Note: I wrote this as a note on Facebook first, so it is a very “digest” version of events.

Once upon a time, a new church plant in Yokohama, Japan, was meeting in a public community center. But the center wouldn’t allow them to say they were a church, so they had to sign up as a “chorus group.” They also couldn’t advertise in the mail, and had many other restrictions. Still, they were grateful, because it was pretty cheap to rent on Sundays, and it gave them a place to start. After about a year, though, they started to feel their church was called to so much more. They wanted a place that could be available all week long, so they could do homeschooling together, and have outreach events, and let the youth come to gather and worship.
So God led them to a building which was way out of their price range, and they started to pray, and pray, and ask for help, and pray some more. 7 months later, they were close to raising the initial payment to get into the building. (In Japan, that is called “key money,” and it is usually 8 -10 month’s worth of rent, just to get in, and you don’t get it back at the end of the lease) However, the last little bit still had not come in, and the pastor and pastoress were puzzling, and also a bit apprehensive about meeting that huge monthly rent every month.
So, even though the door looked like it could potentially open, it was still closed. Then all of a sudden, another door opened in the building right next to the first building. And it required far less money, so they had all the funds necessary, in hand! (Plus enough to buy necessary equipment!) So they knew it was God, because they saw His fingerprint in the way He usually moved in their lives, i.e. “Wait, wait….wait….Go,go,go!”

of my husband, and the pastor of our church. He worked tirelessly today,  from sunup till way past sundown, serving our church people, without a break, barely any sustenance in the way of food (until about 8:30 at night) He did things that no one else could do, but let others do what they could do. He adjusted his expectations, and noticed when God got the victory even though I was still focusing on our mistakes. He made necessary decisions on the run, but deferred more important ones until we could get more facts. Probably preaching took less energy than anything else he did today, but he hit a home run when he spoke from John 8:31-32. He told us that the reason we get truly free by being a disciple and holding to God’s truth, is because we cease to be entangled by the world. Sometimes I get all critical of him, but today I am struck anew by his commitment to this church and the price that he pays for this flock every day. Pray for this guy, if you would.

This is exactly why it took me so long to start a blog. I knew it would be hard to keep up with, and would hang over my head and make me feel guilty, all while I avoided just doing it. Nonetheless, I shall forge on.

We got a great miracle from God about the building we want for our church! Kaz had a dream one night right around the new year that he asked the owner of the building to reduce the up-front money to $5,000.  So, armed with that encouragement , he called and talked to the realtor, who talked to the owner, and they said, “OK”!!! That is a 75% reduction in the up-front cost! He also asked them to reduce the monthly rent, but they said that is not possible, since it is already too cheap for the area. However, they did offer to roll the $600/month maintenance fee into the $2,500/month rent. Otherwise, we would have had to pay that in addition.

So the dream is alive, but we still need a miracle even for that reduced amount. If there is anyone out there who wants to give toward this goal, leave me a comment and I will give you details about how to do that.

We have many people standing with us in prayer – can you help with that too? We are cognizant of the fact that it is only possible by the power of God’s Spirit, but He is giving us a chance to participate with Him, and that is exciting. I want to see this happen so bad!

There are so many stories I need to tell from the holidays! That will just have to wait, though, as I wish you all a Happy New Year! For our New Year’s Eve, we went to the traditional party at Kanto Christian Church, where we attended for 4 years between church plants. It was fun to see all the old friends we have there.  Just before the stroke of midnight, we went around the room and let each family share their hope for the new year. The Ito family agreed – our hope is to be able to rent a building for our church! We earnestly desire to see God do this thing that is too big for us!

On the 1st day of 2009, Justin got blessed with a beautiful new guitar for his 16th birthday. Ben had just gotten a new digital camera from his winter break earnings the day before.  So we took our Ben’s old camera as a gift to bless Ben Denogean. We rejoice that the timing of the Lord is perfect, because although stopping for the guitar caused us to miss Ben Denogean, in the dropping-off process, we got to spend a couple of hours with Tim and Christine Huber, the pastor and pastoress of  Noborito Ekklesia Church. They are new friends in the ministry (introduced to us by the Colorado Vineyards – and they are having Ben Den as a short term missionary) It was so cool to hear their perspectives and strategies after 20 years working in Japan. It was also probably the only day of the year they didn’t have any plans! Again, we see Romans 8:28 at work. Also, since they are located in Kawasaki, it was a good chance to visit our adopted Japanese family who live in Kawasaki. Nice family day all around.

And then today, it is Kaz’s and my 21st wedding anniversary. Yay! Here’s to the next 21 years! I also received my Christmas present today – new tile linoleum in the kitchen! It looks like New Mexico saltillo tile, even though it is vinyl. I just love it – thanks to Kaz and Ben for installing it!

Hallelujah – My back is getting better – I can now walk upright, like a human, rather than bent over like an ape! However,  it is still painful, especially at the end of the day.

I tried two days of acupuncture for the pain, and though I didn’t like it, it may have helped, and it led to the best development of this thing so far. That is, while we were at the acupuncture place, Kaz thought he might as well get his neck worked on. He has a body like the stone guy in Fantastic Four. His muscles are always tight. He is used to it, and wouldn’t have sought out treatment for himself, even though he could barely turn his head. So he got a deep massage, had both sides of his neck popped  like a string of firecrackers, and he is feeling much better. Only now does he realize how bad it was. Another good thing is that this place takes health insurance so it only costs a few dollars/treatment.

