The past two months have been so exciting. We’ve been very busy. Thank you everyone who help make our ministry possible. Your messages of encouragement, prayer, and support have sustained and energized us during our hard times, long nights of preparations, and as we continue to serve beside the Japanese and volunteer teams.
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Last December, we stopped in Hawaii on our way from the mainland to speak at the church that sent a mission team to Japan last year. During our stay, we were invited to meet people from another church who were interested in coming to Japan as volunteers. When we met them, we could tell that they all had a huge heart for Japan and Japanese people. We shared about our ministries and needs of people in the disaster areas. We kept in touch, and they decided to come to Japan!
It was such a blessing to serve with them the last two weeks. They did such a great job with the preparations and we were all amazed by all the things they brought for people in this area. More than anything, we were so blessed by their willingness to serve God and His people.
Here are some highlights of our time with them:
Visiting Sendai Kita Baptist Church.
Barbeque Fellowship at Yoshioka Mission Church.
Distributing flyers for our event at one of the temporary housings.
Visiting one of the kindergartens in the disaster area. Out of 220 students, more than 140 of them were affected by the tsunami.
They sang some English, Hawaiian, and Japanese songs.
Giving a gift from Hawaii to all students and teachers. Hawaiians are SO generous!
Luke was a big helper!
They were so happy!
First temporary housing we visited.
Doing craft activities. These girls were precious!
At the second temporary housing we visited in Oshika Peninsula.
They loved spam musubi (Hawaiian food)!
Look at these beautiful leis they made.
We delivered fresh fruit to people in the temporary housings.
We worked with these wonderful missionaries. We have learned so much from them!
The perfect time to see cherry blossoms!
Lynne’s beautiful hula at the third temporary housing we visited.
They enjoyed hula dance.
Guys talking to people outside while ladies led the craft activities.
These ladies seemed to have a great time making all kinds of stuff!
Fellowship with the community choir (non believers) at our church.
The next few photos are from the Hawaiian Festival. We decided to host a fun event for the kids (and their families) in the community. Even though our area did not get much damage from the earthquake, many kids went through a difficult time due to continuous aftershocks and radiation threat. All the kids seemed to have an awesome time!
In the beginning of this event, the kids in our English class did a presentation in front of their parents. They did a great job and we are so proud of them!
Everyone enjoyed their songs!
Hula time!
Frog race!
Fishing game! We were happy that Luke caught some American snacks!
Golf!
All the cool prizes.
Enjoying Hawaiian food such as teri burgers and spam musubi. The Hawaii team brought SO MANY cookies and other homemade desserts. Of course, they were a great hit!
Group photo after the worship service on Sunday.
Church-wide picnic after the morning service. We all enjoyed singing together. We are ready for Luke to learn how to play the Ukulele!!!
Luke had fun playing with all the girls!
Last night in Miyagi. We had a delicious meal and shared about our experiences. We were touched by their stories and desire to continue being involved.
This photo of Masa and Luke makes us smile! We are SO thankful that everyone loved on Luke the entire time. It gave us some break from holding/chasing him! Luke was thrilled that he got lots of attention. He is blessed to have many Hawaiian grandpas and grandmas!
Last group photo. We were so sad to see them leave. We thank God for such a great team!
As you can see, they did SO MUCH! They touched and changed countless lives. We have already heard lots of positive responses from the people they had met. Many of them asked when the Hawaii team would come back! We look forward to hosting more teams. Not only the Hawaii team encouraged many people in the disaster area, but they also blessed us! Hawaii has become a very special place for us. They invited us to their churches in Hawaii and we hope to visit them soon!
A big thank you to all the team members for sharing God’s love in so many amazing ways! We miss you!
We are so happy to let you all know that we have a new sister in Christ! One of the young girls, Maria (Mary in Japanese), was baptized on Easter Sunday. After the Christmas Service last December, she told our pastor that she wanted to be baptized and she has been in the preparation class.
If you have been reading our blog for a while, you may recognize her sweet face. After the earthquake/tsunami, we asked you all to pray for her and her family. Her dad is in the Japanese Defense Army and was gone for a while. It really affected her and her family, but we know God heard your prayers and protected this family.
In Japan, a person who will be baptized shares his/her testimony before being baptized. Maria’s testimony was very touching. Her honest desire to follow God reminded us of the importance of being like children.
After her baptism, we all had a celebration lunch with her. It was such a sweet time of fellowship.
Please pray for our new sister in Christ. Also, pray for others in our church that may be thinking about becoming a Christ follower!
