Persevering

Saturday I was especially proud of two relatives who persevered in adversity.

My nephew is a runner....a very good runner. Saturday I got to watch him run against opponents from 7 or 8 other international high schools in a cross country race. The competition was stiff. The course was rugged. It's a challenge to walk on the course, let alone run it. But Jared persisted. He runs all the time and it showed when he crossed the finish line ahead of all but one other runner. I admire Jared's persistence and was immensely proud of his success.

I'm married to a man who also knows a great deal about persistence. For the last two months Russ has been experiencing a lot of pain in his left forearm. I rub ointment into it twice a day to help relieve the pain temporarily, but the only thing that will cure it is to not use it. He only has one arm that he can use and he uses it to do everything. To not use it would be to make himself immobile and that would bring on a host of other problems.

Walking with a cane puts so much stress on the muscles in his arm and hand that we've had to cut out unessential walking. But, he needs that exercise so Russ is working on walking without a cane! He says I shouldn't call it "walking", rather "shuffling." Whatever you want to call it, it's impressive. The layout of our house is such that one can walk through the kitchen, dining room, and living room making a loop. Last week he made three loops without putting any weight on his cane. Saturday he wanted to do it again. I wondered if he'd be up to doing three loops again since it takes so much concentration and stamina. Russ had something else in mind. He made seven loops!

They say "No pain; no gain." I think God has a different twist to that..."Give me your pain; I'll give you gain."

Beaming in Tokyo,
Flossie

Trip Downtown

Russ (and I!) made another goal this week. Russ had not been downtown since his stroke and has been wanting to make the trip to honor the secretary he used to work with. She will soon be retiring after many years in the JEMA office. About a year ago his goal was to make the trip by train, but as time went by we realized that was too ambitious a goal since Russ' strength has been declining. I offered to drive him knowing that too would be quite the challenge (any trip is taxing for Russ, there's the emotional toll of seeing his old life, there's the daunting challenge of driving downtown to a place in Tokyo I've never driven to, and I wondered how I'd manage Russ and the car once we got into the bustling heart of this enormous metropolis.)

God blessed our trip with success. Our friend Steve offered to ride down with us. In addition to being one of the most interesting conversationalists that I know, it was really reassuring to us to know that once we got downtown, if I couldn't find a parking place at the center, Steve could take Russ in while I searched for a spot. There are thousands more cars in Tokyo than legal parking spots so parking alone is a huge deterrent for taking a car down there. We really wouldn't have needed Steve to go with us since everything went very smoothly, but having him with us was a huge stress reliever for us.

Our time with Russ' former coworker was a blessing. I made a cake and took tea for us to have a snack together. The time brought satisfying closure to a chapter of his life.

Interview

Wednesday two of Russ' therapists and a reporter from their organization came to our house to interview Russ. They thought Russ could be an encouragement to the other clients by printing an article about him even though we have never met any of them.

The day before the interview I went to visit one of Russ' doctors to pick up test results. Although I understood the good news (Russ does not have osteoporosis!), I was totally lost when the doctor tried to explain the tests using terms I don't know in Japanese and perhaps even in English. I felt so inadequate I wanted to cry. The doctor was saying important things and I just couldn't get it. Russ was counting on me and my language skills were failing me. God reminded me that I have to depend on Him. It just doesn't work to go waltzing in there thinking I can handle it.

When the reporter came the next day I knew that it would have to be God's words and not Russ' or mine. The Holy Spirit definitely guided the conversation. We had a lovely time together and opportunities to share our faith in Jesus came naturally. After taking lots of pictures of Russ, the interviewer was interested in all the photos on our refrigerator so asked to take a picture of them. Then as she left she took a picture of the placard in our entryway with the Japanese characters for faith, hope, and love. She also liked the placard my sister-in-law made for me that says "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." I don't know which pictures will make the final article.

Even if the article is never written, we felt the time had been well spent as these three people got to spend a little time in a home where Jesus lives. We felt His presence that day. We trust they did too...and if the article blesses others, that will be an added bonus.