Mosaic Tiles of Life

This post has been a long time in coming and for that I apologize.  I've been sick the last few days and have not been able to do much besides rest.  In the midst of that, the Lord has gotten ahold of me and reminded me of a few things I'd forgotten, such as the fact that I'm not the center of the universe and I don't steer the ship.  It's been an interesting ride the last few days for sure.  But one thing I discovered yesterday was that I simply love the people around me at ICA and I'm incredibly lucky to be able to be here with them at this time.

This post is going to be a bunch of little stories all smooshed into one.  Consider it a mosaic of my life at ICA and in Tokyo right now.  I simply love it!

 These Philippina ladies (plus 2 Japanese ladies) are the diligent and most excellent cooks for our Sunday lunches each and every week.  They always serve with a smile and get things together so effectively it amazes me.  I'm always so grateful for their cooking since we're at church all day.  It is so refreshing to sit down with members of the church and just talk and laugh together after the service is over.  If you ask me, we've got a good thing going here. :)

This is Kevin, one of our more active boys in church. :)

It's really the small things that make life worthwhile - especially if those small things are kids!   I've been privileged to serve with Children's Church during the morning service and have tons of fun with the kids, teaching them and learning from them, too.  Last week, I taught them the fruit of the spirit song that I learned from Pastor Chad in Kid's Church when I was in elementary school.  The kids really got into making the noises of the fruit and they kept adding verses to include cherries and  even some things that I don't think can be considered fruit, lol.  This week, they heard the story of Joseph and the coat of many colors.  They made their own coats out of plastic bags and construction paper and wore them around all day, rustling here and there.  It was too cute!  Zeeki, one of the boys, is teaching me how to fold origami.  He is very patient with me since I'm old and can't catch onto things quite as quickly.  His little sister, Zuvi, has finally warmed up to me after weeks and weeks of smiles and offers to help color.  She asked me last week to wear a long dress, so I wore my long, multicolored  skirt and she wore her pink and white dress that twirls when she spins around.  She drew a picture of us as princesses that almost made me cry.  After Children's Church, she held me hand and we twirled around while lunch was being set up. 

Not sure why these are sideways... sorry!

This is Marvelous, the oldest of three siblings, a brother and sister who are named Daniel and Radiance.  She was having a hard day yesterday and I could tell she was tired of having to put up with her younger siblings.  She was drawing something I thought looked like a castle... only to find out it was a cake.  I told her it was a very nice cake and that she could draw anything she wanted.  When I was walking out the door to make our weekly Starbucks run, she barreled up to me and showed me her picture of a castle (for real this time) with a prince and princess standing in front.  I told her it was beautiful and that she was a wonderful artist.  Her beaming face bid me farewell as I walked down the stone steps between the buildings.  I don't think there are many things better than that.

 This is one of our monthly birthday cake candle-blowing collaborations.  Each month, a cake is baked for all the people whose birthdays are in that month.  All of them gather around and we sing happy birthday, then they blow the candles out together.  I love it because it's a real family thing.  In my family, family cake for someone's birthday is a long standing tradition of celebrating just for the sake of celebrating.  It's stuff like that that makes a family, I think.  Just wanting to be together and celebrate each other's lives.  It's beautiful. 

We have a wonderful mix of nationalities in our church and that makes for a lot of comings and goings among the congregation members.  It seems there is always someone coming in, going out, getting married, finding a new job, going on vacation, having kids, etc.  There are teams who come in and out, the Chi Alpha/GAP group that adds to the mix and a whole ton of languages to boot!  It sure was confusing at first, but now I couldn't love it more.  I enjoy worshiping in different languages and hearing the voices of other words crying out to the same Father I love.  I think this is something similar to what heaven will be like.

Irma, a friend of Pastor Shelley that I met 2 weeks ago, asked me yesterday if I'd ever worn a yukata (a summer kimono).  I said I had once or twice and she insisted that I let her dress me up in one of her yukata for church one Sunday!  As you can imagine, I am stoked and truly honored.  Look for pictures on FB in a few weeks!

Dale, one of the guys on worship team is leaving the same week I am and asked me if I would sing a special song with him and the rest of the worship team.  If you know me, you know that I've never ever sang in a microphone and never in front of people.  Yet, it was touching to know that I'm part of the family, so I said yes.  We practiced it yesterday and had a really good time.  I'm looking forward to next week when we sing it!
 
I wish I had time to share with you the whole story of when the Brazilian church and American IHOPU team put on a Pentecost celebration and Dawn, the 9-year-old girl to the right, had some questions for me about the Holy Spirit.  It took everything within me not to cry laughing.  She was concerned when a woman, overcome by the Spirit, lay down on the floor.  We call this "slain in the Spirit", but try explaining that to a 9-year-old.  She just looked really concerned and asked me "Is she dead?!"  Once I explained to her the situation, she said "Can you do that to me?"  A full 15 minutes of explanation later, we went to the back room for some crackers and raisins.   I don't think I've had a more memorable and adorable conversation in my life.  :)

Last night at GAP (the young adult service), one of the Japanese girls, Mio, sang in worship for the first time.  She's a piano teacher, and listening to her harmony almost brought me to to tears.  It was the best worship service I've been to in a while.  We had to say goodbye to Kohei, one of our guys who was home visiting family in Japan for 3 weeks before heading back to Australia for school.  We got to hang out with him a few times and I was always amused by his Australian/Japanese accented English (yo, lol).  He'll for sure be missed.

For those who are wondering, we caught the mouse in our house last night - finally!  I'd seen it twice and have discovered many different pieces of "evidence" that it has been here, but last night was the turn of fate for our small intruder.  I heard something banging in the kitchen around 4am this morning but was too chicken to go check it out (judge me all you want) at the time.  I woke up later this morning to find out that P. Shelley had found it stuck in one of our traps and had taken it out with the garbage this morning.   How thoughtful of her. :)  I'm actually very impressed that she handled it so effectively.  I would have been spazzing, without a doubt. 

Tonight, I'm headed out for sushi with Amanda Fosburg and Liz Dunagan.  We all admitted to each other last night that our lives in Japan would be significantly more lonely without each other and we need to spend more time together.  So, I'm off to Harajuku to meet them for dinner.  (Wish me luck in not getting lost... again.) 

Blessings,

Amanda