Shan In Japan

Driving and Shopping

2009-07-08T11:56:00.006+09:00

For my friends in Japan, here is a picture taken as we were driving through South Dakota on Monday.
日本にいるの友達、車から月曜日でとったSouth Dakotaの写真です。

Here is my new pair of sandals which I am loving!
これは大好きな新しいサンダルです。

And a sudden South Dakota summer thunderstorm!
South Dakotaの突然の夏の大雨です。

Sunday Pictures

2009-07-06T12:21:00.005+09:00

I have arrived safely back in South Dakota with only a short delay and diversion to Cheyenne, Wyoming on the way to Denver. I spent Independence Day with friends from church eating, chatting, and watching fireworks.
Then today, Sunday, I got to go to church with my parents, worshipping with long-time friends, studying the Bible together, and hearing about how God is at work here in South Dakota.
Worshipping together in English!
We spent some time this afternoon weeding the Jones' garden. Here is before and after.

Then we went for a picnic at Lake Herman State Park.
The day closed with a lovely moonrise.

Lots of lasts

2009-06-29T11:31:00.005+09:00

This past weekend was filled with goodbyes, see you next year type gatherings. It was also filled with packing, packing, and more packing. I was trying to get my suitcases packed at the same time I am packing boxes. It was going well and looked liked I was actually going to get everything into two suitcases. Then Woykes came to get my shoe closet and I realized that I had not packed any shoes to take on home assignment! So, I will have to repack once I get moved so the weight can be distributed evenly in the suitcases. I may still be able to have two suitcases, but that means my carry on will be super heavy-nothing new there, though.

So here are a few highlights of the weekend in pictures..
Pre-choir singing time

Sharing at Kongo Church

One more potluck at Kongo-always really good food!

Paul took a group picture at Komyo so when I get that from him I will post it, too, if I remember!

And, here is a little glimpse into the state of my apartment...

Last night at a very late hour I realized that the guy was coming to take out the air conditioner units and all the boxes were stacked under the units, in both the office and the dining room! So, I had to move them all to the other side of the room giving the worker a whole 3 feet of work space!

Did you know?

2009-06-25T21:12:00.007+09:00

Did you know that you can come to Japan?! Yesterday a team of people from Illinois left after a two week trip here to Japan to help us out. In our NAB conference they are known as Gateway Teams, groups who come for a short time to help out the missionaries as well as get to learn about the work here and find out how God can work in and through them.

Although I have been busy packing, I did get to spend a little time with the team. They came to church last Sunday where Megan gave her testimony and Doug preached. The rest of us listened carefully!

On Monday we went to the elementary school to do an English lesson with the 3rd and 4th graders. The week before the team had been to the school to teach the other grades, too. There was a little lesson on Illinois, Chicago, and Abraham Lincoln, followed by an English conversation introduction, a game and finally the Hokey Pokey!
(We were asked not to take close up pictures of the kids.)

Joy and Paul teaching the conversation

Third graders listening carefully

Fourth graders getting ready to move to smaller groups

The Hokey Pokey!

Some of our bilingual volunteers enjoying lunch with us at Ewings.

AGC Summer Concert

2009-06-20T22:26:00.008+09:00

Today we had our annual Gospel choir concert. It was early this year so that I could take part in it before I leave for home assignment. It was a fun day! Here is a recap in pictures:

Getting ready for rehearsal.

Rehearsing "Hallelujah, You're Worthy."

Practicing "You are my All in All."

Rehearsing "Call Him"

Gerber daisies from Yuki chan. How did she know I love them?!

Getting ready to go home after dinner.

Bittersweet

2009-06-14T12:56:00.006+09:00

A missionary acquaintance is also going on home assignment this summer and has a blog I read. Recently she had a post about what she was looking forward to doing in her home country, Australia, and what she will miss about Japan. As I run in the mornings and as I am packing up I have been thinking about this topic, too. So, here are a few things on my lists...

