November Focus - full version

Brrr~ It’s cold! It rained a lot the other day, too! The leaves are changing colors to beautiful reds, oranges, and yellows. Autumn is my favorite time of the year and I’m glad we get to experience it here. One thing I’m really excited about trying out soon is central heating!!! :D 

It’s been great not having to check the weather 2-3 times a day! I don’t need to worry about the weather to do my laundry or see whether or not Juhee will need an umbrella on her walk to and from school. Juhee and Sungjae both had a great time at their first ever Walk-a-thon & Harvest Festival and the weather was perfect! Juhee ran 25 laps and Sungjae ran 50!!! It was great getting to celebrate my birthday with friends and family a few days ago too. I’d forgotten how special that is! We’re thankful that Juhee was able to invite friends from school to a Community Family Festival at a nearby church and that one of her friends came. The mom said, “I wouldn’t have known about this church or the event if you hadn’t invited us.” The kids had a blast and didn’t want to leave! I’m also thankful that our kids got to go trick-or-treating for the first time ever and that they (and us!) had a blast doing it with our LSCC friends. 

October 2009, Halloween Party at POPS, Santa Clara Valley Japanese Christian Church (SCVJCC). Juhee lasted in her hanbok till just after her first ever trick-or-treating saying "Jesus loves you" instead of the traditional "trick-or-treat". She used to do her "peace" signs by just putting up her index finger :)

October 2010, Halloween Party at POPS, SCVJCC. Juhee was a rainbow pumpkin and Sungjae was a bumblebee for his first ever Halloween. Juhee was able to experience hand painting for the first time, too.

October 2015, Halloween Party at POPS, SCVJCC. This time, it was Jiyeon's turn to get her first ever trick-or-treating experience at POPS saying "Jesus loves you" to receive her age-appropriate treats. It was great to be able to spend time one of our long-time supporters who had recently become a grandmother and it was amazing to see how much this precious ministry had grown during the years that we'd been away. In 2009 and 2010, there were probably about 15 moms at the Halloween Party with their kid(s). This year, there were over 30 moms with their kids(s)! The church fellowship hall was packed! Praise God!

Halloween Day 2015, Community Family Festival, Berryessa Valley Church. Juhee had invited about 30 school friends to this event at a local church, just a 5-minute drive from where we and many of her school friends live. One of her friends came! We met one of her gymnastics class friends there, too. All of the kids had a great time and none of them wanted to go when they needed to! It was a great free event that really served the community. To me, this is one of the most important aspects of church.

Halloween Day 2015, post trick-or-treating around Drew & Michelle's neighborhood. I think it was the most fun trick-or-treating I'd experienced as we were in a big group with friends! Chatting, playing, and enjoying food with everyone after was a special treat for us too! Definitely the best ever Halloween. :)

And of course, baby gets a few extra pictures. ;P We're so grateful that Juhee and Jiyeon's costumes were provided to us by friends at LSCC. God is so good! :)

November started with us sharing at Antioch Fellowship, a Youth / College / English Ministry group of a Chinese church, that is now led by one of our former youth leaders and student! It was great seeing them in action, leading and pouring out onto an amazing group of young Christians. When I got there, Aaron (former youth) was taking the HS students through Systematic Theology during their small group time – I thought that was pretty impressive! 

Weekday afternoons are busy with kids’ homework and activities, and weekends are packed with meals with friends and supporters, small group meetings, and speaking engagements (just a few more!). We're looking forward to the Ho and Chiang families visiting us from Dallas too! The kids are super excited! We’re trying to prepare for our return back, but there have been too many things in the here and now that have been requiring our attention (such is life!). In terms of prep, one thing we need to look into is shipping boxes vs. buy suitcases and ship from airport in Japan to our home. Another task is all of the administrative things that we need to get done in the US before we return to Japan, like updating our will. Pray that we'll be able to tie up loose ends, be able to make wise decisions, and not leave things too last minute.

I'm actually taking part in a Japan 102 course with RJC Academy, but I'm incredibly behind on my reading and assignments. The little reading that I have been able to complete has been really insightful though, and has helped me to put some puzzle pieces together. For anyone interested in getting to know more about how the Japanese work, I would definitely recommend the book. Please pray that I'll somehow find time to read more and be able to complete my assignments. They're just short write-ups on my readings, and probably wouldn't take that long, but it's not happening.

