3.11 2nd Anniversary

Today is the 2nd anniversary of the 3.11 Triple Disaster that devastated so much of Northeastern Japan.

I'm going to provide links again for you to read...  I think you'll find plenty of prayer topics from reading them, even if I don't give you a separate list myself.  There's so much to pray for and so much that needs to be done!  If you ever want to come help with relief work in the area or want to bring out a whole team, please get in touch.  We can connect you with missionaries up there who I know would love to have you there.  From everything that I've heard too, the people there really love having volunteers up there too for a variety of reasons, and there's a fear that volunteers will stop coming.  So if you're interested and can come, please do!!!

• Japan Evangelical Association's Disaster Relief page 
• See the physical difference in before and after pictures here
• An article here about survivors turning to exorcists for help 
• An article here about Fukushima First Bible Church, planted in 1947 by WorldVenture missionaries 
• Crash Japan's site also always has good prayer points / updates
• Here's Hideo Araki's short video on how his life was touched by volunteers, and his heart moved by the Holy Spirit.  He's one of many!  You can find more awesome testimonies on the Hope for Living site.

Pray for the survivors.  Pray for the Christian workers there.  Pray for those in Northeast Japan.  Pray for those in Japan.

Many Christian leaders in Japan believe that if a revival happens in Japan, it'll start in the area devastated by the Triple Disaster.  Pray for it!!!  Pray for a revival in Japan!!!

Grateful for you prayers...

March Focus

Firstly, PRAISE GOD for the exchange rate becoming more favorable!!! It's helping, immensely. Missionaries all over Japan are rejoicing. Thank you God!!! :) :) :)

March is a month of transition...

1) Our current kids' English programs will be ending this month. So no more monthly Saturday Kids' English Club at Koyo and Kabe Chapels for me and no more weekly Thursday kids' English classes at Asaminami Chapel for Peter.

2) We're preparing to teach English classes to kids using a new program called Kids Brown. The chapels that we work with will be franchise branches and the PI Hiroshima Team missionaries will be the teachers/facilitators.

3) We're packing! We're moving to a house about 15 minutes away from our currently location. It's a bigger, newer, and better house, closer to the kids' preschool, and get this, it's cheaper!!! It was originally more expensive than our current house, but they drastically lowered the price and God, just so happened to tug at Peter's heart one day right after the rent got lowered to "randomly" check the rentals in our area... God is great! :)

4) Juhee will be finishing up her 2nd year and starting to her 3rd, Sungjae will be finishing up his 1st year and starting his 2nd soon.

5) I will be transitioning from a too-much-ministry slightly crazy life to (hopefully) a just-the-right-amount of ministry, more well-balanced life that includes working towards completing my mandatory Bible units.

We're also welcoming friends and family to our home this month! Kevin & Chris will be with us for a weekend and Jon will be with us for a week. We're super excited!!! :)

We still have a lot of ministry left this month... Weekly ladies' and kids' English classes, last ever Kids' English Club (well, for the foreseeable future anyway), an end-of-term English party, English Cafe on the 30th, Peter's presenting at the big year end General Meeting on the 24th and is preaching for the Youth's Spring Camp on the 31st (Easter Sunday). He's got a very full plate right now so extra prayers for Peter would be awesome! :)

Last, but not least, definitely keep those in Northeast Japan in your prayers, the area that was devastated by the Triple Disaster two years ago. Hundreds of thousands are still in temporary housing and many still have no means of earning a living. Pray that they will be able to experience hope everlasting and joy overflowing. Pray for the many Christian volunteers, missionaries, pastors, who work there under difficult circumstances, that they will lovingly proclaim the Word and serve the community that God has placed them in. Pray also that God will send them friends as many of the missionaries there left their homes in other areas of Japan and moved up there during the past two years since the disaster.

Thank you so much for your constant prayer and encouragement. :)

Pray for the depressed- PLEASE!

Pray for the depressed. Depression is very real to me. A close friend of mine has been suffering with depression for almost ten years now. We lost contact after High School, but we found each other on Facebook a few years ago and have been in contact since. Lately, she has been contemplating committing suicide frequently. I'm High School friends with both her and her husband their kids are friends with our kids.

