Japan's 'evaporated people'….

Japan's 'evaporated people' have become an obsession for this French couple | Public Radio International "More than anything else, they’re driven underground by a profound sense of shame. Mauger admits she struggled to understand that perspective." One young person commented, “At the beginning you say, well, it’s just an exam. No ... but I couldn’t tell my parents that I failed.”

Another article on Japan's Missing People: On the Trail of the Johatsu | Time.com

Good articles on the Sexual Ethics, Sleep, Darwinism & Suffering

Why Is God's Sexual Ethic Good for the World? - YouTube. "Sin hardens the heart," Rosaria Butterfield. Personal purity is also for our good and joy. More by Rosaria Butterfield. Should Evangelicals Evolve on Homosexuality? How To Care For Your Gay Neighbor. Rosaria Butterfield on What Most Surprised Her about Christians When She Became One. Why Is God's Sexual Ethic Good for the World? What Christians Just Don't Get About LGBT Folks. N T Wright on Gay Marriage - YouTube

Jesus Died to Redeem Our Sleep | Christianity Today Bushnell is quoted. “When a man’s capacity, full spent in good, comes to its limit, and conscience audits the reckoning of its hours, to fall back into God’s sole keeping, and be recruited by unconscious rest in his bosom, is the true Christly sleep, at once a natural bestowment, and a supernatural gift.”

What Your Biology Teacher Didn’t Tell You About Charles Darwin In Japan Darwinsim is also taught blindly. Also, When a Secular Palaeoentomologist (and the Spokesman for the Darwin Museum Exhibit) Began Reading Intelligent Design Literature | TGC

Two articles on a topic we'd like to avoid. SUFFERING. Christianity Promises Suffering and Persecution: Here's How to Prepare - International Mission Board, The Cross; The Way to Endurance - Tim Keller - YouTube, The Cross-Resurrection Contradiction | The Exchange | A Blog by Ed Stetzer. Kayla Mueller, martyred for her faith at the hands of Islamic State militants, is quoted. "I will always seek God. Some people find God in church. Some people find God in nature. Some people find God in love; I find God in suffering. I’ve known for some time what my life’s work is, using my hands as tools to relieve suffering."

Please pray for our Coptic brothers….

Please pray for our Coptic brothers and and sisters in Egypt as 45 were murdered on Palm Sunday. There is truly a war on Christianity.

"The apostles went away rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ, that they were graced so far as to be disgraced for the name of Christ!" Thomas Watson

Matthew 5:10-12, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

"Show no partiality"

Prime Minister Abe’s seems to be a racist in every way, and it is affecting Japan. Abe's racism was formed in his childhood, where the roots of Abe's conservatism go deep. The U. S. A. is also partly guilty of Japan's present extreme nationalism. Abe's grandfather was Kishi Nobusuke, a class A war (WW2) criminal. Abe gets his world view from his grandfather, and the U.S.A. backed him. All this has recently been exposed further in Abe's relationship with a racist and nationalist called Kamoike. Abe's world view is affecting Japan as a whole. Japan racism survey reveals one in three foreigners experience discrimination. The goverment also will be allowing the use of Hitler’s Mein Kampf in Japanese schools and also the Imperial Rescript which supported militarism and nationalism as 'teaching material.' under the Emperor who was said to be a god. We must not be naive about the present Japanese government. We must also speak out, if we truly love Jesus, the Japanese people and their future. 

James 2:1, "My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory."

Naho & I

March 24th, Naho and I at Kua'aina restaurant (Karuizawa Prince Shopping Plaza). Great hamburgers! (The kids are with us but don't want their picture uploaded.) 

April 2nd, we celebrated our 19th anniversary last Sunday! Thank you Naho for everything!

April 22nd, Naho and I enjoyed the cherry blossoms at Jyoyama Park.

Dad

Dad is real special. He and Mom (who is with the Lord) faithfully served here in the Matsumoto Valley for almost 50years. He lives in a nursing home near my sister Ruthi in Petoskey, MI. Thanks Ruthi for all you do for Dad.

More loved

“The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” Dr. Timothy Keller

1 John 3:1, "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are…."

・Beholding the Love of God – Timothy Keller [Sermon] - YouTube
・The Struggle for Love – Timothy Keller [Sermon] - YouTube
・Love and Lust – Timothy Keller [Sermon] - YouTube