newsletter 2023 August, September English

 Praise the Lord

How are you doing? The summer heat wave is finally over, and it feels like fall in Japan.

In this newsletter, I will report on the summer camp, my participation in the Japan Evangelism Conference, our team plans for the fall semester, and some Bible verses that have personally touched my heart.

Report on Summer Camp

Thank you all for praying for our summer camp. We were able to hold this camp jointly with SI iNagoya and Kyoto near Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. Since we are in the same stage of our ministries, we came up with the idea of cooperating with each other. On the first day of this camp, we reminded the students of SI's vision "Connect, Grow, and Send". On the second day, we shared a story about why we value fellowship at SI. We shared that it is a community for its own sake, but it is also a community for non christian. Especially in Japan, there are many cases where people are connected to and believe through Christian communities. The message was to turn students' attention to non christian.  The messenger challenged students to have a heart of this "Let's have community fellowship not only for ourselves but also for unbelievers." Through the two plenary, staff have various plans for the fall semester, and we hope that students will invite their friends and continue to come.

Overall, students had a lot of time to fellowship with other students.

During the BBQ, I had a miscommunication with the facility right before camp. I thought chairs and tables were set up at the campsite, but I realized there were only places, so I took a leisure sheet to deal with it, which was better than I expected. When you sit down to eat, you can only talk to people near you. At first, students in my area were close to each other, but by eating standing up, many students naturally mixed with each other.

During free time, we freely had fellowship with those who were swimming in Lake Biwa and those who were playing board games or taking a break indoors.

On the way home, we stopped by Kurokabe Square in Nagahama for sightseeing.

In the car on the way home, one student asked me what Shota felt at first when you went to church when you were a non-Christian. He has a friend who is a non-Christian, and he said he was curious what kind of impression I had. I was very glad that he was willing to think from a non-Christian's point of view.

I thank God for guiding me through it all.

Participation in the Japan Conference on Evangelism

The Japan Conference on Evangelism (JCE7), which is held once every seven years, was held in Gifu. Pastors, missionaries, and believers from various cities gathered. The purpose of the conference was to share the current missionary situation and to cooperate in missionary work. It was shocking to learn about the activities of various organizations and to see that Aichi, Gifu, and Mie prefectures have the smallest Christian population in Japan. I live in aichi prefecture, which is supposed to be a city, but at the same time I felt that I was sent to a place where the gospel is needed very much.

I also realized that each church is making various efforts to connect with the local community. I had seen churches trying to connect with the community through meal sevice for children and English conversation, but I heard that pastors of local churches take a walk at a set time to build relationships with the people they meet at the same time.

Hearing this story, I wondered what would be characteristic of our own area? How can we as a church get involved in our community? It made me think.

I am thankful that I was able to connect with many pastors in the Tokai area here. I would like to continue to build relationships with them so that we can better cooperate in missionary work for the spread of the gospel in Japan.

Our plans to the Fall Semester

a. Reaching out to local churches

We would like to further cooperate with pastors we have connected with at JCE7 and churches we have had previous connections with. Furthermore, how can we make the work of CCC known to churches that are not yet familiar with CCC? What can we do to help the local churches? I have talked with Japanese staff members about these issues.

From October, I am going to attend a morning prayer meeting for Nagoya estern area pastors to deepen the relationship with the pastors who are connected to the CCC.

I am also planning to introduce CCC and create and send flyers to new college freshmen next year to let them know about the ministry of CCC.

Please pray for missionary cooperation in Nagoya through this ministry.

　

b. New campus exploration

From this semester, we have decided to do evangelism at Meijo University's Tenpaku campus. We have been doing evangelism at Nagoya University, but due to feedback that it is difficult to evangelize at Nagoya University because there are not many places for people to gather, we decided to explore a new campus once again.

From the fall, we will be mainly evangelizing at Meijo University and Nanzan University.

On 9/26, we went to each campus and prayed. Please pray for the sowing of seeds so that students who will be saved will be raised.

C. Short-term missionary team

From 11/18 to 12/19, 8 students and 2 staff members from Australia will come to Nagoya to help the Nagoya ministry as a short-term mission team. Their work is very significant and it is an opportunity to connect with new students.

I will be in charge of hosting the short-term mission team again this year.

Pray that we will be able to communicate well with the Australian staff, though it is in English. Please pray that Christian and non-Christian students will be able to connect with SI through this ministry.

Bible verses that have touched me personally

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭4:15‭-‬16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

[15] For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. [16] Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

I was very moved when I saw that Jesus came as a human being and in all ways He could understand us because He went through the same trials that we went through. Of course, Jesus is God, but at the same time, He lived on earth as a human being, so He can relate to what we humans feel.

Because He is God, we sometimes feel that He is far away from our daily life and reality with us. I thought that because Jesus is a human being, He would understand what we find difficult in ministry. That was very encouraging and made me think that He is a very kind and close God.

Prayer requests

A.Pray that through the Immanuel Friday meetings and each discipleship training from the second semester, trust will be built among the students and that they will be able to think about "missions" together. Pray that Christian students will be given a heart for missions.

B. Pray that we can strengthen our ties with local churches and have a relationship to move forward in missions together.

C. Newly heading to Meijo University. Pray for new connections for Christian students this semester. Pray that we can continue to plant seeds for non-Christian students.

Thank you for reading to the end and praying for us. ☺️

The next new newsletter will be published around the end of November or December!

Thank you so much for your continued support.