Resolved:

So last night I was reading Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions and a couple really hit me so I thought I'd share them with you.

1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God's glory and to my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, withthout any consideration of the time, whether now or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how ever so many and how ever so great.

2. Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die

3. Resolved, to examine carefully and constantly what that one thing in me is that causes me in the least to doubt the love of God; and so direct all my forces against it.

4. Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of them.

5. Resolved, to ask myself at the end of every day, week, month, and year, wherein I could possibly in any respect have done better.

6. Resolved, never henceforward till I die, to act as if I were any way my own, but to act entirely and altogether as God's...

7. Resolved, never to allow the least measure of any fretting uneasiness at my father or mother. Resolved to suffer no effects of it, so much as in the least alteration of speech, or motion of my eye (ooo hard): and to be especially careful of it with respect to any of our family--Ok family....I'm gonna need help with this one.

8. Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to deny whatever is not most agreeable to a temper that is good, and universally sweet and benevolent, quiet, peaceable, contented and easy, compassionate and generous, humble and meek, submissive and obliging, diligent and industrious, charitable and even, patient, moderate, forgiving, and sincere; and to do at all times what such a temper would lead me to. Examine strictly every week, whether I have done so.

9. Resolved, constantly, with the utmost niceness and diligence and with the strictest scrutiny, to be looking into the state of my soul, that I may know whether I have truly an interst in Christ or not; that when I come to die, I may not have any negligence respection this to repent of.

10. I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live if they were to live their lives over again. Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age.

11. Resolved, to improve every opportunity, when I am in the best and happiest frame of mind, to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in Him, and consecrate myself wholly to Him; that from this I may have assurance of my safety, knowing that I confide in my Redeemer.

ALMOST DONE....

12. Resolved, very much to exercise myself in this all my life long, that this, with the greatest openness I am capable of, to declare my ways to God, and lay open my soul to Him: all my sins, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, hopes, desires, and everything, and every circumstance...

13. Resolved, to confess frankly to myself all that which I find in myself, either infirmity or sin; and, if it be what concerns religion, also to confess the whole case to God and to implore needed help.

14. Resolved, always to do that which I shall wish I had done when I see others do it.

That's a lot to live up to ...... but I'll do my best to do these with a cheerful attitude. Any help will be much appreciated. God Bless
More to come later....computer still broken....I need to figure out whats wrong with it.

Lessons Learned so Far

Lesson # 1
Never say you don't like something until you know for sure that you don't like it.
On Saturday we went out for tempura. The menu was interesting (i couldn't read anything so I had to order just by looking at the pictures) I had shrimp, egg plant and green beans. It was actually pretty good. The food has been pretty good. We had salmon twice at the Tanokura's house. Not my favorite but eatable. :)

Lesson # 2
If all else fails, nod and smile nod and smile...oh and bow a lot.....(Thanks Mrs. Robison!)

Lesson # 3
This is the hardest by far to remember:
Home is where the heart is. Let me explain. I've been very homesick lately as most of you know but I know everything is ok. People keep reminding me that I'm not alone and that I with Family, not blood family, but family that's even closer because we are the church. I seem to keep forgetting that.

You know those stupid quiz things that ask like your interests and heroes and whatever else? Well I always put God in those areas. But I'm quickly finding that it must not be true. I mean yes God is my hero but if I truly believed that then I wouldn't feel so alone or sad. I'm starting to believe that and live like He is. Its hard but its also the only way I'm going to get through these next 5 weeks. The first week is the hardest (I hope) and its over.

My mom always tells me to think of Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in ALL your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.

Step one: TRUST
Step two: ACKNOWLEDGE
Step three: Enjoy!!

I know I keep saying I'll post pictures so Let me dig up a few:


This is the church sign....

This is the food I've had so far:

Tempura

Udon (SP?)

At the Takahashi's (sorry I still don't know how to spell it):

The first night we had this quiche thing with salad and steak. Maki made it and it was sooo good. The second night we had:

Tacos! Maki is a REALLY good cook :)

Well the picture won't load so I'm not sure what to do...anyway...
Everything is coming along great. I don't want to show too many pictures cause I want to surprise you guys with the slideshow at church...

Hope you enjoyed this post. More to come later.

God Bless!

First couple days....

