Extra Tidbits

No words . . .

2011-07-05T00:25:00.000-07:00

In April, Shiro Obata (the minister of Haruna Church of Christ), Joel and I traveled to Sendai to visit with some church members there and assess where we might be able to work and how we might be able to partner with other Christian workers in Miyagi prefecture to help in the relief efforts. That was over two months ago and I still struggle to find words to express what my heart felt there. I can tell you that I saw cars flipped and leaned up against houses or floating in swimming pools, houses turned on their sides or missing everything from the first floor except the beams that were still holding up the second floor and, closer to the ocean, one loan house still standing in the midst of dozens of empty foundations. I can say that, but there are no words to describe how it feels to realize that those things are all evidence of lives left devastated.

But God led us to work, and by the prayers and generosity of brothers and sisters all over the world, we are doing what we can to bring relief to the people of Ishinomaki (a city a little north of Sendai that was badly damaged by the tsunami) in partnership with the Be One network of churches and with workers from Asian Access.

At the beginning of May, a group of 13 volunteers traveled to Miyagi prefecture to volunteer in Ishinomaki over 10 days. We stayed at Sendai church and we were able to meet with and encourage several of our friends in Sendai. Most of the team traveled to Ishinomaki (about a 1.5 hour drive north of Sendai) every day (except Sunday) to distribute food and other goods, clean up debris and put on BBQs for the people of Ishinomaki. I stayed behind in Sendai to cook for the team, do shopping and laundry. It was a lot of work and a lot of long days for everyone, but our team was able to do a lot of good work and bring glory to our Father.

The funds that came to the churches of Christ in Japan are being held by Mito church, because we are centrally located and a strong enough church to handle that responsibility. However, the funds are being managed and distributed to the volunteers by the Church of Christ East Japan Disaster Relief Committee, a committee of 10 members from 8 churches -- I was humbled to be chosen as one of the representatives of Mito church on that committee. I am one of two who are managing the relief account, incoming donations and other financial records. Please pray for me as I try to serve God in that role and learn as we go along.

The committee has chosen three young adults, who live in Mito, to work part-time with the relief efforts, under Joel's supervision, for the next year. It has been a blessing to begin working with Emiko, Gaku and Hiro and to watch as they grow into their roles and their relationships. I am so thankful for their service and the opportunity to work with them in serving God and bringing love and relief to the people of Ishinomaki.

Since the beginning of June, Joel, Gaku and Hiro have been going up to Ishinomaki every week from Sunday night to Wednesday to work and build relationships. With help from a couple of people here in Mito, I have been preparing the food that they need for their breakfasts and lunches to take with them. It helps to keep the cost down and makes sure that they are eating very healthy meals while they are working their little tails off.

I was able to join them last week. It had been about three weeks since the last time I went to Ishinomaki. And this time was different somehow. I was physically tired, which is normal -- we worked hard. But this time I also felt even more emotionally and spiritually tired. I think that it may be because this time I could see more of the long term needs of the people. Of course, there is still so much cleaning to be done, and there are still lots of people who need food and other things like that, but there is so much hurting -- people who will need help rebuilding their lives from the heart up, people whose lives were broken before the tsunami came, and people who need someone to love them through their loss, someone to teach them how to grieve, someone to work beside them as they pick up the pieces and start again. And when I think about their faces and their hearts, my heart feels broken, and I feel small and helpless, and the truth is that I am tired. But I know that God is calling us to this task. I know that he will equip us and refresh us. And I know that through him, we can bring hope and healing.

So please keep praying for Japan. We need your prayers.

Joel, Hiro and I will be going up to Sendai and Ishinomaki from July 10th until the 22nd. Gaku and Emiko and several other volunteers from Mito and the Tokyo area will be coming in and out during that time. Please cover this work with your prayers.

A Lot of Boys & a Lonely Toothbrush

2011-07-04T23:04:00.000-07:00

At the end of April Joel, Gaku and I got a new roommate. Hiro moved into our house, just as the craziness of the relief work began with a 10 day trip at the beginning of May. So the guest room upstairs became Hiro's room, and I now share a house with 3 boys. By God's grace, they are all very nice boys, who are kind, considerate and understanding. And I am very thankful for our "family".

Hiro, Me, Joel and Gaku

As with any group, when you add a new member the dynamic changes a little or a lot. And our home has seen a few changes, a fair amount of stress and now we have welcomed a new member all in the past few months. I think that after the earthquake, I especially felt most safe, most comforted in the times that I could spend with Joel and Gaku. I feel that God has worked through our friendships to make us strong enough to face the work that he has called us to do. And in the midst of that, we have accepted Hiro into our home and in trying to make him feel that he is part of our family, I think we have all been drawn closer together. I am so thankful for the place of grace and love that God has created for all four of us.

I believe that God gifts us with the chance to be in community -- through that he gives us encouragement, protection and strength in numbers to stand up to the attacks of Satan and a place where we can grow together in our faith and our work for God. Please pray we me that God will continue to make our home a place of light, a place of love and a place that is a sanctuary dedicated to him -- I know that in our human brokenness we are all sometimes vulnerable to temptations of all kinds, so my prayer is that our house will continue to be full of purity, love and joy.

Just a few weeks after Hiro moved in with us, the Church of Christ East Japan Disaster Relief Committee decided to hire Gaku, Hiro and Emiko (a young woman, who is a member of Mito church) to work with Joel in leading and organizing the relief efforts in Ishinomaki. From the beginning of June, the boys have been going up to Ishinomaki every week from Sunday night until Wednesday. So for a few nights every week, my toothbrush is all alone next to the sink and I spend too much time wondering if the boys are working too hard and not sleeping enough.

But, as usual, God has provided for my weakness, for my loneliness and even for the times when I struggle to release my concern for the safety of Joel, Gaku and Hiro to him. He has blessed me with growing friendships with Emiko (who will actually start going up to Ishinomaki with the boys when her other part time job is finished in about a month) and her sister, Noriyo. They check in on me and we have girl time when the boys are out of town, and even when they are in town. It has been so fulfilling to build relationships of mutual growth and encouragement. I feel like God has given me a chance to be in the role of mentor at times, but I am also so encouraged and challenged to grow in my faith because of my friendships with Noriyo, Emiko and their parents, as well.

Emiko and Noriyo

Emiko, Me, Kristen and Noriyo

My Hometown is God's Kingdom

2011-07-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, my dad was in the military, so I am basically without a hometown. This sense of having no place where I have planted roots has sometimes left me feeling displaced and even lonely, but since I have found Christ, I have a place to plant my roots. I am moved by the passage in Hebrews 11. Paul is talking about all the people who lived by faith in God's promises -- verses 15 and 16 say "If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country -- a heavenly one." In the chaos and grief and busy-ness and bad things and good things that have ensued since the earthquake, I have been moved by this idea -- our hometown is God's Kingdom, and we must live our lives in faith that he will keep his promises on this earth to love and heal and protect and guide his children, even if we don't see it immediately or even in our lifetimes. And this makes me even more thankful for the ways that I can see him being faithful in his love and care for us.

I was blessed with the opportunity to share this encouragement from the Lord with the members of Mito church on May 29th. Below is a short clip from the end of my testimony.

March 11th, 2011

2011-07-04T19:02:00.000-07:00

As on most Friday afternoons, I was at my desk in the church office, making the English bulletin for Sunday. Eloise, a church member, had stopped by to go with Hitomi-san, the church secretary, to buy the supplies for the homeless ministry for the next day. One of Hitomi-san's friends from Tomobe church had stopped by to visit after a doctor's appointment in Mito and Atsushi, the minister, had come up from his office on the first floor to chat with everyone for a minute.

And then the building started to shake, which is not altogether unusual, so we all paused for a moment to see how big this earthquake would be . . . maybe a little bigger than any we had recently . . . and then things started to fall from shelves and the photocopier started to shimmy across the floor. I decided maybe the cluttered office, full of rickety bookshelves, was not the best place to be. I noticed that Eloise had gone outside, so I decided to check on her. And the wide-open space of the parking lot seemed an acceptable place to wait for the end of the earthquake in relative safety.

