Newsletter 2023 February, March English
Praise the lord: ❗️
The weather has been spring-like lately in Japan🌸.
I would like to share with you what God has done in February and March, team plans for this semester and prayer requests. Thank you so much for reading and praying for me 🙏.
[Fellowship]
In February, I had many opportunities to have fellowship with my friends who support me, as well as new supporters. Although I was not able to meet everyone, I was able to meet about 40 people during the month.
In the first half of February, I had a support raise in Korea. I was happy to see many people who remembered me when I went to the church where I studied abroad 5 years ago. ☺️ I was also able to meet some of my friends from when I was studying abroad in Korea and asked them how they are spending their time . I was happy to talk to them and also able to talk passionately about mission 😁
In the second half of February, I went to Kansai for a support raise.
I am thankful that I was able to visit my mother church after a long time and spend time with friends from my college days.
What I felt during the Support Raise in Kansai was that I was most encouraged by the fact that I could sense that many Japanese Christians have a desire for missions. I met with them to express my gratitude for their support throughout the years, but I also got a lot of encouragement by meeting with them. I felt that many people have been involved and praying for the Japan mission.
Thank you so much for making time to meet with me 😭
[Spring Camp 2023 connect]
We were able to have our first national camp in 3 years March 7-10: ❗️
Thank you so much for praying for the camp 🙏.
We had 3 student participants from Nagoya. The total number of student participants from all over Japan was about 30.
Since it had been a long time since the last camp was held, the program was less , and there was more fellowship time among the students. We prayed that Nagoya students would be stimulated by the fellowship with students from other cities. Since there are not many Christian students in Nagoya, students from nagoya were able to have fellowship with other students, which we have not been able to do very often, and the students seemed to really enjoy it.
The theme of the camp is "Connect". There was a message about connecting to Christ and each of the connections in the community. In the morning time, the students had a devotional in a small group. It was encouraging to see the experience of leading small groups in each city, and to see some students in the habit of devotions.
there were many first-year and second-year students, so I watched from the back while the students did devotions and sharing, and I was already enthusiastically talking with staff members about how I was already looking forward to next year's camp to see how God would help each student grow as His disciple through the coming year and when we meet again at camp next year.
On our way back from camp, I had a very happy moment!
When I asked chuki how the camp went, Chuki replied, "Let's do something for new comer ministry ! I have been praying that even one student like this would happen, and I am so thankful that God used this camp!
I will be planning events for new comer students with Chiki from now on. Please pray that this event will be used to connect new students to SI Nagoya 🙏.
[Upcoming Plans].
1. Short-term mission in summer
The Nagoya staff had a meeting on March 13-14 regarding the semester as a whole.
It was mentioned that short-term missions would be a good opportunity for the current Christian students to grow, and it seems that the overseas short-term missions will finally start again after 3 years of absence due to Covid. However, there are not enough students to go to from Nagoya alone, so we are planning to go on missions this summer by cooperating with other areas. It is not yet confirmed, but we hope that it will be a good opportunity for students to learn about missions, and that they will be stimulated by various students and continue what they have learned on mission field after returning to Japan and taking an interest in missions in their daily life.
The current possibilities for mission sites are the Philippines or Hokkaido.
This has not yet been confirmed, but as soon as it is, we plan to ask students from Nagoya to go on missions.
2. Campus ministry
Thank you for connecting new students to our staff in Nagoya and saying that someone is enrolling in a university in Nagoya! If you know of any university students in the Tokai area who are looking for a Christian community near you, please contact us!
We are preparing for welcome new students, and we also plan to go out to campuses 2-3 times a week as we have done in the past for outreach. We look forward to the Lord giving us new encounters:❗️
We also have non-Christian students who have been meeting and planting seeds since last year. The part that I find difficult is that just because they have finished the material does not automatically make them Christians, and the pace of understanding is different. Please pray that the team will continue to talk often about how they can get to know more about Christ this semester and how we can share the gospel to them.
[support raises]
Praise God for hearing my prayers, at the end of January 2023 my need was $450USD per month. The negative amount was the largest I have ever had and I honestly felt quite impatient😓 I was nervous and fidgety even though i was thinkingthat the Lord would meet our needs. As I was reading the Bible, I often caught myself saying, "I will ask the Lord for help. I surrendered all my circumstances to God and prayed to move forward while trusting Him.
As of March 2023, I calculated that most of my needs have been met ❗️ Thank you to those who knew and responded to this need and to God for meeting the need 😭 Support situations are always changing, so in order to continue our ministry in a stable situation, I will continue to ask for support from those who understand. I would appreciate your prayers.
[Prayer assignment]
1. I will be working with Chuki on a welcome event for new students. I thank God for giving him the heart to do the ministry on his owm. Pray that this new student welcome event will be used to connect new students to SI Nagoya.
2. That Christian students in Nagoya would learn about missions through the short-term missions.
3. Please pray that we will see our non-Christian friends again, whom we have been involved with since last year, and that they will be able to draw closer to the gospel. Each person has different reasons for not making the decision to become a Christian, but please pray that the barriers will be broken down.
prayer requests 👇 I will update prayer requests every 2 weeks!
This is a long article, but thank you for reading this far and praying for me 🙏.
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