Ministry Updates and News from the Mehns
GOD ANSWERED We have had pretty good adjustments to living again in the US. Continue to pray for our adjustments. John’s presentation in his class at Trinity Seminary on Confucianism and Japanese Leadership went very well. We got off to a good start for our US Tour Home Assignment scheduling. We plan to visit each of our 35 partnering churches but many churches to still schedule. PRAYER PARTNER SPOTLIGHTS (These we are sharing with churches)…
We just begun our Home Assignment tour in the US from March through December 2016. Home Assignment places many challenges on missionaries. First there is closing down some ministries, transferring others, taking care of details, and the worst is saying all the goodbyes. Then you get on the plane. After the plane lands: arriving, getting settled, getting prepared, planning and scheduling, making new friends, traveling seems like all the time. Now that we have been…
SCHEDULE MEHN US TOUR – MARCH 03/12 Breakfast meeting at Skokie Valley Baptist, Wilmette IL 03/13 Meadows Christian Fellowship, Rolling Meadows, IL (our home church) 03/20 Evangel Baptist Church, Wheaton, IL 03/31 Leave for first Rocky Mountain Tour (Colorado and Wyoming)
GOD ANSWERED We are grateful to God that the missionary house in Higashi Kurume was finished ahead of schedule. That allowed us to leave for the US without concerns. Continue to pray as landscaping and other projects wrap up. We had an uneventful trip back to the US on March 3rd and reunion with our kids and grandkids. We are somewhat settled in Rockford. After saying goodbye to jetlag, the tour is ready to start.…
February 2016 –Japan Ministry Spotlights and Prayer This month is full of transitions LEAVING ministry behind in Japan for a bit and ARRIVING in the US for a temporary Home Assignment to visit many of you. The Higashi Kurume Tokyo missionary residence and guesthouse is nearing completion. This rebuilding project is scheduled to be completed on February 28th and we hope to soon have the guesthouse ready. We just completed a Gospel Renewal Discipling Cohort…
Because opportunities are great and our time is not, we constantly work at focusing their energy and time for maximum Kingdom impact. Here are some areas that demand our focus. Focusing on Developing People – We continue with outreach classes, Bible studies, and spiritual mentoring. It is bittersweet that our cohort on gospel renewal discipling ends this month. On 1/31 John preaches in both services at the Nerima Baptist Church and then leads a training…
GOD ANSWERED 1. We had a very restful and joyful time with family in the US celebrating Christmas. 2. Our Japanese New Year meal on Jan 2nd with the N family was very special. 3. A dear friend who had cancer surgery in December has been cleared with no further treatments! PTL! 4. John took part in the Reaching Japanese for Christ first webinar last month. John talked about the CPI Conference and how to…
Some say last month’s CPI Conference was the best ever. One of our partners is Church Planter Seima Aoyagi who reported, “I serve on the CPI leadership team. Last month’s biennial conference had 415 adults and 113 kids. CPI has two major focuses — church planting and gospel-centeredness — that drew and united people from all over Japan. Even though we have only 0.22% evangelical Christians in Japan, it is such an encouragement to see…
GOD ANSWERED Our partnering denomination “The Rengo” had a wonderful 50th Anniversary celebration (Nov 2-3). For us it was good to see so many ministry partners. Before and after the CPI Conference we had 9 visitors blessing our home. Our Japan Field Council (Nov 26-27) was a great fellowship and planning time. Elaine’s Christmas Tea Outreach on November 30th was very encouraging for everyone. Short-term Intern Lydia Troe finished her 3 month assignment of children’s…
Over the next few weeks we are not really sure what to expect because God is doing so many things to further a national Church Multiplication vision. Last week John was with a network mobilizing to reach the key cities of Japan. That was one of several key events going on so please join us in this journey. Monday 10/26 – I am riding the bullet train heading to Ikoma Nara for the 2nd Church…