"Christmas In October"

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Every October at Santa Clara Valley Japanese Christian Church, they have "Christmas in October" for the kids of the missionaries that they support as a church. A special offering is collected (see box of envelopes at the bottom of the poster) and the kids sign a Christmas card for the kids of the missionaries. I asked Michelle, Pastor Lester's wife & the owner of Juhee's daycare, Yamashita Family Child Care, why they do it in October and she said that it's to make sure that they get the gift to the missionary in time. How thoughtful and efficient!


Juhee was excited to see her picture on the poster at SCVJCC at our last day of POPS (Parents of PreSchoolers) back in October and I can tell you from experience that the Missions Committee at SCVJCC are highly efficient because we received our Christmas gift and our cards at the end of November, in plenty of time for Christmas!

When Juhee opened up the envelope she was so excited! On the front of the card was a picture of the Sunday School kids of the same age group all sitting down in their classroom. She was excited because she recognized the place ("Michelle's Japanese Church") and two of the girls in the picture too. She wanted to carry it around with her everywhere but we managed to convince her that it would get damaged. We put it up on a shelf in the dining area so she can see it easily.

It was so exciting receiving our first Christmas cards! They were also the first pieces of mail we didn't need to get translated. =DDD We could just read it and understand. What a blessing! ;)

Admittedly, mommy and daddy were excited to receive the cards too. :) It was nice to receive something Christmas-y and to know that we were being thought of and cared for by friends back home. :)

PS: After my initial posting of this blog post, I found out that Christmas in October was started by Bob and Annie Sueda when they served in SCVJCC's Missions Committee many years ago. Bob passed away last month and will be missed very much as he was a cornerstone of the church.

Oct & Nov Newsletter

Tuesday November 30, 2010

In Hiroshima, Japan!

Dear co-laborer in the Lord,

We're here! We arrived inHiroshima, Japan on November 4th, after 16 long hours of traveling. We hit the ground running and have been able to accomplish much in a short time thanks to the help of our Team Leaders the Murrays, the two local pastors, Ogawa-san (the deacon in charge of helping us), and of course, your many prayers!

We've restarted updating our blog so please check it out when you can to see what we're up to and to find out more about our new life in Japan.

Blessings! Peter, Jenny, Juhee, and Sungjae Oh

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A Warm Welcome

It was awesome to see so many happy smiling faces when we arrived at Hiroshima Airport. All four Murrays were there, Pastor Haitaka, Pastor Kitano, and his wife and daughter, and Ogawa-san and his wife were there too (big picture above). Juhee was a bit groggy as it was the middle of the night for her, but she was happy to see Uncle Scott, Auntie Susan, and Sydney & Taylor and she was soon having fun with Pastor Kitano's daughter Rise-chan (pronounced "Lee-seh"). When we arrived at the Murrays' home, there was another family waiting to welcome us with a bouquet of flowers!

That Sunday at Kabe Chapel... (Read more on our blog by clicking here.)

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Partnership Update

We have been extremely blessed to have 365 prayer partnerscommitted to praying for us regularly. From the new year, we'll have a prayer calendar for each month. Make sure you look for your name and cover us in prayer on your special day. Thank you so much! We really covet your prayers.

God has also brought alongside us many financial partners through whom 93% of our needed Monthly Financial Supporthas been pledged! Praise God! :) During the next couple of months, we will be able to better determine the actual monthly support we are receiving. We have faith that God will meet all of our needs, and we pray that God will meet 100% of our needed Monthly Support so that we have sufficient resources to live and minister here in Japan.

If you would like to partner with us in prayer or finances, please email us at peterandjennyoh@gmail.com.

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Visit our Blog!

Lots of things have been happening since we arrived in Japan and we’ve been busy blogging our stories (with pictures!) of adjusting to life in Japan. We’ve been finding out what year it is (did you know that Japan has a different calendar system?), we got our Wish, we moved into our new home, we are surrounded by reminders that we need to constantly pray, and we are being blessed over and over again by His provision. Sometimes, we stand out a bit too!

We still have much more to blog about like the recent Pioneers Japan Area Retreat we attended, our bathtub :), different aspects about our daily life, Juhee leading a lady to church the day after we arrived... Track with us by signing up for automatic email updates on our blog.

(The underlined sections are all links to blog postings.)

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Adjusting to Life in Japan

Juhee keeps on saying, "It's my size!" Things definitely are smaller here. :) Our kitchen sink is only as high as Jenny's thighs.

Cantaloupes are purchased to be given as gifts and sometimes come packaged as a gift set. We saw one sold separately for JPY4,000. That's currently just under $48.

