Finish Line

Here we are back in Tokyo for the last time.  We are wrapping things up and soon to come home.  It is Sunday afternoon and we are lounging around at Cliff and Marg's place before we head home on Tuesday.  We will leave here around 6PM and arrive in Edmonton around 4:15 on Tuesday, wow wouldn't it just  be quicker to go in reverse two hours?!?  It will be a long of travelling but we will have some good friends at the other end as we will head into Camrose to spend a few days before I return up to FSJ for Easter weekend.  This Friday was Marg's birthday and we celebrated if with lot's of laughter as there usually is when we are together with them.  We have been so blessed by Cliff and Marg whilst here in Japan.  She has done a good chunk of the cooking for us since Phil and Sue left a while back.  The Lord has been at work in my life over these last few months.  This trip has been a good get-away for me to slow down, put alot of business aside and start reprioritizing my life.  

I have been on the go now straight from one thing to the next for the last few years, and I believe this time has been a blessing from God to straighten out some of the bad habbits I have developed while never having a steady lifestyle to count on.  Since We came and even long before, God has been stressing the importance of prayer on my life.  I realized I was preaching prayer so it has been time to pull up my bootstraps and start prying more regularly.  I have begun to do a more deliberate morning prayer and devotion.  This has been a bit tough for those of you who know me I'm sure you've figured out I love mornings....... But it has been going well none the less.  Daily prayer and readings in the word are what ground us to our convictions and commitments for the Lord.  This has been an amazing trip for Flo and I and PS we still are friends after spending everyday together since January 10.  I am so glad the Lord and Flow have given me the opportunity to broaden my horizons and come to Japan. 

 In case your anxiously wondering about what we got done with the cabin I will now inform you.  Flo worked on many different cabins during our stay.  He tiled beautiful entry ways in about half a dozen cabins and a hearth around Cliff's firplace which had to be ripped out after Kerosine spilled all over the floor soaking into the wood and needing replacing.  As far as cabin 5 I am happy with what we accomlished.  It is not finished yet and there will be a fair amount of work to come but my goal has been accomplished.  When we started and through out much of the rebuilding process there was never a fine line on what needs to be done, it just does.  So my main objective if nothing else was to get the cabin to a place where, when we leave the people after us can just finish it without trying to figur out how and where and what would be done. 

We insulated using a variety of North American and Japanese insullation.  There were many different types of walls and ceiling spacing, some 16" oc and some 2' oc and some 18" oc center which was actually a spacing in Metric, all this just to use up as much materials that they already had as possible.  We put a nice Laminated Beam in and I wanted wood ceilings so that the beam could be finished and tie in with the rest of the ceiling.  It worked out beautifully.  I used prefinished Ceader T&G for the ceiling I love it!  The Next person will do all of the drywall and then the finishing.  This will most likely be in the charge of Nate our new friend.  He was here for a few months earlier this winter and has now returned to spend 1 year taking over Randy's old job running the rebuilding of Team Center cabins.  He is a young guy like us and we had a great last week as we got to know him.  One last Onsen last Wednesday before coming to Tokyo this weekend, wonderful as always. 

Dear supporters you have been such a huge blessing to Flow and I as we have glided through our Time in Japan.  Your prayers have made all the difference here.  There is much God is doing here and there is much he will do in the future please continuing for the salvation of the Japanese people.

Love Josh

Paul Brandt is quoted as saying "all you are, is who you've been".  Who are you? And what will you be known for?  This is a question that apears to be posted all around our world.  Everyone is trying to make a difference in one way or another but in the end what is many of their concerns. People will say;  I want to make an impact on the world, society, someone!  All they hope for is that somebody will remember them for good, and that their short existance on our "lonely planet" will not have been spent in vain.  The question that has really been impacting me lately is:  What is hope?  Do you have it?  I rest assured my salvation has given me heaven that awaits me once I pass from this earth.  I wonder and struggle with the fact that so many are willing to continue in an oblivious state, stumbling around refusing to think beyond the simple gratifications of the flesh and the now.  Where is the sense of meaning?  Why are people so concerned with the fact of right and wrong yet simply believe that it is merely human tendancy to want to do good.  This doesn't appear easy nor does it serve any purpose besides the satisfaction that comes from praise of man.  In a world so filled with hopelessness how many are actually willing to listen to a word that brings hope and meaning to a life that is otherwise tainted with the wrongs of humanity.  And beyond the simple questions comes a much tougher one.  Who will be so bold as to allow the Holy Spirit to empower them and deliver this great news of hope?  What use are we unless we are fulfilling our purpose defined by our Creator.
God Bless
Josh

Peace and the pursuit of Hope

Hi Everyone

Just a few hours ago Josh and I dragged our tired butts from the train station up to our cabin in Karuizawa after another 8 hours in the Shinkansen (bullet train). Our grand total is now 36 hours spent in trains in the last 7 days, and many thousands of kilometers under our belts. Travelling on the Shinkansen however is very relaxing, it's like sitting on a plane, even the cabin is pressurized to avoid ear popping. Even though we never got to ride the fastest shinkansen (Nozomi) ours still hit an impressive speed, nearly 300km/h

For the second leg of our trip Josh and I chose the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to explore. First on our list was Hiroshima. Our first thoughts after pulling into the station were "this looks just like every other city we've been to" but we soon realized that this is a very different city than most in Japan. The streets are much wider, and the layot has a very western feel. The first spot we visited was the A-bomb dome, museum, and peace park. I must explain: The A-bomb dome used to be the Hiroshima government building, and it's preserved ruins is the only thing left of the city from before 1945. The only reason it survived was because it was located almost directly beneath the hypocenter of the explosion 580m overhead.

