Yesterday was a full, wonderful, bittersweet day.  It contained two farewell events…. the first was from our church Sanda Chapel.  I didn’t get a group photo on my camera, but I’ve been promised one! Here is a photo of our group who helped to start our house church seven years ago or so.  Megumi M. (top left) and her family will be moving to Tokyo this month, so there are a lot of sad farewells.

My favorite moment from the afternoon was when Hiroshi F., the oldest member of the church, came over and grabbed Eric’s hand.  He held it hard and long, and started crying.  When he could speak, he said, “Your smile healed me.  No really – God used your smile to heal me.”

We then went to a different community center on the edge of town for a farewell completely planned by our community. We were told where and when to show up, but not much else.  Our hearts were filled to overflowing as we watched so many people who we love pour into the room, bringing potluck food and posting lots of fun photos all over the walls.

Many thanks to our friend Naoko, who coordinated the whole event.  While friends from our church set up the party initially, it was planned and attended by friends from our english classes, neighbors, schools… even our pediatrician!

 Two of our friends planned an elaborate game that tested first the kids, and then the adults, on how much they knew about the Takamoto family.  It was a little tricky to get our kids not to give away the answers.  But they didn’t guess the last question… Eric and I were asked whether or not we’ve ever had a really huge fight.  Those who thought yes had to go to one side of the room, and those who thought no went to the other side.  We were then asked to give the answer, and when we went to both give it, we gave contrary answers… I said yes, and Eric said no.  So we discussed it a little, and Eric insisted we never had.  I started giving him details of a big fight several years ago.  He didn’t want me to go into it, and then he threw down a towel he was holding and stormed out of the room!  At that point our two friends picked up the towel and held it up – it said that it was a joke!  (Unfortunately, though, we didn’t clear it up with Owen- he thought it was a real fight until today!)

 On the last quiz answer, our friend Mrs. I. won, and was asked to share.

One of the sweetest times was when our children’s piano teacher led the children in a song that they had all practiced.  Owen played the drums, and the kids all sang with their hearts.

 We forgot to take any group photos until after a number of families had left… but it was still so amazing to see Eric with the men (and boys)… and to realize what a privilege it has been for Eric to have so many special guy friends in a country that doesn’t promote male friendships.

So many great friendships at different ages….

 Then we took a photo of the ladies – with Eric getting to be at the center of that one! – and I am so glad that I didn’t have to see each face while we took the photo or I would have lost all my makeup.

 Eric and I were each asked to share some words before everything ended.  I made it through, not without my voice breaking and being handed the tissue box.  But I shared about a book I had read in college that had one line that I always remembered… that adding a real friendship to our lives is like adding a room to our home.  Each room is special and unique, and reflects the character of those two people.  Each room is irreplaceable.  Our friends in the room all knew that we have been looking for a larger rental home the past four years, but haven’t found one.  And I shared that we are glad we didn’t – it would have made this move to Ishinomaki harder.  But I also said that we didn’t need a larger home, because instead — God has given us a mansion (yashiki in Japanese). With each special friendship in the room, God has given our family the most amazing home in Sanda.  And even though we are are twelve hours away, we still have our Sanda home, because those friendships will remain…

Look at these faces.  Look at the amazing mansion that God has so graciously built for us the last eight years….

We really didn’t know what to expect, but came home so proud of our kids, thankful for some sweet friendships, and marveling at such an amazing wedding!  Our dear friend Hide got married today… His whole family has been special to us during our eight years in Sanda.  We got to know his mom Yayoi first when she was our post office delivery lady and brought us a series of packages, and it didn’t take long before our families were barbecuing and hanging out together and the three boys studying English with us.  Several friends from the U.S. had great home stays with their family.  And Eric climbed Mt. Fuji with their oldest son!

So it was a huge honor when they invited not just Eric and me, but all four of our children as well (mostly never done in Japan- weddings are usually just for adults).  And Owen was asked to be the veil-carrier with Hide’s nephew, and Annie and Olivia to be flower girls.  We were only allowed to take photos during the rehearsal.  They both looked great!

Western-style weddings have become quite popular in Japan- many of our missionary friends help subsidize their income by doing wedding ceremonies.  Hide’s wedding also had an American pastor overseeing the ceremony.  We loved singing “What a Friend we have in Jesus”… there were only about three of us in the ceremony singing but Eric and I belted it out.

