Virtual Prayer Walk

In front of Urban Tower apt. complex (Our house!) Please pray for those living in this apt. building and the one to the left as you walk out (Urban Plaza). Pray that we’d be able to have contact with people living in each building and that they in turn would be able to affect their friends and neighbours for Christ.

Pray for the activities and events that we hold at the Kuminkan (community centre) across from the 3rd floor entrance to Urban Tower. Every Friday we have a mom’s and tot’s time, a women’s English class and an English class for Kindergarten age children.

Pray for wisdom as we prepare for Bible Studies and discussion groups that we will start in the fall. Some have indicated an interest in studying the Bible in Japanese and several are interested in English discussion groups concerning family issues. We want to use the Bible as a text for these discussion times. Pray that God would go before us, leading people with open hearts to attend our programs and preparing their hearts in advance.

Walk over the bridge to the playground near View Tower
Pray that God would protect the kids as they play here. Pray that He would protect children from the bullying of others. Pray that this would be a place where Moms would talk about what they’d learned in discussion times, English class and Bible studies so that others would want to attend. Pray for the residents of the apartments that surround the park ~ View Tower, View Tower 2, View Plaza, Garden Court, and Garden Plaza. Pray for wisdom so that we’d be able to minister to whole families in the area.

Walk to the park behind View Tower
Pray for the 2 Bible studies taking place in View Towers and for the strengthening of the Christians there. Pray for seekers who have studied in the past, but who have dropped out. Pray that the seeds planted would take root and they would desire to study again.

There have been about 5 suicides in this building in less than 10 years. 31,000 people in Japan commit suicide annually, the majority of them being young people. Pray that Japanese people would discover the hope that only Christ can bring. Many living in the building are still haunted by the suicides that have occurred here. Pray for the peace that Jesus can bring as they learn more about Him.

In front of the Yochien, Elementary and Middle Schools
Pray that the children of the area would have hearts that would seek after God. Pray that the children of the Christians in the area would have courage as they live Christian lives before their peers. Keep them strong as they hear opposing opinions regarding creation, afterlife, etc. from extended family members, teachers, and friends.

Pray for teachers and school staff to someday come to know Christ. Pray that Christian teachers (we know of at least one) would have strength, opportunity and courage to share their faith in Christ, despite a sometimes hostile response from fellow workers.

Pray for parents and PTA members. Pray that Mrs. Otani, a Christian member of the PTA, would be able to be a peace maker in the group. Pray for wisdom as she presents her ideas from a Christian point of view. Thank God for her position and for the respect that she has in the community.

On the bridge to Toyosu
Look at all the cranes and other evidence of building going on the area. We’re thankful that God is bringing so many people into the area. Pray for opportunities to share Christ. Thank God that Mrs. Fujii, a strong Christian woman, will be moving to the area. Please give us wisdom as we consider what programs to start there to attract people in order to teach them about Christ.


Triton Office Tower
Pray that God would give us wisdom to know how to reach men in the area for Him. Men are generally working until 9:00 or 10:00 in the evening, so it’s difficult to reach them in traditional ways. Pray for inroads that would help us make contact with them. Open their hearts and minds to the gospel. Pray that God would help us to reach whole families for Him.


Triton Terrace
Pray for the families who live in the area. They often gather here to spend time together, especially moms and young children. Pray that this would be a place where what is learned in Bible studies and discussion groups would be repeated to friends. Pray that here, friends would hear about different programs and events and decide to attend. Pray that God would protect the children as they play here.

Thank you for praying with us for the Harumi community!

Two Friends

Wednesday, I spent the day with a friend that I've taught English and Bible to on and off for a number of years. She, at times, seems interested in the Bible and once when I pressed her, said that yes, she believes in Jesus. She also has a strong belief in Buddhism and often takes part in the Buddhist services that her father holds in his home next door to hers. Obviously, her belief in God is not exclusive or life-changing.

We had a great time together, but there was not much depth in the conversation. She always seems happy to get together, but avoids topics related to Christianity for the most part.

