Yesterday on the way into Tokyo I hit a dog.  One of those tiny handheld cute ones doted on with red ribbons by the ears.  The grandma was beside herself, the grandpa kept reassuring me that everything was fine, and me, I kept bowing low, really low, over and over and over. 

That evening on the way home I went back to check on grandma and grandpa and the dog. I took Mark along for moral support, and of course a box of properly gift wrapped rice-crackers.  All day I had been wondering about the three. 

   Well, Grandpa was sitting drinking his sake and the grandma had her apron on cooking supper.  I saw a cat, but no sign of the dog.  My heart sank.

But they smiled and told me the dog was completely  fine and not to worry and they'd even taken the dog on a walk and there was no problem at all and they were sorry for causing us so much worry. Leaving the door open like that—how careless!  They bowed and bowed and refused to take the rice-cracker gift.  I bowed and bowed and apologized and placed the gift box on the counter so they didn't have to officially receive it but I had duly given it. They bowed and said no, it had been their fault in not watching the door more closely and preventing the dog from running out into the street. 

   A few more bows, walking backwards out the door, closing it behind us, bowing at the closed door just for good measure, and we were done.  Mark said the dog was probably fine. Or dead. The people didn't yell at us, they were very kind.  They didn't look like they'd spent the day crying.  So maybe the dog was okay after all!  Then again, it would have been nice if they’d brought poochie out to show us as proof, but they didn't.  So maybe it really was dead. 

    I guess we’ll never ever know.  Unless next time I drive down that narrow street with the houses not even three feet from the road, that white dog dashes out in front of my car again. 

25 years ago today, we arrived in Japan as missionaries.  Many of you have prayed for us and also supported us financially from the very beginning.  Others of you have known us only recently and are not familiar with our story.  As we think back, we want to say thank you for the many ways you’ve stood with us over these years, and give the second installment of the Penner Saga

The Penner Saga, Part Two

In December of 1979, we had told our Deaf friends in Yamagata that IF we decided to come back, it would take at least ten years, by the time Mark finished up at Moody Bible Institute, spent five years working his way through Seminary to get an M.Div, two years of support discovery, and another two of language school. Still, they said they would pray, and they did. Mark was able to get permission for a heavier course load the last semester at Moody, and finish in one semester instead of two.

The week Mark finished Moody, Andrew was born, and Mary Esther’s school nursing job ended as the semester was now over. We had prayed about returning to Japan and decided to head that direction and see what doors God would open. We piled all our belongings into the back of our ancient pickup truck and headed for Western CB Seminary in Portland Oregon. We pulled into town knowing virtually no-one, found an apartment, and started looking for jobs. Some of you remember the 1980 job market. It was bad. Mark memorized the address of every hospital and public office in the entire city for the promise of a job as a taxi driver and still got rejected. Finally he ended up selling Cutco cutlery—the one job that wouldn’t refuse him.  Well, trying to sell Cutco.  He came home one evening having helped a family put together their budget to get out of debt but not selling them a single knife.  Selling on credit to a debt-laden person, no matter how fine the product, just didn’t seem right. He did manage to sell a few, but at the end of the summer, he had made a total of -$135.37 (but we’re still using our demo set 25 years later).

In talking with CBFMS, they agreed that a two-year MA program would be sufficient to meet their entrance requirements, since Mark had been to Moody. Remembering how the Deaf struggled to read their Japanese Bibles, Mark decided to focus his seminary study on Biblical languages, getting all he could of Hebrew and Greek. Mary Esther worked part time as a nursing consultant to the public school district which allowed her to work mostly from home while caring for Andrew.   We got involved with the Jr. High ministry at our church, and while doing taco feeds and Bible studies with reluctant attendees, realized how our hearts ached with the Deaf in Japan. 

