Hello from chilly Shimonoseki, Japan. I’ve (Marcy) heard from many of you that you want to hear more (and more often) about life here on the field. So this is the first installment of a monthly email that will supplement our quarterly newsletters.
As January 2008 draws to a close, God is opening new doors of ministry opportunity for us and we need your prayer.
We have new neighbors! A new family moved in two weeks ago. They have two young sons around Sam and Sean’s ages. They speak a little English and told us that they want to learn more. We smiled and said the same about Japanese. We’ve dropped off a loaf of homemade bread to them and will invite them over in the next week or so. Please pray for this new relationship.
Along with our home church, Grace Fellowship, we have been working on ideas for our future ministry in Japan. Please continue to pray with us for the Lord’s clear leading and direction.
We want to thank all of you who sent cards, emails and packages for Christmas. We were completely overwhelmed by your outpouring of love and support.
The children are all doing very well. Sarah (5) is too smart for her old folks; she loves home school and her Japanese classes. Sam (3) is growing like a weed and is enjoying his “coolwork” (school work in “Sam-ese”) too. He enjoys listening to the books we read for Sarah’s lessons and has his own “workbooks” when she does writing/math. He feels like quite the big boy now. Sean (1….boy did that 1st year fly by) is running circles around us all. I guess that’s what happens when a boy starts walking at 9 ½ months. He’s not talking a whole lot yet, but he’s picking up a little Japanese here and there. He loves to play peek-a-boo in English and in Japanese (“e-na-e e-na-e….ba!”).
David and I are seeing some progress in our Japanese. Our teacher, Megumi Matsue, is extremely kind and very generous with her time. We will go with Megumi to a large shrine nearby in the coming months to learn more about Japanese culture. We’ve read lots on Shinto and have visited many shrines, but this will be the first time we’ll get the background from a native Japanese. We’ll be sure to take lots of pictures to pass along to you.
We pray that you are doing well and always love hearing from you and how we can be praying for you.
