Ikea is in Japan only 1.5 to 2 hours away

We took the time while the kids are on Summer vacation to take a road trip to Ikea. It was fun. The trip was long while going because I used my great navigational skills to take main highways which are convenient and simplistic but the traffic can extend the trip. On the way back I listened to my wife and took another 5 or 6 different streets and we shaved off 30+ minutes on the trip. We could have taken the toll roads but that would have been about $60 dollars US round trip.


The facility is just like the Costa Mesa store which means there are hundreds of similar stores around the globe. It was very much a treat as we used to spend a lot of time just putting the kids in the day care center and sipping coffee and talking in the Cafeteria. We did stumble upon a bargain day where the 10 meatball dish was 1/2 price so we chowed down. The kids enjoyed the fun and we were lounge lizards trying out all the soft chairs. We don't have a lot of chairs here so it was nostalgic to hang out.

Visioneering interesting read

As Christians we are always to endeavor to gain wisdom and knowledge. I am still reading, "The Jesus Way" but I had been reading this book by Andy Stanley whose dad is the famous preacher Charles Stanley you might have heard on KKLA for those of you in California. Andy his son is an accomplished writer, pastor, and church planter. He challenges me in an area I am very sensitive about. The term Vision versus Visualization. They are diffeent. Visualization is the New Age term for worship. You want it visualize it. The Faith teachers use the "Name-it-and-claim-it" technique. This is neither of those. Andy's book is looking at the life of Nehemiah and discover how having a vision is important to the strength and fruitfulness of a Spirit-led life. The Bible says, "Where [there is] no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy [is] he. Prov. 29:18" Andy is clever in his very positive encouragement and analysis of Nehemiah and the vision he was given by God and then he acted upon it. So many men have vision while in College or seminary and then it vanishes when they get out. Why? They lack the means and steps whereby to emplore the Lord for leading and direction to fulfill the vision. I am not even half way so my analysis is going to have to be tabled until then. It is a good read so far. Below is the Amazon explanantion of the book.

Book Description
God has crafted a unique vision for each of our lives, a voyage of great discovery filled with fantastic riches that are imbedded in the very journey itself. Yet few know where to begin this journey and fewer still know the questions to ask to get them on their way. With warm, down-to-earth practicality, Andy Stanley explores the ordinary life of Nehemiah and his vision for accomplishing the extraordinary. The astonishing concepts learned from Nehemiah are described in this practical guide that provides the direction, motivation, and encouragement for rising above the ordinary and realizing the unique vision that God has for you and you alone.

The Chichibu Hebi Slide/ The snake slide

Hey we went to Chichibu yesterday and had a blast just playing at a park with an amazing roller slide. It was very long and when I used to work as Kodak they had these roller slides for packages and I thought it would be fun to ride on them but it was not safe and we'd get fired for doing it. Well, here in Japan there is no OSHA and they have left this slide open to the public and it is free. I even rode it and boy was it fun.

The Jesus Way

I was just given a book to read called the way of Jesus by Eugene H. Peterson. It comes out of the starting blocks swinging at the modern current Madison avenue techniques churches employ to do church. He focuses on, "The Jesus way is wedded to the Jesus truth brings about the Jesus life." (p4) So much of the church today is focused on the truth of Jesus yet when it comes to the way of Jesus there is a total disconnect and thus we have churches without the life of Jesus even though they teach the truth but they lack the way. Corporate ideology in the church quenches the way and Mr. Peterson says it is wrong in his view.


Here is a long quote from pages 6-7
"The great American innovation in congregation is to turn it into a consumer enterprise. We Americans have developed a culture of acquisition, an economy that is dependent on wanting more, requiring more. We have a huge advertising industry designed to stir up appetites we didn't even know we had. We are insatiable.
It didn't take long for some of our Christian brothers and sisters to develop consumer congregations. If we have a nation of consumers, obviously the quickest and most effective way to get them into our congregations is to identify what they want and offer it to them, satisfy their fantasies, promise them the moon, recast the gospel in consumer terms; entertainment, satisfaction, excitement, adventure, problem solving, whatever. This is the language we Americans grow up on, the language we understand. We are the world's champion consumers, so why shouldn't we have state-of-the-art consumer churches?
Given the conditions prevailing in our culture, this is the best and most effective way that has ever been devised for gathering large and prosperous congregations. Americans lead the world in showing how to do it. There is only one thing wrong: this is not the way in which God brings us into conformity with the life of Jesus and sets us on the way of Jesus' salvation. This is not the way in which we become less and Jesus becomes more....We can't gather a God-fearing, God-worshiping congregation by cultivating a consumer pleasing, commodity-oriented congregation...The Jesus way and the Jesus truth must be congruent. Only when the Jesus way is organically joined with the Jesus truth do we get the Jesus life."