Mark was still looking for work when the time came for the first semester to start. With enough for the first quarter Seminary down payment, Mark started in full-time at the school, figuring he would study until our money ran out, at which time we would move on to something else. But strangely, it never happened. Though we didn’t have much, there was always food, clothing, a roof over our heads, and enough to pay the school. About the time we got used to the pattern, though, with one or two quarters to go, the day finally came. There was no way to make the next payment. Not willing to borrow money, Mark went to see the registrar to explain his absence that semester.  What he learned was that his bill had already been paid, in full; he would be attending school.  We still have no idea who God used to do this. 

Aimed again toward Deaf work in Japan, Mark focused on his thesis topic:  The treatment of handicap in the Old Testament.  The first passage Mark came across was Exodus chapter 4 where Moses is caring for sheep but stops to see what is with the burning bush that isn’t burning up.  God speaks to Moses and gives him a task.  Moses, he has excuses, many of them.  His last excuse:  God I can’t, you see, I’ve got this disability, a speech impediment.  And God’s answer (Ex 4:11):  not only do I know all about that Moses, I made your disability and I plan to use you, so now go, because I am with you.

Wow! Mark continued to study and Mary Esther kept typing.  As our schedule got full, we decided to use the upcoming Christmas break to put the final touches on the paper.  Christmas break came and again we turned to study what God said about disability. The day after Christmas Daniel was born prematurely.  Not having insurance we rented bilirubin lights and cared for him at home.  On new years eve, up late to see the new year in, we were playing games with Mark’s younger brothers. At one point, Tom wandered over to the bassinet to marvel at the new baby, but immediately turned and asked “Why is he blue?”  Rushing Daniel to the doctor that night was just the first of many trips we would be making.  At that time we had no clue what it would mean to raise a family with a disabled child.  Yet God, in a way we could not have planned or imagined, had prepared our hearts with a study of His Word and what He had to say about disability, and how He plans to use disabilities, no matter what our excuses.

As Mark graduated from seminary, we were in the final stages of application to what was then CBFMS (Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society, now WorldVenture).  Mark still wasn’t much of a salesman, and there was some concern as to how we would ever find our support team but as June ended, we were appointed to go to Japan to work with the Deaf.  Amazing to everyone, ourselves more than any, one year, one month and one day later, on August 2, 1983, we stepped off the plane in Tokyo, Japan. Our first year we spent studying Japanese in Tokyo, moving after that to Yamagata to continue studying Japanese and also begin learning Japanese Sign Language.  We had said it would take ten years to get back, but they said they would pray. Clearly, this was the place, and these were the people God wanted us ministering with.

The Saga

August marks 25 years since we arrived in Japan as missionaries.  Many of you have prayed for us and also supported us financially from the very beginning.  Others of you have known us only recently and are not familiar with the our story.  As we think back, we want to say thank you for the many ways you’ve stood with us over these years.  Recently a Japanese Deaf pastor borrowed my digital camera and when it was returned I noticed some video recordings that had not been there before.  He had taken the camera to church and various Deaf church members had signed their greetings to us.  Each one, to a person, expressed their thanks to the Church in America for sending missionaries.  We will be seeing this pastor again next week as he is one of two who have asked to work on a translation of Ephesians. They feel it is crucial in teaching the believers they shepherd what it means to be Church.  We are thrilled to have such partners, want to join them in thanking you for the privilege of being here.  So with our thanks, here starts a recounting of the story that brought us to where we are today.

The Penner Saga, Part 1.

We were still newlyweds with Mark in school studying journalism and Mary Esther working as an RN, when Mark’s parents wrote a letter that, though we didn’t begin to know it then, changed the course of our lives.

Mark’s parents were missionaries in Northeast Japan and needed to take a 6 month Home Assignment to the US.  They had an open home Deaf outreach ministry and were discipling a few young Deaf believers and asked if we would consider “filling in” while they were gone.  “Just live here, be around, keep the house open to people” sounded like something we should be able to do. We applied to the mission to go to Japan for a 6 month short term missions trip.