We took Justin to the hospital on Monday and the x-rays didn’t reveal anything broken. It may be slightly cracked, or just sprained, but he should be good as new in a few weeks. He has a half-cast, held on by wrapped gauze, so he can take it off to shower. His arm still hurts when he leaves it out of the cast – still has a very nasty looking  bruise (the kind from deep trauma, not from direct contact with anything.) I also think the romance of having a broken arm has kind of worn off, so he is looking forward to recovering and playing guitar again!

This Saturday is the Caroling Concert, so thanks for your prayers that God will be glorified in Gumyoji! Sunday is the Christmas party, after church, so that day will be busy  too. I hope I can participate in everything! Merry Christmas all!

last year's caroling

We are getting hammered lately. Whether it is trial or attack, we need your prayers.  For no apparent reason at all, I hurt my low back last Wednesday, and still can barely walk, after 4 days of bed rest. My younger son broke or badly sprained his wrist on Friday night, and has a temporary cast until we can get him in to see a specialist on Monday morning. I plan to go at the same time to see if anything can be done for my back. At the same time, Kaz has had some disappointing news from within his family, and is burdened by that. Sorry we can’t give more detail than that.

Anyway, we are only 6 days away from our big Christmas caroling concert at the shopping street, and I was just crying out in frustration to God this morning (as I was missing church) – “I just want to be a part of expanding your Kingdom in Gumyoji!” Pray that I can at least participate in this event we’ve been preparing for the last few months.

Also, we’d appreciate your prayers for protection as we step out into increasingly unfamiliar territory – from trying to negotiate a place to rent for our church, to hosting a missionary family to pastoring more people with diverse needs. We are in over our heads – good thing we believe in a God who can make us walk on water! Amen.

On Friday night, Kaz and I went to a Yokohama church’s Alpha course at the invitation of David Littler (a British Vineyard friend who is planting a house church in Tokyo) for the part of the course on healing. We went along to help pray for folks.

This was our first time to an Alpha meeting, despite the fact that  I attended the church where Alpha was born when I studied in London in college.
Hopefully sometime next year, our church will be able to host one of these sessions. Usually they provide a meal, and last night we enjoyed taco rice and chocolate chip cookies, thanks to dedicated volunteers.

Anyhow, after watching the video, we had a short time to give out words of knowledge as they came to us – in preparation to pray for healing for any conditions that God would reveal. The very first word given was that of a “red door being opened.”

Instantly, my mind leapt to the image of the room that we have been praying for as a building for Pearl Vineyard. It is on the 5th floor of a building, served by an elevator that opens out straight into the room – not into a hallway or anything. And the color of that elevator’s door is red! I mean, come on, how many doors in Japan are red?!

So later in the evening, we said we thought that word was for us and we received marvelous prayer that this place would be opened up for us by the hand of God. It really felt like a divine appointment. We helped pray for others, for various things, emotional and physical healings, and enjoyed our time there greatly. Still, this word had us pondering, because we pray for this particular place every single day, but there has been no perceptible movement, no sign from the Lord, for months.

Then, this morning, when we got up, there was a letter from the NW region overseer for Japan asking us how they could handle donations to help us get the key money (the thank-you money you pay to move into a place in Japan – in this case, something to the tune of $20,000. This is just to begin renting a place.) They had an inquiry from a church about how to get some money to us! Wow – I don’t know, but maybe the Lord is up to something here. Please pray with us, for the release of a place we can rent to hold our church meetings and our school and to reach out to the community where God has placed us.

The Actual Red elevator door

This past Sunday, I had a prophetic word from the Lord for our church – a really rather unusual thing for our church and even for me.  The gist of it was this: “I am the Lord your God, and since I am Holy, this place is also Holy.  I make this place Holy by my Presence.”

This is at the community center where we meet, and have been meeting since we started a year and a half ago. The place where we can only rent for two hours, which, with set-up and tear-down,  means only a one-hour service. Yet, the Lord is saying He is comfortable in that place, because His people meet there to praise Him.

So, for a follow-up, today for the women’s prayer meeting at our house, I really felt from the Lord to emphasize that we are not looking to rent a building so that we can be a church. That we are a church now.

And even beyond that, we need to seek God for a building, not so that we can have a nice place to connect with Him and each other, but so that we can serve our community from there. This is the only reason we need to add a building to our already formed (but still in process) church.

Feels good to say that. The people who make up Pearl Vineyard are already a church.

As our little one-and-a-half-year-old church starts to grow, and as more U.S. churches send teams and start to pray for us and support us, it just seems time to have a running update for our church and family. So, welcome to my first attempt at blogging.

It is an auspicious day to start, as our attendance this morning shattered all previous records! (The official count was 36) Of course, 5 of those were the team from Colorado, but we had several newcomers who were Japanese, as well. It is so exciting for us to see this kind of momentum.

Our message was given by Bob Clifford, of the Canyon View Vineyard in Grand Junction, CO. He is the Outreach Pastor, and gave a very timely message on the Father’s Heart for the Lost, or shall we say “Missing?” Then we had a free-for-all ministry time, with prayer groups spontaneously springing up and finishing with different members going different ways, ameoba-like, all over the room. This  is the first time the community center room we use did not have enough chairs for all of us. Wow.

Our sons led worship together with Shiba-chan, and we really got into the presence of God. Today we sang “Come and Fill Me Up,” “Blessed Be the Name of the Lord,” and “Breathe.” All good stuff. The mood was good, and the little kids were very good during worship.

I will try to keep updating as the process goes along.  Keep checking back periodically.

Pearl Vineyard Church gathers to worship