Newsletter 2023 April,May English
2023 AprilMay Newsletter
Praise the name of the Lord‼️
A new semester has started and ministry has begun, and while I am thankful for some things, I have also experienced many difficulties 😭 I am very thankful when I know that God is working in ministry. When I feel difficulties, I feel like I am taught the importance of praying and relying on God, not on human efforts.
I would appreciate it if you could read the prayer requests and the ministry we have done in the past two months and pray for us. Prayer requests are written in each section 🙏.
1. Yuji
I was able to connect with "Yuji" who contacted us because he saw our instagram saying that we are a Christian circle. I really appreciate it! We are going to start a new Bible study. He was born in Brazil, spent half of his life in Brazil, recently came back to Japan, and is now in his first year of college. He was hoping to connect with a place where he could study the Bible.
I took some personal time with him and we talked about what kind of club CCC is, what the gospel is, how to share the gospel, and what to do if a non-Christian friend believes? We talked about these things. It is often difficult to explain in your own words, even if you have heard the words before. He has a heart to share his faith with his friends, and he has participated in short-term missions using dance in his church in Brazil. Pray that through the discipleship training time with him, he will be able to explain the gospel in his own words and walk as Jesus's disciple 🙏
Yuji has already brought his school friend "Genki-kun" to Immanuel.
He is also looking for a church. He also has an older brother, but his brother can't hear with a hearing aid, so he needs sign language in order to communicate with him. He is not connected to a church yet, so please pray that we can connect him to a church where he can sign and where he can receive support 🙏.
2. Masakazu
He is a first-year student at the church that the SI Nagoya staff attends.
He has been attending church since he was a child, so he knows quite a bit about the Bible.
So far we have only met twice, but I am thankful that our relationship is gradually getting deeper as I ask him about his church life and school so far.
In high school, he had no resistance to telling his friends that he was a Christian, but as a college student, he began to feel resistance to telling his friends that he attends church. I know it takes a lot of courage to tell your friends about your faith, but please pray that we can discuss how to do this and tell those around his friends 🙏.
It is still difficult for us to meet regularly due to the pace of school and other circle activities. Pray that we can deepen our relationship with him and encourage him to walk by faith during our discipleship training time 🙏.
challenges in ministry
1. Welcome party for new students
The first thing we do when a new semester begins is a welcome party for new students. We held a new student welcome event in April as an opportunity for new college students to get to know CCC, including advertising on Instagram so that they could connect. However, one new student came, but not many people attended, which made us feel difficulty. Not only at this event, but also at other gatherings we have on Fridays, we do not have many people, and we are feeling difficulty in how to get more people to come.
Men students have started to gather on Fridays, but it is difficult for women because there are still no students who come regularly.
However, I believe that God wants all people to be saved and that He is working here in Japan. When we concentrate on the fruit, we do not see very good results. Ministry is not something that grows by human effort. Please pray that we can continue to put our trust in God and continue to pray that we can get involved with students with a passion to tell them about God. Pray that we will not focus too much on what is not going so well in front of us, but that we will be more aware of the wonderful things God is revealing to us right now 🙏.
2. interest of Christian students
Me and another staff member, Hikari-kun, like to play a game called "Smash Bros." and we decided to invite the students to play it at our house. It's just a gathering to have dinner and play games together, but the purpose of the gathering is to evangelize and help the students build relationships with each other and have deeper conversations.
I asked around among the students involved if there were any students who wanted to attend, and was surprised to hear right away that six students wanted to attend. I was happy to see the turnout, but felt half ironically sad.
I feel it is difficult to gather a lot of people on a Friday gathering and other events that are so well planned but don't turn out so well. Seeing that students come to these gatherings as soon as we invite them, how can we make Friday gatherings like this? how can we make it more attractive? Where is the interest of the students? I am thinking about this.
I am so grateful to be able to give so many participants! I am grateful that one of the participants was able to see "Hiryu" again after a recent loss of contact with him! Please pray that connections between students will also be deepened through this event. Pray that this will be a place where Christian students can express their love to other students and talk about non-Christians about Christianity 🙏.
"new style of getting together"
We rented a place near the school🤚.
We have started an English conversation gathering called "Mataritime" every 2 weeks on Wednesdays from 1:30 to 4:30. By having friends who have become friends through on-campus outreach get together near the campus, it helps connect various students with each other, and the venue makes it possible to have a variety of activities. However, since we have just started this event, only a few people come. We also need to promote our activities more. We are speaking in English, so there is a limit, but we are currently connected with 3 students: "Genki," a friend of Yuji's, and "Tatsuya," a student we met at the campus. A Christian student named "Maki" is also connected. Genki wanted to have an English conversation. Please pray that we will have many good conversations spiritually in the mattari time
.
Tatsuya-kun has heard the gospel and asks many questions about the Bible. Please pray that his understanding and interest in the Bible will increase through the English conversation time and the time he spends with us on campus 🙏.
Please pray that Maki-chan will also get to know the female staff through this time, and that we will be able to have spiritual conversations and discipleship training time in the future🙏.
vision cast day
On June 2nd, I will have a time to introduce Christian students to the goals and activities of CCC. I would like to challenge them to think about what each activity means and what happens when all Christians become disciples of Jesus Christ and are involved with other Christians and with those who do not yet believe. If you don't know what our goals are, you may just come as you are called or do only what you are asked to do. Please pray that not only the staff but also each Christian students who gather will be involved in the "the Great Commission" 🙏.
The students in Nagoya today may not be able to imagine what the ministry will look like when it grows. I hope that the gospel will be spread in Japan through the involvement of each one of us toward the same goal.
I am preparing a testimony of "how I got connected to CCC and why I want to share the gospel". Please pray that this testimony will be used for the students 🙏.
July Conference in Thailand
A conference organized by the Lausanne organization will be held in Thailand.
As representatives of CCC, three of our staff members will attend from July 25 to 29. We are looking forward to making connections with people who are doing ministry there and to having good input.
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Thank you for reading and praying for our newsletter so far.
I look forward to sharing what God has been doing and teaching you all when I write my next newsletter at the end of July.
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