Jenny bought what she thought was milk but it ended up being "drinking yogurt". It looks just like a milk-carton and is sold right next to the milk section. Apparently a lot of foreigners do this. :) You can't tell the difference unless you can read Japanese.

When we go around to shops or restaurants with the Murrays, even though they do the talking in Japanese, people still look & respond to us! They're very surprised when they find out that we don't understand.

Smells we need to get used to: kerosene (we use kerosene heaters to keep our house warm, and you can really smell the fumes every time you turn the heater on or off), cigarette smoke (especially right outside buildings and inside restaurants), alcohol on people's breath (not all the time, but much more than in California).

Things we need to get used to: not being able to understand/read/write/communicate effectively most of the time, low ceilings & doors, single pane windows & sliding doors, kerosene heaters (how to use and refuel them, making sure Sungjae doesn't get too close and the smell), the complicated & very time consuming trash system.

People and things we are so blessed by: the love and care that has been poured out onto us by the Murrays!!!, Haitaka sensei & his family, Kitano sensei & his family, and Ogawa-san (in pic: about to enjoy a delicious traditional homemade Japanese dinner at his house) & his wife; our little stream & walking path; a park close by; lots of shops within walking distance; friendly landlord and neighbors; close to both Japanese churches that we are partnering with; being covered by your prayers, and God's provision through your generous giving.

What year is it?

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One of the first things we did the day after we arrived in Hiroshima, was to open up bank accounts. But when we were filling out the form, I thought Pastor Kitano made a mistake when he wrote down the date for us as he wrote 22 11 5. Huh???

He explained to us that in Japan, you sometimes have to write down the year using the old system which is counted by emperor. As it's currently the 22nd year of the current emperor, he wrote 22 for the year instead of 2010. Interesting, right? :)

When we had to write our birth dates down on the forms, he had to calculate for a while. Poor Pastor Kitano... Apparently Peter was born in the 46th year of the previous Emperor's reign so he had to circle the Chinese character for the previous emperor and then write 46 for the year.

I recently made a 'point card' at our local supermarket and I was supposed to give my birth date using this old system. I wrote down 1979 for the customer services lady and she had to calculate for me. I should try to remember it for next time. :)

Odd One Out

Can you tell? :)

There aren't as many people on bicycles here as there were in Osaka (vision trip Nov 2008), probably because it's more mountainous here, but we haven't come across many strollers yet either... Maybe we'll see some downtown?

Our Wish

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We got our Wish! :) It took a long time but we finally got our Toyota Wish last Sunday. Yay!!! :) We'll continue walking to most places when we can, but it's nice that we don't have to rely on Scott, our Team Leader, for rides all the time anymore. We still need him when we go places though as our translator and advisor so he's not quite off the hook yet. :)

Japan must be one of the few countries where you don't drive off the parking lot with your car the day you buy it. Scott Murray actually put a deposit down on the car for us a while before we arrived but they needed 1) our family seal/stamp (inkan) on the contract but more importantly, 2) our family stamp's official certificate which you have to get at the local city office and 3) a form completed by our landlord to say that we have our own parking space before they could proceed. If you don't have a place to park your car, I guess you don't get a car! After we presented them with the documentation, it took them about a week to check our parking spot and I guess some other things too.

The first picture is of Juhee standing in front of our car, parked on our parking spot in front of our landlord's house for the very first time after Peter brought it home from the dealers'.

The second is of Peter at the driver's wheel - on the other side! - the day after we received our car. He drove for a couple of hours that day as we went to the first ever Pioneers' Japan Area Retreat with 6 people (2 adults guests) in the car. He was great! :)

The third picture is of our two kiddos in the middle seats. Juhee can actually reach over and touch Sungjae, something she couldn't do in our minivan back home. There's another back row for 2-3 ;) people.

The fourth picture is of my changing Sungjae's diaper in the front seat while we were stuck in a traffic jam. Yes, I unbuckled my seat belt, climbed into the back, unbuckled Sungjae, fed him solids, changed his diaper, and played with him in the front seat while Peter was driving. I've also nursed him a few times in the back while going from one place to another.

And last but not least, this is a picture of the road leading to our parking spot. There's only room for one vehicle, and even for one vehicle it's really tight, so if you meet a car coming in the other direction, one of the cars has to reverse all the way back to a point where one can pass the other. The other driveway to our parking spot is really narrow too. I think I'll get used to the driving fairly quickly (I hope!), but I think having to maneuver past other cars on super narrow roads and reversing is going to take a while.

