The Newest Members of Our Team!

Meet the Shaos, who are currently living in Fukuoka, in western Japan. They are working among Mandarin speaking people of the city to plant a Chinese Alliance church in the city. If you look at a map of Japan, you'll notice they're about as far from us as Minneapolis is from Toronto! But, they're part of our team in Japan now, and the Chinese Alliance churches of Canada are providing support for them, both financial and on site equipping/mentoring, for which we are grateful. When we meet as a team with the Shaos, we'll be using Japanese, because it is the language we have in common. We're looking forward to it.

Back in Japan, Back in Urban Tower!

We arrived in Japan will all our luggage, including $5,000 worth of insulin pump supplies for Megan. We always sigh with relief at the baggage carousel!

We're thankful for an apartment that we could lease the morning after arriving in Tokyo. It's almost identical to our previous apartment, except for one closet and a significantly lower rent. So, once again we're in the centre of everything in Harumi, and accessible to nearby areas such as Toyosu, Tsukishima and Kachidoki. Can we see Praise Time groups meeting in each of those locations this term?

Finding A Place to Live in Harumi

Here's one possibility for a place to live in Harumi. As we've mentioned in several churches this year, the fourth floor is an unlucky floor because the Japanese word for 4 is a homonym with "death".

So, we've got a bargain on the fourth floor of the building across the street from where we lived last term. Our teammatae Don Love will be taking a look at the place and sending us some digital pictures of it. With our current economic climate, cost is a major concern, but we also want a place that will facilitate ministry and will be centrally located. We've got one other strong possibility on our list, and then a number of other choices as well. We feel encouraged by that.

Christmas follow-up!

We heard that the Harumi Christmas party presented a great opportunity to present the true meaning of Christmas to many of our contacts who attend programs as well as their friends that they were encouraged to bring with them.

Thanks for praying for the people who are involved in weekly evangelistic groups and for the on-going Alpha course. Our co-workers, the Loves, feel that one woman, who is involved in the Alpha program, is especially close to making a decision to follow Jesus. Please pray that she'll have ever-increasing understanding as she studies the Bible with Don Love. Pray also for one of the seekers who is studying with Don and wrote recently, I keep studying the Bible with Don every Tues. morning. Studying the Bible is good for me. What I learn there helps me a lot in my everyday life.

One of our believers wrote something interesting too that I thought I'd share with you. I had a tradional Japanese dance performance on Jan. 10th. As I was praying before my performance God gave me an idea. I used my performance as a special time of worship to God. As first I was nervous, but as I praised God through my dance I relaxed. Afterwards, 3 women, one a stranger, one an instructor, and the other a fellow student, praised my dance. My fellow student asked if I had taken special lessons since the dance was so different from that of the rest of the class. I said "no". I was just thinking about God as I danced and offered my dance to God for His glory. Praise God for her courage as she shared her desire to please God with others. Pray that she would be encouraged by God's work in her life.

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!