Dear Friends and Family,
We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
We want to take this time to tell you how grateful we are for each of you. Thank you so much for praying for us, supporting us, and encouraging us. Thanks to God’s provision and support from many of you, we can continue our ministry in Japan.
Please know that we appreciate you so much. May God continue to bless you and your family this Christmas season and always.
Love,
Michael, Yu, and Luke
We miss you!
Categories: Family.
Last year, we hosted the Fall Festival at our church for the first time. The team from Thailand helped us and everyone had a great time. Ever since then, the kids have asked if we would have another Fall Festival this year. So we were thrilled when we found out that the FBCA team would be coming in October- perfect time to host the Fall Festival!
They brought SO many prizes (thanks to all the Sunday School classes and individuals who donated these items!) for the kids. Also, Remey did a great job getting ready for all the fun games and activities.
We started the festival with a prayer and welcome speech by our pastor, and then our students sang English songs!
Russell and Remey did a great job leading the songs.
Then Michael shared a story about Jesus as Lance curved a pumpkin. He talked about how Jesus removes the bad things from our heart when we ask Him to come into our heart and He puts a light in our heart. And we shine that light so that others can know about Him. We pray all the children will remember this story.
Kids were focused the entire time and looked so happy when they saw a light in the pumpkin!
We hope you can see all the excitement from the following photos!
Ring toss!
Face painting!
Ladderball!
Golf!
Bean bag toss!
Cindy with two girls!
Many parents came with their kids.
Photo booth!
Of course, Luke had a blast!!!
Thank you, FBCA team, for making this such an exciting event! The kids in our English class are still talking about it!
If you are thinking about coming to Japan next year, October might be a good time to have LOTS of fun!
Categories: Hope for Japan News.
Ever since we visited Oshika Peninsula for the first time in May of 2011, it has become a special place. It’s the area where so many people lost their lives, family members, houses, and everything they owned (You can watch the youtube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT6TP1uck_4). As we met people who were living in the temporary shelter at that time and built relationships over the past year and half, God placed these people in our heart and we have been visiting them regularly.
So we were so glad that we could take the FBCA team to this special place to meet the people we love.
At first, we visited our dear friend, Miyuki. Her husband owns a fishing company and they lost most of their ships. But they have continued their fishing business and trying to rebuild their home. She has been open to listen to the Gospel and she has put the poster with the scriptures that we had given her on their entrance wall. She cried as we prayed with her and we pray God will continue to work in her heart.
With Miyuki.
Then we went to Oshika Preschool. It was our first time to visit them in the new building. Their school was destroyed by the tsunami so they were meeting in the community center for a year and half. When we visited them, they were having a special festival.
It was great to see these happy kids!
We made the puppets with them!
After visiting the preschool, we went to our friend, Emi’s house. She recently built a new house. You may remember reading about her before, but she is the one who lost her husband and her father-in-law in the tsunami. And this year, she has lost three of her family members including her father. Needless to say, she has been going through a difficult time. But she always welcomes us with a big smile and keeps thanking us for coming. This time, she invited all of us to her new beautiful house and served delicious fruit and sweets. It was great to hear about her plans to make her house a bed and breakfast place where people can come and stay. We look forward to staying with her someday. We prayed with her before we left and we could tell she was crying. We know she is still hurting. Please keep her and her little daughter in your prayers.
With Emi.
We stopped at Mrs. Hiratsuka’s (from the temporary housing we had visited the day before) brother’s temporary housing to deliver fruit and vegetables. This time, we visited each door (20 units) and handed them in person. People were so appreciative. The FBCA team members mastered how to say “hello”, “here they are”, “thank you”, and “see you” in Japanese!
With Mrs. Hiratsuka’s brother.
On our way home, we went to Matsushima that is one of the most famous places in Japan. The team got to see one of the national treasures.
Can’t you tell they were super excited?
It was a very memorable day. We pray and hope we will be able to take more friends to Oshika Peninsula in the future!
Categories: Aid for Japan, Hope for Japan News.
Day five was a FULL day! We all woke up early to go to downtown Sendai. The team distributed flyers for the ministry held at Sendai Baptist Church. This was one of the most challenging tasks! Even though most Japanese people are kind, they do not take a flyer from a stranger! But the team worked hard and the pastor of this church was thankful for their help!
Handing out the flyers.
We drove to Ishinomaki city on the coastline. This city was damaged by the tsunami on March 11th and many people lost everything they had. We have been visiting several temporary housings and building relationships with the residents, and we are so glad that the team had a chance to meet them!