Things I am looking forward to in America:
*family
*friends
*sharing at my supporting churches about what God is doing in Japan. Truly, I enjoy doing this!
*Mexican food!!!!!!
*being able to understand and be understood
*Mom's mashed potatoes and Dad's burgers on the grill
*fresh veggies from my sister's garden
*not paying $18 for a movie
*worshipping in my heart language

Things I will miss:
*friends
*church planting
*Gospel choir
*onigiri
*nashi, aka Asian pears
*unintentionally being the center of attention (okay, so maybe I won't miss the constant staring!:)
*summer so hot and humid you can't even move without breaking a sweat
*fall colors
*the challenge of understanding and being understood

These lists are just a quick, off the top of my head list. I will add more as I think of more things. Basically, people and food are the theme of what I am looking forward to and what I will miss!

Thought for the day from Oswald

2009-06-06T18:52:00.001+09:00

He Himself has said...So we may boldly say... Hebrews 13:5,6
My assurance is to be built upon God's assurance to me. Take a deep spiritual breath. Take hold of the Father's assurance, and then say with strong courage, "I will not fear."

Learning

2009-05-31T12:00:00.007+09:00

This year I have been learning, or re-learning, how to play the piano. I took piano lessons for a good chunk of my childhood. However, once I moved away from my parents' house I didn't play much. In an effort to help out at church, I decided it would be good to dust off the keyboard. Our gospel choir director teaches piano seminars and restarted one in Osaka this winter. What a great opportunity to learn how to play for church!

This picture is a joint class to prepare for the concert. But, this is our usual set up, keyboards lined up around the room and our director up front. We gather around him for direct teaching and then go back to our keyboards, which we usually share, to practice what he just taught.

In the past 5 months I have learned an amazing amount of information-some of it I understood and some I didn't! Two of my friends from choir also attend. The class is divided into beginners (me) and experienced players (my two friends from choir) and they meet on alternate weeks. If you had time and the desire, you could attend both classes, which I usually did. I figured the more I put into my head, the more would stick.

Yesterday, May 30, was our concert/recital. 26 of the 29 members were able to attend and play. Since everyone is learning to play for the purpose of accompanying a gospel choir or at church, we basically had a 3 hour praise and worship time. My voice is a little tired today! It was a wonderful time!

I chose "You are My All in All" to play for the concert. (Pretty much the only song I can play right now:) Tomoko Shimada, from AGC, sang the verses in English. The choir sang the chorus and then the whole thing in Japanese.

After the concert, two friends from choir who came to sing and one of the friends from choir who also is learning piano and I went out for dinner and dessert. One of the ladies is a Christian and the other two are listening to Jesus knock on their hearts' doors. We had great conversations!

My dessert!

(I still haven't figured out which flash setting to use on my camera in that kind of lighting so the pictures didn't turn out all that good. Therefore, I only included one picture from the concert.)

**Update: The lady who stopped by the church last Thursday came to Bible study on Wednesday night and is planning to come back again!

Hope

2009-05-25T12:01:00.004+09:00

About a week and a half ago I saw some sobering statistics on the news. The Japanese national police agency has released their suicide statistics for the year. I had just turned on the TV and was preparing to watch a movie with a friend. We were talking about other things so I didn't catch the whole story-plus it was in Japanese. But, last week as I was preparing to talk about hope in church on Sunday I remembered that news story and started hunting for the information on line.

Hunting for information in Japanese takes me a while so I started by searching in English. But, since these statistics have just been released, I couldn't find them in English. So, I did a search in Japanese and found exactly what they had shown on the news.

Here are just some of the basic statistics:
Number of suicides in Japan in 2008
32,249
percent male
70%
top age group
50's
top two reasons
health (which includes depression)
economy
number of children
611

I talked with my Japanese Christian friend about these statistics and hope. She said something that really stuck in my heart. "We cannot exist without hope." As I look at this list, the last number, especially, hurts my heart. What could happen to a child, to that many children, that would cause him/her, them, to lose hope? Aren't the children our future? If children are losing hope, what does that say about our future?

BUT...
There is hope! Jesus is our hope. Paul says in Hebrews that 'we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.' A ship in a storm is safe when it has a good anchor. Just like a ship in a storm, when we go through storms in our lives, if Jesus is our anchor, we are safe. This doesn't mean that because we have an anchor we will never go through storms, but that when we are in the storms, if we trust in Jesus we can be firm and secure. We have hope.
If our anchors are things like money, family, work, material possessions, then what happens when we lose them?

