For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder… Isaiah 9:6 

Notice how dark the kitchen was before we took the wall down.

Before

After

We are also celebrating because we are just a few weeks from NORTHSTAR taking the big step of becoming a new private company apart from the current parent company CSJ. NORTHSTAR could not have been started without the help of some key people like Scott who through his company CSJ helped fund this startup ten years ago. Also, without the hundreds of short-term interns and volunteers who have come and worked tirelessly NORTHSTAR would not be here without their efforts.

So we way a big thank you to God and all who have invested so much and we pray now that as NORTHSTAR starts its next 10 years that it would be filled with new friends, challenges, growth and memories.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ridenorthstar#p/u/0/IWyMbil5wC8

Here are some photos from the day.

He did great on the trial and really enjoyed going down hill. At the end he told me that the best part was when he went too fast.

This event is a meaningful one for us as our founder and director Dan Junker was diagnosed with cancer three years ago and he has been riding this event each year as a survivor. We are looking forward to this event growing and impacting more people with the message of hope.

You can’t have a wood stove without firewood and you can’t have firewood without a dry place to store it. So here is what I am working on. A shed roof off the end of the house where we will be able to store our wood and keep it dry. I hope to make this part of the house someday so I have built it a bit overkill.

The summer started off slow with a few camps like the Girls MTB camp which had a decent turn out even though we got rained on. The bike events and camps have been a great way for us to spend time with guests and share our lives with them including our faith. This year we have had an increase in MTB guests coming from the Tokyo area and many of them are repeat visitors meaning that we have an ongoing relationship with them. Through that we have had some great chances to share with people not only why we are here but actually share with people about what it means to be a christian and how they can come to be one, too.

Two weeks ago we had our 5th annual Oyako (Parent and Child) Camp. Each year we have added one new family to the camp and this year made it 5 families. They biked, hiked and climbed together and learned how good it is to spend time as a family. Through these camps we have a chance to speak into the lives of families and share with them biblical parenting principles. Please pray for more chances for us to speak truth into the lives of Japanese families.

We really appreciate all our family and friends support as we live and work for Gods Glory here in Japan.

Being parents of two little guys really makes us stay focused on things, like the words we use, the way we spend our time, the way we spend our money and most importantly how we are modeling a Christ centered lifestyle. When our boys are having a bad attitude we sit them down and tell them something like “you need to make a choice to be happy and to please God, you need to talk to God about that”. This is a common thing in our house especially when it’s close to meal time and everyone is thinking with their bellies. And sometime we have to swallow some of our own medicine, when we parents are struggling to have a good attitude or to love each other our boy will look at us and say, “you need to make a choice to be happy and to please God, you need to talk to God about that”. It is a humbling time for us when our kids tell it how it is.

Going out to these kind of local events is a way for us to be seen in the community and to build deeper relationships. We are finally starting to be seen and people are asking us to come do things with them like have a BBQ together or have tea time together. It is through these kind of meetings that we are able to share our faith them people through our lives. Please pray that we would continue to be accepted by people in the community and that God would open hearts and minds to see His truth.

http://www.facebook.com/v/10150230593535232

Our crawlspace after a heavy rain. Don't worry, the missing posts have been fixed.

My solution for this is to instal foundation drains around the house and also a drain system for the drip lines from the roof. I found a lot of great info on moisture control on the US EPA website. Yesterday I dug and installed 2 sides of the drain system and also re-graded the yard to help the water run away form the house and not into the crawlspace.

Later I plan to install a vapor barrier under the house along with some insulation for the floor. Hard to believe that there is no insulation in this floor seeing how it gets down to single digits in the winter. There is also very little insulation in the walls and ceilings but we will save that story for another day.

There is still lots of work to do on the house to get it ready for next winter but slowly we are getting things taken care of. I am so thankful that I grew up learning now to do all this kind of stuff, thanks dad, mom and grandpa for teaching me how to build.