The Year in Review

This past year has been an amazingly filled year of ministry. This past winter our ministry team began planning for summer teams. In the spring we held a training seminar and began the new school year at Waseda University and at the University of Tokyo. In May the Japan Assemblies of God (the organization that I partner with as a U.S. Assemblies of God missionary) celebrated 60 years of Protestant missions and then the next day the first summer missions team arrived to help with ministry on campuses and in churches. The second team arrived right after the first team left to carry on the momentum. In June eight summer workers arrived for orientation training and then six were sent off to various churches to teach English while two worked directly with our Chi Alpha team in Tokyo. Three more teams arrived in succession and continued the momentum.

An amazing part of hosting all the teams is that several students sensed God solidifying a call to Japan. Anna Lightcap who came with the last team this summer returned this fall as a short-term missionary working with a church in Yokkaichi. This month the team from the University of South Alabama Chi Alpha led by Mason Corwin and a team from International House of Prayer University led by one of our summer workers Robert Monson returned to help with Christmas outreaches. A few others are contemplating returning to Japan to serve on a longer-term basis.

From December 9-14 our ministry team went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the Asia Pacific Youth Alive Conference with the Japan group. Twenty-nine nations were represented as we heard God's challenge to "speak to the nations." Six different prophetic words that were spoken directly concerning Japan has stirred great expectation for an unprecedented move of God among the young generation of Japan.

December is always a ministry-packed month of outreach because the people of Japan love the atmosphere of Christmas so much that they open their hearts more to the gospel than at any other time of the year. This past Sunday Tokyo Urban Church, the Japanese church that I attend and where I serve on the leadership team, had a Christmas service. Several non-Christians came to hear our Christmas Live Concert of a euphonium and a gospel singer. The gospel singer was me, by the way. This week my bilingual cell group will host a small Christmas party as an outreach to non-Christmas friends and co-workers.

On a personal note, I traveled to Thailand during the week of Thanksgiving to celebrate with my brother Jason and his family who serve in Thailand as missionaries. My dad took his second international trip and joined us. It was really wonderful to spend time with family since I will not be going home to Alabama for Christmas this year. Instead, I will be spending Christmas with my missionary family here in Tokyo so I will add the Southern flair to the meal with my grandmother’s cornbread dressing.

As I review the past year that has flown by so quickly, I believe that this year has been a time of preparation. God has been calling out new laborers from the summer teams to come partner together in the harvest of the youth of Japan. I so appreciate your steadfast prayers and sacrificial support during what has been a difficult financial year. You are part of the preparation for God's purposes in Japan. Thank you so much for believing with me and our ministry team as we look forward to what God has in store for 2010.

Have a Merry Christmas and a very blessed 2010!