When Peter was a youth pastor, we had students who were anorexic, cutting themselves, depressed, and one who later committed suicide.

In Japan, some Christians become suicidal because of the rejection that they experience after becoming Christian. Many fear this harsh societal rejection and don't tell their friends and family.

One of the friends of one of our pastors' wives, who herself was a pastor's wife and went to Seminary with our pastor wife, committed suicide a couple of years ago...

Japan has the highest suicide rate in the world (occasionally Korea outranks them... :/).

Suicide prevention in Japan is a real, very important ministry and there are Christian organizations that focus just on this.

Many people with depression in Japan know that the meds aren't working. They need something more. They need love. They need people who really care. They need to feel valued.

They need their spiritual oppression lifted.

If you've already been praying for those that are depressed in Japan, then now is the time to multiply your prayers! March has historically been the month with the highest number of suicides. Ever since the tsunami, many fear that suicides might increase even more in March because of the memories / trauma from that day.


Pray for me and many others like me who have a friend and / or family member living with depression. Pray that the Holy Spirit will guide our words and our actions. Pray for the organizations that seek to help those with depression.

Pray for those that are depressed. Oh LORD, may their depression be GONE!!! May their spiritual oppression be lifted and their eyes opened, their hearts renewed, their life given new meaning. Lord, give us strength and courage. Help us to not feel helpless. Remind us to be constantly praying for them, for it is not us, but YOU who are the ultimate HEALER. Lord, dear Lord, help them..........

11월-1월 소식지

한글판 소식지 드디어 보냈습니다... 혹시 못 받으셨으면 연락주세요~ ^^

Home

Sigh...  A good sigh...  A content sigh...

I didn't think I'd say this, but it's nice to be back.  Nice to be home.  Our house in Hiroshima, Japan, is definitely no longer just a "house".  It's now our "home".  At least for now anyway.

They say "home is where the heart is".  I guess this is where my heart is.  At least for now anyway.

Something interesting I read off a Japan church planter's facebook today:
'Sumeba miyako' 住めば都 literally means if you live there, that makes it your capital city. In other words, it can mean 'home is where the heart is' or 'you'll get so adjusted and used to it that you'll soon call it home'.

While we were in Seoul and Chiang Mai, a part of me was dreading coming back, coming back to a cold, old house and all the difficulties that come with living in Japan.

BUT.  It's nice to be here.  It took me by surprise, how nice it is to be back.  It's nice to be just us again.  It's nice to know where to go, when to go, have our own car to drive around, be able to get there on our own, have a regular, more normal schedule...  I think it's been especially nice for the kids to be back.  They're so much more relaxed, happier, and carefree compared to when they were in Korea.  I guess we're adjusted and used to life here and we now call it our home...

The kids had awesome receptions when they went back to school.  Juhee arrived during lunch time the day after we arrived and the kids all excitedly said her name as she walked in and gave her a huge happy welcome.  She came back beaming that day! :)  When I went to pick her up, her teacher ran down to greet me and told me how much they'd missed her and how the kids had constantly been asking when she would be back 「まだ？」("아직?" "not yet?") they'd ask.  Even the girl who's usually not so nice to Juhee has been super nice to her since her return.  Juhee says the girl said that she missed Juhee and is happy that she's back. :)  A few other moms of Juhee's friends texted to say welcome back and that their kids had seen Juhee at kindergarten.

Sungjae was surrounded by lots of little 2 and 3 year olds when he went back to nursery and he apparently acted all embarrassed (Peter dropped them off). =D  The teacher told Peter how one of the kids in particular kept on asking when he would be back.  I talked to the mom of one of his other classmates later that day and she said how her son excitedly told her that Sungjae was back when she picked him up.  I think he had more fun that day than he'd had during the past nearly two months while we were traveling.

I think our time in Korea and Chiang Mai was hard on them.  There were good times, of course, but I think overall, it wasn't easy for them.  Actually, it was pretty hard on us too.  I guess it was the least hard on me.

