Made in March

March is about endings and beginnings for us, as well as for a lot of Japan. It seems a fitting parallel to the season of Lent. Interwoven in this season are my readings about contemplative spirituality. Words like silence, stillness, solitude feel laughably far fetched in this season of life with small children. But we’re trying. “To step into the life that is truly life, we’re invited to practice for our death.” (Huertz, 168) Pray with us as we honor Jesus’ path to the cross, and the humiliation of his death, and anticipate resurrection. “God has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.” (M. Luther, found in Lloyd-Jones). 

Luna's preschool girls

Last month we talked about the series of goodbyes: changing schools, daily friends moving on to new patterns. But we also anticipate new beginnings: new school, new classes, and new friends in the neighborhood. 

Renovation project finished

It’s hanami or “Flower picnic” season here, when everyone stops to take a moment to pause for a picnic under the nearest cherry blossom tree. My phone buzzed non-stop last Friday night with groups trying to meet up and coordinate picnics at our local park. I bowed out because of some house construction we scheduled during Ryan’s spring break. By the time I made it to our park in the afternoon, I realized that - with the common denominator of our kids - three of the picnicking groups had introduced themselves, and set up their blankets together in one big party. I wish you knew Nami and Momoka and their crazy girls, Waka, Yumi, Shino and their sweet crew that we’ve known for years, and the Hirayama boys (four of them!), who didn’t know each other before this week, so you could appreciate the beauty of seeing them all sit under the snowing petals, and tearing around the park on each other’s riding toys and bikes. Such lovely chaos. This coming week Ryan is back at work and the kids and I have another week of spring break. Please pray for us as we love and engage these friends. Picnic blanket evangelism. 

Although Ryan wasn’t able to go on the trip because of a schedule conflict with Luna’s preschool graduation, the senior class went to Thailand again this year. Through your generosity, we are able to in turn support one of the local young women, Neung. We’ve been supporting her since secondary school, and she is now two years away from graduating from her college level teaching program. We’re so grateful for the ongoing relationship to this corner of northern Thailand. This year’s trip was smooth and encouraging, and teachers came home impressed by the maturity of this class. We’re so grateful to be able to steward these humans as they finish their time at CAJ and prepare to move out into all corners of the world. Please pray for Ryan as he goes back to teaching tomorrow. 

Back in October we began our relationship with the organization Resourcing Christian Education International. We’re grateful to have their ongoing encouragement and oversight. As you know, in January we began a process of clarifying and improving our finances. We’re happy to say that we’ve reached 33% of our support goal to get us to a healthy financial situation. We feel so blessed by every one of you who are praying for and with us, and we know this is God’s economy and we’re merely vessels channeling his work and resources. Please join us in praying for our financial health as we work towards our goal. 

Masters Finished!!!

February Finale

Making it through to the end of February always feels like grounds for celebration. You too? This month was whirl, kicked off by our new newsletter. We are encouraged, galvanized, carrying the eyes, hearts and ears of so many beloved friends into our daily lives. Thank you for believing in God's hand in us. I feel your prayers in so many of my difficult and beautiful moments throughout the day. You are present with us. 

Met a Japanese Paralympic basketball player at our new school!

CAJ is well into the second semester. I have the privilege of sitting on the board at CAJ for this season, which affords a more granular look at the school and its vision and future. As we introduced ourselves around the room and welcomed a few new members, the years and layers of experience represented reminded me of just how unique of a place this school is. Most board members have multiple hats at the school (parent, alumni, former staff, former administrator), and care deeply about their role in serving the school. We prayed for the current head, as she guides through unique challenges. Please join us in praying for CAJ: most western Christians expect the spiritual formation of their children to be a team effort between home, school and church. For most students, CAJ fulfills all three of those roles. Many students who choose CAJ do not come from Christian homes, and even those who are from Christian homes aren't part of a youth ministry at a church. Their primary experience with Christianity is in their CAJ English, math, history and Bible classes with their CAJ teachers. It's a weighty task. Please pray with us! 

This is a full month for our Japanese school life as well! The Japanese school year ends in March and the new academic year begins in April, with new schools, new teachers, new friends. It's a big change. Our second is graduating from preschool/kindergarten (a three year program in Japan) and will join her older brother in Elementary school, in first grade. We asked for prayer mid-month: for various reasons, we had enrolled our oldest in the local Japanese school across the street from CAJ, which is across town from our home. This year, we took another look at the school we're actually districted for and, after much thought and prayer, we've decided to switch to our closer neighborhood school. We're sad to say goodbye to friends we've made at the other school, but feel good about our choice. Specifically: our new school is a lower economic bracket, there are very few foreigners and no Christians that we know of. Please pray with us that God will use us to reach our community through the connections we build in our new school. So, here we go! April 8 is the start of school for the older two. Number three continues in her second year of preschool, which she LOVES. She's all caps these days. 

End of the year goodbyes. We've got about two more weeks with the graduating class at preschool and with the elementary school classmates. Please pray as we look for ways to continue the relationships we cherish and look for healthy ways to say bye for now to those we will hold more loosely. Especially with the preschool moms, several of these women have been part of our open houses for three or four years, and have visited many bible studies and even church. They are very open, and we pray for ongoing opportunities to connect even though we won't see them on a daily basis. 

Finally FINISHED!!

And personally, this letter is coming out late because I was very sick earlier this week, which is pretty rare for us, thankfully. Nothing too serious, but a high fever made it impossible to do anything except sleep. So Ryan solo parented for the better part of the week! We're grateful for a supportive community and a somewhat flexible work environment. And I'm so thankful to be back on my feet and energetic! Despite ending the month sick, we've had some amazing conversations, self realization and had begun to feel some incredible new growth and balance in our personal lives, our spiritual formation, our marriage and our relationships. It's an exciting time. We feel God is doing incredible things here, and we're pleased to be vessels.  Please pray for protection for our health as we enter the spring. 


Thank you for being with us; we truly could not be here without you! We would be honored to pray for you! Please let us know how you are, and how we could pray for you and your families. Prayer is the most we can do, because it engages the power of God.