Dear Praying Friends and Family:

Greetings from the snowy arctic of Japan.  I’ve probably started this letter a half dozen times, while trying to sit long enough to get everrything down!   Where does the time go?  We sure are grateful for you folks and your prayers for us.  We trust that the Lord will greatly repay you for your sacrifices for Him, us, and the Japanese.

Finally Secured

After Shellee went past her due date for the first time ever, Noah Michael Wilhite was born on October 11 @ 2:51 PM.  He weighed in at 9 lbs and was 20.5 inches long.   The Lord blessed greatly during the delivery and I posted a very long e-mail letter about it on our website www.hopeof japan.com.  The hand of the Lord was evident in all of it, and we appreciated your prayers. 

Two Japanese have made recent professions of faith in Jesus Christ as their Saviour!  Mr Kiguchi, a retired army soldier, turned his back on the false gods and teachings of Shnto and Buddhism.  He has been faithful to tell his family and friends that he is now a Christian and not a Buddhist, and already has several friends interested in learning more about the Gospel.  A young lady named Mitsuyo, who was raised by parents in the Salvation Army, also accepted the Lord as Saviour after several church meetings and talks with the Smiths. She realized that even though she was raised in a Bible believing home,  she had never made a personal decision for Christ.  Please pray for these two young believers as they grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.

Flying Solo

We received a good checking point in our progress here in Japan as the Smiths took a two week trip during November to the US for their son Preston’s wedding. For services,  Brother Randy left me with some preaching CDs from a Japanese pastor and Mrs. Nakajima (who unerstands a good bit of English) was in charge of teaching the Sunday School lesson.  All I had to do was push the button on the CD player, right?  All in all everything went well until one Sunday afternoon when only two of the neighborhood girls came.  We struggled through with dictionaries in hand and a good stretch of my memory and some improvisation. Back to the books . . .    The Smiths travelled light to the States in order to have room to bring back some of our belongings that we left behind.  We sure appreciated their thoughfulness and care for us. Along with some personal items, we had a couple of boxes of books shipped to them, and had them pick up some thing that we simply can’t get here.  Some were necessities like Green Mountain Coffee.

First Snow

The Snow has begun to fly and fall here in Nayoro.  While this may not seem like news to many, to us it means a great deal.  Our backyard is one of the dumping grounds for the city for their snow removal program.  We were awakened at 3:30 one morning to the sound of dump truck after dump truck emptying a load of snow.  They currently have a mound twenty + feet high with guarantees from those around that it will get much much higher.  We have been busy trying to shore up all of the drafty spots in the house, and are trying to learn to live with the snow.  The boys of course are having a blast and even fight over who gets to go outside to shovel.  We’ll see how long that lasts!

By His Grace Alone,

Duane for the Wilhites