Or, "Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu" as they say in Japan. You can wipe it off your chin now if you tried to say that out loud!

Aileen and I have a four year old New Year's "tradition" -- going to see Mt. Fuji on New Year's Day. Japan's most famous mountain is about two hours away by car. Four years ago we went on a spur of the moment lark and barely made it, arriving at the foot of Fuji well after sunset, just in time to watch the mountain dissolve into the inky winter sky.

We had such fun that we did it again the next year. And the next. And the next.

This year we found a nice viewing spot at Lake Motosu, on the side of Mt. Fuji that faces away from Tokyo. Fuji nicely caught the pink of the setting sun. Also, Mt. Fuji is depicted on the back of Japan's 1,000 yen bill -- and we were at the spot where that original picture was made. made me feel rich, somehow!

In the car on the way home, in addition to talking about the day, we also got to talking about the coming year ministry-wise. TEAM starts its "Everyone One Hundred" campaign, BJapan and Family Forum Japan are in dire financial straits, PBA is short-handed as usual. Lots to pray for, but also lots to look forward to the Lord doing in 2010. Pray with us for a real advance in the work of all these ministries in the year ahead!

Happy New Year!

Sorry, couldn't resist (^^)

We just got word today that an old friend from church died in a traffic accident this past Sunday. Mr. and Mrs. Ozaki were part of Kotake Bible Church since it's beginning days. They retired to a small town a few years ago. Mrs. Ozaki was out walking on Sunday and was hit by a 35 year old man riding a motorcycle. She was taken to a local hospital, but had already died. Not a lot of details, but if you read Japanese there is a brief news article here. (Jan 14, 2010 Update: This link no longer works; apparently the news site keeps stories up for only a month.)

Mr. Ozaki called our church today, to tell Pastor Hojo the news. Understandably it's been a hectic week for him. The church they attend now has already held her funeral. Pastor Hojo says he sounded depressed and tired. I'm sure he would appreciate your prayers; may the Lord be his comfort in these difficult days.




Mr. and Mrs. Ozaki, from a group photo at church.

Our church, Kotake Cho Bible Church, is a typical small Japanese church. About 20 people most Sundays. We all eat lunch together afterward, and this week I was chatting with the fellow next to me, a guy in his mid-70's I'd guess.

"Well, tomorrow's the big anniversary," he suddenly says. Huh? What anniversary? "Pearl Harbor." Oh, yeah! We'd been talking about Christmas and the kids' party we're going to do -- hadn't even entered my head. "That was quite a day. It completely shocked everyone in the country." Were you old enough to realize what was going on? "Sure, it was huge news. All us kids were running around being crazy, talking about how we were going to beat up all the Americans. But the grownups all seemed subdued. Well, not everyone - my teacher was all excited, getting us all pumped up, saying how we would win this war. But my dad just shook his head over and over. He'd say, "This is wrong. It's dumb. What in the world did we attack the Americans for? Now they're our enemies and we're having a hard enough time with the war in China. What are they thinking about?"

"And over night, you couldn't listen to jazz any more. It was outlawed. But jazz was really, really popular at that time. Some college kids would sneak into basement clubs on the fringes of Ginza. The plainclothes police went in and busted them, hauled them off to jail. That's ridiculous."

Then he wanted to know if the US soldiers, then and now, get a salary. Sure, it's not a lot, but they get paid. "The Japanese soldiers didn't get any salary. They got a little pocket money - only enough to go get a couple drinks on their day off. No money to send home. It was really tough on families. Your draft number would come up, the military police would come to your door -- "Congratulations! Your father/husband has been selected to serve the nation and the Emperor. They had to bow and scrape, acting like they'd just gotten some great honor, but on the inside they were cursing the military. They took dad away, and suddenly the family has no income. Families were starving. The mothers really had to get tough. After the fathers were all taken, then they started coming back for the sons. And all these guys came home in little boxes, ash urns. The urns would come by train to the station and the families had to go pick them up. They'd walk home caring the boxes, crying, and there'd be a whole slew of us kids trailing behind. What a zoo."

One lady in the neighborhood had all three of her sons taken away on the same day. "She went kinda of crazy for awhile. You couldn't blame her." The guy sitting across the lunch table wanted to know if they came back in boxes too. "No, actually that was the darnedest thing -- all three of her boys made it back alive. That never happened. It was like a miracle..." We were all quiet for a few seconds.

"War is hell," he said. Somebody came around with a pot of coffee, filling cups and talk drifted back to Christmas decorations and party treats...

Not the sport, the restaurant!

I know I just posted about today's LifeLine; but I realized our guest was a musician. Again. Lest you think all we do are programs about musicians, let me introduce last week's program!

Polo is a natural food restaurant that was just opening a few months about by (Mr.) Genki and (Mrs.) Akiko Kudou. Akiko got interested in natural foods when she worked at a restaurant that caters to people with allergies and other food concerns. And both she and Genki were hoping to find work that would give them Sunday off so they could attend church... "We really couldn't find anything that would let us take Sunday off, and the timing seemed right, so..." Away they went.

Not doing any advertising, but word of mouth keeps them plenty busy. We followed them to church and took the service and the fellowship time afterwards so viewers could see just what this "church thing" that is so important to the Kudous is all about!

No, we're not having a crisis of faith! LifeLine this week features J-pop singer/songwriter Jinnouchi Taizou. Jinnouchi-san is a recording artist who had several hits in his early career, as well as having penned a number of well-known jingles for TV commercials. He has just released his 11th album to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his debut. (Hmmm... 20 year anniversaries are all the rage this year.)

