Interesting facts and information about Japan and ministry in Japan.
Well you prayed and it happened. We were planning to have maybe 50 people at this year’s last Church Planting Institute (CPI) regional training seminar in Tokyo. When registration closed there were 98 listed. This made it the largest regional training seminar of this year, or any year. What a way to celebrate 20 years of CPI! We offered two seminars one on Church Planting Next Steps and another on Walking in the Gospel for…
A small book written for children by David J. Smith broke down the de-mographics of the world’s population into a understandable size for children to comprehend. Here is what such a village would look like: 49 would be female and 51 would be male. 20 would be children. Of the 80 adults, 14 would be over 65 years of age. There would be 60 Asians, 12 European, 14 Africans, 8 South Americans, 5 North Americans,…
Some of you may be considering year-end charitable gifts. Consider giving to these needy projects. Give online at http://www.convergeworldwide.org/give John and Elaine Mehn, general fund. We still have a slight deficit for the current year. #49651. CPI special fund #31256 for helping Japanese attend church planting training and for developing online resources.
GOD ANSWERED Thank you for your special prayers for the Church Multiplication Vision Festa (above). Last month’s Love Japan meetings with John Piper and Donald Carson went very well in spite a Super Typhoon coming through at the same time. One friend was very moved by John Piper’s message and could not believe God’s power. PRAYER PARTNER SPOTLIGHTS November 3 and 4 are the Rengo national meetings followed by a one-day Church Planters Summit. John…
Today on my day off I watched an old Japanese classic movie Tokyo Story by Yasujirō Ozu. This film was made before I was born in 1953 but it one of the greats. It has received the highest reviews. Not sure how I found out about it but probably reading about Japanese cinema and directors. Yes, it is plodding but that is the point. About an older couple from the country visiting their grown kids…
Two new workers arrived a few weeks ago to join the Japan team. One came for 6 weeks; one for a career. We are excited to have a new career missionary, one who felt the call to be sent, Ian Smith. Ian has a great passion for planting multiplying churches in Japan. Right now he is in full-time Japanese language studies, essential for in-depth ministry in Japan. Pray as he builds relationships with Japanese and…
GOD ANSWERED Thank you for the many people that responded to our financial appeals last month. Several increased their regular giving and many others sent in a one-time gift. We figure this will make up at least 1/3 of our deficit. More information is at GospelRest.com/give. The SOMA Seminar last month was great. Several are already applying the concepts. At John’s visit to Kansai (9/11) more showed up than expected. Things worked out in…
Many of you probably know him by his writings and Desiring God ministry. John Piper is probably the most widely known pastor in our Converge Worldwide association of churches. He has served on our mission board. He is a Biblical scholar, a mission’s statesman, and a pastor of an exemplary missional church. After the tsunami his church Bethlehem Baptist church sent several teams to work with us in Ishinomaki among disaster victims. John Piper will…
Did you blink? Then you probably missed us. We were in the US this summer for a working vacation visiting supporters, friends, family, and doing some personal business. We had a great time visiting both Elk Grove Baptist Church and Temple Baptist Church in Rockford, IL. You can hear or download both of US SHARING THE MESSAGE “Click Send”. We also dropped in to Meadows Baptist Church, our home church and saw some personal supporters.…
ANSWERED PRAYER 1. Our new career missionary Ian Smith has arrived. Along with some orientation, we have located him an apartment, and he begins full-time language study today. Continue to pray for his smooth adaptation to Japan. 2. Mas Kobayashi also arrived and is busy working with Rengo churches. Pray for more short-term workers like him. 3. The CPI endorsed Soma Seminar (9/4-5) was very well attended and very stimulating. 4. We have been blessed…