June 2004

To our Friends and Supporters:

Greetings from Japan! 2004 is almost half over with and this is our first full-length newsletter. We’ve put out three shorter, email “newsbriefs” earlier in the year, but have run into several problems. Number one was that our new “eMac” computer broke down after only a couple of months, and all the effort that had gone into setting things up (such as the extensive email directory) was lost forever in cybersapce. Our second “excuse” was a health-related one, as Tim came down with asthma in late March, with major symptoms lasting for over a month.

In March, Tim went to a conference in the United States to give a lecture entitled “Darwin and the Problem of Evil” and began coughing on the plane on the way home. The cough got progressively worse, and he had his first ever asthma attack a few days later. This necessitated him canceling a trip to Holland in mid-April as the Japan representative for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, but by May, things had improved enough to allow him to continue with another visit to the United States, this time as “tour leader” for a group of ten Japanese Christians (two clergy and eight laypersons) to visit supporting churches and experience the grandeur of God’s creation in the southwestern United States.

The trip went very well, and the Japanese all said they had a wonderful experience. We visited the good folk at Ontario United Methodist Church in California on the first Sunday, and Prescott UMC in Arizona on the second Saturday and Sunday. During the week, we visited several wonders of the natural world in California, Arizona, Utah, and even a bit of Colorado. Every morning, we had a devotional time in the beauty of nature, where we sang hymns, read the Scriptures and shared our thoughts and prayers. Doing that on the rim of the Grand Canyon or in front of a great natural arch in Arches National Park certainly made a deep impression on everyone.

Our daughter Jennifer is leading a group of eight Biola University students on a short-term mission project to Japan this month, where they will be helping in several of the churches here in Ibaraki as well as doing youth evangelism in the Tokyo area with “HiBA,” a parachurch organization focusing on evangelism among Japanese high school students. Jennifer will begin her junior year a Biola in the fall. Lisa is beginning her second year in graduate school working towards her degree in Oriental medicine.

Juji will be going in to the hospital again this month for her usual treatment for her “Isaacs’ Syndrome” condition. That typically lasts for three to four weeks, though she is sometimes able to come home on weekends. It is a routine that we have gotten used to, as this will be something like the 25th time we’ve gone through this. Gee, if you start adding that up, that really makes it sound impressive—something like two years or more worth of hospitalization! Needless to say, we would appreciate your prayers for us during this time.

Two of the patients Juji has been working with were baptized recently. Both of them are terminally ill and aren’t expected to live much longer. Nevertheless, God works in mysterious ways, and so we ask you to lift them up in prayer. Mitsuko Kawabe has cancer and Yuki Yasuhira a rare condition called “progressive encephalomyelitis with rigidity.”

Again, we wish to thank you all for your prayers and financial gifts that allow us the privilege of serving the cause of Christ in Japan.

Tim and Yuko (Juji) Boyle

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 92