One Month Anniversary in Japan!

Good evening everyone!

I hope this letter finds you well and each of you are all doing just fine and dandy. This week has been a pretty good busy week overall and I can't express to you how ready I am to hit the bed and get to sleep tonight. Before I get into detail about the week, I had lots of great experiences this week. I think overall one of my favorite things was to help a person quit smoking tobacco. I won't go into heavy detail about them, however I wanted to express my joy about this first and it being one of my favorite things about the week.

Anyways, overall this week has been the same as any other normal week. I feel like overall, each of you have an idea of what my daily routine is on a weekly basis from the past couple of posts and I don't want to keep giving you the same information to always read. Therefore, I am going to just put things that have been progressing from here on out. I will give you a little information about each day but not near as much.

Sunday-We had our church service in the morning, evening English worship, Japanese worship, and our special worship. During the special worship, the woman who normally comes brought her husband again for the third time.

Monday-We had our normal members Japanese Bible study. I continued to learn many new Japanese words. After the meeting we headed to Hitachi Taga church for a camp meeting which was an encouraging and uplifting time through worship and talking about camp.

Tuesday-I started to have a one on one Bible study with a man who has been coming to Tomobe church for years to learn English. He is a very smart man and I hope that he will continue to be interested in these one on one Bible studies. He retired as a school teacher some time ago where he taught English but never thought he knew it well enough as a teacher so came to the church to know more after he retired. Tuesday night, Toru and I did our normal night of learning more things about the TOEFL and I taught him how to write a 5 paragraph essay. We will see how that goes and hopefully I can teach him to be a better writer. It is amazing so many of the mistakes he makes in English that I learned in my Teaching English as a Foreign Language class called Structures of the English Language. Hopefully I can use the tools I learned from that class to help him.

Wednesday-I went to Ibaraki Christian to start my Bible studies. You may be wondering why in the world am I going to a Christian college to have Bible studies. Well, even though it is a "Christian" college, less than 1% of the students who attend there are actually Christians. There is a chapel service on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, but it is during lunch and students are not required to attend. This is the importance of having Bible studies there. Anyways, I am so excited to see the things God has planned for my work there. In some research I have done lately, it stated that most of the people who become Christians in Japan are college students. The only drawback is keeping them interested in it once they leave college. Due to OC study abroad students coming to Ibaraki Christian this month,Chapel normally grows from about 4 or 5 Japanese people to as as many as 30 Japanese sometimes plus the OC study abroad students when they are there. The OC students also normally have a devo on Wednesday nights. This devo normally draws many Japanese people to come because they enjoy the singing. My goal is try and get to know these students who come on Wednesday night and try to get them to come to a small group I will be starting on Tuesday nights once the OC exchange students leave in November. Therefore for the month of October, I will go to Ibaraki Christian on Wednesday for this purpose but will begin going on Tuesday once they leave. Also while I am there, I will continue to have my English Bible studies. This month, our Bible studies are at weird times but once November starts and I began to go to IC again on Tuesday, I will be able to teach up to as many 8 or 9 students who are wanting to be in the classes and I still have 2 or 3 that want to join them that I will talk to tomorrow at church. It is an exciting time and I am excited to see what God has planned here just as much as I am in Tomobe. As I stated before, October is kind of a crazy month to have all the students, but I was able to have 5 in my classes this week who made time to come for a lil bit since Wednesday is not the best for them. In the pictures below you can see me having a study with one group then I had a one on one study with the girl in the second picture. Her name is Kana and she is interested in both English and the Bible. I am excited to see the plans God has for all these people.

Thursday & Friday-Thursday afternoon, I went and had lunch with some girls who went to OC as exchange students. We had a great time just catching up on life. There is also a chance I may have talked them into coming to the church in November to starting another Enlish/Bible class. However, it won't be able to happen until the OC exchange students leave because they will be busy with them. You can see them in the picture below.

On Thursday and Friday I had my classes with my elementary students as usual and my mentoring with Toru. My elementary kids have a hard time knowing how to pronounce and recognize the letters of the English alphabet so I made a bet with them last week that if they could recognize the letters lower and upper case and pronounce them all quickly and not making one mistake I would give them $10.00. Only one of them attempted to do it and he missed two so I am giving him one more chance next week.

