Out With the Old...In With the New

Well it is the end of the year here in Tokyo! People everywhere are preparing for the big year end celebration. I just heard on the television that the shinkansen trains were at 150 percent capacity yesterday as families head to their hometowns for the New Year's Holiday.

So what do Japanese do for the year end? Here are few of the traditions...a visit to the shrine to pray for health and properity in the new year, buckwheat soba noodles on New Year's Eve for good luck, and a thorough cleaning of the home (much like our spring cleaning in the U.S.) New Year's day is for eating sechi ryori which is various foods that can be cooked ahead of time and set out for the day. This keeps mom from having to prepare anything special on the actual new years day.

As much as Christmas Day is special to us, New Year's Day is special for the Japanese people. Sadly, much of the holiday centers around the superstitious belief that by doing and eating certain things they can ward off evil and insure blessing and peace . I pray for the day when Japanese will celebrate New Year's Day by worshipping our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the only true source of peace and hope. Ringing a bell at the shrine to wake up the gods pales in comparison to the joy of talking to the God who never slumbers nor sleeps!

Would you pray with us that the Japanese people will open their hearts to the good news of Jesus Christ and of His incredible love for them!

A God Moment

I wanted to share with you a really neat thing that happened yesterday. We have a dear friend whom we have known for about 10 years (she lived in Sendai while we were there and moved to Tokyo just before we did a couple of years ago). We reconnected with her about 6 months ago and invited her to come to our Bible study that we are having in our home. At first, she was hesitant and said she would come but could only stay for 30 minutes. The next time she said she could stay for the whole time but had to leave immediately when it was over. She takes ballroom dancing classes so this was always her reason for why she might not be able to commit to the entire Bible study.

A couple of days ago she came by and said, "I am very sad today." I asked her why and she said, "Today my dance teacher told me and my husband that we can no longer attend dance class. I was very sad at first but I realize that now I can come to your Bible study every week!" I told her that maybe God had a reason for this and she said, "I believe He does. I think He wants me to come to the Bible study!"

God is sooooooo good! We realize again that it is all about Him. He is so able to orchestrate people's lives in such a way that they seek Him! Please pray for Mrs. K to come to know Christ!

Merry Christmas!

Well I can't believe it is already Christmas! I had hoped to be better at staying up to date on this but alas, the year is over and I have written so little! We have had a great Christmas season. We stayed busy with volunteers and were excited to see 5 new folks pray to receive Christ! God is really using volunteers to share Christ with the Japanese people.
We had a big Christmas party at our community center and were very excited when 60 or so people came! It was a great opportunity to share the true meaning of Christmas. Several of Avery's friends came so she was really happy to get to tell them about Jesus!
We did something a little different this year at the Brents' home. We decided to open half of our Christmas gifts today (Christmas Eve) and the other half tomorrow on Christmas Day. It has been fun to spread out the fun for two days. I think the whole family was in need of a few days of just "playtime" after a crazy holiday season. It was fun to just drink cocoa, play games, watch Christmas movies, and enjoy being together.
We pray that your holiday season is a blessed one and that the coming year is full of joy in the Lord! Merry Christmas!