The shaking was continuing to get stronger, as I made my way outside. I was concerned that the way the ground was rippling would make it too difficult for us to stand, so I urged Eloise to kneel with me. On our knees, we prayed together as everything around us shook.

The whole earthquake lasted about 5 mins -- which is long for an earthquake. Afterwards, the others came outside. There were some small aftershocks and a couple of rather large aftershocks that had us all down on our knees again. We listened to the radio in Hitomi-san's car and heard that the epicenter was off the coast of Miyagi, and we heard that there was a tsunami, but there was no way that we could imagine what was really happening. But I started praying for all my friends in Miyagi, and hoping that they were all okay.

There were people from the offices in the area around the church waiting along the street and gathering in parking lots. And I remember a group of men from a nearby newspaper office, who had set up their laptops on a little patch of grass in the parking lot across the street from the church. Every few minutes, one of them would grab a camera and dash off toward the station or the downtown area. From them we overheard that there was some bad damage to some of the businesses in the older buildings downtown. Lots of broken glass.

We tried and tried to get through on our cell phones to friends and family, but were basically unsuccessful. So around 4:30 we decided to try to make our ways home. I had taken the bus that morning, but the buses weren't running after the earthquake, so I walked. Because I was still a little out of shape after gradually building my strength back up since my accident in January, it took me about 2 hours to walk the nearly 4 miles back to my house.

Along the way, I noticed more and more of the damage. There were cracks and holes in the roads and sidewalks. The streets were lined with piles of ceramic roof tiles. Some older houses and buildings had partially collapsed. Most businesses were closed, but the convenience stores were full of people frantically buying anything that was left. And there were crowds of people, who had been left stranded because the buses and trains were not running, walking to pick up their children from school or meet their families at home.

On my way home, I saw that a whole chunk of the sidewalk cracked, had been pushed out and had been flipped over by the earthquake.

I was thankful to get home just as it was getting dark, because when there is no electricity anywhere -- it really gets dark! And upon arriving at my house, I found Gaku and another friend from church sitting in Joel's car in the driveway. (Joel had left for Singapore that morning, so he was actually in an airplane at the time of the earthquake.) In fact, most of the people in our neighborhood were waiting in their cars, listening to the radio and waiting to see if another big aftershock might come.

By then, it was 6:30 and none of us had eaten dinner, so by the light of my cell phone display, I went into the house to find some food. Since it was already pretty dark, all I could really tell was that stuff had fallen down off walls and shelves all over the house -- I couldn't see to tell how bad the damage was, so I just grabbed some stuff from the kitchen and some blankets from my room. The three of us spent the night in the car, trying our best to sleep despite being shaken awake every 5 to 10 mins by the aftershocks.

As you can see, my closet basically exploded, but (you can't see it so well in this picture) nothing fell onto my bed, so if I had been sleeping during the earthquake, I would have been safe.

This is what we saw in our kitchen the next morning.

So we spent the next couple of weeks cleaning the house, and then cleaning the church and helping to clean up the homes of church members, and trying not to be stressed out by the hundreds of aftershocks. And during that time we kept working on finding out whether friends in Sendai were safe, and trying to find a way to get the volunteers who were supposed to leave for a mission trip to Cambodia the following week to the airport in Narita. Then we began the massive undertaking of fielding requests for information and offers for help from overseas, and we were so thankful for those outside of Japan who stepped in to distribute information and answer questions on our behalf.

I know that many foreigners in Japan struggled with whether they should leave the country, and I do not want to pass judgement on those who struggled and those who decided to go. We all had to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in a very difficult situation. However, I do want express my appreciation for all of you who trusted that I was following what God wants for my life and my service to him, when I did not even consider leaving. Thank you for not putting pressure on me to return to America. Thank you to those of you who encouraged me as I struggled to heal and recover from the shock of being in a natural disaster. Thank you for covering us in your prayers. Thank you for your support and your understanding. Thank you for your love.