My time with Toru also went great as usual as we studied the book of Ephesians and talked about our daily time with God. It is so encouraging to someone else's view point and the way that look at a verse that you would never think of. I really enjoy my time with Toru and learn a lot from him. On Friday, we took a break and Toru and I watched Evan Almighty so he could practice some of his English in a film and learn some slang. Overall it was hard for him to keep up but we both had a really good time watching it.

This morning, we woke up and went to the church building around 9:00 to clean up the outside of the church because tomorrow we will be having a one year memorial for one of the old members who passed away about a year ago.

The woman's name was Kimiko Usami. Kimiko was a dedicated worker for the Lord and was attending OC so that she could receive a Bible degree. However, a few years ago she was diagnosed with cancer and unable to finish her education. However, one of the OC professors, Dudley Chancey, came to Japan every summer to teach her another Bible class that would help go towards her degree. However, she was unable to finish it. While Kimiko has passed, she was a great influence to many people including myself. I was able to meet her when I came to Japan as an exchange student and her faith in God was just so powerful to me. While Kimiko is gone, there are so many people who have not forgotten how great of a woman she was and will always remember her for her strong purpose. In the picture above, you can see Kimiko and me a couple of years ago when I went to visit her at her house. You can also see Kimiko's husband too. Kimiko's husband was not a Christian but he also did not hold her back too much either from doing the things she wanted to do. As of right now, there is a minster who goes to their house to play a Japanese game with him, however he is not fully giving in.

Prayer Requests:

1. That Toru and I will be able to work together well enough to get him prepared to go to OC and that he will get the funds to go.

2. My Bible studies at Ibaraki Christian will be a success.

3. The Tomobe Church will find more ways to grow spiritually and numerically.

4. I am considering wanting to stay longer as a missionary rather than becoming a teacher and need to make sure that it is what I need to do. Last night I read about Abraham having a strong faith in God and was rewarded and I feel that as long as I trust in God he will provide the funds I need, however I need to make sure that I am spiritually willing and financially able to do these things.

Thank you all for the things you do. Keep praying and keeping in touch with what is going on in your lives. I love each and every one of you. May God bless you all abundantly.

5. Kimiko's husband may come to know God.

6. Kawasaki san may become more interested in Christianity. (The man I studied with on Tuesday)

7. The woman's husband who comes to special worship may become interested in Christianity and have the desire to become a Christian

I want to thank each and every one of you for all you do and if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be able to partake in this mission God has given me. Thank you all.

Week 3 in JAPAN!

みんなさんおはようございます！

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well and this update finds each and every one of you well. Things here are going great but are beginning to pick up quite a bit which is also great. I must warn you that I have had many problems writing this post with my sentences going off to different paragraphs and I think I got most of it put back together but please excuse any difficulty in trying to read this post.

Last Sunday, we had our curry and rice luncheon. Every fourth Sunday the church has curry and rice together for lunch which is prepared by a different person every month. After lunch a member of the church from Peru played us some music from Peru after we finished eating. After he finished playing, him and I talked for about 2 hours about different things in our lives and got to know each other better. He only knows Spanish and Japanese so I had to use what Spanish I remembered from elementary school and Japanese to speak to him which was kind of interesting but feel like we were able to communicate and understand each other for the most part. Sunday nights service turned into a larger group than normal and led into a great discussion which led to a couple of people being prayed for in wanting a stronger relationship with God. After the service was over, we also had our special service for the woman who has to work and her husband came once again. Overall, last Sunday was very special.

Monday the church had its own Bible study with two people. It was in all Japanese which I am still continuing to try to learn which ended up being more of a time where I learned a lot more useful words than being able to give anything to the Bible study. All in all, it was still a good time to fellowship.

On Tuesday I headed up to Ibaraki Christian to start trying to begin some Bible studies.

I was overwhelmed in a good way to have such a large amount of people interested in wanting to join the classes. At first, I only planned on about 2 or 3 people to join, but by the time I left on Wednesday I had 7 signed up and was informed last night 3 more people are also interested in coming as well. It is so amazing. God is doing such great things in this ministry and I hope it continues to grow. On Tuesday night, I stayed in the same town as Ibaraki Christian and went to onsen with one of my friends and back to IC on Wednesday to go to a meeting about Pac Rim students and to help with some CRASH work.Due to Pac Rim coming to IC next week, we cleaned out the house where CRASH, the relief group, keeps a lot of their supplies. By the way, I will go into detail about Onsen in another post for those of you do not know what it is. It is a public bath that you can find in many places in Japan. It is a lot better than it sounds. After finishing the CRASH work, I came back to Tomobe and had my English class with Toru which went incredibly well where talked about his desire to do ministry.