Mark’s parent’s home provided a haven for the Deaf who at that time would not sign openly in public and experienced a great deal of discrimination.  It served both as the local Deaf “coffee shop” for those who wanted to chat and play games, as well as the meeting place for those eager to study the Bible.  Some came just at meals, ready for a free spaghetti dinner.  More than physical hunger was their obvious spiritual hunger. During supper we sometimes had to put a stop to further questions so Mark could eat.  (Holding chopsticks while signing was a skill we hadn’t mastered yet.)  Reading the Japanese Bible was clearly a challenge for many of the Deaf who gathered.  The prefectural school they attended did not use sign language in class, so some learned as best they could in the environment, while others occupied themselves socializing.  Mark’s parents regularly had Deaf young people stay with them, sometimes living there for weeks at a time, teaching them enough reading that they would be able to pass the written driving test.  At one point an indignant parent called the school and reported that the Christian foreigner had  succeeded in teaching her son to read where they had failed.

During our time there, people came to the house almost every day.  Of the 183 days there, on only 10 days did we have no visitors.  

At the end of the 6 months they asked when we’d be returning.  We explained that Mark’s parents would be returning; we had our lives to live in the US.  They didn’t seem to get it.  We tried to be very clear: it was Mark’s parents who were the missionaries, not us.   Finally, both they and we agreed to “pray about it.”  We returned to the States, Mark went back to school and Mary Esther back to nursing.  

It was a little crazy as trips go, with several planes we had to run to catch, a couple hours in the back seat of a tiny plane right across from the bathroom that just about did Mary Esther in, and an incredibly obtuse TSA agent in Atlanta, but we survived all the same. But we got to see Anna in Japan two weeks before the trip, Mary Esther's brother in Philadelphia, Andrew & Emily and Daniel in the SF Bay Area, and ME's father in Kansas City.  We also got to visit with friends and supporters, and shared in two churches.

Family highlights included getting to share in the final gripping episode of Andrew's job search. If you think the NBA draft system is crazy, you should see how schools get their professors. But we were impressed with the way Andrew and Emily navigated the decision-making process, and in the end, Andrew got a job teaching at UC Irvine. He will be graduating from UC Berkeley in May, and they will move to Irvine (LA area) in July. Pray for them as they start on this new phase in their lives.

Another big highlight was getting to be at two physical therapy sessions with Daniel. Remember how long and often we were praying that Daniel would get accepted for PT? Thank you! Now we are seeing the results. Frankly, some of it was painful to watch. His physical therapist joked that she gets called a physical torturist. But she is very careful, and seeing the look of accomplishment in Daniels eyes as he stood for nearly five minutes in the standing frame made it all worthwhile. He is working hard, enduring a lot, and expressing himself well, even though he has no words, and we are proud of him.

God has been good to Anna as well. She is especially excited to have a job as TA for her favorite teacher--one of those incredibly hard but very good teachers whose classes she has enjoyed. On the not-so-happy side—she just had 4 wisdom teeth taken out, and has run into some complications. Pray that she will have the healing that she needs before the new semester starts up on Monday.

Q&A

August 30, we plan to return to Japan.  We’ve made the trip countless times, but this time will be unlike any other. We need your prayer and support as never before.

First of all, this has been a strange year for us. Last fall, we returned to the U.S. for what we thought would be a short time to care for Anna’s health issues so that she could begin college. With a promising new Deaf Bible translator beginning work in January, it seemed like bad timing to be away from Japan, but we had a plan.  Mark would travel to Japan to get him started, and then we would return to work with him in early March, after Anna was completely settled into college. When the doctor nixed her second semester start, we had to punt; Mark ended up making five trips to Japan, and between trips worked weeks at a time talking (signing) with our translator by internet web cam from 5:00pm to 2:00 am (Japan office hours).

