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!
We had so many exciting events this spring! Spring was such a busy season but it was filled with great memories. God truly blessed us. This is just a quick summary of these events.
Trip to South Korea: We went to South Korea to visit our friends who helped us while we were there in 2011 and also to attend our friends’ wedding. It was so good to see every one of them! Ever since we left South Korea in 2011, many of them prayed for us and gave us financial help as we worked on the disaster relief. We wanted to thank them in person and we are thankful God gave us this opportunity to do so! We just love our South Korean friends and their heart for God!
At our friends’ wedding. Can you tell Luke was excited to see them again?
These friends came to Japan to help us in 2011. They are coming back this summer!
We visited Dr. Billy Kim at FEBC (Korean Christian Broadcasting Company) and shared what God is doing in Japan. Dr. Kim donated for the disaster relief work in Japan and we can’t thank him enough!
We spoke at our friend’s church and were reunited with the young adults who prayed for us faithfully.
We had dinner with Yu’s former assistant at DBU and her mom.
Luke’s Playgroup at Church: We go to the playgroup that meets at our church every Tuesday morning. Most of the moms and kids that come are from non-Christian homes and it’s a great way to invite them to the church and to share the gospel. It’s one of Luke’s favorite times of the week. Yu has enjoyed getting to know other moms and many of them have come to our house for play dates.
Story time!
End of the school year party (the school year ends in March in Japan)
Visiting Sakata: Sakata is where our mission church is located and we go there several times a year to help them with their English class, children’s ministry, and worship service. We had a great time with Pastor Fujii, his family, and all the church members.
Helping their Sunday School class.
They always encourage us when we visit.
Kids English Club: We lead the Kids English Club every Wednesday. We have about 20 children every week and most of them come from non-Christian homes that live in the community around our church. We teach English, sing Christian songs, and have a short worship service. Many of them have told us that their favorite time is the Bible story time. One of the cool things is that many of their moms stay during our class and worship, and they get to hear the gospel as well. Many of the children and their moms have showed their interest in knowing more about Him. We can’t wait to see where He leads us next!
Playing “Simon Says”
Love these kids!
Ministers Retreat: Every spring, all the ministers and their families from the Baptist churches Tohoku (northern Japan) area get together for a retreat. This year, we went to Iwate prefecture for this retreat and it was so much fun! Not only it was fun, it was great to hear what God is doing at each church. Even thought some churches are going through a hard time, all the pastors seemed to be encouraged as we prayed for each other. Of course, Luke enjoyed playing with the other pastors’ children.
Opening Worship Service
Luke and another pastor’s son giving a shoulder massage to the pastor’s wife. Everyone got to enjoy a special massage therapy!
Please pray for these pastors and their families!
Thanks for reading, but we are not done yet! Please stay tuned for more photos and exciting stories…
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!
The FBCA team did a lot to help with our ministry. One place that we took them was Sakata. Sakata is the port town we evacuated to after the March 11 earthquake. There is a mission church that was started by the churches of Northern Japan. The pastor, his wife, and their children have lived there for six long years. I say long because they are ministering in a city that has a very strong Buddhist history. Pastor Fujii and his family have been working hard to reach out the their community.
One of the ways they minister is through their kids program. They open up the church in the afternoons for kids to do homework and learn English. Many of the children that attend are from single parent homes. The majority of them live with their mom and have little to no contact with their dad. As you can imagine this is very hard on the children.
We have felt the need to help the Fujiis with their ministry especially because they are so isolated. We love this sweet family so much! The team from FBCA was a huge help. We got to help with the English programs and spend a lot of time playing games with the children. One of the highlights the team had was visiting the only Christian kindergarten in Sakata. The principal and staff were so gracious and a pleasure to be around.
We continue to pray for the Fujiis and their ministry. Thank you so much FBCA for sending a team to bless the children of Sakata.
On our way to Sakata, we stopped at one of the beaches on the west coast. The girls got to put their feet in the Sea of Japan!
The first class they taught.
Teaching at the Christian kindergarten.
The kids were so sweet. Please pray for this kindergarten! They need more students!
Celebrating Lindsey’s birthday!
The third class they taught.
We all helped the pastor with the church flyers.
Please pray for Pastor Fujii and his family.
On our way back to Sendai, we stopped at this place where some Japanese old movies had been made.