And look what Ian was doing during the rehearsal:

The kids clean up nice, don’t they? We were thankful for the friends who lent us some of the components’ of the boys’ outfits….We had found the dresses at Ross’s in Hawaii in January.   You never really know how kids will be when it comes down to the pressure of lots of people watching you (and not really knowing what you are supposed to do) – but they all did a great job, smiled a lot, and I think made Hide and his family happy.

They certainly made us happy!

The reception was so wonderful!  At Japanese weddings, the bride usually makes one or two dress changes, coming out at some point in an evening gown.  We loved that the first change honored their career path — they are both Osaka police officers.

Hide this past year has been going up to the Tohoku region with other police forces to look for body remains.  We blogged previously about  when he came to our home to debrief the horrors that he wasn’t able to talk about with others.  We are proud of both of them and the challenging jobs they do.  Hide’s dad and brother are cops, as well, so he is carrying on a proud tradition.  At one point the bride and groom went around and lit candles held by guests with guns that were lighters.

One of the fun things they did was to throw out a few plastic bananas into the audience.  One of Hide’s friends caught one, and gave it to Olivia.  She was thrilled!

Even more so than other weddings we have attended in Japan, we came home laden with gifts that the bride and groom and family gave to guests.  But even more our hearts were so full and thankful for the dear friendship of this family.

At one point, Yayoi came over and we shared a few moments, and a few tears. She is such an amazing, strong woman who has raised three great sons.  We are hoping our two families can have one last hurrah before we move up north. They have promised to come up to visit us this summer – we are going to hold them to it… and keep praying that they learn more and more what a friend they have in Jesus.

It is now March – the month in which we are moving – and somehow it feels like things have taken off and there isn’t going to be any stopping.  Thank you for continuing to pray, both for our housing but more importantly for us – that we would not lose faith in what God can do, that we would be steadfast in our conviction that God is for us, that we would handle the many unknowns and stress with humility and patience.  Several friends sent me the same verse this week that has become my breath prayer: “He will keep you in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3).  What a great place to rest my mind and my heart this week.

We have started the application process for the piece of land that we shared about in a previous update in Watanoha, near the elementary school that had served as temporary shelter for many people.  This process is not binding at all- it shows interest, and it stops others from being able to purchase it until we decide.  We have discovered that there are developers snatching up a lot of the good land and beginning to build homes on it (the other 2 properties we mentioned were gone when we called, as has been the case in many we have inquired about.)

There are some things that we are excited about in this location:  it is near many families who have been hit hard where Eric and Be One have been ministering, it is very near to a temporary housing area where the Huddlestons have made some friends, it is a two-minute walk from the senior center (remember the old lady with the scarf?  the staff who loved the costco underwear?). The downside for us is that the kids would need to take a fifteen minute bus to a temporary school shelter up in the mountain area.  In the next year or so the old school will be redone – then it will be convenient.  But we don’t know how it will be for our children to enter into a school scenario like this.  We have heard good things about the school district – that they are fairly academic and do a good job with education.  So that is great.  Only God knows what our children need!  One of our good friends who works with missionaries said to us once – “People always say that kids (especially missionary kids) are resilient so you don’t need to worry about them.  But that isn’t always the case… our son is an example of that…”  We really need God’s wisdom and leading in this huge decision!

We did find out about a small, older home near this property that has been abandoned and may be a possibility for our family for a few months.  So that lead is encouraging.  It is filled with the previous resident’s stuff, but in general the tsunami did not do much damage.  It would mean our kids would be able to start the this school and not switch.

We are praying that God will open the right doors, and close the wrong ones.  We are still trying to find out about different moving options, from putting all of our things into storage down here for a couple of months, or taking it all up there and putting some in storage – we really just don’t know yet.

I have come down with some kind of flu/cold that has wiped me out.  I am thankful for cold meds to help me get through the days. I had a special final lunch with my ladies’ english class, wearing my mask in hopes of not infecting others.  I tried to be all there, even when not feeling too great.  I love these friends so much – it is hard to imagine weekly life without them.

Tomorrow we will spend the day with special friends who are taking us to their family’s country home while our kids are in school.  It is another “last.”  Then in the evening Eric will do his last boys’ class, and take them all out for conveyor belt sushi for a final celebration. Praying for many wonderful moments as March madness continues!

