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!
Sorry we have been away from the blog world again! Hope everyone is doing well! We have been super busy and all of us got sick in the last few weeks. Luke got sick first and it came to me (Yu), and a few days later, Michael got it. We prayed a lot last week since Michael was scheduled to preach on Sunday. Thankfully, he felt better on Sunday and was able to preach on “missions” on Sunday. Our favorite topic! Everyone seemed to be encouraged! Praise the Lord!
Here are some of our recent photos:
At Mom and Child Time at our church. It is one of Luke’s (and mommy’s) favorite times of the week. He has made so many friends!
Isn’t he cute?
We participated in the “Relay for Life Cancer Walk” with my dad. He walked for 24 hours straight but we just walked for a little while.
On each paper lantern, there is a handwritten message from the participants. It was such a special time for us as we walked remembering my mom and all our friends who are battling cancer.
On every 3rd Saturday, we lead the children’s program at church. Michael shares a Bible story and Yu leads music. We love these kids!
Everyone wants to hold Luke!
This little guy melts mommy’s heart!
Luke’s favorite toy!!!
Our pastor’s ordination service. Michael introduced our family in front of 100+ people and did a great job with his Japanese!
Michael with my cousin’s daughter. Since my grandparents moved to our city (from the city that was damaged by tsunami), all the cousins try to get together when everyone is in town so our grandparents can see all of them! It is fun (and loud) when we are all together. Of course, Luke loves being held by everyone!
Look, I can stand!
I can climb, too!
I have two bottom teeth (and top two just broke through)!
We got a care package from Aunt Cathie! Luke couldn’t wait to open the box!
We had such an awesome summer camp for kids and youth at our church. While we were in South Korea this spring, we met a Japanese pastor. We had an opportunity to share about the needs in Japan. He told his church members about us and our church and they decided to send a mission team of young adults to our church. We were blessed to have them and all the kids LOVED them. Many kids were still under stress from aftershocks and radiation threat, so it was nice to see their smile as they played with Korean team members.
Today, we celebrated Mother’s Day. It has been a bittersweet Mother’s Day because it is the first one without my mom and also as a mom. My mom went to heaven after battling with cancer for a year. She was the best mother that anyone could ask for and I still miss her so very much. I often wish I could ask her for help and advice as I raise my son. I think of her when there are ministry opportunities because she was so gifted when it came to serving God and ministering to others. As I remember her, I am especially thankful for five things.
1. She loved God.
She put God before anything else. There was no question about it. She lived to glorify Him. She taught me to know Him, to love Him, and to make Him known. Even though it was hard for us to let her go, it was God’s time and she was ready to see Him. Her strong faith really inspired me.
2. She loved family.
It was such a blessing to be raised by such wonderful Christian parents. My mom was always there for me and we had a close relationship. She was there to rejoice and cry with me. She expressed her love for me by praising me and also by correcting me when needed. I always knew she loved me. As I raise my child, I always want to remember how she loved me and taught me.
3. She loved church.
She was at church 4 to 5 times a week. She was not a paid staff, but she was there because she loved helping and ministering to others. After she passed away, several ladies told me that they always knew they would see my mom if they went to church. They shared that my mom always took time to listen to their stories and concerns and to pray with them. I always enjoyed seeing her smile when she was at church. Her love for the body of Christ is something that I will never forget.
(Preschool Sunday School that she taught. That was her favorite time.)
4. She loved missions.
Growing up, my parents drove 4 hours (each way) to the west coast of Japan to help the small mission church twice a month. They went without knowing how many people would show up. Sometimes, nobody showed up. They even went on snowy days. As a child, it was hard to understand why they spent their Saturdays going there instead of taking us to fun places. But now I do. It’s because they wanted to share God’s love with people who had never heard about Him. Now, that small mission church has their own pastor and is growing. Praise the Lord. God called me to do missions, but seeing my parents’ love for the lost helped me to have a heart for the world. I am thankful God gave me such a great example like my mom who showed Christ’s love and hope in her actions.
(With Mr. and Mrs. Boatwright who lived in Japan for over 30 years as missionaries. She respected them and told me what she had learned from them.)
5. She loved children.
Anyone who knew her would say “oh how she loved kids!” and that is so true. She loved every single child with ALL her heart. She knew how to love them and to reach out to them. And the kids knew they were loved so much. There were several kids from broken families and they knew my mom would protect them and love them no matter what. When I was in college, I called her almost every week, and she shared a lot about each child she knew, and I truly enjoyed listening. Ever since we moved to Japan, I have heard so much about how she touched and changed the lives of the kids (and parents). Several girls told me how much they wish they could see her again, and it made me cry. As I raise my child and get involved in the children’s ministry, I want to follow her path. I want to love children like she did.
(Don’t you just love her smile?)
I miss you so much, mom! I will always treasure what you have taught me. I am so thankful for my mom’s life, but I am also SO grateful that God gave me a son so that I could be a mom. Becoming a mom was always my dream, and it finally came true this year. Words cannot express how much I love Luke. He is the best gift that Michael and I have ever received. Even though being a mom is not always easy, I love being a mom and I never take that for granted. I pray every day that Luke will know how much God loves him. I know I am not perfect and I still make so many mistakes, but I pray God will help me to be the mom that He wants me to be.
I love you SO MUCH, Luke Kai! Thank you for being my son.
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.
