BJapan, one of the main ministries that I work with, has a 24/7 Christian radio broadcast over satellite channel Friendship Radio. We're also trying to be of practical help to the many small, struggling churches in Japan. I wrote up a little flyer for Back to the Bible to use in their PR efforts on behalf of BJapan. I'm also making it available here as a .pdf download. Here it is.

Please take a look at it, and if your church or S.S. class or cell group, etc., is willing, perhaps you could print up a stack of them to be handed out! Thanks so much.

Though I love living here, I gotta admit that much of Tokyo is not exactly pretty. One of the common eyesores are the tangle of electric lines that you see pretty much every where you go. But after just a short time, you start mentally blocking the mess out and don't really notice it anymore. (hmmm..., if I were a preacher I could make a sermon out of that!)

But for some reason I was looking up while walking home from church on Sunday afternoon, and noticed this huge rat's nest of wires that I was walking under. First reaction was to look to see if any pigeons or crows were up there waiting to commence target practice on unsuspecting pedestrians. Next, I noticed a little white tag way up there. A closer look warmed my heart.

It was the Usen company tag on their wire. Usen is a big media conglomerate. They started off doing cable radio, then satellite radio, and now are huge on the internet and a whole bunch of other stuff, too. BJapan's Friendship Radio is a channel on their cable and satellite system. Usen's only religious channel, and Japan's only Christian run media outlet. (Japan outlaws religious groups from owning over the air radio and TV stations; PBA, for example, has to buy their airtime from commercial stations.)

So I'm standing there, looking up, for quite a little while. Odd sight, no doubt, to all the other folk walking by. And I swear, I could almost see the electrons taking the shape of Bible messages and hymns and all, zipping through that wire at the speed of light. Go, guys, go -- get that message out! Finally got started out for home again, still kinda happy inside. Now them's some Power lines!

Kotake Cho Bible Church, the little church we attend in the neighborhood, has not had a Sunday School since our two kids (now in their twenties) 'graduated.' No kids.

But our new young pastor and his wife have a 4 and 6 year old, and we've decided it's time to re-start our Sunday School. They have friends and pre-school and first grade, so conditions are good. So with the start of the new school year (April, in Japan) we have relaunched Sunday School. At first it was just the pastor's two kids, but friends have come and we've had as many as 8! One young mother faithfully brings her two, a boy and a girl. She says she wants them to get grounded in moral training that she never got herself.

Pray with us that through our little Sunday School, kids would have a chance to come to know their savior!

Aileen and I are both involved, and every week I am amazed anew at how good Aileen is with kids. Our two were lucky to have such a great mom!

This past April was a huge milestone for us. We're celebrating the 20th anniversary of the LifeLine TV program!

Most of you know that I'm the main cameraman for LifeLine, as well as do some editing and handle a lot of the tech side of the production. It's been a lot of fun to reminisce and look back at all that God has done over the years. One mini-shock has been realizing that with the recent retirements of two of our TV staff, I've been longer at PBA than anyone else on the TV crew. As I was regaling two of our young'uns with stories of the good old days, I realized one of them was 4 years old when we started LifeLine -- man, that took the wind out of my sales and I suddenly felt like an old geezer!

But this year, on top of normal production, we're also conducting various meetings around the country in the cities we broadcast in. The churches that sponsor the local broadcasts are hosting these meetings -- sometimes 'Thank You" celebrations for the churches and believers who have supported and used the program, and sometimes "Viewer Rallies" that let the viewers come meet the on-air personalities, etc., and that also have an evangelistic message worked in.

We wanted to do something new and unusual, something that would give folk another reason to come to these meetings. We've had a lot of Christian artists on the program, so we decided to ask past guests to loan us their artwork and we're putting on a traveling art show. The project has turned into my baby, and while it's been a lot of work, it's been pretty rewarding as well. We've done the art show in three locations so far. Next one is this coming Saturday (June 27). Lots of people have enjoyed it.

The page is in Japanese, but here is a link to LifeLine's web site and the page that lists the artists that have loaned us their work. There are also video clips of each artist's LifeLine program -- again in Japanese, but it will give you an idea of how these artists create their work and also give you a glimpse of the program we've been sent over here to create!

We'll have more posts on LifeLine's 20th as events unfold over the year.