|
theboekfamily
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: The Boek Family in Tokyo
Interests: We are interested in living our lives in the reality and light of eternity, all of which, comes simply when we let Jesus be our passion, then we get out of His way and let Him be LORD!
We also desire more than anything, that everyone would know Jesus and the power of His resurrection and the transforming life that comes from a saving knowledge of Him. If you happen to come to this site and you do not know where you will spend eternity...we would be so honored to introduce you to Jesus, He made the way possible by His sacrifice on a cross so that you may know for certain where your eternity will be spent. All of eternity...all for the asking!
Expertise: JEREMIAH: cleaning the house, studying, giving the kids their baths, eating unagi sushi, riding bikes, hugging his wife.
GEIGY: baking chocolate chip scones, reading books to the kids, staying up late, finding the best deals, procrastinating, taking walks.
CALI: taking care of her brothers, drinking mocha blasts, reading mystery books, taking the trains, ichatting with her cousins, being the family clown.
JAZZ: living life on the edge, reading his Bible with Papa, practicing his soccer drills and headers, looking adorable and being the life of the party, just call him "bike fanatic" - like father like son.
JUSTUS: being sweet and full of life, riding bikes with "brudder", wrestling anytime, anywhere.
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  Geigy - 5injapan@gmail.com
AIM:  Jeremiah - bereanboek
Yahoo:  5injapan@gmail.com
Member Since:
8/28/2004
 Premium
|
|
| Delights!!!Our weekly English club called SHINE KIDS recently finished up our Spring Program. It was a blast having these kids. As always, we had new kids join us and a load of kids returned. We are thankful to the Lord for giving us time with each of these precious children. We get to sing and dance, play games, read stories, do crafts, eat snacks and have a blast with them every week. Our theme this program was "Sights and Sounds" and we had a song and movement emphasis. We ended up the program with the story of the Wise Man and the Foolish Man. They enjoyed learning the song and learning the English word "SPLAT!" Please pray for two of the children who have expressed interest in joining us for church on Sunday. They were suppose to come this past weekend, but there was a downpour and they were unable to get to church by themselves. We absolutely love these two kids, grades 4 and 6, S-chan and R-kun. They are treasures. Please pray for salvation for them and for them to see the love of Christ poured out for them.
We are also thankful for our fellowship co-laborer, Alex, who faithful serves in SHINE KIDS with us and even puts up with Jeremiah and my hectic schedules. He has faithfully loved these kids alongside with us and he is doing a fantastic job. We thank the Lord for him.
We are getting ready for the summer SHINE KIDS events and we close out the summer with a mini VBS this August. Please pray for our planning and organization of that event.
Enjoy the pictures...
   
 | Currently
Number Ones
By Michael Jackson
You Are Not Alone - I think I cried to this song many a night when I was a teenager :)
see related |
| | |
| Introducing my mother to the 21st century Today, my sister and I gave my mother a tutorial on getting an email account, signing her up on Facebook, and generally catching her up to the 21st century. It was hilariously funny. I was on the phone and online getting her set up and she was at my sister's house getting excited to connect with friends from the Philippines and our days in Africa. The wonders of the internet :) Wonders never cease.
I wonder how missionary life would have been like before the modern conveniences and distractions of the internet. I'd probably be spending more time praying for my family if I didn't have the luxury of just picking up the phone and chatting with them. My prayer today is that I do not forget to spend my time wisely. When Jeremiah and I lived in India before phone and the internet boom hit that country, we used to have to travel by oxcart, bus, and then a train to get to the nearest city to use the phone to make an international call. A 5 min. call at that time, about 14 years ago used to cost around $20. It was a luxury we availed of only twice in our five months of living there. The rest of the time was letters and waiting until we got home. So much has changed.
I've heard my missionary friend say the two most important things that have changed lives for missionaries living in Japan are: the internet and Costco. I wholeheartedly agree :)
I love my mom, I'm glad we will have another way to stay in touch. Here is a picture of my sisters and I with my mom this past Christmas. We are all super close and I couldn't go through life without them. | | |
| "Done Deals"It's the last little bit before the end of our Father's Day here. It has been a full and wonderful day.
We start off every Sunday by getting out of our house by 9am to drive across Tokyo to our Setagaya campus which takes us about 30mins. We had a great time at our 10:30am service. A lot of our folks are out for the summer. Such is the travails of an international fellowship, this one in particular, a lot of folks go home in the summer to visit family so our numbers go way way down. But it does make for a fun reunion in August when everyone comes filing back in to church.
The we set off for the drive back home around 1pm and after a quick bite to eat at our house, a 15-20mins power nap, it's time for our 3pm afternoon service in Machida. We had a wonderful surprise of having our other "adopted" son Kylan show up at church today. What fun! Kylan was a part of our fellowship here about a year and a half ago until he returned to finish his studies at UC Berkley. He is here in Japan for five weeks on a short term mission trip with Campus Crusade for Christ. It was so good to see him.
