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.

Junbi no June (June of Preparation)

This month was full of a lot of preparation (word of the day: junbi -- preparation), mostly for Let's Start Talking. But first, at the beginning of the month, some friends from Singapore (Paul and Betty Tan with their daughter Rachel and her boyfriend, Shawn) came to visit Japan for their family vacation. They visited several friends in the Tokyo area and in Ibaraki, then spent some time with us in Sendai. It was so encouraging to have fellowship with them, and a lot of fun to show them around our city. Joel also acted as their tour guide on a sightseeing trip around Tohoku region (northern part of the main island of Japan) and a visit to Hachinohe church. I met Paul when I traveled to Singapore and Cambodia in March of 2008.

After the Tans left Sendai, Joel and I kicked our LST preparations into high gear. We spent about two weeks in a whirlwind of making handouts, schedules, orientation materials (for the LST workers and participants) and deep cleaning almost every inch of the church property (with help from the church members and our roommate, Gaku). The LST team was scheduled to arrive on the evening of Saturday the 20th, and Joel and I started the day pretty worn out, but sure that we could get all the little last minute things done by the time we had to leave to go and pick up the team. But that morning Joel received an email letting us know that the LST workers had been delayed by weather, and they would arrive a day late, on Sunday evening. Sometimes it is very surprising to find out that God's plans don't match our plans.

By God's grace, we kept panic at a minimum and made adjustments to our schedules to do the Sunday afternoon and evening orientation meetings for the LST participants without the LST workers. The best blessing that came from that Sunday was getting to see the church members jumping into action to pick up all the loose ends and make sure that those meetings (which can get a little crazy and overwhelming) ran smoothly. God challenged us, and our church family pulled together to glorify him with beautiful dedication to this ministry and flexibility in a tricky situation.

The LST team arrived safely on Sunday evening. We took Monday to get them settled in, and they started studying with their students on Tuesday. We are so blessed to have this team in Sendai! The LST participants are also blessed to get to see a Christian family in action. Our LST team this year is one young married couple, Mike and Marcy, with their 1 year old daughter, Ella; Mike's brother, Brian, and his mother, Mina, are also serving with them, as well as Marcy's friend from college, Crystal. They are all doing great with their readers, and seem to be enjoying their experience of Japanese culture. All of them, except for Mina, have been to Japan before, and all are doing their best to try out a few phrases in Japanese and be adventurous in foods and other cultural experiences, which is such a blessing and encouragement to our Japanese LST friends. I am so thankful for their hard work and opportunities that God has opened for them to share their faith. Please continue to cover them with your prayers -- they will be working with us here until the 27th of July.

Their first weekly party was an "American Spring Picnic Party" on the afternoon of Sunday the 28th. Here are some pictures from the party:


Joel and I (with help from lots of the other church members) are also offering a coffee shop in the church auditorium during the daily lessons. It is a good time for the students to get extra English practice or ask questions that they didn't have time to get to during their lessons. It is also a really good opportunity for us to get to know them better.


Please pray with me . . .

~a praise for the good work that God is doing during this LST project. Many people are hearing the gospel and our workers are boldly sharing their faith. And we are so thankful for their hard work and willingness to come so far to share God's truth and love.

~a praise to God for the success of the coffee shop -- so many people are hanging out and talking together.

~for the continuing work of the LST team. They have been working so hard and they love their readers so much! We can't believe that they will only be here a couple more weeks.

~that God will make it possible to have many people at FriendsCamp (the camp that we will have for the LST participants and church members at the end of the LST project). Right now we only have one LST participant registered.

~that God will protect the LST team as they travel home, the FriendsCamp team as travel here and back (from America) and Joel as he travels to China for the Asia Mission Forum at the end of this month.

May 2009

I feel like I say this every month, but I can't believe how quickly May flew by! At the beginning of the month we had a little bit of a holiday. There is a group of national holidays which gave a lot of our friends a five day weekend in the first weekend of the month. So we invited friends from Ibaraki and one friend from Shizuoka to come to our house and hang out.


We spent the time relaxing and encouraging one another. It was a great weekend, and I think that our guests all left refreshed.

