Pastor's Conference & Sushi

The Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa Senior Pastor's conference was a great time to hang out in Murrietta and enjoy the fellowship. Travis Takamiya from CC Tokorozawa was there. Tommy Ruiz from CC Ginowan, Masaru Oshiro from CC Naha, Rick Barnett form Okinawa,Mike Silva from CC Iwakuni, Francis from Rwanda, Chizuo Sakurai from CC Kokubunji, Tak Anma from CC Hamamatsu, Katsumi Santo from CC West Tokyo, and there were two Chaplains from the Marines on Okinawa one is Dennis Wheeler, I can't remember the name of the other guy, sorry. Also in the pictures is Pastor James Stewart from Oklahoma City and Lance Cook from CC Lahabra. We were able to bless the guys with some sushi and entertainment and just hang out fellowshipping. God is so good.






We had a great time with the other pastors from japan they are such a blessing. I am hoping to introduce you all to them. All of them have sacrificed so much to go and serve the Lord in some very hard soil.

We celebrated Pastor Tommy Ruiz's birthday early and he had to wear this funny Sumo cap and take a picture. It was a humbling moment to say the least. Tommy is a trooper he works with CCBC in Okinawa so he is used to this, I think.

Pray for these guys that God would continue to bless them, their families and their churches.

Santo San is here wahooooo

This is Pastor Katsumi Santo from Calvary Chapel Nishi (west) Tokyo. He came for the pastors conference and stayed at our house. He is great with kids and is such a sweet soul. We enjoy his laid back attitude and just a desire to fellowship and build everyone up. We can learn a lot from him as he has been around a long time. He is the oldest remaining Calvary Pastor. He was born again in CC San Francisco while he was working at a restaurant there. When he came back to Japan he joined up with a dear pastor named Mike Kohama. An elderly gentleman who loved Jesus and the Calvary Style. Mike was one of the ones who orchestrated Pastor Chuck and Skip Heitzg to come to Japan many years ago.

Santo San doesn't like to be called pastor and he treats everyone like a long time friend. He says come to Japan and bless the people there. He loves coffee and tortillas. Not in that order but mostly he loves to talk about Jesus and laugh a lot. I am so happy for his friendship and I look forward to his leadership in the years to come. You can see the website and watch their youth play worship and listen to Santo Preach the word. http://www3.calvarychapel.com/hoya/

Heart Transplant on Saturday June 7th at 7:30 pm

http://www.darwinisdead.com/Creation%20Science%20Fellowship%20of%20Calvary%20Chapel.htm
That link will take you to the website with the details about me speaking and sharing Rachel's testimony. It should be fun. Come and hang out and fellowship.
God bless. Dan

Beezy Beezy Beezy

I came home to a plague of Bees in our upstairs patio. Remember I put all of our boxes from the attic out on the patio and I covered them with a blue tarp. One of the big boxes was empty. Anyway the white file boxes must have looked like bee keeper hives. The swarm scared my Mother-in-Law. She quickly closed all the doors and windows. I waited until dark and grabbed the box and threw it over the balcony. The bees were mad. You could hear them buzzing. I had chicken skin from head to toe. As I ran inside and shut the door a couple of bees came in with me. Yikes! My cieling is 12 feet high and they are buzzing around the lights up high. I thought oh great we have a plague. Then the Lord reminded me of Samson as he killed the lion the bees made a hive in the lion carcase. And he said unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness Judges 14:14. The Lord spoke to me as I killed my business and the activity that brought forth meat for my family. Then he said but I am going to make sweetness out of the strong. I was encouraged as I am in shock like in a car accident. I just quit my business. We are now totally supported by the Lord. (like we weren't before duh!) I should be rejoicing 100% but I find my weak faith lacking in the area of confidence in the Lord. That sounds bad because God has sustained us for all these years and he will continue to be sweet and produce sweetness in those who let him bee busy within them. I am the lion who is dead and the lord is to allow the buzzing activity to satisfy others. Pray that I won't go to far with this anology. It could bug some of you. We could start a new cult and call it the In-sect. I am so sorry that was bad.

