We are so thankful for everyone who donated money to buy the children’s Bibles for the families that come to our church’s weekly ministries. Thanks to your generous gift, we were able to buy 40 Bibles! For most families, it was their first time to receive a Bible. We don’t have pictures of every family that received, but we could tell everyone appreciated this special gift. After the Christmas break, many children and moms told us how much they enjoy reading it. One boy said he is already half way done. Another girl asked many questions about her favorite story. We want to say thank you to everyone who gave and prayed!
(We apologize for not being able to post these photos sooner. We asked all the parents for their permission to post them on our blog.)
Greetings from Japan! We hope you all have a wonderful new year. May this year will be filled with joy and blessings. We want to share some of our favorite Christmas memories with you. We pray these photos will remind you of God’s faithfulness. God is doing amazing things here in Japan and we are honored to see people’s lives being changed by Him. We believe He will continue to do great things this year and we can’t wait to share His goodness with you all. Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support.
Lots of moms and kids came to our play group’s Christmas party.
We went to visit our church member who lives at the nursing home.
Santa came to our English class’ Christmas party and everyone received a special gift!
We shared the true meaning of Christmas with these children and their moms.
This group meets every Sunday night for the English Bible study and worship.
Several of them said it was their first time to celebrate Christmas at church.
This couple is Michael’s friends who came to church for the very first time.
Christmas eve service is always such a special time for all of us. We had lots of guests from the community.
One of the high school students was baptized. His parents who are non believers came to church for the first time to see his baptism.
Our good friend joined the church.
Christmas feast- Japanese style!
They did a great job singing a Christmas carol!
Luke and Logan baked cookies and handed them out to everyone who came to the parties. We have been spending lots of time with these girls who are growing spiritually.
As we share the true meaning of Christmas with our friends in Japan, our hearts are filled with gratitude for all of you because we would not be here without your prayers and support. God continued to bless our ministries this year. We had a chance to share the gospel with more than 100 people every week. This Christmas was extra special because one of our high school students was baptized. And thanks to many of you, we gave a children’s Bible to the families that come to our weekly ministries. We are overwhelmed by your continued prayers and support. Thank you so much for partnering with us to share God’s love with Japanese people. As we end this year, would you please consider giving a one time gift or giving monthly as we continue to share His good news? You may already be aware that we are self-funded. Hope for Japan is currently 20% behind in monthly support. Please give online at https://sending.org/worker/michael-and-yu-towery or send a check (Memo: Hope for Japan) to FBCA Global Ministries, 301 S. Center St. Arlington, TX 76010. Please don’t hesitate to contact us by email at michaelandyu@gmail.com anytime. We included below a link and picture of our newsletter. We pray you have a blessed Christmas and a happy new year!
We have been reading the children’s Bible at the end of our English class every week. All the kids love listening to the Bible stories and they ask many questions. Since most of them come from non-Christian homes, they do not have a Bible. We decided to give the bilingual children’s Bible to all families that come to our weekly ministries. We need your help to buy all the Bibles we need. Please consider giving $30 (cost of 1 Bible) or more so all families can receive the Bible. If you have given or plan to give, please email us at michaelandyu@gmail.com so we can put your name on the poster for everyone to see at our church. We know it will mean so much to them. You can give in memory or honor of someone.
Hello! We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
It is getting colder here in Sendai and we had our first snow of the season today. We have many exciting events coming up, but we wanted to share about some of our memories from this fall. God continues to bless the ministries here and it is such an honor to see the ways He changes people’s hearts. Thank you for your continued and support. Please write us anytime to let us know how we can pray for you!
We continued to visit several temporary housings once a month. Many residents have moved to their new home or a new government housing, but there are some that are left in the temporary housing.
Luke and Logan love delivering vegetables and small gifts to the residents.
Luke baked cookies and sold them to raise money for the missionaries in Asia and Africa.
Our English classes and worship for children are growing!
Michael continues to lead the Bible study and worship on Sunday night.
We hosted the “Chili Party” and it was so much fun!
Children who come to our English class sang “Jesus Loves Me” at the church bazaar!
We were so happy to meet some of their dad and grandparents!
Luke and his friend dressed up for the “Bless the children” service. Our pastor led the prayer of blessing over all the children.
We started having a monthly fellowship for children at our church to teach them about missions.
We are SO thankful for all of your prayers and support. We wouldn’t be here without your support! Please know how much we appreciate you!
There was a pretty big earthquake this week (we are okay!) and so many people called us and wrote us to check on us. We felt loved! We are thankful God has sent us here to share His love. He is doing amazing things and we are honored to be a part of His wonderful plan. Please continue to pray for Japanese people!
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34
We partner with one of the local churches and help them lead the English Bible Study and worship on Sunday nights. We hosted a summer BBQ fellowship recently and we all had a wonderful fellowship. Many people who come to this ministry are interested in both English and the Bible, so teaching the Bible in English is a great way to minister to them! We are also thankful to partner with Japanese believers and our missionary friends, Kevin and Donna Qualls, as we consider them as our team members! Please continue to pray for this ministry!
We led the Children’s Retreat at the Northern Japan Baptist Association Retreat. More than 100 people from 12 Baptist churches in northern Japan gathered to have worship and fellowship together. We had about 20 children and had a great time with them. Many of these children came from Fukushima and they have been going through a difficult time due to many different reasons. We are thankful God gave us this opportunity to minister to them and to encourage them. It was also a blessing to meet many believers from different churches and to learn about their ministries. We look forward to keeping in touch with them and partnering with them!
Hello! We apologize for not being able to update much recently. But God has been doing amazing things here and we will be sharing many stories with you!
We teach English to children at our church every week and most children come from non-Christian homes. Thanks to your prayers, this ministry continues to grow. We had a summer party and we all enjoyed a banana split! After each class, we share a story from the Bible and have a prayer time together. Several children and moms are asking questions about the stories they heard. Please pray they will continue to learn about God and His love!
The Sunday night Bible study at Sendai Baptist just completed its third year. We have had a lot of friendly faces come and go. Many of our students have been college students. Some are older and just wanted a fun place to learn English. This year we have had a strong group of university students studying hard to be a scientist. At least once a month we try to have a meal together after the worship service that’s after the Bible study. It’s always good to have a fellowship together. They are also so kind to our boys. We look forward to the rest of the year and how God will guide us as we minister.
