(September / October 2014 Monthly Prayer Bulletin)

A thought from Andrea on prayer:

Most of my life I’ve thought prayer was words. Recently I’ve been thinking about how much babies communicate even without words. As you pray for yourself and others this month, perhaps you would want to try praying a little differently. One possible method: read our prayer concern, close your eyes and “hold” that in your open hands and in your heart. When you are ready, quietly lift your hands, heart, and that praise or request up to God’s care. When you are able to release it to God, lower your hands and offer a word or facial expression of thanks to God.

Over the past several weeks as we’ve adjusted to life here in the U.S. we have really sensed that God is taking care of us.

We thank God for…

good news from the Isesaki Church. The “boy’s group” – a discipling ministry with junior high boys – has started back up this Fall with a sports theme and new people are getting involved.
Audio Bible Japan continuing to attract new listeners.
a good start to the school year for Sky (7th grade), Lilla (11th grade), Sam (1st year at university), Andrea (1st term of a Doctor of Ministry program), and Tim (1st year of being dad-at-home full time).
a lovely place to live. This house is a comfortable, peaceful place in the woods of Woodinville, WA. Since I (Andrea) grew up in the Pacific Northwest, the smells of the fir and cedar, the sight of bunnies and squirrels in the yard, and the taste of lettuce, cukes, beans, carrots, tomatoes, kale, zucchini, chives, and blueberries from the garden make me happy.
a great car to drive. Shortly before leaving Japan we were offered a car to use by friends from long ago. This car is perfect for our family since it seats 7 (or carries a lot of luggage), is an automatic, and is solid and sturdy. Already Sam has learned to drive in it and is looking forward to passing his driving test soon. Lilla is looking forward to starting this process also as soon as volleyball season is finished.

We are praying about:

Andrea’s mom’s health. We are grateful that we can be close by during this year…
Our financial support base. Because we have had shorter home assignments for the last 16 years, we have not been able to connect as often or deeply with churches and individuals who pray and support our ministry. At present, we are at about 75% of needed funding. During this year we are eager to communicate and connect with churches and individuals who want to be part of our support team. Thanks for praying about this important issue with us. ( click HERE if you feel led to check out the details…)

Finally, a few photos for those of you who may be interested in a quick glimpse of our “digs” here in the woods…

This home is rented to us by a lovely couple who have also provided this amazing gift to many other missionary families over the years who were in need of a place to live while on home assignment….There’s a garden where we can get our daily dose of fresh veggies…

As the weather gets cooler in the evening we’ve started to light the stove… yup, we’re heating with wood… it’s very cozy.
…the great thing is that we don’t even have to chop the wood. That’s taken care of for us by our landlord who lives (and cuts wood) right on the property…
We’ve got a swell back porch where we eat most of our meals….Bye for now…. Thanks for the encouragement from so many of you!!