Okay Nita Bita!

Read about this picture below the third picture. I added it after I started this blog and I can`t placed it with the information. I haven`t mastered this blogging yet! Look at Elyssa`s bump. I guess Mark and Elyssa have become my new `play` kids like so many others at Woodland West. Don`t worry Joe, Jerry, Andrew, and Rachel; you`re all still my number one kids! Ha! I think I mentioned their baby is due in August, but that`s wrong. Kayden (possible name) is due September llth! You read that correctly.
Nita asked me to write a few words about one or two of my readers. I thought I had, but I`ll let you into the lives of two of my readers/friends. Hiroko Miyokawa and her daughter (Riho...11 years old) have grown close to my heart. Hiroko is an office secretary. She is a very sweet person. Hiroko recently celebrated a birthday and couldn`t wait to show me her electronic dictonary. Many of the readers have these e-dictionaries to help them with their translations. After testing the waters to see what LST was all about and that we weren`t bogus, Hiroko started bringing Rhio along to the reading sessions. I pray this child will someday know Jesus along with her mom because she`s very intelligent and humble. Right now Hiroko is on lesson 3 and has questions about angels and why one(Gabriel) was sent to deliver the message to Mary about her being the mother of our Savior. She also ask very good probing questions with each lesson. Hiroko struggles a little with her English, but is making great strides. It`s her lack of confidence she has to overcome. I will be introducing Hiroko to the women`s class in hopes she`ll stay connected to the church when we leave. Pray she`ll accept the invitation to become a part of the women`s group. By the way, did you know you can click on blog pictures to see them up close? I just discovered that.
And my whisper girl! Tomoko Takeda is a precious young woman. She`s in her early twenties and is studying to become a teacher. Now you know we had a lot to talk about on the side after our lessons! This girl is so bashful and speaks so softly that I have to lean in to hear her. Her eyes are as big and beautiful as a doe`s. At our information meeting back on the 15, she told Jeanne she was afraid her English was too poor to benefit from the LST classes so she signed up to do readings with Jeanne which would be in half English and half Japanese. The day she came to read with Jeanne, I introduced myself and asked how she was doing. Jeanne had gone across the room to get a Luke book and not a beginner one. Tomoko answered every question I asked her. We connected and soon discovered she`d read with me instead of Jeanne. I love my sessions with her! Why? It`s because her expressions are so delightful. When she understands the seed thoughts, her eyes dance and the biggest smile comes on her face. She told me she`s happy to be working on her English and understanding a little more about Jesus. She says her boyfriend is proud of her and so are her family members. Alisha Osburn, you`d love working with Tomoko.

Now, speaking of Alisha Osburn......do you remember when her AIMERS team went to Thailand about two years ago? Well, I met someone today who knows Alisha! There were two girls at church today working on fund-raising to grow the church in Thailand. They are doing some sort of internship with a church here in Japan inorder to learn about how to spread the gospel better in Thailand. If I don`t get the picture placed here, it`ll be at the top telling you to read the information down here. The girl in green (Gade...sp) knows you Alisha. It`s amazing how no matter where you go, you eventually run into someone who knows someone who knows someone who know you! Ha! These girls (Yeng in yellow is a talker) also spent some time with the Snow/Wilson team at the Taga Camp this past weekend. I`m going to get you for what you told them about me, Jake!!!! Ha! Ha!

Anyway, Phyllis and I are dog tired as we`ve had two long days. We`ll write about our second party later. The night just sparkled!

Again I say how thankful I am for this opportunity to serve. Our new friends have treated us so well. We just pray we`ve showed them Jesus through our actions and words. Oh, another reader that orginally told me she didn`t want to hear anything about God comes almost every other day! She tickles me. God is beginning a process within her spirit. It takes years for the average Japanese to accept God. If this reader continues studying, I`m not sure it will take many years for her to take on Christ as her savior. It`s not for me to decide that or even worry about the when. It`s all in God`s timing and hands.

Good night