Our son Daniel’s care was a parallel theme this year. Daniel has NCL, a neurodegenerative disease. Though he is 22 years old, he functions developmentally at about the level of an infant and needs total care, including gastrostomy tube feedings. Getting him into the American system took months of frustrating work dealing with countless beaurocratic entities, but we finally succeeded in getting him into short-stays at a group home for Mark’s trips back to Japan. We thank God for the many incredible people we met along the way in this process. After hours of prayer, counsel, and agonizing as parents, we took the next step—letting him stay in this home. Daniel is thriving in his new environment and is enjoying his new friends there.

Even so, the decision to return to Japan without him was a compromise we weren’t always sure we could make. Yes, we are committed to the worldwide mission, no less now than ever before.  But we are also Daniel’s parents. Having cared for him daily for 22 years, the initial separation was a monumental struggle. We knew it was good, but that didn’t make it easy. Our next question: Will we be able to live an ocean away, unable to pick up the phone and ask him how he’s doing? We won’t know for sure until we try. What we can be sure of is that we are committed to sharing with each other, helping each other through it, and keeping you informed of how we’re doing so you can pray.

In talking with leadership in our home church, sending agency, and on the Japan field, we have come up with a carefully thought out plan which, though perhaps unusual, we all agree is best. The plan is to return to Japan, making several trips back to the U.S. this next year to see Daniel and visit our supporting churches, many of whom we haven’t been with for more than four years.  Though we had a U.S. address this year, the majority of Mark’s work hours were focused on Japan. (More detail on the rationale for this plan is available if you are interested in it.) We are thankful for the help people gave this past year by donating airline miles, or airline employees making available "buddy passes" for standby travel to help us with travel costs, and this is a method which may help us in the future as well. If, after this next year, we find that this is a valid way of balancing our family, Japan field, and sending church responsibilities, we will consider it as a model to continue until our situation changes.

We are committed to doing all we can to make this work. We are excited about returning to Japan. As a result of intensive work this past year, our new translator looks set to record at least half, and maybe all, of Genesis, by the end of the year. All indicators say that it will be our best translation work ever. We look forward to seeing lives transformed by this foundational part of the gospel story. We’re thrilled as well to be supporting Japanese Deaf Christians as they reach out to the Deaf in a neighboring country.

At the same time, we are sobered as the time draws near to leave for Japan with all three of our children in the U.S. We have done all we can to prepare ahead of time. Anna is much improved, and excited to be starting college life. Daniel is settled into his home. Andrew and Emily are settling into married life. The counseling we have received and friendship structures we have formed in the U.S. this year have given us a strong base to stand on. God has also, with incredible timing, brought together a group at Calvary Los Gatos, our home church, of which Mary Esther has been part, to work on the startup of a disabilities ministry. We have brought Daniel to church with us often throughout the year, familiarizing the church with him and him with the church. Having a church community that is being equipped to receive what Daniel has to give by making sure he’s a part will have a huge impact on our adjustment. The Japan field leadership has been overwhelmingly positive and helpful. The affirmation and guidance from CBI leadership and our home church also reflects a vast depth of caring, understanding, and wisdom. We consider ourselves immensely blessed with supportive community. Though there are no guarantees, we feel as ready as possible to embark on this new chapter in our lives.

Update:  After doing this for three and a half years, we can say it seems to be working. The frequent travel is wearing, but hasn’t been unbearable. We’ve been able to keep costs down by buying tickets well ahead of time, or using “buddy passes” from friends who work in the airline industry.  In addition to seeing Daniel 3,4 times a year, we call him once a week, and though he doesn’t usually do much voicing, his caregivers say his face lights up when he hears our voices, and he fusses about going to bed Friday night (our Saturday morning) if he hasn’t heard from us.  Andrew sees him most every week, and my sister Hannah lives close by and sees him often. A caregiver takes him to church every Sunday. The special needs class at Calvary that he attends is flourishing, and pastors and friends at church regularly greet him before and after the worship service. An ad hoc group called “Daniel’s Friends” take turns visiting at Aram House once or twice a week and drop us an e-mail about their visit. God has blessed us with a tremendous support team, and we are profoundly grateful.