Items for Prayer for Japan and our ministry.
As you read this we are winding up our short working vacation back in Illinois. We return to Japan on 1/5. It has been frenzied being back but extremely good family times. Also on the work side have been possibilities for CPI in another Asian country, recruiting career workers, and recruiting ministry teams from a partnering church. We both hit the ground running when we return to Japan and there are various things in the…
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11 Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of a baby but not just any baby. This was the Son of God being born in a lowly stable. Because He was willing to humble Himself, He lived a perfect life and became the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Christmas in Japan is a mixture of…
Thank you so much for praying for last month’s CPI National Conference. A participant said, “The CPI National Conference at Fuji Hakone last week was truly a big blessing. It brought spiritual renewal, vision, fellowship, ministry training, among other things, to the participants” In spite of the economy and other factors about 300 adults and 85 children gathered this year to enlarge their Kingdom Vision for church multiplication and experience Gospel Renewal.
There are always several highlights at the CPI Conference. This time I was able to work it out to train in two sessions for missionaries in their first stages of church planting. Normally running the conference I have no energy or time for this. But God opened some opportunities and I love equipping and training church planters. I had two sessions with 12-15 people each time. They were from nearly everywhere in Japan from Sendai…
Please Promote Prayer for the CPI Conference! Just released a new YouTube video to encourage prayer support for the CPI Conference Nov 3-6. This 1 minute 50 second video is designed to shown in churches. Please help us mobilize God’s people to pray for this important Japan National Conference by passing this along to whoever you can think about. For public showings if you want a higher resolution file you can download Available at http://www.dhdentertainment.com/video/Mehn_Video_Prayer_CPI_2009.mp4…
Work with us … Develop direct partnerships with Japanese churches to help expand God’s Kingdom in Japan and beyond. EXAMPLE: Just a few months ago a church sent a team from Kent, WA to cooperate in helping one of our Japanese church plants with outreach. There are talks of them returning. Maybe your church can partner with a Japanese church. Come with a team or by yourself to carry on short-term ministry among Japanese. EXAMPLE:…
Japan has the largest unemployment rate right now than since the end of World War II. Also those employed are not very happy. A recent global workforce study by Towers and Perrin said that Japanese workers are worldwide the least “engaged” in their work with only 28% of workers liking their jobs. Pray that the church in Japan would be engaged in bringing true hope to Japanese.
A pastor interviewed us a few weeks ago and asked, “How can we be involved with your ministry in Japan?” Just a few ideas. Please think of some more and let us know. Connect with us Surf this same website www.gospelrest.com (a well kept secret). Shoot us email. Drop us a note. Visit with us on Facebook. Subscribe to our email news updates at this website. Watch for us on video. We will be producing…
John and Elaine were awoken early Wednesday Morning (8/12) by a 6.5 point earthquake less than 30 miles away. Normally in an earthquake we head for the door jams as they are the safest place in a house. But we were camping in a tent and had little to worry about. Fortunately the earthquake caused minor damage. For more information see this page http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/m66-quake-jolts-shizuoka-pref-and-vicinity-disrupting-trains. Pray for Christian relief efforts in the areas affected.
Do you miss us already? We left the US for Japan on July 7th. We have been settling in and getting ministry geared up for another term in Japan. We have just completed our ’09 US tour of our partnering churches, one of the best. For six months we shared messages, hung out in small groups, met up with pastors and missions sending teams, and recruited future short-term and long-term missionaries. We also had key…