Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Dinner celebrated on Friday night after work. Hormel Compleats Turkey & Dressing with Gravy, awesome powdered mashed potatoes, and canned corn. Wasn't quite the fried turkey and homemade stuffing I'm used to on Thanksgiving, but I'm thankful I at least could sort of celebrate.

But Thanksgiving Day is a lot more than eating turkey and watching football. It's a time to spend with family. It's a time to be thankful for what you have. While I didn't have my family here in the middle of nowhere, I had a box sent with love to remind me to be thankful for them. I'm thankful that I get care packages from home with Pumpkin Pie Cliff Bars. I'm thankful that I got to Skype with my cousins after they finished eating dinner. I'm thankful for my family back home who is so eager to see me in less than a month.

But I'm thankful to be here too. I'm thankful to live in the most beautiful village in the world filled with the kindest people. I'm thankful for a chance to live out my dream--to work in Japan. I'm thankful for new friends and new adventures. I'm thankful for a year of meeting God every single day. I'm thankful for the peace and quiet after living in South Central for 4 years. I'm thankful for a chance to really appreciate everything and everyone I left to come here. I'm thankful for opportunities to share my faith and to share my God with everyone around me. I'm thankful for the chance to take a leap of faith, to follow God to the middle of nowhere, and to be met by a faithful Father. I'm thankful to be here with Him.

I'm blessed beyond measure. I don't deserve what I have at home. I don't deserve what I have here.

"All of my life in every season, You are still God and I have a reason to sing, I have a reason to worship." -- Desert Song by Hillsong

Caesar Salad

Tonight I made a Caesar salad for dinner. I haven't eaten a salad in four months. FOUR MONTHS. I have been craving salad. I've never craved salad before. I lived with a vegetarian for two years and ate salad almost every night growing up at home. But tonight, I craved salad. I've never wanted a Salad Farm before. Never been to Salad Farm? Me neither. But I wanted to go so badly. And after tonight, I will wait to come home for salad. It wasn't quite what I was expecting. Craving is gone.

Yes...BUT

It's been four months since I've started my new life in Japan. It's also the longest I've ever had a full-time job. I had full-time internships, but they were only for the summer before becoming part-time during the school year. But I have a nice 8+ hour work day everyday. Most days it doesn't seem like a real job. Probably because I thought I'd be spending the next forty years in a suit in a cubicle. But no, I'm wearing a track suit and Timberlands and hanging out with small kids everyday.

I always told people my dream job was a job where I could wear Timberlands and sweats to work. I have my dream job. It may not be in the choicest location, but I'm not complaining about driving through a national park almost everyday.

I asked God to come to Japan. I never asked God to come to the middle of nowhere. I think He answered, "Yes...BUT we're going to the middle of nowhere, and it's going to be cold, and it's going to be isolating, and I'm going to meet You like You've never met me before." I never asked God to wow me with His sunsets or frosted fields. I never asked God to whisper His promises to me in the wind. I never asked God to send a small kid to be my friend at the festival so I wouldn't feel alone. I never asked God to be my Best Friend. But He has. He is. Sometimes, I wish He had just said, "Yes" but looking back, I'm thankful for His "Yes, BUT" because He knew far better than I did.

Don't put God in a box.

This Is How We Overcome

Every song we sang at church today I could sing in English. I walked in and they were singing "Amazing Grace". I'm pretty sure the lady next to me was confused when I was singing in English, but, man, it was sure nice. We sang "Power of Your Love" and it brought me back to the days at PVBC with Auntie Clarice and Uncle Gary singing. I miss that. But then we sang this song, and we've sung it a lot, but this lady came up to me afterwards and asked me if I knew the English lyrics. She told me to look them up when I got home. How appropriate they were after a long week and many nights of crying lonely tears.

Your light broke through my night 
Restored exceeding joy 
Your grace fell like the rain 
And made this desert live  

Chorus: 
You have turned my mourning into dancing 
You have turned my sorrow into joy  

Your hand lifted me up 
I stand on higher ground 
Your praise rose in my heart 
And made this valley sing 
(Chorus)  

This is how we overcome 
This is how we overcome 
(Chorus)

"This is How We Overcome" - Hillsong United

Thanksgiving

I've realized in the spirit of Thanksgiving that I have a lot to be thankful for. And most of them aren't big things, but I think that's what makes God's small touches in life even more intimate.

• It was warm enough to walk home for lunch without a jacket.
• I came back to my desk and there was a chocolate bar with a smiley post-it note.
• Another care package from home.
• Being thanked by a teacher.
• A cup of coffee with a little piece of chocolate on the saucer.
• Text messages in the middle of the night reminding me someone on the other side of the Pacific is thinking of me.
• No basketball practice and no Bible study on Wednesday so I could write.
• An email from an old professor just asking how life is going.
  