ひたち海浜公園 ~ Hitachi Seaside Park

2010-10-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

New Year's Celebration

2010-01-06T03:03:00.000-08:00

We went to Gaku's hometown for New Year's . . .

Then we visited Haruna church on our way back to Sendai . . .

Mito Worship Workshop

2010-01-06T02:37:00.000-08:00

Worship workshop on Saturday afternoon . . .

Saturday evening fun . . .

Sunday morning praise worship service . . .

Christmas! Christmas! Christmas!

2010-01-06T01:02:00.001-08:00

On the evening of the 23rd we went to enjoy the lights downtown . . .

Christmas eve . . .

Christmas day . . .

Cell Group mini-retreat

2010-01-06T00:09:00.001-08:00

In November our cell group hosted a mini-retreat. We invited the Hitachi cell group to come up and join us for weekend of prayer, praise and fellowship. It was such a blessed time. Thank you God!!

On Saturday evening we did a prayer stations activity at the church.

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." ~Psalm 46:10

Prayer through creative expression

What kind of impression does your faith leave on the people you meet?

"When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." ~Colossians 2:13-14

Lunch together after worship on Sunday

A few friends stayed through Monday to hang out and do some sightseeing since it was a long weekend here.

Debi and Kendon are very good at skipping rocks

Kaori and Joel

Debi and Akiko -- the sun was really bright!

Church Christmas Party

2010-01-05T23:51:00.001-08:00

Some pictures from the church Christmas party . . .

Enjoying some delicious food :)

Shiki played some Christmas songs for us

Then her little brothers gave it a try

And would it really be a Christmas party without some fun games?

November Travels -- Part 2

2010-01-05T23:01:00.000-08:00

Some pictures from the Church Planting Institute conference . . .

Session with Josiah Bancroft

All together for breakfast

Bilingual keynote with Josiah Bancroft and one of the best translators I have ever seen

Joel teaching the kids at the Mito hurch, when we stopped to visit on the way back from the conference

November Travels -- Part 1

2010-01-04T05:14:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of November Joel and I went to the Church Planting Institute's national conference. Since we were already going to be traveling we decided to make the most out of the trip and make a couple stops along the way there and along the way back. Gaku came with us for the first couple of days, so the three of us could visit our friend, Yoshinori -- then Gaku went back to Sendai by train and Joel and I went to the conference.

My first glimpse of Mt. Fuji -- from the parking lot of Yoshinori's apartment building

Absolutely delicious lunch with Yoshinori

Gaku and Yoshinori

After Joel prowled amongst the grasses and scared the bejeebers out of Gaku

Mom's Visit

2009-10-07T05:55:00.000-07:00

Mom's first Japan experience . . .

Karaoke! We rocked it.

Cow tongue -- Sendai's famous tasty treat

Birthday, birthday, birthday!

Zao day

Matsushima ~ Fukuura Island

Lunch with Sayuri-san

New Sister!

2009-07-09T00:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Joel, Debi and I drove down to Hitachi, Ibaraki (about 2 hours and 45 mins away) to see our friend Kaori get baptized. Kaori has been studying the Bible for a few years now. I got to know her last year when I went to Cambodia. She was in my international group and we both were from Japan, so we did lots of different things together during that mission trip. She is a very kind and gentle girl, and God has grown a beautiful faith in her heart.

Kaori has been thinking about getting baptized for about a year, but delayed her final decision in order to give her parents some time to get used to the idea and accept her decision. We were so happy that she decided to join the family that we took the afternoon and evening off and made the trip to surprise her. Praise God for bringing this daughter into his fold!

Please pray for Kaori and her commitment to live the rest of her life as a child of God and in the grace of Jesus.

Birthday Sunday

2009-06-10T23:24:00.000-07:00

Each month, on the second Sunday, we have a lunch to celebrate all the birthdays in that month. We invite those people with birthdays to share about what they would like to do or how they would like to grow in the next year. Then we pray for them, and praise God for the blessing that they are to us.

