Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone,
Glad to be able to write you all again after the finish of a blessed Shine Kids Fall Semester. Thank you all for your prayers for new students as we had 8 new students between the Setagaya and Machida campuses. Well, 9 if you include my little girl Daisy dancing with the rest of the Shine Kids. The time we spent together was great and the time my wife spent with the Shine Kids moms was blessed as well.
Two weeks after the Shine Kids Semester ended, we had our annual International Bazaar after the Japanese church service on Sunday. Some of the Shine Kids were able to come by and perform the song and dance that we were practicing this semester and play games with the other Sunday school kids. I also was able to meet some of the dads of the Shine Kids that I had never met before which is always great. Pray for vision for making more community events like this.

Please be praying for us as we make our preparations for next years Shine Kids. I have been feeling lead to make changes to the program. Starting from next April, Lord willing, we want to begin teaching one-on-one classes in addition to the regular Shine Kids and to be open Tuesday through Friday .  Also we want to start opening up the classes to older students. Up to this point, our program has been ministering to kindergarten and early elementary aged kids. But we want to start reaching out to junior high and maybe even high school aged kids.  Please pray that God will open the doors to where we are supposed to go, and close the doors to where we shouldn't.

Thank you for praying for our kids event in October. The VBS Mini (which is what we ended up calling it) was a great time. Many kids from the Shine Kids as well as kids from the from the Japanese and English service came. The helpers also were a very mixed group, some coming from the college fellowship, some from the English and Japanese services, and even some of the junior high group kids helped out with the event. It was a three hour program with the theme of Noah's ark. We sang kids worship songs, had an English lesson and games about animals, had a Bible story time, as well as a craft (We made a huge balloon out of cut up garbage bags that kids could walk around in!) and lunch.  It was such a blessed time in fact, that we have decided we are going to be having a VBS Mini event every three months. The next VBS Mini is going to be December 6th, the VBS Christmas, and we already have 19 kids from the Shine Kids Program signed up. Please pray for more kids to sign up and for helpers.

Also please be praying for the Cafe Salem. As lately the customers have been fewer and fewer and as some volunteers have had to step back from work at the cafe, the church staff has been praying about what direction the cafe should take next and what changes should be made. Currently the cafe has been closed for two weeks and will be opening up later this month only for reservations for a while. Again, please pray for guidance and wisdom for the staff as decisions are made about what to do next.

Thank you for your prayers for the Wednesday night English Cafe time and International Bible study that I have been leading. We have people coming every week for the English time and many opportunities to share the Gospel. Please pray for the seeds that have already been planted through the English Cafe time to grow. As for the Bible study, we finally made it through the book of Deuteronomy. Now, before we head into the book of Joshua, we are taking a break to do some special focused studies. Pastor Rich taught a 5 week study on Biblical prophesy that I was blessed to translate for. And now I am teaching a 7 week course on Apologetics. Recently we have been covering world religions, what they believe, and questions that we can ask them. We have been blessed to have a few new faces at the bible study including catholic and non-christian guests. Please pray for more and more people to come to the bible study and that it will be used by God for whatever he wants to do. Also please pray for Shane and Akari (the couple in the picture above) who run the Gospel Cafe. Pray that God would bless the cafe and provide them with everything they need.

Thank you for praying for the mother's meeting that my wife has been leading. They have been
meeting together for a time of prayer and sharing once a month and they are all going out together for fellowship often. It has been a great time for the new moms in our church to encourage one another and talk about what it is to be a Godly wife and mom. Please pray for more women to be added to the fellowship as it has had such a visible effect on all the moms in the group. Also God has been putting it on my wife's heart to do a women's event in the near future which is badly needed in the church. Pray for God to reveal the timing to my wife about this.

Please also be praying for the Christmas season, there are a lot of events in December including
Christmas concerts and programs. Please be praying for those bringing family members and co-workers to these events and that God would bless the time and conversations.

Thank you always for your prayers and support.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sincerely,
Alex, Tomoko, and Daisy Robinson





P.S. Daisy will be 1 1/2 years old this month. She is running around like crazy now and is talking all the time. She also loves dancing around and reading books with us. Her favorite word right now is, "No!". So please pray for patience for us ^_~.

SUMMER EVENTS!!!

Dear Friends,
It is a blessing to be writing you all again. Firstly, I want to thank you all so much for our time spent with you in America. To fellowship with you all again and to hear what God is doing in and through Calvary Chapel Sonora was such an encouragement to my wife and I. Spending time with you all is always just such a grace filled experience. I am
grateful that my family was able to experience the amazing community there and to be reminded of how faithful God is through the fellowship with you all.

Upon our return to Japan, we really hit the ground running. The week after we arrived, we had a week long Shine Kids Summer School in Machida. It was good to see all of the kids again and a blessing spend time with them on a daily basis instead of the usual once a week. And my wife was able to spend every day talking with the moms which was a great opportunity to talk and share.