This link will take you to a YouTube clip of the song that he's probably most well-known for.

But he is also a pastor! He was a young man going to seminary when his music got noticed. He dropped out to pursue a career with a major label. As a middle-aged man, he went back to finish seminary and has been pastoring a church since 2007.

"Where is God" is the top track of the new CD. Here is a link to a page selling the CD, which will also let you listen to bits of it.

I did a quick translation of the lyrics

Where is God? Where is God?

I pray He is near to you in that pain
Beside you in that dark loneliness

What is Love? What is Love?

If you would just notice it and hope for it
It is the Hand that wants to block the blow
It is the Hand that wants to reach out
It is the Hand that wants to embrace

I sing my song, looking up to the blue sky
I sing my song, riding the rustling winds
Maybe God is here
If only you would listen
If only you would listen

He still performs in smaller venues, and we were able to tape one of his concerts. He's a very engaging speaker as well, and his interview and testimony were a lot of fun. The viewers seemed to think so, too. Here's a bit from one email that came in through our web site after the broadcast this morning:

I saw this program for the first time today. Jinnouchi-san's talk was really interesting. From listening to Jinnouchi-san's music before I've thought I ought to try going to church sometime, but now having watched this program, I'm really interested in going!

Our followup people will get him pointed in the right direction! (^ ^)

"Dollar hits 14-year low against yen"
http://tinyurl.com/y9pn4cz


This is really hurting BJapan.

It turns out Aileen has an occasional gripe about me. I Know! Hard to imagine, but true nonetheless. One is that, in spite of being married to a photographer, she has precious few good photographs of her magnum opus. Er, opuses? Opii?

Guilty as charged. Sorry, kids -- your modeling sessions never happened.

But Mom's getting me in shape for when grandkids arrive and the other day set up a shoot with the Owen and Sarah Ames family, to take a few pictures of their newborn, Joshua Owen Ames. The Ames' are working on a new TEAM church planting effort, not too far away from where we live. This is the first step in a plan that will see several new church plants taking place in metro Tokyo. So they're dealing with two 'newborns' at the same time! Now you know what you can pray about this week.

Anyway, Joshua was a champ. Well, sort of. Nap time was right there on his schedule, but did he cooperate? Not really. Every time we took his blanket off, stuck a silly prop on him or tickled him with feathers, he woke up and started crying! And even though he knew we'd taken his diaper off, he still wet the blanket, and, um, er, (how to put this delicately?), soiled his Daddy.

But he was awfully cute. And Aileen and I had a lot of fun.

Not sure he did.

But you can judge for yourself -- his pics are here.

Well, lessee.... we got to Japan 28 years ago and started attending Kotake Cho Bible Church. In that time, our kids were born, passed around all the 'aunties' at church, grew up, moved out and got married. Aileen and I went from being wet-behind the ears kids just out of college to being one of veteran couples in the church. We've had four pastors, and even moved to a new building. BUT, we are still using the same hymnals!!

In a long overdue move, at our annual meeting last February the church decided its time to update our singing a bit with new song books, with the Big Change happening this coming January 1. This is ground-shaking stuff for most of the folk here :-)

But the recession has hit us pretty hard. Giving is way down, and barring the Lord's intervention, before the year is out we're not going to be able to pay the pastor his full salary. And with the overall small size of the church in Japan, it's hard to get 'economies of scale' going on Christian materials. The new hymnals are going to cost $40 each! (Well, $42 but let's call it an even $40).

Unfortunately, our young pastor is kinda getting himself worked up in a knot over the finances. Aileen and I plan to kick in for a good handful of the new books, but we'll need about 20 more. With this once-in-a-lifetime recession going on, it's crummy timing, but we were wondering if some folk back home might want to bless the church by buying them a hymnal or two.

If you'd like to encourage the folk here in that way, you can click the Paypal button here, which will let you use your credit card online -- pretty quick and easy. Unfortunately, we can't give you a tax-deductible receipt that way, though. If you'd like such a receipt, you can send the funds to TEAM, PO Box 969, Wheaton, IL 60187 -- put in a little note saying that it's for Selanders/Hymnals.

Hope you don't mind us asking for your help like this -- we're not trying to pressure anyone. Blessings!

With a tip o' the hat to Aretha Franklin, I gotta tell you I am respecting Aileen more than ever these days. And I'm so glad she was back at church this weekend.

As I've mentioned here before, our little church started up Sunday School again after at least a decade hiatus and Aileen and I are having fun working with it. Along with singing, a Bible story, praying and play time, Aileen has been doing an English corner with the kids, too. They eat it up.

Well, last week, TEAM sent her to Taiwan to help translate for meetings between folks from HQ in Wheaton, and Japanese missionaries. So on Sunday, I inherited the English corner!

Can you say, "disaster" boys and girls? Good, I knew you could!

Where Aileen has flawless kiddie control and has them eating out her hand, and having a ball doing it, I had said barely three words when this cherub-faced four year girl hollered, "I hate English!" and every single kid there took off running in different directions screaming at the top of their lungs. Managed to herd them back together for another attempt at a simple game using English, which merely disintegrated into more pandemonium. There was nothing to be done, but laugh. The other adult leaders were in stitches, the kids were bouncing off the walls. Time to admit defeat and chase them all outside to let them play for the rest of the time.

And there she was today, that same wild bunch of kids just putty in her hands, eatin' it all up and loving English. I am married to an amazing woman.

Can you say, "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" boys and girls? Good, I knew you could!