Another way you can partner with us is interceding before God on our behalf. Prayer requests: Ask God for strength in the personal and church visits throughout September especially September 30th at West Hills Community Church west of St. Louis. Continue to pray for our plans to return to Japan including our financial support (above). Besides normal ministries, there is much personal business and work projects to be completed. Ask God for a speedy processing…
We are very blessed to have many ministry partners, 36 local churches and over 20 individuals. One church member said, “We do not like our missionaries being held back from their ministry” and then doubled their monthly giving to us. In the last three weeks, God has provided $340 in monthly support. Today our need is $160 per month, and when achieved we are again off to Japan. Want to join this team that accelerates…
Elaine and I were honored to participate in the Second Quad Cities Missions Conference on Sunday August 12th. This very unique network includes six local churches in Illinois and Iowa and extends into two Converge regions. These churches are locking arms and aligning their budgets with the vision to send more local people out as missionaries to the nations. The six pastors had a pulpit exchange all preaching from Psalm 67, a mission Psalm. At…
Recently a pastor (with a doctorate) asked me a research question on marriage patterns in Japan. They quoted from Stephanie Coontz (Marriage, a History). She asserts Japan is culturally promoting sex among it young population: “Japanese pundits lament the drop in business in Japan’s rent-by-the-hour ‘love hotels’ and some are calling for the youth to not hate sex.” Is this idiosyncratic or is she truly reflecting the culture? So I researched it a bit (the Dr. John in me).…
Because of my role with Japan Church Planting Institute, my UTube videos, my website, and other ways people contact me when they are interested in planting churches in Japan. These are all people I have never met, nor are their part of our Converge Worldwide network. God is calling people to work in Japan; it is amazing considering all the ways he does this. For the past two weeks I have been receiving an unusual…
Japan is quiet and exotic and unusual place for foreigners. For the last several weeks we have been looking at some examples of things that surprise foreigners. The first week’s list at: http://www.gospelrest.com/japan-surprises-foreigners/ Japanese people really like Yahoo! GPS is automatically included in rental cars You can leave a bag to save your seat and no one will steal it A small-size drink is actually quite small There are power lines all over the place…