Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I am sorry that I haven’t written the ID letter for such a long time.  There are so much that I want to report to you.  Thank you for your continuous prayers and support.  God has been moving forward in His ministries.

By the time you receive this letter, Christmas is already over and you might be enjoying the New Year.  Soon, we on the US side will be leaving for St. Louis, MO, to attend Urbana 09 Student Missions Conference where JCFN was born 20 years ago.  At this conference, we are expecting over 20,000 students to gather to be in the presence of the Lord, to hear from His words, to learn about His ministries and to respond to His callings.  There will be about 20 from students and young adults from churches in Japan as a part of the Urbana Tour.  We are helping them as well as providing Japanese translation, and organizing Japanese gathering where we usually have about 100 people.  I think we can report on this next month.

Report on Itinerant Trips and Events

From Aug 5-9^th, in Helsinki, Finland, I attended the 21^st Europe Japanese Christian Conference.  Over 250 people who speak Japanese gathered from all around Europe.  What I was encouraged the most was the fact we were given opportunities to share Christ in the city of Helsinki.  We baked cookies, wrote Bible verses on Japanese fans, practiced songs and skits to introduce Jesus.  Although we didn’t speak their language, we were able to communicate the joy in the Lord and with the help of the local Christians, there were moments where the Gospel was shared.  I attended the conference to promote ANRC, networking among Japanese ministries, and to share how the Lord is working through the overseas Japanese ministries in Japan.  I was also able to serve as a messenger for the young adult track and to help out the youth group as well. The photo above is with the youth group before we went to the street evangelism.  I also had an opportunity to preach at one of the Finish churches.  With the help of translation, we were able to worship the same Lord together!

From Aug. 21-23, at Seattle Washington, I attended Warm Beach Camp sponsored by JEMS as a speaker.  This was organized by JXJ, a monthly outreach ministry in Seattle (http://cid-1b4aec4b618a8ace.profile.live.com/).  The students had organized this and about 40 of them attended.  Last year, two persons were saved and one of them had shared his testimony of his salvation at this camp.  This year, four were saved during the camp and three after the camp.  The Lord is at work!  Four of them will be returning to Japan this winter.  Please pray for their continuous growth in Jesus.

The following weekend, Aug. 28-30 in Vancouver, I again served as one of the speakers at the annual camp for Vancouver Japanese Gospel Church.  Here, too, God saved a person.  It was a privilege to work with Pastor and Mrs. Fukusaku who gives everything they got to serve the Lord and share Christ with young people with such joy and laughter.  It was also a great opportunity to learn about differences between Japanese ministries in Canada and the US.  The Lord is using this church to save souls and send them back to Japan.  It was just a joy to serve with this church since this kind of partnership is what JCFN is all about. (http://www.japanesegospelchurch.com/)

On September 8-9, we had a two-day US Board Meeting.  And on October 19-20 in Chiba, we had Japan Board Meeting.  After what the Lord had shown us at the first ANRC, and now we are beginning to get ready for the 20^th anniversary of JCFN, we gathered together to hear from the Lord and to obey Him.  It was a very fruitful time of discussion and we will be building up the three year plan.

Introducing New Staff!!

There are many important things that were discussed at the board meetings, but one of the most thing that I am excited about is God had given us New Staffs!  First, Yoshiki Saeki (Right Top) in Oregon, he will be serving as equipper conference 10 director.  Next, Mark Shiraiwa (Right Bottom)in California, he will be in charge of leadership development including WIT leadership camp.  They will be serving as our new associate staffs.  Also we have Machiko Miki (Left) who studied in California and now had returned to Wakayama right now, is now an appointee for US Office Staff.  In order for her to be installed, she will be raising her support.  They are answers to prayers.  We as staff have been praying to God to send more workers for His field at 10:02 in the morning and at night (Luke 10:02).  We believe this is just the beginning of His answers.  Please pray that God will continue to send workers to JCFN and also to the ends of the world.

Report on Itinerant Trips and Events (Part 2)

From September 15^th till November 17^th, I travelled throughout Japan.  I can’t write all about it here, but we had ANRC Kick off meetings in Hokkaido, Kanto, Kansai (Right photo), Nagoya and Fukuoka.  Also during these two months, much preparation for ANRC next March was started.

Also at the end of September, Fifth Japan Evangelism of Congress was held in Hokkaido.  One of the major projects was focusing on World Diaspora Mission.  I see that the churches in Japan are not only more aware of God’s ministries among Japanese overseas.  God’s work is definitely moving forward.

During the trip to Japan, I was able to follow up returnees personally.  Miss M who returned to Japan last year was not able to go to the church for a while, but when we met, she found a fellowship and this Christmas she is baptized.  Also Miss R who returned this summer has not found her church yet, but she is now sharing her faith with her friends and slowly but surely she is walking her walk as a Christ follower.  This is just a glimpse of follow up ministries.  I was reminded again of the importance of personal follow up.  Those who return to Japan need Christian friends who point Jesus out to them even in the midst of difficulties.

After Japan, I went to Sydney, Australia and New Zealand from November 17^th through December 8^th.  Japanese ministries in these Oceania have the history of 20 years or so.  Newly planted churches and formed fellowship are working together with the local churches, building up good collaboration ministering to Japanese.  Many of the Japanese in these countries are there with ‘working holiday’ visas.  That means they are there only for one year and they travel from one city to the next every couple of months.  This means the churches need to network and communicate close enough to continue to work on the same group of people.  Just the other day, five groups of Japanese ministries in North and South New Zealand got together and had a time of sharing and learning from each other, and discussed how to build team work and partnership.  During this trip, Mrs. Yokoyama from Japanese Outreach which also work for following up of returnees from European countries and I traveled together.  We provided follow up seminars and also training time for those who will be preparing returnees to go back to Japan.  It was a great experience.

Once again, a Happy New Year!

This was my life since August.  It was a long and many travel time, and now the year is over!  God had answered your prayers and had sustained my health as I traveled.  My co-workers sacrificially supported the entire ministry so that I could travel.  It is just such a blessing to be able to build wider and deeper network among churches ministering to Japanese throughout the world.  From Arctic Circle and to Antarctic circle, God had given me travel mercy.  Thank you so much for reading my long report. 

We realize there are many more challenges awaiting us.  Throughout the travel, God had reminded me that ‘trusting in Him’ is the most important key.  If you take a step of faith, then the Red Sea will part.  It is not the situation that determines the future, but it is the obedience with faith listening to God’s voice and continue to walk as He leads is the most important thing.  I pray that that will be the walk for JCFN and also for all of us.  I am expecting the Lord to do great things once again in and through the ministries of JCFN.  We pray the same things for you and for us.  We pray for much blessings on you and your family as new year starts.