A New Family Member!

We have a new son in-law!

Josiah and Leslie

We are officially announcing the marriage of our daughter, Leslie Anne Roberson, to Josiah Scott Talbert Truax, on August 8^th, 2013.   They were married at Rivermont Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, VA.

This wasn’t your ordinary wedding.  For one thing, neither set of parents (bride’s or groom’s) were present at the ceremony.  We, of course, just relocated to Tokyo in January.  Josiah’s family meanwhile, lives on Okinawa where his dad serves as a Colonel in the United States Marine Corps.

Leslie and Josiah, desperately in love, announced that they intended to marry by summer’s end.  They used the “E” word -- they were going to elope!   Well, they nearly eloped to Japan, because Josiah’s parents wanted very badly for our two families to witness the kids’ vows, sending them into marital bliss with a blessing from each side of the family.  Between the Truax family’s pocketbook and the Roberson family’s planning skills on the ground, we nearly had this elopement set for Tokyo, Japan.

Except for one thing.  The kids didn’t want it.

I can’t blame them.  After all, they each had only 5 days off from work.  They would  have spent 2.5 of those 5 days traveling half-way around the world and back.  The time spent in between may have been lost in a hopeless fog of jet lag.  Even if we succeeded in pulling off the elopement of the ages, chances are, our bridal couple would not have even remembered it.

Ben walks Leslie down the aisle

In the end, Leslie and Josiah begged for us to let them remain in the States and get married their way.  We relented.  The result was a lovely, simple wedding attended by around 20 people.  Our son in-law Ben Presson stood in for Stew and walked Leslie down the aisle.  Along with Ben and our daughter Stephanie, Lissa’s mother, Carolyn, and sister, Kristin, attended the ceremony to represent the Roberson side of the family.  Josiah’s grandparents drove from Florida and Ohio, respectively, to attend the wedding and represent the Truax side of the family.  

Our view of the ceremony.  Yay, Skype!

Where did that leave us Japan parents?  Well, we watched the ceremony live via Skype.  Josiah’s granddad, Papa Truax, used his I-phone to “video” the ceremony out to the parents of the groom in Okinawa.   The parents of the bride meanwhile, video-skyped into the Truax home onto the sister-of-the-groom’s laptop.  Sister of the groom trained her webcam onto the parents of the groom’s laptop, which was connected via video-skype to Papa Truax’s I-phone inside the church.

Did I mention that the ceremony took place at 2:00 in the afternoon in Virginia that day?  That translated to 3:00 in the morning in Japan.  This means that we, the bride’s family, attended the ceremony in our pajamas!  At 3:39 a.m. Japan time, Leslie and Josiah were presented to the guests as Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Truax.

Exchanging wedding vows

We love our new son in-law.  He is bright and articulate, a lover of literature like our daughter Leslie is.  Josiah has aspirations to become a pastor-writer down the road.  He is a purposeful individual, to the degree that their wedding plans are partly to enable Leslie to resume her college studies at James Madison University.  Leslie sadly withdrew from JMU a year ago because the school insisted on charging her a third year of out-of-state tuition.  This wedding serves as a game-changer:  armed with a Virginia marriage license, Leslie is now miraculously an in-state Virginia resident!  We pray that these newlyweds succeed in eventually switching “burgs” from Lynchburg to Harrisonburg, so that Leslie can complete her teaching degree.

Papa Truax generously covered an apres-wedding meal at Olive Garden that afternoon.  

Please join us in celebrating Leslie and Josiah's recent marriage!  Praying friends, please ask God's blessing for the two-become-one as they seek His best for their lives together.

What Do We Do All Day, Anyway?

What do we do on an average day in Japan?

Good question! 

Our first few years here are "re-tooling" years, spent in full-time language study.  Stew and Lissa go to class five days per week, typically 3 hours per day.  They spend another 2-3 hours per day doing homework, reviewing a lesson, or pre-viewing the next day's lesson.  It's an arduous schedule for middle-aged brains.  The mental fatigue hits us around mid-day Thursday, but we press on through Thursday and Friday class. 

Our sensei grades Stew's first essay.

Lissa's first Japanese essay!

                     
We meet three days a week with a sensei (teacher) as we work our way through elementary Japanese, vocabulary, and grammar.  We meet another day with a native speaker to focus on conversational Japanese and listening comprehension.  On the fifth day, we study religious language with a group of our missionary co-workers.  This class meets on the opposite side of Tokyo, which means a two-hour commute, one way.  The 3-hour class nets a full 8-hour day when it's all said and done -- exhausting.  The material is essential to our work here, though, so we don't want to miss out.  Just this month we negotiated a new arrangement, and we no longer have to make that commute.  We are so grateful!  We didn't want to whine too loudly about the travel because the teacher lives near our train stop and he makes that same trip twice per week!

