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 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.
We have a lot of people come to Sendai to help with the ministries throughout the year. It is always a blessing to see the same faces come back year after year. The BGCT (Baptist General Convention of Texas) has allowed that to happen for at least one of our very good friends. Sherwood Moffett is a retired missionary to Japan. He has led many of his students from Texas on teams throughout Japan. Sherwood is a member of Austin Baptist Church. He joined the first BGCT that arrived back in 2012 and he has come back to lead a team ever since. He always has a good group. And those that could not make this trip were spoken of very fondly by the team members. This year we had the pleasure of having a professional singer perform at Taitomi Church. They also helped with the English Bible study and worship on Sunday night. We really enjoyed having them with us. But they had to go so that they could help TBC Ishinomaki Mission for a week. We are thankful for the ways they encouraged us and blessed many lives.
Kids’ English Club has had a wonderful year thus far. We were growing nearly every week with a kid here and there before we broke for the spring break. After our trip to Hawaii we were not sure what the class would be like since our American friend moved back to Florida while we were gone (we miss you guys). It was a blessing to see that most of our students returned and they invited their friends. We are also thankful our pastor’s wife helps every week.
We had several guests and teams and more are coming in the fall. In May, we were so happy to welcome two friends from our home church in Texas. These guys encouraged us in many ways. We also received post cards from our American friend’s (she came to Japan twice already and we can’t wait to have her back here!) kindergarten class and our students wrote them back!
We are now in the middle of summer vacation but we will resume classes in a few weeks.
Please pray that the children will have a save summer break and also that more children will come to our English classes. We are so thankful for each and everyone of the children God has brought to the ministry. We pray He will continue to bring more.
Last year we brainstormed for new events we could have at our home church Taitomi Church. With summer approaching we realized there had never been a VBS (Vacation Bible School) at Taitomi Church. We had a great trio of teachers by profession come from our home church in Texas to help with our first ever VBS (By the way, you ladies are always welcome back)! This year for 2015, we decided to ask the youth and adult team from Hawaii to help. We have been partnering with Waialae Baptist Church for a few years and we were so happy when they said they would be bringing a youth group to Japan!
The youth team taught English to the kids and the adults led the craft activities for the moms. We also taught a Bible lesson at the end of each class. We ended our time together by hosting the Hawaiian Festival. All the kids loved the fun booths and prizes from Hawaii!
Everyone learned something new every day. The Hula dancing was also very popular! We also took this team to the preschool and nursing homes in the community. The fact we got to visit the public preschool was a blessing! The team also wanted to visit the disaster area so we took them to one of the mission churches and also to the temporary housing where our friends live.
Thank you everyone for loving on the kids and sharing God’s love to everyone you met.
We can’t believe July is almost over! We apologize for not updating this blog for a few months. Just like many of you, we have been crazy busy!
Some of you may be wondering why the title of this post is “Spring memories”. This post was supposed to be published long time ago. Thank you for being patient as we publish several new posts this week. This past spring and summer have been one of the busiest times ever! But that means God is doing many things here in Japan and we look forward to sharing many stories with you.
Here is the original post:
Thank you to those who prayed for us as we went to Hawaii to visit friends and their churches. We had a wonderful time sharing about what God is doing in Japan. People in Hawaii were so welcoming and we enjoyed every minute of our time. Of course, our kids loved it as well!
After coming back to Japan, we hosted the youth and young adult retreat at our church. There were several people who came for the first time. We loved listening to their life stories, learning about Jesus, and worshiping together. Please pray for their walk with Christ as some of them are struggling at school/work/home.
This year’s Easter was very special! Two girls were baptized and many of you prayed for them in the past. We are so thankful for our new sisters in Christ. Please pray for both of them, especially for Mina, who moved to another city with her family recently.
Thank you again for your prayers and support! Stay tuned for more posts!
We hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We left Japan and flew to Hawaii last week. Our goals for this trip are to maintain Yu’s status as a permanent resident, to visit churches to share what God is doing in Japan, to see friends who came to Japan on mission trips, and to recruit prayer and financial partners.
