Newsletter October, November 2024

 Newsletter October, November 2024

Praise the Lord. It's getting colder in nagoya, and 2024 is already coming to an end. What kind of year was 2024 for everyone?

This newsletter is written about participation in the international staff conference, the short-term mission team (Mission Megumi), next year's schedule, and prayer requests. I would appreciate it if you would read to the end and pray.

1.International staff conference

I was invited to attend the international staff conference held in Thailand from November 18th to 22nd. I was called to this meeting where representative staff from each country had gathered, so to be honest, at first I wondered why I had been called here. This conference was about thinking about how organizations should be. The content encouraged us to be more close to young people and listen to how they actually live and what concerns they have.. I was very encouraged when I heard this content. Rather than just sharing what we believe, we thought about how we share the gospel with young people in a way that would reach them in their lives.

The things we have done so far are good, but what can we do to reach more young people? I was really encouraged by this way of thinking.

However, at the same time, CCC is a much larger organization than I expected, so it is impossible to suddenly change its direction, but I can see that it is slowly shifting its direction and trying to reach young people.

I also had the opportunity to speak personally with representatives of Japan CCC. They listened carefully and I learned that they really do a lot for the organization. I felt like I was working with really good people.

2. Mission megumi

A. Sharing the Word

Mark 4:26 ¶ And he said, c“The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.

Mark 4:27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; dhe knows not how.

Mark 4:28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

Mark 4:29 But when the grain is ripe, at once ehe puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

This section is about how seeds grow. Looking at verse 27, what we can't do is make the seed grow, and we don't know how it will grow. It is God who does it. And when we look at verse 28, we see that the seed grows in several steps. Sometimes we expect ourselves to grow quickly. However, just as there are several steps to fruition, there are also steps to human spiritual growth. I felt it was necessary to understand that God does this.

So what can we do? If you look at verse 26, it says, "When a man sows seed in the ground," so we learned from this passage that we should continue speaking/sharing the Word and leave what happens next to God.I would think of various strategies, etc., but I wanted to trust that God will advance the ministry even when nothing seemed to be happening, instead of moving forward based on technology, knowledge, or human effort. It made me want to trust Him more while this short-term mission team is here.

B. This year’s mission grace goals and progress

This year's mission grace (short-term ministry) is very different from last year's goal. Last year, there were only a few Christian students, so the goal was to do campus outreach. Since the number of Christian students has increased this year, this year's goal is for local christian students to become friends with megumi students , and do missions together. After the missionary team leaves, the local Christian students will get involved with the non-Christians. I had never done this style of short-term ministry before, so I was very nervous. I created a pair with a Japanese student and megumi member, but I was wondering if it would be okay? How will it turn out, and will megumi members be able to get along well with the students? I was worried like this.

Normally, we only go to two campuses, Nanzan University and Nagoya University, but since the purpose of this Mission megumi is to do missions together with Japanese students, we will be sending megumi students to each campus. , Meijo University, and Aichi University of Education, and will do missions with students.

During the first week (11/25-11/29), we focused on making friends with Christian students and visited the campus for a short time. During this first week, the Japanese students and the short-term mission team became better friends than I expected, and we shared our testimonies with each other. They encouraged Japanese Christians by participating in discipleship training together.

During the second week (12/2-12/6), we went to campus and made friends with non-Christian students. I was encouraged to see that  Christian students and Japanese Christian students did outreach together.  The Japanese Christian students became good friends with them, and sometimes they even invited their non-Christian friends to join them for lunch on campus. There's also a group where they hang out with people they met  on campus!

On Friday, we had a chance to practice for evangelism together, practicing sharing our testimonies and thinking about  questions.

Prayer 🙏

please pray that the megumi team and Japanese Christian student pairs will be able to share the gospel with the people they have become friends with through their daily lives, and that they live out the gospel. 

students outreach together🔥

During the third week (12/9-12/13), the short-term mission team will be working with Christian students to evangelize, inviting non-Christian students to a Christmas party, and connecting with and becoming friends with Japanese Christian students.

The fourth week (12/16-12/20) will be the final baton passing week. They each pray for the salvation of the students they meet, and also evangelize together. The student leadership team is planning a farewell party on Friday the 20th as the final event for students who have connected with them.

Prayer 🙏

Through Christmas parties and farewell parties, Japanese Christian students can connect with non-Christian students Megumi Team met. 

Please pray that our newly connected non-Christian students will experience Christian community. 

And that we may be given wisdom to know what their spiritual needs are.

3. Next year's plans and prayer tasks

1. National student spring camp

A national student camp will be held in Tokyo from March 4th to 7th, 2025. I am in charge of creating the coordination for the entire program. This year's theme is "Journey of Grace." Our primary goal is to help people live more and more gracefully by knowing who they are and who God is.

Prayer 🙏

As of now, we plan to have 4 messages at 4 sessions , and although the overall flow has been decided, the details have not yet been decided. Please pray for wisdom regarding the content of the message so that the camp can be a place where students can understand grace and live out in faith.

2. take seminary classes

If possible, I would like to take seminary classes part-time from next April, so I am currently preparing the documents. 

My plan is to continue working as a CCC staff and take one class a week in addition to my normal schedule. 

100% staff ➕10% seminary class. 

My schedule may be a little more busy, but I have a deeper hunger for the Word of Bible.

The reason I want to take a seminary class is that when I think about how I can love my students more in my current job. I want to be able to understand the Bible as a whole and be able to be engaged with students with a wide range of knowledge. I also want my students to know  the depth of the Bible. I also want to learn more about how to prepare a message when giving a message, and I want to learn more deeply about how to study the Word. I desire to know more about the word of god that I still don't understand. 

Prayer 🙏

 I do not know if I will be able to enter the seminary, please pray for me to be able to study at a seminary in Nagoya if it is God's will.

thank you for reading till the end. i will write about megumi team 2nd half and seminary in next newsletter. Next one will be published around end of january or early Feburuary. thank you for doing missions together!