An Undiscovered Treasure?

This letter is dedicated to my friend Mr. Kenji Miwa, a faithful Christian and Gideon in Saitama who prayed for me to come to Japan as a missionary...


* * * * *


Most of you have probably heard about the "greying of Japan," where the population of elderly Japanese is swelling far above the rest. People are having fewer babies these days, and the Japanese life span is increasing, so nursing homes, golf clubs and retirement facilities are full to overflowing with elderly Japanese.

Now put those statistics aside and witness a small miracle with me, right here on the windy streets of Sapporo...

My friend Barb, a missionary with another evangelical denomination, was getting ready to go back to America when she pulled me aside.

"You're like me," she said. "You're energetic, talk a lot, love to laugh. I think you'd be great with my best friends here in Sapporo. Only one of them is a Christian even though they've been studying English at our church."

So I went with Barb to meet the group - expecting college students, young people, made to match bouncy Barb - and instead I found a group of retired Japanese seniors, the youngest one being probably in his late 50s. Talk about a shock! As we sat around the table eating yakiniku (Japanese barbecued lamb and vegetables), I was even more shocked by their life and exuberance.

Yoshie is a mountain climber who climbed the Himalayas about two years ago.

Mr. Horimoto, probably in his 70s, made Japanese jokes and taught me how to punch the plastic bag around the napkin so it made a loud, "POW!" and startled the tables around us.

Keiko kept filling up my plate with meat and ordering Korean rice, all the while speaking perfect, beautiful English.

And Ken, the lone Christian, watched over everything like a wise old owl and printed up a special sheet with grammatically horrible Hokkaido slang ("for you to practice," he said with a laugh).

With Barb leaving, they wanted a new English teacher - so badly that they agreed to meet me on MY schedule, at MY apartment (all the way across town), and even study the Bible. Ken smiled. The women grumbled but agreed. "If that's the only way we can learn English," they said. "Only once a month. And only for 20 minutes." Mr. Horimoto just nodded and popped another plastic napkin bag.

So two Wednesdays ago I was scrambling to set up a space in the living room when the doorbell rang. In piled the four seniors, all laughing, all rowdy, with TWO OTHER WOMEN of the same age. They were toting coffee, a coffee maker, Ken's printed sheets about the "English club," and cameras.

I am not an English teacher by nature, not even an English Bible teacher, so with much prayer and trepidation I pulled out a stack of red Gideon Japanese-English New Testaments given by my dear friend Mr. Kenji (also in his 70s).

"This man gave me these Bibles to give to my friends," I told them, pulling Mr. Kenji's picture off my bulletin board.

That grabbed their interest in a heartbeat. They passed around Mr. Kenji's picture lovingly, speaking Japanese in low tones. "Wow," they were saying. "That was so nice of him."

Keiko asked in Japanese, "Is he a Christian?"

"Yes, he is," I replied, and told them Mr. Kenji's testimony. They were impressed, moved. They nodded and passed his picture around again. "Please tell him thank you for the Bibles," one of the women said, and everyone agreed.

When they picked up the Bibles this time, they handled them carefully.

Then it came, out of nowhere.

"So how did you become a Christian?" Keiko asked. All eyes fastened on me.

I told them my whole story - how I became a Christian, why I decided to come to Japan. Ken translated everything as they listened with rapt attention. "That's wonderful," they were saying in Japanese. I spoke for 15 minutes, and no one interrupted me. No one changed the subject.

When I picked up the Bible to explain to them what it was, they picked up theirs.

"This is the New Testament," I explained. "This is the story of Jesus' life and letters written by early church leaders."

Again - surprise. Light bulbs coming on in their heads. (Had no one ever explained to them the Bible before?)

I explained the difference between the Old and New Testaments, using a Japanese Bible for reference, and told them about the books in the New Testament.

"That's not hard!" one of them said in surprise as we paged through the Bible.

A huge mental wall just crumbled and fell. And I saw it. So many Japanese are afraid of the Bible, intimidated by the big words and formal Japanese. I hear an ancient Ethiopian whispering, "But how can I understand unless someone explains it to me?"

No Bible degree, no teacher's license - and here I am, witnessing a miracle just by being a Christian and telling what I know.

(Is it really that simple?)

I told them it was okay to write notes in the margins or underline parts, and every single one of them grabbed their pencils and made notes on the contents page: "Jesus' friends," one wrote by "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John."

