1. A key Rengo National Mission Department meeting will be held June 11, 12 in Nara. Pray for God to grant vision, faith, wisdom and joy. 2. A team from California joined by veteran Ritsuko Narita from Bethlehem Minneapolis will form another team to serve in Ishinomaki to help disaster victims. June 16-27th. Elaine will be joining the group from 21st-26th to target women’s ministry with Linda Bengtson. Pray for travel, safety, prepared hearts, and…
JAPAN was privileged to have Dr. Dan Maxton pastor of LifeBridge church in San Diego visit us last month. He ministered at Field Council along with Roger Inouye (from Wisconsin). The rest of the time Dan met with Rengo pastors and stayed at the Mehn guest house. Some highlights were meeting with members of the Rengo National Mission Department, where we discussed assessment processes for church planters including a new tool translated into Japanese on…
1. Thank God for his strength, wisdom, endurance, faith, and orchestrated surprises during “non-stop” April. Again a full schedule of classes, key meetings, events, and projects. Keep praying! 2. John & Elaine are off to Yamagata prefecture on May 24-29th to spend time with Mr. and Mrs. N in her parent’s home. We have been sharing the gospel with them locally for several years. As we have built this relationship, pray for natural opportunities to…
I have suffered significant loss in the last year. One year ago, April 14th, my mother passed away. I am very grateful that she had a great life, died well, and knew Jesus and is now in heaven. She is still missed. My father died in 1991 so much of my time in Japan has been away from my mother. I used to call her every Saturday which I miss very much. She was always…
Several months ago a very curious and intelligent young woman wrote to me for her school assignment on missionaries. This was one of her questions and my answer. Besides the Bible what is your resource? Great question. The Bible is the greatest resource for spiritual development, the understanding of God, the church and how we go about missions. It is our key to the Biblical worldview which we must know well to make indigenous churches…
A new Japan missionary colleague Ian Smith recently wrote on his blog about indigenous missionaries. I liked his answer (from Dr. Ralph Winter) so I thought I would post it here too. I will add a few points to the end. Can’t the Japanese Christians evangelize other Japanese better than missionaries? I asked a question very similar to this to Ralph Winter when he taught a session of the Perspectives class in Seattle a few…