Sunday, November 29, 2009

Ministry in Japan



Our first Thurs. afternoon outreach time at the school with ladies and moms from our kids English classes. Please pray God will multiply our numbers!



Lunch with the Friday ladies English class I teach at church. This class includes a Bible study time. They wanted to take me to eat Japanese food!


Teaching full-time and living in a new culture has definitely taken a lot out of me! The moments I have to build relationships with my students, encourage the church leaders, spend time with the kids I live with, and study the Bible with women of God here are a few opportunities God has opened up for ministry.

On 2 Thursdays of each month, Akane (the mom and school director here) and I have a time lady students and moms of kids at our school can come eat American snacks, chat, do a short Bible study, and get to know us. I help Akane with ideas and spend time getting to know the ladies. We have only had one event so far, and I would love it if you would keep this event in your prayers! We want it to be a time God can use to reach out and share Christ to the many non-Christian moms in our classes.

This Sunday, I had the opportunity to speak and share a little bit about myself and my testimony at the large church we work with. The main point of my message was 'faith requires action,' and I referenced Hebrews 11:1, which talks about many Bible characters who acted on their faith. I was SO excited to hear the preacher speak after me about Abraham, and how he acted on his faith! I even heard the preacher say in English: Faith requires action. The preacher doesn't speak much English, so it was so exciting to hear how God put together our 2 messages without us planning it God is soo good!

The church I usually attend on Sundays, Oharu Evangelical Free Church, is a branch church to the large one I spoke at. It is small, but I believe God has great plans for it! They recently purchased land to build a bigger building, and last week they had a contemporary service for Japan, which included guitar music, songs like "Lord I Lift Your Name on High," and "Shine, Jesus Shine." I was so excited to see they want to try new things, and they even have song lyrics in English so I can sing along with them:) They often ask for my input on service ideas, and I love being able to help them. When I return to Japan after my break in January, I am looking forward to getting more involved with the kids and service at this church

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Fun Stuff







Quite a while has gone by without a new word from Japan. Hello! I'm back and have some fun new praises and info to share with you!

Since you've heard from me last, we had our Halloween party at the school. We invited all of our students, and instead of having classes on a Thursday night, we had games and crafts! I was happy to bring over some of my Children's Ministry wisdom to help make a very fun and well attended party!

I also got the opportunity to visit Little World-which has buildings and restaurants from different countries around the world. Of course I loved this excursion on my day off, and you can get a chance to see the family I am staying with.

Finally, you will see pics of sports day. The church held an event at a park where we played various funny games, had church service, and a picnic! What a fun event! Here's some pics of my new church family.

My goal is to blog once every 2 weeks! I love and miss all of you!