• A student gave me flowers she made out of paper.
• My boss called to get the gas for my heater refilled, so I wouldn't freeze.
• My coworkers try really hard to learn English, which usually ends up with the entire office laughing.
• My co-teachers are all set on helping me pass my test next month.
• The lady at 7-11 remembered to talk to me slowly.
• The lady at the grocery store asked if I was doing okay because it's getting cold.
• Someone offered me a ride to the airport to go home for Christmas.
• Seeing Grandma for the first time since June.
• It's warm enough to sleep in my bed still.

It's been a rough week. Maybe it's just that time of year when it gets colder and darker. It's not quite pretty anymore. The bright red leaves have fallen off and left all the trees naked. It's like this weird in between period before the snow falls. A transition period. I'm eagerly awaiting the day I get to come home, come back to LA, to the smog, the noise, the traffic, but most of all, the people. I am trying really hard not to count down the days until I can come home. I've never really enjoyed the holiday season much, but it's strange not to have the house decorated. I mean, even my apartment was decorated during the holidays. But I'm thankful that I do get to go home. I'm thankful that my job and my boss are flexible and gracious. But I'm thankful to be here too. I'm thankful for the chance to finally live and work in Japan. I'm thankful for the time I get to have alone with my Best Friend. I'm thankful for the opportunity to finally sit down and write. I'm thankful for the small blessings because they remind me that God who is so big still knows I'm here, alone, in the middle of nowhere. They remind me that God who runs the universe still cares enough to put chocolate bars with smiley post-it notes on my desk. They remind me that God who holds the stars also holds my hand everyday when I walk to work and walk back home. I'm thankful for a God who is big enough for me to worship and still intimate enough to know my name.

Wheezy Kid at Church Camp

I realized I haven't been writing much here. Nothing has really been going on. I got sick. My netbook crashed. I opened my Costco bag of Pretzel M&Ms. I bought a humidifier.

So my boss told me to buy a humidifier. I honestly grew up thinking that humidifiers were for those wheezy kids at church camp (sorry if you have one and I just called you a wheezy church camp kid). I was quite hesitant to buy one. I didn't want to be one of those wheezy kids at church camp. But I bought one after I realized there was no one around to judge me and call me a wheezy kid. It's amazing. It makes breathing so much more pleasant. I didn't know it was possible. It's great. I'll take being called a wheezy kid at church camp any day for my humidifier!

My Skype Bible study finished Colossians, Philemon, and now we're on to Hebrews. It's the "if you thought you knew what faith was you're about to be kicked in the face with truth" book. But the thing that has kept coming up week after week is the idea of being thankful. Always be thankful. And it sounds stupid really. I mean, I always heard to be thankful growing up in church. And it's easy to be thankful at...Thanksgiving. Or Christmas. Or your birthday (if you get cool presents). But it's a lot harder to be thankful when things go wrong. Like your netbook crashing. Or catching a cold and semi-losing your voice before teaching forty1st graders. Or being 17 hours apart instead of just 16 hours. Uncontrollable circumstances. But I've been reading this book called "In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day" by Mark Batterson (amazing book if you haven't read it). In the second chapter of his book, he says, "How you think about God will determine who you become...And that internal picture of God determines how you see everything else...Our biggest problems can be traced back to an inadequate understanding of who God is. Our problems seem really big because our God seems really small. In fact, we reduce God to the size of our biggest problem. (28)" But I believe my God is bigger than a dead netbook. I believe my God is bigger than a cold...and forty 1st graders. I believe my God is bigger than an hour. I believe my God is so much bigger...and for that I can praise God. I can thank God because He is bigger. So even when it's freezing and I'm sick and my head feels like it's in a fishbowl, I can smile walking to work because I serve and worship a great God who can't love me anymore than He does right now. When I start getting frustrated or upset that things aren't going great, I thank Him for the things that are going right. I thank Him for the blessing to have things going wrong (I mean, not everyone has a new netbook or an amazing job or...time).

"God is great not just because nothing is too big for Him. God is great but because nothing is too small for Him either." -- "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day" Mark Batterson

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Nothing interesting really

Nothing exciting happened this week. It was National Culture Day on Wednesday so I had a nice day of sitting at home with the heater on and studying Japanese.

National Culture Day doesn't really make sense to me. Back in the US, everyone is from a different background with different culture. It would make sense to set aside a day for everyone to celebrate their culture. But here in Japan, everyone is the same (more or less). So having a day to celebrate culture doesn't make any sense. I found out from my adult night class that they don't really do anything special. However, there was karaoke and dancing at the community center. I don't know how karaoke and dancing count as Japanese culture--I was really expecting more like flower arranging, tea ceremony, calligraphy, etc. Although I suppose karaoke is a large part of modern Japanese culture.

On a lame note, I'm sick. I got a sore throat and a cough. I went to the drug store and attempted to buy medicine. I looked online for some help before I went. The best recommendation was to look for a picture of a head with stars at the forehead, nose, and throat. So that's what I got. Questionable. Hopefully it works. Teaching English with a sore throat is quite awful.

Okay going to make some tea for this throat. I went and bought some lemons and honey since they don't sell anything but green tea in my village. Oh well. It'll have to do. Praise the Lord it's the weekend!