Eric just got back from his two days up in Ishinomaki.  A lot of encouraging conversations; narrowing down some of the options;  praying and  looking and driving and looking and praying some more.  There are right now two potential lots that we could buy;  he and Chad went to both and prayed over them.  There are drawbacks with both, but some positive things as well (and both are more reasonable in price than other lots).  We have spent some time tonight looking over the information, the maps, googling the schools and the neighborhoods, and praying.  It does not feel clear;  we trust that God will make it clearer as we move forward.  I want to write that I don’t remember a day in recent past where news of your prayers, promises from the Bible, and words of encouragement have ever helped me so much personally. We are deeply grateful.

Eric has arrived – I hope!– in Ishinomaki by now.  He called after arriving in Sendai, so he was close, at least.  It was a hard night without him.  Ian, who has been battling the same flu that got three of us, took a bad turn shortly after we dropped off Eric at the station.  Eric went to church with the girls in the morning, and then I brought Ian and Owen for just the afternoon annual meeting.  Ian seemed somewhat better today, and it was really important that we both be at church to say thank you and goodbye after eight years of ministry here….

But when we got back he seemed really listless, and his eyes began to look funny and sunken. He finally fell asleep, but his temperature went quite high – 40 degrees C – and his breathing seemed a bit strange.  Eric and I were texting back and forth, and I was debating whether to try and find an open ER tonight or not, and what to do with the other three kids if that needed to happen.  Thankfully, after I gave him a suppository for his fever, it began dropping.  And then he wanted to drink – yeah! – and actually ate a little rice before he asked to go up to his bed.  I am going to watch him closely tonight- maybe put him in my bed – and take him to a doctor in the morning.  We would appreciate prayers for our little guy!  He has asthma and that can quickly lead to bronchitis and pneumonia, as has happened in the past.

I was so encouraged by the time at church this afternoon.  At the end we had been asked to both share something.  Before that, we rose to sing a song, and it was one that I hadn’t heard or sung in a long time – God Will Make a Way (in Japanese, of course).  I couldn’t make it through the chorus…  As we navigate our housing up in Ishinomaki, it is now just one month from when we plan to depart Sanda.  We are still waiting on word as to how finances will work out if we buy a home through our mission.  Several of the properties that we posted several days ago turned out to not be available.  Our Japanese business manager called some real estate offices for us and was told that there are people buying up all the available land up there and selling it at double it’s value (hard for us to believe!).  Moving companies are not able to commit to us if we don’t know where we are moving to, and yet say we need to decide by the first week of March or they will be too booked to move us…We are really praying that Eric will be clearly led by God these next two days.

And then this song:  “God will make a way, when there seems to be no way;  he works in ways, we cannot see, he will make a way for me…”   I immediately remembered a story that our friend Dori V. told – they had been close friends with us in Japan– they were moving their family up to Hokkaido but could not find housing.  A friend called her and started singing this song to her… then she got in their car to cry and this song came on the radio…and of course God did make a way, and gave them a great home for their family…

Right after the song we were called up to the front to share.  I had written out what I wanted to say, but found myself in the embarassing situation of having a runny nose and no tissue while I was talking!  It was very emotional.  But I thanked this congregation for how they have stood by us these past eight years, and shared how much I have learned from the pastor, Makio Sensei and his wife.  Even though they live about fifty minutes away and we see them only once a month or so, they have truly been models to Eric and me on many levels.  We have seen many unforeseen challenges come their way the past eight years, and they have never flinched but continued to be leaders who walked with integrity, often at a sacrifice to themselves.

One of the things I have loved is watching them raise their three children, who are now in their young twenties.  Since their kids were little, they always had family time around the table before bed.  Someone would read a devotion, they would each share a prayer request, hold hands, and pray for each other.  Megumi Sensei said sometimes when the children were younger and didn’t want to be there, they would hold each other’s pinkies and pass on the prayer time (can’t you picture it?).  But they always sat there and were a part, and it has remained an important family ritual that they all look forward to now when they are home.  I love that.

When I finished my tearful speech, Eric started his, and he couldn’t get through the first line because he was so full emotionally.  At the end of his sharing, people laid hands on us and Makio Sensei’s father, the founder of the church, prayed over us.  His deep and earnest prayer in formal Japanese, asking for God’s care and protection and guidance for us,  touched me deeply.  We were then given an amazing bouquet of flowers.  I’m not a big bouquet kind of person – but these were so beautiful….

And the last song?  “Let your Glory Fall…”    It was the one that was sung at our commissioning eleven years ago as we were sent from Los Angeles by our church there, Hope Christian Fellowship.  Our church in Sendai sang it to me when I received my PhD.  It is such a beautiful “sending” song:  Let your glory fall in this room, Let it go forth from here to the nations, Let your fragrance rest in this place, As we gather to seek your face…

I was so reminded that God knows just what we need.  He will make a way where there seems to be no way;  He is sending us and He will give us the privilege of letting his glory shine in Ishinomaki.

