Marsha's Blog

 To All my Wonderful Followers,   We survived the holidays! Now we are making it through what the English call “Boxing Day”, which has nothing to pugilistic activities but rather to “boxing up” all the things from Christmas. Quite appropriate in our case, since we’re also packing up the house in preparation for the Big Trip.   And to make things even more interesting, our whole family is beginning a 5-day stayover in a resort not far from the house. It’s rather tired, but it has a pool, a pond and a creek, and the grandkids love it.   I know Christmas is over, but I’d like to share just one more story, in case you haven’t heard it already. It’s about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow … remember him from high school literature class? He did most of his writing in the mid to late1800s, but did you know…...   …that his second wife burned to death in 1861 when her dress caught on fire as she melted wax to seal Christmas letters?  Henry was so injured trying to save he...

  Well, are we all getting excited yet?  It’s almost Christmas!! I’m glad so many of you enjoyed the “Cockroach Christmas” story.  Fortunately, all our ‘goofs’ in the Japanese language weren’t so eventful In fact, soon after we arrived, Tony came across a simple story in my grandmother’s Guidepost magazine that she’d so kindly tucked into our luggage for the ‘hard days'.  It was simple enough that Tony felt he could tell it in Japanese, and the story was a great success.  So much so that besides being “Santa” for numerous Church kindergartens every year, he began to have a reputation for the simple “Tommy’s Christmas” sermon.  Always a hit on the cold and dark winter nights of Christmas in Japan. So here’s the story.  I can almost repeat it in both languages: "It was Christmas Eve, and I was trying to write my Christmas sermon for the Children's home where our family lived and worked.  Even though my heart was happy and filled with love, the words...

We’d been in Japan several years when we got some new missionaries.  This couple and their two boys were unstoppable. In particular, the wife clearly had a musical ear, leading her to have a real gift for the languages. I tried not to be jealous of her prowess. And then one day she dispelled any jealousy I’d had by telling this story on herself. It was the Christmas season. That’s when we missionaries would crank into gear and take every opportunity imaginable to show Christ to Japan. After all, materialism had appeared soon after the war was over and most Japanese understand that Christmas is coming, even going so far to seek out churches and other venues in the hope of some ‘holiday cheer’. Mind you, most have very little idea to this day of WHAT Christmas means, apart from gift giving to children  and eating Kentucky Fried Chicken with your boyfriend on Christmas Eve. I’m not making this up, you can google what an incredible marketing ploy the Colonel pulled off some 60 yea...

 Hello all   Welcome to December!  By now you in the Northern Hemisphere should be snugged down and anticipating Christmas. I can imagine you looking thru frosty windows out at glistening lights, humming Christmas carols and sipping hot chocolate. (sigh!)   And yet, here Down Under, I have never quite “gotten” the Hot Christmas idea, but I have to admit that it’s fun to hear the grandkids frolicking in the pool and wondering what cool quick dry ‘frock’ I can come up with for the Christmas Eve carols. And then is the 8:00AM Christmas day service that is also so much a part of Australian tradition.    We love being with family then, and seeing the gleam in the children’s eyes. I was almost moved to tears when I asked my middle grandson, Ezekiel, what his favorite Christmas memory was. I expected to hear something involving food and/or presents, but he thought a moment, then said, “Oh, that’ll be THIS Christmas, because we have a ‘newcomer’! He was talking abo...

 Last week a friend recommended a PBS video about someone I thought I knew a lot about.  But as it turns out, there’s more to this fellow than I knew. I’m going to call him a “Hero of the Faith”, but with a different perspective. If you have access to PBS, take the hour to watch “The Secrets of the Dead, A Samurai in the Vatican”, Season 19, episode 5."   His name was Hasekura Tsunenaga, the year was 1613, and he was the first Japanese to travel more than half way around the world looking for Christianity. Well … If only it were that simple.   Actually, he was a disgraced Samurai.  His father had brought shame on his family for some technical error and was ordered to commit ‘seppuku’ or ritual suicide for his carelessness.  Now the son, Hasekura, with really no future as the whole family was shamed, was ordered by the Daimyo (think Governor) Masamune to go to Spain and check things out.  Masamune himself, many years prior, had been sent to No...

 A few weeks ago, we had the privilege of baptizing a new friend.   Hearing her testimony gave me goosebumps all over. And honestly speaking, we can’t claim much of the process in her journey to Christ; but the “goosebump event” came about more because of the reminder that God is at work all around us even when all around us seems to be tumbling down. Our friend is Japanese, but we were moved to hear of her family’s involvement in the local Buddhist temple. Because of that, she was naturally taught to be “good”, moral and hard-working. In addition to that, her family focused on the exterior, “visible” aspects of living circumspect. As she got older, those characteristics took her a long way, through a somewhat privileged life, traveling and learning languages, and becoming well educated.  She married and had kids, but there was still a God-shaped vacuum in her heart.In 2010, she came across a church, found it inviting and started taking one of her children there....

 We’ve been a bit ‘off subject’ lately, so today I’ll return to the ‘Known heroes of the faith’ via Canon J. John.    Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a name you may or may not have heard in your life, but if you’re like me, you’ve just cringed back in your ignorance, silently thinking ‘Let’s see; was he a good guy or a bad guy?” So here’s what I’m reading about him. He was born to an aristocratic German family living in Poland in 1906.  Obviously gifted, he chose to study Theology and had his PhD by age 21.  He then began to contribute to what were many international links including Germany and then the USA.   Returning to Germany in 1931 he was horrified by the rise of the Nazis and because of either his bravery or his naivety, wasn’t afraid to speak out against Hitler.  His was not a popular point of view because many German Christians, encouraged by Hitler’s manipulative use of Christian language, saw Hitler as the nation’s savior.  The lines becam...