Ministry Updates and News from the Mehns
Ever see a dream come true? Well last week I (John) did. For decades the Church Planting Institute (CPI) has been casting vision for church multiplication. Many training events have seen growing vision for new churches. But as of yet most of what we have done, even though many Japanese have been crucial part, there has been little Japanese leadership. The Vision Festa on October 29-30 changed the playing field entirely. Last week 65 key…
Some of you may be considering year-end charitable gifts. Consider giving to these needy projects. Give online at http://www.convergeworldwide.org/give John and Elaine Mehn, general fund. We still have a slight deficit for the current year. #49651. CPI special fund #31256 for helping Japanese attend church planting training and for developing online resources.
GOD ANSWERED Thank you for your special prayers for the Church Multiplication Vision Festa (above). Last month’s Love Japan meetings with John Piper and Donald Carson went very well in spite a Super Typhoon coming through at the same time. One friend was very moved by John Piper’s message and could not believe God’s power. PRAYER PARTNER SPOTLIGHTS November 3 and 4 are the Rengo national meetings followed by a one-day Church Planters Summit. John…
Two new workers arrived a few weeks ago to join the Japan team. One came for 6 weeks; one for a career. We are excited to have a new career missionary, one who felt the call to be sent, Ian Smith. Ian has a great passion for planting multiplying churches in Japan. Right now he is in full-time Japanese language studies, essential for in-depth ministry in Japan. Pray as he builds relationships with Japanese and…
GOD ANSWERED Thank you for the many people that responded to our financial appeals last month. Several increased their regular giving and many others sent in a one-time gift. We figure this will make up at least 1/3 of our deficit. More information is at GospelRest.com/give. The SOMA Seminar last month was great. Several are already applying the concepts. At John’s visit to Kansai (9/11) more showed up than expected. Things worked out in…
Normally in Japan they start numbering typhoons (hurricane, cyclones) at the beginning of the season. In the Caribbean they give them names like Hugo and Katrina Well this year I never started counting. Either we were gone for most of them, ignored them, or there just were not too many typhoons this year. Tonight a typhoon downgraded to a tropical storm will wend its way pass Tokyo up north. At most we will have 20-30…
Many of you probably know him by his writings and Desiring God ministry. John Piper is probably the most widely known pastor in our Converge Worldwide association of churches. He has served on our mission board. He is a Biblical scholar, a mission’s statesman, and a pastor of an exemplary missional church. After the tsunami his church Bethlehem Baptist church sent several teams to work with us in Ishinomaki among disaster victims. John Piper will…
Did you blink? Then you probably missed us. We were in the US this summer for a working vacation visiting supporters, friends, family, and doing some personal business. We had a great time visiting both Elk Grove Baptist Church and Temple Baptist Church in Rockford, IL. You can hear or download both of US SHARING THE MESSAGE “Click Send”. We also dropped in to Meadows Baptist Church, our home church and saw some personal supporters.…
ANSWERED PRAYER 1. Our new career missionary Ian Smith has arrived. Along with some orientation, we have located him an apartment, and he begins full-time language study today. Continue to pray for his smooth adaptation to Japan. 2. Mas Kobayashi also arrived and is busy working with Rengo churches. Pray for more short-term workers like him. 3. The CPI endorsed Soma Seminar (9/4-5) was very well attended and very stimulating. 4. We have been blessed…
We are so grateful to you for your financial support to permit us to serve in Japan. Our days are busy sharing Christ, nurturing followers of Christ, developing transformational leaders, equipping others to establish new churches which will be transforming in their communities. We were held back in the US in 2012 to get our support up to 100%. Last year we did pretty well. We were shocked with the first 3 months of this…