Eric will be leaving tomorrow late afternoon to take the bullet train up to Ishinomaki, returning on Tuesday evening.  We appreciate your prayers!  These will be important days where we will hopefully be able to make a decision on housing.  Pray that God closes the wrong doors and opens up the right one.  Our children’s schooling is important in all of this – we pray for wisdom and discernment in the decision of where we move.

I wasn’t able to post our newsletter from last month on our blog, so I wanted to put one more story about a young guy who Eric has befriended. Last fall a Japanese friend, while praying, felt that God told her that Eric would be the father for the fatherless up in Ishinomaki.  I love how God is already doing this!  The part below was written by Eric, and I include an update at the end.

Like many kids his age in Ishinomaki, Y. lost much in last year’s tsunami. I first met him and his family when our team helped to move them out of the evacuation center and into their government-provided, Red Cross-furnished temporary housing twenty minutes away. We tried earnestly to engage him on that day, but he remained aloof. We did manage to gather from him that his dad had walked out on the family the year before. As we assembled in a circle to pray for his family and to say goodbye to their tsunami-ravaged home, Y. turned his back on the group and walked away, despite his mom’s protests.

God impressed Y. on my heart and I continued to pray for him upon returning to Sanda. The next time I was up there, we were helping to clean the elementary school that served as home for Y.’s family and some 700 others over the previous 7 months. His mom happened to be there, and phoned Y. to come meet us. He showed up a few minutes later with his baseball and glove.

After exchanging greetings, I offered to play catch with him. Skeptical of my intentions, he declined and walked away, again in spite of his mom’s urgings. I had hoped to make a connection but realistically — could I have expected anything different?

Here was a fatherless junior high schooler still struggling to stay afloat in the aftermath of that dread wave. His most prized possessions: trading cards, comic books, and video games, discarded with the rest of the rubble. His friends were either deceased or dispersed. His beloved school baseball team was now defunct and he was relegated to live in the isolated refugee community miles away from anything familiar. PRAY!

On my next trip I went to visit Y. but learned that he was away at a school where others like him were being bussed to. I left my cell number with his mom, not expecting a call. What a joyful surprise it was the very next day when Y. called me, asking for a ride into town to be with friends. In the car we actually had meaningful conversation.

The next day he called again on behalf of his mom and sister who needed a ride into the city. God made chauffeuring a priority that day and Y. came along for the drive. When I dropped mom and sis off, Y. announced that he wanted to spend the day with me. God is amazing! I put him to work busting down walls and cleaning an auto repair shop with the rest of our team. At the end of that long cold day I stopped and used relief funds to buy his family a heater and other supplies for their thin-walled prefab dwelling. In presenting his mom with the goods, I told her about Y.’s hard work hard helping others that day.  Somewhat in disbelief, she gratefully accepted.

I’ve had other interactions with Y. since then. I’ve seen his heart of compassion for others. On my most recent visit he urged me to go with him and visit an old woman living alone in the same complex. They were from the same evacuation center and he was worried for her in the cold and loneliness of winter. He has experienced God’s love and is caring for others now. Please pray for Y. and others like him whose stories of transformation continue on.

(Blog update:  When Eric was up last week, he saw Y. a few times.  My Dad had heard Y’s story, and asked Eric to give him a twenty-dollar bill.  Eric gave him the equivalent in yen, and told him the story, and it is meant to be for him to spend on himself.  When Eric dropped him off at home, Y. went to his mom and handed him the two-thousand yen.  We loved this boy’s care for his mom!  He just called Eric last night, asking when we will be moving up there.  He’s counting down the days!)

This morning Eric was driving to Kobe to take care of Olivia’s passport and he felt the Lord say to him, “Today I am going to give you a house.”  As he was driving home, Jennifer Huddleston (who lives up there with her family) began messaging both of us a number of pinpoints for property that she found in both the Be One home neighborhood (Kazuma) and Watanoha, the other area hit really hard where Be One has focused their efforts.

Thanks for friends who are walking through our move with us!  These days are a bit up and down and so we appreciate the emails and the prayers on our behalf.  Here are a few updates from the past week.

