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A Very Merry CHRISTmas to All!

May your hearts be full, your worries few,
and may you always know GOD LOVES YOU!!!

Merry Christmas to one and all!!

**sorry...somehow when I added my message the "elves" disappeared...so they are reappearing above ;-)

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November '09 Nagano News

Blessings Dear Loved Ones & Prayer Partners!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Yes, we are truly blessed with so much to be thankful for. It is so hard to imagine where to even begin telling you about all the wonderful things that we are so thankful for. Most recently Zack contacted the dreaded H1N1 virus, but only had a mild fever for 2 days, with no side effects unless you call eating like a horse a side effect. He got to spend 5 days at home and got a good rest! This was his longest time away from basketball in 2 years, and none of the rest of us caught the flu, so we are so, so thankful for that. Here it is truly in epidemic proportions as every school has at least some classes cancelled if not the entire school. It seems that it is a very mild form however and most of the kids quickly recover. It seems to not be affecting the mothers and fathers since none of the people we know have been sick after their children became ill. Not sure why, but so thankful. Here almost everyone walks around wearing masks wherever they go, and it is sometimes scary seeing how afraid everyone is. For us, life goes on as normal.
Since coming here over 6 years ago as basically ‘faith’ missionaries, the thing we are probably most thankful for is the knowledge that God doesn’t lie! Wait, I can hear you all saying, we KNOW THAT! But do you? Do you truly believe that God doesn’t lie? I would hope and pray that each of you reading this are responding, OF COURSE WE DO! As we did too, but the reality of our lives is that even though we profess that He never lies, we lead our entire lives often in denial!
Let’s look at some of the things He tells us and see if you truly live these words in your daily lives:
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
What a promise! What love! And of course, as Christians we know it’s TRUE! God DOESN’T LIE!

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
I know that many of you are suffering now, from the economy, from illness, maybe from the death of a loved one and you think things will never improve, well, remember, God DOESN’T LIE: He says: “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” SO TRUST HIM! God DOESN’T LIE!

Matthew 6:19-20 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
God specifically tells us, warns us and commands us not to store up earthly treasures. DO YOU? I know that I sure did. Working hard every day to give all I could for my family. But what we should be working for so hard is to share His love, His rewards, His eternal love with not just our family but with all those we meet. Remember God DOESN’T LIE!

Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
How many of you can honestly answer yes to this one. That you truly know that God will take care of all things. Sure we say we do, but do you really? I know when we got ready to leave for Japan in 2003 so many of our wonderful Christian friends said they couldn’t believe that we would actually be going without the promise of financial resources. How could we trust that everything would be taken care of? It comes down to truly knowing that God DOESN’T LIE!
Now when we left New Albany we (to be honest) truly were worried how in the world we could survive. Oh, we trusted God enough to come, but there were so many monthly expenses, so many unforeseen things, so many…… But we came, we trusted and we found out without a doubt, GOD DOESN’T LIE! He truly provides for ALL THINGS! I think in our Christian life the most difficult thing to do is truly believe that He will take care of us. Oh, we all say so, but to walk out on that plank, and step off, knowing that He will catch you, maybe that is where we draw the line. Maybe we truly won’t step off the cliff, we need a net, a safety rope, something besides our trust to take care of each and every situation. Let me just list a few ways that He (with of course all of your help) has proven to us that HE DOESN’T LIE!
1) When we got rid of the golf course and waited to find out where we would come in Japan, we always had a place to stay and plenty of food. Yes, we were doing odd jobs, but we also still had lots of time to volunteer for many things and still get everything taken care of.
2) When it was time to move, we had no money. Everything we had before we lost with the golf course. However when it was finally time to depart for Japan, the shipping of our things, our plane tickets, visas, everything was taken care of.
3) When we had to move from Atsumi to Nagano, the truck and moving expenses were all taken care of. (More than $6,000)
4) When we were in need of a $1,000 to pay for Ian’s school things, when all time had run out, when we had no options, the money appeared. This was probably the time where our eyes were truly opened. The other things were great and we knew that they came from God, but this one was truly AWESOME! We moved to Nagano the end of March with the new school year starting in April. Ian was to enter the last year of Junior High and the schools take a trip as part of the last year. So they asked us if Ian would want to join and we said sure! The trip was to be the first of April and would cost $800!!!!! YIKES! But they said, don’t worry, they had enough money and we would only have to pay by June. We said thanks and hoped (yes, then still not totally trusting) that the money would be there. Well, June came and NO MONEY! Kim and I talked about it, prayed, and the school responded by saying the other children had paid an additional $200 in the previous years, so to be fair, Ian should pay $1,000 instead of just the $800! DOUBLE YIKES! Well, the payment time had come and gone and we finally decided we had to write the school and beg that they would allow us to pay them a little at a time. With tears in my eyes, I went to the computer and started composing the letter. It was maybe the most difficult one I had ever written. Tears were streaming down my cheeks, when my computer said: “You’ve got mail.” I’m thinking not now…but I needed the release. I opened the mail and it was from a friend of Kim’s father who served together in the Air Force. Now he said that 12 years ago his wife divorced him and they had to split some property, so they put it up for sale, but it never sold. Last week, miraculously it sold and he was left with a little profit and God had told him that we were in need (we hadn’t told ANYONE) and he had sent a check for $1,000 to our account! I thought I had been crying lots before….
5) When our first car became too small, without asking, he provided our van. Our daughter was bringing a friend to visit and we wanted to take them several places but our car was too small, so we decided we would rent a van for a week so we could do all we could to make their trip enjoyable. Well, we couldn’t find one anywhere. We enlisted the help of many people, but NONE! We tried the airport, but they just opened the new terminal and the rental cars hadn’t changed yet…NO VAN! We gave up, then the email came, we want to give you a gift. WOW, I told Kim, we have the money to rent the van….she looked at the amount, she said rent?…BUY! The amount was truly huge, and allowed us to purchase the van. The donors, we don’t know. It was from a wonderful family in California that we have never met! God told them about us, and our need.
6) When it died, a new one appeared. That was the story last month so I won’t go into it again.
Over and over again, He has provided. Month after month, new situations arise, constantly needing resources and month after month, they are taken care of. We can truly tell you, that GOD DOESN’T LIE! This Thanksgiving and the upcoming Christmas Season be filled with thanks that the God we serve, the God we love never ever LIES! Take it to the bank, trust Him, and always in all things give THANKS!
We had a great Halloween Party with over 100 attending and will have our kids Christmas party on Dec. 19th. We will be acting out the Christmas Story for them and anticipate well over 100 coming. So please pray for it. This Sunday is our annual community Christmas party and pageant and we have several non-Christian friends coming, so please pray for their hearts to be opened. Many other events are scattered throughout December, so just please pray that God continues to give us the strength and health to serve him continually in all we do.
*Heather’s father-in-love is undergoing chemo for stage 4 lymphoma so we ask for prayers for him and the family.
We trust God to equip us for each individual challenge and opportunity that He presents. Your prayers and support are vital to our being here. Please pray with and for us that we always strive to walk before God, wherever that may be, and be used as instruments of His love in all we do. Should God ask any of you to partner with us in our outreach for Him, please send any love offerings to: Bethlehem United Methodist Church, for Baranski John Alan Mission Fund, c/o Becky Wack, 1003 Rowan Cove, New Albany, Ms. 38652.
We hold you each in our hearts and prayers with thanksgiving.
In His love & walking before Him, the Baranski Bunch

Seemingly hopeless...

Hi folks!
I know, you probably have all but given up on finding anything new here! Truly I do apologize. As in far too many categories, I have all the best intentions, yet my follow through just isn't as good or timely as I'd like it to be. We(..God and I..) are still working on it though, we haven't given up!
Along those same lines I'm diligently working at making better use of my time - managing it better, I mean, so that I can feel more a sense of accomplishment at those things on my (very long) "to do" list.
We've had so many events and so much going on since I last posted that 'catching up' may never fully happen. I will, however, try to fill in some of the lost-in-time spaces as I find/make the time.
Most recently, the flu - pig type and all those others, too - have been running rapant in the schools here. Here being all over Japan, not just in our area. Many of the schools, from nursery to university, have been closing classes, grades or the entire school for periods of time varying from a day to a week trying to cut the spread. Personally... I don't think it's working so great. John and I may be the only people here that go around with our faces 'unmasked'! Honestly! The folks who market those disposable face masks are making a FORTUNE!!! Even though only a certain type is supposed to really "trap" the germs, every kind is selling out as fast as they put them on the shelf.
Knock-on-wood and thanks to God, thus far Ian, John and I have managed to avoid the flu - YEA!! A few sniffles and a cough or two here and there, but NO flu! Zack fought it off for a good while, but spending a huge chunk of every day with the basketball team - more than half of whom have had the flu - it finally caught him last week :-( He called Sunday morning with 'the symptoms' so I went to pick him up and took him directly to the hospital here to be tested. They first didn't even want to test him since his fever was very low-grade, but they went ahead and it came back positive. Zack asked what kind of flu this was that he had only a low fever and still a full appetite!?! I told him the kind everyone wishes they had if they had to get it at all!! So, he was home for 5 days during which time Ian wore a mask in his presence (plus a knit neck warmer over the mask for that little extra layer of germ deterrent?), and John washed and sanitized his hands more than in any normal month!! Other than the taking of the specimen itself - OUCH!!! - Zack said the worst part was sitting/laying around for 5 days and then having to face basketball practice again the first day back....
I started writing this today at the elementary school where I'm teaching now since when I arrived this morning they informed me the first class for my day was cancelled - for the entire week! - since 11 of the 19 kids were out with the flu - YIKES!! I guess this will go on all winter season...
On a brighter note... you may remember a while back we told you about sifting through a bit if the never ending stuff in our downstairs to make space in the small room for John to hold some of his classes. That was - trust me - a huge deal! and we were so happy when we got it finished. W--e--l--l... we at long last dove into the B-I-G room and all it was hiding... We got some terrific help from some neighbors and this week John will hold his classes in the big room!!!!! YIPPEEEE!!!!!! One day I'll post some pics - really!
OK, still so much to say but after being gone all day there are other things I need to get to so that's it until.....

