“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up”. Ecc 3

We were reminded just the other day by a missionary friend to not “spread ourselves out too thin”, which is again a good reminder as we seem to be so busy. There is a time for everything, and we are facing a little change of “season”. Pastor Lonnie preached this week about discouragement. It was a good message that he preached from his heart (a link to the message can be found here). Mia fights with alike discouraging feelings about her self-worth when she examines herself. Her up-bringing was filled with criticism and scorn, so she sometimes struggles with fighting those feelings in herself.  Pastor Shannon also preached recently on the husband’s responsibility to his wife and family. An area in which I also need to examine myself, for I can be neglectful. As we each fight with our own flesh’s “besetting” difficulties, going abroad for a purpose has not removed these obstacles, so we hope to make sure that we spend adequate time on these areas of our lives.

Got to finally take Mia and Hannah out last week to one of the attractions in the prefecture – Dinosaur Park! There are actually two parts to it. One is a museum, the other is an outdoor park. We decided to skip the museum for now, as it would do much good for us not being able to read advanced Japanese and Hannah being so young. The outdoor park was basically a guided path through the

woods with different moving dinosaur models, sound effects, and information. We also got to go out to Maruoka Castle, too. It was nice just to have time out as a family; we’ve needed it.

When we left the States we had taken several supplies and resources to help us during our transition into Japan, but most of those resources are about all gone. It is now time for us to start venturing-out into the terrifying realm of the Japanese medical field. Mia will have to see an ophthalmologist soon, I’m planning on going for acupuncture this week for some health reasons, and (worst of all!), I need to figure out how to see a dentist. We really could use some prayer for a few of these things – I don’t think there are any English-speaking options!

Speaking of speaking, it doesn’t get said much on here, but language learning is of course a daily added activity for us here. Mia is still having her weekly Japanese lessons (she’s doing very well!), and we both have several daily resources that we use (not to mention instant immersion). We can finally hold controlled conversations to an extent, though listening to/partaking in full conversations is extremely difficult. It is encouraging to finally be able to read things and to understand different things – like what food items Hannah is eating!

Also at this current level, we are really hoping to utilize the time of one of the biggest Japanese holidays ‐正月 (Shou Gatsu/Holy Month), or New Years. This is a very important time for Japanese in which they seek to welcome the gods’ blessing for the new year and try to be clean inside and out. They also go to temples for おみくじ (Omikuji), which is basically a paper fortune, hoping for a blessing from god. We are really hoping to “redeem the time” wisely, and reach the people here, that they may truly have God’s blessing of salvation in Christ. We had another missionary couple over at our apartment this last weekend and discussed some ideas. Overall we were reminded of how very different of a mission field it is here, and how the Japanese people require a lot of time spent with them in order to reach them. Please pray for wisdom for us as we consider these things for December on how to reach the people.

Also an update regarding Moriai – we are indeed carpooling every week to one of our joint classes. It’s about a 40 minute drive each way, so it provides quite a bit of time to talk. Please continue to pray for more open doors. He also joined us last week to practice some children’s Bible songs for a “concert” we will be doing at GRACE next month, Lord willing. He seems so much like king Agrippa with the apostle Paul, so willing to listen, but then, nothing. Please keep praying for him! He may be just like most other Japanese, and he needs a lot of time.

Again, thank you for your prayers, and please remember to spend time with your family this week! We would also love to hear from you if you have any prayer requests of your own. Please let us know.