1st anniversary August 21, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
October 2011!!!!
WOW! I am probably one of the most unfaithful bloggers out there. I was looking at my past post, and it was in January of this year! I am sorry for the lack of updates, but it is high time to update for those of you who haven't been able to follow what is going on with us this year.
On March 11th of this year, as you all know there were huge earthquakes followed by tsunamis in the Northeast area of Honshu, Japan. We felt the quake even here in Sapporo (well, Keisuke did but I didn't because I was walking outside at the time), but nothing compared to what it was in the main area. (though our church building, being old, got many cracks in the walls with the magnitude 3-4 shakes that we got here in Sapporo.)
It was so sad to see all the devastation to this country and so many people lost their lives. We especially felt the need to pray for people to turn to Christ and receive Him as their Savior! We continually feel the need to get the Gospel spread as so many people do not understand the Gospel or have never fully heard it! None of our church families' were affected with death of a relative but a few had some relatives that had to evacuate their homes for a short time. I think they are all safe now.
In the spring of this year we got to go home for a couple of weeks to visit family. It was a special time together before the Jarrett's spread out. (Pat's family to Colorado, Susie and Chris to Cincinnati for a year's internship, Elissa to Uganda for 6 months starting late July, Amy to Kenya for two years starting early August, and Dad and Rachel to Kenya for 6 months starting in September) (And of course us here in Japan) I stayed for 2 weeks and Keisuke came for 1 week.
My sister Rachel flew back with us from the States and stayed with us for a little over 2 months. We had a special time with her here. The last two weeks of June my Aunt Shirley came and we had a wonderful time with her as well. We got to go on a overnight trip to Shiretoko which is on the far northeast side of Hokkaido. The weather was a bit crazy, but we still had a great time. Aunt Shirley was kind enough to escort Rachel home to the States (as far as Chicago where Rachel was then escorted with a wheelchair service until she found Dad at the Indy airport) We were very thankful for Aunt Shirley's help in this, and we had a wonderful time with family here in Sapporo. Keisuke must have looked like a very interested Japanese man with his posse of three American women (sometimes four when Alicia hung out with us also) haha. I often wonder what kind of person people think he is. ;) Life is pretty exciting when God is in control! (that is what I often think!) haha
In early May Pastors Eric and Troy came from Castleview to visit our church here in Sapporo. That was a huge blessing to our whole church and an encouragement to me personally as well.
Another HUGE event in late May was the discovery of a little life growing inside of me!! God gave us a baby!! I am now 6 months along and we are excited to welcome our little BOY in around January 31st of 2012.
In July the STM (short term mission) team of 7 youth came from Castleview to help with the evangelistic outreach in the church and for fellowship. It was a wonderful time of fellowship with believers and also we had 3 special "English Time" outreaches where I think there were a total of 32 nonbelievers who came and got to hear the Gospel.
I also turned 26 in July. My first 4 months of pregnancy were pretty tough with a lot of "morning sickness". It seemed to last a long time, but now that I look back at it, it of course went by quickly like everything else does! But I was pretty miserable vomiting several times a day almost every day. God was faithful through it all though, and I was so blessed by help with meals and cleaning from my sweet Keisuke, his mom, Alicia, and other friends at church. I was so thankful for God's protection and help through it all. It was a good time to reflect on God's faithfulness and read the Bible, and pray since I couldn't do much of anything other than stay in bed. In fact due to several complications in late July I was on bed rest for a total of about a month I think. During this time I was able to rest from teaching English thanks to Chris Juday and Alicia covering for my classes. I also had to take a break from singing on my music team. It was a good chance to just rest in Christ, and accept that even when I can't be serving or "doing" things for Christ, He still loves me just because He is so gracious and because He has washed me with His blood shed on the cross. I don't have to DO anything to deserve salvation. Just by believing in Him and trusting in His work on the cross and His resurrection am I saved and able to have relationship with God. I was reminded of this a lot during my long hours of sleeping and resting.
Towards the middle of August I finally started to recover (though I still had nausea), it was more controlled with some anti nausea medicine that my Dad recommended from the States. I have been taking that up until about last week when I finally am able to get through a day with just a few feelings of nausea without taking the medicine. In August Keisuke had a week off during a time where many stores and businesses take a week off or so. It is a holiday called "Obon" that is celebrated here during the month of August. We as Christians do not celebrate it as it is a time where people believe their deceases ancestors come back for visits so they have to clean the grave sites and prepare special foods to welcome them back. There are actually many other strange beliefs or customs practiced during this time, but it is all so empty and many different beliefs that people now a days don't really even know why they celebrate this time. So, even though we didn't celebrate any of this, we were still happy to have time off to be together! We went to a pool one day, got to see Keisuke's sister Yuko since she was visting in town from Tokyo, went camping for one night at Shikotosuko (my favorite lake spot about an hour away from Sapporo) and various other activities with Church etc. It was a nice break.
