Sunset

"From the rising of the sun to its setting The name of the LORD is to be praised."

Psalm 113:3

Wow!

Playdough

This morning Adam had worship team practice and Jill was teaching Kindermusik. She took Hannah with her, so Sophia came to my house. We had lots of fun! We played with dollies in our playhouse under the steps, played with blocks, colored, took a walk around the neighborhood and went to the area wide garage sales here.

Then we did one of Sophia's favorite activities - playdough. The reason it is one of her favorites is that she loves to EAT playdough! We always tell her it is yucky but she doesn't agree. She made playdough "ice-cream".

Can't you just see the desire to eat it in her eyes? I finally decided to find another activity and put the playdough away. It was too hard for her. It would be like putting Haagen Dazs in front of me and telling me I can't have it. Torture.
Playdough does not tempt me.

But Japanese food does!

I made some inari-sushi tonight. YUM!

This kind of sushi does not have raw fish with it. I'm not too fond of raw fish. I like dried fish. I love dried squid! When we were growing up in Japan, my brothers loved to eat raw fish and sometimes would poke at the eyeballs with their chopsticks. Probably to gross me out.

On Friday, I found these plates at Target on clearance. $6 for 4 plates! They coordinate with my dishes. Love them!

Children's Ministry Council

I forgot to write about the CMC dinner we had on Wednesday night. Kris Reed, our children's director, treated us and our spouses to a wonderfully delicious meal. After the meal, we played Wii.

Those of us on the council are:

myself - nursery

Becca Adamson - 9:30 pre-school and elementary SS

Becky Khosravipour - 11:00 pre-school and elementary SS

Lori Jordan - Kid's Worship

Elizabeth Biggs - One-to-one

Brian Loewen - Awana

I heard that we are supposed to get a shade for the Fireside room windows. It gets pretty sunny from the west when the sun is setting. We tried to block the sunlight so we could see. When I was trying to "hit" the tennis ball, I couldn't even see "me" on the board! (good excuse for missing the ball totally)
We found out that putting up the bushes made it look pretty realistic that the tennis court was shaded from trees. It worked.
Thank you, Kris (and Mike) for the fun party! We have an incredible team at church! I prayed for a team for several years and am so grateful to the Lord for you all!!

Hanna Massad

Tonight my parents and I went to the Swiss church in Whitewater. My shirt-tail relatives (see June 20 post), Dennis and Cindy Wiens were there. They work with SAT-7, a ministry that provides Christian satellite television for people of the middle east and North Africa. Did you know that 97% of Iraqis have satellite tv and about 18.8% of Iraqi's watch SAT-7?? The Christian message beamed right into people's livingrooms!!

Tonight, Dennis had brought Hanna Massad, pastor of Gaza Baptist Church, to describe the plight of Palestinian Christians in the Gaza strip. You can google him and listen to some of his sermons. I recommend that! I do not write this post to say anything against the Jewish people. I believe God loves them and has a special hand on them. But I was moved by Pastor Hanna's story of the pain Christians are going through in his country. And his story really was one of all believers and our walk with Christ - becoming like Him as we hold onto Him through the difficulties we experience in this life.

Pastor Hanna said that they live between two fires. First, the fire of Israel's occupation. Israel severely restricts travel. Israel's refusal to grant a visa to Massad's wife once kept the couple separated for 10 months.

"Also we experience the fire of the militant Muslim, who is not happy about what we do and who we are," Massad said. Terrorists twice bombed the building of the Palestinian Bible Society, and last year militants kidnapped and executed the manager of the society's Christian bookstore, Rami Ayyad. This young man had two little boys and his wife was expecting their third, a girl. The terrorists gave Rami the option to convert to Islam or be killed. He chose to die, faithful to Christ to the end. He was shot in the back of the head. This man's little 2 1/2 year old child sometimes will see his daddy's picture on the computer screen and go hug the computer. Rami's wife is glad that her husband did not give in. Although she dearly misses him, for him to have returned from captivity would have meant that he had made the decision to deny Christ.

They have had to learn to give God their fear of being persecuted, and not be paralyzed by fear. The police will not protect the Christians so they really have to trust God as their Shepherd, their Refuge, their Shield. Christ promised "never to leave you nor forsake you." We don't have to make this journey on earth alone. No matter what trial, He is with us!

Pastor Massad quoted from James 1:3 (and I will include verse 2):"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." The word "testing" means "to examine". Going through such trials is an examining of our faith. Am I truly a disciple of Christ? Am I willing to be faithful unto death? Am I willing to follow Christ whatever comes? "Whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father in heaven. But whoever disowns Me before men, I will disown him before My Father in heaven." Matthew 10:32,33

They have had to learn to forgive as Christ would have them. When Christ was dying on the cross, He forgave men for their cruelty and hatred. And as believers, they have had to forgive the radical Islamic terrorists and also the Israelies who restrict them and have taken land away from them. "Because you experience the grace of God and love of God, you are able to forgive and move on," he said. "But if you didn't experience His grace, this is going to create bitterness and hatred in your heart. And this is why the fights between the Palestinians and the Jewish people are more intense and more and more difficult."

I was so moved by Pastor Hanna Massad. I believe in America, Christians are slowly losing the right to worship Christ freely. Will a day come when we too will be persecuted for our faith? To some extent we are; we are being made fun of and looked down on. It is minor to what believers in other countries experience for sure! But will physical persecution, being sent to prison, come too? I remember reading about 2 Chinese women who were sent to jail for teaching preschoolers Sunday School. Am I willing to go to prison for teaching little children about Jesus?

My Aunt Millie has a framed print on her wall. It is in German. It is a print I love. She has told me I am to have it one day. "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life." Revelation 2:10

Baby frogs

The last couple of mornings the girls have come over to play in our kiddy pool. We have lots of pool toys, but they chose to play with a cat-tail and Folgers can.
At Nana's house, you get snacks!

And apple juice.

Sophia wanted to try my pop.

Hannah, at age 4 still won't drink it.

Says it is "spicy".

Sophie tried it.

"Mmmmm!!"

Oops. Guess I shouldn't have let her try it.

Now she will always want to have mine.

Adam and Jill don't have pop at their house

except for when they have company.

Hannah discovered baby frogs in our pit.

We ended up capturing 6 baby frogs.

We took 4 of them down to our creek and let them go.

Hopefully they won't end up as breakfast for Willard or Edna.

Willard is a great blue heron and Edna is a great egret

that frequent our creek and pond.

They are named after Willard and Edna Entz from church.

We took 2 of the frogs and placed them

in our flower garden to eat bugs there.

You can't see the frogs.

They hopped off.

Happy lives baby frogs!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

It's my mother's birthday today.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Here is my mother when she was a baby.

Mom grew up in Pandora, Ohio.

My mom was a missionary in Japan for about 30 years.

She had to send us to boarding school when we were only 6 years old. That had to be hard!
(on the other hand, remembering what kind of kids we were, maybe not!!...ha!)

We had a Christian kindergarten for Japanese kids by our home.

It was run by our missions.
Dad was the "encho-sensei", or director.

Mom helped to teach the children English.

She would help the teachers too.

She also taught Japanese women how to cook American foods

and taught them English lessons.

And about Jesus.

Mom loves Japan! She loves the Japanese people.

Mom is a classy lady.

She is also quite a prankster.

Loves to pull jokes on people.

She loves a good laugh!

She's a great mom, grandma and great-grandmother.

Love you, Mom!!