We closed, yesterday, with the hymn "The Solid Rock."
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' Name

On Christ the solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand

When darkness veils His lovely face
I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil

His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood
When all around my sould gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in Him be found
Dressed in his righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand

NOW...
The challenge is, how do we share this hope?
How do we share this hope before more people take their lives?
How do we let children know they are loved and give them hope?
These are the questions in my mind today, and, hopefully, always.

Sweet Day

2009-05-21T20:23:00.003+09:00

We have started having Bible studies at church. So far no one we have invited has been able to come. But, we show up and have times of good fellowship. This morning, again, no one was able to come. However, Melissa and I had such a sweet time of prayer. We both had things weighing on our hearts that we wanted to talk to God about. He was real and present with us as we talked together and with Him. What a blessing!

I stayed at church working on my message for Sunday and practicing piano. During the afternoon I watched the pottery class next door working on their creations. At one point I looked up and a lady was walking toward the door. She just came right in and started asking questions about the church, what we study, picking up books and papers, and generally just looking around. Pretty amazing to me. It seems that here in Japan, people don't just walk into anywhere and just start looking around and asking questions-except possibly department stores! She seemed interested and said that she would think about coming next Thursday. She said that she lives nearby and passes by often so just wanted to come check us out.

It has been a sweet day!

New Digs

2009-05-15T16:21:00.003+09:00

Today was the signing of the contract to buy a condo for me to live in while ministering here in Izumi! I am really excited! At the moment I do not have a picture, sorry.

It is so cool how God provided everything. Our mission was able to sell the mission house in Nagoya which we are not using any more. The earnings from that sale are just the amount we need to purchase the condo! I thought we were going to have to look for a cheaper place because we were going to have to pay some taxes on the house in Nagoya, however, the tax office there said we were not required to pay those taxes. Plus, two weeks ago the owners lowered their asking price to a range we can afford.

The condo is a 4 minute walk from the station, still in the same neighborhood where I am living now. The outside was just repainted last year so it looks nice on the outside. The people living in the condo we are buying remodeled it after they moved in three years ago, so it is lovely inside, too. They installed bookshelves in the living area and a nice shoe closet in the entryway which they are leaving for me to enjoy. I am looking forward to finding out even more about how God has blessed me by providing this place.

Moving day will be July 1. Flight to the U.S. for home assignment will be July 3. June will be a whirlwind!

Thank you for faithful prayers. Please continue to pray!

where to start

2009-05-09T12:35:00.003+09:00

It has been so long since I last posted and so much has happened that I don't even know where to start! Plus, there are some things that happened before going to Hawaii that I had wanted to post about but haven't yet. So, I will just start with what is on my mind right now and maybe get back to the other things, or maybe not!

I noticed that I have recently talked a bit about books I have read and don't mean for this to be a book talk blog, but some of the authors I have read this year have some thought-provoking things to say.

One of my friends asked me where I found out about all these books. Well, from other blogs, actually. A couple of blogs I read regularly had readers post comments about books they were reading. I read through the comments with a pen and paper and made a list. I found out that a lot of books can be ordered through amazon's Japan branch-saves me huge amounts of money on shipping costs!

Well, last week I finished reading two more of those books, Crazy Love and There is no me without You.

The first book is by a pastor named Francis Chan. There were so many things he said that made me stop and think. One thing that has stuck in my head and challenged me is: if you didn't believe in Jesus how would your life look different? (paraphrase!:)

The second book is by Melissa Fay Greene written about Haregewoin Teferra. The book tracks Haregewoin's life from middle class life in Ethiopia to losing half of her family and becoming a 'mother' to AIDS orphans. I hope by reading it others will also become educated about the crisis and figure out a way to help out. We in the western world are rich. There is no reason we should not be helping out our fellow humans in poverty around the world.

In an attempt to keep from getting on a soapbox I will stop there. In an attempt to keep this post from becoming too boring, I will stop there. But, along with other books I have written about on this blog, I recommend these books-the first to those serious about learning to love God with their hearts, minds, souls, and strength and then to love their neighbors as themselves. I also recommend it to those who wonder why it is we love God. The second I recommend to anyone who cares about others, especially children and those living in poverty.

What books are you reading/have you recently read that you would recommend?