In planting a church in Japan clearly the Japanese are on the heals of America in consumerism. I might argue they are slightly ahead. It would be easy to give them a consumerism church and there are big works in progress with flash and lights and lots of pizazz. But they are lacking the simplicity of just a simple walk with Jesus. We walk with him in the good times and the bad, in the happy and the sad, we walk with Jesus when he blesses and when he disciplines. We are married to Jesus and need to become intimate with him on our own. We need to be still and know that he is God. To jump in a congregation for an hour singing praise songs to Jesus can be a exhilarating experience but you haven't learned the Jesus life.

The Japanese need love and grace. They have so many laws and restrictions and there is so much duality of persons that you can't trust anyone. The Japanese just need a simple loving relationship with Jesus. Not another God with millions of rules in order to obtain blessings. But a God of Love that blesses because that is his character and nature.

I have not but read the introduction and begun the first chapter so when I finish I will give a more complete report.

My latest attempt at a new sign

What'd ya think?

Grace Christian Fellowship VBS WOW!!

WOW is all I can say...The GCF crew had at least 100 kids rocking and dancing and doing motions to music that was way cool and bilingual. They really put a lot of work into preparing for these kids. They had the Crock Dock VBS material and took even the DVD's and did voice overs in Japanese. The kids went crazy. My kids Nathan, and Rachel, and Jane were loving it. All 5 days of insanity went well with many kids giving their lives to Jesus. Pray that their parents will too. Pray that the kids can come back for Sunday School. Pray for the GCF crew to recover after all that. My kids are still wanting the CD of the music in Japanese to listen to in the car. Thank you GCF guys for a wonderful time.

First Sunday of Calvary Chapel Iruma

Everyone is wondering what happened to the Bolingers and Calvary Chapel Iruma. I am sorry for not responding sooner.

It was pouring rain all morning before the service began the rain let up but still sprinkled. The Ai no kyokai family joined us in supporting our first day preaching. They are of a very old traditional service with Sambika (Hymns) These hymns are very special yet many are in an old Japanese that many of the words are a lost vocabulary and they don't really know exactly what they sing. So when I belted out the Worship for our service it was a surprise for them. Yet they tolerated it. The timeless praise songs touch the heart in all languages. I have been asked to teach this coming Sunday morning for the Ai no Kyokai church. They also asked me to lead worship for them. Hmm, is God doing something here? This is very shocking to any of you who know my music talents and capabilities. To sing in Japanese is a very big challenge to get the words pronounced in the correct order on the right note has been the suffering of all gaijin in Japan. So the Holy Spirit did a great job ministering through Mihoko and I. She translated everything. It is all a blurr now. I spoke on Luke 1 with Zacharaias and Elizabeth being used by God in their elderly years. "With God nothing is impossible". We had a total of 13 persons 5 were my family.

We had a great time of fellowship afterwards and the guests who came and visited were given a royal tour of the place. Any of you want to come and visit anytime it'd be our pleasure to show you around.

We are going to do an outreach this Friday night (Normally our Bible Study) no one has come for a few weeks so we will go to the train station and hand out some tracks and fliers.

Last Saturday we had a work day at the church to knocked out several piles of trash and debre and we were blessed with family coming from all over Japan. We had one family drive all the way from Yokohama and they stayed until dark. We had to pull them away from the clean up. We were also privileged to have my friend Pastor Jonathan Wilson from Grace Christian Fellowship and a team from his church came out and bless with clean up. They literally scorched the place. They had three piles of trash burning. Jonathan now has smooth arms and I believe a few less eye brow hair. Yet in all the melee there was still more to do. The Ai no Kyokai folks were so happy and blessed. It was a tremendous burden lifted for them as their neighbors, the gas co, the electric co, and others complained so much about the mess of weeds and over grown trees.

I gave the Ai folks a shock yesterday as I cut down another tree and the mess was piled back up. But today we cleared that too. So we also made two more truck runs and have widdled down the trash to maybe two or three more truck loads. We still haven't touched the inside of the building. This is just outside. There are 7 buildings on the property with 35 years of clutter from different churches that have not been kept up but have gone to waste. In Japanese all the Ai folks keep saying is "Motai nai." (waste) That means it's too bad this should not have happened. That is my paraphrase. We still had two small piles of trash burning today. I have yet to even tackle the back of the place. There is still a jungle back there. If anyone wants to come and get real dirty and see some of the wildest bugs on earth come on out. The fertile soil has lots of critters. I have been so blessed by God's infininte imagination to create some of the most ugly and heinous looking creatures yet there is a beauty in those things. There are these iridescent blue lizards that rock. They are so cool. I found a tape worm that was two feet in length. One of the Ai folks swears to not want to eat linguine anymore after seeing that. We also have a bull frog the size of a Chihuahua. I have seen 4 or 5 different kinds of Preying mantis they are weird things. The creepiest for me is the Cicada. I just freak out at the noise those things make.

