When people find out that we’re–Lord willing–moving to Japan, they usually ask, “Why Japan?” or “How did you decide to do that?” or something else along the same lines. There are about 100 different answers that we could give, all of them 100% honest. Normally, we give the answer I think most people are looking for,”Here are […]
From July 4-18, we attended a training called APO (Appointee Orientation) at the WorldVenture headquarters in Littleton, CO. It was a sweet time, greatly exceeding our expectations. Here are some stories that capture a picture of what happened. 1. The first week of training focused quite a bit on public speaking. We were required to […]
Ezra loves to mow the lawn. He has loved it for as long as he’s been able to walk. It started off with a toy lawn-mower. Now, he’s moved up to the real thing. When the grass grows tall, the boy grows excited. He looks at me with confidence, “Daddy, the grass is reawwy long. I think […]
The Pals family has gone through some rough weeks recently. I hesitate to use the word “trials,” because doing so might make you think we’ve gone through especially difficult circumstances. Though we have been busy, sick and often sleep deprived, the main difficulties we’ve faced have been internal. Sometimes circumstances alone are enough to qualify […]
The day we decided to start a blog, I envisioned that we would post something once/week. Nope. Hasn’t happened that way. While we have a lot that we’d like to share, the capacity to do so has steadily disappeared. Sometimes doing things that are worth writing about requires that you stop writing, in order to do […]
Dear Kathryne, Here is what Ezra and Violet wanted to say to you for Mothers’ Day. Me: Ezra, did you know that tomorrow is a special day, when we get to thank God for Mommy. Can you say, “Happy Mothers’ Day”? Ezra: (starts to sing) Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. (trails off…) Me: […]
I celebrate birthdays by eating donuts. This does not make me a man, but it does give evidence of my manhood. You need to know that I take manliness seriously; otherwise, this post will lack power of any kind. When I first began considering missions about nine years ago, I tried to talk myself out of […]
Imagine a scenario in which every single Christian shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with every single non-Christian that they know. Do you know how many people there would be on earth who have still never heard the gospel? At least two billion. That’s incredible. There are over two billion people on earth today who don’t […]
The question, “When are you going to Japan?” has been coming up a lot lately. To be honest, we don’t really know when. It may sound like the cliche Christian response, but our answer truly is: “In God’s time.” Or, maybe a more helpful way of saying it, “When God brings enough of the right […]
As a part of our training, I (Jamison) recently read a book called Third Culture Kids. It describes both the blessings and challenges that children, like Ezra and Violet, will face when they’re raised in a culture different from that of their parents. By the time I put the book down, I was thinking, “Why in […]
Earlier today, I read this quote from BBC, citing a recent survey: “Nearly 80% of Japanese youth felt depressed in the week of the survey. One third of them don’t think they’ll be happy when they are 40.” (Click Here to read more). The article asks if education reform is the cure for Japan’s depression epidemic. […]