ベサニー・キリスト教会
大阪府堺市のはずれにある、泉北ニュータウンのそのまたはずれにある村の小さな教会。
でもそこに一歩踏み入れたら暖かい家庭的な雰囲気にあなたの心もなごむことでしょう。
聖書の中にある、一世紀当時の教会の姿がここにはあります。
まだ一度も教会に行ったことのない方､以前教会に行っていたけど今は行っていない方､どなたでもどうぞご遠慮なくお出で下さい。
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English Service
English service at the Bethany Christ Church
On Sunday the 8th of February from 4:00pm, we will be hosting our English serivice. It is an informal get together, praising and worshipping the Lord with our brothers, sisters, and friends. The service is conducted in English, with Japanese interpretation, so no one would be feeling left alone. Please come and join us. We also enjoy chatting over coffee and cookies after the service. See you there!
ベサニーキリスト教会 英語集会
2月8日（日）の午後4時から英語集会を行います。兄弟・姉妹・友達と共に、リラックスした雰囲気で賛美と礼拝をおこないます。集会は英語で行いますが、もちろん日本語の通訳も付きますので、どなたが参加して頂いても大丈夫。
是非ご参加ください。集会後のコーヒータイムでおしゃべりするのも楽しみの一つです。お待ちしています。
I can't remember the last time I gave a report here but I know many people are praying for me and so I will try and give a bit of an update.
During the months of December and January I continued to be very weak-so weak in fact that I could not even start chemo treatments. I was able to finally take a CAT scan in December and am glad to report that the cancer has not spread. PTL
In January I was also strong enough to start chemo treatments again. My doctor and considered trying a new type of treatment but I chickened out at the last moment and decided that in my un-balanced body the last I needed to do was to try yet another new medication route.And so I am now back on my old once every three week 48hour IV chemo medication route. This seems to be working out very well. In fact at this moment as I write this I have a chemo bottle hanging around my neck and am having an IV injection through the IV injection port in my chest. It sure beats laying in a hospital bed for three days!!!
At any rate, over all I am doing ok. I am preaching every week and am also doing some Bible Studies. I also climb mountians (at a very very slow rate). I asked my doctor about this and he said it was about the best thing I could be doing and that rather than telling me to take it easy and rest more he encouraged me to climb as much as possible-mountain climbing is also a type of anti-cancer medication he said.
I want to thank all of you who are praying for me-I am sustained daily by the prayers of God's people!!!
The other day I was leading a Bible Study about Quiet Time. Afterwards I was asked when and how I myself came to read the Bible on a daily basis. I answered that rather than reading the Bible, the Bible was introduced to me by my parents reading to me every night before going to bed.
When I was maybe 3 or so, my parents started the custom of reading to me every night from the book, "Egermeier's Bible Story Book". This is basically the Bible for young children. It starts with Genesis and ends with Revelation and is very well written and laid out. I could not wait to hear the next story and looked forward to bedtime every night. As a result, by the time I made my own personal committment to believe and follow Jesus Christ I had a good over-all idea of how the Bible was laid out and what it taught. What happened in the OT and what Jesus taught in the NT etc. I will always be grateful to my parents for introducing me to the Bible-the Word of God-in this way.
However, this is quite the old book now. The copyright is 1923 and the copy that my parents used was printed in 1947. I still have it and it is real beat up but all the pages are there and it is a bit of a personal treasure for me. Whether or not it is still in print I have no idea nor do I know if second hand copies are easy to obtain or not. However, this is a classic work.
Taking the book down from my bookshelf and looking at it again I was reminded of what the Christian author. Larry Christianson, said about this book. In his book, "The Christian Family" he mentions that family devotions were going nowhere and he was concerned and did not know what to do. However, he decided to on a nightly basis gather his children and read a chapter from "Egermeier's Bible Story Book". When he did that, every night his children would be waiting and wanting to hear about what happened to Noah or Abraham or David or whoever. This book started his family on the road to good family devotions.
Looking at this old book again I was challenged that somehow each new generation of children need to be introduced to the Word of God-the Bible-in some way that will hold their interest and cause them to become lovers and students of the Bible when they are older. Again, I am so thankful that my parents were able to do that and that as a result, even now, one of the things I look forward to the most every day is to read some chapters from the Bible-the Bible never gets old. PTL.
So much has been written about "TheShack" that I am sure I have nothing to add. However, I do feel that I need to say that I thought it was a wonderful book and really challenged me about the love of God and the character of God. As I am in the midst of fighting cancer the love of God and the plans of God are especially important to me and the book was very helpful to me.
