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!