God at work

So I started praying for the ships in the 7th fleet. Specifically I was praying for them idividually and specifiacally for certain sailors on board. Well I didnt pray as regular or as often as I should of but it is amazing to here how God has been and is answering prayer out here.

Last night while I was at chapel one of the men who had just returned to port gave a testimony during prayer time. His testimony was a praise that God was doing some amazing things on his ship. There were record attendance at the weekly bible studies and chapel services. And this is a ship which does not have a chaplin. The amazing thing has been that I knew of at least five believers personally who were on board this ship so I had been praying for them and for their ship that God would move in the lives of the believers that they would be strong in their walk and commitment to God, and that their testimony on board would be strong. I also had been praying that there would be a revival on board that ship.

I was so excited to hear just a brief bit of what God had been doing while they had been gone for the past month. Thank you for you back home for your prayers for me and for the men and women of the 7th fleet. God is at work out here right now I can see it and feel it. HE answers prayer and delights in his children who boldly approach his thrown and yield their lives to him and offer up to him the prayers for the believers and the lost who are in our circles of influence. So join me in praying for the USS Lassen and the men and women on board that God would continue to burn a spirit of conviction in those people and that the believers would turn to God and live intentionally for His Kingdom on board their ship.

A few pictures from the past month

We recently had a fire inspection at the lighthouse.

We passed with flying colors, and I was doing PR work in the picutre.

The winter retreat that I was the guest speaker at.

Northstar 2009 Winter Retreat Nagano, Japan

Some the regulars who bowl with us on Sunday nights after Chapel.

We started doing a new style of bowling that gives you a work out at the same time.

Push up challenge as we like to call it. When one bowls a strike everone does 10 push ups, when you bowl a spare everyone does 5 and for every pin you leave up you do 3 per pin.

Lets just say on average [ since I am not a great bowler and I am bowling against some pretty good bowlers (200 +) ] I end up doing around 150 push ups in a given game. Some would think that I should not of invented the game but it has brought some fun games and times with guys and gals alike.

Skyline of Yokohoma

A trip to the dentist

Well I thought that I would take a minute and share with you my experience today at the dentist. I will start by saying that I never realized how many things I take for granted in every day affairs. So I ended up going to the college of dentistry which is right outside the back gate of the navy base. So I walk down to the building and walk in the front entrance. There I am greeted by a receptionist who hands me a card that I need to fill out. Then I am told well showed that I need to take the info to the window number 4. There my information is processed into a file and I am handed a baby blue briefcase and am told in brocken engrish to go to the third floor. So I do and upon arriving on the third floor I hand my BBBriefcase over to the ladies behind the counter and I am motioned to have a seat in the waiting area. So I sit and wait with open ears wondering what it is going to sound like when they call my name. Not much time passes and I am greeted by a gentleman calling my name and am asked to follow him. I follow him into a room that is probably a hundred plus feet long by 60 feet wide in this room are four rows of dentist chairs probably 32 or more. Well I am taken to a private chair in the corner where I guess I am going to get my consulte. So the gentleman spoke alittle engrish and procedeed to look at my mouth. After a brief look he writes some things on his chart and says that i need to go and get an x ray. So I am sent up to the fourth floor again with my BBbriefcase. I am agian asked to sit and wait and I again go through the routine of reading my book but listen with an alertness to hear when my name is called. So they take the xray my tech spoke no english and then I am sent back out to the waiting area again to wait for my xray to be processed. Once my xray was done I was sent back down to the third floor with my BBB to again turn in my BBB and wait in the waiting area. I am then again greeted with the gentleman who did my first consult and he and another lady then look at my xray and tooth. I am then told that I have an emergancy procedure that is needed but I have not idea what they said. For lack of being able to understand their engrish. I did have a look at the xray and could tell , from my past experience in the dentist) that the tooth did have a small area of decay next to the part that had been worked on last June. So I am again asked to leave the area and go wait out in the waiting area while they determine who is going to be my dentist. I wait a few min, probably only a page of my book, and then I am asked to follow this lady. So to another chair this time it is on the oppisite side of the room and is in the line of chairs. I sit and notice that I have a chair at 12 another at 1:30 and another at 3 oclock. All have people in them, this is a busy place. Did I mention this is a school of dentistry. Anyway I am no being worked on with two ladies who do not seem to speak any english. So I lay back and trust that God is in control of this situation and I am not going to lose all of my teeth. Well the gal ends up drilling a whole and then applying medicine I believe in the whole and then filled the hole temporally. This procedure lasts probably fifteen minutes and then I am again given my BBB and told to go to the second floor to schedule my appointment with my doctor. So now I have an appointment next Tuesday at 9am with Doctor Hokido( something like that). So then I am sent back done to the main floor to pay for my procedure. All in all I came out with a bill of 10,038 yen or around a hundred dollars. With all that said I believe the swelling has subsided some but not completely. I think that I have a root problem on the same tooth that was worked on in June. They asked me if I could feel any pain from the cold when they applied it and I said no. Then they asked if I could feel any pain from the tooth before they drilled. At least I think they drilled and then filled the hole. I said no so they procedeed. This was done with out any numbing of course I didnt need it because I felt no pain during the procedure. I dont know if this means the tooth root is dead or if it is still alive. I dont know it I need a root canal or if they are going to extract the tooth I dont know yet and wont know until next Tuesday. Well that is all I hope you enjoyed my tooth story and I do thank you for your prayers

An update as requested

I actually started to write an update letter the other day so here is a portion of that.