Keisuke's birthday was August 29th where he turned 34.
In September I started teaching English classes again after about a month and a half break. We also had an English Time event in September. I was the leader for the English ministry this past year, but since I had many health problems and getting prepared for the birth of our baby, I handed over the leadership to Nozomi Juday so that it is not slowed down by my more limited ability to plan and lead for the English ministry in the present circumstances. We are really praying though that God would provide a leader for the English ministry that has real vision for growth and moving forward, and also maybe a little more training in teaching English, where (he or she (or a couple!) could train us how to be better teachers, and where we could grow to reach out to even more nonbelievers using English. Please join us in praying for this person to be provided!
On September 25th a group of 15 people from a church down in Kobe, Japan came to visit our church. We had a special Gospel service on that day where Keisuke and I were on the music team. 13 nonbelievers came to that service! We also had a really blessed time of fellowship with the group of believers (ages Jr. high to adults maybe in their 50's). We are excited to see what God will do with this relationship to Kobe Grace Baptist Church in the future.
This brings us to October where were are now! Starting this month Keisuke gets to have two Mondays off a month and his dad gets the other two off. This is a huge blessing and answer to prayer for us as usually Keisuke's only day off is Sunday! So it is nice to have a little more time to do things and just have a little more rest for Keisuke. Last week he got his haircut and I went to the dentist (a first for me in Japan!). Then we went on many errands including a Costco trip, and a short stop at a park when there was a break in the rain. We had a nice relaxing evening at home. I am excited for next Monday! :)
The next day Tuesday the 18th, Keisuke will leave for a 3 day business trip driving around Hokkaido to various cities where they have contacts with other stores where he looks for good cameras, lenses, and such to sell in their store here in Sapporo.
As I mentioned earlier we are excited about our SON to be born next year. I will try to keep you all more updated on a more regular basis. If you have Facebook I sometimes put pictures up on there, so feel free to look at those! I hope everyone is having a wonderful fall! This is my favorite time of year! The leaves are just starting to change here in Sapporo.
Well I will sign off for now, but would love to hear from anyone who reads this! We miss all our loved ones in the States! But we are very thankful for the support of our church family here and Keisuke's family. Much love to you all!
On March 11th of this year, as you all know there were huge earthquakes followed by tsunamis in the Northeast area of Honshu, Japan. We felt the quake even here in Sapporo (well, Keisuke did but I didn't because I was walking outside at the time), but nothing compared to what it was in the main area. (though our church building, being old, got many cracks in the walls with the magnitude 3-4 shakes that we got here in Sapporo.)
It was so sad to see all the devastation to this country and so many people lost their lives. We especially felt the need to pray for people to turn to Christ and receive Him as their Savior! We continually feel the need to get the Gospel spread as so many people do not understand the Gospel or have never fully heard it! None of our church families' were affected with death of a relative but a few had some relatives that had to evacuate their homes for a short time. I think they are all safe now.
In the spring of this year we got to go home for a couple of weeks to visit family. It was a special time together before the Jarrett's spread out. (Pat's family to Colorado, Susie and Chris to Cincinnati for a year's internship, Elissa to Uganda for 6 months starting late July, Amy to Kenya for two years starting early August, and Dad and Rachel to Kenya for 6 months starting in September) (And of course us here in Japan) I stayed for 2 weeks and Keisuke came for 1 week.
My sister Rachel flew back with us from the States and stayed with us for a little over 2 months. We had a special time with her here. The last two weeks of June my Aunt Shirley came and we had a wonderful time with her as well. We got to go on a overnight trip to Shiretoko which is on the far northeast side of Hokkaido. The weather was a bit crazy, but we still had a great time. Aunt Shirley was kind enough to escort Rachel home to the States (as far as Chicago where Rachel was then escorted with a wheelchair service until she found Dad at the Indy airport) We were very thankful for Aunt Shirley's help in this, and we had a wonderful time with family here in Sapporo. Keisuke must have looked like a very interested Japanese man with his posse of three American women (sometimes four when Alicia hung out with us also) haha. I often wonder what kind of person people think he is. ;) Life is pretty exciting when God is in control! (that is what I often think!) haha
In early May Pastors Eric and Troy came from Castleview to visit our church here in Sapporo. That was a huge blessing to our whole church and an encouragement to me personally as well.
