Eric shared in our prayer requests that the church plant we’ve been attending, in the next town over from ours, has just rented a building after meeting in a home for the last six years. How exciting is that?!?! It has been thrilling this last month and a half as the members of this body have seen years of prayers and hope and waiting on God’s timing come to fruition.
While it has been awesome to worship together in the Tomita’s home, in recent months there have been some space issues. Also, as a cultural thing, Japanese are not as comfortable coming into a stranger’s home as they are to a meeting place. So, we are hoping this will be a more comfortable location for seekers and friends/family of church members to come.
In the last several weeks there has been a buzz of excitement among Christ’s body in Toke. Members have stayed for hours after worship to talk and plan and pray together. People have met to pray at the new building, and work on it, or plan for new ministries. It is an exciting time for these faithful saints, who are the only church in this town of 15,000 people. I am so excited as we physically move to a new building, and also, I pray, move closer to Christ and further out in reaching the people of Toke for his kingdom.
I am particularly excited to partner with two other dear women in this body to start a moms and kids’ club. As a stay-at-home mom myself I know how important it is to get out of the house to be with other moms, and for my kids to be with other kids. I am praying that this group, which will meet twice a month at first, will become a community for moms and place to talk deeply about the joys and struggles of parenting. I pray that there will be many opportunities to share with these women the great hope for them and their families found in Christ. I pray that as they come for a big ‘ol play day, they will leave having seen Christ.
Would you praise the Lord with us for this great blessing of a new place of worship and work? Would you also pray with us for His Word to go out from this place into the homes and lives of the lost? Pray that his people would continue to trust God to lead, guide, and provide for this church? Pray for the many new programs and ministries that are starting now with a new place, that many would step foot into Toke Chapel and encounter Christ (most for the first time in their lives!). Pray for our first Moms and Kids’ on the 25th of this month. I will post a little bit more about this later
Thank you for your prayers and, through them, your very real partnership in the Gospel here in Japan.
First worship service at Toke Chapel on November 2, 2008
We had a fabulous evening on Saturday night with three families from the house-church we attend in the neighboring town of Toke. We have loved getting to know these saints, and praise God for their friendship and fellowship, and their welcoming our family into that community of believers.
This is during family worship after dinner: 
And here are Noa and Noa. 
Noa Nagata was born when I was in highschool and even then, I loved the name “Noa” for a little girl. It is so fun for our Noa to enjoy time with “big sister Noa” and her two other sisters, Mana and Mikuni, and her little brother Yoshiya.
And here’s the whole group! 
Please pray that the Lord would bless the efforts to begin a weekly worship service in the town of Toke. Please pray that He would provide a place to meet and that he would draw many to himself from that town.
In the left of the photo, you will notice our newest teammate and housemate, Andrew. We are thrilled that God brought Andrew to Japan in time for the new school year. He teaches with Eric at CCSI and has been an incredible blessing, even in his first week here. Andrew is living with us for one more week until Eric comes to the States, then he will move in with the Stewart family permanately. We have loved having him here and so enjoyed getting to know him better. Noa has double the excitement when Daddy comes home from work, because Andrew comes too! We are excited for a lot more time together in the coming year.
Today is our one year anniversary of moving to Japan. We are so thankful for all God has brought us through, and all he has added to our lives here in Japan including, but not limited to:
~the addition to our family of sweet Martha Evangeline
~so many new, wonderful friends
~a new appreciation for other cultures and people, even ones so different from our own
~new depth and growth in our marriage
~learning about new and wonderful and difficult ways to trust the Lord
~the great joy of seeing God build His church up close and on personal levels
He has been so good and we are so thankful that He has us right here, right now.
I have so much I want to write, but it is just too late and I am just too tired. I hope to post soon, though, about some fun things going on, including:
~ Noa, our little jabber-mouth. She is talking SO MUCH!
~Andrew, a new volunteer on the team is living with us for 2 weeks and we are really enjoying him. We’re excited that he and Eric will be working together a lot this coming year.
~The new school year starts on Tuesday! Eric is in the thick of preparation for his new class of TEN students in THREE different grades! It’s going to be a great year!
~Martha’s wedding in a few weeks!!!! the girls and I will leave in only ONE WEEK for the States with my mom and siblings. Eric and my dad will follow closer to the wedding. SO EXCITING!
~Cloth diapering, my new endeavor. I have prayed and researched this a lot and am getting very excited to get started once we pick up our supplies in America.