I'm so glad we don't have any travel plans for the foreseeable future.  On our way back to Hiroshima, Juhee told me that she doesn't want to ride airplanes anymore.  Poor thing.  There probably aren't many just-turned-five year olds that have been on over 25 flights.  Sungjae, on the other hand, is completely in love with airplanes.

At the moment, our next big trip will be when we go back to San Jose, CA, USA in early 2015.

We're looking forward to a hopefully, relatively calm two years. :)

February Focus

We're back in Hiroshima and it's good to be back. :) Our bags are not yet completely unpacked and we have some backlog to clear as well as a lot of ministry and other work ahead of us so it's full steam ahead!

Peter turned a year older this month. Happy birthday hubby! :)

Peter's weekly English classes resume on Tuesdays (adult ladies) and Thursdays (kids) from Feb. 19th and on the 23rd, we have Kids' English Club in the morning and English Cafe in the evening.

Much of our ministry for the upcoming academic year from April 2013-March 2014 will be decided during the next couple of weeks in conjunction with the local Japanese pastors that we work with. Please pray for wisdom as we seek to support their ministries and create more opportunities for the Christians here to reach those around them.

Pray also for us, that God will continue to use our shortcomings and sinfulness to humble us, teach us, and to use us to show His grace, mercy, and love to those around us. Pray that our focus will always be on Him.

Fun with Friends

A link to a blogpost written by a friend about some of our time together in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  Hopefully I'll get to write something about our time there sometime soon too! :)

The guys with their new "friend". :P

Nov-Dec Newsletter

Here's a preview... Let us know if you would like the full version. :)

Family Photo Session

(Click on pictures below to see larger versions.)

The wife of a missionary family that was here with us in Hiroshima for most of 2012 is a professional kids/family photographer and she took these pictures for us.  Juhee had just woken up from a nap in the car so was in her post-nap, still-waking-up, cranky mood, but she eventually, occasionally, gave us a few smiles. :)

As many of my friends will tell you, I enjoy taking pictures and if I remember (which is most of the time) and its appropriate (which is also most of the time), I'll get a group picture.

My love of pictures also extends to family pictures.  I love seeing pictures of families together, whether it's a natural shot or a sitting down poised family studio shot.

Around about the time of Juhee's first birthday, my side of the family all got together and took an impromptu family studio picture.  It wasn't an awesome picture, but it's of our family and I'm glad we took it.  I don't think all of us have actually been together since.  That was in Dec. of 2008.

I think sometime during the summer of 2009, we had the opportunity to get our family picture taken as part of one of our supporting church's address book.  It came out great and I really wanted one, but opposition was too great. :/

Ever since we started raising funds, taking family photos has basically become a part of our lives.  We were at a retreat recently and one of the moms joked about "the dreaded family prayer card photo". =D  Her kids never looked forward to having to dress up and look nice for the family photo that would be put on a magnet or card of some sort and sent to a bunch of people they didn't know.  We all knew what she was talking about! :)  I guess it's become somewhat of a cultural phenomenon as many use family photos for their Christmas cards, but I guess it's a little bit different for missionaries 'cause we put it on our Christmas cards, newsletters, prayer cards, business cards...

Some of the family shots.  Yes, there were more! ;P

It's hard asking people to take pictures of our family 'cause it's hard to 1) get the kids to stay still so the picture's not all blurry and everyone's looking at the camera and 2) to get everyone to smile at the same time, and 3) all have their eyes open.  I feel bad asking people to try "one more time" after checking the pictures.  I feel bad even having to check the pictures!  Some people are also obviously better photographers than others and some have better equipment too, both of which help immensely.

Some of the non-family photos. Love these too! :)

And some have that plus a truck load of patience, experience, and a love for the challenge that comes with taking photos of families with young kids.  Thanks Allison for an awesome first-time-as-a-family-of-four photo shoot experience and thanks for putting up with all of the moodiness and running around!  It was a dream come true.  You're awesome. :)

8-10월호 소식지

한글 뉴스레터 8-10월호입니다. 늘 함께해 주시고 기도해주심에 감사드립니다! ^^