What I love most about Japan. What I miss most about Central America.

JAPAN...

1. The people I've come to know and am ever learning to love. And not just love because they're openning up their lives to me, but because - as a friend just reminded me recently - loving them even when there's "no benefit in it for me."

2. This crazy winter. I think I'm the only person in Japan enjoying it. ;) But I have to. First because I really did pray for the snow, and second, because I have a feeling it's the last full winter with snow that I'm going to be experiencing for a while.





3. I'm learning a new language! waHOO! Ima yuki ga taksun furimas! (Right now it's snowing a lot!) Sugoi, ne! (Isn't it great!) Yuki ni shimashyou! (Let's go play in the snow!)

hahahaha grins

4. God is teaching and reteaching me some pretty incredible things about himself, about myself, about people, and about his creation. Tatoeba (for example): a continuation of my conversation with Naoko...

Last Sunday we got into the topic of abortion and single moms and handicapped babies/people. She's thinking about becoming a doctor for women, but that would mean that most of what she would do would be abortions. She doesn't like abortions, but here it's pretty much a norm of life. So we got into talking about Psalm 139 and how God "knits" each one of us in "our mother's womb." Each one of us is precious to him and he loves us so much that he sent his Son to die for us - even those babies, even just one. Even though single mothers would increase and even though they say these babies are mistakes, God doesn't make mistakes. Each tiny forming baby, he is forming. Each of us is his creation. And even handicapped babies... Handicapped people, if we take the time to listen and observe, teach us to look at the world with different eyes. Henri Nouwen caused me to look at this more carefully, and I shared with her his story of living and working with handicapped people in France. And where hardships increase, so does God's grace and strength - even moreso than whatever hardship it is that we're facing. Being a single mom is incredibly difficult. Having a handicapped child is incredibly difficult. But God's grace and strength are there, ever increasing, as our hardships increase. A very deep conversation... and towards the end of (and actually all throughout it) I could tell that new lights were coming on as she was understanding these things differently than she ever had before. And me too. And finally she made the comment... that doctors weren't meant to take life... doctors are healers and they care for life and save life. Pretty dang amazing. And we have these kinds of conversations everytime we meet. Every time!!

5. It's art, it's natural beauty, it's pottery, it's delicious food, the black matt train ticket stubs that I'm saving up to make a really cool collage, and cheap public transportation...

6. oh! and I can't leave out the ONSEN!! (hotsprings!!) There simply amazing!

CENTRAL AMERICA...

1. The people. Their warmth and hugs and kisses. Their unabashed joy and laughter and pain and sorrow. The not-holding-back. My families and friends.

2. Spanish. Everything about speaking Spanish. The trilled 'r', soft 'd' and 'b' and 'v', the music that I hear as it's being spoken. A language that most certainly reflects it's multiple cultures. And understanding. I miss understanding what someone is saying to me. I miss being able to understand what someone is saying from their heart and speak from mine in turn.

3. Surprisingly enough, the heat (I'm probably saying this right now because I'm cold). Not-so-surprising... the SUN!!!

4. The natural beauty. Despite the poverty and sometimes the desolation you can see, Central America is remarkably beautiful. It's colors are rich and deep.



5. The music. A music from the soul, not unlike other places in the world. A music that makes me want to sing with my voice and my body - a music that makes my heart beat and my legs (the rest of my body following, of course. grins) dance around. A music that sometimes makes me laugh and sometimes makes me cry. A music that I feel.

6. grins Pick-up trucks loaded with kids (or adults!), fresh-picked coffee berries sweet and slimmy in my mouth, fresh corn tortillas... along with all the other foods (oh-so-incredibly good!), fresh fruit juice, cowboys and cows, afternoon rainstorms during the rainy season.







Well, you have the short of it. grins If you want the longer version you'll have to make separate requests. ;) (And all the "Central America" pictures are Guillermo's that he sent me of Honduras when he went home for Christmas. None of mine are digital. Thanks Guillermo!! grins And he made me very homesick for Honduras!)