Marsha's Blog

I think it’s appropriate this Sunday after Easter to talk about some nuances in different languages.  Perhaps you who are reading this have some other ones to share.   Jesus died on the Cross. Every year we remember that.  We also know and celebrated last week that He rose from the dead and calls all men to Himself, even as we read in Scripture. Now go with me back to Japan where my children were raised and obviously, (since I have the patience of a gnat) were not homeschooled but sent out every day to do their best in Japanese preschool and elementary schools. You know the drill. You take them, you hope they have a great day and aren’t too embarrassed by having a “gaijin” (foreigner) for a mother. My children had specific things I was NOT to include in their lunchboxes, such as placing a red umeboshi (pickled plum) in the centre of their white rice so it looks like a Japanese flag. When the other kids’ mothers did that, it was so meaningful and beautiful, but when I...

If the ship is on schedule, we should be docking in Moorea this morning, near Tahiti. It’s Easter Sunday, so we’ll be looking for a church to celebrate with. If that doesn’t pan out, we’re hoping at least that Tony can drum up some support for a sunrise service before we tie up to the dock. Thanks for your prayers, which in God’s sight are never belated! The thought that comes to mind as I write this takes me back to language school in Japan. Our (Baptist) mission decided to send us to a local Catholic school to see if they were doing any better at teaching what a 17th century Jesuit missionary once called “The Devil’s Language”. The challenge was obvious from the very start. Most of the students were priests and nuns who had just arrived from countries all over the world. For the life of us, we couldn’t come up with a common language to get us past “Good Morning”, so it was looking like we would have to get to know each other in Japanese or else. There was a cute group of Polish nuns,...

We heard from a friend the other night, before we left on this trip to Hawaii.  They are some of a few folks we really call 'friends' here in Australia, and being about our age, they've just joined a group loosely called the "Grey Nomads', those people who sell up, buy a 'caravan' (sans camels), and take off in something called a motorhome or trailer, fairly without a plan.  These folks headed west about 6 months ago, into the vast outback and surrounds of this huge continent.   When the call was over, I was lonely and got to thinking, "What really is a 'friend'? And then almost as soon as I had posed the question, my phone buzzed with the name of a friend from 50 years ago.  I was startled, of course, wondering if he’d called with purpose or had just pocket dialled.  Thanks to the wonder of technology, I was talking to them within minutes.  Sure enough, he had sorta ‘accidently’ called me, but we all agreed the event was fortuitous.   We tal...

So this morning I'd like to talk about some of those convoluted, “random” meetings that we all have  Several years ago, before we retired, we were helping at the Japanese church in Sydney Australia.  Because the church building has "National Heritage” status, it's quite a beautiful icon in the neighborhood.   One day, I happened to be standing at the back of the service, when a very distraught-looking woman came rushing into the church.   I looked around frantically; nope, everyone was looking the other way, completely engrossed in the worship service. I threw her a “Christian” body block and led her away to a quiet place away from the action.  "Is this a church?” she practically yelled the question, her hair askew and dark eyes blazing. I led her to a quiet place on the steps, and I explained that yes, it is indeed a church. In fact the service is going on right now … in Japanese.   Ignoring the explanation, she finally locked eyes on me and...