God decided to begin our year with a huge transition, which we are feeling lots of emotions about -- so let me try to give you all the abridged version of what is going on.
Last fall Joel was offered a position working with the leadership of the Mito Church of Christ in Mito, Japan. Since Joel is my supervisor and I have one year remaining in my apprenticeship, the Mito church agreed to invite me as well. At first, I was not at all convinced that God wanted me to leave Sendai, but in December, He revealed to me a vision for the work that we could be part of in Mito. I was convinced then that God has opened an opportunity to leave to work in Sendai, heartbreaking as that idea is, and join with the Mito church. Joel has been invited to help in the spiritual development of the youth and young adults, work with the leadership to enrich fellowship and worship and, hopefully sometime in the future, partner with the Mito church in their goal of planting more churches in the city and in other parts of Japan. I will continue to study and practice Japanese, and I am hopeful that God will give me a chance to build relationships in which I can be give and receive spiritual mentoring.
In January, we made the final decision to accept the invitation to move to Mito in faith that God's hand is guiding us there. It has been heartwrenching to begin preparing to separate ourselves from Sendai -- we've been telling our close friends individually in Sendai and Hachinohe, and since the Mito church was able to announce the decision last Sunday, I can now share the news with all of you. Joel and I are, of course, concerned about the future of the Sendai church family, but we know that the Holy Spirit is in control.
Debi has accepted a position at the Christian Academy in Japan, an international school in the Tokyo area -- she will be moving there in August. Akiko with be getting married and moving with her husband to Yokohama. Also, Gaku has decided that it would be best for him spiritually to move to Mito with Joel and me. So that will leave only 4 regular attending members here at the Sendai church. They will be faced with some difficult decisions regarding the future of the church, so please join us in praying for them.
We will be moving at the beginning of April, and Joel will be gone to Southeast Asia for most of March. So we have made a few trips to Mito already to look for housing and make other arrangements for our move -- Gaku is also looking for a job, and we are trying to sort through all of the things in our house and pack most things up before Joel has to leave.
Also, God has blessed me with a few new supporters and some people have given one-time donations, for which I am so thankful -- I was able to receive my regular salary for February. However, the monthly support committed for my salary and ministry fund is still only about half of what is needed. So please, please continue to pray about that on my behalf. And if you know anyone at all who might be willing to help, please let them know about my needs. I know God will provide, so please be listening prayerfully to hear if you are part of his plan to provide for this work.
Please pray with me . . .
~a praise for the way that God has spoken so clearly to Joel, Gaku and me. I am so thankful for all the ways that God has worked to show us that we should make this transition now, and for the ways that God has begun to clear the path for each of us, as we maneuver all of the difficult part of moving and changing jobs.
~that God will help Gaku to find a good job in Mito, with Sundays off, so that he can attend worship and have more opportunities to connect with the Mito church community.
~that Joel (and his mom, who will also be traveling to Japan and Southeast Asia next month) will have safe travels and lots of opportunities to be a blessing to the mission work in Cambodia.
~that God will provide financially for me to continue living the life to which I have been called. (And also, please pray that I will have peace in this season of higher financial stress because of this move, taxes and other higher-than-usual expenses.)
~for the Sendai church family -- that they will have wisdom to make the best decision for the church, and that they will continue to feel loved and supported by those of us who are being called away from Sendai this year.
~for Debi, Akiko, Gaku, Joel and I -- we are all excited about the opportunities that God has opened for us in other places, but we are all sad to be leaving our friends in Sendai. Please pray that we will have time and emotional strength to show the love we feel and say the goodbyes that we need to say in order to make this transition as smooth as possible for our hearts and for those of our close friends we are leaving behind.
These next couple of months will continue to be very busy and very full of packing, goodbyes, cleaning, planning, praying and traveling. I need your prayers!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Blizzard of Blessings
Because I didn't get my November report out in the midst of the holiday craziness, I am going to combine it with my December report. So much good stuff has been going on here though, so I am going to do it a little differently, in order to share with you the highlights without writing a novella.
First, the best parts:
Joel and I attended the Church Planting Institute conference at the beginning of November. When we arrived, there were conference staff members at the door to welcome us -- the first thing that they said to us was, "thank you for serving in Japan." Maybe that seems small, but I still feel so grateful and touched, even now, by the commitment the conference staff had to encouraging and loving all of us and to supporting God's work in Japan.