The museum was an extremely sobering experience for me, but also a very eye opening one. In it we saw wreckage from the bomb, pictures from before and after, many sickening photographs, and even a stone staircase with the image of a human being burned into it from the intense heat. In the park there is also a burial mound with the unidentified remains of 70,000 people in it, including Koreans, Chinese, Austrailians and Americans from the POW camp that unbeknown to the A-bomb target comittee was in the city at the time of the bombing.

While in Hiroshima we also took a ferry over to the island of Miyajima, Where we saw the famous "shrine on the water" which appears to be floating during high tide. On that Island there are also countless other shrines and high places, and Josh and I contemplated the hoplessness of these man-made temples and idols. A passage in the Bible also came to mind: "Acts 17:22-23 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you." The reason this came to mind is that daily we witness the worship of gods, ancestors, animals, and plants, and yet none of these things bring any kind of certainty of salvation, and to top it off Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Very very sad,

At the end of our trip we went to Nagasaki, which was definately one of the most amazing places we have been to yet. It is grand harbor city with amazing views and big ships. There we also visited the A-bomb museum, getting yet another perspective on the depravity of mankind. The most horrible thing I saw there was a the bones of a human hand embedded in a melted bottle.

Nagasaki is also the birthplace of Christianity in Japan, and the site of the Crucifixion of 26 believers. Even here satan has been allowed to pervert the truth as they have a shrine to worship these martyrs instead of their Lord that they served to their bitter end.

Well tomorrow it's back to the grindstone, Thank you for your prayers, we had an incredible trip.

-Flo

The Great White North

Hi everyone!

This week Josh and I are vacationing, and just got back from part one of our trip. On Friday we left Tokyo and took a bullet train and some other trains north to the island of Hokkaido. On the way up there we stopped by the seaside for a while, and then took a very small (1 car) local train through the middle of nowhere to the resort where we were going snowboarding. Upon arrival, the owner of our lodge (an austrailian) picked us up from the station, and really went the extra mile to make us feel comfortable and give us helpful advice. The first thing we noticed about Hokkaido was the vast amounts of snow! I don't think I have ever seen it to these epic proportions! In some places the snow was banked up 10 feel on either side of the road, and I saw several old buildings that had simply collapsed under the load.

The next morning our host dropped us off at the foot of the lift, and our amazing day began. Unfortunately the snow was not fresh, but because of the fact that we had a pass that allowed us to board 3 different connected ski areas we soon found some great, relatively fresh runs through the trees. Towards the end of the day we went to the board park and watched part of a slopestyle competition, which was pretty impressive. When we got back, our host and 5 other austrailian guests invited us to go out for supper with them, which we really enjoyed. They were a super fun group. And as we had the night before, we enjoyed our favorite part of Japan, the hot springs.

In the last little while I have been having a bit of a tough time, but I am learning that Got loves me so much, he is bigger than my problems, and He loves to give good gifts. When we were at the ski hill we prayed for snow, in the morning we got a dump, then we prayed for clear skies so we could enjoy the view, He also gave us that. I am also so thankful that I am surrounded by great people, My great friend Josh, Cliff and Marg, and the other great people I have met along the way. Well tomorrow it's off to Hiroshima, and then Nagasaki, so until next time!

Sayonara!
-Flo 

Springtime mud

Hi everyone!

This week has been quite a blur for me. Josh and I have been working separately all week because we had a big fight and..........Just kidding! I have been doing tile work in some of the other buildings while Josh has been finishing up the interior framing in our project cabin. It's been really good to do what I am good at for a while, and Cliff gave me freedom to be creative, so I have been doing each project slightly different. This week has been an absolute mud battle, all the snow has melted and there is black mud everywhere. It's been great having Cliff around again, and the 3 of us went to the onsen (hot springs) again yesterday. I don't know what I am going to do to soothe my sore muscles when I get back to Canada and don't have a hotspring so close by. We are truly blessed to be serving God in such an amazing place.

Tomorrow Josh and I are riding down to Tokyo with Cliff where we will begin our epic 7 day adventure all over Japan. While we were still planning our trip to Japan Josh and I purchased 7 day rail passes which are only available to nonresidents. These will enable us to take trains wherever we want for that amount of time. We have decided that first we are going up north to hokkaido for a day of snowboarding some apparently amazing snow. Then we are travelling back south to the 2 cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and will hopefully stop in Kyoto for a few hours on the way back to Tokyo.

So dear friends you can pray for Josh and I that we won't get lost, or hurt, or robbed while we are adventuring this next week

Thanks for praying

-Flo