"Let's try reading a couple of verses," I said, and showed them how to find books, chapters and verses.

We turned to 1 Corinthians 13 about love and began to read - first in English, then in Japanese.

Awed silence. People put on their glasses and looked closer, reading again silently, lips moving.

"Good words, good words!" they were saying in Japanese. "Wow! Amazing! I love this!"

"I love these words!" Keiko exclaimed to me in English.

Mr. Horimoto drew a big box around the verses in his Bible. And as we talked the next hour, he kept reading.

After discussing the Bible another half hour, I had to actually turn the conversation to the class so I would be remembered as keeping my word.

When the class ended, the women cleaned up the coffee maker and washed all the dishes (even the old ones I had left in the sink!) When I protested, they pushed me out of the kitchen. "We're housewives!" they said. "We're good at this!"

After eating hot bowls of ramen at a nearby restaurant, they dropped me back off at the apartment to meet again in two weeks. I spent the rest of the day in wonder... feeling like I had just stepped into something big. REALLY big.

This morning was the second class, and just like before, the doorbell sounded as I was putting coffee cups on the table.

Two of the members couldn't come today, but they'll be here next week, they assured me.

I prayed for another miracle as I spread Japanese zabuton pillows on the floor, everyone talking at the same time. Ken pulled out immaculate, alphabetized copies of new Hokkaido slang definitions for me. Keiko attacked the coffee maker. Everyone got out their red Gideon testaments.

(Wait a minute - didn't they only want to study the Bible once a month? And for 20 minutes only...?)

Then Keiko spotted our English children's Bible, with LARGE TYPE (why didn't I think of this before?) and we spent the REST OF THE CLASS PLUS 30 MINUTES OVERTIME reading from the children's Bible as Ken translated.

We practiced looking up verses in the Gideon testament - even had a race to see who could find 1 Thessalonians 5:16 first. Keiko won. She read it in English (twice) and in Japanese.

Yoshie washed all the dishes before I could protest, everyone gathered money for me to buy two new children's Bibles (one in English, one in Japanese) for class use only. Ken produced perfectly typed directions and a map for us to meet this Saturday (we're climbing Mount Moiwa!).

And when they left, as left time, I sat in the quiet of the room and marveled at the way God works.

I heard a soft whisper, "How can I understand unless someone explains it to me?"

Dear Ethiopian, I hear your words!

I pray that these precious seniors may let me come near to their chariots and lovingly turn the pages of their Bibles, showing them what it means to be a Christian, to be loved, comforted and convicted from these pages of God's word, to know the promise of abundant life, eternal life, and the One called "The LIFE."

Oh, how I pray I may bend my ear and hear the same words spoken to Philip from beautiful bronze lips: "Look, here is water! Why shouldn't I be baptized?"

The "greying of Japan" indeed... if these seniors, with their energy, time and resources could be changed by the Spirit of God, what a mission field is waiting for them in their own backyard.

Pray with me that the "grey" of Japan may turn to silver, "shining like stars as (they) hold out the Word of Life..." (Philippians 2:15).

And may we join the Ethiopian who went on his way "REJOICING"!

PRAY for the six members of the English club: Ken (a believer), Mr. Horimoto, Keiko, Yoshie, Etsuko and another lady with a really hard name.
PRAY for older believers like Mr. Kenji who have an unparalleled opportunity to witness to Japanese seniors.
PRAY for the elderly of Japan, that churches would be started among them and they would set a magnificent example for younger Japanese, children, and grandchildren - that entire generations may follow in their footsteps. Because the elderly are respected and revered in Japan, seniors (like Mr. Kenji) receive a special standing, and their testimonies carry a lot of weight. Pray for a special blessing on these seniors!



About the last photo...

Q: How many seniors can you fit in an apartment elevator?
A: Six, plus one young whipper-snapper. :)

Here are their names so you can (PLEASE!) pray: From left to right - Etsuko, Yoshie, Mr. Horimoto, Ken, and the lady with the hard name. Keiko was standing beside me, so she didn't show up. But she was there. Did I mention Keiko brought a coffee maker called "Carioca?" (I know, I know - all the Brazilians out there reading this are getting excited. If you want to know about "cariocas," ask a Brazilian. :)

And last but not least, here is Mr. Kenji's picture so you can pray for him...

Home Again, Home Again...

