Cherry Blossoms

Japan is soooo beautiful at this time of years. The cherry blossom trees are in full bloom and the smell of spring is in the air. This is my favorite time of the year! My parents came for a visit a few weeks ago and we had been hoping that the cherry blossoms would be blooming while they were here. Unfortunately, we only got to see the plum trees blooming. These usually bloom in early March. It took me about 8 years of living here before I was able to distinguish between a plum tree and a cherry blossom tree! Anyway, they are both beautiful.

Just as new life is springing up all around us, we are praying that God will cause new life to "spring up" in the hearts of the Japanese people. Would you pray with us that as we are out this month, God would give us opportunities to share about the new life that is found only in Jesus Christ? Thank you!

Home from the Philippines

We have just returned home from 2 weeks in the Philippines. It was quite the trip, to say the least. The first week we spent at our regional home school conference. That is always a wonderful time of meeting up with old friends and making new friends. Ashley, Adam, and Avery took achievement tests to make sure that they are staying on target in school. Buddy and I were able to hear a wonderful series of talks by Steve Demme of Math-U-See. It was a very encouraging week for all.

Our second week we spent on the island of Boracay. This is about one hour south of Manila by plane. This was our second time to go so we were anticipating a wonderful week of glowing sunsets, pizza on the beach, and fun times with the two other families we went with.

While we did enjoy most of those things, we got a few extra things that we hadn't planned on. Adam got an amoeba and vicious stomach problems for about 5 days. He then had an allergic reaction to the medicine for the amoeba and ended up getting a shot at the emergency clinic there on the island. Buddy and Ashley were in bed for a day with high fever and vomiting. Avery and I got the joy of passing out medicines, making clinic runs, and taking temperatures.

The place we stayed at was really wonderful except for the toilet. It was comical after about the 10th time of calling the front desk. All I had to do was call downstairs and say, "It's me again! They knew just what we needed...our friendly little Philipino man and his plunger!" Unfortunately we didn't get to see the sunset this year, as we had rain and clouds almost every day we were there.

Not to make the whole trip sound bad. We did enjoy our pizza on the beach! We had a blast with our friends! The owners of the hotel where we stayed were Christians and said that our coming was an answer to their prayer for God to send Christians to stay at their hotel. We were able to have worship with them on Sunday and several of their staff were there as well. That was exciting!

If nothing else, our vacation made us more thankful than ever to live in a wonderful country like Japan. We often take for granted the fact that we can drink our water straight from the tap, not worry if our vegetables have parasites on them, or fear that someone is going to cheat us. It is good to be home!