Children and Youth Ministry

December 31, 2011

As I checked our draft box, I realized that I had not published some of the posts.  I know it is late but I wanted to publish before 2012 comes!  Here are some updates on our ministry in the fall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took our youth group to go bowling.  Many of you have been praying for these two sisters on the right.  They lost their grandparents in the tsunami and have been having a difficult time.  It was great to see their smile again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took them to Michael’s favorite restaurant.  Even though our group is still small, we always have so much fun together!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we had a team from Bangkok, we hosted a youth game night.  As you can see, they loved it!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also wrote encouraging notes on the heating cans for people in the temporary housing.  The Bangkok team delivered them and many people loved it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This fall, we started teaching English at our church.  We have been having 20-30 kids every week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We always end our time with a short worship service.  Lots of the kids are from non-Christian families.   Some of them started coming to the Sunday School.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. Tony taught some English praise songs!  It reminded me of my childhood since he had taught me the same songs when I was a child!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The youth learned English through games, songs, and chants! It was great to see them interact with these English speakers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hosted the first ever fall festival at our church.  Both teams from Bangkok and Hawaii helped and our FBCA family helped by sending us American candies and party supplies!  Thank you all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the beginning, all the kids who had come to the English class performed in front of their parents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This class learned the colors and animals.  They did a great job!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bean bag toss!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin bowling!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ring toss!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fishing game!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Face painting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone enjoyed American taste such as hot dogs, chili, spam musubi (from Hawaii), popcorn, cookies, candies, and cool aids! One girl said who had a cool-aid for the first time said it tasted like “America”!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was great to meet dads of the kids who come to our English class.  Michael hopes to get to know them better!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael and the boys.  We ordered these pumpkins from the northern island of Japan.  The kids loved touching them!

We had a great time with everyone.  God has opened so many doors for us to meet and minister to the youth and kids in our community.  We look forward to building relationships and sharing God’s love with them and their families.

 

Categories: Hope for Japan News.

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Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

December 29, 2011

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

We came back from America last week after spending lots of fun time with our family and friends.  They all made our trip so special!  We will write more about the trip soon!!!  We had an opportunity to go to Hawaii on our way home and saw our new friends who had come to Sendai as volunteers in October.  We had a great time with them!

As soon as we came home, Luke started feeling bad and he ended up going to the local hospital to get an IV.  Thankfully, he got better after that and we were able to go to the Christmas Eve service (Michael preached!!!) and the Christmas Day service at our church. What an amazing church family we have!!!   We thank God for the people from the community who came to our church for the first time!   We pray their hearts were opened and they will continue to come.

 

The Christmas Eve service- sorry we don’t have any pictures of Michael preaching… Everyone told us what a blessing and encouragement his sermon was!  PTL!!!  A big “thank you” to those who prayed!

 

Back side of our church’s nativity scene.  It snowed on Christmas Eve!

 

We had a potluck lunch after the worship service on Sunday.

 

At the Christmas party, we had a church-wide Christmas gift exchange.  It is always so much fun!

 

It was our first Christmas as a family of three and we had such a blessed time together.  We received one of the most precious gifts from God this year.   Words cannot describe how much joy Luke brought into our lives.  As we thank God for Luke’s life, we praise Him for giving us the best gift that anyone could receive.  Happy Birthday, Jesus!

We pray you have a blessed new year!

Categories: Hope for Japan News.

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