What an amazing trip to Japan...!

Thank you for praying for our team.

There is so much to tell it’s hard to focus on a few things that we experienced as we traveled to Japan a week ago. We prepared as a team to sing some bilingual songs, teach at a kids camp and in general spend time with the people of Sakae Church. Even as we went our schedule wasn’t full and it seemed as if we might have more free time than we wanted on the trip.

What a joke!! God filled our days and nights with all kinds of opportunities. Here are some highlights….

Visiting with Former Contacts… Renee’s former host family came to visit with us and they were open for the first time to talk about the Lord and going to a church. The last time Renee spent time with them, they considered her church activities more a cult than anything. Renee and David spent hours with them having fun and encouraging them in going to church in Osaka and finding out more about Christ. WOW! Here's the gang...Our Team + Jun, Sanae, Toshi and Renee's Host Family

Sanae, a former student at NKU, took us around Nagoya and we had a great time with her. We were able to spend time with her on three differnt occasions and helped connect her to Katsutoshi (Kevin) Shimizu. Kevin spent some nice time with her and invited her to return to them for Sundays together. Sanae has said she would like to be a christian but her family will shun her if she does. We are praying that Sanae would just simply continue to come to church and continue to hear truth in the midst of her families objections.

Our friend Jun came to visit from Tokyo and he came to church for the first time in his life. He said it was really different than anything he thought it was and enjoyed it. Later at dinner, Jun said he really wanted to meet some Christian friends like he had known in America. We are praying that Jun will attend a church in the Tokyo area and get connected to some Japanese Christians.

Encouraging the Believers… During a small group time at church, Pastor Suematsu shared a short message from the story of Gideon and the ladies shared from their hearts different ways God has proven faithful to them when they didn’t have everything they thought they needed. Renee shared how she has scripture cards and clings to God’s word in her weakness. Later that week, a lady came to visit with her and shared how her story has helped her fight depression by clinging to God’s word. The same day we meet for the small group this lady went out of her way to buy some flip cards and then filled it by Sunday with over 50 bible verses. She confessed to Renee that clinging to God’s word has been the only thing that has been getting her through her days and how grateful she was for Renee. Again WOW!

Kids Camp… We spent three days at the kids camp and in all the fun we had with the kids, we were able to build relationships and serve. Mark Sprague taught the kids some bible messages, Dave Murphy lead the group through some practical crafts and them about the Holy Spirit, Justin and Lauren Duke were the favorites with marshmallow games and cool kid songs. In the end, we learned a lot about how the church loves and serves their kids. We had one simple message that we were able to share and apply through the week. We spent time teaching about a picture of heaven where all peoples will share in the praise of God. We even were able to teach a bilingual worship song and have different languages singing and enjoying the Lord through worship at the same time. WOW!

It was simply a WOW week. Our last Sunday there was filled from 9am – 9pm with church worship, sharing a testimony from Renee, David, Mark and David sharing during the adult Sunday school along with two evangelist outreach events. The coffee concert and BBQ. The coffee concert was amazing as all these people in their twenties came and participated in a rock worship concert. It was unbelievable. Justin and Yuki played a loud set together and Dave Murphy & Mark played a quiet set. Kako, one of the organizers, shared her testimony and we got the chance to truly see and experience white hot Japanese worshippers. A BBQ was held after the coffee concert and people just kept coming. Pastor Suematsu was amazed by how many people came and was wondering where they all came from. God brought 65+ people to these events and really blew our minds. Don’t misunderstand, numbers are not important but it was exciting to see so many people there enjoying fellowship, worship and making new friends. The trip was also important for me personally as we are planning to move to this community in March. God is drawing us closer together in relationship with the church and they are excited that we are planning to join them in Japan. God continues to confirm His plan for our family on the field.

There is so much to say – I really can’t seem to collect my thoughts on how God showed up in so many different ways all week. Stayed tuned as Justin Duke is writing about our trip to Japan from his journalist talents.