The Swords of Japan are the best in the world. No one will contend that the technique of the Japanese Sword makers is among the best. My friend's grandfather acquired one from a WWII Japanese officer of some ranking. The sword is stout and has weathered the test of time. For more than 60 years and two generations of play that has been a testimony of this special weapon that for hundreds of years in Japan was the life and judge of many. The glory of the sword speaks volumes. The secrets of the sword are still being studied today and it appears there is a special technique to the folding of the steel and the hammering to create the perfect edge. The fire is heated to the right temperature and then the hammer is applied to the steel molding and shaping it with each blow. Sparks fly, and the temper sets and more heat and hammering and then the smith folds the steel adding more strength and form. I see in the words of Jeremiah 23:29 the Lord says, "(Is) not my word like as a fire? and like a hammer (that) breaketh the rock in pieces?. The Lord points out that the Word of God the bible is two things a fire and a hammer. Guess who is the rock? Did you know steel in its rawest form is a lump of rock ore. Yup I get hammered as I read the word and I get fired up about the great promises therein. As I set my ways and become rigid I find that the fire and hammering of the word in my daily devotions has a tendency to fold my will and I bow my knee to Christ in submission to him and his direction for my life. This word that is like a fire and hammer is spoken of in Hebrews 4:12 in a great way. "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thought and intents of the heart." The word is more powerful and sharper that any two-edged sword and it is quick. No slow deaths with the word. I discover that with the fire and hammering action occurring in my heart I discover this truth a reality when my thoughts come into the light of the word and the intent of my heart was not right. James says your prayers are not answered because you ask amiss. I find reading the word before praying separates my soulish desires and the spiritual ones that are sent from heaven. Read your Bible and after time spent in the fire and being hammered you become a work of art that is stronger than anything know to mankind able to with stand the worst trials in life. Keep youselves in the fire of the word and allow him to fold and make you in to his poema or workmanship for his glory. Many will want to know what your secret is...just tell them "word up!"

Meet My Sister Carol and her son Jonathan

You know 8 years is a big gap. After 42 years of being 8 years behind my Sister Carol I am noticing the gap closing. I have another sister 7 years older than me (Nancy) and then there is Ruth who is 4 years older than me. I grew up as the only boy but also as one who had many moms. I was subjected to dress up and dolls and bay city rollers before I knew what was cool. Bobby Sherman? Partridge Family? I had a blessed childhood when my sisters wanted to go out guess who got to tag along. With parents involved in youth ministry I was attending more Jr High & High School camps before I went to my own age group camp. My sister graduated High School before I began Jr High. So I have never felt that close. We have all been involved in ministry through missions or outreach or just being active in the church all our lives. Carol's Husband Mark is a great Dallas guy. He is pastoring the United Evangelical Free Church in Seattle Washington. http://unitedefc.org. Anyway, as we traverse the ages and raising kids and being in the ministry we are finding our common ground increasing and drawing us closer. We have an affinity with our struggles in our parents and their constant well-meaning elderly love. The only regret is that we live so far from each other. With us moving to Japan the distance will only increase. Yet with heaven drawing nearer than ever we will all soon be home and our affinity will change to that of the being in the presence of the Lord. I can't wait. Carol thanks for coming and hanging out it was a blessing. Pray for Jonathan her son who is an undergrad at BIOLA my alma mater. He has a bright future ahead and it just tickles me to see families raise kids who somehow turn out okay and walk with the Lord and seek after the things of the Lord. Oh Yea, Carols daughter Amanda is also at BIOLA. Pray for her too and the youngest of the family Caitlin is graduating Hight School and flying back to Gordon Cronwell Undergrad College. It may be call Gordon U? Anyway, Pray for the church in Seattle as the folks are growing in faith and love and they have a cool shepherd to lead them to green pastures in the word of God.

Iruma has a unique past

The year is 1893 and the son of a silk farm manufacturing plant becomes Christian. They had visitors from the US and they wanted them to stay in a place that would accommodate them. They built a home for the visitors modeled after a home from the US. They also built a Methodist Church and today the Nihon Kirisuto Kyoudan still has a congregation of about 200 active members. We are reading a lot of stuff on our city we are moving to and learning about it.





The Apartment that we were praying for was rented out so we have to go with our plan "B" which may be God's plan "A" so pray that we will keep plugging away at God's plan "A" and go where he wants us to be. School is winding down and we have been packing some things and taking things to store at grandma's and the garage sale at my sisters (June 21st).

