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!
Last week we were pleased to meet DeShannon and Rocky Higa. They are a couple who live in Honolulu, Hawaii. They are friends with several of the Hawaii team members who helped last April. When we visited the churches in Honolulu in June, DeShannon and Rocky expressed their desire and God’s call to help us in Japan. We were of course ecstatic of their desire to help. They helped us with our Wednesday night kids English class. They blessed the children through their music. DeShannon played the piano while Rocky sang. They are wonderful musicians and we all enjoyed their music. They also taught the kids a great praise song! Afterward they handed out gift bags for the children. They told us that many friends, family, and church members helped put everything together. Their niece wrote a sweet letter to all the kids.
We are so taken away when people contact us offering to help. They were a huge blessing to the children and we loved hearing their testimonies. They were such a joy to be around and little did we know, DeShannon, is quite the accomplished Jazz musician. They are truly humble and God filled.
DeShannon and Rocky, thank you so much for your willingness to serve. We look forward to serving with you both again very soon. We also pray that more people will hear God’s call to serve with us as the months and years progress. God Bless and the children send their thanks!
We have had a lot of teams come and go over the past year. We are abundantly thankful for our home church in Texas sending such a wonderful group of ladies. Not only did they minister to the kids but they ministered to us as well. Luke often takes a moment to get to know people before warming up to them but he truly took the the team right away. He was sad to see the team leave and so were we.
We are blessed to have served with Martha, Lindsey, and Kristen. We pray you take what you learned and experience here and share it with others back home. We will miss you but we pray we get to see you all very soon! Thank you so much FBCA for sending them to us.
Hello!!! We are sorry we haven’t been able to update our blog for a while. We just came back from our trip to Hawaii. We visited our friends who were on the mission teams to Sendai and spoke at their churches. We had a wonderful time meeting people and sharing about Japan. We will write more soon! Please pray for us as we get ready to host the mission team from Texas that will arrive tomorrow!
We are overwhelmed by prayers and support that are coming from all over the world. Thank you for remembering Japan in your prayers. God is answering your prayers. It is encouraging to see the Japanese churches and Christians working together for His kingdom. God is touching and changing so many lives.
We were able to talk to Yu’s dad on the phone and he shared so much information. We will try to summarize what he has shared.
Praises:
-He took several pastors and Texas Baptist Men volunteers to Arahama (destroyed town on the coastline). Yu’s dad’s close friend (also a wonderful Christian) is the chief of the local fire department there so he allowed them to enter the restricted areas. They were able to encourage the firefighters. They also discussed how to meet the needs of those who lost homes.
As you can see, it is devastating. The government officials predict it would take years to rebuild the cities.
They had prayer together.
-Tony and Marsha Woods, our missionary friends who are just like our family, came to Sendai over the weekend. Yu’s dad took them to Ishinomaki (Yu’s grandparents’ city) where tsunami washed away half of the city. They were able to deliver the supplies that they had brought from Tokyo. They also visited people in the city to encourage them. In the midst of such a busy time, Yu’s dad was able to have a good time with his best friends.
-Yu’s dad was able to meet with the President of Miyagi Gakuin, a Christian school that we mentioned in the last update. They discussed how to help the students who can no longer pay tuition due to their loss from the earthquake and tsunami. They are in the process to find out how many students need help and how much they will need. When Yu’s dad shared that some of your donations would be given to them, he repeatedly said thank you.
This picture was taken when we visited the campus. We were planning to visit this school weekly to build relationships with the students. Some students and their parents are still missing. Please pray.
-Local churches in Sendai are working together to minister to others around them. Two Baptist churches in Sendai just welcomed their new pastors this April. With their new leadership, they are praying that God would use the Christians in mighty ways. Please keep praying for revival!
Recent worship service. They are still praising God in this difficult time. Pray that they are able to help those who are asking lots of “why” questions.
-Countries around the world are helping with disaster relief. Here is the picture of American soldiers cleaning the tsunami-hit school in Ishinomaki.
Prayers:
-Please continue to pray for Kimura family (read our old posts to know more about them). Yu talked to Mrs. Kimura yesterday. They are thankful to have food, water, and power so that their physical needs are met. However, they are struggling emotionally and mentally. Their kids are scared of the earthquake and start crying when they have aftershocks. Some of them started having rashes because of the stress. The kids still don’t know when they can go back to school (school year in Japan starts in April) because the textbook factory was destroyed by tsunami and they don’t know when they can get the new textbooks. Due to continuous aftershocks, the city officials are still deciding when it is safe for the students to come back to school. Mr. Kimura is in the Japanese Army, and he is only allowed to come home for a few hours once a week. His job is to find the dead bodies, so Mrs. Kimura can tell he is having a difficult time mentally, and their kids know their dad looks different. It breaks our hearts to hear what they are going through. There are so many families like this one and they need your prayers. We are thinking about delivering some toys to the kids like them.
