Catching Up

See - I am still working hard even at Disneyland. I love the old technology.

I've been away from New Zealand for one month, missing the Cardiff Chateau and my ISM family and Grace City Church. Still, the time with family, the fellowship with brothers and sisters here in the states and even a 30 year high school mini-reunion has been a really blessing and refreshment.
I've had the opportunity to reconnect with so many people - my head is spinning. God has provided encouragement to me through so many voices and it has been wonderful worshipping with the family of God in my hometown. It feels strange not 'working' hard at the church and in the office. Yet what God has me doing here is still His work, and He is with me.

I've included a few photos to give you a glimpse of my time here. One thing that has been special was having Nozomi and Shoko spend six days in California. Being able to share a little of my history and hometown and state with them, yet allowing them to experience God's presence here, was a highlight. Nozomi came mainly to visit her future campus and meet with the financial aid folks there, but so much more happened for them in our short time together (including a Ducks hockey game, meeting some Navigator students and staff, attending church and being celebrities at my gramma's church, taking a Sunday afternoon drive in my dad's 1931 Model A, visiting a mansion (my dad did the finish work on), enjoying fellowship with my cousin's Tim & Jerri, Disney adventure! Whew... good times.

Thank you all for your prayers and good wishes. I have a major praise report - THANK YOU for your financial support. God has surpassed my expectations through your year end gifts. This is the FIRST time in five years that I began a year in the black. My Navigator funds fine, and though fundraising is a neverending task of mission work, I have been able to focus on "being here" with my family and those who I need to spend time with. THANK YOU! I PRAISE GOD FOR YOUR GENEROUS LOVE!

American style portions... HUGE burgers for Nozomi and Shoko

Good times with Alicia D Garcia (right) and our new Navigator friends!

Riding in style! My dad's Model A with two beautiful Japanese models!

A backyard view of the MANSION!

A little bit of John Calvin goes a long way - Nozomi at Westminster Seminary bookstore!


A couple of wild pirates!


Wow - look who we ran into at the airport! Go Jonas brothers!
(btw - JUST KIDDING)

All history is HIStory

Today I am preparing to fly to Japan for a 3 week whirlwind visit to our Japanese graduates and other returnees, their families, churches and to reunite with my own dear friend from my University of Redlands days. I say it often, but I'll repeat it again, "I love my God, I love HIStory and HIS will for my life".

As I sit here updating this blog in Long Beach, CA, I am watching the news coverage anticipating the inauguration of Barak Obama as our 44th President. Everyone is using words like "change" and "new hope" and "unity" and "dreams". They are apportioning to Obama a heavy burden. They see him as a type of Saviour for our nation. I pray for him, because these same people have lost sight that there has only ever been ONE Man who IS the eternal Saviour... the ONE who brings true peace, true hope, and the BEST plans for the world. I pray for Obama because he is just one person, who cannot save anyone, who is not all powerful, all wise, all knowing... he is just a man. He may be a good man, but he is not a perfect man. And he most certainly is not God, nor a god. Pray for his protection, pray for God to annoint him with divine wisdom, and pray that he will walk each and every day in humility and submitted to the God he has professed as his Lord and Saviour. Pray for the 44th president of the United States and the power God has granted him for God's HIStory in this time.

Yesterday in church, I heard the question more than once, "Do you miss New Zealand?" or "Are you happy to be here?" I've realised that I am happy anywhere I am. Weird eh? Seriously - the hardest thing about leaving the USA each time is hugging my dad goodbye. I sense his 80 year old heart is anticipating that he doesn't have a lot of years left this side of eternity. And since he lives alone and is finally officially retired, his sense of purpose is a question for his heart. He would never say it - but I feel it and hear it in his sighs. Please pray for him - he has a lump on his cheek he must have removed, his athritis has really slowed him down, and he's a little shakey (whether it's Parkinson's we don't know because he won't ask the doctor). Leaving him each time is my hardest trial.

Yet, God has wired me to mission work, because everywhere He has me I am home. Whether it is serving International Students in New Zealand, or visiting our graduates and my new brothers and sisters in Japan, or being back in the states on my short furloughs doing fundraising and spending time with family, friends and the fellowship of believers God has blessed me with - I am where HE is and where HE wants me.

10 This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile." Jeremiah 29:10-14

I chose this passage to highlight today because we are in exile. Yet God's plans are to be with us through it all, and His plans for us are SET. Nothing can thwart them. Not war, not death, not terrorism, not the economy - nothing can stop HIStory from happening in our lives. If we place our trust in His love and live by FAITH in the Son of God... he DO have hope and can be excited about HIS future for us. If we see Him in our future, we will call on Him, we will come to Him, we will pray to Him and HE WILL LISTEN. By faith we seek Him and we FIND God, every single day walking beside us, having already gone before us to prayer the path.

No matter what is happening in the world, remember HE created this world. HE sustains this world and all things by the Word of His power. And this world is on a short timeline. Anticipate the new heavens and the new earth - anticipate Jesus' return and the redemption of your soul! He is alive and just one look at the middle east and all that we see in the world should make us hopeful - not despairing. HIStory which He has already revealed to us, is unfolding at a rapid pace right before our eyes. Praise God!