was on a business trip that weekend and attended service at one of our churches. There were 18 of us! We caused quite a stir. :)

After lunch, I dropped off Peter & Sungjae at home so Sungjae could nap, dropped off the Korean missionary, and then went to the Murrays where the EDGErs & Fukuoka team members were enjoying tea/coffee/juice with Susan's delicious banana cream pie and brownies while finding out more about our ministry here in Hiroshima, our calling, about Pioneers, etc. We had a great time of fellowship and prayer. It was sad to have to say bye to them, especially our Fukuoka team members as we don't get to see them very often. It was actually the first time we got to meet Stephanie since she returned from her furlough and probably our last time seeing Brian till he returns after transitioning to long-term.

Please continue to pray for the EDGErs and for the Fukuoka team. To find out more about their time here and to see more pics, search for "Brian goes to Japan" (or click on the link).

Learning to Weed

Ding dong! "Oh no... It's probably Yoshi and his Jehovah's Witness buddy again..." was the first thought that came to my head when I heard the doorbell ring just as the kids went down for their afternoon nap. However, when I opened my door, I was very surprised to find our landlady weeding our garden!

I had asked her back in April which plants were weeds and which ones weren't as I couldn't always tell but also just to make sure that I didn't pull out the wrong thing! After she showed me, I went out and bought a gardening hat and gloves, but then with all of the illnesses in May, I wasn't able to. But then with all of the rain in June, the weeds just grew and grew and grew!!!

Of course, as soon as I realized what she was doing, I started apologizing and told her that I'd work with her. By the time I came back out with my hat and gloves, the grandpa (our landlord) was there weeding with her. Before I started, I just had to take a picture. :)

While we were weeding, I had fun chatting with our landlady. I learned a few interesting facts. Our landlord is NINETYTHREE and she's EIGHTYTWO!!! I never would have guesses that they were so old! They got married when she was 20 and they lived in our house from when she was 32 for 30 years, which is when they built and moved into the big two-story house they're currently living in, kinda next to our house. Our house is 50 years old. I told her it was my first time weeding a garden and she told me that she started when she moved to this area after getting married. Our landlord's family owns all of the land from their house to the house that his younger brother, wife, son, daughter-in-law, and their two sons live in. Our house is in the middle and there are fields and burial sites around us. For Japan, even for Hiroshima, that'a a lot of land! As they've lived in this area for so long, I guess it's not too surprising that they know all of our neighbors, but for someone like me who's moved around so much (Japan is the 5th country I've lived in), it's just absolutely amazing.

She asked me a lot of personal questions too so it was nice to be able to share and get closer. I'd shared some of it before, a long time ago, but my Japanese is better now so I was able to explain things better. For example, the fact that Peter is studying full-time right now at the YMCA downtown and that from next year, we'll be planting a church with an English/Japanese bilingual service in our area, that we're planning on living in Hiroshima for a very long time, and that we're working together with Japanese pastors.

When Peter turned the corner of our brick wall into the garden, he jumped at the sight of me crouched down on the ground as there usually isn't anyone there. :) He was even more surprised when he saw that our elderly landlord/lady were there too! He went in, put his bag down, took this picture, and then helped us weed.

At one point towards the end of our hour, hour and a half or so of weeding, I commented that our garden is no longer a "jungle" (you can kind of see the improvement in the 2nd pic). The grandpa chuckled. :) I also had to stand up for a bit 'cause my legs were killing me so I asked them if their legs were hurting and they said they were OK 'cause they're used to it. They thought it was funny that my legs (the legs of a 31 year old!) were hurting. :)

Weeding the garden was a huge item on my to-do list so I was so glad we got it done - phew! I felt bad that they had to come do it, but we had a great time chatting so I'm very happy that we were able to do it together. I also didn't have to worry about pulling out the wrong stuff! The only downside was that all of the squatting strained my right foot, so it wasn't very happy that evening. :(

When I told Susan this story, she said (jokingly - I think) that maybe they came and did it 'cause they were afraid that I'd pull out the wrong stuff after I asked her! :) Maybe... The reason that our landlady gave was the rain making the weeds grow quickly. Whatever the reason, I thank God for allowing us to spend time together and for our beautiful Japanese garden not being a jungle anymore. :)