March Paintings

     Last month we were able to do some painting. Mom taught us some new watercolor techniques, and it was fun to have some time just to practice painting. Mom's favorite artist is Zoltan Szabo, so we learned from his books and videos, and tried to paint some of his incredible paintings.

 

 Here's our painting room: various stations set up along the table, paints and brushes ready for use, Mom's cherry blossom masterpiece almost ready for release, and the wall sized map of the world behind us.  It was fun!

Right now we're not painting, but working on some other projects.  We're all hoping that sometime next month (which starts tomorrow!) we'll be able to pick up painting again!

Below are some paintings I did last month.  Hope you enjoy!  Next month I hope to add a bunch more to my collection! =)

 

 

The design of the above paintings were taken from Zoltan Szabo's books.

 

This painting of the ship was my own design. It's the first ship I've painted!

 I painted this for Dad's birthday with the verse Joel 3:16.

"The Lord will roar from Zion
    and thunder from Jerusalem;
    the earth and the heavens will tremble.
But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,
    a stronghold for the people of Israel."

 

Here is a collection of paintings by each of us that we hung on the wall. 

 

And lastly a painting of the cherry blossoms I did. 

It was so fun to paint!  Hopefully we'll do some more soon! 

Sakura

     The breeze gently blows the gnarled branches laden with flowers.  The warm air eagerly brushes past upturned faces admiring the brief beauty.  Delicate buds open silently as older petals gently fall to the ground...  The cherry blossoms have bloomed and are already fading away.  Yesterday petals were falling like snow flurries and now about half of the blossoms have disappeared.
    
      Although it is only about a week long cherry blossom season is one of my favorites seasons in the year.  Every year I look forward to the blossoming of the sakura, and every year I'm kind of sad to see them leave.

 

      Last night Tiffy, Jenny, and I walked up to the park to admire the sakura in the dark.  With the help of a few street lights we could see the white blossom growing in clumps like popcorn all over the trees quite well.   In the dark it looked like the trees were in full bloom, when in reality half of the flowers had a petal or two missing.   I love cherry blossoms!

 

 Enjoying the sakura!!

      By this morning the trees look more pink than white since the rain last night washed away many of the petals revealing the pink stems.  The roads are covered with blossoms and new ones are continually being added, even as the rain gently washes many away.

    Cherry blossoms are a sign that spring has finally come!  It's one of God's beautiful creations that helps refresh the soul and bring new hope and joy into one's life.  Cherry blossoms are so pretty!  I think it is amazing how God causes all of these trees to suddenly blossom into thousands of delicate flowers that only last for a week.  God is so extravagant!

      Cherry blossoms remind me of how much God loves us.  He could have made cherries grow from ugly flowers, or He could have made them grow without forming flowers at all, but instead He created them beautiful and brilliant for our pleasure!  He's so nice!

     Even as the cherry blossoms are blowing away, I'm looking forward to them coming

 again next year!

The Cliff of Danger

    Last Monday and Tuesday we were blessed to have Amy at our house.  On Tuesday we went hiking to Suicide Point with her.  It was such a beautiful day!  I love spring!  The weather is becoming so nice!
   We entered the woods near the end of town.  After jumping over a nice muddy spot in the path, we were on our way.  Stopping briefly at Samurai Mountain, we viewed our town before continuing toward our destination.  We took another detour to skip rocks at the Lake for five or ten minutes.

 

      Marching onward we tried to avoid the muddy parts of the path.  One section of the trail had many fur trees growing along it so that I didn't quite recognize it.  It looked more like a jungle path.  Another place had two or three tall red and white striped poles randomly (or probably not randomly) stuck along the trail.  After a while we stopped on a large rock for brief break.

Smile!

     We were off again on the last leg of our journey.  Within ten minutes we were on the rock mound leading to Suicide Point.  Thus with Tiffy leading the way, we carefully climbed down the rocky side, slipping between the narrow crevice in the rock.  Crossing the small strip of rock between the two peaks we were soon on the Point.  We looked at the coins that people had left as a sort of offering for a few minutes before climbing to the very top. 

 

Climbing down through the rock crevice 

 

 

looking at coins

    We sat on top of Suicide Point for a while, looking over the hills below.  We watched a group of people far in the valley seeming to prepare for a hike.  A hawk soared over us as we admired the view and enjoyed being together.

 

Amy on Suicide Point

    So what were we sitting on?  Is it really a CLIFF?!  Most of you have probably seen it or at least seen pictures of it but here it is anyway!  Suicide Point! And we were sitting on the very top!

 

I found a very unusual thing on the Point.  See if you can figure out what is hanging in the bush. 

 

That's right!  A toothbrush!!!!  Someone left a toothbrush (hopefully a clean one) on the bush!  Hmm...

 

It's important to brush your teeth several times a day, right?

 

Tiffy climbing back up

 

    After sitting on the cliff for a bit we climbed back, and hiked to White Rock Hill to eat our lunches.  But on the way a troop of soldiers ran by taking up positions near where we would eat lunch!!!

   Good thing is that they went away pretty quickly so we could

eat our delicious lunches in peace.  

     At one o'clock we started back home.  Stopping only once to skip a few rocks at the Lake.  We arrived home before two o'clock hot and tired.  But it was a fun hike!

Thanks for staying over Amy!

 

A Natural Slide

    So what do we do when we have free time and it's a beautiful day?  Well, here's one thing...

