Bad Language, Listening to God, and Deer Hunting... Oh, My.

Yesterday was quite the filled day. Rachael and I actually woke up at a good time (Considering my sleep schedule) and almost got to church before the worship team started. hahaha. ALMOST.

The music was oh' so encouraging, uplifting, and praise-worthy, but having Jeff back was a treat in itself. Yesterday's sermon powerful! Especially convicting for me (Jason), because I've actually been trying to clean things up in my life as well; language slips, certain styles of music, less movies and TV, etc. The sermon hit all of those points for me, but the truly convicting part was "... it's permissible, but not beneficial." That's the kind of line one needs to hear to understand that what I'm doing right now is not drawing me closer to my LORD and Savior. Or with my wife. Or with my family. Or with my friends. Wow. There are a whole lot more important things in life besides entertainment. Even when he talked about politics, I got a sick feeling in my stomach. I guess this has just been an overly frustrating year when it comes to the political scene, but when it all boils down, is that truly helping feed my walk with God? Not that I can't be informed with the world around me, but to immerse myself in it, that might be a bit too much. Great sermon though.

As for Listening to God, the Navs gave us a very thick study of biblical individuals that were directly spoken to by God or one of His Angels. When you read them in succession, it really opens a door that you either ignored all these years or closed off. I don't even know how to describe it. It was like one second I prayed and read about Moses speaking to God, and then by the time I got to Samuel, It seemed as if God was directly speaking to me the whole time. Not with the exact words that were given to Moses, Hagar, Samuel and others, but the comfort and confirmation that one needs to know their mission in life and to never back down. It truly was a powerful experience in itself.

Lastly, Rachael went deer hunting with my uncle Chuck last night. She called me at about 7:30pm, which I didn't even need to hear her to know this, to let me know she just shot her first buck. Deer hunting is not my thing, so if I don't sound excited, that's why. hahaha. But Rachael was extremely proud of herself and couldn't stop evaluating the experience. Here's her and Chuck with the prize.

Sorry if that made you squeemish. hahaha. But it was truly exciting for both of them, and that means deer meat for everyone! :P

And here you go, the picture of Honey I promised:

Isn't she cute! Licking her chops and all. hahaha.

You be the judge...

Okay. We ate at La Pizza today after church, and every single one of us got calzones and strombollis. However, all of us but ONE got personal sized ones. Danny got a medium. The difference in size, you ask? HUGE.



Now, you be the judge. hahaha.

Getting A Bit Behind.

All right. Where do I start?

Rachael and I have been doing really well. Life has slowed down since the Summer, which is a huge blessing as well as a relief. We are finally able to see people we haven't seen all Summer long, meet with potential donors, spend more time in God's word, and just finally get life situated again.

Our Summer caused us to become a bit discouraged and even agitated due to the lack of response we got from family and friends, but I think we just got too over-our-heads and gave the whole situation to God instead of trying to control the matter at hand ourselves. We know He will provide... in His time.

Rachael's been busy getting in contact with friends and family back home, and we've been hearing wonderful responses from people we kind of weren't expecting. The combination of that and random people from work have been a huge encouragement! It made us wonder if our Summer was just a testing period for us to realize that the LORD is in control. Whether that's the case or not, Rachael and I are feeling so much better mentally and spiritually.

We are prepping up to go back to Colorado Springs for our last training session this coming Saturday (October 4, 2008), and the material we have received for preparation has been powerful, to say the least. One study is simply on Romans 14, with a title boldly called, "The Romans 14 Issue." hehe. Anyways, the "issue" brought to attention that is simply in the biblical text is that there are truly gray areas in our beliefs that we can't force down one-another's throats. Paul speaks of food in the text; eating everything or eating some things. Paul encourages the Roman church to respect the decision of everyone, whether you eat anything or only eat vegatables. To not pass judgment because someone's ideals are different than yours.

Verse 16 says, "Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil." After investigating my own life, I reflected on the times where I know I allowed my good to be spoken of as evil, due to my reactions and the words I used. I've truly lost friends, hurt family members, developed hatred and judgment due to my insensitivity. After this study, I've realize how wrong I really am some time. Not wrong in what I believe, but wrong in how I express that belief. As a fellow believer, I strongly encourage anyone willing to meditate on that Romans 14 passage and just allow God to speak to you.

I wanted to end this note with a smile, so I was going to post a picture of Honey, our dog. But unfortunately, Rachael took the camera with her, so I'll leave you with this...


This is a picture taken by my friend Norio during the Sakura-blossoming season in his hometown of Nagano. When he sent this to me, I thought he was lying when he said he took it, but when he expressed the beauty of the area while there, you could not even begin to deny what he saw... and what you are looking at.

Testing and Healing

This past month has been a very challenging time for both me and Rachael. God has truly been testing our faith with this fund-raising for Japan, but He has also been healing our hearts from things that have been hindering us from growing closer to Him.