A long time coming

2009-04-17T11:43:00.012+09:00

At the beginning of my last home assignment, my friend and I met in London and also went to Paris. Shortly after that trip we began planning our next trip, we like the anticipation, I guess. We decided that we would make our next trip to Hawaii during her spring break in 2009, she is a teacher. Then we decided to pull in another friend for the fun.

So, on April 2, Cindy, Linda and I met in Maui, after over three years of anticipation, planning, and saving. What a great idea it turned out to be! We didn't know at the time of beginning the preparations what we would all be going through and how much we would need such a week away from every day life. I am so grateful for these friends and the time God provided for us to be refreshed, to fellowship, and to have great fun in Hawaii!

Here is a little pictorial run down of our trip:

Sunset from the lanai the first night. We have LOTS of sunset pictures!

The first day was spent at the beach and in the water! Here is our friendly smiling fish.

Our new friend Dave telling us about the fruits and flowers of Maui. He also gave us samples of loquats, guava and passion fruit. Of course, we bought fruit from him, too! This was on the road up to the top of Mount Haleakala, Maui's volcano.

On top of Haleakala. It was windy and quite cold. We did not take the travel books and guides advice and go up for sunrise. We enjoyed it in the middle of the day!

Mount Haleakala

We went to an amazing show about the history of Maui called Ulalena. This is our new friend Tony playing his nose flutes in stereo. He gave us each a personal 2 minute concert. I know it sounds gross, but the music was excellent!

We saw whales every day! This was on our early morning whale watch.

We were told there was a blowhole somewhere along the coast so set out to find it. After a lot of driving and asking and amazing scenery, we finally found it!

We took everyone's advice and drove the road to Hana (except Tricia's!). It started out rainy and cold but it was beautiful. Along the way we saw many different kinds of plants, trees, and fruits, learned how to open a coconut, saw more whales, experienced the black sand beach, and ended up on the backside of Haleakala National Park where this waterfall was.

The three of us enjoying climbing on rocks, looking at the ocean, and experiencing Maui together.

I could go on and on but will stop there. We have hundreds of pictures of the ocean, rocks, sunsets, etc. I would say that overall it was an absolutely wonderful trip!

Unanswered Prayer

2009-03-31T11:53:00.003+09:00

I just finished an amazing book on unanswered prayer. It is called "God on Mute: Engaging the Silence of Unanswered Prayer" by Pete Greig. I highly recommend this book.

If you pray, you have dealt with this issue before. Some of us, when facing unanswered prayer just give up, stop praying. Some of us, keep praying but quit believing it is doing any good. Some of us keep believing God is there, just quit believing He has any interest in our lives. Some of us actually engage the silence of the unanswered prayer. This book talks about all of these responses and challenges us to respond in the final way, engaging the silence.

I'd like to share the poem which starts the book.

Engaging the Silence
first
there is
prayer
and where there is prayer
there may be
miracles
but where miracles may not be
there are
questions
and where there are questions
there may be
silence
but silence may be
more than
absence
silence
may be presence
muted
silence
may not be nothing but
something
to explore
defy accuse
engage
and
this is
prayer
and where there is prayer
there may yet be
miracles...

If you have time, check out the book and read it with an open heart.

Officially Official

2009-03-23T13:15:00.012+09:00

Sunday, March 22, Komyo Christian Church officially became a church plant of the Japan Baptist Conference. Pastors and friends from around the JBC came to celebrate with us for our opening ceremony.

We got started a little late waiting for a few people to arrive. When the service did get started, it started with a bang. Literally! Thunder rumbled just as we began! It was kind of cool-thankfully we didn't lose power.

Paul started us out with an opening prayer and song.
Then Pastor Yuzawa, from Higashi Muko Church where I used to work, shared the message. He is the head of the evangelism committee of the JBC, so is like our supervisor, too.

Doug Woyke shared a few words, also.

When I was a short term missionary I taught English at the Matsusaka church where Pastor Higashi was ministering. Now he is working at the other JBC church plant in Chita. He shared a few words of encouragement.

Kensaku Higashi was in high school in Matsusaka when I was a short termer and not all that interested in anything to do with church. Next month he is starting seminary. God works in mighty ways! He played the for us during the offering.

After a final prayer by Pastor Tanabe from Nagoya, it was time for snacks!

