Alan meets the Mayor

Well, it has been a little while since I "blogged." Gomen (sorry). The weather(April snow) is quite different from the last posting! Ha! It has been 28c or about 82f which is a scorcher for Hokkaido, Japan! We are enjoying the warmer weather and it is a bit unusual for our area. Normally, we only have warm weather like this in August for a couple weeks. We have been saying "it looks like its going to be a hot summer!" We shall see.

Recently, I started helping in the six public elementary schools in the area teaching english to the 5th and 6th graders. It is only for a few hours 5 or 6 times a month, but it is a great opportunity to get to know a lot of people in a hurry! Recently, I got to meet Shibetsu's Mayor and it was put in the local paper. Ha! Mrs. Nishio (our church member) saw the article and gave it to us. Evidently, it is customary at times for new city employees to have a meeting with the Mayor. Our family and Shepherd Baptist Church was mentioned in the article... not bad... free publicity! Haha! Please pray for this outreach to turn into new relationships, new visitors at church, and new folks hear about and come to the Lord.

April 2nd

April showers...er...ah, I mean snow...brings June flowers!



Happy April 2nd. What a way to start the month. Ha!

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Winter is back!!!

Well, the driveway and roads were clear!


It seemed that temperature-wise spring was upon us! But, however, winter is back for now. Haha! It has been snowing and blowing for a few days now. That is Hokkaido for ya!



Alan from "Snow-kaido"

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Two New Students

Praise the Lord, recently we learned we'd be getting two new students for our English class and today was their first day. These two girls are sisters. We met their mom and them at a local park last summer. We were out on a Saturday passing out church/Gospel info packs house to house. After that we went to a park to let the kids play and to try to make some new contacts among the kids playing. That is where we met them. Now, all these months later they are now in our English class. Pray that we can reach them with the Gospel. It takes a lot of time! It takes a lot of prayer!
Left: front - Ayuka (7), back - Erika (10)





Also pictured is Malachi and Mizuki.

Also, I finished framing part of the church auditorium ceiling (sorry no picture of that today), and we got approved for another 3 years on our visas.

Have a great week!

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"This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24

Dinner Guest

Praise the Lord. Last night we were privileged to have Mr. Shiraki (she-rah-key) over for dinner. The girls made pizza which was delicious! I think Shiraki san thought so too because he loaded up on pizza! Oh, I forgot to mention... he's single. So, that pretty much explains his appetite! We had a nice time and as you can see below, he and the boys got to play a little bit, too.






Mr. Shiraki works at the local Homac, which is the name of a home center/hardware store. We have known him for about 2 years (since being in Shibetsu). He has been a great help to us at the store as we have ordered and purchased various things for the building renovation. We are truly thankful for people who show us foreigners kindness and are helpful. We have invited him to church and to the Christmas meeting both years but he hasn't come. So, we are glad he could come for time with the family. Often times here in Japan this is how making a difference in someone's life all begins! Please pray that he will come to know the Lord as his Savior!

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"This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24

Church Renovations - lights

I forgot to mention a week or so ago that I got the light fixtures put up in the church genkan (entryway). Here's a look:



















Next it is time to mud, tape, and paint the drywall. Then flooring and trim and we should be getting that finished look! ...at least in this area! Ha!
But!!! (sigh!) I can't start on that today. I need to do day three of the marathon snow removal!! Day one: 3rd floor roof snow. Day two: 2nd floor (office) roof snow. (Thanks Victoria. She was on the roof shoveling, too!) Day three (today): Clean up the ground around the building from all the snow that was shoveled off!! Get those shovels and the snowblower ready! He I come. Yahoo!

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Roof snow removal

Yesterday I did some needed snow removal on the roof.
This is the over the second story of the church enterance:






The next picture is over the third floor. We live on the third floor. Blowing snow ends up curling over the sides of the building and it builds up over time to be quite dangerous if it all fell at once on someone. So, I cut it off the side little by little:






Next pic: Where's the roof? It's there under all that snow! We have a concave style roof with a drain gutter in the center. The snow builds up in it til it's full then most of the snow blows off the roof. But when the snow starts to build up higher than the roofs edge then it need some attention!





Today I need to go at it again to complete the job! Whew!! That stuff can wear a person out!
AND! The job is not done until the shoveled off snow is cleaned up from three stories below!!! I am glad this is the first time (and maybe last time) of doing this for this winter!

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