I’ve updated the Vision and Newsletter pages. Please check out my latest ministry newsletter HERE.

Life has been anything but normal lately. In late December and early January I was, of course, transitioning back to life in Canada and enjoying some downtime over the holiday season. Then, last week I was in Indiana for some training at our missions headquarters. Things have been good, but like I said, anything but normal, and it’s been a bit of an adjustment trying to get back into the swing of things.

This week I’ve been trying to get myself back into some semblance of a regular routine — by getting up and going to bed at reasonable hours, and trying to put in regular work days. I’ve been getting organizing and working on preparations for home ministries. I’ve done OK… but obviously not perfectly, because it’s Saturday and I’ve still got a few things on my to-do list that I’d hoped to get done yesterday but didn’t… and they need to be done before tomorrow. Tomorrow is my first speaking gig of this year’s home ministries tour.

So that’s been my week; just trying to get back into my groove. It’s been a bit of an adjustment coming back to Canada, but trying to get myself into a regular routine this week has helped. It makes me feel more like I actually live here, rather than just an extended visit. And though my heart is still in Japan, home is starting to feel more like home again. And that’s a good thing, I think.

And that’s a wrap for this week.

As you may or may not have noticed, I’ve been doing some work on the site. Here’s what’s new:

1. I’ve finally actually put some stuff on the About page.

2. I’ve updated the Ministry Info page, most notably the Vision and Support Info sub-pages.

3. There’s a new link in the top navigation bar for Schedule. This takes off-site you to a page at the GP website, where you can see my ministry travel schedule for the next while. I’ll be adding more dates before too long; some are already booked but not posted.

4. There’s a Japanese link in the navigation bar now as well. For those that can’t read it, it says “Japanese”. Here I’ll be adding some basic “About” and “Ministry Info” stuff, as well as linking to Japanese posts on the blog.

5. Yesterday I posted this year’s first Photo of the Week, hopefully kick-starting myself back into a more regular blogging routine.

6. I also recently did some “house cleaning” on the blog, fixing some broken video linkage and deleting irrelevant categories and even blog posts. That’s a work in progress, but hopefully will make the archives more easy to navigate, if anyone is so inclined to look at the old stuff.

And… that’s about it.

… the posts from the old one to this one. So if things get funky, please excuse the mess. I’ll clean it up soon.

As you can probably see, I’ve updated the theme (appearance) of the blog. I was actually surprised at how simple it was to insert my existing logo into the header area. I still have some tweaking to do with the colour scheme and stuff, but the hope is to merge this with my other blog soon so I don’t have to try to keep two of them up to date (which was actually my original intent when I launched this blog). In the meantime, if you see anything strange or non-functional, don’t worry; I’m working on it.

EDIT: Got more done than I thought I would today — Not just the colour scheming stuff, but adding pages with content imported from JapanLog. Still to do: (1) Figure out how to add the year to the date of individual posts — anyone know how to do this? (2) Add pages for comics and photography stuff; (3) update ministry info, especially “vision” page; (4) fill in “about” page; (5) update links in sidebar; (6) import other blog’s posts; (7) clean up the mess created by #6 (especially redundant posts and too many categories). I may also (8) tweak the logo and (9) add my Twitter feed to the sidebar.
(10) Update RSS feed (Feedburner?).

This post is really here more for me than you. What better place to keep track of my blog’s progress than right here on the blog itself?

Last night after writing the previous post, I tooled around in Photoshop Elements for a while and came up with the new logo you see at the top of the page. Thanks, AJ, for the new name. I like “White Space” because of its multiple interpretations: It has a MySpace/Facebook type sound to it, making it a connecting point. The term is also used in design and art, which goes along well with me and some of the subject matter on this site. And of course, my last night is White, my nickname is Whitey, and this is my space.

Now that I’ve got a name and logo I’m happy with, I can concentrate on content. If you check out the categories and see what I’ve got so far, that will give you an idea of what’s to come. It’ll be a mix of personal reflections and news, cartooning and sketches, as well as occasional cultural stuff, and of course photography. I may also start posting some stuff in Japanese, for practice if nothing else. Feel free to skip those if you don’t read Japanese.

So, welcome to WhiteSpace.

Just a couple of notes about the new site:

1. I decided I’m going to keep JapanLog alive after all, so that it can be home to my ministry info, and I don’t have to transfer all that stuff over here. Also I can won’t have to update my business cards. I’ll do my blogging over here, as well as photo hosting and stuff, and only post to that blog when I’ve got a new prayer letter to share. So to keep up with those, you can subscribe by RSS, or better yet, get on my email list and get the prayer letters by email.

2. This site needs a name. I mean, using my own name as the domain is OK, but I need a catchy slogan-ish title or something. Any suggestions? If I use your idea, maybe I’ll send you something Japanese in the mail. OK, creative types, get to work.