God has already blessed us in many ways. The mission house that our friend’s church has provided for us is perfect (there is a playground that our boys love!) for our family, we already saw several friends that came to Japan last year, we spoke at two churches yesterday and met people who are interested in going to Japan in the future, and several people told us they want to partner with us! God is good!
If you are a new reader of this blog, welcome! We look forward to keeping in touch with you.
Here are some recent photos of our ministries in Japan!
Children’s choir
Kids’ English class
Love these children!
With Pastor Fujii and his family at Sakata Mission Church
English Bible study
Weekly play group at our church
Your prayers and support mean so much to us! Please let us know how we can pray for you!
We hope you had a wonderful Christmas! Our Christmas was filled with joy and we had a wonderful time with family and friends!
As we start our new year, we wanted to reflect on this past year and count all the blessings from God!
Year in Review
January:
We left for America on January 1st. It was not easy to leave our friends in Japan and ask others to be in charge of ministries here. However, God used this opportunity in many ways and our Christian friends have stepped up to help and serve! Being in Texas was wonderful! We were reunited with family and friends once again! It was Logan’s first time to be in America so it was fun to introduce him to everyone. Luke turned three on January 6th and lots of friends came to celebrate with us! We went to Georgia to attend a conference that taught us how to raise support. It was such an encouraging conference and we learned a lot! We had a chance to see many friends which was a huge blessing!
With friends who used to live in Japan.
February:
We were so happy to be a part of our church’s Child Dedication Service. It was an honoring and humbling experience to dedicate both of our boys to the Lord in front of our church family. We are so thankful for our family and friends who help us raise our children. We also went on a camping trip with our close friends. We met these friends in Panorama which taught us and prepared us for future mission work. Most of us were singles or young married couples but the group has grown so much since then! We love these lifelong friends!
Such a fun group!
March:
Main reason we stayed in America for three months was to raise support. We traveled to many places to meet people and talk at churches. Support raising was not an easy task but we learned so much through this process. God taught us over and over that He is faithful. We loved meeting with new and old friends and sharing what God is doing in Japan. Thanks to generous and faithful supporters, we are able to live in Japan to share His love with those who do not know Him. If you are already our supporter, THANK YOU from bottom of our heart. If you are interested in supporting, please contact us or go to the “Partner with us” page on this website. We are so thankful for God’s provision and the ways He has blessed us! It was hard to leave Texas but we were ready to come home!
Sharing about Japan with children at our home church.
April:
We were able to come back to Japan just in time for Luke to start kindergarten. It was another answered prayer. It took Luke a while to get used to the new schedule but he made friends and loved his school. Mommy and Daddy got busy as soon as we got back to prepare for the weekly ministries. It was so good to see our friends and students again! We celebrated Easter at church and some of our friends came to church for the first time!
Sharing the resurrection story with children at church.
May:
Logan turned ONE! He brings so much joy to our lives every day! We celebrated his special day with our friends. We also hosted a mission team from Hawaii. We loved serving with them. These Hawaiians are so good at loving on people and making everyone feel loved! They helped us with the Hawaiian Festival which was an outreach to the community around our church. We also went to the disaster area with them. Since most of the team members had been there before, it was such a great time of reunion! It was good to see everyone’s smile!
Fellowship at the temporary housing.
June:
In June, we said “see you again” to the Qualls family who went back to America for a year. They helped with our weekly English Bible study and worship service. Most people who come to this ministry are non-believers so it provides many opportunities to share our faith with them. Micheal teaches the Bible study every week and preaches once a month. There are several men who are non-believers and Michael has spent one-on-one time with them throughout the year. We are thankful for those who come and look forward to meeting more new people this coming year. At the end of June, we hosted a young lady and her mom from Texas. This young lady stayed for a little over two months to help with the ministries in Sendai and Sakata. We are grateful for the ways she served and helped!
Group that meets every Sunday night.