Another main focus of the Church Planting Institute is that, as Christians, we not only need to preach the gospel to those who have not heard it, but we also need to preach the gospel to one another -- Christians need to hear the gospel, too. I was really touched by this idea. One of the most nourishing things that I heard at the conference was a talk about our ministry of reconciliation (from 2 Cor. 5:16-21). I was especially moved by the realization that in verse 20, Paul tells us that it is our job to "be reconciled to God" -- we, ourselves, cannot reconcile others to God and we cannot share the message of reconciliation without it being written in our own hearts.
Another highlight was the weekend mini-retreat that our cell group hosted on the weekend of November 21st. We invited the Hitachi cell group up for some fellowship and some time to focus on prayer. On Saturday evening we had a prayer stations activity at the church. I think we were all blessed and encouraged by our time together. Since it was a three day weekend here, a couple of our friends from Hitachi stayed through Monday to do some sightseeing and extra hanging out.
In December, the main highlights were, of course, the holidays. Joel and I spent a ton of time preparing to host several friends for our Christmas celebration. And it was totally worth it! We had an excellent Christmas, which I think was as much of a blessing for our guests as it was for us. On the 26th, we traveled down to Mito to attend a worship workshop led by Keith Lancaster, and we worshiped at the Mito church on Sunday before heading back to Sendai.
And to close out 2009, Joel, Gaku and I traveled down to Gunma prefecture to spend a couple of days with Gaku's family. We got to visit with his parents and his three younger brothers (his two older siblings didn't come until after we had already left, so we hope to meet them the next time we visit). It was a great blessing to have such a relaxed New Year's celebration, as well as an opportunity to build relationships with Gaku's family -- they were wonderful hosts!
Some of the other things that happened in November and December:
(Click on the underlined ones for pictures)
November 2-4: Visited our friend, Yoshinori, in Shizuoka
November 6-8: Visited Mito Church of Christ
November 9: Combined preachers' meeting (our region and the Tokyo area) in Tachikawa
November 28-29: Visited Hachinohe Church of Christ
December 1-16: Joel traveled to Southeast Asia to do some more work and planning for the work going on in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and to serve at a retreat that the Bedok Church of Christ held in Malaysia
December 6: Took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (results will come in February)
December 20: Christmas worship and church Christmas party
December 21: Debi's parents (Ron and Cindy) arrived in Sendai to visit for the holidays
December 23: Christmas party/Reception for Debi's parents
Please pray with me . . .
~a prayer for Gaku's grandfather and the rest of his family. Gaku's grandfather is in the final stages of lung cancer. Fortunately, he can be at home, because Gaku's mother, who is a nurse, can go to his house often to care for him and handle his pain management; however, this is also a difficult burden on her and the family.
~a prayer for the Sendai church. It has been a challenging year for our church family -- please pray with me that, as we all make decisions that will effect the future of our family this year, we will be full of God's wisdom and discernment.
~a prayer for my financial support. I was blessed this past summer to receive enough funding to last the rest of the year. However, as that money is just about used up, God is challenging me again to trust in him -- I feel strongly that he still wants me working in Japan, so I am asking you to pray with me for my faith in his provision, and also pray that those who are called by God to support this work financially will respond faithfully, swiftly and generously.
~a praise to God for all ways that he blessed me at Christmastime. If blessings were snowflakes, we would have had a white Christmas -- I was overcome with thankfulness for the blessing of being surrounded by friends, and the opportunity we had to rejoice together, encourage one another and bask in God's love, while we enjoyed our holidays.
~a praise to God for the time of worship we had in Mito with the Lancaster family. I felt so filled and refreshed by the worship as we all put our whole selves into the worship on Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday morning. Thank you God for giving us a way to praise you, because you are so good and so mighty and so worthy of praise.
~a prayer of thanksgiving for 2009. Personally, I have experienced more challenges and blessings than I can count or remember in this past year, but mostly I am just thankful for another year walking with our Father.
May God bless you and guide you through this new year!
Thank you, as always, for your faithful love, support, encouragement and prayers!
First, the best parts:
Joel and I attended the Church Planting Institute conference at the beginning of November. When we arrived, there were conference staff members at the door to welcome us -- the first thing that they said to us was, "thank you for serving in Japan." Maybe that seems small, but I still feel so grateful and touched, even now, by the commitment the conference staff had to encouraging and loving all of us and to supporting God's work in Japan.
Another main focus of the Church Planting Institute is that, as Christians, we not only need to preach the gospel to those who have not heard it, but we also need to preach the gospel to one another -- Christians need to hear the gospel, too. I was really touched by this idea. One of the most nourishing things that I heard at the conference was a talk about our ministry of reconciliation (from 2 Cor. 5:16-21). I was especially moved by the realization that in verse 20, Paul tells us that it is our job to "be reconciled to God" -- we, ourselves, cannot reconcile others to God and we cannot share the message of reconciliation without it being written in our own hearts.
