Working with a 60-member choir and a talented couple in my church, Kaz and Noriko Kato, has been a wonderful experience. Most of the choir members love music but are not Christians. It’s been a cross-cultural challenge each week to find relevant ways to teach the lyrics to songs like “My Life Is in Your Hands” and “Thank You for Your Grace” and lead into a message. One week as I taught on the presence of God through the song “We Acknowledge You,” we could literally feel the presence of God in the room.
We are preparing for a concert at the city hall on Monday night, October 9, and are expecting 300-400 people to attend. Would you please pray for this outreach to the community?
Next week students return to their universities, and campus ministry will start up for the second term of the school year. (Yes, that’s right! The school year in Japan starts in April and goes until March.) Last weekend (September 23) we had a picnic near Tokyo Bay in a newly-developed area called Odaiba. A pastor we've been working with since last term brought his youth group and other student leaders came out for the first day of autumn.
Next Monday (October 2) will be our Tokyo area Chi Alpha monthly prayer and praise meeting. What’s exciting about this is that the praise time will be totally led by students from the first university church in the Japan Assemblies of God. Please pray that more students will catch a vision and be empowered to reach out to their campuses.
As always, I want to say “thank you” for your faithful prayers and sacrificial giving so that I can serve as a spiritual ambassador to Japan. May God bless you with 100-fold fruit for your labor of love to the Japanese.
