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Over the past six months we’ve seen an  unprecedented number of people from outside the church coming to various outreaches. Through your prayers and partnership God is beginning to lead people to Himself. I want to share two really encouraging stories with you.

“I want to be a Christian”

This past Summer with the help of two interns from the US our church hosted a Summer English program, and gave English lessons to people in the community, using a curriculum based on the JESUS Film. After the seven week program ended one of the ladies who had attended started to show up at other Church events. She came to English Cafe, and then to our Fall Food Festival, where she was invited to come and attend Sunday service as well. None of us really expected her to come, as it’s pretty unusual for non-believers to attend a Christian worship service, but we were really excited that she did!

Our pastor was surprised as well, and at first feared that his planned sermon from the book of Genesis about the covenant of circumcision wouldn’t really connect with her, and he thought about changing it. But as he explained about the difficult things that God sometimes expects of us, like commanding Abraham to circumcise all the males in his household, he mentioned that Christians too are given difficult commands, and quoted Jesus words in Matthew 5:44

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

He explained that only Christ can enable us to love in such a powerful way. The next day after our pastor received a call from the lady. She said she never heard of such kind of love, and that she wanted to be able to love her enemies enough to pray for God to bless them.  She then said, “I want to become a Christian!” That very week she began studying the Bible with our Pastor to learn what it means to be a Christian as she considers giving her life to God.

Our neighbors getting more connected with Church

We’ve also been really encouraged to see God working in the lives of our neighbors as well. They have become wonderful friends who have been very loving and welcoming to our family and especially our kids who go to play at their house often. Over the past year they’ve been coming more and more to different church events. And have expressed much interest in the teachings of Christianity. I’ve been able to give them a copy of the JESUS Film, which they watched as a family, and they have come to English Cafe on numerous occasions.

They also came to the Fall Festival last month, and were invited to join a Korean class that a missionary at our church is teaching. The mother, who has a great interest in other cultures decided to join and attended the first class this week and plans to continue coming to the church each week over the next ten weeks. We are so glad to see that relationship continue even as we will be moving away in a few weeks, and look forward to keeping in touch with them.

It’s been so encouraging to see God working in so many ways. It’s an exciting time at our church, and in some ways we wish we didn’t have to go. But seeing the Church develop a vision to expand this outreach into other cities through Church planting is incredibly exciting as well, and we are filled with joy and praise to God for the work He is doing.

Homeward Bound

We’re finally able to move forward with our plans to return back to the US for home service, after being delayed waiting for Tomo’s visa to be approved. We had previously hoped to be able to leave later this month, but were unable to do so. We just received an interview date for Tomo’s visa, which will be October 23rd. If she is accepted we’ll know that day, and then have to wait a few weeks for the actual visa to arrive. We anticipate flying home during the second week of November.

Our plan is to be back for about six months, during which time we’ll be visiting our supporting churches, and updating you all about the amazing work that you have been involved in through your prayers and giving. We’ll also try to get Tomo’s US citizenship during that time. As the time gets closer we’ll keep you posted, and also let you know the dates of when we’ll be visiting each of our supporting churches!

Miyako Church Plant Update

As I mentioned in last month’s update, our church is investigating the possibility of planting a new church in Miyako city on the coast. We have been supporting disaster relief work in the city for the past six years, in partnership with Catherine “Cat” Porter as well as many teams from Singapore. Through this many relationships have been built, and it’s becoming apparent that there is a need for a new church to be planted in the city.

We went to visit Cat along with some members of our church to see the city first hand. We had a good time meeting some of the people who live in Miyako, and saw first hand the reality that they are facing as they struggle to rebuild, not only the physical buildings but also a sense of community between those who are moving back after losing houses and those who’s homes were built on hills in the same neighborhood and thus were left untouched.

Miyako is one of the largest cities in Iwate with a population of 54,573 people, but only two, very small protestant churches. We are planning to move there after home service next year to begin the work of planting a new church in that city. We appreciate your prayers and continued partnership as we follow God’s leading into this new and exciting ministry!

Summer Kids English Special

Last month a team from Orange Coast Free Methodist Church in Southern California came to help us put on a Summer VBS at our church. This is the first time that we were able to host a team from one of our supporting churches, and we were blown away by the amazing work they did, and God’s grace in drawing kids to the event. About half of the kids who came had never been to the church before, so it was amazing to God bringing new people to us, and to have the opportunity to share God’s love through songs, games, crafts and lessons from His Word.

