Christ Has Risen! He Has Risen Indeed!  Happy Easter or イースターおめでとうございます!

Today I was able to go with two language school friends and venture to the new Costco in Kyoto. For us Costco is a 2.5 hour+ drive with very expensive tolls, around $100 round trip. (My friends and I also did some sightseeing, which I will post in a separate posting.)

Costco is really “little America” and it is such a blessing to find cheese, turkey, and other items we just can’t buy elsewhere.  The prices are around 50% off regular grocery stores so worth the quarterly trip!

The surprising observation is how little the Japanese buy.  The store was PACKED yet the Japanese would leave with maybe 5-6 items at max.  When eating pizza it was easy to spot my cart in the sea of carts.  The checkout ladies who were loading my cart kept apologizing because they struggled to make it all fit.  I just smiled and enjoyed feeling very American!

Ultra Windy Day

Unlimited Soda...unheard of in Japan!!!

When Leaving the Receipt Checker told me I was a "Good Customer!"

Real Pizza!!!

This week we finished our 4th quarter in language school!! At the end of every quarter the class goes out to eat together. This time our classes went to Okinomiyaki. There really is no food in America to compare it too. The mixture is made up of meat and veggies within a pancake like batter. There is a grill at the center of the table where you cook the mixture and after 3 minutes flip the ingredients like a pancake. The video below shows me trying to flip my okinomiyaki. I wasn’t too successful.

We now have two weeks of Spring Break ahead of us. This week we are going to Nagoya twice to visit with our team and the seminary team. We are exploring different areas where we might church plant next year. Cathalain also has had the opportunity to arrange a couple get togethers with ladies from our church. We are grateful for a change up in schedule and excited to hang out with some new friends. Pray this will be a relaxing two weeks and pray as we independently review areas where we are still weak in our language ability!

On the mission field it is important to celebrate the smallest of victories. Sometimes these victories can be practical daily living matters like ordering at the drive thru for the first time. In our case this month we both passed our driver’s license test.

This might sound like a silly thing to be excited about, but in all reality in Japan this is a huge triumph. The process is quite bureaucratic and the last part, an actual behind the wheel driving test, normally stumps foreigners. Some of our friends have taken the test 13 times! The average seems to be foreigners at least having to take the test 3 times.

Taking some advice from friends we tried a new location known to be a little less strict, paid for (2) 50 minute behind the wheel practice sessions, and read up on tips of how to pass on the first time. Truly we believe God was gracious and miraculously we both passed on the first attempt. Barely, but a pass is a pass! This is very helpful for us since our international licenses were about to expire and we would no longer been able to drive.

After we passed we celebrated by dinner out and bought the magnet we have to keep on our car warning people we are a first year driver. A great magnet for us!

We were really blessed by a trip from Michael this past week.  Michael and Michael, they share a first name, were roommates in Chiba as MTW interns.  Michael S. married a Japanese gal and the family tries to visit Japan once a year.  He was able to sneak down to Okazaki for a night this week.  It was a great time of catching up and fellowship.  Below you’ll see a present day picture and one from 6 years ago.

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours! We have many things to praise and thank the Lord for as we reflect upon this last year. We are especially thankful this year for the many family and friends who partner with us as we proclaim Christ to the Japanese. Thank you!

Every summer towns all over Japan celebrate with spectacular fireworks displays. Our town is especially know for their 2 hour fireworks show. Over 500,000 people were estimated to attend this year. (Our town has a population of around 400,000.) We went with a Japanese family and thankfully they had the opportunity to join a party at the Sport’s Club where their kids belong. This means we had the best view in the house because we up at least four stories high. The show was fantastic and so was our time of fellowship.

Before the show we were able to walk to the castle in our town. Unfortunately it was closed due to the festival, but we took a few pictures along the way. It was very HOT and HUMID. Reminds us of home! In some of the pictures you can see the women and men dressed in their summer Yukata, or Japanese traditional wear. Our friend told us the design is from Europe though and no longer the Japanese designs.

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Monday thru Friday our family heads off to language school. The school we attend is quite rigorous and excellent. We are grateful for the challenge and feel like we are learning more and more Japanese every day. We celebrate the small steps and pray as we see how far we still have to go.

Last week one of the students, who was 16, had to return to her home country. We decided to have a party during lunch. We had an international potluck. (There are 11 students in my class from 5 different countries.) We all thought it would be “so-so” but our class pulled together for an AWESOME party!

We are not sure if the most recent earthquake which happened approximately 3 hours ago will make American news channels, but we wanted to send a quick update in case you do wake up to the news.

There was a 7.1 aftershock/earthquake that hit Northern Japan Saturday night (EST). Originally they anticipated a tsunami of 1 meter but from what we have heard/read there were only very small waves. We did not physically feel the quake in Okazaki and from reports everyone from the Nagoya team is okay. We personally have not heard from the Tokyo MTW team, but usually no news is good news.

Thank you for your continual prays. Please continue to pray for Japan and the hearts of the many Japanese affected by these scary aftershocks. Many of the moms at church expressed great fear to Cathalain as they talked about the most recent quake. Please pray these will be inroads to share the Gospel with so many questioning life right now.

“Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant.” – Psalm 119:76

On Tuesday we met a Japanese friend in Nagoya who took us to see firsthand where Christians were tortured and persecuted. You won’t find this “attraction” in any English tourbook but our friend knew of the temple because her Jr. High class toured the museum. Not only had she toured the Buddhist temple, but this was her family’s place of worship. She is now a Christian and amazed how even early in her life God was exposing her to the Christian faith although her family was worshipping Buddha.

The best way to show you the temple is through the pictures.

This is the entrance to the Buddhist Temple.

Outside the temple was a sign in Japanese and English explaining the historical occurrence of the persecution of Christians.

This sign was put up throughout the town to announce Christianity was banned.

This is the box Christians were told to step on to renounce their faith. Otherwise they were tortured and killed. At least 200 in this location refused and died martyrs.

This is inside the Buddhist Temple today.

We can’t remember exactly what this marker was, but it is placed in the cemetery where many of the Christians were executed. We think it is in remembrance of the Christians.

This is the sign in the park next to the temple where criminals and Christians were killed. The dead bodies were often used for scientific experiments.