July:
July was such a busy month filled with lots of fun! Our friend from Canada stayed with us for about two weeks and we loved spending time with her! After she left, we hosted a mission team from our home church in Arlington, Texas. Three ladies that came had been to Japan before and we were so thrilled that they came back! Their heart for Japanese people really encouraged us. We hosted a VBS at our church and also at our mission church in Sakata. So many kids and their moms came every day and they loved it! At the end of July, we hosted another team from Hawaii and served together in the disaster area.
FBCA team with children in Sakata.
August:
We helped with two children’s camps in August. One in Sakata and another one was in Sendai. We love meeting children and loving on them. As you can imagine, they all come from different backgrounds. Most of the kids that came to these camps came from non-Christian homes. It was such a blessing to have an opportunity to tell them how much God loves them and cares for them. We hosted two more teams from Texas and Hawaii (can you tell we love Hawaiians and Texans?) and had special time serving with them. We were sad that Luke’s summer break ended but he was ready to have fun at school!
Summer camp in Sakata.
September:
Our church welcomed a new pastor. We prayed for a new pastor for a while and God blessed us with a wonderful pastor. His wife is pretty special too. We have been learning so much from him and it is great to have a pastor who is mission minded! Many of you already know that one of the ministries we have at our church is a playgroup for moms and kids under three. It’s one of Yu’s favorite times of the week. Yu has become good friends of other moms and spent lots of time with them. She found out many moms are struggling with marriage and parenting. We asked the pastor to share a Bible scripture and talk about it during our snack time. We have heard so many positive comments from moms about how much they needed to hear it!
Our playgroup (the man holding Logan is our new pastor).
October:
There were lots of events at Luke’s school in October. Luke had so much fun at his field day and field trip. At the end of October, we hosted the annual Fall Festival. We had help from mission teams in the past but we had to do it on our own this year. Thanks to lots of chocolates from Hawaii and help from our church members, we were able to host a fun festival for kids in our community. We shared the gospel with everyone who came. One boy told us he wants to have the Light of life (John 8:12). We pray they will always remember Jesus is the light of the world.
Aren’t they cute?
November:
It was a wonderful Thanksgiving month! We spent one week in Tokyo visiting friends from Yu’s high school and college and vacationing with dear friends from Australia. We loved every single minute of our family time! Our church hosted several special events and invited people from the community. We were encouraged to see so many new people coming to church! Our sending church in Texas had missions month and we had a Skype meeting with friends in our Sunday School class. Their love and prayers meant so much to us. We ended this wonderful month by having a Thanksgiving dinner with friends here in Sendai. It was nice to have all the traditional food but more than anything, we thanked God for all the blessings He has given us throughout the year.
Love these friends.
December:
December came and went! Where did the time go? Although it was a busy month, we enjoyed all the festivities! In Japan, people celebrate Christmas but many people do not know (or care about) the meaning of Christmas. So we spent lots of our time sharing why we celebrate Christmas. The kids that come to our weekly English class/worship told us that they would be sharing the true meaning of Christmas with their friends at school! We also went to the temporary housing to deliver flowers and hand made Christmas cards. This Christmas was also meaningful as Luke was really interested in Christmas and Santa and we were able to spend every night talking about Baby Jesus (and Santa, too!) and how He came to the world. One of the greatest gift was one girl in our English class making a decision to be baptized. She was praying about it for a while and told us after the Christmas worship service that she wants to be baptized! What an answer to our prayers! Thank you so much for praying with us for more Japanese people to be saved!
Merry Christmas from children in our English class!
The girl on the right is the one who will be baptized.
This summer we were sad to know that Pastor Noguchi passed away. He was a seasoned leader. Even though he was supposed to be retired we received continuous reports of his steady outreach to the churches in his community. In case you did not know, he was a teen during WWII and was drafted into the army to train as a torpedo sub kamikaze. The war actually ended two weeks before his scheduled mission. He later became a believer and pastor. He will be greatly missed. He was full of wisdom and encouragement. Please remember to pray for his family. We are not able to attend the funeral in west Japan but our hearts were with all those who did. The picture of us with Pastor Noguchi and his wife, (They married September 2013!) was the last time we saw him. Michael gave him a hug and told them both we loved them. We said goodbye knowing that was the last time we would see each other this side of eternity. That was in June. However, we continued to hear many reports of his boldness to preach and share the gospel until he passed away. Such a man is hard to find. We pray the Lord will lift up more just like him. His life story is available on Amazon, Sacrificed: Given to an Empire; Found by God.
