Greetings once again from Snowy Hokkaido!  The Lord is gracious and ever abundant in mercy, and we certainly depend upon these gifts each and every day.  Despite our weaknesses and failures, we are humbled that He continues to use us here in Japan.  We are privileged to be in His service, and enjoying it immensely.  This time of year is more difficult than other months emotionally, as we are accustomed to being with family during the holidays.  Yet the Lord gives grace and helps us to see the folks, that we would not otherwise be able to share the Gospel with were we in America as He sees them: still lost and needing Christ .  So we shed our tears for those we miss, pull together as a family, reminisce about the goodness of the Lord in times past and present, and rejoice at God’s faithful blessings.  Then we get back to work learning the language and culture, raising our boys, and trying to Light up a dark place.

 Some time ago the church building roof began to leak.  After a few estimates quickly priced the roofers out of reach, the Lord gave some wisdom and helped Bro. Randy, Bro. Kiguchi, and me to make the needed repairs before the snow set in.  We were able to get the outside finished in the nick of time, and then patched up the inside until we could tackle it after the holidays. 

 On Dec. 19th, Shellee and I celebrated 11 years of marriage.  Our getaway was postponed however, as that was the day that Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church held its annual Christmas program.   The program went well and there were many first time visitors.  There were many songs sung, a puppet skit illustrating God's gift, testimonies from Japanese believers, and a time of fellowship. One of Shellee’s Japanese helpers, Mrs. Satoh,  came with her daughter’s family.  These folks  have recently moved here from New York City and are adjusting to Nayoro life.  Please pray for opportunities to speak with them more.
 We then later joined Alan and Tanya Minks for a getaway to Otaru and Sapporo for a couple of days while the Smith family watched the children for both families.   This was the first time since Shellee and I have been married where we could spend our anniversary without at least one child in tow.  It was a refreshing time and a great blessing!

 Bro Randy called one night to ask if I could cover his English class as he was not feeling the greatest.  It was rather last minute, so I had little time to prepare.  There were only two students that night, but the Lord had a plan in it all.  I decided to practice introductions and then asked simple questions about their families.  One of the ladies then asked me to tell them the names of my sons and if the names had meanings.  Knowing that the meaning of a name is important to the Japanese, we purposefully gave our sons names that would be a testimony for the Lord.  I was able to share the Gospel by giving their names.  When we got to Noah, I asked if they knew the story of “Noah” in the Scriptures.  They said that they were familiar with it and so I proceeded to use their own “kanji” (part of the written language) to show them some Biblical truths hidden there.  Borrowed from the Chinese language  and dating back 4000 years, there are many biblical truths hidden within these kanji.  The only difference between the kanji for “boat” and the kanji for “big boat” is the addition of eight mouths (or people) to the boat.  It was a blessing to watch these two Japanese ladies get excited as they realized the correlation.  I then showed them the kanji for “righteousness”  which is made up of two smaller kanji.  The two kanji place a “lamb” over top of “me”.  The only way for me to be righteous is by the workings of the intercessory lamb – Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God!  Please pray for these ladies to continue to be excited about the true God and His desire for every man to be saved.

The DVD project continues to trudge forward as the final additions have been made and we are about ready to send it off to be duplicated.  We are asking the Lord to put the rest of the pieces in place to be able to mass produce the DVDs now.  We can get them made cheaper in the States but shipping is astronomical right now.  So we are asking the Lord to simply open the doors that He wants us to walk through and to close the ones that would not be in His will.  There are so many without knowledge of the Gospel and so few t o get it to them.  We are excited about being able to get the light of the Gospel out en masse to this dark land.

 Our language learning continues to plug along, and we find ourselves to be able to communicate more and more.  We are still not where we like to be in the language department, but the Lord continues to give grace as we plod.  I was able to preach my first sermon entirely in Japanese on the 23rd of December.  I preached on the three places that the Old Testament says that the Messiah would be: born in Bethlehem, called out of Egypt, and called a Nazarene.  I pointed to these prophecies as proof that only Jesus has fulfilled these and only He could be the Messiah.  Preaching in Japanese for the first time reminded me of the first message I ever preached in America. I read most of the sermon straight from my notes, I added a lot of Scripture to make it longer, and it was a lot shorter than the times I practiced it.  I was nervous, I was excited, I couldn’t wait to get started, I had a hard time thinking what to say, I was glad when it was done, and I thought of a lot of things I “should have said” all that night and the next day.  Yep . . . just like the first one.  What a privilege to be in His service!

 On New Year’s Eve, Bro. Randy, Malachi, and I rang in the new  year where many of the Japanese would be visiting – the local “jinja” or Shinto shrine.  Before the people entered in to offer their prayers, listen to the drums, and watch the fireworks, we wanted to give them Hope not to be found in idols of stone and wood.  To tell them of the True God that could not be contained in boxes borne on the shoulders of men.  Many accepted the tracts and a very few stopped and talked.  One fellow, after initially refusing a tract, turned back to Bro. Randy and asked, “Why do you come out here and do this?”  Bro. Randy gladly told him.

 May we all be found busy at the midnight hour, so that perhaps one more may turn and ask why we are "doing all of this" before the trumpet sounds.  It may be this year.Thank you for your abundant love and prayers for our family.  May the Lord richly use you in 2010.

By His Grace Alone,

Duane for the Wilhites