Standing room only during morning rush hour. 

Downtown Tokyo from the Japan Rail train. 

Our sensei is very happy with our progress so far.  It's hard to know how well you are doing learning a new language.  We find ourselves battling against speaking Chinese when we're in the classroom...and when we're out on the street, well, it isn't pretty.  Let's just say that it takes a whole different level of proficiency to "think on your feet" in a new language!  Instead of focusing only on spoken Japanese, though, we are going the extra mile to become literate.  It will be slow progress for sure, but worthwhile.  For one thing, I will figure out how to operate my oven, with its numerous oven/microwave functions and FORTY-EIGHT separate programs for daily use!

Our oven, displaying some patriotic spirit during July.

In gold:  some of the 48 programs.  In white:  oven, microwave, steam, and heretofore "unknown" functions.

The girls are out of school now until late-August.   During their first week off, they attended volleyball camp.  During their second week, they hopped a train with two of their friends to visit an amusement park -- by themselves!  Jenna and Heather spend time each day reviewing Japanese, and Heather is working on some Math review as well.  They spend a lot of time reading.  In fact, just this week we made one final trip to CAJ's library before the school shut down for summer.  Each of them came away with a tidy stack of books for summer reading!

                              

We surprised Heather and Jenna with new bicycles during their last week of school.  They have enjoyed going out to explore our neighborhood on their bikes.  We have discovered several bike trails that go through a local park, plus hilly streets for (careful) biking fun.  One evening we happened upon a baseball game, so we sat there to take in a few innings before moving along.

Jenna in our local park 

   

It's not the Yankees, but it's baseball!

 Summer came gradually, after a six-week long "rainy season."  Now that summer's here, it's gotten pretty hot!  Room a/c units keep the smaller spaces cooled off, but stairwells and other lesser-used areas get mighty warm.  Though we're hot, Tokyo heat, we've discovered, is more bearable than the heat and humidity combo of southern China!

37.5 Celsius = 99.5 degrees F.!!

In our stairwell...

Our beat-the-heat strategy so far involves making friends with the heat -- as in, Stew grilling outdoors as often as possible!  We also discovered a neighborhood pool, so we plan to make regular trips there to cool off.

Steak Strips for Dinner -- YUM.

Bobbing Heads -- Heather and Jenna

All in all, not a bad life.  We are slowly making friends as our Japanese grows by baby steps.  We enjoy friendships with other Japan missionaries, and gather once a month for an English Sunday service since we all attend Japanese churches for weekly worship.  We enjoy hosting other missionaries, particularly the single guys, at our house for Western food and gaming.  We also serve as foster parents for Hassle, a missionary family's kitty.  We affectionately refer to him as "The Old Man" because of his clockwork routine of sleeping and eating!

Hassle, "The Old Man"

Mighty Resilient Girls

I've decided that it's time to brag on Jenna and Heather, our two younger daughters.  These girls have seen more change in the last 12 months than many kids experience during their entire childhood.

Moving Day, Hendersonville, TN

In one short year, these kids have lived on 3 different land masses:  China, the U.S. and Japan.  They attended 3 separate schools, each one distinctively different.  They went from school at home to a public middle school in Tennessee, and now they attend a private international school populated by high-achieving Asian students in the suburbs of Tokyo, Japan.

Had I mentioned that during this inaugural semester in Japan, the girls spent the initial four months living in near-Spartan conditions, sleeping and studying on the floor?  Evenings were spent time-sharing on Mom and Dad's laptops, as so much of the day-to-day activity and communication came by way of digital technology.  They entered the school at a time when most students' friendships were already cemented from the previous semester.  They had to hustle to catch up with their fellow students who'd already gotten a six-week head start on Science Fair projects.  To Jenna and Heather's credit, they got theirs done in 3 weeks' time with a minimum of supplies at home!

 

Method of conveyance has evolved from place to place as well.  In China, the girls merely walked down the hall to the living room (occasionally in their pajamas!)  In Tennessee, they walked down the street to catch a neighborhood school bus.  Now in Japan, they commute 45 minutes one way: walking 15 minutes to the train station, then taking a 15-minute train, then walking a final 10 minutes to get to school.  They perform the reverse commute at the end of every day.  Needless to say, with heavy backpacks, these girls get a workout 5 days a week.

