Sunday, September 18, 2011

Youth Mission Trip

Misawa's PYOC/Cross Training (Protestant Youth Group) took another trip to Miyako. Their mission was to take 1000 kilos of rice down to the area, and to play with kids - displaying the love of Jesus in action to an area stricken by the earthquake/tsunami. 


They ran into an unexpected delay on the way down. Evidently the rice got the better of the tire. LOL

The kids amused themselves while waiting.  (Nolan in green, Arielle in tie dye and Jared in the brown.)

Unloading rice in Miyako.

At the school the kids played ball.....



...worked on crafts...


...told a Bible Story, Lance speaks Japanese.....
  
Miss Kim to the right is the kid's youth leader and is really getting them involved in some great things. 


and loved on kids.  (Jared has a new friend)

We wondered, as we were shaking so often here in Misawa, if they would be feeling them even more as they were "in the zone."  The kids report that they didn't feel them at all. LOL 


Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Intimate Delight

"Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of the term. But exposition may be carried on in such way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and  unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts. " 

A.W. Tozer, "The Pursuit of God," p 9-10. Emphasis mine.

We can fall into several errors towards the Word.

  • Devalue it's place in our life and base our "faith" totally on emotion, others words, and experience
  • Become focused on a didactic knowledge of the Word and fail to be spiritually nourished by it
The Word of God is meant to
  • Be a conversation with God
  • Introduce us to God
  • Nourish us
  • Assist in our transformation into His image
  • Provide a pattern for life
  • Wash and cleans us
  • Correct us
  • Reprove us
  • Teach us 
  • Train us in righteousness
  • Equip us for every good work to which He calls
  • Give us great peace
  • Keep us from stumbling and being offended as we surrender to the Lord of the Word

We must avoid either neglecting the Word or treating the Word like an academic subject. We need to approach the Word expecting to hear from the God of the Word. We need to learn to practice conversational/relational reading of the Word. As we do our "Bible study" truly will become an intimate delight.

May your Bible study bring you great intimacy and delight, may you be nourished, fed, changed by the time you spend with God interacting with His message to you.


Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

RAINY SUNDAY

Last night I prayed I would not be awaken by shaking....funny thing is at 04:44 I came WIDE AWAKE....sure there was a


in my bedroom.   I am using a new ap  - Textfree. It's great. I chose a stateside number and now I can text my folks and the kids FREE - and they can text back. I wasn't sure it was needed - we DO have Skype and Facebook....but thought it would be fun to try. The kids really like being able to text...it's that sort of society. So....since the iPad is always chirping at me, I wanted distinct sound to go off when I received a text. I chose a mooing cow....and at 04:44 I discovered I'd forgotten to turn off the volume on the ipad. LOL


Today was the first day back to RE (Sunday School) for the fall. Everyone enjoyed their new classes....from Stacia to myself.

I volunteered in our services 3 & 4 year old ministry today. I started the day teaching an adult class on parenting and then moved to loving on the younger set.

I was very proud of Zander who chose to stay in the service and sit with Ch and Jenn R rather than come play in the nursery!

It's been raining all day.....and I really do enjoy the sound of rain. I also love snuggling up at home.  We decided to grab some lunch and then head home to spend the day "inside".

The Lakeview Grille is on base. It overlooks the lake and is a great spot to sit and visit. It's usually quite quiet. We wanted quiet today - or at least I did. LOL I love their gourmet garlic chicken pizza. I'm lucky Jared does too - we manage to finish a pizza off between the two of us. LOL 

We stopped by the Post Office and discovered several school texts had arrived. Stacia was the most excited. While the rest of us worked on lesson plans, printed out lapbook material etc...she worked on explode the code. She wants to finish the book she's on so she can start the next ones.  I discovered a grievous gap in her education. 

"I'm thinking of something that is sent in the mail. A person writes a message on paper and puts in an envelope with a stamp on it."

She thought. "A package email?" (We usually get packages when we stop at the post office. Most our mail comes MPS...no stamps).

No. 

"A newsletter." 

"Warm."  ::grin::  

Arielle visited with friends outside. 

The younger two romped around a bit outside. 

Jared and I stayed focused on school. 

Mike Skyped. We miss him. 

I worked on a few SMALL conference projects. 

And we shook - at least a couple of times this afternoon - 5.9 and 4.9. 


I AM going to try to keep the blog up a bit more regularly once again. I've slowed down for several reasons - TIME, a few intense things to work through which I didn't feel should be shared, Facebook seduction....but I've realized anew this is a Family Keepsake and I need to give it more time than the quick bursts of "socializing" on Facebook. 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...