I do a fair amount of programming for both PBA and BJapan. There's a new web scripting language that I've been wanting to test, so when he sent out the list of verses to everyone, I made my first project with the scripting language a web-base Scripture Memory Calendar. Take a look at it here; any feedback appreciated!

Oh, and even if you're not part of the Seely/Crum/Ogden/Wilson clan, feel free to use the calendar to memorize verses this year :-)

Aileen teaches English at a famous private school founded by a Christian educator nearly 100 years ago. The school is still nominally Christian, and many - though by no means all - the students and faculty come from a Christian background. She pours on the TLC for all these kids going through the angst of Jr. High. She's also a fun teacher and very popular with the kids and administrators. (And she was at school past 8 p.m. tonight, getting all the final tests marked and grades for the semester turned in. Yep, the school year ends in March in Japan.)

You can see her kids having a blast in pictures I've linked to here. As part of her English lessons, she teaches facets of US culture that she thinks the kids would find interesting. Not surprisingly, the idea of Halloween makes a big impact on the kids. "You mean you can just walk up to people's homes and they'll give you candy?!?!? Whoa!!!" Last October, Aileen took a bunch of dollar store props for the kids to use for their costumes. As you can see, it was a smashing success....


(You can also click this photo to get to the album...)

So here it is March 1, and at church we've been using our new hymnbooks for a full two months now! Want to say a special "Thank you" to those of you who helped purchase these for the church.

The hymnals are nice -- full of the old traditional standbys along with a good dose of more recent melodies and worship songs. Anybody up for a chorus of "Amazing Grace?!"

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!

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.

"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...

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!