The same week that the Machida summer school started, the Setagaya Shine Kids summer event
started as well. Once a week for three weeks, we had a three hour  program for the Shine Kids in Setagaya. Seventeen kids came to the event in all including five new kids. First we had a hour long Shine Kids English program with the kids. Then we all had lunch together and talked and played and hung out. And then for the last hour we did a big craft project with them all, one time even making a big balloon out of plastic garbage bags that the kids could walk around in! The kids had a great time, and on the last day when we painted pictures of the best thing that happened on summer break, five of the kids painted pictures of the Shine Kids Summer School. It was a blessing to spend time with the kids, to eat lunch with them and talk with them and I am grateful to God for the opportunity. Praying that the new kids come back and join in with regular classes.

Then, a week after the first Shine Kids Setagaya Event, we had the Horizon VBS. It was really amazing! We held the VBS for two days and each day we had 50 kids come. We were also blessed to have a team of nine people visiting from the Seritos Baptist Church. Amazing to see the ways God worked in the VBS, kids from the Sunday school of the International and Japanese service came, many bringing with them Non Christian friends from school. The Shine Kids from both Machida and Setagaya came as well. They sang worship songs, did crafts played games, listened to bible stories. It was great to see all the kids that I teach in Shine kids being taught bible stories and to see them asking questions and learning. But was also great about this year was that the whole event was lead by Japanese people. In past years when we have done a VBS, the whole thing has been lead by Americans. A team will come in and do the whole VBS and the Japanese Members of the church would come alongside and help out. Which is great. But this year, the Japanese church members and staff took the lead. They planned out the event, they prepared the games, the crafts, they prepared the bible stories. In the past, the bible stories were all taught in English and then translated into Japanese. But this year, the messages were all taught in Japanese by Japanese people and translated into English for the American team who came along side to help. And it was a beautiful thing to see. To see Japanese people reaching out to Japanese people and Christians from other nations coming along side to assist and help them do so... It is a beautiful thing. I look forward to see what God will do through the Japanese believers here at the church in the future and pray that Japanese Christians would become bolder and bolder in outreaching to their people. It is so exciting to see! Praise God!

The week after the VBS was our Horizon Family Camp, a time for all the Horizon churches to come together and fellowship. We were blessed to have some of the kids from the VBS also come to the Family camp. And also to have our neighbor come. My wife has become friends with our neighbor, a single mother. We have invited her to church many times and she has not been very responsive to our invitations, but God did a special work in her heart and she was very interested in attending the Family camp with her little girl. It was a blessed time. Her little girl had a lot of fun running around and playing with the other kids and I. And as the family camp went on, our neighbor was more and more interested in the messages that were being taught. We are praying for our neighbor that the seed planted in her heart will, by the Holy Spirit, continue to grow.

The Fall semester of Shine Kids starts next week. Please pray for many kids to come and for the blessing of the time we spend with them. Also please be praying for the planning of other events in the near future. We want to do a three hour program on a Saturday in October connected with the VBS.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. I am praying for you all.

May the Lord bless you and keep you,
Alex, Tomoko, and Daisy Robinson

P.S. My marriage visa extension was approved. 1 more year until I have to apply again.

Upcoming Trip!

Dear Friends,
It is good to be writing you all again. God continues His work in this part of the world and we are blessed to see what he has been doing every day.

Just recently got back from the International Service's spring retreat. It was a great time of fellowship and study. We had a total of 52 people come including kids and we really praise God for the time there.

We thank you so much for your prayers for Shine Kids. As we have been doing this ministry for over two years now, many of our students have been growing up and graduating to Elementary School. As such, we have started Elementary school classes from this semester and the classes we have been having have been great. Also a new addition is that as the moms have taken to staying on the first floor and talking while the kids are in class, we have started a moms tea time for them. We have been putting out tea and treats and my wife has been able to sit and talk with them. Also, some have shown interest in learning English from my wife as well. There have been many good times of sharing and good conversations and we praise God for the opportunity to take the next step in building relationships with the moms. Also the responses from the kids have been great to. Some of the kids talk about Shine Kids all the time at home. Last week, one of our new children cried because he didn't want to leave. And also God has been leading kids here as well. One our old students who is in Elementary school now and doesn't attend the club anymore came by and visited us. He showed up out of the blue and talked with us for a while. He told us about some problems he had been having at school and how his Mom had to work late. I think he just wanted to talk to someone. I praise God that He lead him to us as someone he could talk to. Please pray for him and also how best we can minister to him and his family as well as the other kids and families that come to Shine Kids.