On Thursday I had my elementary class students first and then Toru and I met again and had his Bible class. To give you some information on Toru, he is an eager senior high school student wanting to do ministry. He is trying to study hard so that he can pass the TOEFL test(The test that proves your are good enough in English to take classes at university level) to go to Oklahoma Christian next year. He wants to go there to major in Bible and Ministry so that he can come back to Japan. Toru is probably the only Christian in his school and does not mind it one bit. He has a strong passion for ministry and hopefully he will pass the TOEFL soon and have enough money to go to Oklahoma Christian next year to get a Bible Degree. Please be praying that I can teach him English well enough that he can pass this test and receive enough money to go to OC next year. Japan needs ministers, and Toru would be a good man for the job.

On Friday, Marlin and I fixed the roof of the garage at the church because the typhoon had blown part of it off. After a long day at work, with work still to do, I held our first youth group activity. At one time, the church had quite a few young people but recently it has dropped significantly. We came to the church and had a devo and sang a few songs together and then went and played pool together. Toru also invited one of his friends which was really awesome. We plan on having an activity every other Friday and hope that we can grow the youth here at Tomobe church more.

On Saturday morning, Marlin and I woke back up and came back to the church to finish fixing the roof which took a few hours. After we finished, I came back home and got ready and went to a church about an hour away for an activity with some of the students I spent time with when I went to Ibaraki Christian and church with when I was an exchange student. There were also a few other people who came as well and it was another great time of fellowship and eating Korean food together.

All in all, things are starting to pick up and I am beginning to get very excited. However, I am looking forward to the plans God has in store for the future. Please be praying for the following things:

1. That Toru and I will be able to work together well enough to get him prepared to go to OC and that he will get the funds to go.

2. My Bible studies at Ibaraki Christian will be a success.

3. The Tomobe Church will find more ways to grow.

4. I am considering wanting to stay longer as a missionary rather than becoming a teacher and need to make sure that it is what I need to do. Last night I read about Abraham having a strong faith in God and was rewarded and I feel that as long as I trust in God he will provide the funds I need, however I need to make sure that I am spiritually willing and financially able to do these things.

Thank you all for the things you do. Keep praying and keeping in touch with what is going on in your lives. I love each and every one of you. May God bless you all abundantly.

Second Week in Japan

Hello Friends and Family,

I hope that each and every one of you are all doing well. I thank God for each of you every day and the blessing you have been for me in supporting me in this journey as a missionary. I can not express to you enough, how thankful I really am.

Well to start out the week last week, we went about our busy Sunday. On Sunday, we have four different services. The first one involves the normal Sunday morning service. However, Sunday night, we have an English service, a Japanese service, and then a special service for one of the members because she has to work. The best part of the entire service last Sunday was the special service. In Japan, work is very important. Therefore it is hard for some people to get off work and go to church on Sunday's. However, this woman makes time after her long day at work to come have a small service. The best part of last week was that it was her husbands 50th birthday and he decided to come with her. While he is not a Christian, it was great to have him come to visit.

Monday came and it was my first holiday in Japan. The holiday was pretty much Old People's day in a round about way. I spent a majority of the day talking with my family and friends back in the states. It was nice and try to catch up on rest too since I had a very busy week for my first week. I was even able to get a lil American football in when I didn't think I was going to get any at all.

Dallas vs. San Francisco Game

As Tuesday came, we went about our usual business teaching classes. However, I had made plans to go visit Ibaraki Christian on Wednesday to go and get a schedule worked out at the college and to see some old connections. However, we were hit with a huge typhoon that came in. While it was a strong typhoon, the only damage that caused any problems was part of the roof coming off the garage at the church which is made with plastic and will be a minor fix to repair. After the crazy typhoon had passed, we were also hit with a 5.3 earthquake. Not too big, but big enough to cause some things to move. After we had our morning class and lunch with our only student that showed up, we went home for the day which became like another holiday because no one likes to get out in typhoons. Once Thursday arrived, I was able to go to chapel at Ibaraki Christian the next day and take care of the plans I had made for Wednesday and get back in time for my night classes. During my Thursday night class, I teach an elementary school student class and a mentor class for a high school student who is trying to go to OC next year as student to get his ministry degree. This is extremely uncommon for people his age to be a Christian yet alone having the desire to be a minister. I will get a picture with him soon and tell you more of his story.

