Merry Christmas!
We wish everyone a Christ-filled warm Christmas with family and friends. May each of us appreciate more deeply the baby Jesus and what he has done to give us joy, peace, love and acceptance.
We wish everyone a Christ-filled warm Christmas with family and friends. May each of us appreciate more deeply the baby Jesus and what he has done to give us joy, peace, love and acceptance.
On December 5th, we celebrated 25 years of missionary service in Japan. By the grace of God we have been able to serve the church in Japan through a quarter of a century. His Grace is sufficient.
1. Elaine’s Bible study for women has many deep discussions such as the difference between being a sinner and a criminal. One re-Christian member keeps inviting new ones to join. Pray for all of them as they learn more about the wonders of Christ. 2. Thank you for praying through important meetings with the Rengo and our Japan mission in November. Everything proceeded well along with good personal interactions. 3. On December 11, we have…
On November 29, Elaine held her annual Christmas Tea for all the women in her various classes. Usually there are about 20 ladies but this time 28 came! (And 10 more were unable to attend.) There was no place to put them in our small house. Mrs. Yoko Saito, originally from our Niiza church, shared with the ladies about the true meaning of Christmas. Pray for these ladies as they contemplate Christmas and also for…
The first CPI BootCamp for basic church planting training was November 16-18. About 50 participated from all over Japan, from Sendai to Okinawa. John thinks that the BootCamp was the most effective regional training CPI has ever done. At the last minute, a guest speaker from the Acts 29 Network cancelled so John and Dan Iverson had to do an additional session. For the first time publically, John presented some of his research and new…
What were you doing on Respect for Elders Day (09/20)? Well, I was out walking in my neighborhood. At one point, I saw an older Japanese man, I thought in his 80s, who was being followed by a man with a large video camera, a man carrying a tripod, and one man carrying one of those sound boom microphones. I figured it was Japan, land of the Sony video camera, so I simply greeted him.…
1. We send out monthly Intensive Prayer Memos via email. You can subscribe to these mailings at our website http://www.gospelrest.com/phplist/public_html/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 . We have had scattered reports that some people who signed up are not receiving it. So please check your spam filters and permit them through. If you still do not receive them, then let us know. (We are also addressing the technical issues.) 2. This website is usually updated usually weekly, definitely monthly. If…
The dollar is taking a beating against the yen making our support level very precarious. If you would like to give to our ministry, even one-time, we would appreciate it. Information is at our new webpage at the updated Converge Worldwide website http://www.convergeworldwide.org/give/49651.
Thanks for your prayers for John as he returned to the US to defend his doctoral research project on Oct 22nd. John passed! In fact, he said that it was stimulating and at times fun. The discussion will make the project better. John has some minor revisions to complete and then wait for official graduation in December. More information on John’s research is at http://www.gospelrest.com/research. John was able to visit both our kids, Tim and…
John is just wrapping up his doctoral research project on Characteristics of Leaders Reproducing Churches in Japan. The purpose was to understand what makes some leaders who reproduce churches in Japan effective. Through CPI and other avenues we want to clone and develop these kind of leaders. More information is at http://www.gospelrest.coJohn is just wrapping up his doctoral research project on Characteristics of Leaders Reproducing Churches in Japan. The purpose was to understand what makes…