Thursday, I had another friend over. We've known Masumi almost since we first arrived in Japan. She began attending the church we were attending on Sundays about the same time we did. She had been attending English classes and Bible studies there before that, but her unsaved husband hadn't wanted her taking part in Sunday services until that time. For many years he didn't want her to get baptized, but finally a couple of years ago, gave his permission and she was baptized.

We were able to have a wonderful time of fellowship together. She rejoiced with me in God's work in Harumi and I listened while she talked about the wonderful things that have been happening in her church and a recent Evangelistic Meeting she'd been to called Love Sonata.

After she left I reflected on these two good friends. One needs the Lord, but doesn't realize it and the other has found Jesus and is constanting rejoicing in her faith. Please pray that Rie will find Jesus so that her life can be filled with the same joy as Masumi's. Pray that I'll have God's wisdom and love as I talk with Rie and other yet unsaved friends about my faith and what God has been doing in my life.

Welcome to Kashiwazaki

Hi, this is Laura. I wanted to tell you about my trip
to Niigata:


In the recent 6.8 earthquake in Niigata prefecture, Kashiwazaki was the city that sustained the most damage. 3000 people still remain in the evacuation shelters almost 2 weeks after the earthquake. I left for Niigata to work with a Christian organization called CRASH along with the short term team from Hawaii. It was a pleasant surprise that several of my classmates and their families were also helping in the clean up.


Over the next three days we worked on three main projects. The campground where we stayed was attached to the Niigata Bible Institute, and many of the cabins were damaged so that the summer camps usually held there could not continue. So a Japanese group of builders, carpenters and engineers were reinforcing the cabins so that eventually they could be used again. Another group was demolishing a church that had collapsed and were separating the cement, wood and metal to be taken to the dump. A third group was helping out a missionary family whose house had been severly damaged.

The day I arrived I helped by mixing cement for some off the cabins, I hoped to help in the same way the next day but was sent to the Mort's house, missionaries in Kashiwazaki. The earthquake damaged the Mort's home so that it was red tagged and dangerous to live in. Thier English school was green tagged and safe. It was our job to make the school more livable. We cleaned it from top to bottom and played with their children; 2 girls and a boy with cereberal palsy. It was good to see the family become less stressed and laugh, a sign that life in the city is slowly reaturning to normal.


Before leaving I helped clear the church grounds, in the picture you can see part of the building that still needs to be cleared. What is visible is the second floor crashed onto the first. We moved cement roof tiles from one part of the yard into another, then into a truck to be taken to the dump.



Please pray for the people still in Evacuation centers who have lost their homes, and their things, pray for CRASH and the volunteers who come from Tokyo and elsewhere as they clean up the community. Lastly pray that people whos lives have been changed forver would consider a loving God in control of the universe.

Hawaiian Luau

Thanks for praying for Saturday's Hawaiian Luau. We started off the day with a prayer walk, dividing into small groups and walking around the neighbourhood to several sights like the neighbourhood playground, elementary and middle schools, community centre where are classes are held, office building, shopping centre and terrace, where many area families gather in the evening to enjoy the open space and cooler air.

Meanwhile, a team of 4 people were working in our tiny kitchen to produce a fantastic meal of Rice, Kalua Pork w/ cabbage, Chicken Long Rice, Lomi Salmon, Tossed Salad w/ Papaya Seed dressing, Pineapple upside down cake and Coconut cake. What a feast!

The event started at 2:00 with a special event for Junior High kids. This is a group that we've been wanting to start a program for. Seven giggly girls arrived and thoroughly enjoyed the games, Hawaiian dance and music performed by the team. All said that they'd be interested in coming to a program designed for them. The next part of the program was to be a "community party" for all of our contacts involved in kids programs and English classes. God seemed to have something different in mind however, as those who came were mostly new contacts who came as a result of flyers handed out in the morning while we were prayer walking - and I didn't think that worked very well. Sure made me rethink that method!