On Friday, it was the Autumn equinox which is a Buddhist holiday which also means that we got another holiday. During Friday, I spent the time with one of my old friends from America who is originally from Ethiopia but was adopted in his teenage years. He was once a Muslim but now a very devout Christian and a huge encouragement to be around. We were able to spend some time together through encouragement and prayer. During the night, we went with his wife and friends from Mito church who has been working with some girls from Fukashima who were hit when the tsunami and earthquake occurred in March. While I am not sure of their entire story, we had a great time together. I was also asked but one of women if I would be willing to study the Bible with her because she is interested in knowing more even though she is a Christian. I am also looking forward to helping follow up on this interest.

Spending time with Allen

Going to Dinner with Allen and Friends

On Saturday, we spent another pretty slow day relaxing for the most part and enjoying the weekend. Overall, the week was pretty slow and a lot of down time due to the typhoon and two holidays we had including a Saturday. It was kind of nice so that I could really get back up on my feet and kind of overcome some of the leftover jet lag I was facing from the week before. It has also been good for me so far this week as I am fully rested and ready to go.

Well thats all I have for this week. I will be back next week with another blog with many more exciting things that I have been working to try and get going. I hope to share more of this with you next week after I have been working on it for a few days. Thank you all for all you do.

First Week in Japan

こんにちは！久しぶりね！！

Hello Friends and Family and Supporters. It has been an extremely long time since I have been able to get back with you. In fact the last time was probably right after I received my visa probably. Well now that I have finally arrived,I will be using this site to give you an update about my life in Japan. I hope that it will be useful to you in knowing the work I will be doing here in Japan.

It all started about 10 in the morning on September 8th, I left my parents at the Tulsa International Airport. While my mom was really crying, what she doesn't know is that it was about to come out of me butI was really trying to stay strong. I was about to start though too. Anyways, after a flight from Tulsa to Denver, Denver to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles toTokyo, I finally made it to about 21 hours later. When I arrived in Japan, I had 5 of some of my greatest Japanese friends that I have made over the years through the IC and OC exchange program waiting for me. They were even kind enough to take me out for sushi and to Coco's restaurant for pizza. These are probably two of my favorite restaurants in Japan and I was already starting out living my life in Japan on Cloud 9.

Although I arrived in Japan Friday night, I was already ready to go to work on Saturday morning. I woke up on Saturday morning and decided I would go with the Crash Japan group to the north where the tsunami and earthquake caused a lot of damage. It was amazing and devastating how much this disaster had caused. There were some children there who were balding already because of the stress that this had caused on their lives. There were also many other children who were sick with various problems. It was extremely sad to see what these people were going through. While I was there, we passed out free food for the community as well as giving them supplies they could use such as laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper tow

els, soap, and those kinds of things. There were quite a bit of people that ended up showing up and it was great to see some smiling faceson these people.

You can see tsunami damage inside.(Many places looked like this) You can also see here where the entire block was probably filled with houses but are gone due to the disaster.

People getting cleaning supplies and preparing food to give to people

On Sunday, I spent my first Sunday in worship. The church has about 30 members at the most but only about 15 that come every Sunday. After morning worship we had a pot luck for me.

We then spent the afternoon at the church planning what my week would entail. After that we had an English worship service at 5:00 and another Japanese worship at 7:00.