Scout Obiwan O Rama

WOW was it hot to day. It was in the 90's at Irvine Valley College and the car was 97 degrees. But with all that being said we had a great time with all of Orange Counties Scouts at the annual Scout O Rama. It is like a carnival that the troops put on displays to demonstrate skill or help earn badges or to just show off stuff they have. Some of the folks had nothing to do with scouts but were there to just show off how dedicated they were to their hobby. One troop was into building R2D2 robots. For about $1000.00 in parts and a years worth of time and dedication you too can build a remote control R2D2 robot. This troop invited the Star Wars crew to come out and pose for picts. The Scouts loved every minute of it. It was also a promo for the new Star Wars Cartoon coming to theaters in August something about Clone wars again. The Calvary Chapel Troop 316 (John 3:16) set up a booth for living water and we have free cups of water to hand out with tracks and materials. It was cool to be there. But it was really hot weather.

Warfare or just family of accidents

Well we have been experiencing some accidents all happening at the same time. I don't really know if it is Spiritual Warfare or my family just being accident prone. If I believe that this is attributed to Warfare even though it is not I have lost nothing but have insured my family in being more protected by praying more fervently. If I blow this off as not being warfare and it is then I am a sitting target and we will experience more things that could escalate to worse reactions. These kind of accidents are probably not of a warfare but I am not taking chances and praying that God would protect us. We are prone to being careless and clutzy. I would hate to walk around Japan and not be covered by prayer. The following all happened in a weeks time. Some of you I am sure can relate. My attitude is not what is going to happen next. Rather my attitude is bring it on. We had a bumper bender, a burned leg on a iron, a split scalp that needed two staples, and my 10 year old got a big zit. The last one was just for fun. The other thing is we have lost about 5 hubcaps in the lat three months. I have bought two sets of the caps. I think we will go commando from now on.

Rachel's Heart Recording Session

WOW, We have been so blessed. I was asked by a small men's group bible study to go and share about Rachel's story. She received a heart transplant in november 2005. At this study they recorded a dvd of my mess, well there was a dad there whose son records for a living and he's a pro. He is working on some Disney stuff and others. But they were able to rent a private studio for free. Thanks and God bless you Adam. Nic the son approached us through a friend and said let's get the story on video. I said great. This was totally an answer to prayer. Mihoko and I have been praying that someone would help us to get through the difficulty and piece it together. This was way over the top. I can't wait to see how it all turns out. Nic and Ashley and Brittany God bless you for all your efforts. May God use this to bring many into his kingdom and comfort those going through similar situations.

GARAGE SALE! WAHOOOOO PRAISE GOD

The Garage sale was a complete success because of Jesus. We sold so much stuff. Stuff I just knew would not leave the trash dump went out and for a good price. God really blessed us. I am totally seeing the Lord do the work to send us to Japan to teach the word.






We will have a second garage sale in June on the 21st in Cerritos at my folks house. I will announce more later. But for now thanks be to God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

We're Garage Sale Ready...Come and get it

Dude the blessings have been pouring in. I have no idea all the things that has been donated to us. The garage sale of the century okay the month is here. There are bikes, bookshelves, file cabinets, tools, toys, stuff animals, and ceramic animals, men's, women's, kids, and baby clothes. We have a double hammock, a sofa, a day bed, end tables, cups, plates, pictures, sports equipment. I am so blown away but the generosity of the bretheren. Now pray that we sell everything.

Saturday only, 4271 Fireside Cir Irvine
Near Culver and Walnut
We start at 7 am
Come at 5 am to help set up and get signs out
Come at 3 pm to help clean up
Come in the day and buy buy buy

Have you ever had one of those days?

Some people just don't know when to quit and call a professional. They people who did this were very angry and just couldn't stop when a simple cable came off. They had to put their hands on it and try to fix it. I think I do this with the Lord sometimes. Instead of praying to him and saying, "Lord can you fix this?" I go and put my hands on it or open my big mouth and the result is more damage than it started out with. God is the professional who can put things back together to work better than they did originally. That is what I did with this door.

Mission Lego engaged

Nathan has a class project to do for the 4th grade. The California mission project. He didn't want to do it out of sugar cubes because he knew his dad would eat them all. So with the endowment received from a cousin (Thank you Ryan) we were able to complete the project in a small amount of time using LEGOs. He is so proud of this creation. It was modeled after Mission Santa Cruz with a few modifications like the Millennium Falcon window cone on the side of the mission. I don't think Pocahontas was there either. The Jail is actually a horse coral but all we had was medieval gates that were imported from Transylvania (in Legoland). All in all we are hoping it flies with all the fun we put into it.