I'm sure I'll be saying this a lot, but life is very different here! :)

Outside Our New Home

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Our perfect little home (little house on left side of pic, across from apartments) is like a little oasis in an up and coming busy urban area of Hiroshima city. We're close to the highway, to downtown, to lots of shops & restaurants and yet we have a little peaceful stream, a lo~ng path for nice walks and a few big houses with farmed land close to us so we sometimes feel like we live in the countryside.

As perfect as it is, there are a couple of things about it that remind us to be praying constantly. Every time we walk past our home, every time I look out the kitchen window, every time I go out to hang the laundry, every time I step into our entryway, I'm reminded of the need to pray...

One thing is that when our house was being built, it was probably dedicated to a god of some sort during a traditional Japanese Buddhist/Shinto ceremony, and a message of blessing was placed somewhere in the house (some say they're placed in the ceiling/attic, some say entryway). Please pray against any spirits that this house was dedicated to, that they would not take residence here in our new home.

Immediately outside our home, we are surrounded by family burial sites on three sides. The first time I was walking towards our house, I saw one of them and said, "We live next to a cemetery?" Little did I know that it was only one of THREE ancestor burial sites. Our three neighbors who have large homes and small farms/large gardens next to us also have their family burial sites are on their property. We just so happen to live right in the middle of the three burial sites.

So, as perfect as this house is in being a central location for life and ministry in Hiroshima, it also reminds us that we are smack dab in the middle of a spiritual war, and that we've just landed on the front lines. Please pray for our family to be protected from spiritual attack for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Pic 1 of 3: the burial site on the way to our house (also in big pic above). Pic 2/3: the burial site on the other side of the house which is next to the area I use to hang laundry and the walking path we take to some of the local shops. Pic 3/3: the view from my kitchen window (and the kids' bedroom) also has a smaller burial site.

Blessed Beyond Words - Part II

(Read the posting "Blessed Beyond Words" below first if you haven't already.)



Another meal that came out of the spinach that we were given by our neighbor: spinach pizza! I found ready-made, refrigerated, almost-medium-sized, simple sauce-and-cheese-only pizzas at the local supermarket so I put spinach with garlic on one and kimchi with garlic on the other one. Both were delicious! We finished both in no time. :)

I blanched and froze the rest of the spinach for future meals and gave the cabbage to the Murrays as they have guests over so often and I couldn't think of anything to do with it (at the time). I was kinda overwhelmed with the amount of veg I'd received and the amount of time it would have taken for us to eat all of it too.

God's provision comes in so many different ways. :)

Blessed Beyond Words

"Why is the world spinning? What's happening?" Those were the first thoughts that came to my mind this morning when I woke up. I thought it was maybe because I'd turned my head too quickly to check on Sungjae who had woken up and started crawling around the room. I thought it would go away, but even while Skype-ing with my sister (yay!!! =D), the dizziness and nausea wouldn't go away... I called Peter, who was in the other room with Juhee, to let him know that I wasn't feeling well. We decided that we wouldn't be able to go to church that morning and would stay home so I could rest.

I wasn't sick though, just dizzy and nauseous, so Peter and I thought that it was probably caused by iron-deficiency as I'm borderline anemic and 6 months after giving birth is when iron levels drop. I'd stopped taking my vitamins 'cause life was so hectic so we made it a goal to try and get some iron into my diet today and for me to restart taking vitamins as soon as possible.

I felt better in the afternoon so Peter and Juhee went with Scott to pick-up our Toyota Wish :) while I stayed home with Sungjae.

Peter came back almost straight away though to drop off some Yakisoba (fried noodles) and egg soup that Ogawa-san had sent to us via Scott. It was what everyone at Kabe Chapel had for lunch together today during fellowship time and he'd made sure that we got some. Sooo thoughtful!!! It meant that I didn't have to worry about and prepare dinner. Not only did God provide a delicious authentic Japanese dinner, it was an ideal meal cuz it had red meat in it - iron! Scott also let us know later on that everyone at both Koyo and Kabel Chapel were concerned for me and were praying for me. :)

I still wasn't feeling very well so was lying down playing with him on the floor when our doorbell rang - eek! I was a mess! I went to the door and it was the owner's wife! She doesn't speak any English but we chit-chatted for a bit - she asked how we were adjusting, asked if we'd taken Sungjae ("6 months old, right?") to the pediatrician nearby, I told her we needed to for his next round of immunizations but hadn't yet and when I asked if the doc there speaks English she said she didn't think so, she asked how/what we're eating and I told her we buy groceries and "fast food" at Izumi and she told me that the food there isn't that good and that we should go to a different place called Tenmaya for food, etc and then she gave me the little bag that she'd brought. She'd brought a gift for us of Japanese snacks! Sooooo sweet!!! It was very unexpected too. We gave them gifts from the US when we moved in as it's customary to do so, but we weren't expecting anything back from them. I was so touched! She then checked something in our ofuro (Japanese bathtub) and it turns out that both of our taps are hot water taps... @@ Not quite sure what we're going to do about that one...