I'm back from Okinawa, mind filled with memories of clear, jade-green sea, slender palm trees and sugar cane stalks... I brought home lots of pictures, a suntan (still burned on my arms) and some pineapple chocolate that most people probably won't like.

Okinawa was so beautiful, so warm, so lazy that it was hard to come back to Sapporo. I spent a free day roaming the beach, two rainy days in meetings with our team, and was greeted Saturday by grey, pouring rain on the descent into Sapporo.

Welcome home!

Yesterday morning (after an awesome phone call from my aunt Lois!) I crawled out of bed for church at the Walkers' house, stopped at English worship on the other side of town (was informed that three new BRAZILIANS came by later, none of them yet Christians!!), and then met an old man from my new seniors' English class for steaming hot ramen (Chinese noodle soup, famous in Sapporo).

More rain today... Ran around this morning trying to get ready - taking out putrid trash, washing dishes, unpacking, washing clothes, talking to Mike while brushing my teeth. Off to Japanese class. Bus didn't come. Walked down the street to call my Japanese teacher. Saw the bus coming. Hung up. Tried to open phone booth door. Door won't open. Open! Open! Door remains closed. Bus pulls away from the bus stop. A sigh of exasperation. Phone booth door opens. Bus stop is empty.

I walked back to the bus stop in light rain, fuming, trying to decide whether or not to take a taxi. I was still debating when a pretty Japanese woman comes up and starts speaking to me in rapid, excited English.

"It's you!" she was saying, holding an umbrella and a music case. "I can't believe you're here! Now you can meet my husband! He speaks English because he went to England."

I look from one face to the other, trying desperately to place one of them and drawing a complete blank.

???... I'm speaking English, smiling politely, but have no idea who they are.

The music case... a violin case... Suddenly I remember in a flash - meeting, only once, the violin teacher of one of our missionaries' children. She had given me a ride home, spoke little, sat up straight.

This time, though, Naoko was happy and talkative. We got on the next bus together and talked all the way to the terminal - they were going to an evening performance; I was going to Japanese class and then to teach English at the Katsuis' house.

"You should come to our house sometime," they said before I got off. "We have spare violins you could borrow to practice."

"Do you teach lessons to people my age?" I asked her in surprise.

"Of course!" she said. "Any time."

An answer to a long-forgotten prayer. I am amazed... I walked past blooming lilacs and salmon azaleas to my Japanese teacher's house, practiced writing Japanese characters, and jumped on a nearby subway.

At the Katsuis' I taught simple sentences: "This is a fish." "What is this?" "This is a shell," using ocean words since I just got back from Okinawa. (Tochi didn't like the pineapple chocolate).

At dinner I ate wonderful tonkatsu (fried pork) with delicious vegetables and hot rice.

I also tasted shiokara, which officially the MOST DISGUSTING thing I have ever put in my mouth. Definition: Squid intestines. [Kids, don't try this at home. Don't try this ANYWHERE].

Two subways later I crawled into the bus terminal, waiting for the last leg of my trip home, tired and ready to sleep. As I came up the stairs, who should I see in the bus line but a Japanese couple, each with a violin case.

Naoko and her husband! They were shocked, speechless even. We were all going home - to the same bus stop.

I walked home in the rain, hung up my coat, and came out to check my email before heading to bed.

It's 10:39 now, my throat is sore, and my hair is damp from rain. The corrugated shop roof across the street shines in the streetlights, and the horizon glows pink from faraway city lights. The little lamp is on in my room, making the walls a wonderful, inviting yellow - waiting for me to come and drink in a few Bible verses before sleeping and then waking to head to English Bible class in a nearby university tomorrow morning.

(I just remembered there are no sheets on my bed... ??)

But before I go, I wanted to write and say thank you for your prayers, for being here, for going on this journey with me. Every letter, email, package, phone call, or silent prayer blends its color into the beautiful mosaic that is NOW, that is here, that is my life - my life in Japan and my life in one long, winding piece.

I came to Japan to change lives - or so I said - but in truth, I am the one being changed. Changed by Japan, changed by pain and adventure and truth, changed by you, changed by the One who died to bring not partial but TOTAL freedom, deliverance, and LIFE ABUNDANT.

Oh, Life - the only Life there is - make me LIVE!

The evening smells of rain.

Until tomorrow...

Sunshine and more sunshine!

