Changed Lives: God at Work

One of the biggest challenges in Japanese ministry is the reaching out to men. The men are generally not available inside the culture. They work extremely long hours and are expected to be there all day and then go out with colleagues to strengthen their relationships. It very normal to see men work 12 + hour days in Japan. It's pretty easy in our culture to call in quites at end of day, but in Japan it's not exactly optional. So, the men are hard to reach. It's one of the reasons that when men engage in church, small group or anything that exposes them to God's word we get excited.

Some neat things are happening through the efforts of our Barnabas Team at Grace Fellowship Church. David Murphy was recently getting to know one the Japanese men at the "Walk in the Word" class. "Walk in the Word" is a new class aimed at introducing the God of the Bible to Japanese people attending church. We are simply reading scripture and looking at God through His attributes and presenting the gospel. It's an exciting time as we have never had this opportunity before. Anyway our Japanese friend was telling us that he is coming to church because of his wife. He said something had happened to her and she is completely different than she used to be. He said he wanted to find out what happened to her and he could see himself becoming a Christian. He just doesn't understand it yet. How exciting is that!! Through the faith of his beleiveing wife, God is now working on her husband.

The Delp family has started Japanese small group just this past month and it's been good to spend time with them as several Japanese men are now attending with their wives. Most of the men don't know the Lord but are coming each week and hear about Grace, Marriage, the Gospel and our hope in Christ. It sounds simple but we know that fiath comes by hearing the word of God and we are praying that these men will continue to come and that God might save them right before our eyes. Please pray for the Japanese men that God is calling and are coming to Grace Fellowship Church.

October Prayer Requests

MONDAY: Please pray for life-giving friendships: loneliness and discouragement / depression are two of the biggest struggles people in ministry face. We have many friends here in America. Pray that they would have true friends whom they can trust with both everyday and extremely difficult things as we serve in Japan. Pray for mutual relationships which are life-giving. Pray for joy and laughter.

TUESDAY: Please pray for the next phase of our transition back to Japan. We are continuing our preparations for departure but our support in not yet in place. Please pray that God would connect us to those people and churches who would join us in ministry. We are about 74% funded but the last 26% is still a big part of our overall support . Please pray for this critical part of our return to serve among the Japanese. If you have contacts at churches outside Grace Fellowship who might be interested in our ministry please let us know—we would love to share our vision with others.

WEDNESDAY: Praise – You were praying for our language school placement and it appears that all the paperwork has been received. Please continue to pray for language school plans in Nagoya. This will be an ongoing prayer request so please continue to pray for our acceptance.

THURSDAY: Please pray for Sarah Grace and Sam as they are thriving in school. They entered Cline Elementary for the first time in August and they will attend Japanese public school upon our return. This is a big transition for our whole family and we are praying that we would all turn to the Lord as we face new challenges.

FRIDAY: Please pray for a Pastor intern to be identified this year. We have been praying as a Barnabas Team for the the birth of an entire missionary team from Grace Fellowship to be working on the field in Japan. A Pastor would be part of that team so please pray that the God show us the right person to interview and invite to be part of the work among the Japanese.

Pray Luke 10:2 for God’s work in Japan. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

SATURDAY: Please pray for us as we begin some language learning this fall. Marcy is meeting with a Japanese friend and is learning new vocabulary and refreshing some skills. David is already meeting with an NKU student tutor in Japanese. Pray that God would give us time and drive to acquire these new skills in language.

SUNDAY: Praise – God continues to show us the way back to Japan and the housing issues all being resolved is a huge blessing. Now, we focus on other priorities and rest knowing one large piece of our transition has been taken care of. We praise God, that He takes care of His people and His plans cannot be thwarted.