-Lottie

Thank you all so much for your prayers, and posts. Knowing that you guys are supporting us really does encourage us all!

Today was a fun day of sight seeing, walking, and shopping with the students. We had Yu, Natalie, Suguru, Haris, Yui, and another girl (who`s name I can`t remember) come with us today. We went to the top of tokyo tower, wich had an amazing view of the entire city (MASSIVE); went to Osaksa, a place with shrines and old arcitecture; and wen to Harajuku, which is a shiek shopping district combining elements of big city and small town with huge clothing stores and little t-shirt shops.

It is absolutely amazing how many students we are spending time with. Yuu, Natalie, & Haris we have spent time with before. But Suguru, Yui, and the other girl are all new to us. ( they have been with the church doing other stuff before though… Yui came to Dallas on a homestay program with PCPC & Oyumino). We would love it if you would continue to pray for all of them to come to Christ.

Haris (one of the students, who is still in high school, and is from Nepal) has a relatively unique situation. He will be leaving Japan soon to head back to Nepal. This means that, unlike the other students, he will only have a few months left to spend with the long term missionaries here before he is gone. We spent a lot of time with him today, and found out that he is Hindu (or Hindi…?) . Terry was able to talk talk to him at dinner tonight to tell him what we believe as Christians. We hope that this helped to plant a seed in his heart for Saving Faith. We were able to give him a Bible, also. We really want him to know how much the Lord loves him. Please pray that he will have many other opportunities to hear about Jesus both now in Japan, and when he goes back to Nepal.

Love you guys, TGIF!! Thank you all again for praying for us!!

- D. H. L. III

Thanks to all of you that are checking this blog and praying for this endeavor.

Today began when we left our hotel at 6:30am to begin passing out flyers (promoting the church`s English-speaking mininstry) a local train station. After this sometimes difficult and humbling experience (as rejection was often experienced), we enjoyed egg mcmuffins at the McDonalds next to the train station.

This evening, we put on a huge Texas night, with around 30 people in attendance. This was held at the Oyumino Chapel (not Honda). We had ten students (yeah!), most of whom we had seen before. Everyone was able to connect with the students and spend lots of quality time with them over some excellent taco salad and the best pralines this side of New Orleans. It was definitely one of the best Texas nights we have ever held, and the sight of 30 people line-dancing and laughing to some twangy Texas country music was a sight to behold.

Relationships with students are going well, and it is our hope that they continue to grow closer to the long-term missionaries and hopefully to Christ after we leave.

Love you, and good moring! (We are going to bed!)

Lottie (with contributions from Terry)

Even now it is midnight, and our day started at 6:30 am.

But back to day four. Our team led an entire church service at Oyumino (Honda) Chapel, including a sermon, worship songs, guitar, etc. It was really blessed.

Next we had the opportunity to help a missionary couple that was in the process of moving to central Tokyo. We helped them clean, pack, move, and store many of their belongings. It was a great chance to just be a blessing to the permanent team here in Japan.

As for the mayhem, we had a great time playing games, singing, and running around with the young children at an after-school program at Kokobunjadai Christian center.

Lastly, the team was able to relax with some of the long-term staff at the sento, a Japanese public bathhouse filled with hottubs, mineral water baths, a sauna, and pools.

Things are going well, but please pray for our continued energy and for good sleep at night.

Tuesday is now official over in Japan, and it was a great day. The Lord has really blessed John Pfile`s, Eric`s (still haven`t caught his last name…) and Isaac`s (drawing a blank on his last name as well) efforts to draw in college students. To explain: In the past we typically have passed out flyers around campus in an effort to draw in students to church events. Recently These two young men have shifted strategy, and the change really appears to be reaching students for Christ. As mentioned in the Day 1 Debrief, they have joined an “english speaking society” (which is basically an extra curricular club at Chiba University) and in so doing, have developed friendships with some of the members. In the first three days that we have been here, we have had closer interaction, for longer periods of time, with students than all of last year`s week combined. The basic idea is that John and Eric, who are involved in this club, bring us with them when they come to campus. Having us there as additional english speakers means that we can talk to more students and really spend time one on one with more people.

Today we split up into groups, went to different clubs, and all met with different people. David Seifert and Page went to a guitar club and met a young man there who played classical guitar. they found out that his grand father was a Christian, (which is amazing considering the tiny percent of christians in the country.) We can pray that the Lord will use that connection however small to help that young man come to know Christ.