They have weathered several bouts of illness, mostly upper respiratory, since arriving in their new host country.  This is pretty typical for families that move overseas and must get acclimated to a new environment replete with unfamiliar pollens, allergens and germs.  Since we had not yet found a family doctor, they had to blaze a new trail into the world of medical treatment.  At Jenna's clinic, the doctor merely performed a visual ear/nose/throat exam followed by an x-ray, and he promptly dispensed antibiotics.  Heather wasn't so lucky; her doctor came from the "old school" (even wore the headpiece with the reflector disk on top!) and he was very fond of poking, probing and aspirating out of Heather's ears, nose and throat!  Eeewwww!

School has presented unique challenges at each location.  In China, school was a challenge because Mom was their primary teacher.  The independent daughter resisted Mom's every attempt to teach and explain new content.  The more dependent of the two relished Mom's involvement so much that she paid scant attention to her online instruction, knowing that Mom would explain things much more clearly when the lesson was over and it was homework time.

School was a challenge in Tennessee because the middle school operated on what seemed to me, ungodly hours.  The girls had to catch a bus at 6:30 a.m., which meant they had to wake up at 5:45!  They adapted well to this ugly schedule by making their lunches the night before, and pre-positioning their backpacks.  That way, all that was needed in the drowsy early-morning hours was to prepare breakfast and get themselves out the door.

At the Christian Academy in Japan, school is a challenge because of the rigor of their coursework.  Heather is writing reports in MLA format -- in the sixth grade!  Jenna has written numerous reports, created several powerpoints, and given multiple oral presentations in one semester.  Jenna also struggled with math because they placed her in Algebra I (second semester) with only a semester of Pre-Algebra under her belt.  She spent much of the semester just trying to stay afloat in math.

Jenna's Middle School "Encapsulation"

The hardship has actually proven beneficial to each of the girls.  In the case of the independent one, she realized that it's probably okay, maybe even desirable, to ask Mom for help on her work.  In the case of the dependent daughter, she gradually took more and more ownership of her learning.  She stayed for an hour after school each day at the school's Learning Resource Center in order to get organized and obtain assistance on her homework.  We expect both girls to get excellent grades when it's all said and done on June 11th.  

Good grades are great, but that’s not all that matters.  We received a very complimentary remark from a teacher who had been observing the girls over the course of the semester.  In this teacher's words, "Jenna and Heather are such a blessing to CAJ.  First of all, they don’t give in to peer pressure.  Secondly, they were able to make friends in the middle of the school year, and their friends were actually the ones that were in need of friends themselves."  What a gift!

Sarah's Mom prayed for 3 yrs. for a friend like Jenna

Heather and Aiah

Another intangible that doesn't show up on the report card is CAJ's Wall of Honor.  Students are singled out during the year for displaying godly character in ways that benefit their fellow students.  The hallways at CAJ are covered with painted handprints, each one bearing a student's name, the year, and the character trait that the student was recognized for.  Heather received recognition midway through the semester for displaying the attribute of Encouragement, and very recently, Jenna was recognized for displaying Courage.

Jenna just graduated from 8th grade this past weekend, which means high school is upon us once again.  It's hard to believe that it’s here so soon, but she's ready.  Heather will begin 7th grade with more confidence in her self-management skills, plus greater familiarity with a routine that involves multiple teachers, multiple classrooms, and increasingly complex schoolwork.

At Jenna's Graduation

We give thanks to God for taking our girls' experiences, challenges and hardships and using them to create resilient, intrepid young ladies.  We know this will serve them well in later years as they're stretched by circumstances, tried by trials, and occasionally ambushed by the unexpected.  Bravo, Jenna and Heather!

Heather in Choir at Jenna's Graduation

Before and After Photos

With gratitude and relief -- we have "traded up" in our lifestyle.  Thanks be to God!

Dining Room -- before

Dining Room Table, Oven table and Buffet

Our company provided furniture for us to use before our crate arrived, and we really appreciated it, but our place was still pretty utilitarian/empty.

"Spacious" Living Room -- Before

Living Room -- After

Here Jennifer is working on a school project on the floor, as it was the best place to spread out and work before our kitchen table or her desk arrived!  On the right, Stew is studying on our new couch.  It is awesome to have new, more comfortable places to study and work!

Much more comfy study spaces!