That is all.

Welcome to my new site. It’s been one year as of today that I’ve been back in Japan. And in less than 3 days, 2009 will be upon us. These things, plus the fact that I’m not back in language school yet and thus have a little extra time on my hands this week (in theory) made it feel like a good time for a fresh start in terms of my online presence. But really, you may be wondering, why the new site? Why a new blogging home yet again? Well…

1. I had this domain name and wasn’t really doing anything with it. So now I am.

2. I’ve been wanting one main website (not just a blog) where all my ministry info as well as other stuff like music, photos and comics can be found. This will be the place. Your one-stop-shop for all things Whitey.

3. I want to streamline and simplify my blogging. I’ve experimented with a couple of side-projects (a photoblog and a comics-related blog) this year and decided I don’t need the extra hassle of maintaining multiple sites. Instead I’ll blog about whatever I want to, and do it all here, in one place. I had initially imported everything from the old JapanLog here, but decided to delete the old posts and start fresh here, with fewer categories and less clutter. I may re-visit some of those topics again here, though, and I’ll definitely be re-re-running at least some of my cartoons here, as well as posting sketches and stuff.

3. This new layout allows me to post photos on a larger scale than on JapanLog, which is one of the things I would have missed from the photoblog. Special thanks to Andy Gray for pointing me to this nice, simple, wide Wordpress theme.

4. Having a self-hosted Wordpress site instead of a Wordpress.com blog will allow me to do things here that I couldn’t there, in terms of customization and such.

And speaking of customization, I probably went live sooner than I should have, so there’s still a lot of tweaking to do. Please be patient with me if there are any dead links or other weirdness over the next few days.

Also, my apologies to those of you who are here just for my ministry-related stuff, and may not be interested in some of the “off-topic” stuff I’ll be discussing. But it’s all on-topic to me, because it’s all a part of who I am, so I’m going to go ahead with it. I hope many of you will stick around and enjoy the ride.

First of all, many thanks to all of you who have been praying for me. As I’d predicted, this has been a busy month. School is getting harder and I had a couple of ministry trips, too. Last weekend I was in Gifu city, where I preached on Sunday about the Prodigal Son. It went well, but I’m glad to not have anywhere to rush off to this weekend.

As things get busier with school, though, I’m learning again to become a better time manager. My friend AJ wrote a post on his blog recently about focus that offers some good tips, not the least of which is the idea of a “stop doing” list. We get so focused on organizing and working through our to-do’s sometimes that we miss the fact that there may actually be stuff on the we don’t actually need to do.

For me, right now, learning Japanese has to take top priority. I’ve been having trouble keeping up, and last week one of my teachers sat me down to give me some advice — including the suggestion that should be studying about FIVE HOURS a day! That’s outside of class, meaning about 8 or 9 hours total, in class and out. So, to avoid distractions and stay focused, I’m forced to make my own to-not-do list…

1. I’m going to try not to go online more than once a day. I tried it this week, and did pretty well. If it’s work-related email or research I have to do, that’s one thing, but it’s amazing how we can feel compelled to check email, Facebook, and blogs several times a day. Well, no more, for me anyway. I’ll make an exception for weekends and holidays, but limiting my time online during the week will keep me more focused on more important things.

2. On a related note, I’m limiting my blogging to weekends. You might see stuff show up during the week, but usually it’ll be pre-written on the weekend, unless it’s really pressing (which it never is).

3. I’m going to stop doing the photoblog. For now, at least. I was doing all my pre-loading over there on the weekend, anyway, so it hasn’t been a huge time-sink. But it hasn’t been as fun as I’d hoped and may be a bit redundant, since I can and do post photos here as well. I think the occasional gallery and the weekly photo here is better than the daily photoblog thing, though.

4. I’m going to stop renting movies. I find I have a bad habit of renting something and then never actually getting around to watching it before it’s time to take back anyway. So this’ll save me money too. Plus my computer has run out of region-code switches and has forced my hand; I can watch my Canandian-purchased DVDs but not Japanese ones, without hacking. So my hand is forced.

5. I’m going to stop eating out so much. I tried coming straight home most days this week, instead of eating out and then studying and the coffee shop as I often do, and I had some really productive days. This one hinges on keeping a well-stocked fridge and coffee supply, though.

6. I’m going to not feel obligated to show up at every event. My church has been good about not pressuring me to get overly involved or giving me too responsibility, and letting me focus on my studies. But I’ve stilled tried to be involved and show up as much as I could. As a guy I knew in college once said, though: “Use your skips wisely.” I’m going to that now.

7. The podcast. It’s gotten so little response it’s probably not worth my time. Maybe once in a while, but no promises.

Well, there’s a parade going past the building now, and since it’s Saturday, I think I’ll go out and enjoy it. Have a great weekend, wherever you are.

