Happy
New Years everyone! It is time once more to look back on the past
year, recall what has happened, and see how best to thank God for all
of the great blessings. Sometimes we think that not much has happened
in the past year. However when we actually sit down to try to recall past events, we can realize just how much God has blessed and protected through all the uncertainties. Fortunately, as a missionaries we keep written records
of the past year via email updates, so it is easier to reflect back
on the past. This April 2020 will end our third year here this term. For
2019 our verse seemed to be Psalm
27:14
as follows:
“Wait
on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart:
wait, I say, on the LORD.”
Looking
back on the past year it has really been a year of waiting. Japan is
a patient work much like a very slow and careful game of chess: it
takes time as well as careful consideration to do well. To understand these
people, their language, and customs really takes much duration. Much of what
we do in America is the direct opposite of the Japanese way of
thinking. With each soul learning new spiritual concepts, with each
of the thousands of Kanji to learn, with understanding how to
communicate well, and with adjusting here a great amount of patience is
required. A veteran missionary here half-jokingly, half-seriously
stated that it takes five years to speak, five years to hear, and ten
years to understand Japanese! Japanese people greatly value patience,
silence, and time. Sometimes as Americans this can be frustrating
since we want immediate results, high efficiency, and success! (And we want
it now!) Nothing can demonstrate this more clearly than trying to
learn how to read Kanji in Japanese. Imagine learning a new alphabet
each week for a year and a half, then trying to apply it immediately!
That is the equivalent to learning the Japanese Kanji! Nothing forces
patience on an unwieldy American like this experience!
Looking
back over the past year continuing to go to Japanese language school
from January of last year until June when our new baby daughter was
born was a lot of necessary work. Since June it has been interesting
to switch over to going to community classes, self-study, and
language partners each week. Keeping up a daily disciplined study has
helped to increase communication, reading, writing, and listening
skills, however there is still a lot of work to do. From a health
prospective, this last year has only had about two weeks of being
sick, so that was a great blessing. Also we praise God that the baby
birth went extremely well. In the realm of evangelism we have ordered
75,000 gospel tracts and put out about 62,000 this last year. We
continue to daily meet people from all around the world when we go
into public. We also made a new international website for evangelism
purposes here: http://AfterDeathTruth.weebly.com/
Each day it continues to get views from all around the world as the
internet appears to be the main place people congregate now. Please
pray for these outreach efforts. Taking part in leading a man to the
Lord and slowly discipling him this year has been a great blessing
and encouragement. Also our first Japanese friend continues to grow
spiritually, has completed many 'Source of Light Japan' Bible
courses, and has finished translating 'One Heartbeat Away' into
Japanese, as well as a few gospel tracts. He continues to desire
serving God. His entire family is now born-again, with his mother recently
being baptized. The church we are working with has seen some salvations and baptisms over the past year as well.
My
wife has done a great job taking care of us and the new baby. She has
also made a lot of great relationships with neighbors here and is
commonly invited into their houses which is a rare privilege in
Japan. One neighbor has really taking a liking to her and has taught
her how to make as well as bind books! Katie hopes to use this skill to make
evangelistic children's books in the future. God is really using her
in a lot of local relationships. Our previous friendships have also
been maintained which have opened the door to many a spiritual
conversation. We know that seeds are being planted and watered
slowly. We are really grateful for new friendships this year. Please
remember to continue to pray for these people. My wife was also able
to plan and host a missionary woman's retreat with the help of a few
ladies, which was a much needed blessing. Our older daughter has been
enjoying her time with the children here as well as learning new
Japanese words. Someday she will be our teacher! Our adult English
class has also been a blessing. We have been able to do two separate
classes in the last year: one with a 8 session course doing the
gospel message, and one on-going class to go through Genesis 1 through 11. Each class is free and has been well-liked by the
students.
The
ups come with downs as well when we can become frustrated with the
slow pace of spiritual successes, the battles of learning the
language, and difficulties of living in a new culture. As we reflect
back on the year we realize that there have been a lot of blessings,
struggles, and surprises. Learning this mission field will be a
life-long pursuit with it's own unique advantages and disadvantages.
Please pray for this next year as the Olympics will be coming to
Tokyo along with all of the opportunities that will come with it.
Thank you for your prayers and support.