UPDATED 9/7/2017: After a long delay we finally got an interview date for Tomo’s visa, which will be on October 23rd, 2017. This means our departure date for the US in now estimated to be in the second week of November.

It’s been two years since our last visit to the States, and as our internship at Morioka Bible Baptist Church draws to a finish, we’re gearing up for the next phase of ministry here in Japan, so we’ll be returning for 6 months. Read on for answers to the questions I’m sure many of you may have.

What will you do in the US?

Our main purpose for returning is to report back to our supporting churches and individual supporters about all that God has done and continues to do here in Iwate, and to raise support for the next phase of ministry. In addition to that Tomo is intending to go through the process of obtaining US citizenship, which will hopefully make these sorts of trips easier in the future.

When will you be in the US?

We’re planning on back from September 2017 through March 2018. However it’s possible those dates may change due to the immigration and citizenship process. We’re waiting for Tomo’s green card approval, which even though we started more than 6 months ago, is still a ways from being approved, and may not be approved before September. Obtaining citizenship while in the US may also take longer than 6 months, which would delay our return to Japan.

As mentioned above, our plans did indeed change, we now anticipate being in the US from mid November, 2017 till at least mid May, 2018.

What is will you do after you return to Japan?

This is the exciting part, God has been opening more doors than we anticipated since arriving here, particularly within our partner church here in Morioka. We came with the hope of partnering with Japanese churches to plant new churches. In the last four years God has been greatly accelerating this work. Right now, in our prefecture there are 5 church plants in various stages of ministry that our church is either partnering with directly, or supporting as part of the 3.11 Iwate Church Network. Additionally there are two sister churches that struggling without a pastor, and are in need of essentially being replanted. Prior to the Tsunami, virtually none of this was happening, and so there’s also a need for training and ministry within the supporting mother churches who have been in a sense pulled into church planting ministry very rapidly over the last few years.

We’re still in the process of evaluating how we can best support and participate in this work that God is obviously doing. It is both very exciting, but also filled with many challenges and difficult decisions. However we hope to have a solid plan formed in the coming months.

What are your needs?

The biggest one is prayer for wisdom in regards to discerning how and where God wants us to serve in the near future. Additionally we continue to be in need of additional monthly financial support, so we are praying that through this trip God will raise up additional churches and ministry partners to join us in the work He is doing here. We are also looking for a vehicle that we can use for the time that we are in the US.

Thank you for your prayers and support over the years that we’ve been here. We hope that we’ll be able to see you in person when we come back to the US!

New Baby

We’re praising God for the safe delivery of our third child, Silas 新(Arata) Robison. He’s named after the apostle Paul’s partner in his second missionary journey and his middle name, Arata, means “New” in Japanese, and reminds of us the new life that we have through Christ.

The delivery was very smooth, and very quick, Silas was born less than three hours after we arrived at the hospital. Tomo has been recovering well, but we’re all adjusting to having three little kids in the house, and new sleep schedules (all of us are getting less of it). Thankfully I was able to take about two weeks off to help Tomo around the house and watch the kids. Titus and Felicity seem to be quite taken with their baby brother and fight over who gets to hold him every day.

Ministry

Last month I started meeting with a new believer at our church to study the Bible together one on one. This is my first time being able to do something like this in Japanese, and while it’s difficult, we both seem to be benefiting from the fellowship and the chance to talk about God’s word as we read through the book of Romans.

Recently our church has been having more English speaking visitors, and the Monthly English Bible Study has been growing. Many of the participants are English teachers who are in Japan for a period of one to three years, and are eager to serve and help out in the church, and have been a large source of blessing.

I’m preparing to preach again on April 30th, and as usual this requires a lot of time. I need to study the passage, outline and summarize my sermon in English, and then write it in Japanese. After that’s done I’ll get someone to check it and correct the inevitable mountain of grammatical errors, and then spend at least a week practicing it so I don’t stumble over the words. Please pray that I can prepare well, and that the sermon will be an encouragement to those who hear. I’ll be preaching from Philippians 2:1-11, focusing on the first two verses:

 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.