Thank you so much for praying and remembering the Lord's work here in Sapporo! You wouldn't believe all the the awesome things that have been happening since I sent out those last long emails asking for prayer. I'm sending this out in a hurry as blue and pale grey criss-cross the sky, face sunburned from cherry blossom viewing, Heidi playing the guitar nearby, the apartment smelling of freshly baked cookies.

The two of us are getting ready to go to our Christian friend Takako's apartment for an evangelistic tea party (and we've been asked to sing! Who needs prayer most - us or them??!) :) Takako is unusual in her boldness for Christ. It's so hard for Japanese Christians just to go about their lives here - being accused of not being Japanese, being associated with cults and subway gas attacks, not praying to traditional family altars - but to be outwardly evangelistic? God has truly given Takako "power, love and a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7) rather than a "spirit of fear."

But before that, I'm meeting IMB photographer Matt Jones, who has been here since last Wednesday snapping photos for a Commission magazine article. It's been so much fun - opening a huge box stuffed with great stuff from my best friends in Richmond, hearing news from my co-workers and those I love, running through Sapporo trying to meet friends, walk through parks full of pink and white cherry blossoms, inviting neighbors over for pizza, eating ramen. Matt will be here until next Wednesday, so we still have a few more days of work/fun/adventure. Wonder if I can get him to eat sushi... :)

One last quick thought - remember the ESS club with two members? Well, it seems that 55-year-old Shinobu recruited SEVEN of her classmates to come last Thursday night - leaving me staring at NINE young people sitting happily around the table!

On the way to the bus... pray we don't miss it!

More sunshine...

Man, there is nothing like a brilliant blue sky full of sun to start the day off right! I feel alive again, invigorated, ready to run into the fresh spring air and throw my arms up to the sky in gratitude.

The good news just keeps coming...

Last night I went to a Hawaiian gospel concert with my friend Aki, who I meet every week at her home. Besides the shock of meeting a pile of Christian friends there, Aki and I stopped for doughnuts :) on the way home. As we ate and talked, I felt the prodding to ask her about her beliefs - I did; she answered. For the first time since I've known her we had an amazingly open spiritual conversation about her beliefs and how Jesus can change her life.

"I believe in God," she said. "But when my father was sick, I prayed to God every day, and he still died. And my parents are Buddhist."

I told her about Jesus and how He changed my life, how He answers prayers and opens the door to God.

And she listened!

The day before my two friends had come back to the apartment after seeing cherry blossoms all day - one Christian (Yuko) and one non-Christian (Natsuko). As we sat on pillows and rested, I showed them the unusual English I found (and bought) on my shirt: "The word of the Lord remains forever."

They both wanted to know where it was in the Bible, so I pulled out my English Bible and grabbed the Japanese Bible off the shelf. As we paged through Isaiah, Natsuko asked suddenly, "When did you decide to be baptized?"

So I told her my story... God's story... of how He loved me before I loved Him.

Today Matt and I will go to the Cookseys' house church, then to meet with an awesome, rowdy bunch of young people who have been going to English worship each week at Sapporo Baptist.

Thanks to my friends in Richmond, my Texas Pete hot sauce supply is well stocked, and I have an entire photo album of pictures to show the Katsuis when we meet for dinner tomorrow.

Our now SIX Christian youth outreach members are gearing up to meet Saturday to plan our first meeting.

The ground is pink outside with scattered petals.

Mike and some friends in Richmond are thinking about a possible mission trip to Sapporo in early fall.

Our team leaves for a retreat in Okinawa next week.

I speak in chapel at a Christian university next Friday - about HOPE.

I found an email from my beloved brother Dan in S.C. this morning that started, "Dear sister..."

The 16-year-old girl who lives next door is planning to come over Tuesday night to study the English Children's Bible (which she's been reading).

The sun, the sun - it's shining bright!

Please keep praying!

A package from home!

I'm still on cloud nine after getting that box! I have hardly been able to get to the computer for a second these last few days because of everything going on here - constantly gone, running around with Matt, on the phone trying to schedule new stuff. I wanted you to send these around or post them - pictures of opening the box. YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You all are amazing - I love you so much! No one in the world is as blessed as I am with friends like you!

FUN!!!

I've had some fun moments lately - check them out!!

Eating good old cherry pie with friends Dorothy (center), a teacher from Maine, and Christians Michio and Jerry (left and right) Halvorsen. Eat up!


