Catching up #3: Konishi Family

Catching up again, introducing you to the Konishi family that we met at the end of 2009. I met the Dad and his 2 girls at the park back in October. They soon started coming to Oyumino Kids bilingual kids program on Sunday mornings.

When all the kids started practicing for the Christmas program in November, the Konishi kids got excited and kept coming regularly. For Christmas worship on Dec 20, the family stayed for worship for the first time!
They have continued attending Oyumino Alive Church regularly, even after we left for America. Please pray with us that through the community of Japanese and missionary believers at Oyumino Alive, they would come to know God as their Creator and Heavenly Father!

Catching up #2: Saying Goodbye to our Church

Catching up again from our busy last week in Japan (in January) here is a photo from our last Sunday at Oyumino Alive Church that we have been working with the past 2 years. Oyumino Alive is a new church-plant of Oyumino Christ Church (PCJ) that was the first mission church established by our team over 15 years ago.
We have a diverse congregation primarily composed of Japanese, but also including Filipino, Korean, African, and American members. Our Sunday morning worship is bilingual (Japanese & English) and has attracted a number of Japanese families with overseas experience.
The last 2 Sundays in Japan, church members stayed after to make special hand-made gifts for our supporters in America. We were blessed by their efforts - plus we had lots of fun fellowshipping together.

We had a community dinner at the church building our last night and we were blessed to have some of our non-Christian Japanese friends join in - and get to know the local community of Japanese believers as well!
I had the opportunity to share about God's faithfulness to us in our trials, and the hope that we have in Christ! It was such a special night together with these dear friends. May God Continue to bless and guide Oyumino Alive Church ... for His Glory!

Catching up: Last Crossway Home Party

Catching up on some big events before we left Japan, here are some photos from our final Crossway Home Party with Japanese students and missionary friends.This is Kakeru, our good friend who loves to play with Calvin.
They have been friends since Calvin was only a few months old!

Calvin charming our friends Yukko and Saki.

Here is our good friend Keisuke. He grew up in Japan but goes to college in America. He was back in Japan for winter break and it was great to have him join in our last Home Party before we headed off to America.

We had some serious time of sharing that was very meaningful
but also had lots of fun playing games and telling stories from the past 2 years
... with lots of laughter!!! :)

A few people left early, but this shows most of the people who were there. We felt very "appreciated" and encouraged that night. We can't wait to get back to Japan to continue in our journey with these students.
This photo includes Matt & Carly (new long-term MTW missionaries in Japan), Isaac (finishing up his 2-year term), and Yukko (Japanese national staff) who will be continuing in relationship with the many Japanese students involved with Crossway. Please pray for them!

Packing up and Leaving for ~1 year in America

As we prepared to return to America for our one year home ministry assignment - we had to pack everything up and move to one of our team buildings for storage. Here is our "happy home" the morning of moving day.

We were blessed to have a number of men help us load our truck. It took 4 trips in this little Toyota truck with a canvas cover. Several friends from church, as well as friends from the neighborhood also helped.
After all the big stuff got moved out, we still had work to do, packing up all our luggage and boxes to take on the plane.
At the airport, we had the help of 6 college students who not only honored us by coming all the way to the airport to say goodbye, but helped us roll our 6(!) airport carts up to the checkout counter.
Here is the whole group who came to send us off. We were moved by their commitment to come all the way to the airport (~$18 train fare) to show their appreciation. Pray for these 6 students who will all become college Seniors during the year we are gone. Pray that they will remain in relationship with other missionaries and Japanese Christians.

Crossway Thanksgiving Dinner

We hosted a Thanksgiving Dinner for 12 Japanese and 7 English speaking friends. Adding my family (including my parents who were visiting) and kids, we had 28 people in our home! We were jam-packed in (it was quite hard for some people to get out for seconds!) and we eventually took down the folding tables and spread out on the floor for games and fellowship.
9 of those attending are not yet believers, and it was good to share about what we each were thankful for. It was a meaningful time, and several people became emotional. It was encouraging to see the growing trust level in our community
Here is most of the group from that night. Please be praying for the many students who had been exposed to the truth of the Gospel, but do not yet believe.

Crossway "Overnight"

We had 5 Japanese students and several other friends spend the night. We watched the Christian movie "Fireproof"　(which you can rent in any Japanese video store under the name "Firestorm"). We had a good discussion about relationships, and then stayed up late playing games and playing the Wii (you can see it projected against a white sheet in the background!)


The next moring, our kids had fun waking up some of the students who overslept! We enjoyed panckes and eggs for breakfast.

Jon Translating at Oyumino Alive

It has been a great blessing to work together with Dedachi-san, our Japanese Pastor. When I lead the worship service in English, he translates into Japanese, and when he leads in Japanese, I usually translate for him into English.Translating sermons takes more preparation on my part (working through the sermon script in advance) but has been good language learning and good ministry experience for me. I've done it 4 or 5 times now and each time I've felt more and more comfortable and had to rely on my notes less and less. Language learning is a life-long process!

East Tokyo Presbytery Worship & Picnic

We had a gathering of the 14 churches in our East Tokyo Presbytery at Honda Chapel.
You can see the Oyumino Gospel Choir singing, while the more traidional Choir in on deck in the front. We also had a message from a Japanese pastor encourageing us in evangelism and church-planting in our region.
We also had fun playing volleyball ... or just playing with balls in Calvin's case. :)

We wrapped up the evening with a BIG Japanese style barbecue for ~100 people.

Can you spot Calvin and I in the back, behind the smoke?
We had fun hanging out with our friends working the BBQ.

Many lingered, both inside and out, and it was a great fellowship time for our Presbytery.
Please pray that our Presbytery would continue to grow and be an influence in the East Tokyo area - for His Glory!

Oyumino Christ Church - Joint Worship

Our Church, Oyumino Christ Church (おゆみ野キリスト教会) currently meets in 3 different locations on Sunday mornings. Quarterly, we all meet together for worship (200+ people). This time we all squished together to take a photo for the church Christmas card.


Does this church seem small to you? Well, the average congregation in Japan has only 32 people, so this church is actually "quite huge" in Japan!

This photo primarily includes Japanese Christians, plus some missionaries and a number of not-yet-believing Japanese who regularly attend.

Please join us in praying for our Church.
- Pray for each location (Oyumnio, Honda, Toke) to continue to grow through conversions in each area.
- Pray for the depth and number of cell groups in the church to grow.
- Pray for more men to be raised up as Elders in the Church.
- Pray for the many members whose spouses do not yet believe.
- Pray that young families would be able to raise their children to follow the Lord, when it is so 'against the grain' of the culture.
- Pray for the one missionary and 2 Japanese pastors who are leading these 3 congregations.

Family Pictures

So our family was due for a photoshoot, trying to get a good one for our new MTW Prayer Card. Enjoy!








Olivia's pained expression here is priceless ... after an afternoon full of so many poses and smiles.