Tomobe Church Building

Once Monday morning arrived, I had yet another busy day ahead of me. I spent the morning going to the Ibaraki (which is like a state) Preacher's Meeting with all the preachers of the Church of Christ in Ibaraki. These are generally held on the second Monday of every month. While we were there one of the ministers from the church I attended noticed I was there and decided to sing the first song I led in Japanese when I was an exchange student as the song they sang for the meeting because it was my first one. The first part of the meeting was encouragement through prayer, scripture and song and then the last part of it discussing future events that will be occurring through each of our congregations and throughout Japan within the church. After we finished the meeting, We all had a meal that was prepared by the congregation we held the meeting in. After the meeting was over, we had to then head home to prepare for our Hitachi Christian Camp meeting. During this meeting we discussed what all the people who ran camp thought what was good about camp and what things needed to be better. While I was unable to go, I was able to give some input based on when I was an exchange student. We ended up eating pizza and it was a great time for fellowship with some people I had not seen in a while.

Ibaraki Preachers Meeting & Hitachi Christian Camp Meeting

I spent the rest of my week watching Marlin and Jeanne (The missionary I am working with and his wife) teach their School of Life classes. In fact, I ended up teaching one on the fly because Marlin had a last minute meeting come up that he had to atten

d. The School of Life classes are English classes that are offered at the church building. Everyone who comes is expected to pay a small fee for books and for the electric bills at the church. This low cost helps people become more interested in coming because it is a much lower cost than any of the other English schools around town. However, as part of it being such a low price, the people also get a 30 minute Bible study at the end of each class. Some of the Bible studies are all Japanese for beginners. While some of them may not be interested in the Bible yet, they are interested in having a Bible study enough that they do not have to pay the higher price of a regular English school. These classes normally last Monday through Friday and can occur anytime from 9:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night. This helps make it convenient for people to come based off of their schedule. On average, each class has about 2-5 people and there are about 10 classes all together. Nearly everyone that comes is also not a christian.

After spending my week watching Marlin and Jeanne teach there classes and teaching a couple

myself, I spent a couple of nights this week hanging out with some old friends of mine. One of these friends of mine is that I hung out with is named Aguri as you can see in the picture. Aguri loves to ride motorcycles and he knows that I loves to ride motorcycles. Therefore every time we get together, we like to race motorcycles at the arcade place. Aguri became a Christian a few years ago but has a hard time being active in the church and doesn't attend very regularly. I am hoping that I can get him involved again very soon.

On Saturday, I went with Marlin and Yasuki, another member of Tomobe church who is about to probably go to preaching school to a cemetery to fix the Tomobe Church Family grave. In Japan, funerals are usually a big deal and are often held in the form of a Buddhist funeral. Bodies are also cremated as well. Most people are generally buried with their family but several years ago, Tomobe church decided to make a church family one. Since that time in 1993, 3 members of the church have been buried there. However, most likely due to the earthquake, the inside of it was being filled with water. Marlin, Yasuki and I went to fix it on Saturday and then came back to the church to help the ladies finish cleaning up the outside of the church building.

Trying to fix the Tomobe Church Grave to keep it from leaking

Well, I know this was a lot of information, but I wanted to give you an idea of how my first week has gone. It has been extremely busy and I have a lot more busy things coming up in the near future. I hope from here on out that I can keep it to more of a minimum but I felt like most of these things were important to share with you. If you have any questions about anything, please don't hesitate to email me at jared.scism@alumni.oc.edu and I would be happy to answer any of your questions. I thank God for each and every one of you when I pray and sharing with me in this mission. May God bless each and every one of you.

FINAL SUPPORT UPDATE BEFORE DEPARTURE

Hello Everyone,

I hope this information finds you all well. Anyways, I have lots of great news to tell all of you.

However the first part of information I have to tell you is more on the bitter side. Tomorrow morning will be my last day here at South Yukon Church of Christ. I can not tell you how much I am going to miss everyone at this congregation. While I am pumped for Japan, I can not tell you how much this church has done for me the past couple of years and I am going to miss them all dearly. Thank you South Yukon for all the greatness you have brought to me. I could not be more thankful for everything you have done for me. I look forward to coming and seeing you all again soon.

Anyways, now to the happy stuff, first of all, I drove to Houston last Sunday and applied for my visa Monday morning. After spending a couple of days with one of my friends, I was able to go back and get my visa on Wednesday morning. I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning who had received the best present ever.

The last process of preparing for my trip was to purchase a plane ticket to leave for Japan. I was finally able to purchase it tonight for a fairly reasonable price. I will officially be leaving on September 8th at about 10 in the morning and arrive in Japan the next day at night. I could not be more excited to let you know that I am just extremely excited for this day to come.

