Dear Guys,
Pray for us. Dan it's time to get up? Mihoko calls from the kitchen where she has been working for a long time making the kids lunches and breakfast. She is already thinking about dinner and setting out the food to prep. The kids have already eaten, hung laundry, and got ready for school. Dan? As I roll up out of bed to stand up I fall back down exhausted and dizzy. I try again sitting for a while on the side of the bed. I stand. Holding onto furniture and shuffling to the bathroom. The kids are out the door "Bye dad!" Appointments to keep and classes to prepare for and teach. It's a normal day. With my heart problem I often wake up with low blood pressure. Yesterday, 88/43 was a grand low. The Doctor appointment is in two days. I am praying for him to change my meds. I was feeling great until he added a new drug. It has offset the balance of the others and is causing me to feel just plain yucky and sick. Usually about noon I am revved up and ready to go. My energy level is able to carry me through the night of teaching providing I don't do dumb stuff and lift heavy things or climb stairs. Today, I woke up at 6am and felt great. My BP was up and I was able to hang laundry and help with breakfast before the kids wake up. Praise the Lord. But even in the difficulties we are no different than normal humanity. We picked up bread at Costco for the weekly distribution. We had prayed for a city contact that we could assist and distribute the donated bread to. On Tuesday, when my BP was really low we had to go to the city hall for business. In our city the city hall is where your insurance is. Welfare office, School district offices, the foreigners help desk is there. Also our handicap office where we turn in gas receipts for reimbursement is in the same building. It is kind of efficient for us but I am sure the workers are struggling as they work around each other. I was able to go the the volunteer office where I originally got the radio dj job. They were so happy to see us. We asked about the bread distribution. They were happy to introduce us to a lady who is helping families and they said she is a Christian like you guys. So we have made contact and hope we can serve together. Tonight is Handa san's new believers class. He is amazing and is loving all the things he is learning. We have studied about the attributes of God and he began reading through the bible on his own about 5-10 chapters a week. So we are in exodus and will discuss the temple elements and the priestly garments and their significance in the New Testament and with Jesus. Mihoko and I are so enjoying the time. Sundays are going great. We still have our faithful few and last week a visit of the Bedow family we had good fellowship. It was a blessed time. Pray for Mrs Sasaki she is not talking about the results of her cancer. Her husband is just staying busy working even though he is retired. The elderly love to keep busy and feel needed. They really don't understand retirement. They say if you stop working you stop living. So I say so working hard is really living. Why don't people look more happy? They don't know how to answer me. Hee Hee. During my Tuesday class one of the moms hung out and was looking at the books and freebees we have. She won't take any but she looks with fascination. I try to explain things but she just smiles and nods not really comprehending the things. We do talk but she defers and distracts from the spiritual questions. Pray for the parents of the kids we are ministering to. They so need salvation. There is questioning in the hearts a restlessness with the status quo. There must be more to this life. In the parents life there is a window of opportunity to answer these life questions. Soon though it closes with a sigh of, "This is the way its always been and this is the way it will continue."
Today there were some schools that had events with other schools and so there was an unusual amount of kids exiting the train station. I was waving to them and saying hi. They love to interact in English. Occasionally, I get a few that try to talk to me. I am able to tell them who I am and where our church and school is. I offer them a pamphlet. After that our train station department store had a renewal grand opening for the supermarket. I went over there just wanting to see the store. It was a crazy mad house the membership lines were longer than the register lines, which were down the isles blocking items to shop for. I went in and the noise was deafening. The new employees were shouting greetings out loud. The product reps were playing music at the ends of the isles for specials. The music was really loud. Then there was a manager announcing specials over the intercom that was competing over the store music that was blasted. The noise was so distracting and disjunct I couldn't think. My heart started to palpitate and I knew I had to get out of there. Walking home about a eighth of a mile was so exhausting. I crawled back into bed and took a nap. I woke at noon to my alarm for medicine time. So I take meds and make lunch. Mihoko had a women's Bible study to attend and she came home after lunch and we went to Costco and got the bread. When we got home I began to prep pulling together the study of material for tonight's fellowship. Then I wrote this. this has been a fairly normal day.
Pray for daily energy and strength, Pray for the parents of our students salvation. Pray for Mrs Sasaki's cancer healing. Pray for Mr. Sasaki to desire to know more about God. Pray for Handa San's growth spiritually. Pray for his desire to minister to the other AA men. We have begun praying for them and desire for them to want to come to fellowship with us. There is a problem with the drug and alcohol programs. They don't fix lives. It is one thing to get dry. But the problem of drinking is only a symptom of a deeper need. Families are hurting from violence or fighting. Some men are out of work. They have no purpose to exist and many desire suicide. Pray we can reach these men and their families. It would be cool to have a U-Turn for Christ here. Pray for us as we weigh our existence here. The serious issue is my kids who had this sickness reach a month and even a week where the health just spirals fast into the ER. I am not there yet, but we know that day is coming. Do we continue in faith or in faith become practical with health concerns. It isn't an easy decision. Pastor Phil offered some advice but that isn't hearing from the Lord. God is very silent right now. We are so praying for him to confirm in our hearts what we should do.
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