Jackie Chan sighting in Santo San's Home

We were in the word doing a study on the Holy Spirit when my computer which I had left on beeps that I have an email from Santo San. He signed it Jackie Chan and there was a picture of Jackie flying through the air. I immediately sensed this was an attack from the enemy. So we responded with a little action from the Dan Li doujou.

We were most effective in our demonstration of superior skill and discipline.

chocolate cookies

Mihoko is in Japan and hitting the ground running with appointments and all. The kids and I were enjoying the day together. Ken Sutton had a great message on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. We came home and made Chocolate cookies. I could have bought cookies cheaper than it cost to make them. You see a friend gave us 3 bags of chocolate chips. We are reducing our inventory in preparation for moving to Japan so I thought let's just bake a whole bunch of cookies. Well we needed sugar and butter, no more than a few dollars. But when a man goes to the store he can't just buy what he needs he also has to get those items he has been meaning to buy but really doesn't need. I spent $30 on junk. Popcorn, Apricot-pineapple jelly ($5), Rachel had to go to the bathroom and there was a clearance shelf. Dangerous place to be. They had a $5 box of cereal for a $1.35 because the box was damaged. Anyway, the cookies turned out fine but I realized that it cost me. Yet the time spent with my kids was priceless. As we each...even Jane measured out each ingredient they had the wide eyes of excitement and expectation of good tasting cookies. The sampling of the ingredients was a great lesson to let them know and understand the world of cooking is really about smoke and mirrors. I mean vanilla smells great but have you ever tasted real vanilla extract. Blah! Although there wasn't much deception with the Sugar and butter and more sugar and the chips and more sugar. I was surprised they went to bed but I think it was a massive sugar rush that made them crash. Tomorrow we dis the piano and two book shelves. It is a great feeling to see big items depart. I still get a small lump in my throat as if I am about to go over the top of a really fast roller coaster and you want to scream. I am so excited about Mihoko in Japan that I checked my email continuously. I was gluded to the computer but nothing yet. She'll probably contact me tomorrow I hope. She may be having so much fun that she doesn't remember she has a family back here. Hmmm. Not! I think?

Japanese churches are busy

I have received several recordings from a friend of an old Calvary pastor's teaching in Japan. Pastor Mike Kohama was one of the first verse by verse Calvary expositional teachers. The Recordings are okay but the back gound noise is very distracting. I was amazed at how spoiled we are here at CCCM with Chucks decision to make the sanctuary as quiet as possible to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to the hearts of the people. The kids are put into classrooms and those parents who are insistent that they must sit with their kids go to the family room. In most of the churches in Japan you can't do that because of the small space and the lack of teachers to facilitate children's programs. Even in the bigger churches the Pastor must be patient as parents seem to want to be apart of the whole with their screaming kids some even walk around the church bouncing their kids and make the sound of a choo choo train..."shoo, shoo, shoo, shoo". My legalistic mentality has be become more flexible to allow for this in some cases and not become so rigid that Families feel I am anti-kids. I love kids I have 4 of them one in heaven alive. But kids cannot be the controlling influence and distract and disrupt the Holy Spirit. Some families treat the kid as the center of the Universe. Everything revolves around Juniors nap, feeding, and tantrums. When kid number 2 arrives then a new center of the Universe comes and kid number one as I have observed recently in another family, becomes an orbiting satellite who when close enough to the new child can be hostile and violent jeopardizing the health and safety of the new born. Jesus is the center. And I believe a church service should reflect that. I have a lot to learn about Japanese society and about getting rid of my American bias and centering on the Word of God and direction of the Holy Spirit.

イエスキリスト学 Christology

We have been going through the doctrines of Jesus Christ and God has been blessing as we learn together all that Jesus has accomplished for us and to us and will do in us. Keizo San has been giving a lot of heeee and the asoooka type phrases. I have been asking Mihoko translate some of the terminology also Kiyomasa helped me in the beginning to start the vocabulary list of Christology. I threw every thing into a wheel and am able to explain the doctrines of Anthropology (人類学；jinruigaku), Hamartiology (罪悪学；zaiaku gaku ), and Christology (キリスト学）. The outer most circle is "How the Bible views man" the next inner circle is "how the Bible views sin in man in relation to God", the third ring describes Christ's work to undo or change man's condition. The fourth ring is how God relates to man through Jesus' work. It is really cool. What is really cool is to look at the Kanji or pictagraphs of the word for the doctrines. The word doctrine is Shugi (主義). Within that character is the (gi) kanji for righteousness that is made up of the character for sheep over the character for self. So Sheep over self is righteous. Then Shu is the character for lord. The Lord next to the self with a sheep over it is doctrine. Cool eh? I guess you have to be Japanatized in order to geek out over things like this. A democracy is a minshu shugi 民主主義．Min represents people. This word is the people are lord and the shugi is the doctrine. So the democracy is kind of sad as the people become lord of the land and create their own righteous doctrine. The pictagraph for flood is 8 persons in a boat. Gee, I wonder where that came from? There are some books out on this stuff but it can as with anything be taken too far. We have to be careful not to spiritualize every sneeze. Here is a picture of the chart. Later.

