Thanks for praying for last Friday’s American English Cafe! We had a really good turn out with three or four non-Christians showing up, along with a good number of people from church. We played games in English, sang the Star Spangled Banner (I made the unfortunate mistake of downloading an instrumental version to sing along too, which meant I more or less had to sing a solo…), and I gave two short presentations in English. The first was a little slideshow about American culture, and the second was a short gospel message from John 4 (the woman at the well). The gospel message was translated (and if you’re interested, you can read it here ).
Since arriving this was my first opportunity to share the gospel in Japan. My language ability is still a ways away from being able to explain it in Japanese, but Pastor Kondo provided an excellent translation. Sometimes in the midst of intense language study every day it’s easy to start to forget why we’re here, so it was a real blessing to be able to take a night off from Japanese study and getting the chance to share Christ with some people who do not (yet) have a relationship with Him. Please be in prayer for those who attended, that God would draw them to Himself. This is the fourth English Cafe we’ve done this year, the first three were hosted by a British short term team who did an amazing job, two of the girls who came to this last one had also attended the previous ones. It’s awesome to see how God uses the work of short term missionaries even after they return home. That’s a huge reason that we’re here in Iwate, as so many short term workers have been used by Godd
to open many doors for the gospel in this area.
One of our friends here, a young man named Micah, has been serving in this area for the last two years, but is now getting ready to return to his home church in a neighboring prefecture to become it’s new pastor . He’s had a huge impact on the lives of many people on the coast, and everyone is going to miss him. But this is how God is working here in Iwate. So many believers dropped everything and put their lives on hold to come to meet the desperate and immediate needs of Tsunami survivors on the coast. In the mean time God began preparing others to serve long term and carry on the work of those who were first on the ground. Still, after meeting these amazing people it’s hard to imagine being able to fill their shoes.
Please also keep the Bay family in prayer. I met Stephen Bay through a mutual friend back in California. He’s from Irvine, and also had a calling to go to Iwate, so we got to know each other a bit in SoCal as we both prepared to move here. He is in Tokyo at the moment, but recently secured a place to live in Ofunato (one of the coastal cities that we visit frequently) for his first two year term in Japan. He and his family also intend to be here long term and will be moving here in October.
Currently I’m on fall “break” from language school (it’s a year round system here, so we get short breaks every season, no long Summer breaks). I say “break” half jokingly because I’m self studying to try to get caught up to the more advanced class I’ll be joining in about a week and a half. I have a ton of homework in addition to preparing for a speech contest in a few more weeks.
Also, my parents came to visit. My dad left yesterday after staying a week, but my mom is going to be here for another week and a half. They’ve had a great time with their three grand kids, and it’s been encouraging to hang out with them for a little bit as well.
Thanks so much for all your prayers and support! Everyday I think about how grateful we are to all of you, and how I just wish I had better ways of expressing that gratitude. But Lord willing we’ll have chances to see you in person from time to time, and if not, then it’ll be a sweet time in heaven to share about all that God did through your partnership here in Japan!