ESS club - two students, one tomato, and a famous Japanese rock star. What more could I ask for?


A sort of "beware of fox" sign - found ONLY in Hokkaido!


Freshman orientation! (P.S. - Foreign women are an instant hit!)


Seeing my first cherry tree in Japan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


??? You tell me.


Momentary insanity in McDonald's.


Kimchi nabe - a beautifully delicious dish simmered in a hotpot and chock full of Korean kimchi cabbage, onions, meat, mushrooms, and all kinds of good stuff. It`s slightly spicy, filling, and most of all, feels wonderful when eaten inside on a cold day. The warmth just goes straight to your bones.


McDonald's again? Man, I must not be getting out enough...


...More to come! Stay tuned!

Pray! Pray! Pray!

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." - Is. 43:19.

Wow - so many new things are going on that I'm at a loss of how to put them all down. It seems like things have been cold and sluggish here for so long, and then all of a sudden, the sun is out and everything is happening at once. Thank God! I'm so excited I can hardly sleep at night!

New opportunities, new visions, new faces popping out at me every time I turn around. Thank You, God, for making a way in this desert, for doing a "new thing" in my life here!

I need your prayers so much as things are happening faster than I can keep up!

Will you pray with me for the following things:

* The Katsuis - I met with the Katsui family last Monday again, and when I walked in Mrs. Katsui had her sewing box out. "Jenny-san," she said with her usual bright enthusiasm, "I need to take your measurements. I'm making you a yukatta." (A yukatta is a loose-fitting robe-type thing Japanese sometimes wear when relaxing, similar to a kimono but made of cotton instead of silk. They're beautiful! And to have one hand-made?!) Mrs. Katsui and I studied John 3:16-17. When I went upstairs to teach Yui and Tochi, they both pulled out their fat children's Bibles and excitedly showed me how far they'd read (separately, individually) - WAY past our story of Jacob and Esau and into the life of Christ - about two-thirds of the way through the book! Pray that the stories will grip the children's hearts (I became a believer as a child) and that Mrs. Katsui will hunger after the word of God and UNDERSTAND what she reads! Pray for blessings to pour down on this family who has been so kind to me!

* English club - Tomorrow is my first day with the new group of English club students at a local secular university. The department head, Mr. Takeuchi, invited me back for another year of helping with the club (a great sign!). Pray that God will give the students and me good rapport and that we will build relationships for HIS kingdom. Pray for blessings on Mr. Takeuchi (who paid for us to go to a gospel concert last Christmas!)

* Aki - I meet with Aki each week, usually on Wednesday nights, and lately we have had less time to talk about personal things. In fact, last week a horrible TV special about mediums and contacting the dead was on, and her family watched with interest for TWO HOURS. When Aki and I dropped by her friend's house, she had THE SAME show on! We never did get to talk about life and anything important. Please pray for God to give us time to talk again, and for Aki to totally turn her life over to Him. I love her so much! Pray pray for this girl!

* Yuriko - In two hours I'm meeting my non-Christian friend Yuriko for coffee downtown. She was interested in coming to church at one time, but at the last minute she backed out and asked me not to invite her again. She refused the Bible I had for her. But we have maintained contact since last fall, and she wants to meet today. Please pray for Yuriko to open her heart to Him!

* Mariko - My good friend Mariko from my university days in North Carolina has shown an incredible interest in the Bible - asking to come to a Christmas service with me, taking all the Bibles and Japanese-language resources I gave her around Christmas. But since then she has not said a word about it, and she seems reluctant (or too busy?) to talk about it again. Pray that the seed will not fall on bad soil or be snatched away "by the cares of the world"! I love Mariko, and I pray she will come to know Christ soon!

More to come... please pray for His work to be done in me! I love you all and cannot do this without you!

in Christ,

jenny

Pray for the Katsuis!

On Monday evening as usual, I headed across town to the Katsuis' large grey house (still strung with white Christmas lights, which embarrasses teenager Yuuka!). I have been teaching seven-year-old Tochi and his friend Yui basic English using Japanese and English children's Bibles for several weeks, and to my amazement, Tochi is starting to read English words straight out of the children's Bible: "Day," he read two weeks ago. "God." "Animals."

But Mrs. Katsui, who breezes happily around the house in jeans and an apron, doesn't get much out of the children's lesson.