My latest newsletter has just been added to the Newsletters page. Check it out to see what I’ve been up to for the past month or so.

In website news, I’ll try to have some new photo albums up soon. There are a lot to sort through and this is a pretty busy week, but we’ll see what I can pull off on the weekend.

Prayers and support are much appreciated! Thanks!

Below is a copy of my latest prayer letter, as sent by email to those on the list. As you’ll see, August is going to be a full but fun month — I’ll hardly be home at all actually. Because of this I’ll be offline and not posting anything new to the blog — BUT I have a bunch of stuff pre-posted that will be going live automatically throughout the month. A lot of really fun stuff too (like the rest of the Engrish series — 5 parts in all!), so make sure to check back. Plus my Twitter feed is showing here now. Lord willing I’ll be back “live” in September. Have a great month, all.

———————————————————————–

Dear friends, family and supporters,

In Japan, this is the time of year that brings us extreme heat, humidity and the sounds of the cicadas. For students, it’s also time for summer holidays, and as a language student, that includes me! For the entire month of August I’ll have no classes, which will be a nice (and much-needed) break!

But that doesn’t mean I’ll be vacationing all month! Actually, August will be my busiest month of ministry so far this year. In addition to that, I’ll have homework to do (students in Japan generally have homework during their short summer break) and I’m hoping to spend some time each day catching up on some vocabulary and things I’ve missed along the way. At the end of the month I do plan take some time off, but for the first few weeks I’ll be busy — but a different kind of busy, so it’ll still be a nice change!

Here’s a rundown of my schedule for the month:

• Aug. 4-6 – Home in Nagoya getting ready for everything.

• Aug. 7-9 — My church’s youth camp; several unsaved junior high kids come to our youth events — pray for them to come and to have open hearts! I’ll be playing guitar on the worship team as well as being the “official” photographer.

• Aug. 11-14 — Youth Station (Tokyo) — the denomination’s national youth event of the summer. I’ll be taking part in a missions-themed discussion / teaching time, as well as teaming up with WGM missionary Zach Motts to lead some fun activities.

• Aug. 17-19 — Area Retreat (like family camp back home, but probably less “campy”). I’ll be giving a testimony and sharing in song during one of the services, as well as helping out with a youth service as an “MC”.

• Aug. 20-31 — Vacation!!! I’ll be visiting friends in Fukushima (Japanese countryside) and Tokyo (definitely not the countryside) before coming home, regrouping, and going back to school.

Please pray for safe travel, effective ministry, and that God will teach me some things along the way as well. Pray too that I manage to keep up with my studies and take advantage of the ample opportunities I’ll have to practice my Japanese in actual conversations at all these events. Pray, too, that this is a good time of relationship building for me, as it’ll be a good chance to get to know some of the teens I don’t usually see more than once a week.

Thank you so much for your continuing prayer support! I’ll try to send out a full newsletter in early September and let you know how things are going. In the meantime, I won’t be home much, so forgive me if I’m not able to respond right away to any emails you might send. “I’ll see you in September…”

Blessings,

- robin

ロビンホワイト

For those who are interested, my first cartoon collection, SkitZo MaN Book One, is now available for purchase at IndyPlanet.

Another week has come and gone (more or less) and here we are again, wrapping things up with the Weekly Re-Cap. I don’t have too much to report this week (of course, I’ve said that before and written several paragraphs, so maybe I should just scratch that). Support levels have gone up a notch or two, and the good news is I’m out of the teens. I’m pursuing some new contacts, but the bad news is I haven’t gotten anything booked yet. This weekend I’m away doing ministry, but it’s not a team building thing, though one never knows what might happen.

I’m really looking forward to the day when these Re-Caps can be about what I’m learning and what God’s doing rather than all about support raising. On the other hand, God’s doing stuff in the here and now; maybe I just need to pay more attention.

Meanwhile, hits to the blog were up this week. My anime post from the other day got me some unexpected extra traffic. Maybe I need to do more writing here that’s not directly related to my ministry. This could be a good place to digest and memorialize what I’m learning about life, culture, Japan and so on… So yeah, hopefully I can get into the habit I’d planned on: Monday, Wednesday and Friday posts, every week. More when I’m in Japan — if there’s time.

I guess that’s a wrap.

Well, to be more accurate, the page has been up since I first made the switch to Wordpress. But not running. What I mean is this: I’ve finally got the Photo Page stocked with some actual photos! Imagine that. And they’re of Japan, too, oddly enough. Check ‘em out.

In other news, if all goes well I should have another Podcast episode online before the end of the week, and maybe another one within the next couple of weeks as well. Got some stuff recorded already, and a good idea of what’s next too.