This Friday we will be hosting a team from the BGCT (Baptist General Convention of Texas). BGCT has already sent two teams in the past two years and this is their third team. The leader has been on every trip and is a former missionary to Japan. They will help with our kids and youth program Friday night. Then on Saturday, we will load up and go to the tsunami hit area for a time of games, crafts, and fellowship with some people in the temporary houses. And then on Sunday, they will come to our church in the morning and help with our adult ministry in the evening. Please pray for a good turn out and for friendships to form. This team consists of former team members and former missionaries, so we are excited to see how the Lord will use this team. Monday the team will go to Ishnomaki again and stay there for the remainder of the trip helping with another church. Please pray that their time in Ishinomamki is a blessing to them and to everyone they encounter. We look forward to seeing them very soon! We appreciate your prayers.
We were blessed to host a team from our sending church, First Baptist Church Arlington. They came to help with our VBS at Taitomi Church and Sakata Mission Church. It was their second time to come to Japan and we were excited that they wanted to come back. Mary, Martha, and Kristen were so much fun to have around on both trips. They are teachers by profession and it shows because they have connected with the kids so well. The team also went with us to Sakata to encourage the pastor’s family and also to minister to children in the community. It was the first time that they met Susanne who was already hard at work helping the Fujii family. One of the most touching moments was when we arrived in Sakata. When class started the kids sang the welcome song that Kirsten taught them two years ago. It was awesome to hear them singing in English to the team. It was great to see so many friendships rekindled throughout the two weeks this team served with us in Japan. As we drove to the train station to send the team off I asked them what was one thing they would remember most about this trip. Kristen was so impressed with the patience of the Christians here who minister in a very difficult religious setting. Mary and Martha both agreed what a blessing it was to see the kids again and to share God’s love with them. Please pray that the Spirit will continue to work on the hearts of everyone they met. This was truly an encouraging group of ladies. Thank you as always Mary, Martha, and Kristen, for being here. We look forward to serving with you again. And thank you to FBCA and to their families for allowing them to be serve.
They prepared for many fun activities.
Kids had so much fun!
They were so proud!
They learned many Bible songs.
These kids loved the special gift from Texas!
Visiting the Christian kindergarten in Sakata.
Loved spending time with the Fujii family and the church members.
July brought a lot of great moments to our ministry. This time we want to share about the Hawaii team that came to help with our ministry in Ishinomaki and the Oshika Peninsula. We were so pleased to have Roger Honda, who came two years ago, come back with this team. We also had Pastor Morita from Olivet Baptist Church and Pastor Watanabe, his wife, and son from their Japanese Ministry come as well. Every one of the members brought their smiles. The ladies did an excellent job of singing and hula dancing. As always, we were amazed to see just how prepared they were with every detail. We visited a preschool where many of the children lost homes and loved ones. It was so joyous to see the kids laughing and smiling as the team loved on them and shared Christ’s love. Thank you again to each one of the members and to Olivet Baptist Church for sending such a great group of Christ centered believers.
While we were in Texas, we had the privilege to meet a young lady with a tremendous heart for the Lord. Susanne Shaw answered the help wanted post for the Sakata Mission Church. As some of you know, we have worked with the Pastor and his family for some time now. One of the biggest needs they have is someone to help with their English program. This program helps many kids in the community. Many of which come from single parent homes. Susanne was a big help with our Kids English Class the two weeks she was in Sendai. During that time, her mom joined her on the way to Japan. It was great to be able to show Susanne and her mom the places she would be working this summer and to meet the good folks in Sakata and Sendai. We will be checking on her progress over the next few weeks. We know she has been a huge help already and we continue to pray that God will use her mightily.
