Newsletter 2024 April,May English

 Newsletter 2024 April,May English

Praise the name of the Lord! Thank you for reading and praying for me.

Since I started on staff, April and May have been a time of great change. It is a great historical moment in my life. I would like to share with you how God has been working in Nagoya.

In this newsletter, I wrote about “Newcomer  Event,” “Student Leadership Team,” “A Student Start Discipleship Training with Student” and “Immanuel: Worship Practice.

Newcomer Events

1. April Event

We had our first Newcomer Event BBQ this semester. We had a BBQ at the beginning to make it easier for students who have been connected with us and new students to come to the event.

We had a lot of time for students to connect with each other. and SI nagoya students formed a praise band to lead us in worship. It was a big change from last year's SI Nagoya, where we were able to get together the day before the event and practice for 2 hours, and pray together for the students coming to the event.

And on the day of the event, we had a total of about 10 students. Considering that last year there were only two participants, we feel that God is starting something new in Nagoya.

Officially, the event ended at 3:00 p.m., but it was amazing to see that even after the event was over, people continued to praise God for about two hours straight.

2.May Event

Acts 2:40-47　

I gave the message for the May evangelism event. We learned from the early church in Acts.

They valued teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer.

The word “fellowship” means “to share,” and here it means Christians taking an interest in one another as the family of God and sharing their faith experiences with one another.

I find that if we don't know much about each other, we can't pray specifically for each other. We need to know each other's needs.　

We learned from the early church people and gave the students an experience of a community that shows interest in and prays for each other with love.

Several non-Christian students came to this event. Christian students prayed for them. Although it was not an evangelistic meeting that clearly presented the gospel, we were grateful for the opportunity to let 

the students know what the Bible says and how we do it, and to experience community in Christ.

Student Leadership Team

We finally had a student leadership team in the Nagoya team! Praise the name of the Lord!

The members are Chuki, Caleb, and Joyce.

They will be a core member of Nagoya SI activities for a year, working together to plan events for evangelism and the contents of the summer camps. We are thankful for the student leaders, as it provides opportunities for the students to serve other students.

Prayer

Currently, students are preparing for an evangelistic event on June 7 th.

It is titled “International Night” and since CCC members are of many different nationalities, we will prepare food from many different countries and sing praises of AMAZING GRACE in many languages. One of the students will give a short message. The message will be “Many Japanese people think that Christianity is something foreign to them, but God loves Japanese people too."  Please pray that through this event, people will become interested in the gospel and want to know more about it. Please also pray for the student praise team and student leaders who are preparing for this event.

Discipleship Training

1. “YUJI CHUKI,” a student starts discipleship training for students

I have been dreaming something for a long time, and now it has finally come true 🥲 “Chiki,” who has been training students, has started discipleship training with “Yuji,” a Christian student from SI Nagoya.

they starting with the materials we often use at CCC to confirm the foundation of our faith together.  There are six sessions in total, and I am going to sit with him until students finish it and help him if chuki needs my help. I was impressed to see how well Chuki prepared, asked him some questions, and taught him. I always wanted to see this student involved with students. It was a historic moment because until now, staff have been involved with students, but Christian students had not been involved with students in Nagoya since Covid. I am hopeful that the gospel will spread more and more in Japan through the involvement of many people in discipleship training like this, and I thank God for the work He is doing.

2. with chuki -reading a book called Prodigal God-

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Have you ever read this book? I felt like the scales fell from my eyes.

It is a book about the parable of the prodigal son, but it is written specifically about the older brother and how he is just as much a sinner as his younger brother. until now, I have seen focusing on the younger brother, so when I focused on the older brother, I discovered many things.

When Chuki and Yuji were doing discipleship training, Chuki said, “Whenever I hear about the prodigal son, I always feel sorry for my older brother,” I asked him why he felt that way, and he said, “Even though he has worked hard and lived obediently until now." Then I asked him what he thought his reaction would be when younger brother came home if he had the heart of Christ, and he said, “I think I would have accepted him with joy. But in order to see why this did not happen, we read together and shared.

At first, Chuki did not seem to accept what was being said about himself very well in the book, but as he read to the end, he repented that the older brother described here was about himself, and when he remembered what had happened in the past and acknowledged the connection. i was able to see God working in his heart. 

Like my prodigal brother, I, too, have always valued keeping certain things to a moral standard, but it reminds me that salvation does not come by works, but by faith.

Both sons were lost souls, but it was a reminder of God's great love for his son, no matter what kind of son they were.

Prayer

1. Discipleship training for Yuji and Chuki

That through the discipleship training of Yuki and Yuji, they will be transformed more and more into a life of obedience to Jesus. The six lessons will soon be over, so from now on I will leave and leave the two of them alone. Pray that their relationship will deepen and that this will be a time when Christ's love will be expressed. Pray that Yuuji will be challenged to get involved with other students.

2. Discipleship training for Chuki

We thank God for the work He is doing in his heart.

In the next discipleship training, we will learn about “ idol worship” and continue to study about missions.

Pray that this will be a time when the word of God will light up our idols in our heart.

Immanuel, Praise Practice.

The theme of this semester's Friday meeting is “Praise”. We learn that each one of us is a worshiper, what is praise? We learn how to lead praise, praise team techniques, and students practice leading praise songs. They also teach each other the instruments they want to learn and improve.

We have also held sleepover nights at church. When we had the sleepover night, a non-Christian student, Fumiya-kun, came and asked  some questions about Christians. it was also good time for us to know more about what he worries 

His question was ,Do Christians go to the shrine? 

 it was good to see the natural way in which Christian students answered the questions he asked.

Prayer

I am thankful that we had a praise team for the last new event! May other students join that team and together we will serve the Lord and be those who share God's love through praise!

Thank you for reading and praying for me and ministry.

I will create next newsletter around end of July