~Martha, very soon to be a WHOLE HALF YEAR old, is simply delightful.
and I know there’s lots more too. for now, I am off to bed and will just leave you with some photos of our crazy cuties…
We had a fabulous day at the beach yesterday with several friends who are students at Chiba University. Isaac and Eric had been planning to take several guys surfing, and it worked out well for the families to join them. While taking small children to the beach isn’t easy per se, it was fun and a great chance to be together.
Yuya’s surf school:
orange smiles:
taking a break from surfing and entertaining the little girls:
All the little girls enjoyed having all the big guys to take them in the water to brave the waves and fight the undertow. Noa with her daddy:
Annabella with Tsuguru:
We had a great spot with beautiful surroundings and good waves for beginner surfers. The weather was wonderful, with a lot of cloud cover and a nice breeze to cool us off. The biggest problem for me was that the sand was black and hot and really fine. I still haven’t gotten it all out of Noa’s swim suit. 
Everyone decided to dig a hole to bury someone. Eric lost in “jan-ken-poi” (rock, paper, scissors) so he had to be burried. 
Noa thought it was great!
a kiss for the buried man:
group picture, minus babies Calvin and Martha, Sarah and Sara-Beth, and the rest of Eric’s body
friends
Sweet Martha spent most of her day under the umbrella in her sand-free seat. She did better than I expected, sleeping well and entertaining herself with her toys and looking around. We did dip her feet in the water a bit and she managed to get a little wet and sandy while being held a few times. She did great, though, and was such a trooper.
surfer girl!
it was a long hike from where we had to park the car to where we set up. I was proud of Noa for walking the whole way back. She is really growing up!
You may notice in some of the pictures that one of the guys’ head is bandaged. Early in the day he had an accident with the surf board that led to he and Eric leaving for a few hours to find a clinic and get him checked out. Thankfully, he is fine and it wasn’t serious. Eric and he had a great time in those several hours one-on-one and were able to talk deeply about Jesus and the Gospel. We’re so thankful for God’s orchestration of the day. He protected us and allowed for us to enjoy Him in our fun and fellowship. I pray that the young men who joined us also saw Him, and are drawn into relationship with Him very soon. Would you pray with us for them?
Over a month ago, Eric and I were asked to be the speakers for “J’s Café”, a monthly evangelistic meeting in Toke, the town where we are involved in a church plant. It meets in the Tomita’s home (the same place where we meet for church) and it usually consists of local housewives (it’s always on Monday mornings), both Christian and non-Christian. Over a week ago, we started talking about what to share for that hour and a half period and were encouraged by some of the ladies to share our testimonies, including accounts of our childhoods, dating, marriage, and now, parenting. We worked a little bit together on it, and more separately over the last week and by Sunday were pretty certain of what we would share. I still felt we needed to go over it together, and most of all, spend some time in prayer together over it. Well, Sunday night was difficult, to say the least. Noa had a terribly high fever and there were a few times in the night that we wondered if we should take her to the emergency room, for her trouble with breathing. Come Monday morning, we were feeling worn out and very unprepared for J’s Café, and even wondering if we should go. We finally decided that I needed to get Noa to the doctor, my mom could come and watch Martha, as she had planned to watch both girls for us, and Eric would go alone and share as best he could with our combined notes. As I rushed out the door with Noa and left him with a fussy Martha waiting for my mom, I really felt sick to my stomach. I felt bad for leaving him to do this alone, I felt sorry that we hadn’t prepared better, I felt sad for our sick girls, and, honestly, I was feeling anxious about what these women would think of us as Eric shared our story. Every time I thought of him throughout the morning I prayed for him and begged God to be the one who gave him the words and wisdom and that it would be God’s work, because I knew Eric was exhausted and anxious.
Well, let me just tell you that our God is great, and He delights to use weak vessels to show forth that greatness. I don’t know why I doubt, or why my faith is so small after seeing Him do it time and again, but I guess He is glorified even in me being reminded again and again. Eric came home after spending an extra hour talking and answering questions with the women. He told me and my mom that it had gone better than expected, and that it was totally the Lord, as he had even seen his own sin and struggle as he shared. It’s also been amazing to me to hear from 4 of the women that were there who said just how wonderful it was to hear Eric humbly tell of God’s work in so many areas of our life. Each of them shared that they saw Jesus, not just Eric, and it was good for the hearts of both the Christians and non-Christians who were there. Wow! As I have thought of that today, I can’t help but praise God. Only He could have done that. We say all the time that it is HIS work, not ours, that changes lives. But I think, say, if we had felt good about our preparations and had a good night’s sleep and could leave two happy, healthy babies in my mom’s care to go and do this and it went well, we would have been very tempted to feel like super missionaries with the perfect words and stories to use to move people’s hearts. It would have been easy to, at least in our hearts, steal the glory from God. Instead, He chose to work in a very weak time for us, and make it clear that it was HIS work. It was HIS work in our lives up until this point that Eric was able to share with those women. And it was HIS work that even allowed Eric to be there to share with them at all and that gave him the words to say to them. Praise God!