I ordered a copy in Japanese and I trust that those in my church may also read it and be challenged by it. I am not sure of the title in Japanese but it is available and so whether in English or Japanese I highly recommend reading this excellent book.
On January 26, 2009 the Christian Street Muscician Condor Sakata made his 50th climb of Mt. Kongo.Condor Sakata is an ocarina player of great talent who is also into outdoor activities. One of his jobs is to guide walking tours around the largest lake in Japan-Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. I did not know that he also was climbing Mt. Kongo but over a year ago he added that to his schedule of things to do.
A few days before his 50th climb he found out that I was also a Mt. Kongo climber and as a fellow Christian he wanted to share his 50th climb with me. I had first met him in November of 2008 when we invited him to do an ocarina concert at our church. At any rate, he called me up and asked if we could do this climb together as two Christian brothers. I told him that I would be very glad and honored to do so but that I was worried about my physical condition. If I was not in good shape that day we might have to use the ropeway. He told me that was ok so we set up our plans for the 26th.
The morning of the 26th greeted us with a nice blue sky though the temperature was way down there-in other words a perfect mountain day. The climb went perfectly with us enjoying great conversation the whole time. I think it was about 90% conversation and 10% climbing! At any rate we arrived at the peak ok and I took photos of him having his card stamped for the 50th time and also a picture of him in front of the snow igloo and also standing by his new name plate that announced to the world that he had climbed 50 times.
I remember how excited I was when I did my 50th climb-I was more excited then than when I did my 100th climb or my 1000th climb or my 1500th climb. Your 50th climb proves that you can do it. If you can climb 50 times you can climb 100 or 1000 or 2000 times or whatever!
On the way down, when the snow had thinned out, we found a comfortable place and he played several hymns on his ocarina. The beautiful sound of hymns being played on an ocarna in the middle of a mountian valley is just wonderful. I think the valley sides served to send the sound all over the mountain.
I am so happy to have yet another fellow Christian climber on Mt. Kongo. In Condor Sakata's case this means that the sound of Christian hymns will also be heard more and more. Wonderful! PTL
English service at the Bethany Christ Church
On Sunday the 11th of January from 4:00pm, we will be hosting our English serivice. It is an informal get together, praising and worshipping the Lord with our brothers, sisters, and friends. The service is conducted in English, with Japanese interpretation, so no one would be feeling left alone. Please come and join us. We also enjoy chatting over coffee and cookies after the service. See you there!
ベサニーキリスト教会 英語集会
1月11日（日）の午後4時から英語集会を行います。兄弟・姉妹・友達と共に、リラックスした雰囲気で賛美と礼拝をおこないます。集会は英語で行いますが、もちろん日本語の通訳も付きますので、どなたが参加して頂いても大丈夫。
是非ご参加ください。集会後のコーヒータイムでおしゃべりするのも楽しみの一つです。お待ちしています。
For those of us cliimbing Mt. Kongo on a regular basis, the first snow of the year is always an exciting time. Actually, snow can fall on Mt. Kongo as early as October-however, early snow almost always totally melts away. Thus, the thousands of people who climb Mt. Kongo during the New Year holidays do not always see snow. However, this year has turned out to be a good year for snow. The whole mountain is nicely covered. In fact, some of the parking lots are icy and hard to get to.
On thhe 3rd of January I made my first official climb of Mt. Kongo for 2009. The way the trees were snow covered and frozen was really really beautiful-I gave up counting the number of camera men with tripods and huge lenses. The cold and snow also brought out the wild birds who hoped for a hand out of seed from camera men who hoped to get the "picture". Quite a few birds came up to me and were not too happy that I was not a seed carrying camera man but just a plain hiker with nothing to give them.
The only problem with the snow this year is that it is not quite deep enough to make an igloo. The staff at the top of the mountain always make an igloo but this year they have started but still not been able to actually make an igloo.
However, there is plenty of snow for sledding so there were lots of happy kids around. Also lots of tired parents pulling their kids in their sleds. The kids looked perfectly happy but the parents doing the pulling had that, "Never again" look on their faces.
At any rate, the snow season has come to Mt. Kongo and it will be a busy time for the next few months. My rock climbing equipment is sitting sadly in my office with no use while my American winter boots are proving their worth. Not only in keeping me warm but in starting conversations. Most conversations start with "My, those are nice boots-where did you buy them?" This usually leads to some new friendships.
And so the time of snow has come to Mt. Kongo once again.
