July 2009

For most of July we were hosting our summer Let's Start Talking project. The LST team continued to teach bible study/English lessons, and also hosted a weekly party for all the participants and church members.

This year's LST team at the Japanese party, hosted by the church and the LST readers.

Decorating Christmas cookies at the "Christmas in July" party

Newspaper baseball at the last party

Also during July the coffee shop continued to be a great place for LST workers and participants, as well as church members to hang out, relax, and chat about just about anything.


We also hosted a weekend retreat for all of the LST participants and church members called FriendsCamp. The camp site was really wonderful -- it is in a forested area next to a river, and the camp site staff are all Christians. About 35 people (including LST and FriendsCamp workers, church members and LST participants) came to camp, and it was a great weekend. We had lots of chances to discuss the Bible, get to know one another and relax a little bit. I feel like the Holy Spirit was really guiding all of our discussions.

This year's Friendscamp team

All the FriendsCamp Participants

One of the highlights was our bonfire -- it was raining a lot, but we still sang for a long time and really enjoyed being outside, praising our Lord, despite the weather.


The LST and FriendsCamp teams headed home on July 27th. And on the same day, Joel left for the Asia Mission Forum in China and also a short mission trip to Cambodia. I took a deep breath after all the LST craziness and a little time to rest.

Also in July, our friend Kaori decided to commit her life to Christ. Kaori is a university student who lives in Ibaraki (about 2 1/2 hours drive south of Sendai) and has been experiencing the gospel and learning about Christian life for a couple of years now. Yuko, one of the Sendai church members, graciously offered to look after the LST project for a day, so that Joel, Debi and I could travel down to Ibaraki to be with Kaori and celebrate with her. We are so thankful to have a new sister!

August will be a pretty quiet month around here, but I think that will be a welcome change after so much busy-ness. I am looking forward to being able to spend time with friends that I was not able to meet with during the LST project, and I will also be catching up on my Japanese studies. Most of my Japanese classes are on summer vacation right now, so my goal to be caught up by the time those begin again in September.

Please pray with me . . .

~that the Holy Spirit will continue whispering his truth into the hearts of those who came to our church for this summer's LST project.

~that God will give us wisdom as we begin to decide what kinds of follow-up programs we will offer this fall.

~a praise to our Father for bringing Kaori into his family. Let's pray together that the strength of her faith and commitment to living in Christ will continue to grow.

~that I will have discipline and motivation in my language study.

~that Joel, Toshiko (church member) and Akiko (friend, LST reader) will have safe travel to and from Cambodia, and that they will grow from the experience. Also pray that they will have the opportunity to touch lives while they are in Siem Reap.

~a pray of thanksgiving for all the hard work that the LST and FriendsCamp teams did this summer. They worked so hard to share their faith with the Japanese people that they met, and we are so thankful.