Debra and I spent the morning with Takesh and his friend Edina, and we got to know Isaac (missionary) quite a bit better. Takesh we had met before at Hard Rock Last night. It was great to see him again and share more conversation as we ate lunch together.

Later in the afternoon, Cindy and Amy hit it off very well with one of the leaders of the english speaking society, and discussed everything from politics to Pirates of the Caribbean with him. (both are a big hit over here, lol.) Additionally, they had a lot of time to get to know Kon, a young man who has been spending a quite a bit of time with our group. Each of us has met Kon, and we think he is developing a great relationship with us, and, very importantly, with the Missionaries (John, Eric, & Isaac). Please pray that he (and all the others) comes to Christ.

Courtney, Terry and Patrick also were instrumental in meeting new people and welcoming them into the the group of students that came with us to Karaoke. Each brings a combination of wisdom, love, and friendship seeking to the students that builds trust very well. Among the students were were, Jun, a young man at Chiba University studying how to teach Japanese to foreigners. (That would be us, .) Yu, a student studying Law, Natalie who studies agricultural economics, A young man whose name is Sayuba I think…(clearly I`m terrible with names), who also studies agricultural economics, and of course Kon, who studies Information systems. Amazingly, two young men named Joshie and Harris, who are from Nepal and studying in Japan, happened to know John, and joined us for Karaoke.

Karaoke was nothing short of Awesome. Between American songs and Japanese songs with Kanji letters going across the screen faster than you could say, “Hajimamashite”… we rocked the place out like Boulder Field on Long`s Peak. The students had a wonderful time and it looks like they will be seeing us later in the week as well. Many have already said they want to come to our Texas Night on Thursday, which is exellent.

Sorry for being long winded. ALL of us want you to know how thankful we are for your prayers, how great it is that God pursues us, and how amazing it is that he does so even in the context of events like this.

Love Y`all.

In the morning we got up nice and early for breakfast and a team devotional time. Breakfast at our hotel is, well, different. I am quite convinced that the hotel intends an `international` breakfast, meaning comfortable for Americans and such. Ha ha ha. When is the last time you had Hot & Sour soup for breakfast coupled with cocktail weenies? I mean, seriously. After several days of those selections and rice I caved and went to the bakery down the road for a delicious sugary donut. Praise God. They sell coffee there – who knew that I would actually have to indicate that I want HOT coffee? Cold is just as common as hot here so that can mean confusion with the language barrier. After breakfast, we had our devotional. Patrick is a rock star as usual – leading the best devotionals ever. We studied Romans 9:1-5. After some prayer, we jumped on the train and went three stops to Toke.

J`s Cafe (Jesus) is held at a house church in Toke, which is just a neighborhood in Chiba. Megumi is the woman who lives there and she definitely remembered us from last year and gave me a big hug. We were able to beautifully orchestrate a full-on Texas themed party with taco salad and all at 10:30 in the morning. This is a major accomplishment given the very small area with which we had to work. Having a team of nine (The Fellowship of the Nine, as we are now calling ourselves) plus the 6 women who attended was tricky in the small living room, but somehow we managed to fit around two tables. Patrick led a short Bible study and the Courtney shared a powerful testimony about how she went from being an atheist to a Christian. If you don`t know her story, I highly recommend asking her over coffee someday. It is incredible. 4 of the women at the study are not Believers… Megumi said that they all really related with Courtney and that they were touched by her story. Be praying fort that.

After enjoying our second taco salad in less than 24 hours, we went back to the hotel and did our own thing for a few hours. It was nice to have a break. Several people took naps and 5 of us went to Chiba city and toured the area. My mission was to go to Starbucks and get an Azuki (red bean) Frappuccino. To my dismay and after looking up the words red and bean in the dictionary to describe to the barista, I was politely informed that they do not offer that anymore. I wanted to cry. I mean, that is the whole reason I came to Japan. Ha ha, just kidding. But I was fairly disappointed. Trust me – if you tasted it, you would feel the same way. Apparently it is seasonal. Bahumbug. (Or however you spell that.) Courtney, Paige, Debra, Lottie and I then decided to walk around the area. Conveniently, Lottie and I remembered quite a few details from last year so we did not get lost. We walked past the place with the conveyor belt sushi, which we are determined to go to before we leave. Do not worry – we will make sure to consume our own body weight in sushi. Someone will have to take each of us back to the hotel on a tractor trailer.