WHAT A CROC!! LITERALLY!!

Who'd a thunk it!???!!

I bought these while back in the states and brought them for John when I returned the end of May.
He wore them almost daily until one day he left them in the back of van.

A couple of days later I noticed them and took them out and put in the house.
That afternoon John went to put them on and his foot would not fit in the left one! HUH??
He picked them both up and held them together and thought somehow he'd picked up someone else's left shoe the last time he wore them... this had been to a basketball game and in Japan at most gyms you have to change from your outdoor to indoor shoes. Crocs are quite popular here as well and so it wouldn't be a total impossibility to have mistakenly picked up the wrong shoe... EXCEPT that if he had he surely would have noticed when he tried to put it on to go to the car!!

So, he turned them over and !!???! they're both size 12!!

But the left one looks more like a 10!!

All I could think of was that he'd left them in the van. Mind you we've had an extremely mild summer... not o mention the oddity that it was on;y 1 shoe!! So John decided he'd write the company. Lo and behold... on the site while he's looking for the contact info, he runs across this, "To keep your Crocs in good condition, you will want to avoid leaving them where they will be exposed to heat or sun, such as a dish washer, washing machine, or hot car, as this can cause the shoes to shrink or warp." !!!!!! WHAT?! So much for writing them.

So for all you Croc wearers out there, consider yourselves warned - DON'T LEAVE THOSE CROCS IN THE CAR!!!! unless of course one foot is considerably smaller than the other!

And then you better hope the correct one shrinks!

Live and learn :-}

Did you believe us? Prayer... it IS powerful!!!!

Howdy to all! And thank each and every one of you that joined us in prayer for our need of transportation. It worked!! As we trusted it would ;-)
So here's how it went... picking up from when we left the deceased van at the mechanics...
Remember we have a sweet neighbor who is helping out with all the translation between the mechanic and us -
So, he calls her and says that another customer of the shop has just purchased a new vehicle and offered them the old one they're replacing at a very reasonable (for Japan) price. The shop knows the vehicle as they've been the ones servicing it, and they believe it to be in good condition. The shop in turn is offering to let us purchase it for the same price, plus the costs of title transfer, etc. The vehicle will be brought to them that evening and we can come look at it the following morning.
Tuesday morning we're off to take a look. It's van!! A bit smaller than the one we had, still, a van! A 2001 Mazda MVP. seats 7, 4WD, GPS, CD/DVD player, 2 decent sets of tires - summer and studless snow tires, 50,000 kilometers, couple of minor body blemishes ... looks good!
They need to know if we want it. NOW!
We do! We also need to have a way to pay for it - now! Not actually that moment, but within a couple of days. Hmmm....
We've heard from several already and know there are oodles of prayers being sent up about this. We know God knows all about it. We know He has a plan.
We tell them 'Yes!' We want it!
We're able to secure a loan and can get the cash as soon as all the paperwork is in order. Remember, Japan is a cash society.
Feeling pretty blessed by all this ;-} Yet still concerned. With the loan comes loan payments. Already we never quite know how we'll cover each month's expenses, and now we're about to add a significant amount to that for lots of months to come!
Email. I (Kim) have an email offering a teaching position. It's for an elementary school a little over an hour from our house, up in the mountains, 5 classes every Monday, starting this coming Monday! The pay, including a small transportation allowance, is how much? You guessed! Just about what we'll need to make the loan payments each month!!! At least through March when the school year ends.
Pretty cool, huh?!
And that full time 4WD we were a bit hesitant about... comes in mighty handy in the mountains in the winter snows around here!
So our friends at the mechanic shop are checking it over pretty carefully for us, changing the oil, checking all the fluids and filters, the electrical systems, the tires, cleaning it up - and tomorrow it'll be in our driveway!
This week we've had a loaner from the shop. Definitely a plus to get from point A to point B, but not exactly what we'd want full time if we had a say in the matter. This week though we were so thankful to have it! No long distances to go or highway driving. John did have a few classes he needed it to get to and from and was able to fold himself in and out of it without too much trouble. ;-)
So tomorrow, Friday, we'll turn in the loaner for our "new" van - and Saturday - we have to drive two hours on the highway, over 100 kilometers away, to Zack's school - pretty wonderful timing isn't it!
Thank you for all the prayers and love!
For any who may doubt, you really should trust us when we say THERE IS POWER IN PRAYER!!! when you believe there is.