We all eat lunch together after church every week; Debi, Joel and I take our turn on Birthday Sunday. I am in charge of the cake.

Returning home

2009-01-29T23:13:00.001-08:00

When I returned to Japan after my first trip to America since I moved here I was surprised by how much I felt like I was returning home. As the plane descended above Tokyo my heart skipped a beat at the sight of the coast of Japan.

Then as I exited the immigration area there was a sign that I have seen many times that says "Welcome to Japan" -- but this time I noticed the sign in Japanese above it that says おかえりなさい, which basically means welcome home. And maybe it was just my excitement at not having completely forgotten all the Japanese that I learned this past year, but I really felt like that sign was for me too. Despite all the times that I still feel horribly out of place here and frustrated by my inability to understand the language and culture, Japan somehow feels a little like home. I believe that is a gift from God -- it is a reminder that he called me here to do his work.

秋 -- Aki, which means Autumn

2008-11-13T17:04:00.000-08:00

芋煮会 -- Imonikai

2008-11-13T06:54:00.000-08:00

In October I experienced my first imonikai. The very first one was my friend Shuichi's neighborhood imonikai.An imonikai is a gathering outside, usually near a river, at which the people prepare together and eat a soup called imoni. It has meat and vegetables in a miso (fermented soybean product) or soy sauce flavored broth. The miso flavored way is the "Miyagi prefecture way" and the soy sauce flavored soup is from Yamagata prefecture. I got to try both.

The neighborhood imonikai was on Saturday and our church had an imonikai on Sunday. In one weekend I had two great experiences of this tradition, which is so popular in this region of Japan.

Like Peter

2008-10-17T02:11:00.000-07:00

Recently, I was reading Matthew and was particularly struck by the story of Jesus walking on water. The Holy Spirit opened my heart to see how I have been like Peter. And in that moment, I felt the full weight of my sin of not fully trusting in Jesus, but I was also filled with a sense of hope. When Peter stepped out of the boat, he fully trusted that Jesus would keep him afloat. However, from the outside of the comfortable boat, everything looked different and felt scarier; so Peter started to fear, forgot to trust and began to sink.

I stepped out of the boat into the mission field, because I felt Jesus calling me to bring his love to the lost. I knew and tried to constantly trust that the Holy Spirit would take care of all of my needs and fulfill his purpose in my life -- to glorify the Son and the Father. Yet, on more than one occassion over that past year I have doubted; I have felt like I was drowning. But my hope remains, because Jesus is always there to catch me, to faithfully keep his promises, to cover me in grace.

God is calling all of us to step out in faith and trust that he will not let us drown.

Spring in Sendai

2008-05-06T05:06:00.000-07:00

Spring in Japan is beautiful!!! The cherry blossoms were in full bloom for a few weeks in April and now everything is green or blooming . . .

A Shaken Foundation

2008-04-20T04:18:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I was awakened at about four-thirty in the morning because my house was shaking. (I wasn't really surprised, or even alarmed -- God has granted me a great peace in the face of earthquakes, which was an immense gift considering that we feel tremors once or twice a month here.) As I lay in my bed sensing my house rattling, creaking and trembling, God showed me how that earthquake was similar to the temptations of Satan.

A couple months ago, I felt that my relationship with God had gotten really distant, because of that, I was feeling tired, discouraged and really sad. In retrospect, I know that I was having a "faith earthquake" -- Satan started by chipping away at my prayer life and my time in God's Word with tiny distractions that grew and grew. Then he whispered to me that God would be angry with me, so I felt embarrassed and scared to go to God and the distance between us grew. And then Satan prompted me to doubt -- a life of following God is difficult, even Jesus says that, so wouldn't my life be easier if I went back to the way it was before God? Satan shook my faith to the foundation, mostly without me realizing it.

