The Many Mighty Blessings of May in Mito

Friends, May was an excellent month in Mito!

We started the month off with some great fellowship time during the national holidays in the first week of May. And that set the tone for a month of building deeper relationships with many of the church members. Joel, Gaku and I were blessed to be able to host one of the church member's parents in our home while they were visiting from America (because God blessed us with a guest room). Chris and Sharon were a great encouragement to us!

On the 5th we got to spend some time with the Tsuneki family, Chelsea (a new AET) and Yayoi-san (who has been joining Bible studies at the church lately). We visited Hitachi Seaside Park together.


We also stretched the seams of our house to bursting one night when we had a Pizza night with the AETs and several other friends. People were spilling out into the kitchen and hallway, but I think we all enjoyed the fellowship.


We invited Olive Cell, a group that has a Bible study at the church each Monday afternoon, to meet at our house on the 17th for a potluck lunch and Bibly study/singing time, so we could have a chance to enjoy their company and get to know each of those wonderful friends a little better while we fellowshipped and worshiped together.

On the weekend of the 22nd, we went to Tokyo on Saturday with a group of nearly thirty people to worship with the Passion World Tour. I know that we were all blessed by that time of praise! And I was pleasantly surprised to meet a friend from Sendai and a friend from last year's Church Planting Institute conference there -- that definitely gave me the perspective that we were worshiping together with the whole nation. Five of the Ibaraki Christian College students that went to worship with us also stayed overnight at our house and worshiped at Mito church on Sunday morning.


On the last Sunday of May, Mito church was blessed by a message from Rich Little (minister of the Naperville Church of Christ in Naperville, IL) -- he came to be the guest speaker at the National Ministry Worker's Workshop (June 2-4), but was able to share a little time to be an encouragement to Mito church too.

Also, at the end of May we said goodbye to Tammy, one of the AETs who had stayed on to cover for the newest AET, who could not move to Japan until the beginning of June. We miss you Tammy!

We have been trying to invite the church members one by one to have dinner with us at our house -- it has been a blessing to get to know them better. And I am so excited for the opportunities I have seen for us to grow together spiritually.

I don't know if this "laundry list" of times of blessed fellowship adequately communicates the ways that God is working here, but I can say that God is moving in and speaking to Mito church. I feel like I have so many opportunities to serve, love and encourage. My prayer is that God will use me (and the church leadership) in whatever way he can to help Mito church grow spiritually, become more unified and shine even brighter in this city.

The best blessings of the month were the baptisms of Saki and Ayami -- two of our friends that are students at Ibaraki Christian College. Please rejoice with us over their decisions to commit their lives to God.

Saki's Baptism

Please pray with me . . .

~that Mito church will experience more unity among the young people, across the generations and between the foreigners and Japanese members. I think we all want this, so please pray that we will have wisdom as we work toward this goal with the Holy Spirit's blessing and guidance.

~that the members of Mito church will grow in spiritual maturity, and the Holy Spirit will raise up new leaders in the church to strengthen and grow Mito church into the future and also for Mito church to be able to send leaders out into the rest of Japan to help in the growth of new churches.

~that Saki and Ayami with overcome all of the obstacles to having faith in Japan as they continue to walk with our Savior.

~a continuing prayer for my language study -- I think that I am slowly improving, but feel like I have hit a wall with the new challenges to my study in our new living/working situation. Please pray for this, because without adequate language skills my ability to serve and build relationships with Japanese people continues to be very limited.

~a praise for the new support I am receiving (bringing my monthly support up to about 75% of my financial needs). I continue to be amazed at the ways that God provides! Please continue to pray that God will find that last 25% for me.