USA TODAY "Suicide epicemic grips Japan"

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-07-20-japan-suicides_N.htm

Yet again japan is in the news for its ability to out do the rest of the world in excelling at suicide. Pray for the people who need the hope of heaven. Pray that the life insurance policies would not honor suicide and encourage this practice.

It's RENTED YEA!

Hey just a quick note to say we rented our place this weekend. What a blessing. We have tremendous peace now from God who is doing all the work. The Husband took one look at the awesome garage and said this is it. I want to rent it. We have a lot of cabinets and shelves to put stuff. I am so relieved. We are now turning our sights on to the people of Iruma and the first few weeks we will be staying there. We have a lot to do to get settled and we need more prayer now to accomplish many things.

Beach Bon Voyage Party

We had such a blessed day as we were privledged to have God's special servants come and fellowship with us and see us off. The fellowship was sweet and it was all day long. Folks came through out the day to say goodbye and it was joyous and tearful at the same time. God has truly blessed us with great friends and servants of the Lord who minister to us. God has given all our friends extra grace and patience with us as we have been going through some tough times and great times. Lord bless those who are blessing you by blessing us. We love all of you and are so blessed to just watch what God is going to do in each of your lives. You are all welcome to come and visit us in Japan, but not all at once. It is tiny over there. God bless

Joyful Goodbye

Mihoko was the leader for the last two years in the CCCM Joyful life Bible study. They have had many ladies come and fellowship in the word and pray and bless each other. We had a great time saying goodbye and enjoying the fruit of Jesus at work in the hearts and lives of all these ladies. It is not our fruit but God's yet we can sure admire how he works and give him praise and glory seeing where so many have come from and how they are walking in the Spirit today. Praise God Hallelujah. They had great Curry with prime rib in it. Oishi desu yo!

Goodbye to our home

Well it is looking better than it ever did since we moved in 7 years ago. This home has bore our two daughters there. It has served us well. God has blessed us with so many good memories and times of worship, prayer, fellowship, and time in the word. Thank God for his blessing to us. May God continue to use this place for his work. Pray we get a renter soon.

4th of July at CCCM

It was a hot day and lots of friends and fun. We were able to spend some good times with the Urbinas. They are missionaries from Guatamala. Pray for them as they are working teaching at the MK school Bill just got a promotion to overseeing the finances of the school. His heart is to continue to teach the 6 graders Bible and world religions. He is more passionate about that than all those wonderful numbers. Pray for Bill, Heidi, and Nicole. We were able to sneak in a photo op with the fabulous Felice. Pray for her as she ministers to all the missionaries and their needs.

Goodbye to my truck

It wasn't just a truck but it was my sanctuary my temple to worship the most holy God. It had 9 years of my smell and I probably spent more time in it than I did in my home. A man's work truck is a place of inner sanctum. I have had the most holy experiences with the Lord in that truck. I prayed, worshiped, cried, shouted (mostly at other drivers), laughed till diet coke came out my nose. Oh it was a glorious work truck. But alas she is gone. The higher calling of the excellency of Christ have resulted in this forfeiture. Yet I consider all things dung at this point and with the truck having 140K miles and running on 5 of the 6 cylinders and multiple other things on the verge of needing repair it was dung. So it is gone and we press on to the higher calling.

Goodbye to Caleb on last time

We went and visited our sons grave one last time. That is a way cool head stone. Cute kids too.

goofing off

We had some time to just be ourselves and goof off.

New Word: Packulating

Packulating is the process of packing and then unpacking for the sake of repacking to make sure everything is packed perfectly and with the correct weight. For instance my clothes came out to weighing 24KG and the ANA airlines only allows 23KG max per bag. I could just pay the $25.00 fee and bump it up to 75 lbs total. So a 50lb bag is about 52 lbs. So I have to packulate and figure out what equals 2 lbs. Is it my jeans or my big gaijin under ware or is it just one of my suits. It sounds easy only I have everything vacuum packed in those space saver bags and I have sucked all the life out of my clothes. I have to give them CPR and resuscitate the clothes and then repack them and reweigh the container. As it is our containers are exactly 3/10ths less than the max size. I am not trying to just take our clothes but we have household items, School books for homeschooling, teaching supplies, music instruments. I haven't even touched the base of what our kids think or plan on bringing. It is crazy. We have just spent months liquidating all of our worldly possessions and we still have too much to take with us. America, we are pathetic. I have talked to so many of you.You have way more than us especially you empty Nester's. They left everything behind and you still can't get rid of that old toboggan that nobody wants to ride and your grand kids will want the latest snow mobile and you will cave in and buy it and amazingly you will wind up storing that as well. What is wrong with America. No wonder Jesus told the rich young ruler to go sell all he had and then come and follow Jesus. Jesus knew it'd be a burden if he said, "Go and move all your stuff into your parents garage and then come follow me." Jesus knows that stuff hinders the work of the Holy Spirit in our life or mostly from my experience it grieves the Holy Spirit. I will come home happy until I see what the kids have broke and it's just stuff but boy I sure can go from super spiritual to Flesh miester in 2/10ths of a second flat. I remember K.P Yohannan the Missionary from India now living in Dallas who talked about a man hit by a car and was laying in a ditch for 4 or 5 days and a little old lady came over to him each day and fed him some rice. When help arrived they found he was homeless and his only possession was a 5 cent coin held in his hand. When I think of that man I make myself sick with how encumbered I am with stuff. I know a sister friend who wants to move out of state. She doesn't have much but it is a burden and she doesn't know what to do with it all. Paul tells us in Hebrews 12 to lay aside every weight and encumbrance that we might run the race with endurance. That puts a different perspective on my packing. Just imagine me running with my luggage. Mihoko and I found solace with the good people at goodwill. They are so kind they take anything except carpets no matter how nice and pillows. Anyway, I have to get back to Packulating. I'll pack you later you packulater. Haa haa haa. I am okay really I'm fine. Have I told you there is a lot of stress involved in this process? Pray that we pack perfectly.

Appendicitus?

Hello everyone, yes, Nathan my 10 year old got the mouchou attack late Saturday Night. I took him to the ER and by 10 am he was in surgery. Snip, Snip and he was out very fast. My two sisters came and visited him and brought him a DS game. He was so happy. You'd think he just got saved. Anyway, a 24 hour stay and we are back in action. I am almost done but I just have to rest. I was so tired this afternoon. Please pray for us as we are feeling the stretch and stress.

Japan: Filling the God Vacuum

Watch the video on Japan by CBN it is so exciting to see what is going on. I am looking forward to telling them about Jesus.