Shortly after she left, it was nearly time for Peter & Juhee to be back so I walked out to our parking area. They'd just arrived! After a quick look around the car, we started walking back and bumped into one of our other neighbors who speaks a bit of English. He also asked how we were adjusting and how/what we're eating and if we eat vegetables. I told him that we do and that we buy veg at Izumi. He told us to follow























him to his vegetable patch and I said it's OK but he said to follow him so we did and he gave us a whole bunch of veg straight from his garden! Can't get any fresher! The radish was so big and heavy, the cabbage was huge too, and he gave us so much spinach! I'd never seen such big spinach leaves (some bigger than my hand!) so I asked him what it was just in case it wasn't spinach and he said "You know Popeye?" :)

Later on, Peter commented, "Spinach has iron! Wow, God provides..."

I washed the spinach at our outdoor faucet and just cooked it. I didn't have sesame seed oil or sesame seeds but it tasted OK. Not sure what I'm going to do with so much of it though + two big radishes + a big cabbage! I can't tell you how much I was touched by his gift. They're vegetables that he grew himself, his sweat, love and hard work, months of waiting... So generously and graciously given to us... On the day I needed it the most...

God blessed my socks off today. :)

Our New Home

Ahhh~ I have much to tell about our perfect new home that God has so amazingly provided for us. It is seriously, the PERFECT home for us. Yes, it does have its down sides, but we really couldn't have asked for a more suitable place.

The owner, a very old Japanese man, was a bit nervous about renting the place out to us as we are foreigners but after a couple of days he came around and agreed to rent it to us. Yay!!! It's actually more common for homeowners to not rent to foreigners so we thank God for his being open to renting to us. The wife is super sweet and has been reaching out to us. She even brought us freshly cut flowers from her garden, the first flowers to decorate our home! :)

Just one story (for now)... At the Pastors' Welcoming Party, one week after we arrived, Kitano sensei, who speaks English and is one of the local Japanese pastors that we'll be working with, spoke about how when they saw our 'wish list' for our home, they all shook their heads and said "impossible". We asked for a one-story house with at least 3-4 rooms (NOT bedrooms!), near a park, walking distance to stores, play area for kids, close to the two current churches & to our future church plant... Just so you know, one-story houses are not common and as Scott, our Team Leader said, he'd never been to one or seen one! But Ogawa-san, the elder who is 'in charge' of us :) looked and looked and looked and he found one! The realtor said that our house was very unusual and that the only reason why a single story family home with FIVE rooms (again, NOT bedrooms!) even exists, is because it's an old home. Houses just aren't built like ours anymore. Kitano sensei that everyone was so amazed when they saw the property! He said that we forgot to ask God to include one more thing on our 'wish list' - parking! Our parking spot is by our owners' house which is just a minute away by foot. We have a lot of shops nearby though so most people have been parking at one of the parking lots and walking over, which is perfect for future parties/playgroups/ministry events at our place.

We'll do a short video tour of the house once it's more presentable. Our 37 boxes arrived today so you might have to wait a while. We also need to get a few more bits and pieces of furniture.

Thanks to the hard work of Scott & Susan, Haitaka Sensei, Kitano Sensei, their wives, Ogawa-san and his wife, and many other of the church members, our transition into our new home has happened so quickly and so much easier because they pre-purchased so many items (like our toilet seat!) in advance for us, even cleaning the place for us and lending us silverware, plates, etc too.

We are sooooo well taken care of. We've come home. To our extended family. And it feels great. We are so tremendously blessed. My heart feels like bursting whenever I think of the number of people and hours that have gone into our coming here. I am so humbled and feel so undeserving. I rejoice that all is being done out of love for our Lord, with the desire to see His Kingdom grow and I'm grateful that awards await them in Heaven.

We look forward to welcoming you to our humble new home! :)

Juhee's 1st (PROPER) Haircut

Right before we left, I really wanted Juhee to at least get her bangs cut so they didn't look so amateur-ish (and crooked!). A friend recommended this kids' hairdressers to us close to us so my mom took her there on our last full day for one last 'date' with grandma while Peter and I packed at home. Juhee was supposed to get a $5 bangs-only haircut but my mom asked for the full $17 cut- and I'm so glad she did! She looks so much cuter without the messy thin long bit of baby hair. Her hair looks so much healthier, fuller, and shinier. She had so much fun too! :)

Wonder how much her first haircut in Japan will cost and if she'll enjoy the experience as much?