ALIVE comes alive!

Dear friends,
It is good to be writing you all again. A lot has been happening since the last time that I wrote to you after the EPIC team left that I would like to share with you all.

The biggest thing I wanted to share about was ALIVE. Thank you all for praying for the new bilingual service that we were about to start the last time that I wrote to you. By the grace of God, we were able to start this new service from the first saturday of September. At Horizon we have many different services that meet at different times throughout the week. In this way, Horizon is able to minister to many different types of people. We are able to serve English speakers and Internationals, Japanese people, and we even have a Filipino service that during the week. However, because they all meet at separate times and are in separate languages,  there is very little crossover between the services. So we started Alive, a completely bilingual service where many different kinds of people can meet in one place and one time, and through exposure and interaction with many kinds of christians, can grow and learn. Also because we are a bilingual service, we are able to reach out to to unsaved Japanese people that are trying to learn English.

As this service has been forming, God has blessed us with many different amazing servants who have come alongside me as we have been starting out in this new direction. My friend Fumitaka has blessed us by taking on the role of worship leader for this service. And God has brought together an awesome worship team (seen practicing here) that come from many different services and even different church campuses at Horizon.

From the beginning, one of the biggest issues we had in starting this new service and our biggest

prayer request was finding translators. Without them, we would not be able to have this kind of service. But God is good. And He brought together a team of translators from some of the most unlikely places. As of now, we are blessed to have 8 translators on weekly rotation for this service. As for me, I have been blessed with being able to share from the Word weekly at the ALIVE service. We have been working our way through the book of James, and are starting chapter 4 this week.

As for our fellowship time, we have been trying to mix it up a bit. Of course we have coffee time on the first floor of our church two weeks out of the month. But also once a month we all go out to eat together and one Saturday of each month we have been having some sort of activity night. Last Saturday we all went out to Karaoke and are planning out different activities for the future. Please pray for this new fellowship that it would be used as a blessing in the church as well as a tool to reach outside of the church.

Thank you also for praying for the Shine kids program. Machida Shine kids continues to be blessed with more students. We are up to eight students per class for our beginners and advanced classes. Setagaya continues to have around 25 kids a week coming to learn English. Our adult English school continues to be blessed with new students as well as time goes on. Last Saturday we had another pancake breakfast and it was really a blessed time, with people coming not only from our English classes, but outside as well. Even some people from the hair salon my
wife goes to came as well. Please pray that God would continue to expand these ministries and used them to build relationships. Also please pray that those studying English would come to the Alive service and hear the Word of God.

Coming up in november is our Horizon Cafe, a little fall festival that we put on to reach out to the people that live around the church. Please pray that many would come into the church and for blessed conversations.  Also keep us in prayer as we head into the Christmas season and all the outreaches that are to come. Pray for our wisdom and for God to work through Horizon to minister to the people of Machida.

I think that is it for now. Thank you all for your ongoing prayers and support. You are in our prayers.

Because He lives,
Alex, Tomoko, Daisy, and Caleb Robinson

P.S. Daisy and Caleb are doing great. Caleb as always, rarely stops smiling and is starting to speak some Japanese and English words. Daisy never stops talking all day long and will be starting Kindergarten from next year (they start early here). We have a interview coming up for her Kindergarten, so please pray that it goes well.