So this is our second official day and its pretty cool so far. I spent the first night at the Tonokura's last night. That was interesting...not in a bad way of course :) None of them speak very good english but its so cool that they're trying! They all are so sweet! Yesterday for lunch we went to a Curry house. It actually (to my surprise) was very good. Today we went to a Tempura place and again was pretty tasty. I had shrimp, eggplant and green beans with pasta stuff and some barley tea.....I'm kinda liking this Japanese food :) So today we went over the english lessons and are kinda hanging out until 2 when two ladies are coming for a lesson with Mrs. Takahashi and we're going to watch. Mrs. Tonokura is one of the ladies. She wants to learn more english so she can talk to me (she's so sweet). Tomorrow we have church and a welcome lunch. Matt, Kai and I are going to teach Sunday School. Monday we're going to the Emporer's Palace and to a Buhddist Shrine thing....interesting. Yoshiet said the Shinto and Buhddist people are ok with every religion but they don't choose Christianity because we are so exclusive only believing in one true God. It is so sad to see so many people here without Christ. Out of 1,000 people only 4 profess Christ but only 2 go to a Bible believing church. I'll post some pictures later...i'm not on my computer right now. So english lessons start on Tuesday. I get to "teach" Mrs. Hatomi and Tomo (both are fluent in english they just want practice) and then I have one student with I think two children who is a beginner. Its going to be a fun trip! I'll post another update as soon as something else exciting happens. Feel free to leave comments....Japanese kids are soooooo cute! love you guys!!!

We Made It!

Hey everyone....sorry this is gonna be a short post....

We're here and now its time for orientation to begin so I'll post soon but we're safe and sound!
God Bless

The Day Before Take Off

Well we finished our shopping and now all we can do is wait. Wait for everything God is going to do in our lives in the next 6 weeks; wait for all the mistakes we will make and all the success hopefully to come; wait to see lives changed and God up close and personal; but first wait for our take off. I've held all my feelings inside for the past month and I've tried to just trust God to take all the fear, worry, anxiety, and stress away and fill me with peace....and unsurprisingly that's exactly what He has done. He never fails to give me that peace when I need it the most. Yes I'm scared...to death....but I know for a fact that God is with me wherever I go and that even though I am scared and even though I'm going to an unknown place for a long time, He is still guiding my every step and knows exactly what is going to happen down to the next move I make. I am so extremely excited about all the things that we are going to be doing. Matt told me today that I might (most likely) be a camp counselor for the 4 days at the english camp. I was SO happy! Just pray that works out and that I can be a real example for the kids I'll be with. Both Beth and I are nervous about the flight because of motion sickness and a little worried about not being able to stay at the same houses but its going to work out and we are going to learn a lot from it. I just want to before I say goodbye, thank all of you who have never stopped praying for me from the first time I mentioned Japan and who have done everything in your power to help me get to this point. You know who you are and I love you guys! I can't wait to see what God is going to do in my life and in the lives of my team members and also in your lives while I'm gone! HE IS FAITHFUL!!!
God Bless! Have an awesome summer and don't forget to pray :)

Magic Mountain

This was by far one of the most stressless day of my life. Is stressless a word? Now it is...
It started out by meeting Sara and her sister Emily and her friend Jen at In-N-Out to carpool up to Six Flags. When we got there it was hot but beautiful and we had high hopes for the day.

We got the gate and headed to Goliath. We expected to wait for about an hour because it was already about 12 pm and all the rollercoaster-addicts were already there...minus four...us of course. So we get to the line and NO ONE IS THERE!!! We walked through the entire line in less than 5 minutes then we got the top and there was about a 2 minute wait. Then the fun comes. As we're going up Sara commands me to keep my hands up through the whole ride. That's where I draw the line....NOT!! She held my hands up and at first I thought my life was over...but then it was fun. So since the line was so short we went on again!Another 5 minute wait and we have the thrill of a lifetime... again. This was the beginning to a perfect day. After Goliath we went over to Colossus. There was quite a wait for that but we figured since we just got on two rides in less than 15 minutes it was well worth the wait. We hit Scream, Batman twice, Riddler's Revenge, Ninja, Viper twice, and X. Sara never let us forgot how good that day was because of the constant reminder of her last trip where she only rode 4 rides the whole day. We got 11 rides in 6 hours.

That was the end to the perfect day.
Here's a couple of pictures of the rides we got on....

Look at the drop on that!!!

My new least favorite ride...it was SOOOO jerky I got a headache.

This one was fun....but we went on it twice in a row and we paid dearly for it...headaches all around...we took a small break after this one
Oh Yeah!!!
The classic....just plain fun.... What could be better??