We have a very special prayer request to be lifted up. We have been approached by one of the local pastors to help begin a new ministry for his church. The church is working to start English classes and English worship for their church. The ministry would be teaching English to its members and the local students. Then after English class, we will have a time of worship. The worship service would be in Japanese and English.
Many church members are willing to help (which is an answer to our prayers!) and some of them are the ones we had met at the youth retreat last month. We are very excited as this is an opportunity to meet many of the college and high school students in the area. There are a lot of logistics to smooth out as we work to hammer out the details. Please pray for unity within the team as we help coordinate this new task and also pray for the people who will be attending the English classes and worship worship as many of them may be unbelievers. Thank you all for your prayers and support. We could not be here serving if not for your help and God’s grace.
This has been an exciting year. This year’s youth retreat included. Last year the youth retreat was canceled for obvious reasons. It was a real let down for Michael because of the chance to meet the youth in our area. This year we had 25 attending the retreat. Many of the youth participated in the worship services by playing instruments. I was a good time of fellowship and for many a breath of fresh air. This being spring break, many of the students were exhausted from the winter semester. It doesn’t matter where you are, students studying to be doctors and engineers have a lot on their plate. We are thankful they were able to unwind and share their hearts with us. Many have a sincere heart for their fellow youth. Thank you to everyone that continues to pray for our ministry. We are glad that many of those who attended are no believers but are eager to get to know the Jesus Way. As we continue our efforts please pray for them while we reach out to them.
Worship:
Sharing Time:
Breakfast:
New Friends:
We look forward to keeping in touch with everyone. Thank you for your continued prayers for these precious young people in Japan!
Last week, we went to Iwate prefecture for the Tohoku Ministers’ Retreat. The ministers in Tohoku area have been having this retreat every spring, but they were not able to meet last year due to the earthquake. When we had a disaster relief meeting back in January, we realized that the earthquake and tsunami had affected many of the ministers emotionally, physically, spiritually, and financially. They have been working so hard to meet the needs of the people in the disaster areas and also their church members. They haven’t had any time to get away and rest. But we also knew that it would be difficult for many of them to pay for the retreat. This retreat is not only for the ministers but also for their families. It means they would have to pay for the whole family.
Then, we remembered the sweet faces of the BGCT (Baptist General Convention of Texas) leaders that we had met back in November. They were concerned about the ministers who were working in the disaster areas and shared their desire to help them. We wrote them and asked if they would be able to help by covering some of the cost of the retreat. They wrote back immediately saying “YES”.
Thanks to their huge help, we were able to host the ministers’ retreat and everyone had a blessed time together. We had plenty of time to worship, to pray, to share, and to rest. As one of the newest families in the area, it was great getting to know all the ministers and their families. We were encouraged to feel their love for God and for people in Tohoku area. Everyone shared about his/her experiences with disaster relief work, and it was evident that God has been using each one of them in many ways. Even though it has not been an easy journey, we all agreed that we want to continue loving and helping those in need.
We took the kids to the nearby snow mountain and we all had a blast! One of the kids was from Fukushima and it was good to see him have fun outside. Please pray for him and all the other kids in Fukushima. Even though they live outside of the evacuation zone, the radiation level is still high and they can’t play outside. Many moms have left Fukushima with their kids, but there are still many more that cannot leave due to different reasons. Please pray for God’s protection and guidance. Also, pray for parents as they make important decisions for their families. We are in the process of planning a new program for the kids that go to churches in Fukushima. We want to invite them to places outside of Fukushima for a week or two during their breaks and give them a chance to be away from high radiation level. It will require lots of planing and money. Please pray for God’s wisdom for us and also for His provision as we work on this.
Here are some pictures from the retreat!
Opening worship service.
Prayer time.
Dinner time!
Getting ready to ski!
Little kids enjoyed sledding.
Don’t you love his smile?
BINGO time!
Please pray for this family from Fukushima.
Luke loved playing with him!
Snowball fight! All the adults had fun, too!
Group photo. There were more people who came after this photo was taken. We all had such a great time together.
Thank you, BGCT, for making this retreat possible! We are so thankful that we were able to be a part of this time of fellowship. Thank you for touching our lives in such a special way! Please continue to pray for the ministers and their families in Tohoku area as we keep ministering to those in the disaster areas.