After a long and busy summer of work here at South Yukon Church of Christ and trying to get all of my funds, visa, and plane ticket, I can happily tell you that I have nearly everything I need in order to leave. While I did reach my original goal of $15,000, the decline of the dollar has caused me to need to raise more money. It would really help if I could raise another $2,000. However, I am not going to worry about it too much because I know the Lord will bless me and find out ways for me to make it. However, if you would like to send a check still, feel free to send one with my name on who you are paying to since I will no longer be in Yukon to my house in the Tulsa area at:

1728 S. 152nd. W. Ave.
Sand Springs, OK 74063

Once again, thanks to all of you who have helped support me in this mission whether it has been through prayer or donating something. Without any of your help, this would not be possible. May God Bless each and every one of you.

P.S. The next time you receive an update, I will be reporting from Japan. Be on the lookout for all the great things God will be doing here in the next few weeks.

Japan Support Update

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

First of all, I wanted to thank each and every one of you who have taken part with me in this mission as I prepare for Japan. Today, I am coming to you with some great news.

This morning, I went to Oklahoma Christian University and interviewed with John Osborne. It is John's job to recommend people to work as English teachers to the Mito, Ibaraki school board. After visiting and talking with John, I felt a sense that I would have a great possibility to work there after I finish my mission work next April. While it is completely uncertain due to not knowing how many people will be leaving, it sounds like there will be some promise in being able to work for them after I finish my mission work.

After my interview, I came back to the church building and picked up the mail in the mailbox on the way inside. When I came inside and went through the mail, I found two letters from people that were addressed to me. After opening them, I found enough money that helped me reach and complete my first goal of $15,000. Although I have reached this goal, the price of things has risen and I am needing about 2,000 more dollars to give me some cushion just in case some kind of emergency occurs. However, I have risen enough to live without cushion and I thank you all for making this happen.

This coming Sunday, I will head to Houston to go through the process of getting a Visa. I am hoping that I can get it while I am Houston. However, if I cannot, I hope I will get it within the next week. Once my Visa has arrived I will buy my plane ticket. My original departure date was on September 5th, but it looks like I will be trying to leave on the 6th or the 9th depending on the price of tickets and that sort of thing. I do plan to leave sometime during Labor Day week however.

Whether you have donated to this mission through prayer or donation, I am extremely grateful for each of you and what you have done to make this possible. I pray that God will bless you abundantly as you have blessed me abundantly during this time. Thank you all for everything you do.

In Him,
Jared

Mission Support Update

Well as most of you may have seen on facebook or have heard, I finally received my Certificate of Eligibility in the mail today from Japan. This means that only two if not three more things need to happen in order for this mission to take place.

1. I have to send in this certificate with my passport in order to receive my visa. Once I have a visa in my passport, I will be able to live legally in Japan. This process will take about a week or two to complete this process.

2. Once I receive my passport and visa back, I will purchase my plane ticket to leave. As of right now, I am still trying to leave on September 5th, Labor Day.

3. I am still $365 shy of my original target goal of $15,000. However, I could still easily use about $2,000 more dollars to have as extra cushion just in case I needed to be taken to a hospital or other random things that normally fall in someone's lap that they don't expect. When I first made the goal of $15,000, I had a $2,000 cushion. However, our economy has caused me to lose some money with the exchange rate and now I only have enough to get by on. This money would also be used to help me buy a bicycle since I will not have a car when I am in Japan as trains and buses and a bike will be my only form of transportation.

I want to thank each of you for following me in this journey. I honestly could not have done any of this without any of you. As Paul mentioned in a lot of his letters, I thank my God every time I pray and I truly mean that. May God bless all of you in the ways you have blessed me.

If you would still like to donate, please send your tax deductible checks with Jared's Japan Mission in the memo to:

South Yukon Church of Christ
11700 NW 10th Street
Yukon, OK 73099

Also, please don't hesitate or feel free to call me at (918)269-7662 if you have any questions or would like to know more.

As I wrap up my last few weeks here in America, I am continuing to talk with missionaries and take my Japanese class to help improve my Japanese. I have also been working out every day trying to get back in good shape before I leave. I am hoping to be good and ready by the time I leave rolls around.

Well that is about all I have for now. Thanks you all for what you do and may God Bless You All!