July started a little different for the Towerys. A great group of ladies from our sending church, First Baptist Church of Arlington, was sent to spend a week helping our ministry. We were so enthusiastic to have these ladies come and spend time with us.
Martha, Lindsey, and Kristen were so full of energy. They came ready to serve and had a can do attitude which was great because we kept them busy! Teaching English is a great way to get to know people here in Japan. Lots of people are eager to learn English. And wouldn’t you know it? All three of the team members are teachers. Hurray!
Every Sunday night we teach English at Sendai Baptist Church. They ladies did a great job teaching the adults how to order from an English menu. Martha gave her testimony during the worship service and everyone loved talking with the three during the fellowship time.
We also got to share the ladies with our Wednesday night Kids English Class and Summer Party on Saturday. The Saturday event was extra special because many of the parents attended. It was a good chance for them to practice English and also hear a message from God’s Word.
Thank you so much to the three team members. You have a huge heart for kids and the Lord!
English class at Sendai Baptist Church.
They used a menu from Jason’s Deli to teach how to order in English! Great idea!
Martha sharing her testimony.
Kids English class at our church.
All the kids enjoyed playing the game!
The kids learned to say “I am excited!”
The kids loved getting to know these sweet ladies!
They also helped with the youth English class. Thank you for making our class enjoyable!
Playing with water balloons!
Having so much fun!
Just like American children, Japanese children love watermelons!!!
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.
Back in October, we were invited by Sakata Mission Church to help with their children’s event. Sakata Mission Church is about 3 hours from Sendai and Yu’s parents helped started it over 15 years ago. Now they have a wonderful pastor and the church is growing. We were so thankful to be a part of their special program. We decided to have a fall festival and it was a great hit!
We are going to Yamagata prefecture this weekend. On Saturday, we are going to host an English class for the kids at Sakata Nozomi (hope) Church. They host a special event for kids in the community twice a month and the pastor asked us to teach them English. We are going to play games, sing songs, do some silly dance, and eat something sweet! Many of the kids are from broken families. We hope they will have fun and feel God’s love through us!
On Sunday, Michael is preaching, Yu is playing the piano, and Yu’s dad is singing in the worship service. We are thankful for the opportunities to serve in Sakata. The pastor’s family ministered to us and encouraged us while we evacuated to Sakata right after the earthquake last March, and we pray God will use us to encourage them this time!
On Monday, we are going skiing! There is a famous ski resort in Yamagata and Yu’s family used to go there all the time. It’s Michael and Luke’s first time to go there and we are all excited! We have been busy ever since coming back to Japan and we are ready to take a short break and have some family time.
Please pray for us as we drive 3-4 hours each way. It has snowed A LOT in Yamagata and the road condition is not good. Pray that God will protect us as we drive and use us in many ways in Sakata! Thank you!!!
Ever since the massive earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, so many volunteers have come to Japan to help with disaster relief efforts. We have been blessed to host several teams from all over the world! Not only have they helped so many in needs, but they have also encouraged many believers that are trying to minister to Japanese people. Michael and I often talk about the ways the volunteers have ministered to our family. They have gone to the disaster areas with us (it can be overwhelming when there are only three of us that visit 100+ temporary housing units), taken care of our sweet Luke (it’s nice to have extra arms to hold Luke when his parents are busy running around), worshiped with us (God has touched us and spoken to us through reading the scriptures, singing praise songs, and praying as a group), and encouraged us to keep up the good work (sometimes we need words of affirmation).
We have experienced the importance of working as a team and we pray God will continue to send us those who have a heart for Japan.
Bangkok Team- They are actually from Canada and America but all of them attend the same church in Bangkok, Thailand. We had them for a Taco Dinner (which they LOVED) at our house. They helped with our youth group, kids English classes, and Fall Festival! Since Michael lived in Thailand when he was young, he really enjoyed talking about Thai culture and places! We would love to visit Thailand as a family someday!
Hawaii Team- They are from Olivet Baptist Church in Honolulu, Hawaii. They worked so hard in the disaster areas, and they were so gracious to help clean up at my grandparents’ house. During our time together, I found out that one team member’s daughter had graduated from DBU and we had known each other! What a small world! My dad also told me that my parents had visited this church twice as a young couple! We look forward to visiting the church and seeing everyone again!
Thank you all for coming to Japan and touching so many lives!
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.