Another special event this month was Young Adult Camp in Ibaraki prefecture. Unfortunately this year none of the Japanese young people from Sendai were able to attend. But Joel, Debi and I did attend the camp -- the theme was missions. The preacher from Hitachi Church of Christ (in Ibaraki) shared with us about his experiences in following (and sometimes failing to follow) God's mission for his life. I was especially encouraged by this talk. Then on Saturday afternoon we went out into the community in small groups to try out different kinds of missions. Because of some challenges (mostly the really heavy rain) our group learned again that God's plan is not always what we imagine it will be.

The other "regular" things that continued this month were my language lessons, weekly one-on-one English Bible studies with Marina and Fukuda-san, Monday night cell group at our house, Birthday Sunday at church, monthly preacher's meeting in Ibaraki and a weekend visit to the church in Hachinohe. The Sendai church has also continued making preparations for the Let's Start Talking team that will arrive on June 20th. We have about 45 participants registered so far (with about 30 spaces still available), so please continue to pray that God will lead people to this program to hear his Word.

Also I have decided to try to take the Japanese proficiency exam in December. The level that I would like to try to pass will require me to learn how to read about 300 new characters, in addition to working even harder on my vocabulary and grammar. I think this will be challenging, but I feel like it will be a good motivater in my studies. Thank you for covering this part of the work in prayer -- it is so important to be able to communicate!

Please pray with me . . .

~a praise for the time we had at the beginning of May to host and encourage our friends.

~that God will prepare the hearts of this year's LST participants to hear his Word and desire his Truth. And please pray that God will continue to guide the LST workers as they come to share their faith and the love of our Saviour.

~a praise for the amazing ways God provides for us physically and spiritually -- our God is so good!

~that God will continue to guide me as I study Japanese, that he will give me confidence to use what I know and help me to overcome my fear of making mistakes.

The Amazing Flying April

It felt like April flew by here, maybe because it was a very full month. I have, of course, continued in my language study. And I am encouraged by how much I am able to understand, but frustrated that my listening skills are improving disproportionate to my speaking skills. I still struggle to have confidence to speak and find it very difficult to shape my thoughts into the Japanese grammar that I can remember. I know that it will eventually come, but I am having trouble being patient with the learning process. So thank you for your prayers about this and please continue to pray for me in this matter. I know that even the process of learning is a blessing to me and hopefully through it I can be a blessing to all of the people who are helping me to learn.

The April Birthday Sunday at church was also Easter Sunday. Joel and I prepared a delicious lunch, which facilitated an enjoyable time of fellowship and celebration.



Also, Joel and I traveled north to Hachinohe and on the weekend of the 26th. We were able to spend Saturday afternoon and evening with one of the church members, and help a little bit with some of their preparations for the Hachinohe Let's Start Talking project. On Sunday, after Joel preached in worship time, we had a meeting to discuss the three church retreat that the churches in Sendai, Morioka and Hachinohe are planning for September. (These are the three Japanese churches of Christ in this northern region of Japan.) It was decided that the theme will be Family, and we are excited to be designing this camp to be especially welcoming to all ages and all family members and friends, whether they are Christian or not.

Near the end of April we started hosting a cell group Bible study and worship time at our house on Monday evenings. We eat dinner together, then we have a short game, praise time, brief Bible study and discussion time. The idea of this gathering is to work together to find out more about God and what it means to have faith in him. The agenda is set up so that we can all take turns planning different parts of the evening. We have only met a couple of times, but I am hopeful that God will work in great ways through this.

Also this month, we said goodbye to one of the members of the Bible study that Debi and I attend on Tuesday evenings. Stephanie, who has been teaching English in Japan for several years, is back in Texas now. Her goodbye dinner was a fun opportunity to see old friends and make a couple new ones; since we are usually spread all over the city at different churches it was a rare blessing. We will miss her!


On the 29th (a national holiday), 7 adults from Sendai traveled down to Ibaraki for the annual all-Japan worship time on the campus of Ibaraki Christian University. In the morning we had a worship time and sermon. Then we all ate lunch together outside, enjoying fellowship and the blessing of a very beautiful day. In the afternoon there were a couple of choices of activities -- I attended the presentation about the March "Angkor of Faith" mission to Cambodia (the same mission that I went with last March). My favorite part of that day was at the end of the Cambodia presentation -- in small groups we prayed for the children in Cambodia and for the people of Asia. I was moved deeply by realizing once again that God has the power to bring all the people of Asia into relationship with him; and as I work in Japan, I must always place my faith in God's faithfulness, desire and power to restore his children.

