Thursday, May 06, 2004
Last week was pretty much a blur of activity as we had to pack up all of our stuff in boxes and move it to Pastor Scott's attic. James was a great help with carrying the heavy loads. We finished moving everything by Thursday pm and then I attended the Men's Victory Weekend on Friday and Saturday.
Thank you for praying for that event. It was a powerful two days of breakthrough for the 20+ men who attended. We confessed, and prayed, and cut off generational curses and roots of bitterness that had held us back in the Lord. I realized that I had tried to take back control of my life and was not resting in the Holy Spirit as I should. I have repented of that pride and yielded completely to Jesus once again. Lord, help me obey You completely. I also finished reading a book called the Heavenly Man last week. In fact I am reading it again out loud to my family one chapter each morning during our devotions. This book really inspired me to obey and trust in Jesus 100%.
On Sunday we packed everything in the car and went to church in Yokohama, then after lunch we headed straight to Nagoya. It is Golden Week holiday season in Japan this week so the trip took about 6 hours instead of the usual 5 because of heavy traffic on the expressway. We arrived at Satomi's parent's house in Taketoyo at about 9:00pm.
The kids always love coming here because Grandpa and Grandma Yamada are such interesting and friendly people. Yesterday James and Grandpa Yamada went to teach a class of kids on how to make "taketombo" or toy helicopters (literally: bamboo dragonfly) in the traditional Japanese manner. Over 30 students learned how to carve the bamboo with a sharp knife while James and Grandpa Yamada demonstrated. This is the sixth year that Satomi's dad has volunteered to teach this class and this year the local T.V. station even showed up to film the event.
Satomi and I spent several hours yesterday with some friends of ours. Pastor Hino and his wife came from Nagoya to see us and tell us about his new church building. They will break ground at the end of this month assuming all the city approvals come in. He was my very first Japanese teacher when I moved to Japan 11 years ago. At that time I helped he and Pastor Archie Alderson start a church called "Hope Chapel" in a rented room in Nagoya by passing out fliers and leading songs, etc. Pastor Archie retired from the mission field a few years ago but Hino-sensei has continued to minister, sometimes in a rented room and sometimes in his home. It is very exciting to see that they are ready to build their first building - please pray for this church and the leaders there. Hino-sensei shared with me that his group is praying to get back to it's roots of evangelism and they are focusing on the youth to stir up the fire in them to desire to plant churches from town to town here in Japan. It is a new season here and all of the church groups are starting to sense it - we must look to the harvest!
Today we paid the remainder of our plane tickets to Manila. God is continuing to provide all our finances. It is a great feeling to know that we are doing what the Holy Spirit has called us to do. We are all excited about going to Manila on the 18th.
Thank you for praying for that event. It was a powerful two days of breakthrough for the 20+ men who attended. We confessed, and prayed, and cut off generational curses and roots of bitterness that had held us back in the Lord. I realized that I had tried to take back control of my life and was not resting in the Holy Spirit as I should. I have repented of that pride and yielded completely to Jesus once again. Lord, help me obey You completely. I also finished reading a book called the Heavenly Man last week. In fact I am reading it again out loud to my family one chapter each morning during our devotions. This book really inspired me to obey and trust in Jesus 100%.
On Sunday we packed everything in the car and went to church in Yokohama, then after lunch we headed straight to Nagoya. It is Golden Week holiday season in Japan this week so the trip took about 6 hours instead of the usual 5 because of heavy traffic on the expressway. We arrived at Satomi's parent's house in Taketoyo at about 9:00pm.
The kids always love coming here because Grandpa and Grandma Yamada are such interesting and friendly people. Yesterday James and Grandpa Yamada went to teach a class of kids on how to make "taketombo" or toy helicopters (literally: bamboo dragonfly) in the traditional Japanese manner. Over 30 students learned how to carve the bamboo with a sharp knife while James and Grandpa Yamada demonstrated. This is the sixth year that Satomi's dad has volunteered to teach this class and this year the local T.V. station even showed up to film the event.
Satomi and I spent several hours yesterday with some friends of ours. Pastor Hino and his wife came from Nagoya to see us and tell us about his new church building. They will break ground at the end of this month assuming all the city approvals come in. He was my very first Japanese teacher when I moved to Japan 11 years ago. At that time I helped he and Pastor Archie Alderson start a church called "Hope Chapel" in a rented room in Nagoya by passing out fliers and leading songs, etc. Pastor Archie retired from the mission field a few years ago but Hino-sensei has continued to minister, sometimes in a rented room and sometimes in his home. It is very exciting to see that they are ready to build their first building - please pray for this church and the leaders there. Hino-sensei shared with me that his group is praying to get back to it's roots of evangelism and they are focusing on the youth to stir up the fire in them to desire to plant churches from town to town here in Japan. It is a new season here and all of the church groups are starting to sense it - we must look to the harvest!
Today we paid the remainder of our plane tickets to Manila. God is continuing to provide all our finances. It is a great feeling to know that we are doing what the Holy Spirit has called us to do. We are all excited about going to Manila on the 18th.
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