The boy on the far left and the boy on the bottom are their sons.
Two girls on the left are their daughters. Aren’t they precious?
-Pray for the firefighters. Mr. Yamaki, the chief of a local fire department, told Yu’s dad that they had lost several firefighters who were rescuing people. Obviously, many of them are grieving but they have to keep working without having time to rest or mourn. He also shared he is concerned about their mental health. They have to see so many dead bodies every single day. Many of them feel helpless. Please pray they will find peace and comfort in Christ. Mr. Yamaki is a strong believer and he is trying to reach out to them.
-Continue to pray for those who lost their loved ones. Many people are still missing and their family members want to have their bodies back so that they can have a funeral for them. Also, the people who are staying in the temporally shelters are starting to have health problems due to lack of nutrition and sanitation. Many cities are trying to build new homes for them. Pray that they can move there soon. One of the local Baptist churches is letting people come to use their shower. Please pray for this special ministry.
-Our last prayer request is for Yu’s dad. He hurt his foot while helping with tsunami relief. He says he is okay, but we are very concerned. He goes to his regular job from 8 to 5 and then goes to help people after work. He buys food with some of the money you have donated and delivers them to people on our behalf. Since he has many connections with the city officials in the tsunami-hit areas, he has been asked by many volunteers to take them there (people are not allowed to go to those areas without a special permission). In addition, he is taking care of Yu’s grandmother and our two dogs that we left behind. We know he has been so busy but we have never heard him complain. When we talked to him on the phone, he just wanted to make sure that we are okay. His selfless attitude and heart for others remind us of Christ’s love. Please pray for God’s strength and protection.
Many of you have asked how we are doing. We are doing well in Seoul. The church where we are staying and believers here are taking such good care of us. We had our special friends from Arlington last week and they ministered to us in many amazing ways (we will write about them soon). We are reminded of God’s goodness and faithfulness every single day. This week, we will be going to the Christian broadcasting company to share our story. We praise God for this wonderful opportunity. Thank you for your continued prayers.
We are sorry we could not update our blog sooner. We just got internet at our house and we will try to update it more often! We are doing great and enjoying getting to know people here. We still have a lot to do around the house, but we are ready to welcome our baby boy anytime!
We are blessed to be a part of two wonderful churches! One is our sending church in Arlington (we miss you all!), and the other one is in Sendai, Japan. Yu grew up in this church after several believers including her parents planted this church. Even though it is a small church, everyone knows everyone and it’s like having a big family! The members of this church have been praying for us for a long time. Their previous pastor left in the summer of 2009, and they have faced many challenges. However, they kept serving the Lord and the community faithfully. When the assistant pastor (who is in his 70s) handed us the letter to our church in Arlington, we were amazed because we had not shared with him about our desire to come to serve in Japan. In his letter, he wrote that one of the biggest needs in this area is the student ministry. Again, we were surprised because that was what we had been wanting to do in Japan. Many Japanese young people are living without hope. The need to reach out to them is so great. We know that it was all in God’s plan and we are excited to be a part of this!
As soon as we arrived, the members of the church welcomed us warmly. We shared our heart and vision with them, and many people came to tell us that they had been praying for us. Some of them said they want to help with the student ministry which is an answer to our prayers. We know we can’t do this alone. We know the importance of being a part of the church body and we are thankful that God has given us this church. We are planning to visit the local churches to get to know them and to see the possibilities to partner with them. In April, we are going to start visiting the local universities to meet students.
We made it safely to Japan! Thank you for praying for our safe travel. Everything went smoothly and God provided everything we needed! Yu was able to use 4 seats to lie down. All the luggage made it safely as well. Praise God! God has filled our hearts with peace and joy as we landed, and we are excited to be in His will.
As we left Texas, we prayed for this new journey. We thanked God for all of you who have touched our lives and supported us in so many wonderful ways. We are so thankful for this opportunity and we can’t wait to share all the amazing things that God does in Japan. We miss you all and would love to keep in touch. We want to know what is happening in your life and how we can pray for you. Please write us anytime! Please continue to pray for us as we adjust to our new life here. We have a little over a month until our baby comes and we have a lot to do! Thank you again for lifting us up. We love you all!
