Here are some blog posts that we hope will make you feel a part of things, and help you understand how to pray better for us and Japan. Please see our external blog in Blogger, if this page does not display correctly.
UNFINISHED
Musashi-Kosugi, Japan (new church plant location)
I had no idea things would pile up so fast. Wasn’t it just Christmas?
In the thick of church outreach activities, message prep, meetings, people needs, and countless Bible studies, I ignored the growing stack of unfinished work on my desk. “I’ll get around to all that when things settle down after Christmas,” I figured. But the stack
A "Barky" New Year?
January 1, 2018 02:59
| Culture, Devotional
| Permalink
Wan Wan!
Ah, 2018. The year has only begun and it's already going to the dogs!
Today, January 1st (1/1), can be pronounced “wan-wan” in Japanese. “Wan-wan” happens to be the way that dogs bark in Japan. (And all this time you thought they said “woof-woof,” right?)
Perhaps it’s appropriate that the year begins with a couple barks.
Central Reason & Theme
They must have felt the curious stares of a thousand kimono-clad Japanese as they stepped off the ships at Yokohama port (photo today at left) in conspicuous western dresses and suitcoats. I wonder if the first Protestant missionaries to Japan didn’t silently ask themselves the question...
"What am I doing here again?"
It wasn’t really the ships that brought them in 1859. Just like it wasn’t
Powerless!
September 21, 2017 03:52
| Culture Shock, Missions
| Permalink
I felt ridiculous. A white foreigner in Japan, shirt stained with engine grease, standing next to my disabled vehicle, in the traffic lane, waving an emergency flare. Only a police car’s flashing lights could have drawn more attention to my predicament. Oh, wait...he stopped by, too. Sigh...
Last week, what was intended to be a family break along the Yokohama bay, turned into a frightening breakdown
New Things
New career missionaries have joined us in church planting. New schools and schedules have begun for our family. God’s new beginnings are more frequent and more beautiful than Japan’s spring cherry blossoms...
From the beginning of our work in Kawasaki in 2001, our vision has been to start a small cluster of new churches outwardly focused and networked together for greater impact in this area.
The End of Endings
April 10, 2017 04:19
| Culture, Devotional
| Permalink
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” John 11:25-26
This time of year, people all across Japan walk about in awe under giant canopies of soft pink. It’s cherry blossom time!
Many view the blossoms simply as nature’s beautiful spring show. Others view metaphor: cherry blossoms
Toward Clearer Vision
February 26, 2017 10:18
| Missions, Vision
| Permalink
My physical vision has been nowhere near 20/20 recently. Increasingly blurry vision in my right eye sent me to the eye doctor frequently in Japan, and then to a specialist while in the States for a few weeks in February. Sitting in the office of the retina specialist, I prayed like Elijah: 'Oh Lord, open (my) eyes that (I) may see.' You've sent me to a land with many tiny complex letters. I need
The Land Without Christmas
December 17, 2016 01:20
| Culture Shock, Missions
| Permalink
What if there were no Christmas?
No REAL Christmas, at least. No one around you really knew what the holiday was about. Oh, there were some pretty decorations, tinsel and trees, and colored lights around. Here and there you’d hear jingle bells or see a Santa hat. But that hardly lifts the gloom that hangs about people trudging through daily fears, struggles and regrets. The real