We are so thankful to Alanna Foxwell-Barajas and Christianity Today for the article featuring God's redeeming work through the Nozomi Project and Be One's ministry up here. The online article is now available:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/july-august/beauty-from-broken-things.html?utm_source=ctdirect-html&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_term=9495468&utm_content=195300867&utm_campaign=2013

A friend of Nozomi, Grace Buchele, has a great blog in which she writes about perspectives of living in Japan.  She just wrote a great blog post about the Nozomi Project.  It gives great details about the process of making the jewelry.  Check it out!

Today is the sixth birthday of Kousei, Yuri’s son who passed away in the tsunami (read more of Yuri and Kousei’s story here).  We want to remember him, bless his family, and find a way to bless other children in Ishinomaki.

For this next week, purchase a Moeka necklace on our website and receive $5 off.  One of our most popular lines, this necklace/bracelet was named after Kousei’s older sister Moeka.  She is now a 7^th grader at a local Ishinomaki junior high school, and beautiful like the necklace named after her.  Fifty percent (50%!) of the proceeds of these necklaces will be put into the Nozomi Project Kousei Fund, which is money we are setting aside to build new playground equipment for children in this region.  Many parks were washed away and we want to help provide new, safe places to play.   

 (The necklace is marked down on the website to $40 for this special offer.  While supplies last; offer expires July 6, 2013).

To choose your Moeka, pleaseclick here.

 Also, please leave a message of blessing for Yuri, Moeka and her family on the NozomiFacebook pageor Nozomiwebsite blog.  We know this will encourage them!

特別プロジェクト５００円又は５ドル割引—のぞみプロジェクトをサポートしませんか

今日は津波で亡くなった由理さんの息子さん、康生君の六才の誕生日です。（詳しくはここをお読み下さい）私たちは彼を覚えて、ご家族を祝福し、その他の

石巻の他の子供達を祝福する方法を見つけたいと考えています。

ウェブサイトにある「もえかコレクション」からお好きな商品を選んで下さった方に５００ドル又は５ドルの割引をさせて頂きます．のぞみの中でも人気商品の「もえかコレクション」は、康生君の姉のもえかさんの名前をとってつけられました。彼女は現在石巻の中学校に通うこのネックレスの様に美しい女の子です。売り上げの半額はのぞみプロジェクトの康生ファンドにあてられ、この地域の新しい公園の建設費用にあてられる予定です。石巻のほとんどの公園は流されてしまったので、安全で新しい公園を子供達の為に是非完成させたいと思っています。

（ネックレスはウェブサイトを通してスペシャルプロジェクトとして在庫がある限り３７００円又は４０ドルで２０１３年７月6日までお求めいただけます。） 

由理さん、もえかさんとその御家族にあてて励ましのメッセージをのぞみのフェイスブック、又はのぞみのブログに送って下されば幸いです。

Our staff worked hard the last few days to make a lot of Moeka for this special offer!

Aren't they beautiful?  The necklace version....

The bracelet version...

Our customers have been finding Nozomi Project to be a great idea for mother's day gifts!  Check out the blog of a recent customer from Australia - love that ring and the idea!  Deb bought herself a ring and gifts for her mother and mother-in-law. It's not too late!  If you want to be sure to receive your gift quickly, you can choose express mail from the "additional donations" page and it should get to you in 4-6 days.  

http://thisfleetingmoment.blogspot.jp/2013/04/my-mothers-day-present-from-japan.html

Yesterday we had a fun time at Nozomi celebrating birthdays... four of our staff and two kids who came in with moms had birthdays this month.  These two weeks are spring break for Japanese schools, so kids have been coming to work sometimes with their moms.  We had a chance to take a cake over to one of the grandmom members who was babysitting yesterday during the birthday celebration.  It's wonderful to celebrate life!

In an effort to ensure maximum safety for our shard-grinding experts, we recently upgraded our goggles and masks. It is rather humorous to listen to them talking while they are grinding -- they sound a bit like deep sea divers under the water!

We never really know what shards our staff will find in a day's work. We have had pottery pieces with painted snakes, dancing dogs, naked ladies, unidentified blobs of something, and one of our favorites was the face of a pig.  