Please also pray for the remaining Joy of Learning English classes that I'm volunteering at at Santa Clara Valley Japanese Christian Church. I've been enjoying the fellowship with the Japanese-Americans and the Japanese-Japanese ;) and although I'm the Assistant Teacher, I've been learning a lot too. After one of last month's lessons, I was chatting with a couple of the moms in my class during tea time and they asked about why we lived in Japan and why we're returning. I was able to share with them about the work we're called to, that we're supported in prayer and finances by many Christians and churches in America and Korea, and that there are churches and Christians in Japan, even though they may have never seen a church or met a Christian before. I have two more classes this month and two next month. I'm looking forward to all four of them!

Peter’s parents celebrate 50 years of marriage this month. They’re amazing parents, great in-laws, and awesome grandparents! I really wish I could do more for them and that we could spend more time together. I’m so thankful that God allowed us this time with them. We continue to pray for their salvation, that they will also one day, come to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. 

We’re looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with our family and we hope you are too! 

When we first got here, 7 months seemed so long… And now – already! – less than two months are left! :( There are so many people and things that we are going to miss… :’( 

So thankful for you and the love that you continue to shower on us. :)

October Focus - full version

Autumn is here!  It’s my favorite season of the year. To me, one of the things that autumn represents is the excitement that a new school year is about to begin. I guess it’s more associated with late summer to kids nowadays, but school started in September when I was a kid so it was definitely cooler and more autumnal. I guess for our three kids though, Spring will be that exciting time of year for them as the school year starts in April in Japan! 

There was an article recently about suicides in Japan spiking on September 1, the date with the highest number of suicides. In Japan, after about a 2-3 week “break” (during which many students still have to go to school some of the days and need to study for tests), the school year starts around April 10th, breaks for summer vacation around end of July, and then starts back around the beginning of September (although this year, summer vacation ended at the end of August). In April, many kids dread going back to school – the rigidity, the rigorous schedule and rote-based curriculum, the bullying – but some have hope that maybe, things will be different this year. In September, all kids – those that were looking forward to school in April and those that were dreading it – already know what they’ll be going back to. For too many young people, it’s too much for them to handle and unfortunately, they think that suicide is the only way out. 

Teenage students have been committing suicide in Korea for a long time too. But I think one major difference between suicide in Korea and Japan is that in Japan, it’s more widespread. It’s not just the students, but people of all ages. It’s probably one of the few things that make Japan’s famous always-on-time trains become delayed. Maybe it’s because of the samurai tradition of killing oneself to preserve one’s honor (because committing suicide is better or “more honorable” than living with shame?!) or the kamikaze type mentality of dying for one’s country being a noble act, but suicide in one form of another has been happening for centuries in Japan. Korea had a history of honor killings too, but it was for situations like when a woman was about to be raped. Women used to carry around little knives under the top layer of their traditional Korean dresses. I’m not saying that it’s acceptable, but it seems very different in a way. It’s hard to explain… 

I was reading a Japanese kids’ comic book that someone had given to us and within the first few pages, it mentioned suicide. I put it away. I wasn’t going to let Juhee read it. “Mommy, what’s suicide?” wasn’t really a question I wanted to hear from my 7 year old daughter, especially not from having read about it in a comic book making light of the subject! The Japanese have a fascination with death and ways of dying that is easily seen through their media. There’s also a lot of dark spirituality in their anime, dramas, and movies, which our kids are being exposed to while at friend’s houses and getting rides. We talk to them about why we don’t watch those animes at home and although our kids are not happy with the decision, they (seem to) understand our reasoning behind it. 

Please pray that Peter and I will be able to guide our kids wisely and that they will be able to deal wisely with all of these issues while growing up in Japan. We know that we can’t shelter them completely from a lot of these things, especially if we keep them in the Japanese public school system. We barely watch any Japanese TV at home and only watch the educational channel, but our kids still know the names of all of the characters in the popular animes. Juhee often has nightmares in Japan. I know it’s more than just the media, but there is definitely something... It’s been amazing to see how much more at peace she is here in the U.S.  

I watched a short documentary once about Japanese anime. One of the illustrators said that the reason for anime being so extreme and so popular in Japan is because the society is so restricting and conformist, that people need a way out, a way to escape and fantasy. For many, manga or anime provides this outlet. 

Pray that our kids will be able to experience the same excitement that I, and hopefully many of you did, at the beginning of a school year & semester / trimester. I loved school (in America, Korea, Germany, and the UK), and I really hope our kids will too! 