Last weekend marked the one year anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake. Many of you have seen our tribute video. Thank you for your emails of encouragement and support. It was a long year but your prayers made our work a lot easier. Last Saturday we made a trip to the temporary housings to hand out food. This time we gave a small bouquet of flowers with a word of encouragement attached.
Like all the other times we have visited, everyone was so kind and thankful. But this time there was a lot of emotion. Some of the people just smiled and said thank you. However many just bowed in thanks and had tears running down their face. An outward display of emotion is hardly ever seen here. Understandably this was hard for many.
I would like to share about one of the young boys we met during one of our visits. He is two years old and living with his grandparents. His father works full time so is not around during the day. After the earthquake the family fled from the tsunami together but a few days later his mother fled never to be heard or seen since. The boy’s father has made attempts to contact her family but they deny she has ever contacted them. It’s been especially hard on the child. He misses his mother but is hurt even more by the fact that his mom abandoned him. Luke got to play with him during our visit. He was such a sweet boy and had a lot of joy in his heart. Please remember to pray for him and his family. Also, pray for his mother to return.
Most importantly please pray that people we have been ministering to will continue to heal and learn about the God we serve.
The past year has brought a lot of people into our lives. We were surrounded by many Christians who took great care of us in South Korea. We were also blessed by those who came to Japan to help with the cleaning, rebuilding, and rehabilitation of this country. We are truly thankful for each and every person that God has placed along our path during this long and often difficult process. One particular courageous soul is Naomi who helped us last weekend. Naomi lives in Hawaii whose grandparents were originally from Japan. We first met her last December when we were in Hawaii to share with Olivet Baptist Church about our work. Prior to this trip, she had taken several trips to Japan to learn the culture and get to know people here. This trip was very special for her because this was her first time to help with the disaster relief work in the tsunami-hit areas.
Saturday morning we set out to Oshika Peninsula to visit about 80 temporary housing units that would be receiving food, flowers, and time with us and church members from Sendai. Naomi had been planing on this trip for a few months. She prepared gifts for every household and homemade cookies. We had a great time sharing with each other about our lives as we made the two hour trip to the peninsula.
Thank you for coming all the way to Sendai to love and encourage those in need. We enjoyed our time together!
We hope many of you will pray about coming to Japan. There are many ways to serve- visiting the temporary housings to meet people, delivering food, playing with children, teaching English, encouraging Japanese Christians, sharing your testimonies, and spending time with us! We love having guests! Even though we love this country and people, we do get homesick and miss our family and friends in the US. So having our friends here means so much to us. Thank you in advance for praying about coming here in the future. We understand some of you may not be able to come physically. There are other ways to help with the ministries here. Just contact us and we will find a way for you to be involved. We LOVE getting e-mails, letters, phone calls, and packages!!!
Sunday marks the one year anniversary of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake. The event began with a 9.0 magnitude earthquake in which most of the the buildings and homes survived. They were made for such events. The following tsunami however was certainly not anticipated nor forgiving. This video is a tribute to the people in the disaster areas and the continuing work to rebuild physically and emotionally. We hope you know how much they appreciate your prayers and support. Please continue to pray for the victims’ families and for the Christians who are working with them. We send a huge “THANK YOU” to everyone who has supported us the past year and has unceasingly prayed. You have encouraged us so much. We are so thankful for the friendships built over the past year and pray more to understand and walk the “Jesus Way”.
We want to say thank you to those who prayed for us as we took a trip to Yamagata. We had such a blessed weekend. About 20 children came to the event at the mission church. We taught them English and Michael shared a short story from the Bible. Many of these kids come from broken families. We just wanted them to know that they are LOVED! It was great seeing their sweet smiles and we pray they will remember the story they heard that day.
The kids and moms decorated cupcakes.
They all looked so happy!
Group picture.
On Sunday, we attended the Sunday school and worship service at Sakata Mission Church. Even though this church is small in size, everyone has a big heart for the Lord! We enjoyed our fellowship and learned so much from them.
Children’s Sunday school.
Worship service.
After we left this church, we drove to Zao ski resort. We decided to stay there for one night to have our family time away from home! Even though the weather wasn’t great, we enjoyed staying at the hotel with a hot spring and skiing/sledding on the mountains.
On our way to Zao!
Dinner time at the hotel. Luke loves to eat!
Family photo!!!
View of the mountains and trees. They were so beautiful!
Mommy and Luke!
Daddy and Luke!
This trip made us realize how blessed we are. We have a supportive church family that sent us out, great church family to serve with, and wonderful family that God has given us. Thank you all for thinking of us and praying for us.
