Christmas 1997, New Year 1998

Dear Friends,

 

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, ...  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.   Isaiah 9:6

 

The prophet Isaiah prophesied the birth of our Messiah, Jesus, over 2600 years ago.  We now joyfully celebrate God sending his only son to earth as a tiny infant to fulfill His wonderful plan to reconcile the sinful people we are to Him.  We hope you are all well and had a blessed year.  Our year was full of surprises.

 

In the spring, we had the great pleasure of meeting Romesh's parents when they came to visit him.  Romesh Silva was the university exchange student for whom we served as a "host family" while he was here for one year from Sydney, Australia.  During spring vacation, Rick's sister and her children, Ricky and Eva, came to visit and got to know their cousins better.  In July, we finally had our long-awaited visit from our friends in Denmark, Klaus, Lise, Marianne & Morten.  We had last visited them in Denmark 14 years before when both of our oldest daughters were 1 year old.  It was certainly a thrill to see them again.  We had great fun visiting Yosemite National Park together, living in tents and hiking up waterfalls.  Back in San Francisco, they flew back to Denmark, while Ikuko and the children flew to Japan to spend the rest of the summer with Ikuko's parents. 

 

In Japan, the children enjoyed reuniting with their cousins, Eiko and Tomoko, who returned to Tokyo from 3 years in northern Japan.  This year, Rick was able to spend 2 weeks in Japan with the family.  Rick wanted to climb Mt. Fuji before he got too old, Noah wanted to see the old capital, Nara, because he studied Japanese history, and Mina wanted to see the Atomic Bomb Museum in Hiroshima.  Ikuko's father was instrumental in planning our trip up Mt Fuji.  We were also excited to re-visit Nara because we had spent our honeymoon there.  Mt. Fuji is an extinct volcano 3776 m (12388 ft) high.  Traditionally, there are 9 stations marking the way up the side of the mountain.  There are now buses which go to station 5 at 2305 m (7560 ft).  This was where we started climbing.  In the winter, Mt Fuji is the beautiful white-capped mountain of the many famous engravings and photographs.  In the summer it is a very big pile of black volcanic cinder-rock encased in cold rain-clouds.  By nightfall, we made it, wet, cold, sick and tired, to the last mountain hut at about 3400 m (11150 ft) to spend the night.  However, by morning, Rick & Ikuko were suffering too much from altitude sickness to go further up.  Mina & Noah got up at 4 am and hiked to the top to see the sunrise.  They have the memory of their accomplishment; we have the memory of the mountain.  We were glad that Ikuko's parents had volunteered to keep Ema with them in Tokyo.  After we hiked back down, we took the train on to Nara with it museums; ancient temples and great bronze Buddha, then on to Hiroshima with the Peace Park and sobering museum.  The museum was full of horrors to the children who had never experienced anything so tragic.

 

It was after we returned from Japan that we decided to move to the suburbs, closer to Rick's work at the Kaiser-Permanente clinic in Antioch.  Right away, we found a house in Walnut Creek that everyone liked.  It is within walking distance of the schools, just over the hill from Rick's work, close to friends, and close to Mt. Diablo State Park (not that we are into climbing mountains anymore).  We had not intended to move, so the kitchen and bathroom remodeling of our old house were not yet complete.  A good friend from church agreed to be our real estate agent for the sale.  In spite her outstanding effort, no one has wanted to buy our house yet.  We are praying that it will sell soon.  Even though the schoolwork is challenging, the children are happy with their new schools.  Mina is in 10th grade, Noah is in 6th grade and Ema is in 3rd grade.  We are trying to get settled in our new house and trying to learn the area.  We are grateful to have good friends helping us and to have met nice neighbors.  We continue to commute to Berkeley to our church where we enjoy the fellowship and worship.  This year, Mina and Noah have really enjoyed their youth groups and choirs.

 

This fall, we were thrilled to attend the Bay Area Billy Graham crusade.  Mr. Yoshio Tanioka accompanied us to the revival.  Ikuko had the blessing of meeting him at the Albany Center for the Blind.  He came here years ago and founded a business.  Three years ago he was blinded by robbers and lost everything he had.  After the tragedy, he came to know Jesus as his Savior.  He encourages everyone he meets and tells us that his positive attitude comes from his faith in Christ.

 

May the Lord bless you and your loved ones this Christmas and New Year.  We look forward to hearing from you.

 

                                                                                                With our love

                                                                                                Rick, Ikuko, Mina, Noah & Ema