God's peace and love to each of you.

Prayer, powerful stuff!

Greetings! in the name of our Gracious God,

First let us say once more how constantly we are blessed by the prayers, love and offerings we receive from so many. We love each one whether we know the face and name or not.

We have traveled many unknown and at times treacherous paths to get to the place we find ourselves now. This is true in a physical sense and no less in a spiritual and emotional sense. Probably a statement that most could make. Countless times it would have been so much easier to just give in and give up, or so it seemed in the midst of it.
Thanks be to God Almighty that He doesn`t give up on us when we feel everyone else has - ourselves included.

How awesome it is that we serve a Lord Who stays with us in the very lowest and most difficult times in this life with His hand outstretched just waiting for us to look up into His gaze, rest our hand in His, and let Him show us His way through to the other side of the trial.

2002 was one of the most difficult years we faced in many ways. It was also one of the most positive. It was the year that we truly and completely put our lives in God`s hands and began to fully trust Him for our daily bread.
I almost said here that "we had no other choice"... but we did! We always have a choice! Give up or keep going. Trust Him for What and Who He says He is, or don`t. Take the easy way out, or the right way.

When we found ourselves at rock bottom with no place to look but up - we did just that. We asked God what He wanted us to do next, and this time we really listened for His answer. He answered quickly. Nothing like any of the options we had considered as real options. First we talked and prayed together. Then with family. Friends. As we shared what He had planned for us we were met with shock, disbelief, one obstacle after another.

Go back to Japan.... as missionaries... are you CRAZY???

It`s what God has asked of us. Wouldn`t you go if He asked you?

.....no, I just couldn`t.

But, God asked. How do you say no to God when you know it`s Him?

We said yes.

God said, "Go!" "I`ll take care of the rest." We believed Him then. He has proven Himself true so many times since.

This is certainly not to say that since answering with a yes we have awakened to every new day with never a concern, doubt, trial or temptation. There are many. And yes we still try to figure out the way to get through each one when we really see no way. After exhausting our minds and emotions with everything we see as a possible option, we always determine that on our own it can`t be done so we turn it over to God and reaffirm our faith, belief and trust in His promise to us that He`ll take care of the rest.

To date He hasn`t gone back on His promise. He never will. So long as we do our part.

Admittedly we`re not always certain just exactly what "our part" is. We step out with what seems right, and if it isn`t it usually becomes apparent pretty quickly. So we listen a little closer and try again.

Finances seem always to be a concern for us. Our income here is minimal. Living expenses are high in Japan. Money is never an `easy` subject. It`s a vital part of this life none the less.
Since coming here to do mission work in 2003 our income hasn`t increased much. Our expenses have. Home and utilities, groceries, education expenses, transportation, taxes and the `extras` we try to do where we see need.
When the totals are tallied each month for income and expense there is always a concern as to how we`ll cover everything. Yet when all is said and done the bills are paid. The unexpected happens and we have no clue how to cover it. We don`t! God does! Time and again He has awed us with his perfect timing and provision for what for us was the "unforeseen".

Today we learned that our "miracle van" - meaning He provided it for us in ways we could never have worked out on our own! just when we needed it!! - has breathed it`s last. The repair cost would be higher than what we payed for it so definitely out of the question. Our repairman has been amazed for the past year that it has held up as well for as long as it has.
A vehicle is a necessity for us here. Church and class activities on many days of the week are impossible without a vehicle We know this. We know God knows this. He knows our need is immediate.

God loves to hear from His children. Prayer is a most powerful tool. We believe in the power of prayer and so we ask that you pray with and for us that this need for a vehicle be answered.
Thank you from our humbled hearts.

Our God is awesome!!!

May His love, grace and peace fill your lives.

P.S. Just had to add this... our neighbor (not a Christian) helped us out with the translation from the mechanic(not a Christian). He told her that it was so lucky that we found the trouble at home and not while driving because it could have caused the engine to freeze up, the wheels lock and possibly a terrible crash. She agreed we`re a lucky family! We said, not lucky - blessed! God is our Shepherd watching over us always!

1 Peter 4:12-13, "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed" (NIV).