I have been announcing on the radio our church services and we have been getting the word out personally. I have been sticking labels on about two hundred tracts and we need to do thousands more. I also made a church sign out of poster board and electrical tape. Sunday it rained so hard it was a sticky mess when we went home. This week I am painting some wood signs but alas I am needing to make some banners and eventually a real sign as the Lord leads.

My kids were invited by Grace Christian Fellowship to come to their VBS this week. It was awesome! We found they are a 20 minute car ride from us so it gave the kids a great opportunity to learn about Moses and the Exodus story. They are singing and dancing everywhere now.

My ESL class was down to three kids today as all are on summer vacation. We had fun playing some hangman today.

The Radio program is going great the radio station staff are checking out the songs I am playing. I was playing the Okinawan sensation Hakugaijin's new CD "Ai Land" and it is a rap/rock/worship compilation and it is really catchy music. The DJ's and the engineers are laughing at my funny Japanese and the music they are enjoying. One intern came up asking for information on some worship music. So God is using this very different radio show.

Pray for us to continue to look to Jesus. Pray we will seek to always be praying giving thanksgiving for all things the Lord brings our way. Pray we will have that unction from the Holy Spirit to be faithful and love with God's agape love. We are wanting to plan so many things. I was wanting and praying for a VBS here but I am looking at the middle of August and we are not there. So pray we can do maybe just a one or two day VBS and share the gospel with our neighbors and friends. Pray for a possible Fall Church Matsuri (festival) as the Ai no Kyokai folks are wanting to have a re-introduction to the neighborhood event. We are seeing a fine line we are walking between trying to remain planting a Calvary Chapel that is distinct from their Church and also they desire for us to minister with them. Pray we can just lease the facility and just be CCI for the whole thing. Pray that we will not get so consumed with the care of this facility that we loose touch with the mission of seeking lost souls and introducing them to Jesus. Pray for laborers, we need worship leaders and Children's ministry workers and mostly we need people. Pray for a plentiful harvest.

Pray for Kato san she has had four surgeries and is in pain. She is ornery enough to keep coming to church though. Pray for Ojii chan (Komine's dad) he is screening for lymphatic cancer. Pray for Noda Sensei who is in Hammamatsu performing music outreach. Pray for Jan Jones who had an attack of kidney stones she has a wild story about her ambulance ride to downtown Tokyo for care. She is still dealing with pain and discomfort. Pray for her to maintain her schedule. I am ashamed and feel as if I don't do much when you find a go-getter like Jan. She is everywhere and knows everyone. Pray for the Bolingers to have reprieve from numerous mosquito bites. Nathan is the champ with about 35 so he says. I am too stinky because I am not bit hardly at all. YES they do spray with repellent. These vampires are so hungry they endure the repellent and attack. Pray for us to get our Home Schooling Curriculum ordered and shipped here on time as school is only three weeks away. Yikes.

God bless you all and thank you to those who are praying for us. It is so wonderful to know there are folks lifting us up to the Lord to strengthen us and minister through us to the lost in Iruma. I also want to thank the physical supporters who are sacrificing during these difficult days. We don't know who helps us but we are being blessed with our basic needs being met.

Love in Christ,

Dan Mihoko and the kids.

