Category: Updates/News

John got back last night from attending the second Church Multiplication Vision Festival National Strategy meeting in Kobe, Japan. Eighteen leaders attended this year including Pastor Seima Aoyagi from our CPI Leadership team.   We were all considering a national strategy for Japan, one that includes the vision of 50,000 churches (currently <8,000) and 2% of the population Christian (now <1%). Never in our careers has there been this faith, enthusiasm, and focus on saturating…

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Thank you for your prayers, interest, and encouragements as we prepare for the major transition this year of relocating to the US and John assuming a new position on the Converge Asia Impact Team. Please pray for the ongoing physical preparations and also the changing feelings. Saying Goodbye (for a while) – We said goodbye to the Tokyo District churches of the Rengo on January 19th at the Nerima Baptist Church. This was a marvelous…

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John leaves Monday for the Global Church Planting Network – Global Summit for Church & Disciple Multiplication in Thailand. Over 200 global leaders will be gathering to consider how to complete the Great Commission by saturating nations with churches and engaging all unengaged people groups by 2025.  John will be the co-leader for the East Asia group of about 5-15 leaders. Pastor Nagai, from Vision Festa will also be attending from Japan. Pray as there…

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We wish you a Happy New Year. We are excited for this New Year and a new decade. For us 2020 brings big transitions in our ministry and new opportunities. As we enter our 35th year of ministry in Japan we are also preparing for the major transition this year of relocating to the US and John assuming a new position on the Converge Asia Impact Team. Most everyone knows about these changes and now…

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  It was the biggest CPI National Conference ever! It took faith to move to a new venue but God filled it up, and He blessed and we did not have to turn one person away. Attendance was over 700 people for the first time. The children’s ministry had 218 children in it! We continue to minister to the new families God is sending to Japan. “I saw the need for vision and equipping our…

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God has been leading and we are excited about our future. Converge has asked John to assume a new position with the Asia Impact Team beginning November 2020. This transition means fresh opportunities: Change in Location – We will be relocating our home base to Illinois where we will serve leaders with online training and mentoring and traveling to Asia 2-4 times per year. Change in Position – John will not retire but continue with…

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Elaine’s biggest event of the year – the Christmas Tea – is this Monday December 9th. This may be the biggest as it is Elaine’s last. Pray that the message of Christ will be crystal clear as Elaine shares her personal story of Christmas. We will be wrapping up several other book projects this month. John has several key meetings before we leave on Dec 16 for our brief US Christmas trip.  Merry Christmas to…

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John was in Mongolia in late September where he explained to about 40 leaders why networking for church planting has helped church planting in Japan and Asia. These words are from his greeting: “I’m John Mehn director of the Japan Church Planting Institute. Japan has a population of 127 million people and Japan is merely 0.45% Christian. We need help planting churches. Do you ever need help planting churches? A few years ago a friend…

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WHAT DID GOD DO? John was in Mongolia Sep 23-28 for the GCPN – East Asia Network. God encouraged and challenged all in attendance. John’s presentations on multiplication went very well, learned a lot, and he enjoyed meeting new Mongolian church planters. Thanks for praying for the Church Planting Institute (CPI) Leadership Team planning retreat last month. We had great discussions and some key decisions were made (news later). Just last week, while John was…

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Fall and Mongolia WHAT DID GOD DO? The Big Switch is completed; thanks for your prayers and encouragements. This summer we moved with our son from our US home base in Rockford IL to Pecatonica IL, about 20 miles west (pic above). This home is very close to our daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids. We packed, remodeled, moved (on the hottest day of the year), remodeled, and put the Rockford house up for sale. Parts of…

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