April 1, BUT TRUE!

Packages of Heart-and-Tummy Fillers--THANK YOU!

Since we left Koriyama, so much has happened.

Kinya, Raymond, and I are staying at my daughter Emily's apartment. Bethel Baptist Church--the church of which she is a member--had a special "Good Samaritan Fund" to use for times like this, so they are taking care of much of our living this way. Of course, there have been concerned inquiries by e-mail from relatives and friends about our safety; and some of them sent along packages of food and goods to use during emergencies. God's provision, as always, has been "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think".

"Christmas", 2011!

A huge blessing came this week--Wednesday and Thursday--when Ron and Janice Allen (and their daughter Jenn) visited. My sister Joyce (I did mention, didn't I, that my daughter Emily's apartment is just above my sister Joyce's?) Anyway, Joyce and I went down to Tokyo to see them and spent a day sightseeing; and they came up to Iwatsuki to see the church and Bible School the second day. Ron and Janice were in school the same time my sisters and I were...almost thirty years ago? Little did we dream then that someday we would be seeing each other on the mission field!

It felt like we had an early Christmas when they showed us what they had brought from the U.S., including a hymnal and CD I have been wanting for a long time (I am listening to the CD even as I compose this post).

But the afternoon of the second day, God has prepared another surprise I could not have imagined. To make a long story short, my son will be attending Iwatsuki Commercial High School about 10-15 minutes away by bicycle starting next week. I thought I would have to talk with the school's head teacher and somehow persuade him to consider accepting my son for the following school year...but God had gone ahead of me, clearing the path...it's too long a story to go into.

pic: back of brochure for high school

with friends (Emily in back in brown jacket)

Right now, my daughter Emily is visiting a friend down in Yokohama--she had been in Australia when the quake hit, so when she came back, her family told her, as Emily had been told, not to come home (Koriyama, where we used to live), but to go to a relative's in Yokohama.

One of the first responses Emily gave me over the phone after the earthquake was that her high school friends--volleyball teammates--had not yet accepted Christ and couldn't die yet. We prayed she might be given one more chance to give them the Gospel. It looks like she's being given that "at least one more time".  Please pray for the Holy Spirit's illumination as she talks.

What a thrilling privilege it is to be carried through life on the Arms of a Loving, Sovereign God!