Next time you whine about missing "Home"...

When my wife and I went to Mexico City in 1990-91 (we drove out of Las Vegas, NM in 1990, and didn't arrive in Mexico City until 1991), it was a whole different world, communication-wise. We didn't have a telephone, and didn't get one for several years. Telephone lines were in great demand in a city of 25 million people, and we were at the bottom of the list. A letter took from one to three months (if it even arrived at all). My mother-in-law would mail us a letter with photographs, and it would arrive over a month later, opened, stamped, sealed and re-taped. My mother would mail us a birthday card with a $10 bill tossed in, and it would arrive crisp and hermetically sealed (we called it the Mail Lottery - one just crossed his fingers and hoped!). We even went to the Telegraph Office from time to time.

Suffice it to say, our interactions with our families were few and far between. They would go for months at a time not hearing from us, wondering if we were alive, dead, in jail, or picked up by la migra (it happens...)! It was much easier for US to trust God for THEM, since they were back in the good ol U.S. of A!

On one occasion, a brother at church gave me a message that I was going to receive a phone call from my pastor at a certain time. We went to the brother's house on the day and at the time indicated. Sure enough, Pastor Fred Rubi called, and said "Tell Lisa to call her mother! She keeps calling me and asking if I've heard from you!"

 Flash forward to The Twenty-First Century - specifically 2014. My wife and I can talk to our family via NetTalk (similar to Magic Jack) any time we wish. We casually text them through HeyWire, LINE, and Google Talk (now "Hangouts"). We videochat with our kids using Hangouts or Skype. NONE OF THIS WAS POSSIBLE BACK IN THE 1990s! Sure, it's not the same as hugging, but it beats the heck out of a TELEGRAM, people!

So imagine just how blessed we feel, when people stop by JAPAN and visit us!!! What an AMAZING fellowship we have! This is our first church ever on the Japanese mainland, we've barely been here over a year, and all these people have stopped in and said hello!

  • Bob & Trish Montoya (South Korea)
  • Artie Aragon (Chinle, Arizona)
  • the Avice-Demay family (Australia)
  • our daughter Hopie (Denver, Colorado)
  • Luis (Ogden, Utah)
  • Freddie (Norfolk, Virginia)
  • Joaquin (Norfolk, Virginia)
  • sister Monde (Zambia)
When we were in Mexico and Panama, we had our four kids to keep us sane, but now that it's just the two of us on the other side of the world? GOD KEEPS SENDING US FRIENDS.........

Yesterday we hopped on the bus in Kichijoji and rode out to Narita International Airport. We met up with Robert & Ariya Santos, who are pastoring in Pearl City, Hawaii, and were on their way to the Guam International Conference. To our (happy) surprise, there were two other brothers as well (turned out they had just bumped into each other at the airport). First, we all went to the airport food court and had lunch (mostly Japanese curries all around. I had the shrimp patty sandwich, a native favorite). The other two guys could only stay for a while, and then had to catch an earlier flight out, but since Robert and Ayira had a nice, decent layover, we got to party all day long! We owned Starbucks for several hours. Those coffee jelly frappuccinos really hit the spot. Though we had never met before, it was like a reunion with old friends. They came bearing exotic treasures from the Hawaiian isles, and we gave them a Hello Kitty back-scratcher (not really)! It was an extremely refreshing time in the Lord for us. We swapped stories, photos and testimonies, and we men talked about vision and world evangelism (Really! We did!).

Time passed all too quickly, and before we knew it, we were seeing them off at their departure gate.


Be in prayer for the Guam Conference this week (as well as the Tucson Conference, of course, but many of you are probably going to be there!). The Holy Spirit stirs the heart of many a sending Pastor during conference week. Seriously - Pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send workers into the harvest field!

Japan for Jesus!



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