Jenna's "Study Area"

Here is how we slept for the first four months; on futon cushions on the floor.  We were grateful for all our friends provided for us, but we are living and sleeping much more comfortably now!

Bunk Beds now fill the room

Girls' Bedroom - Before

Perfect play space!

And, last but not least, the master bedroom redux. 

Our Master "Bed" -- Before

Rental Dresser for Two

Our new bed and dressers fit quite snugly in our room, but they look awesome! 

A view of our new dressers and bed.

Now that's a bed!

Believe it or not, it took three days or so to get used to sleeping in a real bed again!  Our sore and tired bodies weren't accustomed to the luxury of a real mattress.

Darkest Just Before Dawn

A robust sigh of contentment can be heard at the Roberson house these days.  We are on the "other end" of that long wait.  We have slept on beds for nearly 2 weeks.  At last, our house feels more like home. 

Just the same, I am less than honest if I don't tell the full truth.  Put simply:  The end of this wait was not pretty. 

We'd sent out an email to a few close friends, asking them to pray for us to get through the tail end of the seemingly never-ending wait on our household goods.  One of our friends wrote us back and reminded us that "things seem darkest just before the dawn."  He had no idea how prophetic his words would ring in those final days.

I am going to copy portions of a letter that I wrote to one of our leaders a handful of days after our furniture arrived.  It shows you just how dark the day grew here, before the dawn mercifully broke.


 Today is a 180-degree change from the way I spent last Sunday.  What a difference furniture makes.  We went to church this morning, then came home and I spent the afternoon studying Japanese – in a comfortable living room chair, versus a sterile dinette table and chairs.  With surround-sound smooth jazz in the background, versus silence.  Wearing comfortable clothes that seem like new, because I hadn’t seen them in 5 months.  And on, and on.  Did I mention getting up from bed this morning, only after laying in it for an extra 30 minutes, enjoying the luxurious mattress that was supporting me?  With the warmth of my husband next to me, after 4 months of sleeping on separate futons?  J

By contrast, last Sunday when I woke up, I was overcome by an uncanny sense of depression and discouragement.  I fell into extreme doubt that we’d ever see our household goods, in spite of the fact that our container was in port (Yokohama) awaiting customs inspection and subsequent delivery.  The depression was debilitating and was accompanied by a severe flare-up of a physical affliction that I battle.  I recognized this as a probable attack by the enemy, so I cursed Satan and took a double dose of my medication.  The physical symptoms cleared in time, but I remained weepy and emotionally fragile.

I appreciate you listening to me last week while I shared with you about my spiritual struggle with the evil one.  I can’t remember whether you called me on Sunday night or Monday night – did I tell you about what my Japanese tutor shared with me Monday?  She shared two things:  Number one, she felt led to pray for me all weekend long, not knowing why – she just obeyed, and prayed.  Number two:  She often feels exactly how I felt last Sunday, overwhelmed with a sense of hopelessness and despair.  She knows that it comes from the evil one, who tries to oppress her because she will not compromise her beliefs.  She was getting very teary-eyed as I related to her what happened to me the previous day – and I thought it may have been because I was still emotionally fragile, getting choked up as I told her what had taken place. 

I spent several days last week in focused reflection and prayer, trying to understand what God was wanting to teach me through that scary episode.  After talking with our tutor, I realized that God gave me a peek into the lives of “stoic desperation” that characterizes the lives of ordinary Japanese.  I thought to myself, how am I to minister to these people if I don’t truly understand their pain/their need/their struggles?  I am not a melancholy person by nature and I am quick to tell somebody to “Chin up, you’ll get through this; God specializes in impossible circumstances and He will get you through….”  There was no “chin up” in that valley I was passing through last week.  It was only through desperate prayer (and rebuking Satan) that I began to climb out.

Thank you for praying for us during this extended “wait” that tried us so.  I am grateful that it’s over.  I have enjoyed feeling “spent” at the end of a day when I washed out my new pots and pans….unpacked boxes and found storage places for stuff…..swept up Styrofoam and factory dust from the floor, after assembling a piece of furniture with Stew.  Our house is one glorious tornado right now and nobody’s complaining.

My valley served as a painful conclusion to several months of deprivation -- and yet God was there.  He didn't waste my trial.  The One who brought joy and relief out of despondency, will keep this feeling of despair fresh in my memory.  The Christian life is never promised as a life free from trial, sorrow and despair.  It comes with the sure promise of a Companion who follows alongside in the depth of despair...ready to lift and carry when the burden becomes too great.  My companion has never been more precious to me than now.