The BIG house came in at a higher price than they had first told Eric even – beyond what we could even try to pay, not to mention all the repairs that would be required.  We were glad for this confirmation NOT to move forward on it.  While Eric and Annie were up in Ishinomaki, a Japanese friend called other realtors up there who hadn’t been contacted yet — there really are NO houses for rent or for sale for our family at this point.

The night after Eric came back, we talked again with a friend who is willing to help us buy a pre-fab house that is built in the US and shipped over – it could all be done in three months, and at a much cheaper price than building Japan homes.  At this point, this is our best (only?) option.  So we are going to keep moving forward and see how God directs us.  We have found a couple of possible pieces of land on the internet that could be a good location- we need to inquire, pray, and pray some more.  (Tonight I did my first Google map prayer walking – it was kind of fun).  If we have a house built, we are considering living for the first few months in the temporary housing that they have built for residents up there (because there are some that are only half full, they have opened these up to volunteers).

Before going to sleep that night, I opened up the Bible by my bed – an Amplified New Testament that used to be my mom’s – and the pages fell open to Hebrews 11:9:  [Prompted] by faith he dwelt as a temporary resident in the land which was designated in the promise [of God, though he was like a stranger] in a strange country, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs with him of the same promise.”  We have some great witnesses who have gone before and led the way with temporary housing…

But, there are some days where I lose perspective and forget who I am trusting.  This afternoon, I called a moving company today to ask them to come and give us an estimate.  We actually need to get two estimates – one to move our things up to Ishinomaki in late March;  the other in case we do a prefab home and need to have the moving company  pick up our things in late March and then store our things for a few months.  The lady who answered of course used all of this polite gibberish Japanese that is nearly impossible to understand over the phone. After getting through some preliminary information,  I was able to discern that she wanted to know our address here – that was easy- and then our address in Ishinomaki.  When I said we don’t have an address yet, she said they can’t give us an estimate until we get one (apparently if the house is on a narrow road, they need to send everything up in several small trucks rather than one big truck, which makes a big price difference).  So they won’t give us an estimate; and  they obviously can’t reserve a truck for us on the busiest moving week of the year in this country!  I got off the phone and burst into tears.  It isn’t a big deal, as Eric reminded me. Moving will work out… my eyes were not trusting in Jesus.

Last night, we talked on the phone with a friend in the U.S. who is giving us a wonderful donation towards purchasing land.  It is a beginning that greatly encouraged us in this journey.  Tonight, as we shared with the kids about this pledge, Annie said, “Mommy, I think God wants us to move up to Ishinomaki.”  Wow!  That was huge.  God is at work — most importantly in our children’s hearts.  We don’t know where this is all going to lead, but we know step by step — when we have faith and when we don’t — we will see evidence of His work and His sweet care for us.

A friend just sent me this – it is both awesome and frightening if we really believe it’s true!

A Parable Concerning God’s Wife and Her Husband

A portion of a meditation delivered by the Rev. Stuart Coles of the Presbyterian Church in Canada at the World Council of Churches meetings at Rochester, N.Y., August 1963. 

     One of the cardinal sins against the Holy Spirit is the sin of pasteurization or dullness.  Another is religionizing.  (Religion comes from the same root as “ligament” and “ligature”.)  Religion is the inveterate craving of our minds, our values, our ideas of what is appropriate and what is inappropriate for God’s behavior and outlook.  Religion is the enterprise of reducing God to a manageable affair.

One of the most difficult things I know of is to study the Bible and to worship the God of the Bible without falling into this double sin of dullness and religionizing.  The Bible is, if we can get our religious, heavily smoked glasses off, anything but a dull book, anything but a religious book.  And the God of whom it speaks is anything but a well-behaved wraith of man’s devout imaginings. He is altogether alive, altogether unmanageable, altogether uninhibited in His behavior.  And the Bible is specifically a book about God’s love affair, His stormy and passionate and heart-breaking marriage or covenant with an oddly matched wife or covenant partner.

The church is God’s wife.  He has married Himself to her “for better or for worse”.  According to the church’s history in the Bible and in subsequent ages, it is frequently “for the worse.”  She suffers from selfishness, from self-righteousness, from stuffiness, from timidity, from the cruelties that spawn out of fear and prejudice.

Most of all, God’s wife suffers from the womanly temptation to want to settle down.  She craves a place to shelter and entrench herself, her children, her knick-knacks.  Incidentally to all this, she secretly determines to reform her Husband, to domesticate Him, to tie Him down to where she is and where she wants to stay.

“To tie God down” to that which has been, is the essence of religion.  Religion is the corruption of the church’s marriage partnership with her Husband.