With God Nothing is Impossible

I used to practice preaching when I was a kid. I have always admired the art of excellence in public oratory. To see men of God take the stories of the Bible and make them come alive and bring application into our lives is what rocks my world. I have studied the Bible for years and I have participated in numerous Bible studies over the years. I have preached in the best Calvary's in Japan so I thought I'd be prepared for the first day of preaching at Calvary Chapel Iruma. I had my message ready and pouring over it. Yet even though there was only a handful of people there I was tremendouly nervous. I was stepping into the dream now made a reality by the Living God Jesus Christ. He has brought me to Japan and throughout my life has guided my steps. I have a history of seeing the Lord move me in this direction as if he had it planned all my life. It is funny how for years others saw the Lord's leading in my life and knew it matter-of-factly that I'd go to Japan and start a church. I'd say I don't know what God is doing? Then they would shake there heads and point out all the indicators of God's leading and they'd see it but I'd be like a deer in the headlights. I see the light but I am trying to make out the silouette behind the lights. Today was a great day. Don't let my rehtoric dissapoint you. It was tremendously a blessing and smooth to conduct service. But in my emotions were on edge holding back tears of joy for what God has done. It was just four years ago when I was sitting at a hospital bed of my 4 year old daughter with her chest wide open from the heart transplant. I was depressed at the life ahead. I actually was praying for God to take her to heaven for a better life. It was a selfish prayer and I am ashamed of myself for it. Yet here she was alive and give the gift of life with a heart transplant. But my sterotyping of life after a transplant was limited. I felt the quality of life was hampered by visits to the Doctor and emergency room runs. I thought we were going to be hermits living in a steril enviroment away from real life. I gave up on all my ministry goals and aspirations. I should have been the happiest man alive as my daughter was recovering from a heart transplant but I was the one with a sick heart in need of a transplant from my selfishness. God in his mercy met me at a Men's retreat and the Holy Spirit was poured out in my life afresh. We were educated about the life of Post-Transplantation. We are free but must play by some rules to maximize the benefits of a PT life. Risky behavior is what jepordizes our quality of life. The same for a Christian if we live a life of risky behavior we jepordize our quality of life with Jesus and our walk in the Holy Spirit. I became convoluted in my mind and thinking but when I got my eyes off my self and on Jesus I was revived and God graciously continued to open doors of ministry. It is God and God alone that has allowed us to come to Japan and minister. So today as I stood in the pulpit and realized all that the Lord has done to bring us here I was emotionally choking back the tears of Joy. From my prayer in front of my daughters hospital bed to my prayer this morning in front of the church the Lord has been faithful. I give him all the glory and praise. I preached this morning if they were to look to me or my talents they will be dissapointed but if they look to Jesus and his ability then "Nothing is impossible with God." Luke 1:37

Monk Turns Physician Still has no answers

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090802x1.html
The link above is to an article in the Japan Times that talks about a dissillusioned Buddhist monk who resigned and became a Doctor. Yet even as a Doctor he has no answers to the hard questions in life. The quote below is from page two where he deals with the death of one of his patients dying. I found the article and interesting insight into the thinking of the Japanese and the Buddhist religion in Japan.

"When he asked me, "How long will this pain last?" I couldn't tell him how long. Neither did I feel it was right to say, "You're going to die soon, so that's when you will stop feeling this pain." And he knew that himself. When he asked me why, he was asking something else. He was asking me about the pain of existence, and that is a question with no answer. Maybe he was looking for something spiritual, and all I could do was be with him."

I am no expert on pain and I am not adequately going to deal with the subject of Pain in its existential philosophy but I just had the thought...

God created pain as the megaphone of our existence as CS Lewis put it. When we try to create the illusion of reality as not being real then it is pain that snaps us back to reality and we say, "Yup, I'm alive alright." But it should be also that which drives us to the creator of our existence. He is the only one who will deliver us from much pain in death. Jesus promises paradise and eternal life a new body with no more suffering. Man rejecting Jesus will spend eternity in pain gnashing teeth at the realization that they had the choice of a better eternal existence.

Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

Nathan the artist

Our son Nathan (11) has a natural talent for Art. He draws amazingly exactly what he sees. He has not taken any formal art classes and we are very proud of his talents. The girls were making playdoh food when Nathan walked by and in a matter of about 20 minutes fashioned the Mario Character and other things from his memory. I am impressed and proud.

Japan Air Defense Summer Festival

The Japan Air Defense Corp had their annual summer festival (Obon Matsuri) at the ole Johnson Airforce Base. It was a hot summer evening and the partying was happening and the obon dancing, and the people were very friendly. They had an 800 fireworks display at the end of the night. The kids also enjoyed looking at the old planes on display. It was a fun night.

Rachel Turned 8 Years Old

On July 26th we celebrated Rachel's birthday. We praise God for Rachel's life. Back in 2005 She was dead and God brought her back to life with a heart transplant. She has been very healthy ever since. I pray her teeth finally grown in this year and she applies herself to study. She is all girl and loves to play dress up and she loves to do the make-up on the face thing. I don't understand it. Her quote on the matter is..."Because it's fun daddy!" She did get a narly eye infection a few months back using some other girls eye shadow stuff. So we are learning as we grow.


We had a little party at home for her (Mom is promising a sleep over some day soon) and Nathan and Jane just loved on her. They are such great kids when they are not fighting. They only fight about once a day and it is usually because of some unwanted or unsolicited affection. Nathan is a hugger and loves to sneak hugs at anytime. Usually at the inapporpriate times especially with the girls. Yet sometimes it is the other way around. I love my kids so much. I pray that God will use them for his glory.