3 months in 3 minutes

How can I make up for not blogging for 3 MONTHS?! Yikes, I cringe. I miss blogging and hope to update more like once a week-ish from here on it. (of course that will likely go out the window for a bit when the little guy is born!) 

So in an attempt to record various happenings, i will summarize the past 3 months as best possible. 

"Street Live" - when people from our church band jam on the streets of Osaka and we invite people to church. We've had people come to church from each of the last several. Plus, there is something really powerful about just proclaiming God's love and holiness in the city - a city that is so far from Him.

Here is Cassidy handing out the flyer for church - it has candy in it! Who wouldn't want that flyer!

Our crew for one Street Live. Praise God for teammates.

MSCC Nagoya had 2 young guys become Christians recently. I remember the night the guy in the above photo came to a house party via social media, and we all met him for the first time. 2 years later here he is.  He is also a professional muscian, and crazy talented. He helps with the worship in Nagoya, and I'm hoping he writes some Japanese worship songs!

The other baptism in Nagoya  - this young man only came to church for a few months before he decided to trust in Jesus. 

Group pic of some of the church in Nagoya after the baptisms. Pretty awesome and encouraging for us even though we aren't there anymore.

I had a "Girl's Party" at my house - we are always meeting new people and its really a lot of fun. It occurred to me that 95% of the people I know in Japan are not Christian and far from God. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to spend time with them and speak truth in their lives!

Easter 2012- we had 49 people attend our Easter Service and Party. I think 15 of them were first-time attenders. Pretty much everyone i talked to said it was their first time learning about Easter. Also, with a lot of help from Seth, I prepared all the food ( we estimated 75 people, so we had a little leftover, but it was awesome!) Our teammate ended up having to stay in the hospital with her sick son, so she couldn't lead worship - it was a crazy Sunday. So I joined the band for that day. It was a great day!

Easter 2012 - do you like our puff decorations! : )

After the service, a young guy who started coming in November was baptized! We had a big group join us for the baptism. A local church let us use their building and baptistery. It was a lot of fun, and amazing that he is now a Christian. He's also in the worship and plays drums!

Woot!

We have had lots of visitors this spring - here are Les and Sarah Evans who just signed on with MSGF and are currently support raising and preparing to move to Japan!

 Baby Philip is growing healthy and doing great! We are praising God each day for his little life and growth. I'm also getting quite big myself! Only 6 weeks left....

Seth has been making awesome animals out of foam board for us to put up on the walls in the Baby room. I'll show you the final results when we are done!

Monkey for the baby room

Seth's home church held a Skype baby shower for us!! His parents and Grandma opened the presents in front of a camera. Later when one of the ministers from Seth's church came to visit, he brought all the gifts. I can't begin to say how overwhelmed we've been with their generosity and kindness.

Seth and I love hanging out in the park during the beautiful plum and cherry blossom seasons!

In other news, my Grandfather Wulf passed away a little more than a month ago now. He was a brilliant and wise man who told fun jokes and cared a lot for his family. He is missed!

More updates to come, and much more often I hope!