After both services, we are usually pretty zonked, so we headed home and had a wonderful Mexican feast complete with tacos and nachos. You have to know this about Jeremiah............he is addicted to Mexican food. I'm not the best Mexican food cook but he loves tacos and that is pretty easy to do and he is always happy afterwards. It was great, we had our candlelight Mexican feast, the kids took a "how well do you know Papa" quiz and in the end we were all busting out laughing.
We finished the night off by taking a family walk in the rain up the little hill by our house to the Baskin Robbins ice cream shop where they are having a sale right now. Buy 2 scoops and get a third free. It's so funny because they call it "challenge the triple" and of course the triple is so easy to finish :)
It has been a fabulous day. We are so blessed by Papa Jeremiah in our lives. He is truly the best of men. We adore him. And we thank God for him everyday. Please take time today to thank the men in your lives and to encourage them. And in the Tokyo Horizon Chapel tradition, every dad got a fabulous box of Men's Pocky, a true national treasure I tell you :)
My father died when I was young so I didn't really grow up with a father, and when I became a believer I asked God to give me father figures in my life. These men pointed me to Jesus, these men lived out their faith in front of me and challenged me to cling to my Heavenly Father. Thank you Dan Lambdin, my youth pastor. Thank you Richard Freeman, for accepting me. Thank you Curt Harlow, my college pastor. Thank you Richard Boek, my father in love. Thank you Ray Hobbs, my adopted dad. Thank you Chuck Fleming, for showing us ministry through your life. Thank you Jeremiah Boek, your life of sacrificial love and unfettered commitment shows me that some things in life are "done deals."
Happy Father's Day - or as we say in Japan "HAPPY CHICHI NO HI!"
| | |
| World's most expensive citiesPhilippians 4:19
"And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
 A recent article on the news media citied Japan as one of the most expensive cities to live in, second only to Luanda Angola. This is nothing new to us and our household. One of our morning routines is clicking on the world exchange rate every morning. Since most of our money is procurred in the States, we then have to pull it out of our American bank, and when we go to the ATM we get the yen equivalent. A couple points on the exchange rate might not seem a lot, but for those of us who live here, a 96.3 (today's rate) to the dollar means a whole less in hand.
When we first moved here nearly six years ago, the dollar was fairly strong and the exchange rate hovered at around 115yen to the dollar. That's quite a jump for us. Some days when the exchange rate is so low we try to wait it out and avoid any travels, eating out, grocery shopping etc. And when we see the jump, boy we're a the ATM like a dieting woman is magnetized by chocolate cake :)
Here's some fun examples of food costs around here....
A bunch of 4-5 bananas - 198yen
Wheat bread, 8 slices - 178yen
A quart of milk - 160yen
Movie ticket - 1800yen
Train ticket to Shinjuku from Machida - 380yen
Our monthly car fuel budget - 15000-20000yen
I buy 10kgs. of rice for 2900yen (the same bag, you can buy in America for about $10, now granted it's California Calrose rice and not the quality Japanese rice......but to me rice is rice, and when you're pinching pennies, it doesn't matter in the end)
From the article found online on yahoo news...
The Most Expensive Cities in the World
By Bruce Einhorn, Business Week Jun 18th, 2009
Thinking about going traveling overseas this summer? If you’re American, you might want to avoid Japan. Not that Japan isn’t a great tourist destination—it is—but these days the strength of the yen might make even Bill Gates think twice before booking a trip.
In its 2009 cost of living survey of the world’s most expensive cities global human resources firm ECA International concludes that of the five priciest, four of them are in Japan, with Tokyo being the toughest on the wallet. However, Tokyo only ranks second overall. The most expensive city in the survey? Luanda, the capital of Angola.
What ECA did was to break down a basket of 125 consumer goods and services in 370 countries around the globe, and compared them to what comparable costs would be against major world currencies. They perform this survey to provide international companies with cost-of-living information for their workers living overseas but it can be just as relevant for travelers planning shorter visits as well.
Of course, some things cost more in some countries and less in others. In Luanda a can of soda averages only $1.30. In Tokyo it costs $1.75 but in Copenhagen it costs an eye-popping $2.12. But in Luanda the price of a quick lunch is the highest in the world, averaging nearly $58. In contrast, a quick lunch in Manhattan, the most expensive city in the U.S., averages a relatively modest $18.61.
Why are these countries so expensive? It has primarily to do with the high costs of shipping, fuel and fluctuating exchange rates. While the global recession may be showing some signs of easing, in Japan, for example, the yen soared against the dollar and other currencies. That slammed profits at Japanese exporters such as Toyota, Sony, and Panasonic. It also drove up the cost of living for expats and tourists alike in Tokyo and other big Japanese cities. Last year Tokyo ranked no. 13 and Kobe, which came in fifth this year, was no. 29.
