“Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number” (Jeremiah 2)

First of all, I want to start by giving thanks. I want to thank the Lord for his compassion, love, and most of all, his mercy. His mercies are renewed each and every day, and our debt of service and gratitude grows with it every day – we are always blessed far above what we deserve. Secondly, I want to thank everyone who has been praying directly for my mother’s situation. There are many details to it, but as of right now, there has been a direct answer from the Lord.

 

My mom has been in-and-out of the hospital several times in the last couple of months, and still continues to battle an unknown infection in her lungs. Since returning from the hospital this last time, she has been virtually alone, with little or no help. This has put a lot of pressure on us, contemplating some big decisions. If I/we were to leave Japan suddenly for any period of time right now, it would be very detrimental, and likely a permanent decision. With this, and many trials going on at one time, we have gone through a, perhaps expected, trial of questioning our purpose on the mission field. “Were we only meant to be here for a little while?” or “Maybe there is something different we are meant to do”? But we had to be reminded of all of God’s direction, leading, confirmation, and answers he had already gave us. We are such forgetful people. I’m very thankful that the Lord doesn’t forget us.

 

Many of you have prayed specifically about the situation with my family, and we’re abundantly blessed to give an update. The Lord has allowed a lady named LeShawn to enter my mom’s life – she’s an Aid Worker. She has been able to help my mom with some of the important things like laundry, cleaning, food, etc. But included in the “important” things, is prayer and in the Bible. LeShawn “happens” to be a christian, and is encouraging my mom in spiritual things, as well as the physical. Mia and I both instantly noticed a difference in my mom’s voice when we spoke with her last, when LeShawn was there. While we cannot boast ourselves of tomorrow, we are incredibly blessed by this blessing for my family! It is not only a relief for my mom and ourselves, but my sister/family quite a bit.  Thank you so much for your continued prayers about this! This is one of those encouraging times when God makes his answer(s) clear.

“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” (Mark 11)

Also, in regards to prayer, we have started a very specific kind of prayer.  In a post several months ago, we mentioned that a small local shrine was suddenly found destroyed. At the same time, we had been praying that the Lord would remove the shrines in the area and replace them with Christ’s presence. Well, they have just recently rebuilt it. We are asking of the Lord specifically against that shrine, now. Just like Dagon was destroyed before the presence of the One True God in Ashdod over and over again, we are praying for this shrine-of-a-god to be destroyed once again, that men may fear and consider it, and that the Lord may be glorified. We are now going down every week to one of the shrines as a prayer campaign, and we are publicly letting others know this prayer, as well as asking for others’ prayers, that as many people will be able to glorify God when it comes to pass. It’s a scary thing to “stick out our foot” if such a thing weren’t to come to pass, but we are looking forward to praising the Lord, as we all ask in faith. Please join us in praying. Far too many demonic spirits control the hearts of the Japanese, and we are fervently awaiting to see the devil lose some of his deeply-rooted ground in Japan; we need the prayers of the faithful to accomplish this!

 

One new start of an outreach is actually with an unexpected usage of VOM newsletters. The Voice of the Martyrs (www.persecution.com) is a non-profit organization that we support, that works worldwide to help those that are under persecution, and to reach some of the most dangerous people groups for Christ. One thing that they do is mail out monthly letters, highlighting some of the recent events for persecuted Christians in the different countries. We’ve had some interest shown by some of my students, including Moriai, and I’ve begun using it as an “English resource”. Also, partly as a result, I had a very good private class with Mr. Eigetsu today – the entrepreneur we mentioned last year. We spoke a lot about Islam, religion, and specifically, eternity, and that he, with others, need Christ. He mentioned that he is now only a “thin Buddhist”, as he gestured “a little”, and expressed that he may actually consider giving-up his family altar entirely. He is a very kind man, and he agreed today that life isn’t really worth much if there isn’t a better life afterward, and that reincarnation isn’t the answer. Please pray for his salvation! He may be very close!

 

It’s encouraging seeing the difference between our ability to speak Japanese from when we arrived last year to now, and we are continually looking forward to the more possibilities of reaching the lost. Hannah is also developing her own form of language(s), and is beginning to respond more and more to instructions – soon to be in both English and Japanese, Lord willing! Please pray for more open doors, as there have been more opening with others not mentioned yet, and for God to further prepare the hearts of those here in Fukui. Japan, as a mission field, requires a unique amount of patience, however, we are slowly, but gradually, starting to see fruit.