Finished with Luke

I've written about my reader Taka before. He is in a phase of his life right now where he doesn't have much to do, so he comes for reading sessions every day. Today we finished the Luke workbook. That means that he's read the story of Jesus from birth to resurrection. I asked him if he could believe what he had read. He said that he couldn't. But, he did say this: "I cannot believe these stories about Jesus. But, even though Jesus lived more than 2000 years ago, I can see him in the lives of so many people here." That gives me hope for Taka's future! We'll start Acts tomorrow.

Dinner with the Isomaes

We had dinner at the home of two of our favorite readers last night. Kelsey reads with Jun and I read with Reiko. Jun is a famous religious scholar. He knows so much about the history of religion in Japan. It's been fascinating for Kelsey to hear about Jun's research. However, when I asked Kelsey if Jun had faith, he said "hmmm. That's a tough one." Jun and Kelsey have been studying the book of John. Jun really wanted to discuss the meaning of "the Word." At the end of their study, he said that he had never realized that the Word is Jesus.

Jun and Reiko are complete opposites. Jun is an intellectual and likes to study. Reiko is talkative and likes to be social. I've had lots of interesting conversations with Reiko about her faith. I can really see it starting to grow. We finished the Luke book this week. She knew all about the story of Jesus, but she really didn't know about the resurrection. She was missing the most important part! At the end of the lesson she said, "I always thought Jesus was just a good man with good teachings. This changes everything." Reiko said she is not ready to become a Christian yet. She has been getting pressure from several Christians in Mito to make the decision. I told her that I would pray that God would touch her heart. I prayed with her and asked God to give Reiko a desire to become one of His children. Please join me in praying for Reiko that God will touch her heart.

During today's lesson, we talked about her Shinto religion. She said she felt comfortable with it because it was what she had always known, but she said there was no hope of salvation offered. She said it made her feel anxious because there was no way to REALLY know if she had done enough good to "tip the scales." God is so good! Praise him that we can be sure of our salvation. Pray that Reiko will come to know that freedom!

Just a Normal Day

Today is just a normal day. We woke up at about 6:30. Our little alarm clocks are stuck on that time. We folded up our beds and put them in the closet, and then helped the Huddlestons get breakfast on the table.

After breakfast we cleaned up and tried to get some energy out of the kids. It was raining today, so we didn't go outside. We just played with toys at the house. At about 12:00, we loaded up and drove to the church building.

Once we were at the church, we cooked some lunch and ate with the team from Emporia Avenue in Wichita, Kansas. After lunch (about 2:00) Kelsey had his first reader and I watched the kids and worked on the blog. At 3:00, I'll have three readers in a row. Kelsey will take the kids out and go to the bank and the grocery store to get food for tomorrow. He'll be back by 6:00 to meet with his last reader. While he's with that reader, I'll fix dinner. We'll all eat together at 7:00, and then we'll travel back to the Huddleston's house to try to catch the last half of their cell group meeting.

We'll try to get the kids in bed by 8:30, and then Kelsey and I will relax a little before we hit the sack.

Did you know?

Before we started our regular reading schedule today, we visited the team in Tomobe. It is about a 45 minute drive from Mito. It was great to see the team from Corvallis, Oregon and hear the stories about the great things happening in Tomobe.

Did you know that LST has almost 100 workers in Japan this year? It's fun to be part of the light shining in this dark country. Thanks for praying and giving so we can do this work.