April 2003

It is springtime! Cherry blossom - the sign of spring in Japan - is everywhere and it is beautiful! It is no wonder why it has captivated the hearts of so many people around the world! We cannot help but feel so pampered by God since we have such an abundance of Cherry trees in our neighborhood!

For most of you who may still not be aware of, we almost did not manage to send out our last newsletter at the beginning of this year. On the late night of 11 Jan 2003, after a long hectic day and while we were getting ready to go to bed, Estella realized that she was experiencing heavy genital bleeding! We were literally shock and helpless for a moment. The next moment saw us crying out to our Heavenly Father for His mercy! Thankfully after a while, the bleeding slowed down although it did not cease completely. Realizing that there was nothing we could do, we decided to try to get some sleep. (It was a terrible feeling not knowing the condition of the baby!) The moment when the morning breaks, instead of heading for church, we borrowed our house owners' car and took Estella to the A&E department of a nearby hospital. It was tough trying to communicate with the doctor in English and eventually, it was a great relief when a scan was done to know that the baby is safe and its' heartbeat normal. It was with this assurance from the doctor that we decided to go ahead in sending out the newsletter on the following afternoon.

Two months has since passed after that near tragic night and it is time for us to share with you some of our blessings from our good God.

First and foremost, God's protection over Estella and the baby in the womb. As it is, she is now into her 6th month pregnancy. (*The baby is expected to be due on the 23rd of July) We had just visited the gynecologist recently and were told that it will be a baby boy! He seems to be a healthy boy except for some slight abnormalities. Please do pray for God to see into all the details and that the baby will come to a safe full term.

Secondly, our house owners. They were one of the very first to know about Estella's genital bleeding and almost immediately, my house owner's wife came to offer her help to fetch Elisha to & fro from his kindergarten every day by bicycle (since school bus facility is not available)! We were literally caught by surprise by her kindness!

Thank God for the good relationship we are sharing with our house owners‹Mr. & Mrs. Kaneko. Please continue to trust God with us for their salvations! They have also been 'surrogate' grandparents to our kids!

Prayer Requests:

1. Patrick's language acquisition. He has been finding it hard to follow and absorb fully what he has been taught in the classroom.

2. Estella's Bible Study Group. She has approached 2 mothers from Elisha's kindergarten and they have responded favorably to start the group. Pray for a common time slot for their meeting and a fruitful study of God's Word.

3. Estella's involvement with an elderly ladies' English conversation group. Although she only meets the group once a month, please pray for opportunities that she can get to introduce them to our Savior!

4. New academic year for Japanese campuses. April is the time of the year when we are aggressively trying to reach as many new students as possible. Please pray for all laborers involved to be filled with much joy and strength as we go forth in His Name!

5. Our financial support. It has been really low lately and we would appreciate special love gift in any amount to help bring us out of a possible deficit.

** A group of Christian volunteers from The States paid their own way so that they could help run Childcare program and to free Crusade staff parents to attend all the seminars and talks. Our kids enjoyed all the attention from the aunties and uncles during the Childcare program and that allowed us to be able to follow the conference without much distraction!

** Our kids with their grandmas. They came to the airport to see us off during our short transit in Singapore! We are so grateful to our home Church and Crusade's leadership support for our transit in Singapore to spend time with our family members. It was indeed a bonus for us to share some time with our loved ones. We are sorry that due to the lack of time, we were not able to meet up with most of you. We hope for your understanding.