September 2012 Newsletter

                                                                         

Jesus used this parable to teach the hypocritical and self righteous Pharisees (verse 2) the value God places on each person’s soul and need for salvation.  To a shepherd, each sheep is important.  Even though this man still had 99 sheep, he went looking for the one that was lost.  In verse seven Jesus interprets this parable: Lu 15:7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.  So it behooves us to take the same attitude as our dear Saviour.  Yes, we need to rejoice in, care for and enjoy the fellowship of the 99 who are safely in the fold of the local church.  But there are those who are not saved yet.  There are those who have left that need to be brought back.  There are no lost causes in God’s mind.  May we have our Lord’s mind in this, too.  Let us seek the Lost!

  Fall is here and in beautiful colors…somewhere! But we are thankful for the seasons that help us also remember our God is in control!  And we are having a beautiful fall. We can still be outside and it has allowed Ken the opportunity to get all the winterizing done that needs to be completed. The men finally came to discuss the final process of getting the roof back on our carport/veranda.  We are thankful for their willingness to work with his designs and ideas while at the same time giving their own advice. The long and short of it—we will need to just temporarily fix something over the walkway to the house where the snow will come off the roof. Then next spring they will come in and finish the new roof design. There isn’t enough time on their list of things (from other places as well) to get it all done right before snow falls. God knows and we will work with the plan.

  Hitomi Tsuzuki came through her knee surgery well and is still in the hospital with daily rehabilitation.  It will probably be a month long stay and that’s just the way it is here in Japan. Her parents live an hour from the hospital so eventually she will continue rehab by commute from there but they wanted her to be doing it daily right now until she gets to walking with some ease again. We made the 5 hr. trip to see her the day after the surgery. As a result of her father coming here to Teshio to pick her up and her mother being at the hospital when we went, we have now met both parents and we trust that opens doors to making the decision to openly ask Christ to be her Saviour. We know family ties have held her in place—they are an extremely close family.  We also pray it opens doors with her parents and they have more peace about who their daughter is associating with.  We have to make an official business trip to the same city in October (18^th) so will try to see her again, then.  We are in constant contact with her via email to her cell phone.

  Vicki took a 3-day trip with a long time friend of the ladies chorus Vicki is president for.  This is always an opportunity for more witnessing and she also enjoys the area of Hokkaido she gets to see for the first time with these travels. The fall colors weren’t quite in bloom yet but still enjoyed some hiking in a forest with falls, a wood arts craft place and beautiful scenery as they drove.  Mrs. Kuwata comes to our Christmas program every year and allows Vicki to pray out loud for safety, etc when they are together. Her heart, though, seems to get more closed to even the ‘need’ for change in her life. She has always been healthy and happy so figures her gods are good enough. We know God can still show her the way and pray that we will be sensitive to that opportunity when it comes.

  Masataka Moriyama (age 30) has still been coming on Sundays he doesn’t to work.  We trust this will continue.  We are not sure how much he understands of the preaching yet but glad that we can leave that need to the Holy Spirit. In time, we can ask more questions of what is going on in his mind.

  Ken has to have a laser endoscopic surgery for some small kidney stones that have made it to the bladder but are too big to be passed otherwise.  This was just discovered and is not a situation to leave for possible further complications. There will be a few day (3-5) hospitalization attached beings we live so far away.  It will take place the last of October or first part of November. Thank you for praying that they can get the stones small enough to pass.  He is looking forward to this next round of hospitalization evangelism!!

Prayer Requests:

1.       Families of believers to be saved

2.       Baptism of believers

3.  Health of Mrs. Sonoda-she never knows if she is going to have a hard day or calm day—dizziness; discomfort

4.       Bible study with Miss Tsuzuki; healing of her knee

5.       New inroads to be found into people’s lives and hearts

6.       Yen/dollar values

7.       Ken’s surgery and passing of stones; witnessing opportunities

8.       Wisdom as we begin preparing for Christmas program evangelism

Just APrayer At Night – Your evening is our daytime!