Monday, September 5, 2011

A busy summer

Nick visiting with some ladies at the July English Cafe
This summer was an extremely busy one.  We were blessed to have a young intern from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago join us from mid-May until early August, Nick Jeschke.  Nick's youthful energy and bright red hair reminded us a much younger Murray Trim for whom God used a summer of ministry in Japan in 1978 to call him to full-time service in Japan as a missionary.  We had the privilege of hosting Nick, sadly, because the missionaries originally scheduled to host him had to return to the home country of Germany due to complications after the earthquake and tsunami in Northeast Japan.  However, we are confident that God brought him to us just when we most needed him.  Nick assisted in so many ways, including distributing church brochures in nearby neighborhoods, technology assistance with computers and projectors, planning and preparing for the huge area-wide charity event for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami, teaching and observing English classes, leading English Bible studies, speaking and helping at the monthly English Cafes and much more.  Thank you, Nick, for giving your time and energy to serve the Lord in Japan this past summer.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Day of Celebration

Mr. Tsuchiya sharing how reading the Bible and trusting Jesus for his salvation changed his life.

Mt. Fuji on a slide in the background because Mr. Tsuchiya wanted to be able to see Mt. Fuji when he was baptized.

Murray baptizing Mr. Tsuchiya

Receiving gifts in celebration of his baptism

In the November 2, 2009 blog about the Night of the Arts and Music event hosted at Agape, I wrote about a man we met in our neighborhood, Mr. Sadao Tsuchiya.  His self-portrait painting that was on display is featured in that blog.  Mr. Tsuchiya, age 79 at that time, was the head of the local senior citizen's painting group in our neighborhood and his group along with the photography group had hosted a dinner to welcome us to the community when we first moved in because we were foreigners.  Mr. Tsuchiya was interested in English and some months later, he and several other seniors started attending Agape's monthly English Cafe.  Mr. Tsuchiya found Murray's talks about the Bible to be very intriguing and wanted to learn more so he requested a Bible. It was Mr. Tsuchiya's very first time to open a Bible and to read it for himself.   Then he asked Murray if he could meet with him for Bible study.  Mr. Tsuchiya was so hungry to learn more of God's Word that once a week wasn't enough, he wanted to meet TWICE a week and probably would have been happy for more.  

Mr. Tsuchiya lives about a 10 minute walk from our house, and despite numerous health issues and pain in his back and legs, he often wanted to walk rather than receive a ride.  As our relationship strengthened, however, he was more receptive to receiving rides.  He started attending Sunday worship faithfully as well.  The work of the Holy Spirit drawing him towards God was very evident, because after a few months of study, it became clear that he accepted the words of the Bible as Truth.  In January of this year, he made it clear that he was trusting in Jesus for his salvation and asked to be baptized.  Interestingly, his request included his desire to be baptized somewhere near Mt. Fuji.  Well, that request was impossible to fulfill, but, on June 19th, we did our best and prepared a slide of Mt. Fuji that we displayed on the wall between the baptistry during his baptismal service.  Mr. Tsuchiya shared his testimony before his baptism.  He has no family, except for a daughter who lives in a special care home because of mental health issues.  Finding the Lord as his constant companion as brought so much joy and peace into his life. He loves listening to Christian music CDs that we had shared with him, so he was delighted that in commemoration of his baptism Agape's gift to him was a 5-CD set of Christian music which includes many of the songs that we sing at church on Sundays.  Pray that his passion to know God more will not subside, and that the glow on his face from the joy welling up inside will impact his friends in the community. 

It is rare that a Japanese person moves from no knowledge of Christianity or the Bible to complete belief in less than two years and yet, in Mr. Tsuchiya's case, the soil of his heart was prepared and the seed was able to fall on fertile ground, take root and grow up into a strong faith.  We praise God that He led us into a relationship with Mr. Tsuchiya and each day we pray that God will lead us to others whose hearts are soft and ready to receive words of truth.  Pray for the many Japanese for whom it will take much longer for the seeds to grow and take root, but ARE in the process of learning more and seeking to know God.  Pray that we will be faithful in teaching the word of God, in season and out...

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

One of my favorite devotional authors is Ruth Myers!

Just discovered a new book by Ruth Myers is available for FREE download for Amazon's KINDLE!    Find it here!

Kindle

see the KINDLE here!  I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ my Kindle!  Need I say more?!  Okay, some of you out there have no idea what a Kindle is, so let me explain.    Technology has allowed various companies to develop small compact devices that a person can use for reading electronic (e-books) books.  Amazon was one of the premier developers and designed the Kindle.  I even love the name since reading books makes me want to read more and my love for reading is constantly being re-kindled!!   My preference is the less expensive version which requires downloading to computer first and then transferring to the Kindle.  Why, you ask?  Isn't it more convenient to pay with a credit card and have your books instantly downloaded into the Kindle?  Well, yes.  It is.  But, we must pay for all that convenience.  And to be completely honest...I am an impulse shopper.  And sometimes, I'll see a book I THINK I will like.  So sometimes instead of just buying and downloading the one, I'll buy the entire series before knowing if I really will like it, leading to...great disappointment.  I just find that for me, it is better to think carefully before I purchase, read the reviews, and make an investment I know I won't regret.  That being said, however, I think the KINDLE itself is a most amazing investment.  Now that I'm overseas, I find it difficult to locate the books I want to read in English.  Plus, the high cost of shipping books is a strong deterrent to buying more books.  Insert: the kindle.  It is great, because there is no shipping cost for books.  It stores hundreds of books in one small lightweight device.  It is incredibly handy to slip into your bag and carry it with you everywhere you go.  I bought myself a really sweet pink floral zipper bag from Laura Ashley and it is perfect for keeping my Kindle in the main pocket, and my connecting cords and charger in the outside pocket.  (I only take the charger when I'm traveling away from home for longer than a day, because the battery lasts soooooooo long when you don't use the wireless function for downloading!)    I usually only have to recharge my Kindle about once a week and I read a lot!!! So, that's another great thing!  It has a super long-lasting rechargeable battery!  So, no extra money going for battery purchases.

Another great thing about the KINDLE is that it is created by Amazon!  Seriously, what better place to find a great selection of books with reviews, etc.  In the Kindle store, they have rankings to you can see what other people are downloading.  Plus, every month, they have dozens of e-books that you can download for FREE!!!!   I wouldn't recommend all of the free ones, but I've been pleasantly surprised at how good some of the free books are.  And it has helped me find some new authors that I really like.  Of course, now and then, I also buy books by my favorite authors.  But, that's the cool thing.  Now I have access to all of these great books at my fingertips.

Did I mention how much I really hate to WAIT?  Anywhere.  Anytime.  Waiting is the bane of my existence.  Since the purchase of my KINDLE, though, I've learned to relax more while waiting.  Sometimes when I'm at the climax of a good book, I'm even begging the traffic to get backed up or my husband to be late to pick me up.  I just pull out my KINDLE and read another page or two while standing in line or sitting and waiting somewhere.

I also love the fact that if I delete something I've read, I can always go back to my home page on the server and download it again.  I never have to pay twice for the same book.  Whereas with real books, I'll lend it out or give it away, and then down the road I want to read it again.  So then I have to buy another copy.  Kindle has even added a lending service so that you can lend books that you have to other Kindle readers.

Overall, I just want to say that I am really IMPRESSED with the KINDLE experience.  I hope you'll give it a try, because, believe me, it's not just the wave of the future, it's the here and now best reality for avid readers!