Hurry up and wait

Well we are pressing on and the avalanche that we experienced is now slowing down as I am realizing that we still have to live for the next three months here. I am having to re-seal our upstairs veranda (patio) floor, patch holes in our garage walls, secure the cabling and wiring that has been hanging around. I may get this place so nice we may not want to leave. ;o)) I still need to go and get picts for my visa. My business phone numbers are going to go to a friend and I am going to dissolve the business. This will be good. I may keep the name as we have our insurance through it and use it as a tool for us.
The Monday night Japanese School of the Bible is going great. We are almost through the doctrines of Jesus and last night was on Sanctification (Seibetsu in Japanese) Sei means holy and betsu means separtion. I started the class just convicted that I am not as holy as I should be. We saw the three aspects of positional, progressional, and ultimate sanctification. It went really well and we realize that though we are declared sanctified we still have our part to walk the walk and talk the talk. God calls us to be holy for He is holy. But we also saw that this isn't to be a law that we are stumble through but that it is for a closer relationship to God. The Bible says "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." This can only be increased more and more through personal holiness. We are seeing in our Friday nights going through the book of Exodus that the whole wilderness experience is about the sanctification process. God is purifying the Jews for a personal relationship with him. Thank the Lord for his Mercy and Grace through the blood of Jesus that we can now in freedom enjoy the time with God and see the benefits of being close to him in every situation through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are going to go into a few weeks study on the Holy Spirit and see how God has provided for us a real comforter and helper in this area.
Pray for Mihoko going to Japan in April 7 through the 14th. Pray she will find a great place for our home and a hospital. Pray for me to keep my head in the game and work. It is hard to be thinking about what we need to do to get ready to go to Japan and neglect the work that I need to do. We have started to see some support come in and we are saving that for when we get to Japan and all the expenses we will be incurring. These are personal supporters thank you guys, Calvary's support won't start until we are 30 days in country. We had someone interested in renting our place but it didn't work out so we are now listing it on the MLS and we have an agreement with a brother at Church who will be maintaining the place and handling all the details for renting, maintaining, and credit checks and things like that. I am working on a good Friday message as we are in Exodus 17 where Moses strikes the rock. God's timing is great as good friday is all about Jesus our rock being struck. So I am excited to take the message from exodus to the first century and then close the evening with communion. God bless you guys.

Royal Silverware

Hey guys,

Walk By Faith! or as this guys walk on water by faith.

God is already providing what we need in Japan. We were thinking that we were going to have to buy a lot of stuff like Silverware (knife, fork,spoon, etc). God already has a game plan. We were informed by one of Mihoko's mom's friends that her aunt is a relative of the royal family line and she has just been placed in a home to be cared for. They were wondering what to do with all her stuff...God is good. There maybe some real cozy futons there. Definately silverware and some neat stuff like laquer-ware. This is the nice black laquer bowls and cups and stuff. He knows our needs and takes care of us. Matthew 6 "Don't worry about what you will wear"...or what you will eat with.

Garage Sale

We were planning on having a garage sale for all of our stuff to get rid of it. Some people got together and have already started to plan one for us. A few of our Japanese Lady friends from Chaya got together and held a 3 day garage sale with tons of stuff. They had a lot left over and a friend suggested about our garage sale. So I get a call saying bring your truck and pick up this stuff. I had a truck full of blessings and my friends car was over flowing as well. So we are now stuffing their garage for the garage sale that won't happen until the first weekend in May. Mark your calendars and tell your friends to come and get some outrageous bargains. We are doing it in May because a Realtor has a yearly spring garage sale for the community. I will post the date and time later when we find out the exact date. It will be in Irvine at the same location as the Home Fellowship we have.