Missionaries Japan Rusty and Brenda Carney The Blessing of Snow
In April of last year (almost 1 year ago) we moved into the apartment building we live in now. Over the past year we have found it hard to get to know our neighbors. For one thing, we hardly ever see them! Every now and then we will see them in passing in the stairwell, or out in the parking lot, but in those instances they are usually on a mission to go somewhere and it is not often we are able to strike up a conversation.
However, this winter when the snow began to fall, we soon realized what a social event shoveling our parking space was! Living in an apartment in the northern island of Japan, where snow fall is the greatest, affords to you the responsibility of shoveling your parking space--even if you don't have a car! Every morning after there has been a fair amount of snow (4-5 inches or more) most everyone in the apartment building will come out around 7:30 am to shovel their snow. They will shovel it to the middle of the parking lot--where a big snow plow will then make several sweeps through, pushing the snow to the empty lot at the end of our parking lot.
Over the past couple of months we have met many of our neighbors, and seem to have gotten well acquainted with at least two of them. It has really been a good thing, and a good opportunity for us to practice our Japanese as well! As the snow begins to melt away this month, pray that we have other opportunities to build upon these friendships--inviting people over for tea etc...
Sometimes we're tempted to complain about the snow, or the fact that we haven't seen the ground in over 2 months! But when those thoughts come, we have to stop and thank the Lord for the blessings that came because of the snow! Thank You, Lord!