Another highlight was the weekend mini-retreat that our cell group hosted on the weekend of November 21st. We invited the Hitachi cell group up for some fellowship and some time to focus on prayer. On Saturday evening we had a prayer stations activity at the church. I think we were all blessed and encouraged by our time together. Since it was a three day weekend here, a couple of our friends from Hitachi stayed through Monday to do some sightseeing and extra hanging out.
In December, the main highlights were, of course, the holidays. Joel and I spent a ton of time preparing to host several friends for our Christmas celebration. And it was totally worth it! We had an excellent Christmas, which I think was as much of a blessing for our guests as it was for us. On the 26th, we traveled down to Mito to attend a worship workshop led by Keith Lancaster, and we worshiped at the Mito church on Sunday before heading back to Sendai.
And to close out 2009, Joel, Gaku and I traveled down to Gunma prefecture to spend a couple of days with Gaku's family. We got to visit with his parents and his three younger brothers (his two older siblings didn't come until after we had already left, so we hope to meet them the next time we visit). It was a great blessing to have such a relaxed New Year's celebration, as well as an opportunity to build relationships with Gaku's family -- they were wonderful hosts!
Some of the other things that happened in November and December:
(Click on the underlined ones for pictures)
November 2-4: Visited our friend, Yoshinori, in Shizuoka
November 6-8: Visited Mito Church of Christ
November 9: Combined preachers' meeting (our region and the Tokyo area) in Tachikawa
November 28-29: Visited Hachinohe Church of Christ
December 1-16: Joel traveled to Southeast Asia to do some more work and planning for the work going on in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and to serve at a retreat that the Bedok Church of Christ held in Malaysia
December 6: Took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (results will come in February)
December 20: Christmas worship and church Christmas party
December 21: Debi's parents (Ron and Cindy) arrived in Sendai to visit for the holidays
December 23: Christmas party/Reception for Debi's parents
Please pray with me . . .
~a prayer for Gaku's grandfather and the rest of his family. Gaku's grandfather is in the final stages of lung cancer. Fortunately, he can be at home, because Gaku's mother, who is a nurse, can go to his house often to care for him and handle his pain management; however, this is also a difficult burden on her and the family.
~a prayer for the Sendai church. It has been a challenging year for our church family -- please pray with me that, as we all make decisions that will effect the future of our family this year, we will be full of God's wisdom and discernment.
~a prayer for my financial support. I was blessed this past summer to receive enough funding to last the rest of the year. However, as that money is just about used up, God is challenging me again to trust in him -- I feel strongly that he still wants me working in Japan, so I am asking you to pray with me for my faith in his provision, and also pray that those who are called by God to support this work financially will respond faithfully, swiftly and generously.
~a praise to God for all ways that he blessed me at Christmastime. If blessings were snowflakes, we would have had a white Christmas -- I was overcome with thankfulness for the blessing of being surrounded by friends, and the opportunity we had to rejoice together, encourage one another and bask in God's love, while we enjoyed our holidays.
~a praise to God for the time of worship we had in Mito with the Lancaster family. I felt so filled and refreshed by the worship as we all put our whole selves into the worship on Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday morning. Thank you God for giving us a way to praise you, because you are so good and so mighty and so worthy of praise.
~a prayer of thanksgiving for 2009. Personally, I have experienced more challenges and blessings than I can count or remember in this past year, but mostly I am just thankful for another year walking with our Father.
May God bless you and guide you through this new year!
Thank you, as always, for your faithful love, support, encouragement and prayers!
Monday, November 16, 2009
All About October
October was a blessed month, mostly full of regular, routine things, but I still would like to try to share some of the highlights and the ways that I could see God working here.
At the beginning of the month, I took and passed a language test at the community center in our neighborhood. It was only a short test to determine whether or not I could handle moving up to the intermediate level class, but I was encouraged by some kind of landmark to help me see that I am actually making progress as I study Japanese. I also decided to join another language class at a community center downtown -- I am thankful that I was able to pass the test to enter into the intermediate level class there as well. I am also very thankful for so many free resources to help me to study Japanese.
