Does it make a difference?

Our pastor challenged us to not just bring more people into the church, but serve the world outside the church. "Rejoice with those who are rejoicing, and mourn with those who mourn "歓ぶ人たちと共に歓び，泣く人たちと共に泣きなさい" - Romans 12:15

We've talked often about how much fun it's been connecting to our neighbors, and this has meant more than just the couple next door, or the family above us. It's incluced the neighbor who owns the cleaners down the street,who Geneva now pounds on the glass to say "Hi!" - SO maybe we have this rejoicing part down.

He even has his own poster

Our local taiyakiman!
aka: Sterling's guilty pleasure.

It means the taiyaki guy(street vendor) who knows Sterling's custom order.   It also means the family across the street, the Tasaki Family. This fall, we've really become close with them.  They want the girls to call them "Jiji, and Baba" as they've taken them in as their local grand daughters.

On Dec 31st, as I raced home from the hospital, I saw our neighbors the Tasakis.  They regularly spoil Geneva and Elise with treats and kindness.  They have taken in the girls as their own grand-daugters.  It’s been a tough year for them, and we pray for them often.  But ‘does that matter’?  A friend, Eric Takamoto, encouraged me to REALLY pray over your neighbors.  So every time we walk past their home, we pray for God’s healing in their lives.

That cold New Year’s Eve night, I saw Mr. Tasaki unloading his car. I turned around to wish him a Happy New Year!  He was startled to hear a voice in the dark.  I told him as best I could about Elise. He understood and knew what she had.  We talked as it’s been a hard season for them, and exchanged warm wishes for next year.  He asked if I’d pray -  He’s never done this.Tokyo men are usually far too stoic to pray together publicly. I looked at him and asked “now?” He nodded. So I prayed for everything that we’d been praying over the last two years: Their son, their grandson, their daughter, his wife, and for our friendship.  Also, that God would hear their voice, and to understand God’s voice and for Elise to be safe. My heart was pounding both with nervousness and from riding my bike.  AMEN! 

We looked up. There were tears in Tasaki’s eyes. With 15 minutes left in 2014 I saw how prayers matter - they are an extension of hearts connected through God. Your prayers too  connect in ways that really matter to our community.

The Tasaki's invited us over for dinner this week.
They really love the girls

Sometimes even we ask "God do our prayers make a difference?" Yes! without a doubt!

Ministry Events

Enjoying the fall colors at the nearby Show Kinen Park

Ministry Events: A2 Mission & Family Camp. One of the things our family has been praying for was deeper connections with our church  and community this year.  We have seen meaningful developments on both fronts lately. To start our fall, our family went to an all mission gathering in Fukushima-ken.  (This is about 40 minutes from Fukushima city, and well outside the evacuation zone from the radiation.)  The theme was ‘building our own’ and our organization took a long weekend to cross-train and dialogue about God’s work in Japan. I (Sterling) volunteered my services with the middle school mission kids, and it brought me back to my Youth Ministry time in SF and WI. Emi had a challenging time with a teething Elise, but she continues to enjoy connecting with our missionary families as head of the Missionary Care Team.

We stayed at a National Sports Ministry Center, which meant morning flag ceremonies at 7AM, and rajiotaiso - a time honored set of calastenics to iconic 50’s music.  Also at the facility were university sport clubs, middle school clubs, and various groups. After the morning stretches, each of the groups would make announcements in Japanese. Geneva and the other mission kids made quick friends with the other clubs. One morning we saw Geneva do the announcements for the Sendai University Ski Club in Japanese! It seemed like just yesterday she was three and now she’s in college (kind of).

Emi was amongst the final 6 of 300+ people playing
 Paper-Rock- Scissors. She and Elise WON! and then
she had to make speech in Japanese. 

Geneva doing the morning announce-
ment for the university ski club.

When it was time to leave, her new friends Misaki and Ai-chan, came and said good-bye to Geneva and her A2 friends.  The students said they didn’t realize Christians could be so much fun.  Well, it was just the beginning to a great set of surprises.

The next weekend, our church, KBC, went to the mountains for the first all-church gathering in some 15 years.  Many friends worked very hard to make this camp happen, but KBC asked Sterling to do the ice-breaker games. I think they kind of knew what they were getting into. 

Laughing with Yonai Sensei at KBC Camp.

We played “Do you want to build a snowman?” to play off the unprecedented popularity of Disney's Frozen. The game was a trick to wrap up our Japanese friends in toilet paper. Like many things, the Japanese elevated the snowman to much more than just a carrot and a smile. We had a Japanese Bride (right), a snow princess, and a Chiquita Banana snowman! We enjoyed connecting deeper with KBC.

KBC friends transform Gun-chan into a Japanese-style
 Snow Bride.

Yuri and Kaoru transform Geneva into a snow princess.

A2-SIM Strategic Partnership

The major reason we came home this summer was to attend missionary training in Charlotte, North Carolina.  

Emi shares our families calling at Chapel Time

Sterling and Nick Riddle practice the Evanga-CUBE. The Riddles are serving in Nigeria at a medical clinic

At one of our church events, someone asked, “do you guys do everything in partnernships?” I realized that YES- everything; ministry, marriage, parenting, language learning is done in partnerships. Our sending mission agency is no different. Asian Access has formed a partnership with SIM to send missionaries to Japan.SIM is a mission agency, with over 100 years of training and sending missionaries around the globe. In fact, SIM is at the front lines of the recent Ebola response team in West Africa. While we were there in June, the first prayer request emerged for their medical missions team.

In N.Carolina we received a warm welcome from Faith (center) & Stan DeLa Cour (not pictured). The DeLa Cours are family friends and former long-time missionaries with A2.  Faith now heads missionary care for all SIM-USA.

Bruce Johnson (right) is the president of SIM USA, and a former A2 board member. While we were there, we learned of SIM’s front line response to Ebola for SIM’s missionaries in Africa. Please pray for both of them and the people in Africa. SIM has spent over 1 million in response to this human medical tragedy. Read more at SIMUSA.org

"Did A2 and SIM merge?”  This is the most common question- NO, they decided to meet the global calling by working together.  SIM will handle the organizational and financial matters, while Asian Access will continue to partner with pastors and missionaries to serve in Japan.

"When do you change?”  By Oct 1, SIM will handle our financial support. A2 will transfer remaining ministry funds to SIM USA. Please email us if you have any questions or concerns on this change.

"What does this mean?"  It means that going forward you will see our materials with both organizations’ logos.  All financial checks, credit card, or web payments will go throughSIM USA.  However, we will not change churches, and our duties remain the same. 

 We cannot continue our term without this transition as the cost of supporting missionaries in Japan is too burdensome for a ministry the size of Asian Access. We are excited to be SIM-Asian Access missional partners as we get to be part of a large global family impacting the world for good. During our training meetings we met P-Nut from MN, and the McKenzie family from NC. They are the next SIM-A2 missionaries coming to Japan.  We prayed with other new friends who are setting down their lives to serve around the globe.  One couple in particular connected with our family. Geneva excitedly ran over each morning to see if they were awake.  She soon upgraded her hair  to fancy braids in the morning and received private ballet lessons.  We are blessed to count new friends and mentors as part of the larger community of missions.