Harumi News!

Wonderful things have been happening in Harumi! Our colleagues, the Loves, and our friends in Harumi have written about several wonderful things that have been going on. 7 - 8 people, many of whom you've been praying for if you're praying through our list of contacts, have joined one of the two evangelistic Bible studies taking place in Harumi on Tuesdays.

The BBQ that I asked many of you to pray for was a great success. It was a beautiful day and about 50 of our contacts gathered together and really enjoyed one another. One man that attended Doug and Don's Discussion group has shown an interest in joining one of the Bible studies and others are interested in attending praise time.

Please continue to pray for two of our friends, each with a parent that has cancer. Pray that through this trial these young women would seek God and his peace. One friend is struggling with her relationship with her husband. Please pray that she would find the answers she's looking for through the Bible study that she's begun to attend.

We've had some great times at the churches that we've visited so far in Ontario! Thank you for your interest in our presentations and for your support of what God is doing through your prayers in Japan.

Please contact us if you'd like to receive email updates. We'd love to stay in touch any way that we can.

Graduations!

Laura


The whole family celebrating Laura's achievement

We had two very exciting graduations in June. Laura graduated from Grade 12 at Christian Academy in Japan and will be heading off to Capernwray in Austria next Saturday (Sept. 20th). Her grad banquet and ceremony were a celebration of all her years spent at CAJ and a formal goodbye to the friends and teachers that have had such a integral part of her life up until now.

Good friends: Stephanie, Aubri and Anna

Alliance Mission buddies Andrew Love and Donnie Schaeffer

Megan

Megan graduated from Grade 8 at Christian Academy in Japan and has entered Grade 9 at Blakelock High School. She's having a good time, but is happy that she'll be able to get back to CAJ to finish high school with friends, some of whom she's known since kindergarten!

A celebration hug from big sister Heather!

Friends Loana, Brianna and Sarah

Good friends Satomi and Katrina

Sayonara Party

Wow! We've been back in Canada for over 2 months and I haven't updated our blog. We had a great summer catching up with friends and family, but more about that later.

Special Friends!

I wanted to tell you about the awesome goodbye party we had just before leaving Harumi, Tokyo in June. About 50 people came to help us celebrate a great year and to say goodbye. We shared stories from our experiences and heard from them how much we meant to them. What an encouragement! One of my colleagues who was also there looked around and said "you meet with all these people?" Yes! God has given us a fantastic group of people to meet with and share our faith. Two more women told me that they wanted to join an evangelistic Bible study and they are now studying with our colleague Don Love. I have the best job ever - meeting with people and sharing God's love!

Sorry there aren't any pictures of Doug. He really was there!

Pakistani Party

Thank you for your prayers for our ministry in Japan. We will soon be transitioning back to Canada and would appreciate your prayers for our last few weeks in Japan. Laura will be graduating from High school, ending a phase of life at Christian Academy in Japan and in this country that she loves so much. Please pray for her as she finishes up her last big project, an oral presentation of a comprehensive project that she’s been researching throughout the year – “The effective use of International Financial Aid” and presents it before a panel of teachers and observers.

As I mentioned last time, Heather has returned home safely from Pakistan and has begun teaching English at the same school she’s taught at in Tokyo in the past. She’s processing all of her experiences and will soon face transition again as she travels back to Canada with us on June 25th to resume studies in September at AUC in Calgary.

Megan will be graduating from Grade 8, saying goodbye to friends and is looking forward to the experience of Grade 9 in Canada. We covet your prayers for all our girls as they make these transitions in their lives.

This past Sunday, May 25th, we had a Pakistani party where Heather had an opportunity to share her experiences in Pakistan through a power point presentation and Pakistani lunch. It was a horrible, rainy day and I was concerned that we’d be eating all of that curry by ourselves, but 15 Japanese adults and lots of kids braved the weather and enjoyed the presentation and great time of fellowship afterwards.



Thanks for praying! Our next monthly outreach will be our farewell party on June 22nd. Please pray as we prepare to explain our vision to those we’ve been working with and once more give an opportunity to ask questions concerning new life in Christ. In the meantime, we’ll continue to meet with many people one on one to share Christ’s love and plan of salvation.

Easter Celebration

Thank you all for praying for our Easter Celebration. We had about 20 adults and 20 kids attend – the vast majority non-Christians! They heard the Bible text of the resurrection story and an explanation by one of our Christian women. Doug then explained various Easter customs around the world and what those customs represented – giving another opportunity to explain the freedom and new life we have through Christ. We sang a couple of songs with guitar accompaniment that we thought most Japanese would have heard before. O Happy Day is well known here because of an interest in gospel music and Amazing Grace is also one that most Japanese have at least heard before. I followed up with an explanation of Canadian Easter customs including Easter Egg hunts and egg colouring which we then enjoyed doing with the kids. They had a great time! We all had lunch together – everyone stayed, even though this was explained as completely optional. People talked and laughed and just really enjoyed being together. We had a couple of opportunities to explain the meaning of Easter further to individuals.