I feel like I should start a new blog post now for our October Focus… Doh! :P 

I can’t believe it’s already October and we haven’t met so many of our friends and supporters yet – eek! I’m excited about our kids experiencing all of the fun festivities that come with fall in the US that they don’t get to see in Japan. Pumpkin patches, pumpkin carving, lots of pumpkin pie (I LOVE PUMPKIN PIE!!!!!!), American candy (like candy corn and Reese’s :D), and of course, dressing up and going trick-or-treating with friends!

(Pictures: Juhee and her classmates at their Panda Express fundraiser, Juhee at school: learning about American history (9/11), receiving an award for Perfect Attendance for 1st grade - all 5 out of 5 days!, in her classroom at Back to School night; Juhee at her lessons: gymnastics, cartoon drawing (her favorite1), and keyboard class. Sungjae and his soccer classmates in the HUGE park/field their classes are held, Sungjae with his tiger coloring homework and sharing about the time he pet a tiger cub during "Tiger Sharing" time, Sungjae at his karate and gym classes, and Sungjae getting his lunch in the school cafeteria.)

Juhee is enjoying her piano/keyboard, cartoon drawing, and gym lessons. Sungjae is enjoying his karate, soccer, gym, and tennis lessons. From mid-October, they will both be taking 4 horse riding lessons at a farm nearby too. We are SO grateful for the huge discounts that the City of San Jose is providing for our kids so that they can experience all this while we’re here! Kind of ironic that the YMCA, a “Christian” organization, didn’t provide us with one. Well, when I applied, the manager at the YMCA closest to us couldn’t understand why our “pay slips” had different amounts. I tried to explain to her that we’re missionaries, kind of like a charity, so we receive different amount each month. Her reply was, “So, you don’t work.” Um… Sungjae really wanted to learn how to swim, but we can’t afford the classes without a scholarship. But it’s all good! Instead of swimming classes twice a week, Sungjae is having a great time at karate and gym! They're both loving school, too! God is providing for us in ways that we could not even have imagined. God is so good! 

(Pictures: Once our kids start eating cheerios, daddy has to put one on their little noses! :P Jiyeon is now good at sitting, starting to eat solids, likes getting on all fours (but not crawling yet - phew!), used to love dogs but is now sometimes afraid of them, LOVES playing with her big sister and brother, and is just plain cute (says her slightly biased mom!))

The countdown has begun and I can feel myself going into super planning mode. We still have churches to speak at, people to meet, of course we want to spend time with our friends and family more, want to participate in school events, must organize a birthday party for Juhee in December, need to start packing and thinking of the best way to get everything we’ve accumulated here over to Hiroshima, complete my reading and assignments for my 6-week Japan 102 class, continue to serve as an Assistant Teacher at Joy of Learning (JOL), the free English classes provided by Santa Clara Valley Japanese Christian Church (SCVJCC) to Japanese moms (great learning opportunity for me too!), write newsletters (ESPECIALLY one in Korean!!!), and need to keep relying on God to increase our monthly support while doing our part, too. And, of course, there’s all of the daily life demands that come with being a wife and mom of three. :) 

Here’s a calendar of our church-related activities for this month:

2nd – JOL, SCVJCC

4th – LivingStones Christian Church (LSCC)

6th – Parents of Preschools (POPS), SCVJCC

8th – Bring Your Bible to School Day!!!

9th – Speaking at UC Davis’ Christian college group, Mustard Seed Ministry

10th – Davis Korean Church (DKC) Missions Committee Meet-and-Greet, small group fellowship in the evening

11th – Speaking at DKC’s English service and Korean service (I’m interpreting)

14th – Tohoku Charity Concert, SCVJCC

16th – JOL, SCVJCC

17th – LSCC Missions Committee meeting

18th – Speaking at the grandma’s Bible Study class at New Vision Church (NVC)

21st – Japan (Missionary’s / Church’s) Coffee Shop Network Skype

23rd – Speaking at Agape’s Small Group meeting

25th – Speaking at SCVJCC’s two English services and Japanese service

31st – Community Family Festival at Berryessa Valley Church, trick-or-treating with LSCC small group families and friends 

Please come join us at one of these events if you're in the area!

The grandma Bible study class might seem a bit random, but they’re prayer warriors who love us and have been praying for our family since even before we became missionaries. I’m so grateful to them and am looking forward to sharing about our time in Hiroshima with them. 

