New Doors

Dear friends,
I pray that this letter would find you well. Thank you all for your prayers concerning the last letter. God has started to open different doors concerning the next step of my ministry here in Japan and we have been seeing many blessings.

Firstly, there was the beginning of multiple classes each week for shine kids. The children that have been coming to shine kids have now been divided between the Tuesday classes and the Friday classes. This has made each class a smaller of course and we are now praying for the growth of each individual class. However the smaller classes has allowed us more time to talk with the parents and the kids. It seems like each class is allowing us to learn more about those coming and also to develop a deeper relationships with all. God has especially given my wife a lot of opportunity to speak with the mothers of the shine kids and for this we are very grateful. Please pray for God's will to be done in these classes and for them to continue to give us opportunity to share and love on the people coming.

Also, we were blessed to have our very first Kids Brown Saturday trial day program over in Setagaya. Five kids came and they all seemed to have blast and the parents kept laughing and smiling and clapping throughout the lesson, so I think they enjoyed themselves as well. It is Wednesday now and we haven't heard back yet about kids who want to sign up for the program. We have one more trial day this Saturday and then will be starting classes next month. Please be praying for this ministry as we are just starting out. In Japan, it takes a long time to build foundations with people and as such usually it makes us have to be patient when starting a new ministry.  But please pray that more kids would come this Saturday and those kids that have come already would sign up for classes.

In addition, Pastor Rich has asked me to start leading the International Wednesday night bible study instead of only translating. God has been bringing a lot of different people to this bible study including internationals, Japanese, English speakers, non English speakers, people for other churches and people who haven't been to church in a while. It is exciting to see what God will do through this bible study. We have already started working our way through the book of Deuteronomy. It has been a while since I have studied through this book, so please be praying that God would give me wisdom and knowledge as I lead the bible study and that God would continue to work through this time. Also please be praying for a new translator for Wednesday nights as well to replace me.

I also ask that you would keep praying about, inter service events here at the church. We have tried several times to have events that include the Japanese and English fellowships in the past few months. But every single time they have been canceled by rain or some other problem. I am not really sure were to go from here in this area, but God knows. So please be praying that God would help us understand in what ways we can bring the two services together and the timing of everything.

Despite this, the international service retreat was really blessed. It used to be that the international service would have a retreat every year to have a special time of fellowship. But with Pastor Jeremiah moving on and the shift over to Pastor Rich, it has been a few years since we have been able to have it. But this year we were able to and it turned into a great time of fellowship with a lot of great conversation. Praises for that.

Well, I think that is all for now. Thank you for your prayers and support. Praying that you all are  doing good and going strong in the work God has given you.

Because he lives,
Alex