Sumptuous September

At the beginning of September, my Mom came to visit. It was so good to see her, and really fun to show her around my life in Sendai. I think that she enjoyed seeing some sights, and meeting a few of my friends here. And I know she enjoyed the adventures in food, although she didn't fall in love with everything I convinced her to try. While Mom was visiting, one of my language teachers invited us to have lunch with her and her husband. I feel like it was a really great opportunity to take that relationship a little deeper -- it was a bonus blessing, the icing on top of the cake that was time with my mom.

Fortunately, Mom's visit fell on a pretty quiet week, and then things picked right back up again. The Monday after she left, our church hosted the monthly preacher's meeting. We don't host the meeting often since Sendai is a little bit farther away from the other churches that participate. We tried very hard to make the trip worth their while -- Mawatari-sensei made his famous curry, I baked some homemade treats and Joel put together some very tasty salads. Joel was also able to share about the August mission trip to Cambodia with the group, which I think was interesting and encouraging to everyone.

The following weekend the three Churches of Christ in the Tohoku region (Sendai, Morioka and Hachinohe) got together for a weekend retreat. "Family" was the theme of the retreat, and everyone was encouraged to invite their families along for the weekend. This was an important opportunity because many of the members of our churches are the only believers in their families. We invited Kushida-sensei from the church in Hitachi to share a few messages with us, but everything else was planned by the members of each of the churches.

I was so encouraged by the way that everyone contributed something to the planning and leading of the activities, devotional times or children's classes. I think that the whole group was blessed by the opportunity to worship and learn together, and especially the chance to relax and enjoy some great fellowship. I feel that God was glorified in the way that each person contributed something unique to the weekend -- for example: for one of the evening devotionals (just before bedtime) one of the members of the Hachinohe church planned for us to listen as a few people read several chapters from Genesis. Now honestly, I think that most people would not plan that sort of activity for a group of people who have all just had a long day and a hot bath -- unless the goal of the activity was to get those people to fall asleep. However, it was one of the highlights of the weekend for me. God spoke to me through the way that Joseph showed mercy to his brothers, and I felt refreshed by the simple plan of taking us into God's Word. His Words are so powerful and so good!

Another excellent September blessing was welcoming Gaku into our Christian family. Gaku has been thinking seriously about becoming a Christian for a long time. And during the month of September, Gaku decided to commit his life to Jesus. He chose to be baptized on the 22nd, which worked out really well for several friends to come up from Ibaraki to celebrate with us, because that day and following day were national holidays here in Japan. Gaku's mother, father and younger brother also came -- since they don't know very much about Christianity, they were understandably a little concerned about his decision. However, I feel like God blessed their time with us, and it was really wonderful for them to be part of the celebration -- I hope they could see how much we all love Gaku.


One last September bonus was a visit from one of my Wyoming Bible Camp friends. Tara has joined the Navy and is stationed at Yokosuka (near Tokyo). She came up with her friend, Kyle, to visit for the weekend. I really enjoyed seeing her. It is always nice to run into an old friend on the other side of the world. They came during a pretty quiet weekend, so we were able to visit Matsushima and going out for a dinner of cow tongue (one of Sendai's famous foods, and also one of my favorite treats). Then Tara and Kyle joined us for worship on Sunday morning, before heading back.

Please pray with me . . .

~a praise to God for giving Gaku the precious gift of faith in him. Please join me in praying for Gaku's continuing spiritual growth.

~a prayer of thanksgiving for my friendship with Sayuri, one of my language teachers. Please pray that God will work through that relationship to bring Sayuri faith and hope in him.

~that the Holy Spirit will continue to work in our hearts and bring us together with those who are ready to hear the gospel.

~that God will continue to strengthen his children in Sendai -- that we will grow together in unity and desire to seek and share his love and grace.