God cannot be tied down.  He is free, He is a missionary, a pioneer, an explorer, a frontiersman, a creator of that which h as not been before.  He shakes the status quo.  He tears the old times off the world’s calendar, so that every age is a new age, and every day is an adventure into an untrodden future.  He is a very turbulent Husband.  He keeps moving on, and He keeps calling to His wife to follow Him, and keep a-coming with Him into each new situation.

The church wants to settle down.  She wants security.  “Organized religion is interested in organized religion.”  The church knows in her secret heart how dangerous it is to leave all defenses and all establishments and follow her Lord:  a person can get killed going where God goes and doing things the way God does.

Where does God want to go, and what does He want to do?  Some religionists act as though all God wanted to do was “go to church”.

Sure He “goes to church”—but just long enough to have a quick, no-foolishness chat with His wife—a briefing session on “what’s cooking”.  He pays her very loving, very deeply understanding, husbandly attention.  But then, all too soon, He says, “Come on, old girl.  Let’s get moving.  We’ve got work to do.”  And He goes out the door so fast, and in such an unexpected direction, that half the time, “the old girl” just stands there gaping.  She tries to keep her skirts down and her housekeeping papers from blowing all over the place in the freeze created by God’s going.  This breeze is known as (the presence of) the Holy Spirit.  (Holy Wind).

I have had a fun couple of days with the three kids who are here with me.  Tonight (thanks to an idea from the movie Ponyo) we did a backwards night — we did baths and showers first, then ate dessert (oh- will they still eat dinner?  I guess it doesn’t matter too much one night…), and then ate dinner (they gave it a good effort, at least!) and watched a movie.  And ate caramels after.  (Olivia: “You are the best Mom EVER!”  Amazing what a night of bribery can do).

I have felt a bit restless about our housing situation.  Eric finally heard the price on the big house that is going up for sale and it is higher than we can hope to pay;  if the owner doesn’t go down we will not pursue it.  We have started thinking about the option of buying a lot of land building a prefab home on it… Whatever we do, God needs to open the door wide and make it clear. We hope to have more clarity by Monday.  Thanks for sticking with us and praying!

Eric has shared a few really neat stories from their past two days.

This morning he went to see Mrs. S. (see previous blog entry, A Tree Grows in Ishinomaki).  He didn’t have her phone number, so just dropped by.  He was so surprised – thrilled! – when her daughter and granddaughter from Tokyo greeted him.  They had just arrived to spend the weekend with Mrs. S.  They had a wonderful reunion, before Eric had to return to helping one of the teams.

There is a YWAM team spending six weeks with the Be One team up there.  They are young, energetic, and amazing servants.  We’ve loved the stories we have heard of this team.  Eric said there are a lot of other volunteers up there this weekend — thirteen drove up from Osaka late last night in addition to others  — and the YWAM team cleaned the Be One house, made a huge dinner last night, and tonight again two big pots of chili.   Amazing servants!

We had heard two weeks ago about a disturbing incident that happened to one of these team members.  Somehow, while working on the second floor of a damaged home, a bowling ball dislodged from a box headed down the stairs and hit her hard in the head.  Several trips to the hospital and CAT scans did not help explain the severe headaches and recurring pain that has continued.  Finally her parents, back in the US, decided that it would be best for her to return to the US for medical attention.  When I talked with Jennifer, she was going to start looking for tickets.

Last night, after the team cleaned and made dinner, they were in the guest house having a time of worship and prayer.  As she was worshipping, she heard Jesus say, “I have just healed you.”  She realized her head ache — the pain – was completely gone.  Completely!  The team rejoiced, and went into the home where Eric and the others were able to join in the celebration.  She is still pain free- completely healed!  Only Jesus could do this.  Only Jesus.

Jonathan and Michiyo Straker are the other family who have been making plans to move to Ishinomaki.  They flew in from the US last week, and have been spending time with Michiyo’s family.  They arrived several days ago, and for the first time saw the house that Be One has helped them to purchase.  Jonathan realized that the house is in the very neighborhood where he had done relief work last summer, and one of the neighbors had taken him around and introduced him to all the people living there– the shopkeepers, neighbors, etc.  Isn’t that SO cool?  He had already met his new neighborhood and didn’t know it at the time!  Today the combined teams continued to work to get the Straker’s new home ready to be lived in when they come back down from Hokkaido with their three children.  Praying that God continues to prepare their way for their whole family in wonderful ways.  I love what Jesus continues to do.