Many expressed their gratitude for having an opportunity to hear about Easter. Here are some excerpts from a couple of emails that we received: We really enjoyed Easter party today. It was nice to know meaning of Easter and touch a spirit of Christianity. and Thank you very much for the wonderful Easter experience. Naoto is singing "Oh! happy day." Kana decorated the Easter Eggs on her desk.It was definitely a day to remember for us.

Please pray that the seeds planted would continue to grow in people’s hearts and that they would have a genuine desire to study God’s Word and seriously consider following Christ.

We plan to make these “Celebrations” a monthly occurrence. Please remember our next one on April 27th. In the meantime, we’ll be meeting with as many people one-on-one as possible to explain our faith and bring people one step closer to the cross. God’s wisdom and leading are essential in these meetings, and therefore, so are your prayers! Thanks for being here with us in this extraordinary way!

More Women to Pray for . . .

Thanks for supporting our work in Harumi. We thoroughly enjoy our ministry here and it is apparent that God orchestrates meetings with those people that he intends to touch.

Last week I met with Marie and Tomomi and Tomomi was very open about her struggles and her search for a "spiritual" answer. Her mom, who is living with her right now while she's receiving cancer treatment, has become increasingly fretful about her future. Tomomi was grateful to hear my testimony and to understand that I personally know a God who loves and cares for us. Tomomi has encountered nightmares and anxiety attacks since the police knocked on the door of her 43rd floor apartment to ask if the neatly folded clothing that was lying outside the door belonged to her. It turned out that it belonged to a man who jumped from the outdoor hallway just outside of her apartment. She'd seen the man wandering the hallways earlier in the day and now can't forget his face and the fact that he ended his life shortly after she'd seen him so close to her apartment.

Please continue to pray for me as I meet with Tomomi and her mom and others like her who are searching for the truth. Pray that I'll have wisdom as I share my faith with them and that they'll be responsive to the Holy Spirit's calling. This weekend there will be a celebration that I've invited many of the women I'm meeting with to. Pray that they'll come with open hearts to hear what God has for them.

More opportunities to interact with young moms

Last week 2 women from my mom's and tot's group, who are also involved in the women's discussion group came for coffee. Both women are concerned about their futures and whether they should return to their jobs as Airline Flight Attendents or stay home with their daughters. I was so happy that they felt comfortable enough with me to share their concerns and deep feelings. That gave me the opportunity to pray for them. I love showing God's love to the kids he's put in my life too.

A God-given opportunity at the local elementary school

Last Thursday Doug, Laura and I had the privilege of talking to the entire elementary school in our neighbourhood about Canada. I've been doing some book reading to classes in the school, but the opportunity actually came through a Japanese class that I've been taking at the International Centre in our area of Tokyo. I sure never thought this opportunity would come from my desire to improve my Japanese and to meet other internationals living in the area, but then, we never know how God will use what we're involved in for His Glory!

Since Thursday, we've become celebrities in our neighbourhood. All elementarty-aged children greet us, in either Japanese, English or French since we taught them that during our presentation.

After our power point presentation for the entire school, we spent 45 minutes talking with 70 Grade 6 students, then doing a 45 minute cooking class. We taught them how to make bannock and ate it with Maple Syrup.

I'm not sure that's how Canada's first nations people enjoyed it, but the kids sure liked it that way. Canada is probably best known here for its maple syrup!

We're praying that God will use that opportunity that He provided to touch families in our area for Christ. Would you pray with us that through the classes we teach and the contacts we make that God would make himself known on this little island in Tokyo Bay? If you'd like more information on how to pray specifically for our ministry please contact us. Thanks!

High School Field Hockey

Last Saturday Laura's Field Hockey team played an excellent game against Yokohama International School making Christian Academy in Japan the league champions. Laura made a couple of phenominal saves as goalie and played an excellent season.

This Saturday the International Schools came together one last time to play in a tournament and once again CAJ came away undefeated! Laura played 4 shut out games and the team came away with the tournament champion trophy! The fans made up of class mates, parents and teachers were ecstatic. What a way to end your High School career in Field Hockey! We are really proud parents!

Megan also had an excellent season as the Middle School Field Hockey goal keeper. Her skills have improved greatly and she too loves the game. She's looking forward to returning to CAJ for her Grade 10 year and joining the High School Field Hockey team. Not much chance of finding Field Hockey featured at her Canadian High School!

Wow! Thanks for praying!

Recently I sent out a "list" of people I'm working with asking people to pray for opportunities to share Christ with them. The response from "pray - ers" has been phenomenal, humbling and encouraging. Thank you so much for your support! I've had lots of opportunities to meet with moms and talk to them about my relationship with God. Please continue to pray that their hearts would be open and that they would have a desire to learn more. They have lots of questions and seem somewhat interested.

Narumi, Luna and Fumito (sleeping) with their Moms

I can't believe that we'll be going on home assignment in only 5 short months. Wow! So little time and so much to do! Pray with me that God will use us in an incredible way to bring the people he leads us to one step closer to Him.

Moms and kids circle continues to be a lot of fun and a great place to meet young moms. The group in really becoming close and affords lots of opportunities for deep conversation.

Snack time! Lots of fun! I'll keep you updated!