    We pack a lunch and throw it in a backpack or two, hop in some sturdy shoes, skip out the door, and begin walking to the edge of town to go on a hike.
    This is just what we did about a week ago on Easter Sunday!  We decided to go to the Camp Site.  At the edge of town we jump up five stone stairs walked across a somewhat cleared piece of property, and climbed up the rocky base of the mountain.  Then pushing our way through some overgrown brush we headed toward the entrance of the main path.  Ducking under a fallen pine tree we entered the forest and were marching along the narrow path to the Camp Site about fifteen minutes away.
      We arrived at the sandy hill in the middle of the afternoon.  Starting off our time with some action, we pretended that we were running away from wild Indians.  Tired and ready to eat we stopped, sat down, and enjoyed the lunches we had prepared.  I ate rice and sliced beef with some carrot sticks and orange slices on the side all in my new lunch box.  Tiffy and Jenny had delicious sandwiches.  Yum!  The wind was quite strong so we moved to a slightly sheltered area to finish lunch.

 

     As we ate, a hawk flew directly over us, flying lazily in the warm updrafts.  We saw several more hawks while we were there.  After finishing my meal I pulled out a old deck of cards from my backpack. "Anyone want to play?" I asked.

    Before long we had made a table of packed sand and were playing a short card game.  Unfortunately we got cold sitting partially in shadow, so we had to stop and get our blood circulating again.  Jenny noticed that dead tree nearby had a limb that was hanging perpendicular to two other branches so that it made two square shapes.  These became our targets as we tried to throw small rocks through the holes.  But you can only do that for a short amount of time before you run out of rocks nearby.
     Suddenly Tiffy took a running start and... "Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww..."  She was sliding down the sandy slope!

   Jenny took up the idea and slid down after her.  Before long the girls were struggling up the hill only to slide down as soon as they reached the top.  I slid down a few times, but my shoes somehow weren't allowing me to go very fast so I decided to stick with taking pictures of the girls.

 

 

 Time to dump out the sand

Is Jenny acting like pharaoh or an Indian chief?

It was a thoroughly enjoyable time and we all got a little dirty.  

Thus we left with part of the Camp Site still with us!  =)

Up and Down...

    I was reminded recently of the yo-yo concept I shared earlier. When I was looking through my journal I found this little poem about it.

Connected

by Kimberly

November 15, 2010

Anchor yourself in Me

and I will set you free. 

Up and down though you go,

I hold you like a yo-yo. 

Come close to Me,

it's where you should be.

Seek that place in My hand

when you walk through the land.

I will take you up,

with Me you will sup. 

And when you go down, 

dwell in Me and increase your crown.

God is moving!

Bethel team 2012

    So much has happened in the last two weeks!  And with spring practically here things just seem to be getting busier!  I wanted to share some of the amazing things that happened while the team from Bethel Church in California were here.  God did so many wonderful things!

     At the first meeting I went to I got to pray and prophesy with Amy for some Japanese ladies.  It was really fun to get included on the ministry team.  That night we asked the four team members if they could come to our house.  We had a powerful and refreshing time of worship and prayer with them.
       On Friday night we arrived for the first session of the Harvest Seminar in Nishinomiya.  Four more team members had just arrived from ministering in northern Japan.  We heard Chiemi's testimony and were able to pray together on the first night.  The next day Mark shared about how God has created us amazing.  He made us in His own image, we are His masterpieces, and He wants us to be pleased with how He created us.  We then split into various workshops to learn about specific areas. I went to the one about Words of Knowledge, which are basically specific details that God gives us about someone's past or present.  After some teaching and examples of how God has used them, we practiced getting words of knowledge for healing. Waiting on God we paid attention to any thoughts or pictures we got of different parts of the body.  I got several thoughts that I shared with the group, one of which was the 'right shoulder'.  When Chiemi asked if anyone had any of things I had mentioned several people stood up.  One lady's shoulder was kind of popping when she would move it and she couldn't rotate it fully.  Tiffy, Jenny, and I prayed for her and after praying a few times it was completely healed!  Praise God!  Three or four people got healed in that meeting!

Elizabeth and me

    After lunch we split up into workshops again and practiced some more words of knowledge.  One lady had a headache and when we prayed for her she immediately felt her eyelids twitch and it was almost like the headache left through her left eye.  God totally healed her!  It was so fun!  It was wonderful to see God's instantaneous healing!

    On Sunday we went to little Japanese church about half an hour away from our house.  Four of the team members shared and gave prophetic words to different people in the church.  We practiced words of knowledge again and this time both Tiffy and I saw a quick image of teeth.  After other people share words God had given them we prayed for those with the problems highlighted.  The pastor's wife had a tooth that constantly gave her pain even after the dentist had treated it.  She shared that after receiving prayer all the pain left!!!  I prayed for a women whose shoulder and neck hurt and who couldn't raise her arm very high without pain.  I prayed and she could lift her arm a little higher.  So we prayed again.  We prayed four or five times, then she tested it out again.  This time she said she could lift her arm with no pain in her neck or shoulder!  Thank you God!

With some of the team

   
    It was so fun to see God moving in such visible ways!  We met up with the team one more time before they left and heard some of their testimonies of how God was moving and touching people all over Japan.  A total of twenty-one people came to Japan helping various churches, groups, and individuals.  It was such a blessing to have them all here. 
I felt revived.  Seeing God actively at work reminded me of what life is all about.  It's not about friends and hanging out.  It's not about doing fun stuff or having a good life.  It's not about learning a lot and being really smart.  It's all about bringing God's love to earth.  Daily remaining open and attentive to what He wants to give us.  Reconciling people back to God.
    Thank you Bethel team for coming to Japan!  Thanks for sowing into this nation!  Thanks for carrying God's presence wherever you went.  Thanks for releasing love and joy!  God bless you all!

God is amazing!