This month I celebrated my birthday, and I am reminded of how grateful I am for my friends here. (Also I can now say, from experience, that being 26 feels very much like being 25.) Our Monday night cell group threw me a birthday party. Debi took me out to Matsushima Bay and, of all things one can find in Japan, a Belgian music box museum. And Joel treated me to dinner at one of Sendai's especially delicious Italian restaurants. Hooray for birthdays!
On the 19th and 20th, Joel and I attended the monthly regional ministry workers' meeting. Usually the meeting is on Monday mornings, but once each year the meeting is an overnight
retreat-style meeting. I was very blessed by our time together. In addition to the regular business, we discussed discipleship training, after hearing a recap of things presented at Mito Church of Christ by Rich Little, a recent guest speaker, when he visited the congregation to share on that topic. And the highlight for me was a meditation on Psalm 62.
"Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
his is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and honor depend on God;
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge."
Psalm 62:5-8
We also visited the church in Hachinohe on the 24th and 25th. As usual, on Sunday, Joel preached. Then after eating lunch with the church members, we helped them with their LST follow-up, by leading a short English lesson and Bible study with two of the this summer's LST readers, one of the reader's high school aged daughter, and one of the church members.
At the end of the month I was blessed with the opportunity to help with the Halloween party for Debi's kindergarten class. The kids were extra cute in their costumes, and I was so thankful for the opportunity to be able to bless Debi with an extra pair of hands during the festivities.
Free time in the last week of October was spent preparing for our travels. The main reason for our ten day trip was to attend a Church Planting Institute conference, but we decided to stop by a couple other places along the way. More on that in my next update . . .
Please pray with me . . .
~a prayer of thanksgiving for the ways that God communicates his love and grace through us and our lives without words. Also please pray that as I continue to learn Japanese, that God will give me wisdom as I learn about how to express my faith and God's truth in another language and culture.
~a praise to God for the gift of the church -- let's praise God for his wisdom in giving us a community in which we can worship him together, seek his truth together and partners with whom we can work for his glory. Please also pray for the church in Japan -- pray that we will cherish one another and work together to be a blessing on the nation of Japan.
~for wisdom and faith -- as I start to reflect on this year, please be praying that I will see God's perspective on the things that I have done, and that I will be able to recognize the Holy Spirit's guidance as I start to think about how to continue serving God and the people of Japan in this next year of my apprenticeship.
~for the Sendai church family -- we have had struggles and joys this year. Please pray for the brothers and sisters here, that we will be brave to listen for and follow the Holy Spirit's leadership, and that we will be able to find a shared vision for our church.
At the beginning of the month, I took and passed a language test at the community center in our neighborhood. It was only a short test to determine whether or not I could handle moving up to the intermediate level class, but I was encouraged by some kind of landmark to help me see that I am actually making progress as I study Japanese. I also decided to join another language class at a community center downtown -- I am thankful that I was able to pass the test to enter into the intermediate level class there as well. I am also very thankful for so many free resources to help me to study Japanese.
This month I celebrated my birthday, and I am reminded of how grateful I am for my friends here. (Also I can now say, from experience, that being 26 feels very much like being 25.) Our Monday night cell group threw me a birthday party. Debi took me out to Matsushima Bay and, of all things one can find in Japan, a Belgian music box museum. And Joel treated me to dinner at one of Sendai's especially delicious Italian restaurants. Hooray for birthdays!
On the 19th and 20th, Joel and I attended the monthly regional ministry workers' meeting. Usually the meeting is on Monday mornings, but once each year the meeting is an overnight
retreat-style meeting. I was very blessed by our time together. In addition to the regular business, we discussed discipleship training, after hearing a recap of things presented at Mito Church of Christ by Rich Little, a recent guest speaker, when he visited the congregation to share on that topic. And the highlight for me was a meditation on Psalm 62."Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
his is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and honor depend on God;
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge."
Psalm 62:5-8
We also visited the church in Hachinohe on the 24th and 25th. As usual, on Sunday, Joel preached. Then after eating lunch with the church members, we helped them with their LST follow-up, by leading a short English lesson and Bible study with two of the this summer's LST readers, one of the reader's high school aged daughter, and one of the church members.
At the end of the month I was blessed with the opportunity to help with the Halloween party for Debi's kindergarten class. The kids were extra cute in their costumes, and I was so thankful for the opportunity to be able to bless Debi with an extra pair of hands during the festivities.
Free time in the last week of October was spent preparing for our travels. The main reason for our ten day trip was to attend a Church Planting Institute conference, but we decided to stop by a couple other places along the way. More on that in my next update . . .
Please pray with me . . .
