The New Blog

I want to start by saying I am sorry.  I know some of you keep my blog as your home page or as a link on your own blogs and it will be troublesome to have to change things.  However, the new family blog is up and because it will be my job to manage that I will not be keeping a personal blog any longer.  This blog will gradually be disassembled and then deleted from cyberspace.  Sorry for any inconvenience.

 I am really excited about having a family blog.  As most of you know, I have kept a blog for almost 3 years now and have often considered it to be a great hobby.  Recently though, I began to feel that we were not using this medium to its fullest potential.  Our family has the wonderful opportunity of knowing, and continually meeting people from all over the world, therefore, keeping in touch can be quite a challenge – and even moreso when each family member is doing their own thing, keeping in touch by their own means, etc.

Between the four of us our audience is large and broad; ranging from close family members and friends to financial supporters and first time acquaintances.  In an effort to mainstream our keeping in touch efforts and to make them more effective we decided to make one family blog.

I think this family project will be lots of fun and I hope you too will find it to be fun, educational, and mostly, God glorifying.

 My page on the blog will mostly consist of personal stuff; my poetry, essays, devotionals, etc. So you can continue to find pieces of me there.  Also, the home page will be the scrapbook/journal of our everyday lives.

I hope you will continue to follow the life of the Repp family through our new blog found at www.jr4japan.wordpress.com

ENJOY!

Change is Coming

Change, it’s inevitable and every individual responds differently to it; some like it, some hate it, some thrive on it and others will do anyting to stop it from coming.  We are all somewhere on the continum because we all experience it and can’t get away from it.  Whether the nature of the change be positive or negative our emotions will sway like pendulums in the midst of it.

I must be one of the thriving types.  What other type would consciously choose a lifestyle that uproots the family every 1-5 years, not to move across states but across oceans and cultures?  I like change!  Whether good or bad it poses challenges that refine our characters, make us stronger, and show us a little bit more of who we are and who God is.

I have been blogging for 3 years and over that time this hobby has evolved into something other than what my first intentions were.  I wanted my blog to be an outlet for my writing.  A place to share my passions, philosophies, devotions, and creativity.  Somewhere along the line it became a scrapbook of events; not a bad thing – just not what I had originally intended.

My first goal in blogging is to bring glory to God.  It is in Him that I live, and move and have my being.  And therefore it is by Him and through Him that I want to live publicly through blogging.  I want this site to be a place that points to His work in my life, the life of my family, and the events that we are a part of.  I am not using this medium to its fullest potential and therefore it is time to make some changes.

I have talked and prayed with James about my passions/frustrations with blogging and we have decided to try a whole new approach.  Our blog is going to become a family effort, where each one’s gifts and talents will be used to make ourblog a fun, informing, inspiring, and God glorifying spot on the world wide web!

So please bare with us as we revamp the whole site.  I hope you will stick around through the mess of the next few weeks to enjoy the new and improved blog!

Happy New Year!

Hope the new year finds everyone well!  We are happy to be back into routine (whatever that means  )  We are looking at a very busy start to our new year!  Over the next 9 Sundays we will be speaking at 7 different churches.  Please join us in praying that the Lord will use this to raise additional support in order for us to return to Japan quickly.

 I don’t think any of us realized how knit our hearts had become to the Japanese.  We found ourselves VERY homesick for Japan over the holiday, and I think we were quite surprised by that.  Lately, our converstations have been permeated with stories and thoughts of our friends there.  I do hope we can get back by the Fall.  Please pray for us.

Just for fun…Here are two picts I just loved because the captured the essence of each of each personality:

My introvert…

And the extrovert…

Stop and Think

How often do you really stop and think about Christmas?  Do you ever stop and think through the whole story?  I must admit I have failed to slow myself down long enough to take a hard look at it this year.  Prompted by guilt I have rushed through the motions of focussing on my Jesus and felt no gratitude for the event that happened on the first Christmas morning.  I think my primary flaw has been to take advantage of my being state-side this Christmas.  To think that the atmosphere, family meals, parties, etc. would fill me with all the warm fuzzies that I love during this season but unfortunately, I have been left empty.  I felt more enthusiasm for Christmas in Japan (where only 1 in 300 people even celebrate) than I do here this year.

My complacency has been bugging me; big time.  So I had to step back and check my heart, then another step back and look at the really big picture; He is not just the baby in a manger but He is the Savior of the world!

In Philipians 2:5-8 we read that He gave up all of heaven and condescended to us, to abide with us, live a perfect life for us, and to give up that life on our behalf.  There is the manger, up to the cross – 33 years of his life lived out JUST FOR ME!  No self-seeking motives.  He gave up all of heaven to live a perfectly righteous life in the place of His bride, the church (of which I am one ).

Now, the climax of the story.  After the baby lives out this perfect life for me, He willingly dies for me.  I am not good enough to even pay the price of my sins on my own.  He pays the penalty for me, and all those who will call on His name, AND He puts our enemies in their place – under His feet.

 Yeah, that part where He shouts out, “It is finished,”  He was shouting I have won the war against sin and death, I am sovereign ruler – seated at the right hand of God the Father and the enemy is now under my feet! (I Cor. 15:20-28).   Three days later He rose from the grave – proving his vicotry over sin (I Cor. 15:55) and a few weeks later took his place at God’s right hand, where he now rules over the world (Eph. 1:19-21).

 It’s hard to see the conquering King in that stable scene we love to display during the holidays.  But if you stop and think; about the real event, the end of the story, the things he did for you, and the fact that the battles surrounding your struggles and sin were conquered on the cross (Rom. 8:31-39).  I think you will remember that the baby in the manger IS the greatest gift of all.

Have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Need I Say More?

Some went down to the sea in ships…they saw the wonders of the Lord, his wonderous works in the deep. Psalm 107:23-24

 

G.M.C. – Not just for Cars

GMC is not only an acronym for General Motors Corporation, Mission to the World uses it to refer to the Global Missions conference held every-other year in Atlanta, GA.  It was amazing to see thousands of people, some missionaries, some looking for opportunities to serve as missionaries, and many faithful believers with big hearts for building the kingdom of God.  We were blessed to see old friends who share our heart for Japan and to also meet new ones. 

What an encouragement!