So I agreed to show up an hour early each week and teach only her - using some basic teaching materials and a Japanese-English Gideon Bible.

The last three weeks I've arrived to teach Mrs. Katsui she's ready - Bible, pens and paper set out, sliding door closed. We study some basic grammar first and then practice reading from the Bible - first in Japanese, then in English.

I showed her the gospels written by "Jesus' friends" (for lack of a better word), the letters written by Paul and early church workers, and the Old Testament books that tell about God and His promise to send Jesus. We read from Jesus' teachings in Matthew and Luke, looking up hard words like "anointed" and "accomplished" in her electronic dictionary.

Last week Yui and her mom arrived on schedule at five o'clock, and Mrs. Katsui welcomed them, sent them upstairs to the large dining room where we all study together, and promptly returned to finish our Bible discussion - for an entire THIRTY MINUTES OVERTIME!

Can this be happening? Is a Japanese person in MY life actually INTERESTED in the Bible??!

If that's not enough, I come away every Monday night with a smile - feeling, for one of the first times here, like part of a family again. Mrs. Katsui stopped treating me like a guest - hanging up my coat, bringing out all the obligatory snacks - and hugs me good-bye at the subway station.

(Tochi apparently thinks the same way, because he shocked me last Monday by dropping something from his plate onto mine).

Apparently miracles still DO happen - even here!

PLEASE PRAY:

* for Mrs. Katsui to have a deep hunger for the Bible, to read it even between our classes, and to see the truth as we study!
* for Tochi and Yui to learn the children's Bible and take it to heart; and
* for me to learn how to share the Bible with unbelievers (as I have not had a chance to do much here!)
* Please pray for the entire Katsui family to know Christ and THANK HIM for letting me see that He is at work!

With All My Heart...

I am sitting here at the computer still in my pajamas, my face wet with tears, trying to figure out how to say what is bursting in my heart. I came home late last night to find your package on the table and was shouting, jumping around before I realized it was almost 10 and I had two phone calls to make (one to a Japanese girl who is deciding today whether or not to move in with a 40-year-old man). It's been a rough time lately - being sick, having some "problems" with the Walkers related to my job description, not doing anything I came here to do and not seeing even a tiny piece of fruit... This morning I got up after being on the phone half the night, tired, frustrated, knowing I can't quit but not really wanting to be here, either... I was in my room praying, weeping, hen I remembered that I hadn't gotten to check out the video letter when I got in last night in all the turmoil (I'll probably hear back from my Japanese friend tonight or tomorrow).

So I came out and popped it in... And you will never, EVER, EVER, EVER know how much it meant to me! Just to see your faces and hear your prayers!! I'm crying again just thinking about it. The verses you used - oh, how could you have known that they were exactly what I needed to hear at this exact moment! You didn't - but God did! I don't think I've ever been in such a spiritual desert - and yet at noon today, a Sunday, God used you to send His manna.

I miss your faces so much, your words, your life, the unity we have together as God's children, the things we shared (and still share) together because God allowed our paths to cross...

There wasn't a minute during that video that my eyes were dry. I miss you all sooooo much! So much! I wish you knew. All I can say is how incredibly precious you all are, how much you've changed my life and guided me closer to the Father...

Oh, the treasures in heaven you have even if I can't give you much back here on earth!

I love you so much and am more moved by this than anything I can think of during my entire six months in Japan.

I wish all missionaries were as blessed as I am to have people like you in my life.

Thank you - along with all the things I can't find words to say!

jenny

He Remembers!

This Christmas was so much different here in Sapporo, with two feet of snow, dinner with a missionary family, seeing mail trucks come and go on Christmas Day. We had a feast at the Cookseys' house, and a couple days later I ate squid, beans and radishes as part of a New Year meal.

But you know what I missed the most?

I kept remembering our own secret family tradition of sitting around the table on Christmas Day eating all kinds of cheese, sausage, crackers, this incredible sweet-hot mustard - enough to give you a heart attack on the spot. But the heart attack never happened, so each year my family (first four of us, then three of us) watched Christmas movies and ate cheese together. Very festive. You'd have to be there.

But Christmas in Japan was different. Christmas Day came and went, then New Year's Day, and then the slump after New Year's when universities are closed and classes are finished. What to do...?

On a day like this I found a package slip with my name on it in the mailbox, and went to pick up the wrapped cardboard box from a snowy post office window.

