May 2005

I pray that this finds you well and prospering in the Lord. Here, the colors of Spring are everywhere--camellias, Japanese cherry blossoms, azaleas--and Summer is just around the corner. Just this week the temperatures in Tokyo went from the mild 60s to the 80s. I believe it's going to be another hot, humid summer.

By now, you've probably heard about the tragic train derailment in Japan. I live about 180 miles north of the scene. About 100 people lost their lives and about 500 were injured. Ironically, the place where this occurred is the same area where a devastating earthquake occurred 10 years ago. Would you pray that where the enemy meant it for harm the Lord would turn this for good?

UPDATE on the CAMPUS MINISTRY TEAM

This year our campus missions team in Tokyo has grown from 3 to 6 members. One missionary, Jackie Brock, returned to England for furlough, but the Lord has raised up national workers who have a passion to reach the next generation with the gospel.

Let me introduce them:
Yuri M. studied in the U.S. for 7 years and graduated from North Central University in Minneapolis, MN last year. She joined us last year as a part-time staff. She oversees 2 campus ministries each week in addition to her English-teaching job and translating messages at her church.

Ayame U. studied at Cambridge University in England and this year completed a Master of Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA. A gifted translator and writer, she is helping with translating books, teaching,and promotional materials. Also, she does campus ministry in Tokyo.

Joyce Kitano and I are U.S. missionaries. Joyce was the pioneer for campus ministry in Tokyo 8-10 years ago. Since then, campus ministry has expanded to 21 campuses throughout Japan. However, there is still a great challenge to reach the +22 million youth ages 5-22. Truly the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Pray the Lord of the harvest to "thrust" out workers. (Matthew 9:38) In particular, pray that God will raise up men for the great task of reaping souls in Japan.

TRAINING SEMINARS

In March we held our annual campus ministry training seminar. As always, we invited Japan Assemblies of God pastors and students. Almost 40 people came for the 2-day seminar. Our guest speakers were 2 Japanese pastors who have been doing campus ministry through their church at Kyoto University, the #2 university in Japan. Pastors Murakami and Nagasawa challenged students and pastors to adopt a campus and trust God to use them to reach young people through teaching English and the Bible. Pastor Murakami did some research and found that the percentage of university-age students is twice the percentage of the national population. In other words, 1.4% of university students are Christians while the national percentage of born-again evangelical Christians is 0.7%. Invariably, that is where the ripest harvest is, and we must reap it while it is day.

This past week Ty and Cina Silva, A/G missionaries who oversee youth ministry in Asia Pacific, came and held a Book of Hope seminar in Tokyo. Three years ago, Book of Hope was published in Japanese for young children and also in a bilingual format (Japanese/English) for junior high school to university students. Because students are very interested in studying English, last year, an English conversation teaching book was introduced to accompany the Japanese/English Book of Hope. Our ministry team has been testing and using these materials in our campus ministries. They are so simple to use that we are training our Christian student leaders to use them in leading Bible study. Pray that these student leaders would grow in confidence and trust in the Holy Spirit to use them. For various reasons, most of their pastors find it difficult to release Christian students to facilitate group Bible studies.