Team members' message board - Issue 2 (Part 1)

After nearly a week's silence due to limited internet access (in terms of convenience) and fatigue, we're back with updates on the Kids' Gospel programme at Yotsukaido that has kept us busy for the past week!

Praise the Lord! We are just back from Yotsukaido working with the church there on the Kids Gospel program. It has been a really blessed week. Thank God for the 50 kids who joined the Kids Gospel. It was quite tiring having so many kids jumping on us so it was really good to have a long rest day when we got back to Ichikawa. Thank God for homestay families who were not Christians to open up their homes for us to stay for 2 nights. I stayed with the same family I stayed with last year so it was really good to spend time with them again. Please be praying for them as I’ve found out that the mother has actually studied parts of the bible before and she’s got a few bibles. We had a street concert on Saturday and many of the kids came to watch and join in with the performance. We also gave out tracts and John’s gospel during that time and also some new testament bibles. Pray for all who received these that they will read it and be touched by the word of God. Give thanks to God for all the relationships we have formed there. There’s actually so much to say and give thanks for but I will leave it here and let the others tell you more.

Dai Lo Law

Hi all!! We have just got back from out first week out in a church in Yotsukaido, there is so much to give thanks for!!! For 50 kids coming each day, for 130 people being at the concert on the Sunday (130 before the kids!), for the street concert on the Saturday afternoon, for the opportunity to stay in non – Christian homes (Lu was with a family who have just returned from 2 ½ years in the USA who have 3 very sweet children, I was staying with a Buddhist Monk his wife and their two boys who were little monkeys!) and for all of the relationships that have been formed and for so many hearing about Jesus. It has been great seeing all these kids find out about Jesus and to see so many seeds being sown. Today was our day off and we slept well and had a very long lie in!!! Tomorrow it starts all over again - thank goodness we like rice and kids songs lots!!! Thank you all so so so much for your prayers!!

Lots of love,

Hutch & Lu xx

After reading Patrick McElligot’s (a WEC missionary who worked in Japan) autobiography On Giant’s Shoulders, I was reminded that it is the Lord who builds His church (Matthew 16:18). And I can’t help but thank the Lord for building His church in Yotsukaido, and especially for the Yotsukaido Family Church, where we spent a week for the Kids’ Gospel programme. The church was such an encouragement, for they so love the Lord and one another and are so Christ-like in their self-sacrificial service. And they took such good care of us and showed us so much love, even though it was the first time they have met all but one of us. What a privilege to be able to experience the joy of being in the Lord’s family!

And thank God for each of the 50 kids who came, each of whom He knows by name. By His grace, they were able to pick up the songs surprisingly quickly, and they simply gave us so much joy. Parting with them was hence, as expected, a rather emotional affair for some of them and some of us. The concert was very well-received by the parents too, judging from the applaused and how pleased they were with their children. But more importantly, the most wonderful Gospel message was shared through the songs and Katie’s testimony.

Thank God also for providing me with a wonderful home-stay family. I was brought to a game arcade called Varios on the first day, where I had so much fun playing those games with the 3 brothers and even their Mum! On the second day, their Mum cooked one of the most wonderful home-cooked dinner I’ve ever had. I’m even more grateful to the Lord for answering my prayer by providing me with an opportunity to share the Gospel with their Dad when he actually asked me what I was holding in my hand (i.e. the Gospel tract). By God’s grace, he listened very patiently to me.

Please pray that:

1. the Yotsukaido family church will continue to grow in love for one another and burden for the lost, praying especially that God will grant Pastor Ōhashi strength and wisdom in his ministry;
2. we’ll love the kids beyond “Oh, they are so cute and my heart just melted!” by continuing to pray (even in the years to come) that God will work on the seed of the Gospel that has been sown in their hearts;
3. in His time, the kids and their parents will eventually accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour;
4. God will have mercy on my home-stay family (the Ide family), and that salvation will come to this household.

Thank you ever so much for your prayers!

Yao Yu