(Pictures: Peter's college days DKC reunion (our kids were shocked that these people have known daddy longer than mommy's known him hehe), enjoying Chinese-style hotpot with our LSCC small group, Peter speaking and me interpreting at NVC's Early Morning Prayer Meeting, SCVJCC's POPS (about 18-20 moms + 30 kids come!), I loved being able to just enjoy a Women's Ministry event!, and at our kids' PTA Meeting - SO different in so many ways to a Japanese one!)

Please pray for all of our church-related ministries, that we’ll be able to bless those we meet and serve, and that we’ll be able to share about God’s goodness to us and the hope that He has for the people of Japan in the short time that we have with each group. Please pray for our kids as they go from church to church. For the first time, both Juhee and Sungjae refused to go to yet another new Sunday School last month. :( I was thankful that it happened at a church that we weren’t actually speaking at. They sat with us in the family area during the service. I think they’re going to be OK at the churches we’re going to this month though – yay! :) 

This month, Juhee and Sungjae will be taking part in their first ever school walk-a-thon and the fundraising that comes with it. So American! :D There’s also going to be a Harvest Festival at their school which they’ll get to enjoy with their friends. They (well, at least Juhee) will also be taking part in the 2nd annual national Bring Your Bible to School Day (organized by Focus on the Family). Juhee’s sad that so many of her friends at her American school know about God but don’t seem to believe. Juhee’s super excited about taking her Bible to school! Her teacher is a Christian and she’ll be bringing her Bible to school too. Please pray that both Juhee and her teacher will be able to be good witnesses at their school, and that the Bible will provide opportunities for them to share their faith. 

Pray that we’ll be able to use our time wisely and communicate well with each other and with our supporters. Please pray that more brothers and sisters will join us in supporting us financially during the next couple of months. We know that God will provide and wants us to trust Him for His provision! He likes to keep us in suspense. ;P 

Grateful for each and every one of you. :)

September Focus

Good morning! :)

And what a beautiful morning it is too! The kids have happily gone to school, Jiyeon is still sleeping (wish she'd slept more at night!), and I haven't had breakfast yet so am a bit hungry (don't want my cereal to go soggy if Jiyeon wakes up while I'm having breakfast so am working instead), but I'm pleased as punch :) that I get to write this month's Focus on the first day of the month. Yay! :D

We actually have a pretty busy month coming up so your prayers for us and the many people that we meet would be greatly appreciated. My devotional this morning was on Matthew 5:13 - You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. Please pray that we'll be salty salt, salt that makes a difference in the lives of those we meet.

POPS and JOL (Joy of Learning, free English lessons for Japanese) meetings start this month at SCVJCC. I will be taking Jiyeon every other Tuesday morning to POPS and every other Friday morning to JOL. I already started connecting with some of the Japanese moms when I went a few times before their summer vacation period. I'm excited about meeting them again and deepening our relationship, as well as to meet new moms too! It's a great outreach that SCVJCC provides to the Japanese community, similar yet very different to the Smile Club program and the English classes we have at Hiroshima EV Free Church. It'll be a great way for me to keep up my Japanese, maybe even improve my Japanese, and learn some new ways to teach English to Japanese. I'm also grateful for the opportunity to be able to help one of our supporting churches while we're here, too.

School events for the kids start this month with our first PTA meeting happening tomorrow! I'm so excited!!! It's all going to be in English!!!!! :D I'm excited about meeting the kids' teachers, the staff, other parents, and getting to look around the school too - or does that happen on Back to School Night? I dunno. Can't remember from my own childhood. If I don't get to do all of that at the PTA meeting tomorrow, I'll only have to wait a couple of weeks for Back to School night on the 17th. I also have Sungjae's parent-teacher conference on the 8th and I'm sure I'll have one for Juhee too at some point this month. Can I just say... I'm so LOVING the fact that all of their school communication is IN ENGLISH!!!!! (Just in case you couldn't tell.) :D

