Marsha's Blog

 Lately I've been really enjoying the Old Testament.  Maybe that’s because I'm getting “old” myself; who knows?  Anyway, the other day I came across Isaiah 2:3, “Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,     to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways,     so that we may walk in his paths.’” Suddenly an old song that I knew popped into my head.  It's in Japanese, but so beautiful. And the reason it was dually beautiful was that I remembered Tony singing that scripture to me about 40 years ago as we were walking up to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This song was written by a dear friend of ours, Makoto Iwabuchi. Over the years, he’s been a real inspiration in our lives, in addition to a lifelong friend. It was the early 80’s. Tony and I were settling into life in Sendai when Makoto and another fellow by the name of Chu Kosaka came and held a concert in the city auditorium. We fell in love with...

 We were talking the other day in Bible Study about how to be ‘full on’ Christians in the world we live in now. History shows us dramatic examples all over of men and women who keep their faith razor sharp, and often pay the ultimate price for it. But what about us, in the world in which we find ourselves today? Of course, all the obvious things were mentioned, like reading our Bibles faithfully, or praying like Miss Clara in the 2015 classic, “War Room”. That raised lots of related questions, and someone asked, “What about praying in restaurants?” Wow, that opened the kettle. Some thought that prayer is a personal thing and so praying in public might not be appropriate. Others brought up the “Pray without ceasing” quote from Paul in I Thessalonians 5:16, and that reminded me of my son’s father-in-law, who has taken that verse quite literally.  We all agreed that this was a subject that bore deeper inspection. The group was split over whether or not praying in public is a mark...

 Surprise! I mentioned last time that we were having trouble finding enough WiFi to send out the weekly blog. Yesterday we managed (I Think!) to get one on its way. In the meantime, here’s another one that’s been sitting in my outbox for over a week. I’m going to send it now while I have a chance. Please be patient for the next 3 weeks; connections will be iffy at best. Good Morning Friends, Well first of all, my face is red because I believe the blog did not go out as scheduled.  We’ve been in a very dead zone of the Caribbean, and I guess the signal just didn’t go thru.  So here’s a word on the 3rd of August. First of all, shout out to my sister for her 30th anniversary.  Like most marriages, it’s been a journey but they’re hanging in there. Speaking of anniversaries, we had a lovely anniversary on the ship at sea.  Not much we could do extra to celebrate, but Tony took me to dinner (as usual). We have gotten involved at the participation end of an on-board Bi...

 Recently I was reading a dime store novel about some settlers in the Rockies who got caught in a sudden snowstorm.   I grew up in the Rockies, so that got my attention. Even though my birthday's in June (early summer in Colorado), I'd had snow interrupt a few of my party plans. But as I continued to read thru the novel, I realized I was relating because I COULD relate, if somewhat painfully. We were in Australia, maybe in our early to mid 50's when a particularly interesting 'trek' as they're called here, captured our imagination.  It's called the "6-foot track" and it's 42 KM (about 27 miles) right thru the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.   The reason it’s called the Six-foot track is because it was built in the 1800’s originally as a wagon trail leading to some famous caves.  They’re still famous, by the way. Anyway, the terrain is rough, so no one wanted to spend time breaking rock unnecessarily. Therefore, the trail is no more than six fee...

 Apologies for the messed up blog schedule. We've been having a heck of a time finding wifi that's reliable. This is going out now since we're in Lima, Peru and seem to have a connection. Hang in there with me for four more weeks and we get back home! Recently I was reading a dime store novel about some settlers in the Rockies who got caught in a sudden snowstorm.   I grew up in the Rockies, so that got my attention. Even though my birthday's in June (early summer in Colorado), I'd had snow interrupt a few of my party plans. But as I continued to read thru the novel, I realized I was relating because I COULD relate, if somewhat painfully. We were in Australia, maybe in our early to mid 50's when a particularly interesting 'trek' as they're called here, captured our imagination.  It's called the "6-foot track" and it's 42 KM (about 27 miles) right thru the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.   The reason it’s called the Six-foot track is...

  I came across an interesting comment in Psalms 133:1. Just one sentence by King David, “How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!” Just reading that one verse took me back … way back to 1980. We had been in Japan for two years, studying Japanese in Tokyo. Finally done, we packed up and headed north for the town of Sendai. We had been tasked with the job of establishing student ministries, and Sendai ticked all the boxes.  What a delightful place!  There were 13 prestigious universities in town, and we had the pick of them all.  English classes taught by native speakers were like pure gold. We were in demand, and the biggest challenge was to pick the places to which we could commit.  Students of course were initially drawn by the “Engrish” lessons, but they were also quite open to hearing the Gospel. We taught the Bible, in English, to one and all, then followed that up with a Bible study in Japanese. The biggest success story was ...