Memorial Service

Every year we travel 5 minutes to the church graveyard and have a memeorial service. There are only 10 people who have been buried here none of whom were church members. Still its a good time to rmrmber we will return to dust and of the need to be ready to meet Jesus anytime. We sang a song, read from Rev 19 about the day when people from every nation and language is going to be gathered around Jesus throne one day. Then we talked about one of the ladies, Mrs Saitoh who is buried there. She was from the town and an avid Christian. Meetings were held in her home before we arrived in 1991. Partly it is because of her prayers that we see fruit today.
Then for those who can stomach it, we push back the stone slab and look down at the bones. Basically everyone is cremated here but they stop the fires before the bones totally turn to ash. Then they are dumped into the pit so that they turn to dirt over 20 years. There is something sobering about seeing all that remains of ones physical life. Sure points to the need to have our priority on laying up treasure in heaven where nothing is corrupted.
We look forward to our new bodies and to the new heaven and earth.

Swiss Night

Beat Richenbach has been our short termer since February. His time is wrapping up and so we wqanted to have a time to invite his friends and church contacts. He cooked all day May 16th and 17th and put on a spread. There were 49 in attendance- half nonchurched people. He gave a powerpoint presentation on Switzerland. The hilight was the 7 minute video clip of his hometown- wow!!! It would be hard to be impressed by scenery anywhere else after growing up there. He then gave a clear presentation of the meaning of the cross using the Swiss flag.
Beat leaves us June 8th. We appreciated his servant heart.