So we made the pig face into a Nagi necklace. And we have been playing a ばつgame for the past two months. Each week at our Tuesday staff meetings, we choose a word with the same meaning in Japanese or English. Whoever says that word during the week has to wear the necklace. Of course during one winter week we had the word to be "snow." One week we did the word "cold." This week the word is stomach or tummy, which is used in Japanese to say "I'm full" or "I'm hungry." We make sure to tell all the regulars what the word is, and then of course the goal is to try and trick people into saying the word....

Today we had two of our male support staff in at different times: Matthias to help with computers, and Eric helping with some supplies. Both of them said the word, and had the special "privilege" of wearing the necklace. 

 It was great fun yesterday to have a group of us representing the Nozomi Project at a local event created to help the various groups across our prefecture who are making and selling goods since the tsunami.  

Despite about 6 inches of snow that fell the night before, throughout the afternoon about eight of us were present from Nozomi.  There were a number of seminars on how to figure out your target customers and make appropriate goods, how to advertise, etc.  It was a great chance for Nozomi to sort of debut in the community.  Our manager Yuko S. did an awesome job representing our team!

About twenty five or so other groups were there, selling a variety of products from homemade soaps, scarves, Hawaiian-fabric handbags.... we shared a booth with the women who are making our kimono Bands of Love.  They are making other beautiful products out of repurposed kimonos.

What I loved the most about the whole event was the joy that our Nozomi staff had in being there, representing our Project, and taking pride in the work of their hands.  

I became teary-eyed in watching our staff take ownership -- answering questions, doing short interviews for some local media, and really being a team together. They have a lot to be proud of!   More beautiful things.

As we begin our first of hopefully many blog entries to come, we want to start by thanking some of the individuals and companies who have helped the Nozomi Project get off to such a great start.

CJD&CE (Chief Jewelry Designer & Consultant Extraordinaire):  Lisa Nakkim.  Our meeting in August was a divine thing;  each one of her jewelry designs have continued in that nature.  She and wonderful friend Rebecca Hanford came in September and brought life to our dreams by teaching our curious but beginning staff how to make each line.  Thanks to you two, we have been going strong ever since.  Lisa also continues to consult and provides all of our supply ordering for us. Thank you! 

Asher Freeman was our first jewelry designer who came and lent his expertise and encouragement.  Waiting for you to come back!

Web Design:  Sandra McCormack – A volunteer here with us in Ishinomaki three times, she has given of her time and amazing abilities many times over in our website design, ongoing web maintenance, and logo design.  Thanks for sharing your talents to make this web site a reality.

Team Expansion – has taken on the Nozomi Project as our non-profit sponsor in the U.S. and made our current donation/gift system possible.  Thank you for your flexibility and being willing to try new things with so much joy (and speed). Asian Access has helped with receipting gifts on the US side as well.

Thanks to the volunteers over the past six months who have tirelessly gathered, washed, and organized the broken shards from across Ishinomaki. We could never have started or continued this project without those pieces – and could never have paid enough for all the hours that have gone into this.

Several companies have helped us start through generous donations, discounts, and sponsorships.  Thanks to Samaritan’s Purse   and International Disaster Emergency Services for grants to help us get started, to several individual gifts from friends who believe in what God is doing here (Larry, Mona & John, John & Judy, Susan, Yuko K.); our friends at Knotty Boards for the wonderful gift of boards that we use daily to make our jewelry;  Bob and the folks at Aanraku Glass Studios for the special discounts and free shipping (couldn’t make our jewelry without your bails!)… Britt at Nubry.com for the great PR.

During the first few months, there were various friends/groups who gave of their time, experience and skills to help guide our process and/or help us begin sales:  David Lin, Anne Peterson,  Jonathan Kohl, the Go Hawaii teams, Ryan Manieri, Lilly Tokuyama, Shelly Harary, Rolling Hills Covenant Church, MaryJo Wilson, Joe Handley, Kashiwa-san, Megumi Sasaki, Heavenly Treasures, Ruth Harimoto, Anda Foxwell, Kelly Chase, Mt. Laurel Evangelical Free Church, Cathy Swanson, Kris Weigel, Allison Norton, Beth White, Jonathan Autman and Sanda Chapel.  You are awesome!

 Many others have given good advice, great enthusiasm and shared this story.  All of those who have continued to pray for this special project – thank you!  We love all you customers who have been among the first to purchase and wear our jewelry.

This whole thing starts – and eventually will end – with God.  He gave the vision; He has brought the resources, the staff, the customers, the wisdom step by step.  He is making oh! so many beautiful things.