In the past 12 months the yen has risen 8% against the dollar, according to ECA’s Lee Quane, who says people coming from the U.S, “will notice a considerable difference in costs compared with 12 months ago."
But other cities saw equally dramatic shifts. In 2008, Manhattan came in at no. 84 and for 2009 jumped sixty-seven places to land at no. 17. Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, rose eighty-nine places from no. 109 to no. 20, Shanghai rose to no. 28 from no. 111, and Hong Kong went from no. 98 to no. 29.
Some places got less expensive, though. Norway’s capital Oslo slipped from second overall last year to no. 7 in 2009, Moscow fell 18 places to no. 23, and Rome dipped seven rungs to no. 37.
Japan wasn’t the only country that dominated the top ranks. Switzerland also had four cities, with Geneva (no. 8), Basel (no. 9), Zurich (no. 10) and Bern (no. 11). Which country came last? Maseru, Lesotho.
Top 10 Most Expensive Cities in the World
1. Luanda, Angola
2008 rank: 1
Movie ticket (in US$): 16.85
Quick lunch (in US$): 57.92
Washing machine (in US$): 1090.47
Kilo (2.2 pounds) of rice (in US$): 5.65
Can of soft drink (in US$): 1.30
2. Tokyo, Japan
2008 rank: 13
Movie ticket: 19.16
Quick lunch: 16.48
Washing machine: 886.77
Kilo of rice: 8.45
Can of soft drink: 1.75
3. Nagoya, Japan
2008 rank: 20
Movie ticket: 17.46
Quick lunch: 15.33
Washing machine: 899.97
Kilo of rice: 8.80
Can of soft drink: 1.57
4. Yokohama, Japan
2008 rank: 15
Movie ticket: 18.48
Quick lunch: 17.11
Washing machine: 910.04
Kilo of rice: 6.28
Can of soft drink: 1.18
5. Kobe, Japan
2008 rank: 29
Movie ticket: 16.92
Quick lunch: 14.96
Washing machine: 588.32
Kilo of rice: 7.09
Can of soft drink: 1.38
6. Copenhagen, Denmark
2008 rank: 4
Movie ticket: 13.31
Quick lunch: 28.71
Washing machine: 1053.27
Kilo of rice: 4.24
Can of soft drink: 2.12
7. Oslo, Norway
2008 rank: 2
Movie ticket: 12.84
Quick lunch: 32.65
Washing machine: 808.01
Kilo of rice: 4.40
Can of soft drink: 2.07
8. Geneva, Switzerland
2008 rank: 6
Movie ticket: 14.07
Quick lunch: 27.57
Washing machine: 1213.67
Kilo of rice: 3.48
Can of soft drink: 1.02
9. Zurich, Switzerland
2008 rank: 8
Movie ticket: 14.11
Quick lunch: 21.56
Washing machine: 978.45
Kilo of rice: 2.79
Can of soft drink: 0.99
10. Basel, Switzerland
2008 rank: 9
Movie ticket: 13.73
Quick lunch: 21.15
Washing machine: 744.59
Kilo of rice: 3.01
Can of soft drink: 1.03
| | |
| Joy Bible CampCali along with four other children from our church went off to Joy Bible Camp today.
Jeremiah and I took all the kids to the train station, handed them off to the counselors and off they went. This is so different from when I used to go to church camp back in California. We used to drive our big blue bus called the Heaven Bus all the way to Chico and we attended the camp at Springs of Living Water. Camp was a tremendous time of spiritual growth for me when I was younger. We had the best counselors and camp directors who always pointed us to Jesus and encouraged us to "run the race with endurance." Thanks Dan and Beth Lambdin, my former youth pastors, ; it was because of your spiritual examples in my life that I am where I am today.
So for those of you who tirelessly serve in Children's Ministry, Sunday School, church camp, youth events etc.... hang in there. There will be eternal fruit even when we can't see it. I have been a camp counselor for many a camp. I have almost walked out of a camp once because I couldn't handle the stress and the willful disobedience of the youth, but I look back at that time now, and I marvel at God's goodness since one of the young girls is now a worship leader, one is a wonderful mommy, one is continuing to be an fantastic witness for the Lord in spite of enormous difficulties in her life. We serve a wonderful God, one who sees the finished product even when we are very near sighted.
Please pray for our young people as they head on to Joy Bible Camp. Please pray for spiritual growth, encouragement, strengthening and fortifying of their faith and for good godly FUN!!! We also have another student who will be attending the Jr. High Camp the following week. Please pray for him as well.
Here they are getting ready to get on the train for camp.
  
| | |
|
|