But God always makes a way out of evil's grasp. He blessed me with the most surprising reminders of His truth, and then sent me to Singapore and Cambodia to be filled and encouraged by the love of his family and heavily shielded from the evil one, for a time, by the faith of my brothers and sisters, as we served our Father together. I was able to return to Japan repentant, forgiven and comforted, in my Father's arms.

Satan may have shaken my faith, but my faith is built on the foundation of God's love and grace -- that truth will not crumble. I wanted to share this with you so that we can praise God together for the amazing ways he works in our lives. Also, please join me in praying that our eyes with be open to the ways that Satan is trying to weaken our foundations, and that God will strengthen us so that the devil cannot shake our faith.

My Testimony

2008-01-03T20:34:00.000-08:00

This is the testimony that I shared on 16 December 2007.

Whenever I read any of the Gospels I am always touched by the miracles that Jesus performed during His time on Earth. As we have been looking at Luke this month I have been particularly moved by the faith of those who came to Jesus seeking His power and compassion.

I love the image of the sick woman who must have struggled so desperately through the crowd to get close enough to Jesus. Her faith in Jesus’ power and her hope for his mercy and compassion was so strong that only touching His cloak was enough to draw out the power to heal her physically.

Then there is the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears at Simon’s house. Jesus could see that her actions were a demonstration of her faith. Because of her faith Jesus forgave her sins – he looked at her with compassion and blessed her with His power by healing her spiritually.

However, the people in Nazareth had little or no faith in Jesus’ power. When Jesus was in Nazareth, His hometown, He was unable to perform miracles, because the people did not believe that he was the son of God. Their lack of faith limited the impact that Jesus’ power could have on their lives. The Gospel of Mark says that Jesus “was amazed at their lack of faith” (Mark 6:6).

In contrast, Luke records the story of the centurion:

When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion’s servant, who his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went we them. He was not far away from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me, I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to this servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well. (Luke 7:1-10)

The centurion understood that Jesus was a man of power, a man with authority. Because the centurion was a man with authority over others, he also understood that it was not necessary for Jesus to come to the centurion’s house to heal his servant, but that, being a man of great power, Jesus need only say the word and the servant would be healed. Luke says, “When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him” – Jesus was amazed at the centurion’s faith!

In my life I often find myself surprised when God answers my prayers. But why should I be surprised when I ask something of God’s infinite power and He gives it to me? Reading about the faith of the centurion caused me to wonder how my life and relationship with God would change if I had more faith that God can do amazing things in my life and the lives of the people for which I pray.

I think it is very important to remember that our faith or lack of faith does not change God’s power. Psalm 102:25-27 says:

In the beginning you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain; they will wear out like a garment,
Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.
But you remain the same, and your years will never end.

God’s power is infinite and unchanging. His power does not depend on whether or not people believe in Him, but he gives us a choice to believe. Just as God gives us the choice to accept his salvation or to refuse it, he also gives us the choice to allow his power to touch our lives or to limit his impact on our lives by having little faith.

John 14:12-14 says:

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.

If we have faith in the power of Jesus, we can ask him for anything that will bring glory to God and he will do it. Let’s pray that God will help us to grow in our faith in His power until we have faith like the centurion – faith that amazes Jesus!

Thanksgiving in Sendai

2007-12-14T20:56:00.000-08:00

Surprising as it may seem, I was not really deprived of Thanksgiving as some of you may imagine -- in fact, I think that I may have gotten more Thanksgiving than most Americans. On the actual holiday, Debi and I went out for karaoke and pizza (I know, not very traditional).

Then on the Saturday after the holiday, we went to an American Thanksgiving Dinner/Cooking class at the Sendai Evangelical Christian Church -- it was Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings (turkey, sweet potato pie, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, etc.).

AND we also got to go to a Thanksgiving potluck at the Sendai English Fellowship, to which I brought a very surprising sweet potato pie. When I bought the sweet potatoes I did not realize they were a special kind of sweet potato from Okinawa, and when I began to peel them I realized they were purple!! So my sweet potatoes looked a little cartoon-ish, because they were drastically purple against the white marshmallows on top.