ByGrace

This is Andrew’s last segment about his trip to Japan. You can read the other two segments here and here. This last one is long, but if you’ve read the first two, I’m sure you’ll want to read this one. It’s about the days spent in the tsunami disaster area. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most people I have talked to want to know most about this part of the trip, but in some ways it seems like the part of the trip about which the least can be said. The amount of destruction is incredible. It is not something that you can adequately describe, and you realize that as you are driving past it, but it does not really put you in the mood for taking pictures. You begin seeing damaged buildings, boats, and cars before you can even see the water. Piles of debris are everywhere you look. From clothing and toys to tires and splintered wood. After four months even the areas that were least impacted look like war zones. By the water we saw a six-story apartment building, compl...

Here is the second installment of the story of Andrew’s trip to Japan. The first entry can be found here . This entry is light-hearted, recounting his trip north to the tsunami area. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tuesday morning we went down to the Harris’ house for breakfast before taking off, and at my place was half of a grapefruit, among other things - including apple juice. I ate everything on my plate and then turned my attention to the grapefruit, my very first grapefruit. I watched as 6-year-old Josiah took a half-spoon-half-saw looking utensil and with surprising ease dug out slice after slice of grapefruit. I dug my saw into the grapefruit and all I got was grapefruit juice all over myself. I worked and worked on it and after a while I had eaten quite a bit of grapefruit, was wearing quite a bit of grapefruit, and still had quite a bit of grapefruit to be dug out. Since the table was being cleared I decided it was time to give up and proudly announced that...

Andrew is safely back home in Lancaster. He slept 16 hours the first night back! He texted me last night and said he’d written about his trip, if I’d like to post it on my blog. I’d planned to ask if he’d do that for me, so it was nice that he thought of it before I even asked. This is a little long, and I’ve included a few of his pictures pertaining to this portion of his trip, but I hope you’ll take the time to read it. There will be more to come, as this only covers his flight and first two days in Japan. I think you’ll enjoy it. He writes just as he speaks, so I think you’re really “meeting” Andrew through his words! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am not sure exactly where to start talking about a trip so packed with awesome . There is so much to tell, but I do not want to bore you. Let me first say “ thank you ” to all of those that invested their money into this trip. Without your help it would not have been possible. I could not be more literal and honest ...

Since we started running our bus program on Wednesday nights, we've had continual growth of our bus route. We've gotten lots of positive feedback from parents. Our Tuesday night bus calling consists of dividing into several teams of two and visiting each rider's house, checking to see if the rider is coming the next night (or reminding the parents/child that we're coming on Wednesday night), and taking a minute or two to talk to the parents and get to know them a bit.We actually get to visit with them more on Tuesday night bus calling than we did on Saturday mornings. I think that has to do with their being less busy with extra things on Tuesday nights. On Saturdays, they're trying to get all the weekend things done, like running errands, cleaning house or working in the yard, and just don't have the time to stand and talk when we knock on the door. So we're thrilled to see the growth in our attendance. But more than numerical growth, we're interes...

This is the devotion I posted today at KJV Blog Directory . Good morning! It's probably afternoon already wherever you are, as we're on the west coast. I'm late posting today, for which I apologize. We're having revival services this week, and as part of my focus on revival, I have not been online for anything more than is necessary for the past week. In the meantime, my husband installed a new router for our home network, and when I went to post my devotion last night, my computer wasn't recognizing the network, so I couldn't do anything online at all. He fixed it this morning, though, so I'm all set to be back online, for the most part, tomorrow. Our speaker for our revival this week, Pastor Tom Kline of Castlegar Baptist Church in Castlegar, BC, has been tremendous! Each message has spoken to my heart in some way, so I wanted to share one of them with you. This one is from Monday night, taken from Luke 8, the parable of the sower. Bro. Kl...

This entry was cross-posted today at KJV Blog Directory . This past Monday night, we had our first ladies' meeting at People's Baptist Church since my husband assumed the pastorate. We kept things very simple: a quick game, a light devotional, and some coffee and cookies. I hope to gradually add some more things in as we move through the year. I wanted to share with you the devotion I brought Monday night. I played off the old show Extreme Makeover, thinking how God does perform an extreme makeover on us when He saves us! So here we go . . . Extreme Makeover: Divine Edition There was a show several years ago, entitled Extreme Makeover , on which the “experts” took extreme measures to change people’s appearances. Each person was always grateful to have these changes made, and I once saw a father cry from happiness over the changes in his daughter. I wonder what kind of extreme changes God would like to see in us, and what He would do in our lives if we allowed...

Today I'm going to share with you the sermon my husband preached Sunday night. I love hearing him preach, and in our new church , I actually get to hear him three times a week! Sunday night he preached on Mephibosheth, one of my favorite Bible characters (believe it or not), and how he loved King David supremely. We can see lessons from his life on how to love our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. II Samuel 19:15-30 First, we see that Mephibosheth loved the king with absolute devotion . The reason he loved the king so devotedly is because of what David had done for him in II Samuel 9. David had brought him to his own house and set him at his own table even though he was the last surviving member of Saul's household and technically was a threat to David's throne as such. David showed mercy and grace for Jonathan's sake, however; and Mephibosheth acknowledges David's mercy in verse 28. And that's what Jesus has done for us; He's taken us from our cr...

No, we're not going liberal! What we are doing is standing on street corners handing out candy canes and tracts! Saturday was our second annual Candy Cane Blitz. In November my husband orders a couple thousand tracts from Bearing Precious Seed Canada that tell the legend of the candy cane ; then the two Saturdays before Christmas our church goes out onto the street corners of North Vancouver and we give a candy cane with each tract to everyone who will take one. This is just one more way to get the gospel into people's hands and to hopefully talk to a few people and maybe see them come to church. We get varied responses. Some people are very suspicious. They stop for a second, look at us a little closer, look at the candy cane again . . . suspicious people don't often take the candy or tract. Then we meet those who don't eat candy; very common up here as Vancouver's a health-conscious city. Then we meet those who won't let their children eat candy. That's a ...

A Candymaker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would help us remember who Christmas is really about. So he made a Christmas Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ. He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy. White to symbolize the virgin birth and sinless nature of Jesus. Hard candy to symbolize the solid rock, the fou...

Welcome to Sunday School After I wrote about my favorite homeschooling resources , a friend of mine asked if I had any good - and free - Sunday school resources. I had already been thinking about getting a list of those together, so I took that as my cue to get on with it. Thanks, Debbie! I almost forgot - any of these sites would be great for homeschool resources too. Teaching is teaching, and these resources are Bible-based! And speaking of Bible-based, please be aware that I do not necessarily agree doctrinally with all these sites . Please use with discretion and in accordance with your doctrinal convictions - and give me the benefit of the doubt if you find something you don't agree with. I use these places as resources - not as my personal doctrinal guides. Child Evangelism Fellowship - I use CEF's lessons for our Sunday school. I have taught completely through the Bible with them since we began our church. CEF has Bible lessons, missionary stories, seaso...

We added Sunday night services to our church tonight! This is something we've wanted to do since we started in February, but we needed to make sure we had the finances and the people to rent the room. The time has come, so we started tonight. Wes is preaching a series on "The Science of the Christian Life," a practical set of lessons on living out Christianity on a daily basis. We had 18 people in attendance, which is pretty good considering we had 21 this morning! The average church has a small fraction of their Sunday morning attendance on Sunday night. The Lord is good!