Youth Write out their Future

Read a NY Times article this last week. The summary of it is that due to the economy and the growing silver generation there is nothing hopeful for the young people to find fulfilling employment or achieving a success life for their families. As shown by many polls on religious value this generation is searching for peace and spiritual fulfillment. There are not enough people sharing about the good news that can be found in…

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Hope for Unreached Rural Areas

20 centuries after Jesus said “go into all the world and make disciples”, Satan remains in unchallenged control of 1,800 of Japan’s UNCHURCHED RURAL AREAS (URAs) where only 1 in 1000 are Christian. Japan has about 1,800 foreign missionaries plus the Japanese pastors associated with 8,000 churches, yet only a disproportionately small and oft-isolated fraction work in rural areas. Few Christ followers are even consciously aware of the widespread number of spiritually-neglected URAs remaining in…

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Financial Challenges in 2010

2010 was a challenging year to be a missionary in Japan. The decline in the dollar has eroded what we need to live and work on. The dollar in 2010 went from 95 to 82 yen/$, or a decline of nearly 15%. When we came to Japan in 1985 we got over 200 yen/$ !!!! So practically a gallon of milk went from $7.79 to $9.02. Regular gas is now about $5.87 per gallon. We…

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Happy New Year

WE’RE GRANDPARENTS! Molly Elizabeth Melancen was born December 9th, coming two weeks early. Regretfully we arrived for vacation on the 13th too late to help out at the beginning. Both Beth and Molly are doing pretty well. Thanks for your prayers for a safe delivery. Pray for our very cute granddaughter that she would grow strong and learn to love Jesus. MORE CELEBRATIONS! This year, especially December, has been a year of real celebrations for…

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