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.
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!
