Access-orizing

...no, Asian Access did not throw us a prom...

...this picture was taken at a dinner celebration and commissioning that marks the end of our weeklong training (oct 17-20) @ Asian Access' headquarters in Glendora, California...we joined two other families that are heading to japan as church planting missionaries...

...we praise God for "access"-orizing our ministry with (i) a growing family of awesome Christian brothers and sisters at Asian Access and (ii) tools to be effective in japan...

...below are the muhlings: kent and yuko and their beautiful children, caleb and sophie....kent, a former navy pilot and coffee lover (he roasts his own coffee!), and yuko met and married while they were both grad students at reformed theological seminary....while they have faced many obstacles getting to this point, God has faithfully provided for all of their needs and they are headed to japan this friday to begin a three-year term in chiba (a suburb of tokyo)...

...joining us and the muhlings were the boehmes (erik, rhonda, andrew and katrina)...they are oregonians who are passionate for the lost...they shared some amazing stories of God's provision and power in their lives....we were so encouraged by the Lord's call on their lives (and their obedience to it)...naming their kids after historic hurricanes was purely coincidental, or so they jokingly tell us...

....we learned so much during our Asian Access training...thank you from the bottom of our hearts to the wonderful folks at Asian Access (the "A-Team": Akiko, Ellen, Elliott, Emi, Eriko, Jason, Jeff, Kika, Mark, Nancy, and Reiko)....

...to our praying partners, thank you so much for your support...God answered your prayers by informing and inspiring us about what lies ahead, both immediately and long-term...

...in terms of informing, we heard from a number of speakers in the areas of language learning (dr. betty sue brewster herself came and lecured on the LAMP method!), spiritual warfare, fundraising, japanese culture, and cross-cultural stress management....we also took care of lots of the necessary logistical stuff...

...in terms of inspiring, we began each day spending meaningful time in worship and prayer...

...interspersed with the learning workshops and logistical sessions, we also heard remarkable testimonies of God's power and love in the lives of japanese men and women...this pointed and centered us back to the power of the gospel for salvation to everyone who believes (Romans 1:17)...

...for example, kika, pictured below, shared how she, a third-generation christian, stood up to intense societal and academic pressures when she chose to attend church on sunday instead of bowing down to anti-christian school authorities...it's astonishing how much pressure japanese youth face these days....no wonder suicides and despondency is on the rapid rise among youths...

...by God's grace, she resiliently fought to follow Christ and today she is a visual aid of how difficult it is for japanese youth to follow christ in japan...she'll be graduating fuller seminary this winter and returning to japan to help her uncle pastor a church near tokyo...praise God!

...chyoko testified to God's power to deliver her from demonic spirits and the severe oppression from her buddhist grandmother....today, she praises God not only for her salvation but also the salvation of her once-cruel grandmother...embracing Christ's forgiveness herself, chyoko was able to completely forgive her grandmother and lead her to Christ...

...having gone through training w/ Asian Access, we thank God for the many people we've come to know and love and for the many things we've learned...God even gave us chances during the free evenings to see some great friends...