Breakfast Conversation

We Elliots still believe in the old fashioned family dinner table. When home we eat all our meals together and conversation ranges far and wide and often the table is stacked with encyclopedia, books, magazines and sometimes even my computer before we're done.

Yesterday morning Daughter # 3 ventured that she had a problem with King David's wives, I rejoined with my reservations concerning the romance between the Emperor and Xiaolongxia in Diao Man Ghon Zhu , we then moved on to the difference between mistresses and concubines (an example from our acquaintance was brought in) which of course needed to be checked out but the encyclopedia didn't have "concubine".... and somehow we moved on to the difficulties Lenin's wife faced, and I don't know how we got to Mao Zedong.

We ended with Ozymandius.

OZYMANDIAS

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said - "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stood in the desert. ... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk in a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that fed them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Rereading

Some books are for a season and some are more like good friends. Some of my best friends are Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Jung Chang's "Wild Swans".

I'm not sure yet how to rate J.P. Moreland's "Love Your God With All Your Mind" ...

J.P. Moreland's "Love Your God With All Your Mind"

... but it's definitely worth another round and I started rereading last week. There are so many quotable passages but this bit really scratched where I'm itching:

Traditionally, tolerance of other viewpoints meant that even though I think those viewpoints are dead wrong and will argue against them fervently, nevertheless, I will defend your right to argue your own case. Just as importantly, I will treat you with respect as an image bearer of God, even though your views are abhorrent to me.

Wierd and wonderful

When we first came to Japan EVERYTHING was wierd and wonderful. Now most of the time its "normal" - whatever that is.

But I must admit I think this is a little wierd. :-)

Beethoven's Fifth Breakfast courtesy of You Tube

I'll let you decide about the wonderful.

Mommy Time

Daughter # 1 and her daughter indulged in some Mommy Time this week ... dinner out.

Crab Dinner

Since the Mommy in this duo took the photos she'll have to be represented by the crab that lured her into the shop.

Erin - enjoying the lesser version

At least I think she's enjoying it! She's certainly playing with it!

Dessert

She seems considerably more intent on her dessert!

Worth it!

My daughter-in-law traveled three hours down to Aomori for the Sanbi Camp today - and that was just 2 days after recovering from a cold! But she wasn't the only young mother who thought it was worth it to bring their babies/toddlers to camp even though their husbands couldn't get off work. I counted 3 others.

Enjoying each other!

It reminded me of my own childhood and how I loved the Sunday night meetings at Eastford Baptist Church when we had "requests" and testimonies and even a little girl could choose a hymn!

And when Daughter #3 talked about following along before she could read by watching lips and thereby inadvertantly memorizing the hymns which then came back to guide and comfort her when she was in college... it sounded like history repeating itself.

Should you take your children to church even if there's no kid's program? Yes, yes, YES!

On the mountain of the LORD - ACC 賛美キャンプ 09

I heard it again today... It took me a long, long time to figure out why the phrase "on the mountain of the Lord" recurs with such frequency (!) here in Aomori. But, as Pastor Ashina reminded us today, Genesis 22:14 "So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, 'On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.'" was the rallying cry when they first built Aomori Christian Center in the 1970s.

Pastor Ashina & his wife Megumi

It was also in the 1970s that Shuichi Yamanouchi wrote his "Tomo Yo Utaou" - perhaps the first Japanese Gospel folk songs. Missionaries may have moved on, but we've discovered that many Japanese Christians still like to sing these songs. And it was encouraging to hear today how God has used these songs in the lives of His people in Aomori.

Luda

Christians here are STILL writing songs. The songs Luda, a Korean-Russian resident of Japan and member of Aomori Gospel Church, writes are probably not as well suited to congregational singing, but they do sound nice when she sings them! Which she did for the Mini Concert in Part 2 of our 賛美キャンプ (Praise Camp is direct translation but doesn't quite get the whole meaning across.)

Favorites

I enjoyed it all... but in the end what we all liked best was singing ourselves! And we did that for an hour and half when during the last session of the day we sang our favorite songs and hymns, old and new.

Slow down, you move too fast!

As we've said before, we keep a dog to slow us down and make us think and see...

Walking the dog with Grandchildren

Children have much the same effect. But we aren't allowed to keep these kids!

Y'all Come Back Now!

As I mentioned, I wish I could go running when people call. I wish I could go to everyone's wedding, I wish I could see people in their natural habitat. I'd even like to go visit "just because"... Unfortunately, most of the time, my life has certain geographical and monetary restrictions (and responsibilities!) that prevent my going anywhere very far.

But I love it when people come back! We had a number of visitors over Golden Week - some first timers and some "returnees".

Aaron with the Aomori Elliots

It was so good to see this young man again. Although we've been keeping in touch, I think the last time we actually saw him might have been in 2003, when he made a follow up visit after his STM stint in 2002. (He wasn't actually with us in 2002 - he just wandered over here a lot because of a mutual interest in Ghibley films and students.)

Summer 2003 around our international table

Summer 2002

It's always so good to see people again! So all you OMF alumni and other various visitors... y'all come back now!

If you call...

We didn't pray together tonight...

We usually pray together morning and evening. We often have company but usually the schedule still proceeds as usual. This week, because both we AND our guests were sick, our usual schedule started falling by the way.

But I trust we'll be back on track soon.

So if you call...
I won't come running
- but we will pray!

I'll come running

Grand daughter Grace and I like to read books together and lately she particularly likes "My Book of the Seasons" because I always 'sing' that phrase "winter, spring, summer or fall". After 20 years I'd rather personalized the tune and totally forgotten what the song was. (Because I never really did the popular music thing, my repertoire of oldies is rather small.) So Grace and I went you-tubing.

You just call out my name and you know wherever I am
Ill come running to see you again.
Oh babe, don't you know that,
Winter spring summer or fall,
Hey now, all you've got to do is call.
I'll be there, yes I will. You've got a friend.

Yes, I'd like to be there like that for the people I love... But there are miles involved and obligations. If I drop everything for this person, I end up cheating that person.

I thought about it for a couple of days and you know what? In the end, this "friend" has got to be God. He's the only one that's always going to be there for us.

Still trying to give orders

I was reading Purpose Driven Life with a friend last Monday when this caught my attention.

A.W. Tozer said, "The reason why many are troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven't yet come to the end of themselves. We're still trying to give orders, and interfering with God's work within us."

There are some people who never seem to grow as Christians and I've been looking at them and wondering why... I guess perhaps they are "still trying to give [God] orders."