John’s book is published
In late September William Carey Library Publishers, publisher of the Perspective course, released John’s book Multiplying Churches in Japanese Soil. A Japanese translation of the book is currently under way.
Category: Updates/News
Ministry Updates and News from the Mehns
Expanding Influence
Does God ever surprise you? When we returned in January we had no idea the expanding influence there would be for church planting vision for Japan. Influence was building late last year, but this year John has been scrambling to keep up with the developments. There are several streams of interconnected movements and leaders partnering together toward a Japan national church planting initiative to see the dream of over 50,000 churches in Japan. If you…
Prayer Aug/September
GOD ANSWERED Our mini-tour to the US is nearly completed. We return to Japan August 18th. The time has been extremely busy but very rewarding. We visited two churches and one pastoral couple while driving 2,000 miles. Elaine had a family reunion, John met doctors and dentists, and we both had great times with our children and grandchildren. The CPI Conference preparations continue Japan National CPI Conference, October 25-27. Pray as September and October are…
Vision Festival
Just last week John joined 90 people to study case studies of new church plants and work towards movements of new churches in Japan. The Church Multiplication Vision Festival was held in Tokoku, the region of the triple disaster of March 11, 2011. Since the disaster church numbers in some areas have tripled! Also evangelism results, such as people trusting Christ and being baptized, has increased nearly 700% from what is normal! God is building…
Mehns Mini US Tour July
We will be visiting several churches and some ministry partners in July and August on a short update tour. Please pray for preparations to preach, our traveling, and that we may have great connections with people in these churches. Drop in if you are near! July 23 – Springbrook Community Church – Huntley, IL. July 30 – Berean Baptist Church – Mansfield, OH.
Prayer July
GOD ANSWERED John was in Seoul South Korea in late June where he met a key church planting trainer from the Exponential movement and networked with several others regarding church planting in East Asia (see below). Elaine’s progress on the latter stages of her three books (bible study, 2 devotions) is going very smoothly. Ask God to especially equip proofreaders and translators. Registrations have topped 220 already for Japan National CPI Conference, October 25-27. This…
Equipping Harvest Workers
Our key role in Japan is to equip and develop leaders and workers for the harvest. That is accomplished through personal coaching and mentoring and training in seminars. CPI frequently has equipping events for both Japanese and missionary. Last month John preached once and gave three presentations on church planting to about 40 at the WEC International Mission annual gathering near Kyoto May 3-4. WEC is an historic mission originally the Worldwide Evangelization for Christ…
June Praise and Prayer
GOD ANSWERED On May 29-30, the National Mission Department of the Rengo met with our mission representatives. At this meeting was a surprising discussion on the need for Rengo churches to birth daughter churches occurred. Pray that God would grow this vision and many of the 62 Rengo churches birth daughter churches. The CPI 2017 national conference training system of over 20 training seminars and the speakers lineup were finalized in May. Continue to pray…
Missions & Math
We know many of you reading this probably either yawn or get anxious when the word mathematics comes up. But math is an important tool in missions and in church ministry. God numbers all the hairs on our head and also knows every sheep that is far from him. In missions we should keep our pulse on the needs of the people we work with. For the Japanese the needs are quite staggering. Japan is…
Pray During May
GOD ANSWERED Registration for October’s CPI conference has opened. We are pleased with the flow of registrations. Pray that God would send us many Japanese along with missionaries. We had great planning meetings with the CPI Leadership Team and the Serge mission about bringing more intensive renewal training through Grace Weeks in the next two years. We are making good progress on our various book projects. Elaine’s Thoughts Along the Way devotionals is nearly done…