Inside was a letter from my friend Mike, and - would you believe - six different kinds of cheese, a jar of strawberry preserves, and (I'm not making this up) a small jar labeled "sweet-hot mustard."

"My mom got these things in a Christmas package and didn't want them," Mike had written. "So I decided to send them to you since you probably don't get much cheese in Japan."

Oh, how He remembers...

Beautiful Things

It's late at night, after midnight, but I can't sleep until I write this last little note.

I saw three beautiful things today. The first two I saw as I walked down to a local mall to meet my friend Mariko, a friend from our college days in North Carolina. There was snow and ice on the sidewalks with a thin layer of fresh powder lying soft on top. My boots crunched like a whisper through the snow. I love winter.

I looked up, and there it was - a cobalt blue sky with white flakes whirling against it, so lovely it took my breath away.

Then as I turned the corner past a lonely schoolyard, I saw the moon. It was almost full, round and bright, ducking in and out of a swirl of thick, puffy clouds - deep stone grey, lined with fine, bright silver. The moon over snow. White over white. Snowfall at dusk. Has the color white ever been so beautiful?

And then, in the car after dinner with Mariko at her home (an unusual thing in Japan), she asked me suddenly, "Do you think you'll go to a Christmas service at your church?"

"Yes, I hope so," I replied.

"Good," she said. "Can I go, too? I mean, if it's not any trouble?"

I was dumbfounded but managed to answer a resounding yes! Yes! Yes!

There was more.

"I think about Buddhism and Christianity sometimes, and I'm a lot more comfortable with Christianity than Buddhism," she said as we passed by the same park, now black and grey, where I had seen the moon. "I feel so good when I do Christian things. But I want to know more before I make up my mind, because it's a really important decision. And," there was a pause as we turned the corner, "I'd really like to meet some Japanese Christians. I've never met Japanese Christians before. Maybe I could meet some if I go to church with you at Christmas, and then I could see how they do things."

We were at the apartment now, and I was shaking with excitement. I could feel my face getting red with joy in the dark of the car.

"Do you have a Japanese Bible?" I asked her.

"Yes," she said, with another pause. "But I don't really understand it."

"I have some Japanese and English Bibles and some Bibles in Manga," I told her. "And the Jesus film. Would you like to see any of those?"

"Oh, yes," she said, with more enthusiasm than politeness. "Maybe they will help me understand better."

It's after midnight now. There is no more blue left in the sky, and the moon is gone. But I have just witnessed, in one evening, more beauty than one small heart can hold.

*Please pray for Mariko, who is so earnestly searching for the truth. She is so pretty and so lonely, wondering what to do with the rest of her life. God brought her all the way to North Carolina to hear the gospel, and now He has caused our paths to cross again. What an amazing Father we have... Oh, please pray that Mariko would soon find that He is her Father, too! Pray that she will open her heart to God and experience more beauty in His presence than in a thousand moons over snow.

Friends in Amagi

Heidi, all ready to go before the long trip to Amagi - by plane, train, and car.


Traveling together with the Cookseys, our fellow missionaries, and their five children is alawys fun. The kids draw lots of attention in the airports with their blue eyes and light-colored hair, and even the most serious Japanese businessman will stop and crack a smile. We play games with the kids, draw pictures, hold hands along busy subway lines, and make it to Amagi tired but happy.


Kathy, the mother of a missionary family in Sapporo - my co-worker and friend, on the way to Amagi. We ate honey toast in a little shop in the airport en route to Tokyo.


Naomi and the gorgeous fall leaves in Amagi.


A missionary couple in southern Japan. He plays a unique Okinawan instrument in a band and knows some college students in my city who used to go to his church... Pray for possible connections here! You know how much I love college students! P.S. - isn't the sink great?


This is the owner of the shop whose wife gave us roses in Amagi. You can see the owner and his dad(?) in the middle, his wife and little girl to the left. You can also see Heidi in the back, plus other journeymen. Naomi, a Japanese Christian from Tokyo Baptist Church, is in the front to the right. She was one of the people I interviewed several weeks ago in Tokyo for an article about the IOJ (Internationalized and Overseas Japanese) team.


The journeyman of Japan gathered around the dinner table in the conference room, all with our roses from the gift shop.


Our treat on the way back through Tokyo - Wendy's!!! I had a cheeseburger, Wendy's fries (with ketchup and napkins) and, of course, a Frosty. What could be better?