Sobering Train Ride

Today's commute home from the Family Forum office brought a sober reminder of just why we're here in Japan.

While riding my fourth and final train on my home-ward stretch our train suddenly stopped. The conductor announced that a ways ahead someone had lept in front of another train. That brought the entire line to a halt for 45 minutes while the police and emergency services dealt with the situation. While other passengers fumed at the inconvenience of yet another suicide, I was moved to pray for the family and friends of whomever it was.

Unfortunately, that kind of thing is all too common this time of year as some young people learn that they didn't pass the entrance exam to the school they've striven toward for years. Others learn that they'll be out of a 'no-longer-lifetime' job at the end of Japan's fiscal year in March. When lives are built on such shaky foundations despair results when those dreams are shattered.

It's a sober, fresh spur to press on in sharing the amazing hope we have in Christ to the people of Japan.

Gospel Concert a Rousing Success!

Yesterday, Saturday, December 19 was the big Black Gospel concert in which Deb participated, singing her heart out! Over 200 singers from all over the greater Tokyo area got together to praise God in song. What's so interesting is that the majority of them are not yet believers. Every year we hear testimonies of other members coming to Christ. This truly is a case of preaching to the choir!

It was fun to get together with some of the ladies from the local group Deb practices with throughout the year. We're really hoping that the message of hope they practice at least 2ce a month will sink into their hearts.

Back in the Swing of Things

September is upon us!...and I think we need the break. Our July and August were whirlwinds of travel and activity as we visited friends and family in Canada and the US. Ger headed up to his old stomping grounds of Calgary, Alberta to see family up there and pop in to visit a few church friends. A little later in July Deb had fun seeing chums from her high school days during a reunion at Biola Univ. in the LA area.

Then, at the end of July, we both headed east to TEAM's Reentry and Orientation week in the Chicago area. To top off the summer we joined our kids and Deb's family in Portland, OR for a family reunion and time to catch up with ourselves before flying back to Japan. A neat plus was the chance to visit with Aaron's wife Amanda's folks, in town from Singapore - that's the four of us here in this pic.

Back in Tokyo on August 8 we did a quick turn around and headed out the door again on the 10th for our field conference. That was a week of encouraging messages and discussing mission business.

After that conference Alecia joined us for a week's real break in a rented cabin in the Sendai area, about 2/3 of the way to the north end of the main island here. It was sure cooler than Tokyo, and the combination of green-sided hills and sandy beaches was a great way to wrap up a hectic summer.

And now heeeeeeeeere's September!!

La, La, LaLaLa!!

We're just back in this evening from another Black Gospel Choir rehearsal. It's fun to see and hear the music coming together as we pull the words and harmonies into sync. What is really exciting is the growing relationship that is developing with the as-yet-to-be Christians in the choir, who make up about half the group at this point. What I think is SO cool is that these people have chosen of their own accord to participate in and be exposed to the Gospel through the words of the songs and the chances we have to share a little more in depth about the underlying significance of those words. We're praying that this time has far more imporatance in their lives than just a bunch of song lyrics.

We're super excited to just learn that daughter Alecia has been accepted into her college's overseas study program. So, next spring term she'll be off to Cairo, Egypt to study for three months. Now, if I could only stow away in her luggage somehow!!

New Book Translation Underway

We'd really appreciate your prayers as I work with Mrs. Sato on yet another book translation. This time we've been asked to do Max Lucado's 'Facing Your Giants' on the life of David. It's a great book with some keen insights on living a victorious Christian life, but, as always, Mr. Lucado's western-oriented examples and humour need to be worked around and adapted if we hope to connect with Japanese readers. I think this will be the fourth of his books we've done, but each presents its own challenges.

Debbie had a rather hectic morning teaching in a local Christian kindergarten, working with all 120 kids to prepare for a special program next week. It's a neat opportunity for her to connect with another part of the community.

Today proved to be a hectic, but rewarding day. While Debbie substitute taught some Japanese classes at Christian Academy, I had a somewhat insane day scrambling in the Family Forum office burning and printing CDs and packaging them and books in preparation for our series of seminars up in Hokkaido...waaaaaay up north, at least as far as Japanese are concerned.

We'd sure appreciate your prayers as our two teachers, radio broadcaster Mr. Kaneko and our missionary director Tim Cole, join together for a pretty intense week of meetings, starting Wednesday, October 1. They have a loooong drive that day, and will be camping out in churches and on floors most of the time. We've worked hard to prepare the Sexual Abstinance seminar materail they'll be presenting as they'll also be covering several family-related topics in several places. They need clear heads and energy for the days to come.

Getting Started

Welcome to May Memos!

In addition to our mailed notes, we'd like to keep you, our family and friends, up on what is going on in our home and ministry here online. It remains a little to be seen how it all works, but we'll explore together, I guess!