Joy in Fukushima

The second week of summer vacation for Cindy and I here brought some wonderful, much-needed time to pray, talk, study Japanese, plan, run, make jelly, pray and plan some more... :) Cindy and I comment frequently about how differently we communicate and how hard it is to communicate for us--it is not abnormal for us to be arguing about something and then burst into laughter when one of us insists, "Wait! I'm AGREEING with you, not arguing with you!" The communication mishaps actually bring some of the biggest blessings though, because they force us to truly talk, share, hash through things, argue, brainstorm, and pray a lot.

Two planning sessions of 4+ hours each and multiple discussions beforehand led to this:

You may say, "Um...Haidee...you do realize that is just a colored tree right? And a slightly pathetic-looking tree at that?"

Yes, yes, I agree with you. :) Trust me--any bulletin board making forces a painful awareness of my inability to draw, color, cut, or do anything slightly artistic. You have no idea how much I am grimacing at the picture of the tree on my screen right now.

However, what I'd like to draw your attention to are the "Truth...Love...Joy" captions. Why truth, love, and joy? Because joy is what I'd like our students to experience and receive when they come to class. And joy stems from receiving both truth and love. Look at it this way--a student of English needs to receive grammar and vocabulary before he or she can even try to put together understandable sentences. Grammar and vocab are, in essence, the "truth" side of English language learning. But a person who sits and studies grammar and vocab may not actually be able to communicate or engage in conversation--he or she needs to practice engaging in relationship and actually speaking English. This relational, conversational side is the "love" side of learning. And when both the truth side and the love side are present, then a student can hopefully engage in a fun, relaxed way (the "joy" side).

The fun thing is that this also works for God and the Bible. Have you ever tried to read the Bible and look at it simply through the lenses of truth, love, and joy? It's fascinating. Every week my Bible students and I read a section and try to answer the question "Who is the true God, according to this passage?" We rarely have time to get to the questions of love and joy, because we are often to blown-away with insights about God's character!

The second fun thing is that this also is applicable for myself, Cindy, Pastor, and the church members. This whole English-school-and-DCO-ministry thing is new for right now, and new things are sometimes pretty scary. It's hard to portray joy when you've just come from a discussion on finances, or when you feel overwhelmed, or when you feel judged. Last week, for me, brought many questions of personal goals and desires that made me question my ability or right or desire to even be working in Fukushima--not an easy time to feel joyful.

But the TRUTH is that God is Almighty, purposeful, all-knowing...and He's got it all under control.

The LOVE is that He provides grace, and His love for people is way stronger than anything I could ever conjure up...and He'll give me His love when I have nothing left to give of my own (which happens pretty frequently).

The JOY is watching Him burst through barriers, open doors, comfort the hurting, guide the seeking, and connect things and people in ways that I can't ever come close to dreaming up on my own.

Today I was unsure of how to handle talking about joy...but it has only gotten easier and easier throughout the day, as more new people wander through the doors of the church or call and ask about studying the Bible, studying English, bringing their children...

On the tree leaves, students and I wrote synonyms for joy and experiences of joy...I'll share more later of those later.