Ministry Updates and News from the Mehns
Elaine’s biggest event of the year – the Christmas Tea – is this Monday December 9th. This may be the biggest as it is Elaine’s last. Pray that the message of Christ will be crystal clear as Elaine shares her personal story of Christmas. We will be wrapping up several other book projects this month. John has several key meetings before we leave on Dec 16 for our brief US Christmas trip. Merry Christmas to…
John was in Mongolia in late September where he explained to about 40 leaders why networking for church planting has helped church planting in Japan and Asia. These words are from his greeting: “I’m John Mehn director of the Japan Church Planting Institute. Japan has a population of 127 million people and Japan is merely 0.45% Christian. We need help planting churches. Do you ever need help planting churches? A few years ago a friend…
WHAT DID GOD DO? John was in Mongolia Sep 23-28 for the GCPN – East Asia Network. God encouraged and challenged all in attendance. John’s presentations on multiplication went very well, learned a lot, and he enjoyed meeting new Mongolian church planters. Thanks for praying for the Church Planting Institute (CPI) Leadership Team planning retreat last month. We had great discussions and some key decisions were made (news later). Just last week, while John was…
Fall and Mongolia WHAT DID GOD DO? The Big Switch is completed; thanks for your prayers and encouragements. This summer we moved with our son from our US home base in Rockford IL to Pecatonica IL, about 20 miles west (pic above). This home is very close to our daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids. We packed, remodeled, moved (on the hottest day of the year), remodeled, and put the Rockford house up for sale. Parts of…
More Updates from May’s Japanese Grace Week First, since last reported we are hearing second and third hand reports from others of how impactful it was for those attending. Many were confronted by God about some of their relationships and have gotten back in-tune with God and then reconciled with others. The impact is continuing. Second, the leaders got together last month and decided to go ahead and have another Grace Week Japanese in 2020!…
US Mini–Tour July & August We leave on July 11th for a busy time in the States and a mini-tour visiting 4 partnering churches in 3 states. We also anticipate visiting some individual supporters. Here’s our tour schedule: July 26-28 – West Hills Community Church – Town and Country (St. Louis) Missouri Aug 03-04 – Immanuel Baptist Church – Monmouth, IL Aug 10-11 – The Tabernacle – Kenosha, Wisconsin Aug 17-18 – Bethany Baptist Church…
The Church Multiplication Vision Festa will be held on Monday July 8 and Tuesday July 9 in Tokyo. Ask God to again bring his vision and embolden his people for more faith in multiplying churches in Japanese soil. We will have visitors with us early in July and for Vision Festa. John and Brenda Wright, Converge Regional Impact Team Asia Leader is coming to visit with us and see the Japan context. Pray that their…
How Beautiful – I knew this was going to be good, but I never imagined what I actually experienced. At Grace Week, one Japanese leader after another shared about their weakness, their struggles, their inner heart -idolatry, and their need for repentance. They were so genuine and confident in the grace of God. To be in the room was so freeing as they brought the core truth that Jesus has done all that is needed…
HIGHLIGHTS FOR PRAYER Our daughter Beth and our two grandchildren will be visiting us in Japan this month. The kids have never been on an airplane or been to Japan. Pray for a wonderful family visit and sightseeing. Beth will be revisiting Japan after 10 years. Pray for new memories. John’s church planting book in Japanese will be published! The final draft was submitted to the publisher. Unfortunately it will not be ready by Vision…
Last month our Converge Japan Team met for our mission’s Annual Meeting/Reunion called Field Council. We met to dream, plan, and strategize for our future. Continue to pray for the Japan Mission that our new Initiative Leader, Brian Lusky, that innovative and aggressive ministry plans would inspire a new generation of workers for multiplying churches in Japan. Japan is now in an historic transition. The current emperor resigned yesterday (April 30th) and the new Reiwa…