*SCA Party 2009

2009-03-22T22:34:00.003+09:00

This year 20 choirs led by our director and 9 guest choirs gathered for the annual SCA party. (SCA= Shin's Community Acts, Shinichiro is the name of our choir director.) There were some fun additions this year. One guest choir had several middle school members who did a great street dance to one song. There was also a Gospel hula group that performed with one choir. Both were very well done. The evening ended with Yamamoto sensei and his wife singing a song about God's great love-joined by their daughter.

The choir with the middle school dancers. The choir even had cool robes!

Gospel hula performing to a Korean song which has been translated into Japanese and become incredibly popular 『君は愛されるために生まれた』"You were born to be Loved"

The Yamamoto family singing for us-and making us all cry! (Number 2 is due in May!)

Several of us finished the evening together. This picture is at a bad angle because just before taking it I banged my leg into the shelf under the table and so was leaning on the table. Those of you with long legs who have been to Japan can feel my pain, I'm sure!

*Birds and Tulip Trees

2009-03-10T10:56:00.004+09:00

I have a super busy day going on but just wanted to take a moment to write about my walk to the post office. Today is a beautiful, sunny day. That made my walk to the post office even nicer! It is also quite windy. As I walked across the footbridge over empty lots the effects of the wind could be strongly felt. I heard a bird singing away and looked up to see it just flitting about in the wind. It was singing its heart out and enjoying the day. It was truly fulfilling this verse:
"Shout with joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of His name; make His praise glorious!" Psalm 66:1-2

Before crossing the bridge there is a lovely tree. Lara and I used to call them tulip trees. Being from the great plains/tundra of mid-America we had not seen them before. Today I had my phone with me and decided to take a picture of it. It is a picture of hope to me; spring is coming! The days are warming up, getting longer, and becoming filled with sunshine.

Take time to notice creation and sing the glory of His name today! (Even if you are still under blankets of snow:)

*Isaiah

2009-03-04T14:04:00.002+09:00

The temperature dropped yesterday and rain threatened, but I got up and went for a run anyway since the rest of the week is also supposed to be rainy. Just as I was finishing my run a few snowflakes began falling. As I watched the snow and then the rain (thankfully after I got inside!) I was reminded of the verses that have been hanging on my bathroom mirror for the past 2 years.

Isaiah 55:10-11
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from my mouth; It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

I feel like the 'will not' should be italicized and bold, as well as the 'will accomplish.' In Japanese there is a word there that means 'without fail' which is used in this verse: 必ず. When I feel like God's love is bouncing off of people rather than sinking into their hearts I am reminded that God's word will accomplish His desire (not mine!), will achieve the purpose for which He sent it. 必ず！

The verses just before these two verses remind me that my ways are not what matter, not that they are right or wrong, but that God's ways are so much better than mine. When I think that my way is the best way, there is absolutely no way this situation could turn out any better than by my way, God has to remind me that His ways are higher than mine, and His word will achieve the purpose for which it was sent-by Him. 必ず！

I often have very good ideas, sometimes others even agree with my good ideas. However, sometimes my good ideas don't work or don't come to fruition and then God reminds me that His purpose is higher, His way is better and, 必ず, His purpose will be achieved.

Thankfully He works in spite of my pushing ahead at times or my bad attitude about doing things His way. Then when I see how amazingly He orchestrated things, verse 12 of chapter 55:
You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
I can praise God along with all of creation for the way He works.

What'd you do today?

2009-03-02T20:29:00.003+09:00

Today I had an adventure. I went to the local tax office to file my Japanese taxes. The town I live in shares an office with the town next door. Of course, the office is not in my town. Because the majority of people file their taxes in person, the tax office moves to a hall near a train station for the month before taxes are due. So, after driving around trying to get going the right way on the one ways, I found the parking lot I used last year and found the temporary office.

As a resident alien(I love to say that!:) there is a form I have to fill out telling how long I have lived in Japan, a year to year list of the number of days I have lived in Japan for the past 10 years. Last year when I arrived at the temporary office and asked for the form they called the office and someone brought them over to me. This year I got to have a new adventure, I got to go find the real tax office to get the form.

I spent a lot more time driving around trying to find the offices and parking lots than I actually did in the office filing my return! Then I spent some time in an electronics store, practicing piano and eating dinner.

