2024 Feb,Mar Newsletter English

 2024 Feb,Mar Newsletter English

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

The temperatures are starting to feel like spring and the cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom.

In this newsletter, you will read about the spring camp report, YLG conference report, MB denominational youth camp report, discipleship training, and summary prayer requests.

The students' faith has been on fire throughout the past one month! 🔥🔥

Each of them has prayer requests, so I hope you will read through them and pray for them.

Spring Camp Report

The CCC Student National Conference was held in Kobe from March 6 to 9. Three students from Nagoya participated, and students from all over the country were grateful to be given the opportunity to attend with about 60 participants.

The theme of this year's conference was stepping out.

Matthew 14:29 Jesus said, "Come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.

Christian Student Evangelism

Under the theme of stepping out in faith, we had planned for the participating Christian students to go out into the city on the third day to evangelize. Of course, some of the students had never evangelized before, so we gave them a few lectures on how to talk to people, how to have a conversation, and what success in evangelism means.  

Because of the large number of people going on evangelism, one group went to a park and the other group headed into the city. Then we went in pairs with people who had experience doing evangelism. I was quite nervous, as I was actually leading the group.

Usually I do outreach to college students on campus, so I can guess what it looks like, but in the city, there were many different age groups, so I felt nervous.

However, I thank God that He gave each group a wonderful experience.

The student who was paired with me was a student who was on fire for evangelism, having gone on short-term missions and was also doing evangelism on campus.

I asked him if he would like me to be the first to speak to him, as he might be nervous at first. but he said i will do it first. i was surpried to see his faith and brave.

We evangelized in the city for about an hour, and although many were turned down, one group of people struck up a conversation with us and we were able to ask them about their impressions of Christians. It was encouraging to see students sharing their faith in this way.

In other groups, some said they were able to share the gospel, and others said they believed after sharing the gospel! 

Through the experience of actually going out to evangelize, sharing the gospel, and seeing how people share the gospel, I believe that the students were able to get the idea that evangelism is not difficult.

2 Timothy 4:2 "Preach the word. Do it well, whether times are good or bad. Be patient with all perseverance, teaching continually, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting.

On the last day, we had a message from the Great Commission Matthew 28:18-20, which challenged us to make disciples in our respective places as we enter the new school year in April. Also, as a challenge to preach the gospel, we go on an overseas short-term mission trip every summer, and we were thankful to have them consider going there.

The students who participated from Nagoya learned the joy and fun of praising together and said they want to form a praise team when they get back from the camp. I was moved by the fact that the students are more motivated and that they have started to think about what they can do in their own area to gather people for missions first. 

Non-Christian Students Vision Time

Non-Christian students and new first-year college students had time to get to know each other and hear an explanation of what CCC is all about while the Christian students were out on mission. Please pray for the non-Christian students to draw closer to salvation and to learn more about the Bible with local staff and students when they return to their own communities!

Prayer.

Pray that each student will remember the biblical message they have received about missions, that they will be reminded about missions, and that they will be able to share the gospel with other students!

YLG Conference Report

I had the opportunity to attend the YLG Conference in Saitama, Japan from March 11 to 14.

I was a bit tired from the CCC national camp, which lasted until March 9, but I was grateful to be able to connect with people my age from various organizations. I was also thankful to have time to catch up with my fellow staff members who are working in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kobe, as I usually don't have time to talk with them. It was the first time in a while that I was able to attend a camp where there was no service, and I was able to spend some time relaxing.

MB Church Youth Camp Report

I have been involved with the youth of my church since the summer of 2023, and this was the first time for me to participate in a denominational youth camp. I participated with one junior high school student and one high school student from my church. The main theme of this year's camp was Love your God.

Deuteronomy 6:5 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your life and with all your might."

リアコ riako means love something seriously . I had never heard of this term either until I attended this camp.This is new Japanese used by young generations. 

I think most campers who attend youth camp know that God loves you. God loves you, how about you? Do you love God? If not, then God is doing one way love to you. I thought it was very easy to understand the message because the messenger used hands to teach an illustration.

What surprised me was that after listening to the message, during the sharing time, the high school students were able to share as much as adults, and were mature enough to think about what the Bible was saying to them and share it with others. I realized this by participating in this camp.

I was also encouraged to hear that in the night, high school students were talking with each other about what they should do about the sins they repeatedly commit. I was encouraged to see they were seriously thinking about their faith.

Since my church youth doesn't have the opportunity to mix with other youth of the same age, I am thankful that coming to the camp gave them a chance to interact with other youth of the same age and to think about their faith in that context.

Prayer

I will continue to speak about the Word of God as a teacher of junior high and high school students at my church. Please pray that I can help them in their faith.

Pray that the middle and high school students will continue to come to church and that they will have more opportunities to read the Bible in their daily lives.

​​discipleship Training

Chuki (忠紀)

I thank God for speaking to him after he came back from spring camp, as he wants to learn more about praise and to connect more people to come to CCC.

I challenged him to be one of the student leaders in Nagoya this semester.

The student leaders will make a plan once a month on what they will do from now on. After covid, the culture of student-led ministry was lost, but I was very touched that God finally raised up a student leader. I had been praying for a long time, and I felt God was working in him.

I also challenged him to try to train a student named "Yuji" who went to the camp with us to be a disciple from now on.  At first, he said, "Yuji knows the Bible better than me. But when I encouraged him, he said, "Of course, he may know the Bible better than you do, but why don't you get involved with him so that he can teach others when Yuji is involved with others" and he said, "I'll try!" He said 😭😭😭.

I finally got to see what I had always wanted to see when I became a staff.

I finally got to see the students getting involved with other students.

And the gospel is spreading. I couldn't be happier 😭

God is at work in Japan!

2 Timothy 2:2 

What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust it to trusted people who have the power to teach others!

Prayer

chuki's involvement with other Christians is a big faith challenge for him. Please Pray that he will be one who makes disciples of Christ. Pray that he will learn more about the Bible through teaching.

Caleb

As I continue my discipleship training, Caleb also told me that he would also be involved with other Christian students, non-Christian students. I challenged him to try to become a student leader in Nagoya as well. Most exciting of all, Caleb told me that he wanted to spend his time doing something meaningful, and when I asked, "What is meaningful to you,Caleb?" I was so happy to hear Caleb say, "I want to spend my time doing something meaningful for the Great Commission 😭 I was so encouraged by the way he was giving his life with a heart for missions. I look forward to what God will show us through him in the future.

Prayer

He is trying to get involved with the Japanese people in the future and with the international students. Please Pray that he will do his best to be involved in missions and that I will support him with bible study and coaching  and evangelical skills. And also please pray that through teaching, he will be able to love God, serve God, and love people around him.

Upcoming events

April 13th　

New Student Welcome Party BBQ

This is an event for new students to connect.

April 19

Regular Meeting Immanuel Start

Every Friday

May Tour of other cities

　

August Summer Camp　

Campus Activities

Every Tuesday and Thursday we will go to the campus to evangelize. We plan to bring Christian students to evangelize with us and have lunch time so that non-Christian students can also gather.

Summary Prayer Assignment

1. That the students would continue to remember what they learned about missions at the camp and think about how they can do it in their own communities.

2. I thank God that student leaders have been raised up. They will be organizing events for the students, and we pray that every single thing will be used to fulfill the Great Commission.

3. We thank God for the students who are trying to get involved with other students as disciple-makers of Christ. May they be transformed more and more into followers of Christ in their daily walk.

The next newsletter will be at the end of May or early June. Thank you for praying with us and supporting us.