A New Bundle of Joy!

A new joy is soon coming to the Wolter family... This is to announce that Maki is pregnant!
We wanted the whole world to know, but we had to wait until we were in a stable period.
Since we are into the 2nd trimester we can say now that we are expecting at the end of May or early June.
Please pray along with us for this new creation being put together by God inside Maki!
It is truly a miracle to see a little heart beating! Only God could have invented such a magical
mystery as a new life.

This was our baby at 9 weeks!
Only 23mm!

Fears of Offending Non-Christians?

New Line Cinema says it was dropped as sponsor of German Christkindlmarket because city officials worry ads for upcoming film 'The Nativity Story' could offend non-Christians

Click here for more

Revitalize Your Quiet Times
I have been enjoying reading, and
then later in the day listening to the
Bible. In this day of FREE Bible
study tools, please make use of this
to reflect on and apply your Bible more.
Click here to check out the wonderful
resource from BibleGateway.com

Young People's Happiness

Sun Nov 19, 2006 7:08 PM ET

By Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) - Young people in developing nations are at least twice as likely to feel happy about their lives
than their richer counterparts, a survey says.
Indians are the happiest overall and Japanese the most miserable.
According to an MTV Networks International (MTVNI) global survey that covered more than 5,400 young people in 14
countries, only 43 percent of the world's 16- to 34-year-olds say they are happy with their lives.
MTVNI said this figure was dragged down by young people in the developed world, including those in the United States
and Britain where fewer than 30 percent of young people said they were happy with the way things were.
Only eight percent in Japan said they were happy.

"The happier young people of the developing world are also the most religious," the survey said.

"Racial Differences - They are only skin deep"

Click here to listen to a 30 sec. blurb
by Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis.

Evolutionary thought has aided the expansion
of racism. Click here to listen to "Racism in our Textbooks" by Ken Ham.

College Cell Group











Please pray as Mark begins to lead a group of five college guys in bible study, prayer and
fellowship. Pray that we would grow in love and good deeds. I thank God that one of the college students already expressed a burden to go do evangelism together at the station. Please pray for these young Christian men to grow together. I believe these guys can impact Japan greatly for Christ in the future!
Nozomu, (to the right of me) hasn't been involved with many Christians before, but yesterday at cell group he said that he wants to continue to come and also start to read the Bible for himself. Please pray for him and for Yoshiya, Yuki, Naoya, Alex and I also!

Retired Husband Syndrome
A growing problem in Japan.
Click here for the article.

Gospel for Asia
Get great FREE downloadable missionary messages here!
http://www.gfa.org/gfa/kpaudio

"I Ascribe My Change Wholly to God"

"When I was coming to Christ, I
thought I was doing it all myself, and
though I sought the Lord earnestly, I
had no idea the Lord was seeking
me. I do not think the young convert
is at first aware of this. I can recall
the very day and hour when first I
received those truths [of the doctrine
of election] in my own soul—when
they were as John Bunyan said, burnt
into my heart as with a hot iron, and
I can recollect how I felt that I had
grown on a sudden from a babe into
a man—that I had made progress in
scriptural knowledge, through
having found, once for all, the clue
to the truth of God.
One week-night, when I was
sitting in the house of God, I was not
thinking much about the preacher’s
sermon, for I did not believe it. The
thought struck me, How did you
come to be a Christian? I sought the
Lord. But how did you come to seek
the Lord? The truth flashed across my
mind in a moment—I should not have
sought him unless there had been
some previous influence in my mind
to make me seek him. I prayed,
thought I, but then I asked myself,
How came I to pray? I was induced to
pray by reading the Scriptures. How
came I to read the Scriptures? I did
read them, but what led me to do so?
Then, in a moment, I saw that God
was at the bottom of it all, and that
he was the Author of my faith, and so
the doctrine of grace opened up to
me, and from that doctrine I have not
departed to this day, and I desire to
make this my constant confession,
'I ascribe my change wholly to God.'"
— Charles Spurgeon

The Haggard Tragedy

"...it is a logical fallacy to conclude from this that the message that Haggard brought on behalf of evangelicals is somehow discredited. Or to allow it to be watered down in the embarrassment of it all. Jesus reserved some of his strongest criticism for the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. But he in no way condemned the righteousness that they stood for in public. Matthew 23:1–3 records:

‘Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so practise and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice.’

Thus the charge of hypocrisy was not an attack on the morality they preached but on their failure to live up to it. He actually told his followers to be even more righteous than them (Matthew 5:20).

In fact, the very pain of hypocritical actions in a preacher has something to do with our innate recognition that something intrinsically good has been debased and let down by his failure to meet the standard that he proclaimed. Hence the saying, ‘Hypocrisy is the compliment vice pays to virtue.’ It stands to reason that saying the right thing and doing the wrong thing is better than saying AND doing the wrong thing.

Indeed, what would have happened if Haggard had come out of the closet on his own and bashed the church for repressing gay sexuality? Judging by its record of lauding gay bishops, the generally anti-Christian media would be hailing Haggard as a brave maverick who had boldly thrown off the chains of organized religion to embrace self-actualization. We would hear very little of his hypocrisy of not following the book he claimed to believe in, or of betrayal of his family. About the only thing that the media seems to have against Haggard is that he now seems to be repentant, spoke out against homosexuality while practising it, and has not resiled from that."

Click here for the rest of the article from Creationontheweb.com

Unstoppable Live @ Bethlehem Baptist

This was refreshing for me to see