My evening is finishing with a lovely gift from a wonderful youth group in Michigan... peanut butter cookies and Reese's! Thank you!

Words

2009-02-21T23:02:00.005+09:00

Do you know what hemidemisemiquaver means?
How about snollygoster?
(Apparently my spellchecker has never heard of these words either!)
I just found them on a list of the 100 funniest English words. You can find the meanings for these and 98 other words here.
Enjoy!

Another Day

2009-02-15T22:00:00.004+09:00

It has been 10 days since I last posted. I wanted to post something amazing. Something brilliant like my cousin, Julianne. Something witty. That will, apparently, have to be for another day.

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. I had a lovely run, did three loads of laundry, cleaned my apartment, read a chapter in a fascinating book (A Severe Mercy), had the windows all open all morning. Then went to church.

As I was chatting with Paul about songs we were singing after checking the power point, I was walking around the room. The room has three enormous windows and I saw a van drive down the street which looked like my friend Yumi's van. I had prayed that morning while running past her apartment building that she would come. Then I looked down to the first floor and there she was coming up the steps! (Guess that wasn't her van driving by)

So, I did have something cool to post about. God answers prayer!

Yumi is on the left with the long hair. I am holding her dog Cocoa. Qsai is on the right with the short hair-praying for her, too!

Welcome

2009-02-04T22:34:00.009+09:00

Sunday, February 1st was the first Sunday worship service at our 'new' building. We had 23 adults and 6 kids worshipping God together. Several people from the Kongo church joined us as well as fellow missionaries and several friends-2 ladies from Gospel choir, included.

I caught a cold last week and ended up with no voice on Saturday and Sunday. It was a little hard to sing along but my heart was filled with praise as I listened to the room full of people lifting their voices in praise to Jesus.

After church everyone stayed for tea time, snacks and chatting are always a good way to end the evening!

This Sunday we will have a guest speaker from our NAB home office. We are looking forward to another Sunday worship service and all of the things God has planned for the future of Komyo Christian Church!

2 weeks

2009-01-31T12:15:00.007+09:00

Well, a lot can happen in two weeks! Friday I went to see the progress on the church. Here is a little timeline of events in pictures...

(Okay, a little more than 2 weeks ago, but it takes us back to the beginning!) October, contemplating and dreaming about the space.

January 16th, a contract is signed to rent the room in the building.

January 22nd, construction has started. Materials have arrived, wall skeletons emerge!

January 30th, the toilet is in and the kitchen sink is waiting for installation.

January 30th, showing the spot which will most likely be the front of the sanctuary, with a glimpse into the office.

Grandpa

2009-01-25T10:52:00.004+09:00

Early Saturday morning, January 24th, my grandpa went home to be with Jesus. His body showed signs of shutting down beginning on Thursday so my parents quickly went to Kansas to be with him and Grandma. The last time I saw Grandpa in 2006 while on home assignment I said goodbye. Somehow I knew that would be the last time I'd see him here on this earth. Although I'm sad I am not with my family right now, I am at peace knowing I will see Grandpa again. What a blessing that is!

Here are just a few random comments about my grandpa:
*He loved Jesus.
*He enjoyed gardening.
*He enjoyed camping in his RV.
*Helping people was something he did well.
*He was proud of his children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren.
*He let me drive his riding lawn mower once. (After I drove it off the curb I was afraid to ask again!:)
*He believed in the healing power of aloe vera!
*He taught us how to play RummiKub.(which I don't remember how to spell!)
*He liked singing in the choir.
*He prayed for his family faithfully.
*He had a long, productive life.
*He is once again the Grandpa I knew as he talks with Jesus.

Since he's had several strokes and been living in a nursing home the past few years I don't have many recent pictures of him. I did find some of his birthday party in 2007 that my dad sent to me. So, here is Grandpa, my dad, and my cousins' children. Then, Grandma, mom, aunt, cousins, and cousins' children and grandchild.

Thought for the day from Oswald

2009-01-18T10:50:00.002+09:00

I recently read "The Prodigal God" by Timothy Keller-highly recommended-and this morning's Oswald quote goes along with the theme of the book...

Beware of anything that competes with your loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of true devotion to Jesus is the service we do for Him. It is easier to serve than to completely pour out our lives for Him. Are we more devoted to service than we are to Jesus Christ Himself?