The big news this month, as you may have guessed from the photo above, is that I’m getting married!
Yoko has been attending my church in Nagoya for about a year and a half, and we became more than friends last summer. We ended 2018 on a high note by getting engaged on Christmas Eve, and hope to get married in the spring. In addition to all her other great qualities, Yoko loves Jesus, has a heart for missions and will be a great partner in ministry. We’d certainly appreciate your prayers as we plan and prepare for our wedding… and everything that comes after that.
In terms of ministry-related stuff, the first half of 2019 will be spent focusing on continuing to lay the foundation for our manga ministryand preparing to return to Canada this summer for Partnership Development(re-connecting with supporters back home). Please pray for God to lead, provide and open doors!
Thank you for your continuing prayers for me, the mission, and Japan!
The first photo features myself, fellow GP missionary Andrea Swarthout, and our our regional director Tim Gallant and his family. The Gallants visited Japan in November to meet with us and our Japanese partners as we work through the necessary changes that need to be made to move forward with some new ministries. I’m thankful for Tim’s leadership in our region and the progress we are making here in Japan.
The second picture is what’s left of the Immanuel Nagoya Church building… which is to say, nothing. But that’s a sign of progress, as the demolition of our old building has come to an end and construction of our new church home can begin in the new year.
Progress is also being made on my manga ministry project. I’ll have more to say in the new year, but for now, allow me to point you to our official project page on the GP website:
Please pray and consider giving to this new outreach!
Meanwhile, Advent is upon us and Christmas is almost here! Please pray for the Japanese Church to be effective in using the opportunity this season gives us to share the love of Jesus with our communities.
Specifically, here’s what I’ll be involved in this month:
12/12 — Worship leading at prayer meeting
12/16 — Our church’s Christmas Worship event
12/20 — Celebrating Christmas and sharing Jesus with our kids English class
As always, thank you for your continuing prayers for our mission in Japan!
Thank you for your prayers this past month. This Sunday I was in Kure City, Hiroshima (pictured above), where I was scheduled to preach once… but ended up preaching twice! Because there was a typhoon approaching, a number of members who usually commute from a senior’s home were unable to make it. So the pastor and I had church with them at the senior’s home in the afternoon, while the storm was raging outside. Ministry in Japan is always an adventure!
October is looking to be a relatively quiet month for me, but I’d appreciate your prayers for the following:
Worship leading on Wed.10/10 and Sun.10/21 at my church in Nagoya.
Preaching, music and kids ministry at the Immanuel Church in nearby Toyota City.
Pray for clarity of vision, direction and creativity as I plan and put into motion our manga ministry project.
And please continue to pray for Japan as people continue to recover from multiple natural disasters. If you’d like to contribute to Christian relief efforts, I recommend http://crashjapan.com.
I hope you’ve had a good summer wherever you’ve been. Can you believe it’s coming to an end?
In August, after wrapping up my English ministry duties, I traveled to Budapest, Hungary, for the Global Partners Tri-Area Conference.It was great change of pace and scenery, and encouraging to spend time with fellow GP missionaries, worshiping and learning together for a few days.
I got back to Japan just in time to join my church family in Nagoya for a barbecue on the roof of our building (as seen in the photo above) — our last chance, as we move to temporary facilities in September and enter the demolition phase of our re-building project. Please prayfor my church as we go through this time of transition.
Looking ahead at September, it looks like I’ll be away for about half the month! Please pray for my working holiday in Tokyo (9/7-12), the Immanuel Church Chukyo Area Retreat (9/16-17)and my ministry trip to Kure (9/27-30).Kure is a city in Hiroshima prefecture that was affected by the flooding that happened earlier this summer. I’m planning to take part in disaster relief efforts as well as do some more typical church ministries while I’m there.
Meanwhile, your continued prayers are appreciated for our manga ministry project, as I take initial steps with that this Fall. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please click HERE to check out the newsletter I sent out last month.
As always, thank you so much for your partnership in missions in Japan!
Meanwhile, you’ve no doubt heard about the major flooding that happened in Japan recently. If you’d like to support the Christian relief efforts, I highly recommend giving to CRASHJapan. Whether you can give or not, please pray!
I’d also appreciate your prayers as I travel to Hungary for the GP missionary conference the week of August 19.