Last Sunday, Rachael and I had the opportunity to share with our congregation about our passion to go and minister to the people of Japan. We were expecting a pretty big reception, but we ended up only hearing from a few people. It was a bit discouraging, but at the same time, we thank God for the new people He has brought into our lives! There were a couple people/families that I have never met before that were willing to jump on the boat and support our cause. That was such a wonderful blessing, but now we need to come up with some more ideas to find supporters.

I wanted to personally thank anyone who has lent us their support, whether it be financial support, prayer support, or both. You are the only way we can accomplish God's calling in our lives, so we thank you now for your early support. We love you all, and we can only hope that your giving will bless you as much as it blesses us.

Go see WALL*E

First and foremost, I cannot deny the fact that I'm a large Pixar fan, especially when I found out that John Lasseter, the chief creative officer, was inspired by Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Spirited Away, etc).

With that out of the way, I went in to WALL*E expecting a lot. And by a lot, I mean I was expecting this film to blow me away and be better than the past Pixar films. When I walked out of WALL*E, I didn't know whether to cry or smile. I was standing on a line of utter amazement, and I really couldn't find the words to say.

WALL*E met my expectations and then some. For a film that had barely any dialog, WALL*E packed a bigger emotional punch and made a bigger statement than any film I remember seeing in the past [at least] 5 years. WALL*E (the character) is probably the most lovable animated character to ever be imagined. He captured my heart from the moment he was listening to "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" as he was compacting trash around a very vacant earth. Simply the way he was intrigued by all the little things that were lying around him; a rubix cube, lighters, a trash lid, and most captivating, a plant that had just recently broken through the soil.

This sets the pace for the entire film and ultimately his introduction to EVE. As the movie progresses (As I'll spare spoiling anything), WALL*E and EVE develop this relationship where simply saying each other's names says so much more than what we hear. Even using robots can get across the simple message of love, but this one was different. It focused on a simple means of expressing one's love, and it was WALL*E's ultimate goal throughout the film.

The human race somehow managed to survive 700+ years on a spaceship light years away from the Earth, and as we can even tell today, 700 years + technological advancement = a bigger, fatter, and more useless society. Director Andrew Stanton did a fantastic job at lightly making the point that people need to set their eyes on more important things in life; love, people, vegitation, and the world (and universe) around us. What makes it even more beautiful is that the simple introduction of a robot named WALL*E made these obese people realize the world they're missing out on.

If you are ready for the most beautifully illustrated story of this year, DO NOT hesitate to see WALL*E. It just might make you realize the things we really need in life.

Finally, some pictures from Colorado Springs

So, in a wonderful accident during our final hike in Colorado Springs, I slipped in the punch bowls and our camera plunged in... completely submerged. This prevented any immediate (If any) pictures to be posted from our own taking. FORTUNATELY, the SD card was spared and not a single picture was corrupted.

This is a picture of a couple of the rock formations at the Garden of the Gods with Pike's Peek in the background. A gorgeous setting that was just half a mile away from Navigators headquarters, so we definitely got a taste of what people call "God's Country."

This was from our first hike. We accidentally took a deer path that led us WAY in the wrong direction, but who cares? It was REALLY fun! This was in a little cave-like siding on the mountain. We thought it made a rather great picture spot.

Possibly some more pictures later, if we feel the urge. hahaha. Since we're going to be busy, I'm sure we won't have a whole lot of exciting pictures except for our Colorado pictures. That's about it for now.

Starting a blog.

So, how about this? I guess Rachael and I will just take turns writing about our lives on this thing. Good times, huh? I thought so.

So we just got back from Colorado Springs yesterday. We went through some pretty intense stuff with the Navigators. The first week we were there, we attended a Listening and Healing Prayer seminar, and it was absolutely fantastic! It really brought some things to the light for me, and I can definitely tell that Rachael went through a whole lot of emotional healing. God really did some great things that week.

The second week was a bit on the different side, but I strongly feel that it was just as impacting. We studied the spiritual side of fundraising and how that applies to us as we begin to raise funds for our trip to Japan. I think the most powerful thing I heard/read through the week was that when we see our donors as people giving us money (Having a horizontal-giving relationship), we tend to view them as merely banks for our missionary bank account. But when we see them as giving to God (Giving vertically), we will in turn receive the gift from God (Receiving vertically). It gave a whole new light to asking people for help - or literally, asking them to prayerfully consider being a part of our financial team. Now that sounds more Godly.

Lastly, since we WERE in the mountains, we did a whole lot of hiking. We actually got to hike once during our very busy second week with a group that we were training with. Well, we walk to this waterfall (Dorothy Falls) in the canyon and continued back to get to the "Punch Bowls", which were literally these small pools of water that looked like bowls. Well, after some daring and having already slipped in once, I attempted a belly flop into one of the punch bowls.

The good news is that I scored an 11 out of 10. The bad news is that it was cold... and it hurt... really bad. hahaha. And it actually left a ring under my sternum that was blue. REALLY blue. That's about it for our first post.