As I have mulled over these thoughts this afternoon, this reminder has been particularly encouraging to my heart. Today Eric and I celebrate our 3rd anniversary. We won’t do anything glamorous with the girls being sick and us being so tired. But we will have a chance to get out together alone (my mom will come brave the germ-infestation to comfort and care for her grandbabies) and I pray it will be a time of celebrating HIS work in our lives through our marriage. Because, you see, my marriage is probably the biggest area of my life where I see that it is God, not me, who works. Because this setting is the one where I see my sin most, I see my selfishness the most, I see my utter need for a Savior, who not only saves me from my sins but promises to work in me to make me more like Himself. This setting is where I learn of God’s unconditional love for me the most. This is where the person who knows me best, who sees my failures and sin the most, who is most affected by those failures and sins, still chooses, by God’s grace, to love me. Of course he can’t love perfectly, but his love serves to give me a glimpse of the love of my Savior for me, who chose to love His Bride in the most painful and sacrificial way – giving His life.
So today I am celebrating this: the love of God that is so vast that it not only saves us, but changes us and can work in and through us to bring God glory. How I pray that even on the most discouraging days – especially the most discouraging days – when I am weak, unable to be the wife, mother, missionary, friend, daughter, person that I should be; that in those times – and all times – I could be as a puppet, moved completely by that love. And that God would get all the glory for that!
*here is a photo that Mrs. Tomita e-mailed us from when Eric was sharing.
Continue reading about weak and weary vessels; One Great God!
We are really thankful that the Lord has brought several students into our lives who are not only interested in English, but also in learning about the Bible and Christianity with us. On Thursday evening we had our second life group, a monthly dinner/fellowship/Bible study that we are having in our home. It was neat because, while we had expected 5 students to join us, 3 ended up getting stuck at the library with end-of-the-term projects, and so only 2 actually came. God really had his hand in it, though, because we saw how the smaller, close atmosphere really allowed for everyone to get to know eachother better, as well as participate in the study more. The topic this time was forgiveness. I, personally, was struck with how eager “K” and “S” were to make sure they understood what Eric was saying, sometimes interrupting in order to make sure they understand correctly. I also noticed that both were interested in not just hearing the Bible passages that Eric refered to but in finding them and reading along in the Bibles we lent them. That, especially encouraged me to remember God’s promises about His WORD, that it will not return void, that it is powerful in the human heart. I confess that often when we talk about the Bible with non-believers, especially here in Japan, I have fear of it being so terribly foreign to them that everything read will just go over their heads. My tendency is to feel that we need to have a perfect, easy explanation for everything that we share from the Bible, honestly, often believing that it is our words, not the Lord’s, that will resonate in hearts. God was so gracious to remind me through our time on Thursday night (1) that He is the One who works in hearts and, while he chooses to use people, it is still HIS Word and HIS work; and (2) that it takes the pressure off of us to have “the right words to say” or “the perfect explanation. It is haughty of me to think that I have that much power and it is merciful of God to not place the responsiblity of changing hearts on me.
Would you pray with us for these two students who, I think, for the first time heard about forgiveness from God’s Word? Pray that the work of God that changes hearts would show them their need for His forgiveness. Pray also for our family and the Uchida’s (the Japanes staff family who we are doing this with), that God would lead our planning and preparation for these times, and give wisdom about timing and topics for studies. Please pray that the Lord would bring other students (who came the first time) back and maybe draw other students to these times as well. Also, would you pray overall for the college ministry that is going on here with our team in Chiba? I have shared with you before about the difficulties of this particular ministry. God has been good to bring more full-time missionaries to work in this ministry, as well as providing great opportunities to meet and get to know students. He is leading and giving vision for this ministry, which is exactly what we have prayed for. It is still hard, though, and as Isaac (a fellow-missionary) said to me yesterday, if feels like it could crumble any moment. Only God working in our own and hearts and the hearts of the Japanese students will bring any fruit. So please pray with us for God to be glorified and for many to come to know Him through his Word and work with college students here. Thanks!