Later, we met 4 college students and 4 church staff for a trip into Tokyo. They wanted to take us to the Hard Rock Cafe. More American food. Fantastic. Just what we wanted. I am not bitter, I swear. We just have not had any Japanese food yet. It`s been 4 days. The good news is that we had some VERY sweet time interacting with the college students. I think we`ve really started to establish some good relationships with a few of them. After dinner the students, church staff, and Terry, David, Debra, and Courtney stayed in Tokyo for a while. I am sure that they had a blast… I have not yet seen them this morning so I am not sure what happened. The rest of us went back to the hotel for a good night`s rest.

Today (Tuesday) we are having lunch on campus with the students. It is raining though, so that might put a damper on our plans. I think we are finally going to get some Japanese food today for lunch and dinner! We are going to Karaoke in the evening… they love to do that and conveniently so do we!

This day was an amazing start to our trip. Oyumino Presbyterian Church has three meeting locations for Sunday Worship. We attended service in the largest center, Honda Chapel. Oyumino is doing very well, and being back felt like a reunion will old friends. Dan Iverson and Justin Uchida are still leading the congregation very strongly and faithfully, and being with them was a great encouragement. Kayko and Yuko are doing well also.

There are a few new people that have joined together with Sally Dangler in college ministry. John Pfile and his wife, as well as Eric (cant remember his last name at the moment) and his wife, have worked hard to build friendships with students at Chiba and other universities through a club named, “English Speaking Society”. By developing lasting relationships, they, and we, want these young Japanese men and women to see the love that we have for them; and then in turn see the much greater love that God has for them. In coming to know this love that God has for them, we hope that they will then come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

In addition to attending a wonderful worship service this morning at Honda Chapel, we were able to see some of the fruit of John`s, Eric`s and their wive`s labor. No less than 10 students came to a barbecue this evening held especially for them. We were able to talk, laugh, tell stories, play games, and even watch a movie together, all for the sake of loving them as Christ first loved us. Everybody on our team had something positive to say about the experience worshiping at Honda, spending time with the church members, And meeting the college students at the barbecue.

Terry connected well with many of the students talking about a wide range of subjects ranging from university life, to mountain climbing. David Seifert hit it off very well with one young man, and spent quite a bit of time relating to him about mathematics. (Awesome!) Amy shared a wonderful couple of hours with some of the young ladies while playing a very intense game of cards. Patrick had a chance to share with some of the church members what our mission trip was all about, and did an excellent job reminding us that simply engaging the students in love to get to know them for the sake of planting seeds was a task pleasing to our Lord. Paige did a great job presenting facts about Texas to the Oyumino church members during out Texas afternoon lunch. Courtney and I were both very encouraged by hearing a man`s testimony of he left the church and finally came back, and his insight into how God is so faithful. Debra was aslo very encouraged by being able to see church members here in Tokyo, 6200+ miles from Dallas, worshiping the same God we do. (Indeed! Truly Amazing). Cindy taught several of the Japanese students ( and a few of we missionaries, lol) how to play an awesome card game that had everyone sharing quite a lot of fun.

Again, only one day has passed, but we feel so encouraged and joyful about everything that is going on that we can`t wait for tommorrow! Thank you all again for praying for us. We love you, and can`t wait to hear from ya!

Mark’s been reminding us the last couple weeks (here, and here) that, though evangelism may not be your gift, it’s everyone’s calling.  

Interestingly, the most common google search phrase that ends up leading people to this blog is “fear of evangelism.”  (yesterday even, the search phrase that led them here was “I don’t want to evangelize!”) Google leads them to this post most frequently.

Well, if you’re wanting to take Mark’s instruction from Acts to heart, here’s where you can find your marching orders: an attempt at summarizing the Gospel in its simplest terms but without reducing it from its fullest sense.  Keller outlines the Gospel’s two foci: individual and corporate transformation, the former being in service of the latter. To emphasize one to the neglect of the other can lead to a misshapen, misleading Gospel.  As they say, you can’t have one without the other.  

Read and then see if you, too, can be simple without being reductionistic.  LIke I said a few weeks back in our preparation for sharing the Gospel, use God’s word but find your own voice.