Thank you for praying for our month+ in Ontario. We were blessed to be able stay in one place all month and make day trips to various churches and camps in the area, giving us a pretty productive month of partnership development. We’re thankful we could reconnect with partners and churches we hadn’t been to for many years (or for Yoko, ever), as well as make a lot of new connections at camp meetings.
We’re now in the US, in the middle of a short whirlwind tour that took us from western New York to Pensilvania to Delaware, with plans to make another stop in Pensilvania, then Massachusetts and Maine before heading back to New Brunswick, Canada next Thursday (Whew!)
Please pray for safe travel, rest, and for God’s blessing on our ministry on Sunday (in Lock Haven, PA) and Wednesday (in Jonesport, ME).
We are scheduled to return to Japan on September 30, and have been given the green light, but we are still in need of more financial partners, so if you’re not already, would you consider becoming one? Click HERE for more info, or feel free to email us with any questions.
Hello from Canada! Thank you for your prayers during our recent travel and transition period.
June was the end of our latest missionary term, so we returned to North America for four months of partnership development— a time of reconnecting with partnering churches and raising support for our work in Japan. Before coming to Canada we spent two weeks in the US, where we connected with some churches, had meetings with leaders and fellow missionaries, and visited Global Partners headquarters.
Along the way, we had to get a tire fixed on our rental car, and our flight to Canada was cancelled so we had to reschedule. But it all worked out and we’re grateful for God’s protection and blessings along the way. Now we’re enjoying some time at Beulah Camp in New Brunswick before hitting the road again.
Over the next two+ months we have a lot of travel planned. We would appreciate your prayers for good health, safe travel, and effective ministry.
We’re also raising financial support for our next term. Right now GP has our “intended support” (faith promise) total at about 88% of our goal (target: $8735/month, actual: $7709/month USD). Please pray that we can gain some new partners during this season. And if you’re not already a regular giver, would you consider becoming one? Please let us know, or contact us with any questions you may have.
Hope your spring is going well! As we approach a summer filled with travels and in-person connections, it’s time for our latest semi-annual update. Please follow this link to view/download the PDF of our latest newsletter:
Mid-April with the sakura (cherry blossoms) in full bloom
Hi everyone,
Thank you for your prayers! Yoko and I just celebrated our anniversary yesterday — we’re thankful for our first five years as a married couple, and for God’s blessings in all the ups and downs.
There was lots to keep us busy this past month. One highlight was this past Sunday, when we travelled to Fukui, where we led the service and I preached to a small but responsive congregation.
Yoko has been working on a new manga script and we’ve both been networking to find an artist for this new project. We’re grateful for new connections and opportunities happening with Drawbridge Creations, and hope to share more soon!
Please PRAY with us for all that’s going on in May:
Preaching and music ministry planned on May 19 for Pentecost Sunday at Immanuel Kanzawa-Izumi Church.
Worship leading at Immanuel Komatsu Church.
Guests (potential ministry partners) visiting from the US.
Planning and preparing to go to North America this summer for partnership development.
Our continuing work with Drawbridge Creations.
We’d appreciate your prayers that we can balance it all, get done what we need to, minister effectively and rest well.
Thank you for being on our team! We’re grateful for all of our prayer and financial partners.
We got to celebrate Easter in Nagoya with our former home church, Immanuel Nagoya. I (Robin) preached in the morning service and we did an English outreach event in the afternoon. It was fun and refreshing to reconnect with church family, old friends and former students, and to share about the hope of Jesus.
We also learned that a former English student (who was a kid when I taught her but a teenager now) is attending a church in a another part of Nagoya where Yoko’s former seminary classmate is the pastor! Small world! We’re thankful that God is continuing to work in my former students’ lives.
Some other highlights from March included:
Preaching and leading worship at Immanuel Komatsu Church.
Attending the Immanuel Church annual national conference, where we could do some promo for Drawbridge Creations and reconnect with ministry contacts and friends.
Beginning a collaboration with another Christian organization in Japan on a new manga project. This will be our second project as Drawbridge Creations.
Please PRAY with us about the following:
Worship leading at Immanuel Komatsu Church.
Visiting Immanuel Fukui Church on 4/28, Robin preaching.
Our new manga collaboration, especially for Yoko who is writing, and that we will be able to find the right artist for the job.
We’re also scheduled for Partnership Development in North America this summer. Pray for the many plans we need to make in the coming months.
Thank you for interest, prayers, encouragement and support!
Thank you so much for your prayers! This time it’s Yoko writing this prayer letter.
Since the big earthquake happened in the Noto area of Ishikawa, 2 months have passed. But about 12,000 people are still staying in about 500 evacuation shelters etc. People can’t use water at about 20,000 houses or buildings. For those situations, some Christian groups who have some special skills started working on digging wells in north side of Noto where they had the biggest damage. Please continue to pray for people who suffer from the damages by the earthquake and for the people who serve them.
We have been involved with a small part of the disaster relief work by God’s leading, but God has encouraged us through the small part. We could share the joy with our home church who cooperated through gathering and carrying supplies for people in Noto. And through our volunteer work at our local gym that welcomes people from Noto as 2nd evacuation shelter, we unexpectedly met a local pastor who lives in our neighbourhood.
As we shared last month, we hosted a potential missionary on a vision trip from February 17 to 27. It was a great chance for us to get to know him better and we were glad that he could understand better what it looks like living in Japan. He and Robin attended JEMA Connect (a missionary conference) on February 19 to network with the Japan missionary community and promote Drawbridge Creations. This ministry became a JEMA endorsed ministry last year, so Robin had a chance to present about this ministry during the conference. Yesterday one missionary we know who attended the conference told me, “Yoko, you should be proud of him! He made a great presentation!” I’m sorry that I couldn’t attend this conference with him, but that’s fun to hear from other attendance about the good response like this!
By the way, on the first of this month, we released a new online comic of Waypoints. This one is special for us as a married couple, because this is the first comic where I’m the scenario writer and the art is drawn by Robin.Please check out the comic!
March will be a busy month for us that includes some travels. Robin and I are scheduled to lead worship at Immanuel Komatsu Church on the 17th and he will give a sermon, too. After the Sunday service, we will travel to Yokohama to attend the Immanuel Church annual conference (March 19 to 21), host a guest there and have another meeting in that area. Also, we will travel to Nagoya for serving at an Easter Sunday service (Robin will preach) and leading an Easter English event at Immanuel Nagoya church.
Please pray for us to keep good health and seek God’s face especially during this Lent season. We appreciate your partnership with us for God’s mission in Japan!
God Bless Your Lent Season!
– Yoko (and Robin)
PS: Apologies if you received an extra email of February’s prayer letter; it was a technical error.
Image from the latest Waypoints manga, art by Robin, story by Yoko