This year we had another great team from Hawaii come to Sendai. As always, they were an encouragement to everyone they met. They loved on our boys and we were truly blessed by all the team members. We hosted another Hawaiian Festival at our church and several new faces came to win prizes, sing songs, make leis, eat spam musubi, fellowship, and more importantly, to hear about God’s love. The faces of the people in Ishinomaki were lifted as many rekindled friendships from two years ago. Everyone was deeply moved by the team’s testimony. Thank you again to First Baptist Church of Pearl City and Waialae Baptist Church for sending these messengers of God’s love.
We are hosting a mission team from Hawaii this week and next week. They are from Waialae Baptist Church and FBC Pearl City. Eight people are coming and seven of them were here two years ago. We are excited to have them back again! They will be serving at local churches and in the disaster area. The following is the prayer calendar that the team has made for this trip. We appreciate your prayers as they minister to so many people! We also want to ask you to pray for extra strength for us and our boys!
May 1: Pray for safe travel to Sendai, second ministry area.
May 2: Pray for missionaries Michael and Yu Towery at Taitomi Church. Pray for the mothers and children as the team interacts with them. Most of them do not come from Christian backgrounds.
May 3 Pray for the Hawaiian Festival community outreach to families around Taitomi Church. Pray for good weather, a great turnout and the opportunity for the team to share the Gospel.
May 4 Pray for the Sunday Worship time at Taitomi Church. Pray for the work that missionaries Tony and Marsha Woods are involved with in Ishinomaki and for the English Bible Study and worship at Sendai Baptist Church. Pray for Lynne as she shares her testimony.
May 5 Pray for those involved with the Nozomi Project. Pray for people still living in temporary housing in Oshika. Pray for Miyuki and her daughter.
May 6: Pray for the people in the temporary housing in Ishinomaki. Pray for the team’s sensitivity to the people as they listen to the residents’ stories and as they minister through music, games, and crafts.
May 7: Pray for the Tokyo Baptist Church ministry in rest home in Ishinomaki with Tony and Marsha Woods. Pray for safe travel back to Sendai.
May 8 Pray for missionaries Tony and Marsha Woods and Michael and Yu Towery and their ongoing work in Japan.
May 9 Pray for the team’s safe return home and the ongoing work in Japan.
Thank you in advance for your prayers! Looking forward to sharing the photos and stories!
“The angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.6 He is not here! He has risen, just as he said he would! Come and see the place where he was lying.7 Go quickly! Tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead. He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” Matthew 28:5-7
Happy Easter from Japan! He is risen!
We hope you had a blessed Easter. Our Easter was filled with joy and gratitude.
Recently, many Japanese stores are selling Easter related items such as egg shaped cookies and stuffed bunnies, and there are signs saying “Happy Easter”. However, if you ask those who are selling them if they know the meaning of Easter, many of they would say no.
In our English classes, we let the kids dye eggs and shared why we celebrate Easter.
With our friend, Sarah, who will be helping us with this class!
They had so much fun!
We read the children’s Bible to share what Jesus did for us. Several kids asked us questions after the class and some moms told us they had never heard the story. Praise God for the opportunity we had to share!
On Sunday, we led the children’s Sunday School class and used the resurrection eggs to share the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We were encouraged to know many kids could tell us what each item meant. We could see curiosity in Luke’s eyes as it was his first time to see the resurrection eggs. As his parents, we have such an important responsibility to teach him about Jesus and we look forward to sharing more in the future. The kids also had the Easter egg hunt. We brought lots of plastic eggs and Easter candy from America and they made these sweet kids so happy! After Sunday School, we had a special worship service where Michael preached. We are thankful God is using us to deliver His message! Thank you for praying for us and supporting us!
Listening to the story of the resurrection eggs.
Can you see her excitement?
The baby on the left came to our church for the first time!