OK... Time to calm down... :P

Here's our schedule so far for this month:
1st - POPS at Santa Clara Valley Japanese Christian Church
2nd - PTA Meeting
3rd - Berryessa Valley Church's Missions LifeGroup
6th - Peter preaching at both Pathway services, Jenny sharing at small group following the services; Dallas Korean Church reunion BBQ in Santa Cruz
10th - Pastor's Wife Fellowship reunion dinner
11th - LivingStones's Christian Church's families "large" group meeting (probably won't be able to attend because...)
12th - Peter preaching and Jenny interpreting at New Vision Church's Early Morning Prayer Meeting (6:30am!)
15th - POPS at SCVJCC
18th - Joy of Learning English classes for Japanese women at SCVJCC; hosting LSCC small group in the evening
19th-20th - Back down in LA to meet with Rev. Billy Kim, the Senior Pastor of one of our supporting churches in Korea, who will be speaking at Sarang Community Church. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with Sarang. We'll be driving down all day Saturday and then driving up straight after lunch on Sunday, arriving back home pretty late, so please pray for travel mercies and for our tired kids to be able to get to school on time and in good spirits on Monday morning.
26th - LSCC's Women's Ministry event (not sure if I'm just attending or speaking yet)
27th - Peter preaching at LSCC

Juhee will be starting keyboard and cartoon drawing lessons, and Sungjae will be starting soccer and gymnastics lessons this month + we're continuing with Juhee's Japanese studies and Sungjae's English studies after school, so weekday afternoons are going to become increasingly busier. I'm so grateful for community center and YMCA scholarships that allow our kids to take all these lessons and more for a fraction of the cost.

We're also looking forward to play dates at friends' houses and to having friends come and play at ours too. As Peter always used to say when he was leading youth ministry, you have to Play Together, to Pray Together. There's nothing like playing together and sharing a meal together to deepen relationships to initiate more heartfelt prayer for each other!

OK, time to go to POPS.

Thank you so much for your love and prayers. :)

Summer 2015 Newsletter

Here's our Summer 2015 Newsletter. If you didn't get it, here's the link. If you would like to receive it straight into your inbox, sign up on the right or send us an email. :)

August Focus (full version)

Hello! :)

We had an awesome three weeks in Dallas and are now back in San Jose. We were showered with so much love and generosity during our time in Dallas. We also enjoyed our first date night in probably over three years! I really wish we had more time to spend there, but alas, we had a full August booked waiting for us in not-so-hot-and-humid California. ;)

A few days after we arrived back in San Jose, a family of four came to visit us from Hiroshima. Juhee and the daughter of that family were in the same class at the local Japanese elementary school in first grade, and they’re currently in the same class for second grade, too! I got to know the mom in May of 2014 after the school’s annual Sports Festival and we’ve become closer and closer since. She started attending Asaminami Bilingual Chapel (ABC) with her daughter and sometimes her son (older brother of Juhee’s friend) too since summer of 2014. Before we left Hiroshima to come to the U.S., my friend invited me over for lunch. I asked her whether or not she thinks that her daughter will want to continue going to ABC even if Juhee is not there (as there had been instances like that before), and she said she didn’t know. We were so happy when my friend excitedly emailed to say that her daughter said she wanted to go! We were also so thankful when she emailed later on to say that she is understanding more and more of God’s Word. While she was here, we had lots of opportunities to talk at home, in the car, while walking… Through sharing Peter's testimony, I was able to share the Gospel message with her. One of the things that really touched my heart was when she told me about how her mom’s passing made her feel somewhat lost and perhaps even insecure, but she feels happier now because she knows of God’s love and that He loves her. I was so encouraged! God arranged for a Japanese-American friend that we met when we first arrived in Hiroshima and haven’t seen since, to feel led to attend the Japanese service of the Japanese-American church that we attended with our friends. We were so surprised to see him there! He joined us for lunch and shared some of his story, of how God has been leading him the past couple of years in providing a dream job for him. There were just so many instances where we knew God’s hand was in this whole trip and He was using it to really amplify His love to them. Since returning to Japan, they’ve started praying everyday before dinner. God is definitely working in the hearts of the K family. Please keep praying for them! We had an awesome time and we’re so thankful that God allowed us to have this concentrated time together, where we were really able to live life together. For a quick summary and some photos, check out my Facebook status update here. You can also read a little bit more about them in a past newsletter we sent out here (see Jenny's section of the Family Update).

So… Let’s see… More about August. A friend / church member of our Hiroshima Evangelical Free Church came and went, we had a reunion with our short-term teams that came out in July of 2011 which was great and kinda surreal, Juhee and Sungjae took their CELDTs (California English Language Development Test – mandatory) and we think they did OK, Sungjae had his Kindergarten assessment and introduction, and we’re now getting ready to hit the road again to go down to SoCal!

