The rainy season is just about over, schools are out for Summer vacation, and a lot of exciting things are happening at church. The most joyful news is that two college students will be baptized shortly, one this coming Sunday and the other in the fall. Both of them come from non Christian homes, and both had strong opposition from their parents when they became Christians. They are both from neighboring prefectures, and came to our city for to go to college. One of them was told by his father before he left “Don’t join a religion, or the Yakuza!” Yakuza is essentially the Japanese mafia. However after seeing his life change and hearing his testimony his parents relented and gave their blessing for him to be baptized as a Christian. Please keep both these students in prayer as they grow in their new faith.
Summer Ministries
During the Summer while kids are on vacation our church takes the opportunity to reach out to the community. This year we hosted our seconds annual Natsu Matsuri. Matsuri means festival in Japanese, and they have many Matsuri’s throughout the year. Most of them are hosted by Shinto shrines. The picture at the top of this email is of a local highschool practicing for our city’s biggest Matsuri of the year, the Sansa Oodori, which is celebrated with a huge parade of Taiko drummers and dancers. Many children from the local elementary school who don’t normally come to church, attended our little Matsuri. We’re starting to see some of the same kids coming back to different events (two families at the Matsuri also came to an English Cafe in May). Please be praying that God will lead these kids and their families closer to Him, through the little snippets of the gospel that are shared at these events, and through a deepening relationship with our church.
We’re now in the process of preparing for kids Summer camp, which starts this Sunday after church. It’s common for many Japanese to start their day with a light aerobic style exercise, and while this is slightly out of my comfort zone, I was asked to be the morning exercise leader at the camp. Still working out my program (if anyone out there has any tips, I’m all ears.)
Preaching and Speaking
It’s been a real blessing not only serving at our home church but serving in a church with a good relationship with other churches in the area. There are so few churches, and many of the churches are very small, so having the support and cooperation of other similarly minded churches is an incredible blessing. I’ve been attending a monthly pastors meeting this year and been really encouraged by the other pastors serving throughout the prefecture. This past Monday I had the opportunity to share a short message and lead a discussion time about church ministry. Given that this was all in Japanese it was very difficult, yet it went really well, and led to some really good times of sharing and focus. Thank you to all who prayed for this meeting.
I am also scheduled to preach three more times over the next three months at three different churches. In August I will preach at a sister church in Kitakami, in September I’ll preach at our home church in Morioka and in October I’ll preach at an independent church. In the midst of all these opportunities I feel like we’re getting a better grasp of the issues facing the churches here in Japan, and how we can encourage them towards a greater involvement in spreading the Gospel throughout Japan. As we look out at the daunting task of reaching the other 99.8% of the population with good news of Salvation, I can’t help but feel that the Japanese church, small in numbers as it may be, will play a huge role in God’s plan for this country. It’s a privilege to serve alongside these Japanese believers and churches, partnering together with them in our common hope to see the gospel spread, and believers grow in Christian maturity.