A little housekeeping . . .
We are working to improve the website and make it easier for us to update , hopefully leading to us updating it a little more often! We appreciate any questions or comments, its always nice to know someone is at least looking at some of this.
I have taken it a little slower than usual this week. I think I have been in overdrive for too long! It took me three days to slow down enough to enjoy an afternoon at the park with Cameron and Chloe. I think I am sufficiently recovered and I'm starting to look forward to making our furlough schedule and beginning the process of finishing up our life in Nagashima.
Fall is on its way...
Well, I just realized I haven't added a post in almost a month! It has been a busy month for me. I took two classes from Liberty Theological Seminary online, I have been working on some ideas for next term, getting started with furlough preparations, preaching at church, and taking an occasional few minutes with my family, when Joel and I aren't doing something semi-important! Whew!
Saturday I am taking the ABWE missionaries on a rock climbing trip. I am planning to use rock climbing in ministry in the future and a few of the guys are interested in seeing what it is about. We have a meeting in the morning so we won't get started until after lunch, we should have time for everyone to get in a good climb or two before we need to pack up though.
Cameron and Chloe are still mostly ignoring Melodie. She is really starting to grow however. In another few months she will be on the floor with them, much harder to ignore! Is is paying much more attention to them now. She really stares hard at them sometimes!
Road trip to Kagoshima...
Tommorrow, Joel and I go to Kagoshima to spend some time with Ryouji. He has been going to church in Aira so I am looking forward to hearing how things are going. I also need to stop by the Christian bookstore (the closest one at just over 2 hours away!). On the way home we will stop in Sendai to see about getting the two airsoft guns, that we broke over the summer, repaired. All in all a busy but fun day!
Friday morning blues...
Melodie kept us up a good bit of the night last night so it is a little
hard to get going today. We have a Bible study at church at 10:30 and
Joel and I have other studying to do after that. Saturday we are going
to check out potential rock climbing places for a group in October, if
we have time after that, my RC airplane club will be flying in the area
so I might break my plane out of mothballs and see it it still flies!
Good news from Ryouji! He has been wanting to attend church for about 9
months but his job always had him working Suandays or really late
Saturday nights so he couldn't make it. He recently quit his part time
job and has been at church in Aira. Pray for Ryouji, he is looking for
something but isn't sure what. Monday, Joel and I will be going to
Kagoshima to spend some time with him, pray that we will be able to help
him answer some of his questions about the Bible and the relationship he
can have with Christ.
As our first term ends, we are thinking alot about next term. We are
gradually focusing in on Kikuyo, just outside of Kumamoto, as a possible
place to start a church. We still have questions and are looking to God
to provide His leading for our next place of ministry. God is good and
we look forward to seeing what he will do in the future! He turns
Friday morning blues into "It's gonna be a great day!"
The Challenge For The Day...
How do you develop character?
I have been thinking about character alot recently as I put some
thoughts on paper about church planting and leadership training in
Japan. Pastor Kishimoto has often told me that today's young men in
Japan "have no backbone". They don't believe anything strongly enough to
defend it, even in casual conversation. Of course , this carries over to
new Christians as well, although you would think that the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit would empower them to stand up for their beliefs. I
wonder if a large part of the problem is not a real lack of discipleship
in local churches. In thinking about character development, a firm
foundation and understanding of Scripture is primary. We definitely need
Living Theology. However, when this theology and Bible teaching is
divorced from service and accountability relationships provided in some
kind of discipling or mentoring setting, real character is not forthcoming!
This summer's GRIT team studied alot about mentoring and it's impact on
believers. It was definitely a challenge to me to work on my mentoring
skills and think about how it should be taught and applied in a church
planting setting.
So, that's what I'm thinking about...what are you learning these days?
Typhoon
We survived Japan's Typhoon 13! Since we live so far out in the country,
we were afraid we'd be without power for a week. Norman was supposed to
preach in the afternoon service, but that service was cancelled since
the typhoon was expected around that time.
We shut the huge storm shutters, causing our living room to be quite
dark, and waited for the big one to hit. We heard lots of wind and some
rain...and then the power went out. The kids were ready to use the
candles even though it wasn't really dark yet. However, before long, we
lit them, ate our romantic dinner of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,
and then had fun. Memories were made as we sang songs to guitar, read
aloud, drew pictures, and played with glow sticks. For once, Dad had
lots of undivided attention to give to the kids! We washed our hands and
brushed our teeth using water from 2-liter bottles. And we were
lullubied to sleep with wind howling and the plastic of the awning
whapping away.
The electricity was restored sometime in the early morning hours. How
wonderful to have those conveniences once again! Water! Lights!
Refrigeration! Computer!
Thanks, Lord, for keeping us safe!
Study Time...
Joel and I returned from Miyakonojo Wednesday after 3 days of work on missionary Chris Sadowitz's house. Chris is hoping to move in October and need some help with a few jobs requiring more than one person. I am so glad I am not a builder!
After returning home I received the news that Pastor Kishimoto wants me to preach on Sunday. I am glad he is confident enough in my Japanese ability to ask me this late but I would still like more time to prepare! However, I am working on a series on sanctification so I am not totally starting from scratch. I do need to learn several new words each time I preach though. This time I needed to learn the word for "mission", as in the mission of the chuch is to develop disciples who are developing disciples. Pastor Ohara is trying to get the church interested in discipleship training so maybe this message will help him explain why it is important.
It is Saturday morning and time for a long run, a little over one hour. I see just a little sun and it sounds like the rain may be about to stop. It's gonna be a great day!
