Typhoon Season

This is typhoon season. And when a typhoon hits, there are moments when the whistling wind and ravenous rain make it feel like the house will cower to its power. Then suddenly, calm comes, making it easy to forget the chaos that had just happened. This move has had its moments of chaos as well as the calm in between. Getting Happy over here took planes, trains, and automobiles…well 3 states, 2 long car rides, 4 flights, 3 countries, and 4 days. Our trip was a lot easier. But coming during the fourth of July made it difficult to get housing and other office visits due to the 96. But we were able to watch an amazing fireworks show on the pier with the USS America floating in the background! It was breathtaking! Storms and calms.

We are still living in the Navy Lodge which means eating out for most meals. That seems like it would be fun, but some of our bodies are rejecting the new food, or perhaps they are exhibiting the stress our faces are hiding. We walk to meetings, class, and out in town. We’ve had sushi go-round, ramen, Thai, Turkish, and Mexican. We’ve also taken buses and train rides around to see this new land of Sasebo. Sasebo is the main city in Nagasaki, where the Japanese fleet had all its communication for WWII. In fact, they sent the message to bomb Pearl Harbor from here. We are told there are bunkers and tunnels all over the lush hills that populate this prefecture and are open to explore. We hope to find them. Erico-san, our Japanese culture teacher, implied that since Japan kept invading other countries to get natural resources, dropping the atomic bomb was almost necessary to stop them—jaw drop. Japan then gave up its right to defend itself and welcomed the US Navy to fend off the trigger-happy North Korea. Again, my emotions about all this are stormy and calm.

In between all this, we studied for our driving test, took the test, met with housing, chose an apartment, walked to a car dealership, bought a car, picked up our license, and applied for insurance and a parking certificate.  Our carefully mapped-out housing plan was not in our cards. We ended up in a different housing area than we planned and in an apartment rather than a townhouse. Yet, we feel like this option is turning out better than our original plan. We are within walking distance of a huge playing field, skate park, main base library and pool, gym, and tons of off-base restaurants and stores. We can also walk to the chapel each Sunday, where we have already connected with some of those members. The other base does not have these particular opportunities. We hope to move in in a couple of weeks. Again, the chaos of change and quick decisions followed by the calm of waiting is jarring.

Finally, on a humorous note. We were invited over for dinner by a couple of young Chaplains. The fact that they had no kids and wanted to serve our rambunctious crew was really humbling. After feeding us, they even set up a game for us to play where we picked a card, and everyone had to answer the question. For instance: “What book has most influenced you?” My kids actually love answering questions like this, so we all learned a lot about each other. As I was listening to one of the chaplains answer a question, we all suddenly heard Ronnie frantically screaming, “MOM!” “MMMMOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!” from the bathroom. All eyes became saucers, and Barrett got up to see what the issue was. After a few moments, he came out laughing. For those of you who have never seen a Japanese toilet, they have MANY button options on the side. Some play music, some play the sound of a waterfall, and a couple actually shoot up water…Ronnie found THAT button. But what made him cry out was that he couldn’t turn it off! So he was stuck on a toilet that was squirting him with water up places that normally don’t get squirted, and it wouldn’t stop! He came out with a panicked smile after Barrett turned it off, and we all burst out laughing!

The winds and rain of change can be frightful and bring turmoil, but we have found that the Lord of heaven and earth is always in the midst of the storm with us. He gives us what we need, not necessarily what we planned. He gives levity when the winds seem to be blowing too hard for us to stand. He gives us community in unexpected places like hallways, food courts, and in line for a parking certificate. It may be typhoon season, but the Lord will not let us be overcome.