Coming up in May, we will be continuing our preparation for the upcoming Let's Start Talking summer program. The team will be arriving on the 20th of June; we opened the registration in April and we already have over 35 people signed up to participate in one-on-one English Bible study for 5 weeks.

Also, in May we will attend the annual Young Adult Camp in Ibaraki prefecture. Please pray that God will make a way for some of the young people from Sendai to go to that event. It is an excellent opportunity to gather people together in a time of worship, fellowship and learning.

Please pray with me . . .

~that God will reveal himself to us in our cell group; that he will touch and stretch our hearts.

~that God will work through me as I continue to study the Bible one-on-one with two people this spring.

~that God will bless the LST program in Sendai this year, that he will bring people to the church who have hearts that are ready to hear the good news of Jesus' love.

~a prayer of thanksgiving for the ways that God has encouraged me and lifted me up this past month. I am less discouraged and am feeling God's peace and joy grow stronger in my heart. He is so faithful and patient!

~a praise for the improvements in my funding situation -- I am still in need of more funds, but God is slowly opening the way for me to continue working in Sendai.

The Ending of Seasons

Recently, I have been experiencing a spiritually dry season. Looking back on March, I am struggling a little bit with how to report about it; I don't want my temporary melancholy to shade the good things that God has done.

I continued most of my language classes, but, as it was the break between terms in the Japanese school year, my study schedule was a little more relaxed than usual.

I also was blessed by the opportunity to meet with the ladies with whom I studied the book of Mark last fall. We met for coffee and were able to catch up and enjoy one another. They are all excited for this summer's Let's Start Talking program.

Another blessing this past month was the chance that I had to go to the Sendai Junior Orchestra Spring Concert -- my friend's daughter is a member of the group. It was a great concert and a good time to encourage my friend, Tomomi. So God is blessing me, and I believe he is working through me despite my feeling dry.

Joel and I are beginning to really dig into preparations for the summer Let's Start Talking project. We have started to distribute advertising, and are talking it up to everyone. We have also been trying to prepare the local church members to be as involved as possible in the project. So please be covering that in prayer.

Another blessing that came at the end of the month was the news that there were several people who sent in one-time donations in March that were able to cover my April salary -- praise God! Even though it was a difficult month for me, I am so thankful for the continuing opportunity to serve God in Japan and still feel his call to be here. Almost daily God calls my attention to evidence of the void that is left in the lives of people who don't know God's grace -- he has given me such a wonderful chance to serve him in ways that I could not serve him in the States. That is why I will continue to ask God to help me to overcome the feelings of discouragement that try to creep in, and ask once again for your financial support. I still am receiving only about $1100 in monthly commitments. My current budget calls for $1600 monthly, and this budget is barely enough to cover basic personal and ministry needs. The elders at the Cheyenne Church of Christ approved a new budget of $2250 monthly in January, but I have not been able to begin receiving that amount yet. Please prayerfully consider supporting me financially. I know that the current condition of the global economy may make this kind of support a great sacrifice or even a complete impossibility, but I am asking in faith that God will provide for this work through your generosity.

Please pray with me . . .

~that God will speak through me as I continue to study the Bible with two of my students from last year, and that God will soften their hearts to hear his voice and desire his righteousness.

~that God will bless the summer Let's Start Talking project in Sendai. I pray that he will be with our team as they prepare to come and share their faith. God also please send our advertisements into the hands of the people most ready to hear your Good News.

~a prayer of thanksgiving for the way that God moved in the hearts of the young Asian Christians and seekers who participated in this year's Angkor of Faith mission to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Please continue to pray for the street children there who are so hungry for God's perfect love.

~that God will continue to regrow his joy in my heart and draw me out of this season of dryness.

~that God will continue to bless my language study, help me to remember what I learn and guide me in more and more disciplined study. Also please praise God with me for all the opportunities he gives me to grow and share his love as I depend on so many people to help me to learn Japanese.