Also the new Shine Kids club in Setagaya has been extremely blessed. We are running three classes now every Thursday and have 25 students coming every week. Kids from Kids Brown have been coming as well as kids from the Shine Kids club that we had before in Setagaya and it has been good to see them all again. As the three classes are back to back, there is not as much time for talking with the kids and the moms. Also my 2nd class of 15 kids is mostly 7 and 8 year old boys and managing the energy levels can be a little difficult at times. Please pray for wisdom as to how best to build relationships at the new Shine Kids. Also pray for patience and love for me for all the situations that come up.

The Sunday school staff and I are also planning now for the VBS that is going to be happening in August. Through connections from the team that came to help last year, we found that a team from another church will be in Japan around that time and has volunteered to help out at the VBS! Praise the Lord. After seeing how powerfully, God worked through last years VBS, we are excited to see what he has planned this year. We hope to bring together the Japanese and International Sunday schools as well as the two Shine Kids clubs for this event. There is still a lot of preparation to do before August. So please pray for guidance and wisdom for us as we are planning the VBS. Above is a picture we took with the Japanese Sunday school.

Lastly, we would like to announce that we are going to be coming back to America after the
Shine Kids semester is over! We will be arriving in the states on June 23 and will be staying in Sonora until July 7. I am very excited to see you all again soon and also to introduce you all to my little girl, Daisy (seen here preparing for her trip in her red, white, and blues).

We pray for your blessing and that God would continue to reveal His glories daily to you.

See you in June,
Alex, Tomoko, and Daisy Robinson

Visitors!

Dear friends,
Very good to be writing you all again.

We were blessed recently to have Lane and Cindy Wettengel come and visit us. Though they came just in time to experience the two worst blizzards to hit Toyko in the last twenty years consecutively, they rolled with it and despite all that, it turned out all right ^_^.   It was a great time of fellowship and encouragement, especially the time when we were able to welcome them into our home. I think the one that enjoyed it the most was our little girl Daisy, From the first day they came, Daisy couldn't stop smiling and squealing. And when they eventually moved on to stay in Yokohama, Daisy kept looking around for them for the next three days. Haha. But what meant the most to us was the message that they carried with them. The message that we are not alone and not forgotten. That we are thought about and prayed for in the church. And in seeing the cards and gifts they brought with them, some from people that we have not even met yet, I was just so overwhelmed by how amazing the family of God is. Even though I am here, separated by an ocean, my family stands with me. Also hearing about the growth of the church there and the explosion of home fellowships at Calvary Chapel Sonora was so encouraging and gave us something that we can stand with you in prayer about.  We are so grateful to Lane and Cindy for coming and spending time with us, and we are so grateful for you all. It is such a amazing grace that we have been experiencing. And remember, our doors are always open to those who want come and serve. Just ask Lane and Cindy, we take good care of our guests ^_~. Haha.

Thank you for your prayers for Shine Kids. This semester has been a little hectic. As I
mentioned previously, we have experienced the two worst blizzards to hit Tokyo in twenty years. And as Tokyo is not a city that is used to snow, everything shut down including trains and buses. Between that and the flu season, we have had a very mixed semester, with as many as twenty coming some weeks and others with very few. But God has been gracious and all the classes we have had have been a blessing. Also it is good to see the work that God has been doing among the staff of Shine Kids. I have seen a lot of stretching and growth this semester because of the circumstances. People taking more and more responsibility in the ministry, making it their own. And there has been growth in other ways has well. One of our staff, who often has trouble communicating, has been able to speak more and more. Sometimes it shocks me how much someone can grow by the grace of God in a short time. So continue to pray for the staff of Shine Kids and for kids to be able to come more and more.

There has been a new development in the Kids Brown program in Setagaya as well.  The staff has decided to stop using the current curriculum, and now wants to start another Shine Kids club there in Setagaya. Up to this point I have only been assisting in the classes in Setagaya, but they have asked me to take leadership of the classes there. We will be starting the new club from April, so please be praying for preparations in this next month. We are hoping that with the start of this new Shine Kids, we can begin to do more events together with both of the English clubs from the two locations, even praying about doing a home-stay in America with some of the kids. All in the planning stages right now, so please pray for leading and wisdom in the time that is to come.

Thank you for praying for the Wednesday night bible study. We are still working our way
through the book of Deuteronomy, and God has been faithful to speak to the group through the book. One blessing we have had is that recently the Filipino members of the international service have been coming regularly to the bible study, bringing their family members. We have some people that have been saved recently and some just coming back into church fellowship, So please pray for God's anointing on these times and that everyone would be blessed through these times.

Also, if you would please pray for teachers for the Sunday School of the International Fellowship, that would be appreciated. Two of our teachers are going to be moving away soon, leaving some gaps in the teaching rotations. I am trying to fill in with most of the classes, but I would also like to continue to be involved in the translation ministry at the English service. So please pray for wisdom and for workers in this area of the ministry.

We are praying for you all and thank you for your continued prayers and support.

Thank you,
Alex, Tomoko, and Daisy Robinson

P.S.
Daisy really likes clapping her hands now and does it all the time when she is happy.