Buying fresh vegetables and fruits for 70 families!
Signing individual cards to let the residents know that we will continue to think of them and pray for them.
Mr. and Mrs. Hiratsuka serve as the leaders of this temporary housing. They are so sweet and we always enjoy spending time with them!
The team did a great job preparing for this visit. They sang Amazing Grace, did a Thanksgiving craft, played BINGO, and more than anything, they shared their love with them. They also brought LOTS of gifts for the residents. Our dear friends from Arlington had donated many items as well and it was great to see the residents’ smile!
Everyone loved BINGO!
Singing “Amazing Grace”.
Playing card games with men while ladies enjoyed getting a manicure!
We ended our day by having dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Hiratsuka and their daughter.
Categories: Aid for Japan, Hope for Japan News.
After a restful night at the hotel, we went back to Sakata Mission Church to spend more time with all the sweet people. We sang Christian songs, shared our personal testimonies, and prayed together. There was one lady who came to the church for the very first time in her life. She said she felt loved there and we pray God will continue to draw her closer to Him.
Singing “As the Deer” together.
It was hard to say “good-bye” to them, but we had to come back to Sendai to teach English classes. We are so thankful that God blessed our time in Sakata! We look forward to going back and serving with the Fujii family again.
The team taught two English classes at Taitomi Baptist Church. Both children and youth seemed to have a great time!
Listening to the story of Noah. One girl told us it’s her favorite Bible story now!
Don’t you love their cute puppets?
With the junior high students after the class.
Several moms cooked dinner for us! You may already know that Baptists eat a lot but it’s true in Japan!!! If you are thinking about coming here to serve, you will have a chance to eat lots of good food!
They all looked happy after having a delicious meal!
Categories: Aid for Japan.
This was a busy day filled with many exciting events! We took the team to Sakata Mission Church and Pastor Fujii and his wife welcomed us warmly. Pastor Fujii came to Sakata after serving at one of the biggest churches in Tokyo 6 years ago. Ever since then, he and his family have been serving God faithfully even though this journey was not always easy.
They were so thankful for this special gift from FBCA.
Pastor Fujii took us to the kindergarten where his son goes. It’s actually the only Christian kindergarten in this city. The team did a great job teaching English, doing crafts, and loving on all the children!
Group photo!
The principal shared the kindergarten’s needs and prayer requests with us and we prayed with her.
Please pray these precious children will know how much God loves them!
In the afternoon, the team taught the English class at the mission church.
Kids learning the names of the animals.
The kids heard the story of Noah and God’s promise.
We ended our day with dinner and fellowship with the church members. The young guy we had met at the restaurant joined us.
Categories: Hope for Japan News.
On the second day, we had an orientation in the morning. We could tell that the team had done a great job learning about Japan and preparing for the trip. Michael shared a little more about Japanese culture, history, and what we have been doing. We also had a prayer time together. After that, we went to the new housing community around our church and distributed the flyer that had information on church and the upcoming fall festival (and several families came to the festival thanks to those flyers).
You know who had fun while everyone worked hard?
In the afternoon, we drove 3 hours to the west coast of Japan. Sakata city has our mission church and we have been visiting there regularly. We are so glad that the team got to go there to meet all the wonderful people!
Categories: Hope for Japan News.
The team’s first day happened to be the 20th anniversary celebration of Taitomi Baptist Church. It’s the church where we are serving now. It was so special that the team was a part of this celebration. Cindy, our pastor’s wife from FBCA, shared a greeting during the worship service and many members told us how much it meant to them.
Cindy sharing greetings from FBCA.
After the worship service, we all enjoyed delicious potluck lunch!
In the afternoon, we took the team to downtown Sendai to have Japanese tea and to see the Dance Festival.
Being very “Japanese” and enjoying Japanese tea and sweets.
In the evening, they all helped with our English class/fellowship at Sendai Baptist Church.
Singing “Mighty to Save” with Japanese friends!
Overall, it was a great first day!
Categories: Hope for Japan News.
It has been a while since we updated our blog. So many exciting things have happened while we were gone from the blog world! The highlight was hosting a mission team from our sending church, FBCA! We got sick after they left (thankfully, we are all getting better!) and it took a while for us to organize 500+ photos! Hope you enjoy reading about their time here and looking at the photos! Thank you, FBCA, for sending such an awesome team!
Categories: Hope for Japan News.