~a prayer of thanksgiving for the ways that God communicates his love and grace through us and our lives without words. Also please pray that as I continue to learn Japanese, that God will give me wisdom as I learn about how to express my faith and God's truth in another language and culture.
~a praise to God for the gift of the church -- let's praise God for his wisdom in giving us a community in which we can worship him together, seek his truth together and partners with whom we can work for his glory. Please also pray for the church in Japan -- pray that we will cherish one another and work together to be a blessing on the nation of Japan.
~for wisdom and faith -- as I start to reflect on this year, please be praying that I will see God's perspective on the things that I have done, and that I will be able to recognize the Holy Spirit's guidance as I start to think about how to continue serving God and the people of Japan in this next year of my apprenticeship.
~for the Sendai church family -- we have had struggles and joys this year. Please pray for the brothers and sisters here, that we will be brave to listen for and follow the Holy Spirit's leadership, and that we will be able to find a shared vision for our church.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
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.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
August 2009
August was a quiet month, especially in contrast to July. Joel was in Southeast Asia for most of the month, but, since I was unable to attend this year's Asian Mission Forum, I held down the fort here in Sendai. With help from all the members of our cell group, we continued to meet each week through August for dinner and Bible study/discussion time. At the end of the month, we had a fellowship night, and we all went to sing karaoke together.
From one of our cell group discussions in August
Because August is summer vacation in the Japanese school calendar, most of my language classes where also on break. However, I did continue to meet with my volunteer tutor, who is teaching me how to read and write. She also helps me to practice conversation -- her help is such a blessing to me, and I am so thankful for our growing friendship.
Also in August Joel, Toshiko (a church member) and Akiko (an LST reader and our neighbor) went to Siem Reap, Cambodia to minister to the street kids there, with others from Japan and Singapore. They also checked in on the 11 children that church members and others in Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia are sponsoring to go to English school. From the funds raised, they were able to add another child as well. Both Toshiko and Akiko said that their experience in Cambodia was wonderful. It is very encouraging to see this connection and cooperation in missions between churches all over Asia.
Joel came back just in time to celebrate Debi's birthday, and also to host some guests. Our friend, Judith, who lives in Ibaraki prefecture, brought Michi, her roommate, and Nadine, a friend visiting from North America, to Sendai for a few days. It was good to see our friends and spend some time sharing Sendai with them.
Please pray with me . . .
~for our friend, Michi, as she continues to think about giving her life to Jesus.
~for Sayuri, my volunteer Japanese tutor. I am hopeful that our friendship will grow deeper, and that I will have more opportunities to share my faith with her.
~a praise for Laura's (Joel's sister) recent successful surgery -- and also pray for her continuing recovery.
~a praise for the time that God allowed me to rest in August, and for wisdom and discipline in moving forward into fall activities and study.
~for my language study, which continues to become increasingly difficult. I am so thankful for encouragement from friends, who assure me that I am making progress. Please be praying that I will feel less discouraged.
From one of our cell group discussions in AugustBecause August is summer vacation in the Japanese school calendar, most of my language classes where also on break. However, I did continue to meet with my volunteer tutor, who is teaching me how to read and write. She also helps me to practice conversation -- her help is such a blessing to me, and I am so thankful for our growing friendship.
Also in August Joel, Toshiko (a church member) and Akiko (an LST reader and our neighbor) went to Siem Reap, Cambodia to minister to the street kids there, with others from Japan and Singapore. They also checked in on the 11 children that church members and others in Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia are sponsoring to go to English school. From the funds raised, they were able to add another child as well. Both Toshiko and Akiko said that their experience in Cambodia was wonderful. It is very encouraging to see this connection and cooperation in missions between churches all over Asia.
Joel came back just in time to celebrate Debi's birthday, and also to host some guests. Our friend, Judith, who lives in Ibaraki prefecture, brought Michi, her roommate, and Nadine, a friend visiting from North America, to Sendai for a few days. It was good to see our friends and spend some time sharing Sendai with them.
Please pray with me . . .
~for our friend, Michi, as she continues to think about giving her life to Jesus.
~for Sayuri, my volunteer Japanese tutor. I am hopeful that our friendship will grow deeper, and that I will have more opportunities to share my faith with her.
~a praise for Laura's (Joel's sister) recent successful surgery -- and also pray for her continuing recovery.
~a praise for the time that God allowed me to rest in August, and for wisdom and discipline in moving forward into fall activities and study.
~for my language study, which continues to become increasingly difficult. I am so thankful for encouragement from friends, who assure me that I am making progress. Please be praying that I will feel less discouraged.
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