Greetings from Japan
Well where has the time gone , it is incredible to think that an entire month has already past since my return to Japan. I trust that you all are finding this new year as full of God’s grace as I am. I have recently been marveling more and more in His incredible grace which He bestows upon those who believe in Him. This is serving as the basis by which I am motivated to serve others. I have recently been reminded of 1 Peter 4:7-11, and in there I find the challenge to “above all keep loving one another earnestly”. Love, the very thing that sent Christ to the cross; the very thing we must respond with in our daily lives. God has been challenging me in my life in how I need to be more loving and compassionate with people. I have found this very difficult in my flesh but the more I remind myself of God’s grace in my life the more I am able to show love to others. That I am be found and know just as Paul referred to Timothy in Philippians 2:20 as one “ who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare”.
A lot has happened since I have been back in Japan. First let me share with you how the winter youth retreat went. I was given the opportunity to be the retreat speaker for a middle school retreat. (6th -8th grade) This was an amazing experience, the retreat lasted for three and a half days and was held at a camp up in the mountains of Nagano. As you may recall this was the area of the Winter Olympics several years back. So the retreat was filled with snowboarding lessons for the kids, night games , and an evening session time. The topic that I covered during the retreat was running the race. This race that Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 9 and we find mentioned also in Hebrews 12. I spoke four times during the retreat and really enjoyed being challenged to do that. Who knows what God has done already in the lives of those 25 students or what He will do with the seeds that were planted in their lives.

Great sale at SGM

I thought that I would pass on this info to those of you who read this. Soveriegn Grace Ministries is having a great sale during the month of February. 50% off their books and CDs and free shipping in the US.

I will recommend a few of the books from that sight.

I have read

Humility by C J Mahaney

Sex is not the problem lust is by Joshua Harris

Cross centered life by C J Mahaney

Christ our Mediator by C J Mahaney

I have not read these yet but I am recommending them based on my knowledge of them and the referral of others.

Preaching the cross

Feminine Appeal - highly rcommended by Harris and others

Girl Talk

Boy meets girl: say hellp to courtship by Harris



I thank God for faithful ministries such as SGM and their commitment to the truth. May God continue to use them and their resources in the building up of the body of Christ.

God's Incredible Grace in confounding the world

1 Corinthians 1:27-31

"But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despise in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, ' Let the one who boast, boast in the Lord.' "

I think about this concept and I am humbled by the fact that even when I am in the midst of being brought low and humble by God, and have struggles and sin that I am working on in my own life. God sees fit to bless people through me and to carry out an impacting ministry. That is totally by God's grace that it takes place.

Which is really the reality of it always but I was just blown away by that thought yesterday. Knowing that I would rather be where I am mentally and spiritually now than where I have been in the past. The end of that passage ends with " let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord" what does that look like in my life. Do I boast in the Lord to the people around me? Paul saw fit that it was only enough to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is just encouraging to me that the ways of the Lord are many times totally opposite to the way of the world, why, so that no one can boast in themselves but in God alone. To finish the thought in my head, God equips those who he calls. So here I am knowing that I am a child of God one who has been bought with a price and one desiring to glorify God in his body and with his life.

I know that God has called me as a child of His to live my life out for Him. I must trust that He will equip me and provide for me as I follow Him. For and I quote " I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

What is Recession For?

http://http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2009/3566_What_Is_the_Recession_For/

Here is a challenging sermon by John Piper.

He gives five points that he believes are biblical reasons for recession.

1 Expose hidden sin

2 Wake us up - it shows where we are not trusting, where we are wasting....

3 Relocate the roots of our joy

4 Serves to advance His saving mission, His Kingdom....
( when the church cannot take credit financially)
5 He intends for His church to care for the needs of the people in the church

I was challenged by this sermon to thin in my own life how I can become more refined and focused in my life specifically in the areas of my time, and my money. If I am struggling with not trusting God and this is being seen in my fear of the future and my financial condition then I need to humble myself. For it is rooted in pride when we do not trust God with our future; for the converse of not trusting God is trusting in myself and that is pride. A spirit of an unhealthy worry, anxiety, fear of the unknown both financially and physically is rooted in a spirt of self reliance or self dependence. ( also known as pride)

I am reminded of three quotes, these I have on my wall here in Japan. These come from two missionaries who gave their lives for the spread of the gospel and a current pastor.

1 " To many of us are far more concerned about our standard of living than we are about others living." Francis Chan ( Context being both spiritual and physical living)

2 " Only one life twill soon be past only whats done for Christ will last" CT Studd

3 " He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot