Greetings once again from Snowy Hokkaido!  The Lord is gracious and ever abundant in mercy, and we certainly depend upon these gifts each and every day.  Despite our weaknesses and failures, we are humbled that He continues to use us here in Japan.  We are privileged to be in His service, and enjoying it immensely.  This time of year is more difficult than other months emotionally, as we are accustomed to being with family during the holidays.  Yet the Lord gives grace and helps us to see the folks, that we would not otherwise be able to share the Gospel with were we in America as He sees them: still lost and needing Christ .  So we shed our tears for those we miss, pull together as a family, reminisce about the goodness of the Lord in times past and present, and rejoice at God’s faithful blessings.  Then we get back to work learning the language and culture, raising our boys, and trying to Light up a dark place.

 Some time ago the church building roof began to leak.  After a few estimates quickly priced the roofers out of reach, the Lord gave some wisdom and helped Bro. Randy, Bro. Kiguchi, and me to make the needed repairs before the snow set in.  We were able to get the outside finished in the nick of time, and then patched up the inside until we could tackle it after the holidays. 

Dear Praying friends and Family

This past month has been an extremely exciting one, filled with many beginnings and endings

Beginning . . . Bro. Randy was asked to preach a weekend meeting at a church in Asahikawa and asked me to run the service here.   While I am far from preaching an entire message on my own, I was able to lead the singing, open and close in prayer, transition from one thing to the next, and push play on the computer for the message (that last one was the hardest part! Just kidding.)  I was nervous when it began and ecstatic when it was over – simply because it was over.  It was however a good opportunity to see where I am and where I still need work. (Shellee says: “ Mrs. JoAnne and I both agreed that the Japanese that Duane used flowed well, he  did a good job and it was VERY exciting!”)