Dear Praying Friends and Family:

We have had a busy couple of months since our last letter.  It’s so hard to believe that we have been in Japan a year already!!   We count it a great privilege to be here, and  to see the Lord’s blessing with some “handfuls of purpose” as the Lord rewards the Smith’s faithfulness in sewing Gospel seeds over the past seventeen years here in Nayoro.  .  We thank the Lord for the great honor of serving Him in Japan and for those of you that hold the ropes in prayer.

Planting... Spring has sprung and the Nayoro landscape has come to life.  The last of our snow pile out back lasted until the middle of June and we have been all too pleased for the chance for warmer weather.  Even though the calendar says it’s summer time, the temperatures have remained relatively cool and wet and reminds us of an Indiana spring.

Our gardens are planted and slowly but surely growing with the limited sunshine and temps dropping into the upper 40s at night.  We rented a garden plot this year with the hope s of making more contacts with people in the community, and the Lord has been faithful to guide and bless all

With the rental plot, I would often go over before planting anything and observe the other folks planting their crops.  I would ask if it was OK to watch and then ask a few questions.  I would then come back the next day and plant the same thing on my plot. One of my first days out, I met Mr. Suzuki.  He is an elderly gentleman who just happened to speak some English, and (as I would discover later) someone who the Smiths knew and had prayed for before.  He was a great help in getting things planted, and in interpreting what I could not understand from the other two old farmers looking at my poor seed potatoes.  (Brother Rex –you never taught us what to do in phonetics when the native speaker has dentures and doesn’t move his teeth when he talks!)  My language helper, Mr. Saito, coincidently of course, is renting the plot right behind mine.  Oh how the Lord helps all along the way!  Mr. Saito has become a Japanese teacher and a Japanese gardening instructor.

Overall the gardens are the Lord’s and they have become great object lessons for our family regarding the Lord’s work here in Japan.  There is much soil still to be prepared in this cold land – but a harvest will one day come if all is tended to and cared for with our sweat and work and the Lord’s providences.

Plodding...  Resurrection Sunday was filled with much anticipation as many invited guests had promised to come.  I was to preach the afternoon service after a fellowship meal, and Mr. Saito said he would come!  The morning service started off with disappointment as many did not show and then Mr. Saito and two other guests abruptly left immediately after the morning service.  Brother Smith had laid out a clear Gospel presentation and apparently offended them.  We were reminded that gospel of Christ was offensive to the proud heart and continued the day.  At the end of the day our hopes were deflated and we fought off discouragement.  When we thought we could eat dinner and just go to bed, (hoping that Monday would be a better day) – God had other plans.  The propane alarm went off in the kitchen.  We evacuated the kids from the kitchen and called the Smiths.  Randy called the gas company and they sent a fellow out to look.  After confirming that there was no leak and that the alarm sensor had “malfunctioned”, the technician bluntly told us that he was Buddhist but didn’t know why.  This led to an opportunity for Randy to give again a clear Gospel presentation (this time over a cup of coffee) to someone who had never heard it before.  So the day ended well, and Mr. Saito did at least hear the gospel (I would find out later that he misunderstood the time I would be speaking, and has since come to hear me preach several times!) – and something else happened that we would not find out about for six weeks . . .

Praising...  One continued bright spot here in Nayoro has been watching the leaps and bounds progress of Mr. Kiguchi.  He has been saved for about a year now and, as an avid hunter and fisherman, has been our constant provider of venison, salmon, and other fish.  He was recently baptized in one of the local rivers and gave a great testimony of his faith in Christ before the church folks, his unsaved wife, and a few guests.  In a private society, making a public profession of faith by being baptized is a very big ordeal.  Mr. Kiguchi has told many of his family members and friends that he is now a Christian and not Buddhist, and has told his siblings that he will not be fulfilling his Buddhist role as the eldest son anymore.  He recently made the decision to get rid of his family Buddhist alter (which had cost thousands of dollars), and all of this was simply at the prompting of the Holy Spirit and his own studies in the Word of God. Oh that ALL Christians would be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading to get rid of the alters and idols in their lives!!  PLEASE PRAY for these Christians that stand for Christ in a society that places so much pressure on conformity to “societal norms.”

We continue to make contacts with new people and progress in Japanese.  Shellee has started working on Japanese with a lost lady named Mrs. Matsuda.  She was able to give this Japanese mother the Gospel in simple English – a first for both of them!  The boys are finishing up their schooling and looking forward to some free time this summer.  Josiah appears to still be hydrocephalus free, but the doctor is in no hurry to take out the shunt.  Malachi decided he was old enough to finally get some stitches on his hand and Wrist (that was some humor injected Pastor BP). (We are grateful that it wasn’t too deep or serious, and that we have a good relationship with the glass shop in front of our house!)  Noah is pulling himself up, the twins are climbing over and out of everything, and Shellee and I are tired a lot.  And of course, we thank the Lord for all of you who are faithful to pray for and support the work here in Japan!  May God richly bless you all!!


We appreciate those of you who had joined us in our prayer projects.  The Lord answered those prayers.  Esther Travis went home to heaven after being used to bless many here on earth, Stellan went home from the hospital but continues to have ups and downs, and Ayumi . . .  well Ayumi went home from church on Resurrection Sunday and finally accepted God’s free gift of Salvation!

We have picked some new prayer projects for you to help us with – The Peterson family needs to be saved (friends’ parents on the edge of eternity)  and  Mr. Nakajima and Mrs. Kiguchi need to be saved. (church member spouses).  We are also praying for a whole family to be saved this year here in Nayoro – not likely by current trends, but God gets all of the glory for challenges like that.

Prayer Requests

• Continuing grace as we learn Japanese.
• A DVD project being put together to distribute to the city – 5000 copies to be ordered.
• Upcoming VBS July 27-29.
• Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church and the Smith family as we work with them here in Nayoro.

By His Grace Alone,

Duane for the Wilhites