Peter will be preaching at both morning and afternoon EM services on Sunday, the 16^th, at Global Missions Church in Diamond Bar, LA for those of you in that area. We’re good friends with the EM pastor there, but it’s our first time connecting with this church, so please pray for a good connection with the brothers and sisters there and that they will want to take part in the work that God is doing throughout the world, especially in Japan. Please pray for our kids too as they adjust to another church, another Sunday School, a long day, and new friends.

During this SoCal trip, we’ll also be connecting with Peter’s sister and her two sons. We haven’t seen them for probably something like six years! It’ll be their first time seeing both Sungjae and Jiyeon. It’ll be a short couple of days, but please pray that we will have a good time catching up and be able to make fun memories together.

We’re also really excited about reconnecting with our former Pioneers Japan Area Leaders, the Hoisington’s! They were awesome leaders and we really miss them so we’re really looking forward to spending time with them. I had a short chat with Cindy today and as we were talking about our arrangements to meet, she said that she wanted to try and make things a little bit easier for us because she knows that furlough isn’t really restful at all. Hallelujah! It was just so refreshing to speak to someone who understood. I already know that our time together on Sunday afternoon is going to be far too short!

What else… We’ve officially become members of LivingStones Christian Church, our new commissioning church. We’re really enjoying being part of their church family and have been encouraged by them so much! This month’s small group meeting will be at our place and we’re looking forward to it!

On the 24^th, kids start school!!! We’re looking forward to having more of a routine. Peter will be walking them to school in the mornings. We still have a few Back-to-School items we need to buy but they’ll have to wait till after the SoCal trip. The kids don't seem too nervous about the start of school, but I guess we'll know better closer to the time. Pray for them please! :)

From the 28^th-30^th, we’ll be going to our first church retreat in many years. We’re looking forward to getting to know more of our brothers and sisters at LSCC and deepening our relationships with them too. We’re looking forward to some R&R physically and spiritually too!

We're still pretty tired, busy, stressed, behind on reports / newsletters / materials churches want us to send them, and trying to navigate through constant changes. Prayers for perseverance, energy, and health would be awesome! We're hoping that we'll be able to finish our speaking engagements by the end of October so that we can enjoy weekends together as a family in November before the craziness of preparing to go back happens in December. 

Going on a family vacation still remains a dream. Maybe it'll happen. Other than finances and time, I think one of the reasons why it hasn't happened yet is because the needs of our older two are so different from our youngest. I'm so grateful that Peter had the foresight to buy season passes to Great America for the family. He's been really good about taking the older two when he can. Peter, Juhee, and Sungjae have probably been there 6-7 times! Maybe a family vacation is more work than it's worth right now in our current stage of life?

* A few stories for you, just to finish off:

- Juhee did something really well and the person next to me said, "A+!" Instead of being excited about her achievement and the compliment she received, Juhee turned to me with a serious expression and asked, "What's that?" Once I explained that it's the equivalent of a 100% score in Japan, she was happy. :)

- Juhee and Sungjae came back from daycare one day and said, "Mommy! Bad news!!!" "What? What is it?" They listed a whole bunch of names and said, "They're not coming to daycare anymore!" "Well, maybe they're just not going on the same day as you two or maybe they went on a family vacation or something." "What's a family vacation?" "You know... Like when we went to Korea for one week last year..." (When mommy was trying not to throw up 'cause of her morning sickness and had a fever one of the days too...) >.<

- Sungjae's r's sound like w's, just like most American toddlers, even though he didn't grow up here hearing it. It's kinda cute. ;) He's learning how to write his name, goal is for him to be able to write it all by himself before school starts.

- When Family K came over, Juhee and Sungjae both had a hard time switching back to speaking Japanese! Sungjae kept on speaking English to them the first day. What a change from when we arrived in the U.S. just two and a half months ago!

- Jiyeon, at 4 and a half months, is now wearing 6-9 month clothing and has two teeth. :)

PI to WOM

Many of our friends, supporters, and supporting churches have been asking us the reason for our change in agency from Pioneers International (PI) to World Outreach Ministries (WOM). Let me start off by saying that it's not because of anything bad! We enjoyed being with PI and are grateful to them for helping us during our early days when we didn't know what to do, for helping us to get on to the field, and for being there for us when things got tough on the field too. They're a great organization and we would recommend them to anybody!

We’ve had to explain the change in writing to a few concerned people and churches. We appreciate your concern! I’ve copied and pasted parts of what we’ve sent to them. If you would like more information on anything discussed below, please let us know.