Another HUGE event in late May was the discovery of a little life growing inside of me!! God gave us a baby!! I am now 6 months along and we are excited to welcome our little BOY in around January 31st of 2012.
In July the STM (short term mission) team of 7 youth came from Castleview to help with the evangelistic outreach in the church and for fellowship. It was a wonderful time of fellowship with believers and also we had 3 special "English Time" outreaches where I think there were a total of 32 nonbelievers who came and got to hear the Gospel.
I also turned 26 in July. My first 4 months of pregnancy were pretty tough with a lot of "morning sickness". It seemed to last a long time, but now that I look back at it, it of course went by quickly like everything else does! But I was pretty miserable vomiting several times a day almost every day. God was faithful through it all though, and I was so blessed by help with meals and cleaning from my sweet Keisuke, his mom, Alicia, and other friends at church. I was so thankful for God's protection and help through it all. It was a good time to reflect on God's faithfulness and read the Bible, and pray since I couldn't do much of anything other than stay in bed. In fact due to several complications in late July I was on bed rest for a total of about a month I think. During this time I was able to rest from teaching English thanks to Chris Juday and Alicia covering for my classes. I also had to take a break from singing on my music team. It was a good chance to just rest in Christ, and accept that even when I can't be serving or "doing" things for Christ, He still loves me just because He is so gracious and because He has washed me with His blood shed on the cross. I don't have to DO anything to deserve salvation. Just by believing in Him and trusting in His work on the cross and His resurrection am I saved and able to have relationship with God. I was reminded of this a lot during my long hours of sleeping and resting.
Towards the middle of August I finally started to recover (though I still had nausea), it was more controlled with some anti nausea medicine that my Dad recommended from the States. I have been taking that up until about last week when I finally am able to get through a day with just a few feelings of nausea without taking the medicine. In August Keisuke had a week off during a time where many stores and businesses take a week off or so. It is a holiday called "Obon" that is celebrated here during the month of August. We as Christians do not celebrate it as it is a time where people believe their deceases ancestors come back for visits so they have to clean the grave sites and prepare special foods to welcome them back. There are actually many other strange beliefs or customs practiced during this time, but it is all so empty and many different beliefs that people now a days don't really even know why they celebrate this time. So, even though we didn't celebrate any of this, we were still happy to have time off to be together! We went to a pool one day, got to see Keisuke's sister Yuko since she was visting in town from Tokyo, went camping for one night at Shikotosuko (my favorite lake spot about an hour away from Sapporo) and various other activities with Church etc. It was a nice break.
Keisuke's birthday was August 29th where he turned 34.
In September I started teaching English classes again after about a month and a half break. We also had an English Time event in September. I was the leader for the English ministry this past year, but since I had many health problems and getting prepared for the birth of our baby, I handed over the leadership to Nozomi Juday so that it is not slowed down by my more limited ability to plan and lead for the English ministry in the present circumstances. We are really praying though that God would provide a leader for the English ministry that has real vision for growth and moving forward, and also maybe a little more training in teaching English, where (he or she (or a couple!) could train us how to be better teachers, and where we could grow to reach out to even more nonbelievers using English. Please join us in praying for this person to be provided!
On September 25th a group of 15 people from a church down in Kobe, Japan came to visit our church. We had a special Gospel service on that day where Keisuke and I were on the music team. 13 nonbelievers came to that service! We also had a really blessed time of fellowship with the group of believers (ages Jr. high to adults maybe in their 50's). We are excited to see what God will do with this relationship to Kobe Grace Baptist Church in the future.
This brings us to October where were are now! Starting this month Keisuke gets to have two Mondays off a month and his dad gets the other two off. This is a huge blessing and answer to prayer for us as usually Keisuke's only day off is Sunday! So it is nice to have a little more time to do things and just have a little more rest for Keisuke. Last week he got his haircut and I went to the dentist (a first for me in Japan!). Then we went on many errands including a Costco trip, and a short stop at a park when there was a break in the rain. We had a nice relaxing evening at home. I am excited for next Monday! :)
The next day Tuesday the 18th, Keisuke will leave for a 3 day business trip driving around Hokkaido to various cities where they have contacts with other stores where he looks for good cameras, lenses, and such to sell in their store here in Sapporo.
As I mentioned earlier we are excited about our SON to be born next year. I will try to keep you all more updated on a more regular basis. If you have Facebook I sometimes put pictures up on there, so feel free to look at those! I hope everyone is having a wonderful fall! This is my favorite time of year! The leaves are just starting to change here in Sapporo.
Well I will sign off for now, but would love to hear from anyone who reads this! We miss all our loved ones in the States! But we are very thankful for the support of our church family here and Keisuke's family. Much love to you all!
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