Our time state side has been both busy and refreshing. We are so blessed to be surrounded with so many friends and family who have showered us with love. However, the time has come for us to go back to Japan and continue the work that God has for us. We want to thank everyone who has joined our support team. Your giving has allowed us to not only go back to Japan but continued the ministries that God has laid before us to do. Your prayers have enabled us throughout the last three years to minister during even the hardest times and will continue to fuel and guide our spirits. We are faith base supported which means no one church, organization, or individually supports us financially. Thank you to those who have trusted God by giving. We are also thankful for our home church, FBC Arlington.
Even though we are going home to Japan, our fund raising will continue. If you are not a part of our support team yet, we would like to offer you an invitation to join us in furthering the work God is doing in Japan. Below are links to our support letter, contribution fact sheet, and two videos that help to give perspective to the ministry we have been a part of the past three years. Please feel free to share this information with others. We would be glad to hear from them. Thank you as always and God Bless you!
We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a blessed new year! Our Christmas in Japan was filled with joy as we shared the meaning of Christmas with many Japanese people!
We came back to Texas last week and have been adjusting to our new life here. It took us a while to get over jet lag and cold weather but we are finally feeling better. It has been fun to see our family and friends. We know many of you have been praying for us and supporting our ministry in Japan, and we want to thank you.
One of our main goals for this trip is to share what God is doing in Japan and to recruit prayer partners and financial supporters. We would love to meet with you in person or visit your Sunday School class/church to tell you more about Japan, Japanese people, and our ministries. Please send us an email at michaelandyu@gmail.com to let us know if you would like to have us. Also, we want to get to know you better and to know how we can pray for you and your family. We look forward to seeing you and spending time with you!
We are planning to attend a support raising conference in GA at the end of this month. We appreciate your prayers as we prepare for this important trip. We look forward to seeing our friends in that area as well!
Thank you for your prayers and support! We pray this year brings many blessings to all of you!
Youth Retreat: Like last year, we had the privilege of leading the youth camp. It’s one of our favorite events of the year. We love hanging out with young people and it’s such an honor to love on them, to pray with them, and to encourage them as they walk with Him. Some of the students that came are not believers but one of them told us that she would like to start praying about being baptized. Her parents are not believers so there are many obstacles ahead of her, but we pray God will continue to work in her life and she will be able to be baptized in His perfect timing!
Worship service
Playing games outside.
Luke had fun, too! He got lots of attention the whole time!
So thankful for these students who love God!
Looking forward to seeing them again next year!
LIFE: LIFE is our weekly ministry on Sunday night. We lead the English Bible study and English worship service. Believers from various churches and non-believers from across the city gather every Sunday night to read the Bible, to learn English, and to worship together. One of the blessings is that we have a chance to serve with our missionary friends and Japanese believers. It’s also exciting to see the non-believers trying their best to read the Bible in English and asking many meaningful questions! We can’t wait to see what God has in store for this ministry!
Michael preaches once a month.
Fellowship time after the service.
Bowling and Lunch with Youth Group: We took some of our students to go bowling and lunch. We love to hear their daily life stories and to love on them. It’s neat to hear them talk about God and how He is guiding them.
Luke had the best time!
These students can eat a lot!
Hope you enjoyed looking at these photos and reading about each event! We are thankful for your prayers and support as we live and serve in Japan! We thank God for each opportunity we have to share His message! Please continue to pray for Japanese people! It’s evident that God is working in this country!
This was the last photo of our family of three! Who knew we would be welcoming our baby two days later?
Our time state side has been both busy and refreshing. We are so blessed to be surrounded with so many friends and family who have showered us with love. However, the time has come for us to go back to Japan and continue the work that God has for us. We want to thank everyone who has joined our support team. Your giving has allowed us to not only go back to Japan but continued the ministries that God has laid before us to do. Your prayers have enabled us throughout the last three years to minister during even the hardest times and will continue to fuel and guide our spirits. We are faith base supported which means no one church, organization, or individually supports us financially. Thank you to those who have trusted God by giving. We are also thankful for our home church, FBC Arlington.
