Ministry Updates and News from the Mehns
We are often asked what a typical day is for us. Well, we are still out searching for one. But sometimes we have very untypical days. John was recently on a 4 day trip to 4 locations, 3 cities, 3 prefectures, 1421.7 km (883.4 miles) mainly by bullet train, 2 interviews, a sermon on forgiveness, sermon training for lay people, an ad hoc mission Executive Committee mtg., the Rengo Mission Liaison committee meeting, the Rengo…
This year our November brought our yearly ministry planning for the mission and a fun time of celebrating Thanksgiving together. This year it was earlier than the traditional US date (but later than Canadian Thanksgiving Day). We are so thankful to have our new missionary, Lori Harms with us. Also the Asian Director and his wife were also able to celebrate with us. We are looking for more people to join our Japan Field Team.
It seems that God had orchestrated a “dream team” of church leaders for interviews for his field research on reproducing churches. The group of leaders is a very good cross-section of leaders from around the country and various organizations. John is nearly done with the Interview part of the FIeld Research. Now he moves into the phase of analyzing all the information he has collected. Ask God to grant strength and wisdom to John as…
Even though Japan is an advanced and prosperous nation there are the hidden human costs of progress. The image of Japan, and one that the Japanese would love to project, is that this is a society with everything put together right. One area that has been growing since the 1980’s is the number of people who are working but are just above the poverty line. An article with a good example can be found in…
Amazed by the expected and surprised by the unexpected. That describes our last 2 ½ year adventure. We returned to Japan, packed our belongings and moved to the other side of Tokyo. In a 6 month period, we sold our condo in the States, bought a house, moved into it, moved back to Japan, and moved to the other side of Tokyo. We said good-bye to our kids who stayed behind in the U.S., said…
The BGC Japan Mission needs one or two children’s workers to provide a children’s’ ministry program for 6 missionary children ages 8-18 during our annual Field Council April 6-9, 2009. Those coming allow the field staff to conduct their annual Field Council without having to worry about also caring for their children. Come and enjoy Mount Fuji and the rest of Japan. For more information contact Mary Lou Ellison at MLTellison@aol.com.
It has been an extremely interesting year in that Major League Baseball officially started the season HERE in Tokyo in March. Now my two Chicago teams THERE have won their division, the White Sox and the Cubs. (Also my favorite Japanese team, the Seibu Lions, won their division too). The White Sox and Cubs have not both won their divisions since 1906. Jay Leno said the world may end if the Cubs win. He has…
In order to keep in touch better, we moved this website to a new server and we are still rearranging the furniture. Some of the internal web links in the pages do not work. We are trying fix them as soon as possible. Until then simply use the webpage navigation on the top left. Thanks for your patience and your prayers. John and Elaine
Click here for Newsletter PDF file teaming-leaders-may-2008
The last CPI Regional Equipping Seminar held throughout 2006 and into this spring was held last week. John conducted some training on Clarifying your Ministry Core Values. Another seminar was on Personal and Church-based Evangelism. Over this period, CPI has had eight regional seminars, in 5 regions of Japan, covering 9 different training topics, equipping 132 missionaries and 105 Japanese (44% of the total). This does not include the over 100 who were involved in…