JAPAN BOUND - MAY 12 

Dear Praying Friends and Family:                                                                                    

God continues to amaze us with His goodness and Sovereign control in all that He has opened unto us for our moving to Japan.  All In His perfect timing, God has provided the passports, approved the visas, gave a great price on plane tickets, and then provided the funding for it.  WOW !!  We stand humbled and amazed as God makes everything so seem so effortless!  I hope you have been keeping up with it all by our e-mail updates.  If you have yet to sign up for them, you can do so at www.hopeofjapan.com .

Since our last letter, we have been all over the map.  We have been in Illinois, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Indiana, and Kentucky and all points in between.  God has been gracious and protected through the thousands of miles of travel, and kept us safe through a blowout, and two blizzards.  Folks have graciously been used to make some minor repairs (which are major to someone who knows little about vehicles) and provide a couple of new tires to replace the one we shredded.

The past month and a half has been very trying for us physically.  The flu bug hit our family hard, and we have made more trips to the doctor than I can remember.  There has been someone sick (or wounded) for literally the past six weeks and we are just now (PRAISE GOD) getting better.  No one is on any medicine right now, but for a while I considered opening a pharmacy.  Then there was the time that Nathanael decided to stop a blender blade from spinning with his hand.  That required 13 stitches, but it is amazing how fast it healed.  Soooooo you can see how much your prayers for us mean to us.  That is also the reason I have been so late in getting this letter out, and for that I apologize. 

We still do not have a place to stay yet in Japan.  After talking it over with Brother Smith, we decided to move our departure back to May 12 (for various reasons), and the Lord seems to be lining everything up in Japan.  Some furniture and appliances have already been donated for us (which is a huge blessing), and we are sure He will provide a place to put them and us.  :o)  We would appreciate your prayers though for this.

Other than the afore mentioned illnesses the boys are all well.  Isaiah is all over the place, crawling and pulling himself up.  Micah is content just to sit in one place and play with whatever toy is in front of him.  He is just starting to crawl.  The older three are losing their teeth, which are slow to grow back in (I’m beginning to think that they are helping the process along, especially since they have learned that the teeth grow some money.)  Titus and Joel continue to be a joy and to brighten our days when the storm clouds roll in.  We are actually getting ready to take a short vacation where we can just spend some time being a family.  Everyone is looking forward to it.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers for us.  We shudder to think how difficult the path would be without the faithful prayers of you folks for us.  Eternity will reveal the importance you have in our ministry as well as our gratefulness.  We have quite a few issues for you to pray about and I will list them below.  I’ll then add the update that we sent out February 3rd, when we adventured to get our passports in Chicago.  May the Lord continue to guide and bless you.

Prayer Requests:

• Shellee’s Grandma is very sick in the hospital.
• Housing when we get to Japan.
• The final 5% of our support to come in.
• The souls of the 127,000,000 Japanese.
• Friends Dan and heather Zike with severe pregnancy complications.
• My Step-Mother with breast cancer.

Co-Laborers for the Lost,

Duane for the Wilhites