The reason we were led to change missions agencies are mainly twofold: 1) to provide better healthcare for our family, which will give us more peace of mind, and 2) to be better stewards of the finances God has given us.

God willing, we plan to continue serving in Japan, partnering with local Japanese pastors in growing the Kingdom of God, helping to plant churches, and ministering to the Japanese people. In so doing, we want to make sure our family is healthy. Up until now, we have been paying out of pocket for all of our medical expenses in Japan, which has been in the range of $500 to $1000 per year thus far, except for when we had our baby. This includes all the preventative care we've received , care for illnesses and accidents, and any medical costs prior to us having our baby in Japan. We actually have not taken all the preventative healthcare measures we should have in order to save money, which I know isn't best, but we thank God that we and our children have been pretty healthy.

Pioneers has pretty good international health insurance, for which we were paying a pretty high premium. With the deductible also being pretty high, we never reached our deductible and therefore paid all our medical expenses out of pocket. We asked Pioneers if we could join the Japanese national healthcare system so we could receive care at a reasonable price, and opt out of the Pioneer's group plan. Pioneers said we could join the Japanese healthcare system, but that we would still be required to continue with Pioneer's group insurance as well. We were not allowed to opt out of the Pioneer's health plan. To us, paying into both wasn’t a wise decision.

So as we were praying through this, we asked God what we should do.

Practically speaking, joining the Japanese healthcare system will enable us to 1) take better care of our family by paying more attention to preventative care, which we have been lacking, 2) reduce our medical costs significantly because our monthly fees for Japanese National Health Insurance would be approximately half that of Pioneer's insurance, and 3) our visits to the doctor would be covered by the insurance so we won't have to pay out of pocket for all the healthcare services we receive.

So as we've been praying through all this, asking God for leading, and asking Pioneers to allow us to opt out of their group insurance, we looked into various options.

We came across World Outreach Ministries, and saw that they provided the flexibility we were seeking. After reviewing their website, their statement of faith, and researching about them online, Peter felt this could be a good option for us. After much prayer and consideration, he contacted Jason Peebles, the founder and president of WOM for more information. Through Peter’s interaction with him, he seemed like someone he can trust and be able to partner with for the Kingdom of God.

There are two main differences between PI and WOM. PI is a "sending agency", WOM is a "service agency". What this means in a nutshell is that Pioneers is a lot more "hands on" in terms of member care. WOM, on the other hand, doesn't provide this member care. WOM mainly helps us by being our back office in the US providing administrative support to our financial supporters.

This lack of member care might be a point of concern, but we don't think this is the case for us. Although we won't be able to receive "hands on" member care from an organization, we will be able to receive member care resources and referrals from WOM as needed. Also, and more importantly, our missionary network and partnerships with pastors and missionaries in Japan will provide us the relationships through whom we can continue spurring each other to grow spiritually and provide spiritual accountability. Pioneers actually has a team in Fukuoka, and we will continue meeting with them in fellowship. If God opens the door, we will also be partnering with them in various ministries too, especially with regards to college ministry.

As we've been praying through this decision, here are some of the pro's of making the change to WOM.

1) Better and more affordable health care for our family.

2) Better financial stewardship with lowered medical costs

3) Flexibility in ministry. Working with Pioneers has been great, but we were limited to working with only Pioneers and their direct partners. Although we were able to fellowship with other missionaries and pastors in Japan personally, we weren't able to work directly with them. (This is now changing within the PI Hiroshima Team.) Joining WOM will provide us the flexibility to partner with specific churches, and also work directly with other various missionaries and pastors as occasions arise. WOM leaves much of the decision making to the missionary on the field as they believe that the missionary on the ground knows the situation best.

The con's we thought of are...

1) No longer receiving member care from Pioneers, but we think our spiritual, emotional, and mental health will constantly be kept in check by our local brothers and sisters in Christ (fellow missionaries, pastors, church members in Japan, and many of you!).

2) No longer having the close fellowship times with our Pioneers team. We will still have fellowship with them, but not at an organizational level.

Pioneers sent out a very thoughtfully written letter to all of our financial supporters in July to let them know we are transitioning out of Pioneers, not because we had any problems, but rather with their blessing.

So, as sad as it is to leave Pioneers, we are excited about our new relationship with WOM. We have peace in knowing that this decision is best for our family, our long term commitment in serving the people in Japan, and the best stewardship of the finances God provides us.

We hope you agree. :)