There were a couple of women who attended with their children who hadn't been to my classes for some time. It was nice to reconnect with them. One woman didn't even know about the event, but had had a fight with her husband so stormed off to the grocery store with her little girl. When she came back, she found she was locked out of the house. One of the woman from our group noticed her in the hallway and offered to put her perishable grocery items into her own refrigerator and invited her to the event. God had a really unusual way of reconnecting us after not having any contact for a while. A questionairre was filled out at the end of the evening and 3 people indicated that they'd like to study the Bible in Japanese. Along with my other contacts who filled out the questionairre earlier, we now have 7 people interested. Several others stated that they'd like to join a discussion group concerning "Family Life".

So, our fall programs of course will include a Japanese Bible study and an English discussion group on Family Life, as well as a program for Junior High kids and probably English classes for elementary and kindergarten children and for adults. Please pray with us that we'll have wisdom as we prepare our materials and set up our teaching schedules.

We're happy to be working with the Loves who will arrive back from Home assignment August 13th. That's less than a month away now and they're still looking for housing. Please pray that something will become available soon so that they can be settled in by the start of the school year Aug. 27th.

The short term team who worked so hard on our Luau will be doing the same in other churches and then will be heading to Niigata to the site of the July 16 earthquake to help with clean up. Please pray for endurance (it's quite hot here now) and for safety as they clean up rubble, carry out a kid's program so that parent's can do clean up and provide some meal preparation for the relief teams. Our daughter, Laura, will be joining them.

Disney Sea

On Wednesday, we spent a great family day at Disney Sea! Heather, Laura and Megan are veteran Disney Sea visitors so they "took" us this time. I started out trying organize our day so that we'd see all of the attractions and shows we wanted to, but the girls made it clear that this was their day to lead the way and they did a great job! We had a lot of fun and Disney Sea was very impressive.

We arrived just after opening time and started the day off with Journey to the Centre of the Earth and closed out the park with another visit to Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Of course there were lots of great events in between.

Check out the picture - our three "World Christians".

New Opportunities - Great Potential

It's been a month since we moved from Higashi Tokorozawa and the position of leadership couple of the Japan Alliance Field to Harumi, downtown Tokyo. What a difference! Higashi Tokorozawa is almost rural compared to the dense population of both people and buildings that we see from our balcony in Harumi.

We had been working for over 2 years, long-distance, with the people in Harumi. We'd been involved in leading a Sunday Praise time, along with co-workers Don and Carol Love and others who put countless hours in commuting and preparing worship times and Bible studies. More recently we've been involved in a Mom's and Tot's class, a women's English class and a kindergarten age children's English program along with some of the Christians living in Harumi. As we made contact with families here we recognized the potential of sharing Christ more if only we could live and work in the area, making ourselves available, not for more programming, necessarily, but for more availability.

That opportunity came and we began searching for housing in the area, only to be told that the area was becoming so popular that there was no housing available then or anytime in the forseeable future. The realtor suggested that we begin phoning each day once we were within our target date for moving, but we were never able to do that because before we could she called us with an apt. to look at. It was perfect for our needs and we consider it a gift from God.

Welcome!

We've just sent out a "Made In Japan" with word of our blog listed on it, and since it's just a click away, we'd sure better have something on this blog, so here it is!

We'd like to keep you up to date on things like the Luau this Saturday and how it went, and other items like that. Stay tuned...

Doug

Great Potential in Harumi

Every Friday between 10 and 30 1~3 year olds and their moms meet in our community center for a Mom's and tots English class. This past Friday was our last meeting of the season so I distributed a questionaire that encouraged the moms to consider program opportunities for the fall. Ten moms attended and 4 out of 10 indicated that they'd be interested in being a part of a Japanese Bible study. Almost all said that they'd like to join an English discussion group concerned with family life. Please pray with us as we consider what Bible study material to use and as we research family issues such as parenting and marital relationships in preparation for meaningful discussion groups.