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.

Ramen with Taka

Tonight after we finished our reading sessions we went to dinner with one of Lisa's readers. His name is Taka. He is a single college student. He took us to a Ramen restaurant. It was very tasty. The kids loved it! I'm not sure Taka was ready for noodles with young children with chopsticks. (can you imagine the mess we made?) Kelsey and I were so busy trying to contain the mayhem that we forgot to take pictures.

Sushi Train

You may not be able to tell from this picture, but we are at a Sushi train restaurant. Behind us is a conveyor belt that carries small plates filled with different kinds of sushi. You just grab what you want, and then pay by the plate. All the plates stacked on the front of our table are the things we ate. Pretty fun! Kelsey and I really enjoyed it. The kids weren't huge sushi fans. We went through the KFC drive-thru for some chicken nuggets for them :)

The people we are eating with are Paul and Mitsuyo Mawatari. They are retired ministers from Sendai, Japan. Now they're working to start a Christian school in the northern part of Japan. It was a fun evening with them.

Sleeping through the night

The kids both slept through the night last night! We may be over jet lag...

Old Friends

When we met our new readers, Kelsey was surprised to see an old friend, Itaru. When we came to Japan in 1998, one of Kelsey's readers was Itaru. Kelsey and Itaru studied from the summer of 1998 until we moved from Japan in the Summer of 2000. Kelsey's having lots of fun renewing this friendship, and hopes to be able to have lots of deep conversations with him. They already had one today! They were studying about Jesus struggling in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Itaru said he discovered a new truth today about prayer.

The Gang's All Here

We're all here! Sorry this post is so slow in coming. It has taken us a few days to get settled and connected.

Our (the kids and Lisa) travels went really well. The kids were amazing on the plane. We had our moments, of course, but overall they were happy and easy to please. As soon as we arrived at the airport, Ezra and Kelsey hopped on a train to go to Mito. Kaylen and Lisa traveled to Mito with all the luggage by car. Ezra was so excited to get on the train. It added an extra hour to the trip, but it was definitely worth it!

We got here on Monday evening. We settled in to the home where we're living on Tuesday morning. We're staying with some friends who have a great house. They have 3 boys, all 3 and under, so it can get crazy at times, but Ezra is loving having some playmates.

On Tuesday night we met our readers for the first time. It was so exciting to see who God gave us to share with. Only 6 of our readers came to the information meeting, so we have some calling to do to make appointments with everyone who signed up. Kelsey and I are acting like 3/4 of a worker together. We take turns being with the kids and taking readers. We usually stay home with the Huddlestons in the morning, come up the the building at lunch time and begin reading at 2:00, and take readers until 7:00. We use our time in the morning to get some of the energy out of the kids since they will be at the church building all afternoon. In the afternoon, Kelsey and I alternate with readers and watching the kids, and then in the evening we take care of e-mail with the office, family and friends, and with the other teams around Japan.

We're all feeling much better. We're healthy, happy, and enjoying our time with our readers. Thanks for the prayers! Keep them coming!