Stepping Out

Men's Cabin Fellowship

 Hello Friends,

Merry Christmas to you all! The Christmas season naturally brings to mind the nativity story as well as the the extraordinary faith of Mary and Joseph. Both were simple people from the small and poor town of Nazareth who were planning on getting married and living quiet and simple lives. Probably both had a strong image of what life was going to be like for them. Then suddenly God showed up and called them to live much differently than they had planned. To take part in something that neither they nor anyone else had ever done before: To be the Step Father and Mother to the Son of God himself. While the most natural answer would be to say no and to hold on to what they had planned or to buckle in fear at the weight of what they were being called to do, these two did not. They trusted God knew what he was talking about.  They received what God was calling them to do immediately and with great faith. And because of their faith, they were able to take part in the greatest work of God on this earth which we continue to celebrate to this day.

There are those times when our plans have been made and everything is set and then suddenly God shows up with something much different than you had imagined and calls us to faith that He knows what he is talking about.

At the beginning of this year, I would have said to you that I was going to be

Sunday School Christmas

Pastoring at Tokyo Horizon Chapel for the rest of my life. That was the plan and the image that I had for myself and my family. We have been serving at Horizon for the last 14 years and as such we are the longest serving missionaries that the church has ever had up to this point. We were blessed very much by our years at Horizon as well. I was trained for ministry and ordained as a pastor here. My wife and I met each other here. We raised our kids here. God used our time at Horizon to grow us in our faith and relationship with Him. And all the ministry that we have ever done was done at or through Horizon. 

However during the course of the year, God showed up and began to speak to me and my wife about stepping out from Horizon and into a new season of ministry. Now while we were willing, we continued to ask where He was sending us. To show us a door that we could walk through. But no door appeared. Just the continued leading to step out. 

Setagaya International Fellowship Time

At first I did not want to acknowledge the leading because I wanted a destination God was calling us to first. But during the course of the year, God convicted me (by one of my own messages that he spoke through me). I was preaching that often God will give us an instruction and wait for us to be faithful in taking that leading before revealing his next work, much as the priests were called to put their feet in the Jordon before it was parted. Even as I spoke it out, I realized God was speaking to me.  It was then that I set in my heart that before the year was out, I would follow his instruction. And if I had not had clear leading by then, I would go into a transitional time of seeking, studying, and serving in anyway I could. 

Once convicted, I shared with my wife and together we started making steps in that

Tokyo Pastors Meeting

direction. And it indeed felt like God brought the earth up to meet our feet with every step we took into the unknown. Suddenly, by “chance” we started to meet missionaries and people from outside of Horizon. One missionary family that God brought us into relationship with had been brought out of a long period of service in the same ministry one year earlier and had gone through a similar transitional time as the one that God was calling us to do. They gave us much insight and wise council for the season. Through this family as well, we were connected with Grace Garden Church, a church plant in Ebina which is only 15 minutes away from us. The pastor there understood our situation and said we were welcome to attend and serve at his church while we were seeking. As soon as the next step revealed itself, he said we were free to move on from them with their blessing. He also said he would be introducing us to other church’s as well during our time there that we could expand our connections and understanding of what God is doing in Tokyo. Then God connected us with a group of pastors serving in Tokyo that meet on a monthly basis to support one another and I learned much from meeting with them as well. God willing, we will be able to continue in connection with them as my family steps out in the new season. 

And so, as I write this to you all, we are now one week out from our last day at Horizon. God has been filling the needs and currently my previous responsibilities and ministries in this church have been filled by a variety of faithful servants. In our time preparing to leave, God also blessed us with many confirmations about the work He has done through us to teach His word and to point people to Jesus. This was our greatest hope. Also many encouragements came from those we have been serving that God will continue to use us outside of this place, with many praying for us. And from next week

Bible College Students

we take that first step of faith off of the map and into what the Lord will show us. Please continue to pray for us that God would continue to meet us as we are stepping out. And that more and more he would open the way to the next season of the ministry he has for us, whether here in Japan or anywhere he would call us. 

We thank you always for your love, support and prayers. We are praying for you all! 

Much love and Merry Christmas, 

Alex, Tomoko, Daisy, Caleb, Hazel, and Olive Robinson.

VBS Summer 2022

https://youtu.be/XUhGD5TuYQ4

Blossoms

Men's Fellowship Bowling Night

 Hello friends,

It is good to be writing you all at the end of a very long winter. This month in Tokyo, the cherry blossoms bloomed and all of Tokyo turned pink. What is interesting is for most of the year, you really don’t realize how many cherry trees there are in Tokyo. I pass by them everyday going to and from church, not giving them any thought whatsoever. But suddenly, for about a week every year, they bloom in their full glory and I realize that I am surrounded by them. They are absolutely everywhere. And I walk around dumbfounded and awestruck all week, even after living here for 15 years. And for weeks after, even after the cherry trees have stopped blooming, there is nowhere my feet can take me where I am not stepping on pink petals… I think the mercies of God are a lot like that. It is easy for me to go about the day to day without even realizing that they are there. But from time to time, God pulls back the curtain for me and I realize His mercies are everywhere. That they have been surrounding me the whole time though I did not realize it. And every step I have been taking has been by those same mercies. Much like Jacob said… [Gen 28:16b-17a ESV] …”Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it." And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! …” It has been a time like that for me recently. And God in his mercy has been revealing little blossoms in all that he has called my family to do. 

Easter in the Park

The Setagaya International Fellowship that I am pastoring has been growing. I have seen it grow in worship. For quite some time we did not have enough leaders and our brothers from Calvary Chapel Ginowan in Okinawa were making videos for us so we could have worship every Sunday. But God has provided us with worship leaders and we have not had to use videos for the last two months. I have seen our fellowship grow in community and those who have started attending recently say that it is like visiting family every Sunday. Last month we were able to have potluck for the first time in a while and all together we had 22 people who joined us, and it was a time of much rejoicing and high spirits. But even more than this I have seen our fellowship grow in their hunger for the word, sharing the word with one another throughout the week in our church chat rooms. Some of the people from the International service have started attending my class at the Horizon Bible college weekly. Also the joint Machida/Setagaya Online Bible Study that we have on Wednesdays (that used to be sometimes only 2 people) has in the last few months grown to 8 of us that are meeting faithfully every week to dig into the word. In addition we were able to start up our joint men’s and women’s fellowship events again for the first time in two years.

Our children’s ministry as well is starting to blossom again. During the course of the last two

years of corona, we lost contact with many children and their families from our children’s kindergarten and from shine kids as we were not able to meet with them regularly. But suddenly, many of these families reached out to us again. Some who we haven’t seen or heard from in 4 years. And they have been reconnecting with us. My wife Tomoko was able to invite many of the mothers and children to our home as we used to do often in the past and guests who come through our door just keep increasing.The numbers of Shine Kids in Setagaya had dwindled during the beginning of this semester, but now they are all back in full number and we are ministering to 25 kids there each week. A mother recently shared with me that she has never been to an English school where the kids were treated with more kindness and understanding. The English Time program which we recently started in Machida is growing. We have partnered with other church members in this ministry and I have been moved to see my kids and the other church children lovingly ministering to the children from outside the church as my wife and another mother from church minister to the mothers, listening to their stories as their children learn English. Pastor Jonathan and Rie his wife, who I have been serving under in Machida, have developed a program that helps children who have been through traumatic experiences called OPsafe. (He is going to be going this month to Poland to train people ministering to Ukrainian refugees.) And they have agreed to train the Sunday school teachers and I in this program and Lord willing we are going to use the training to minister to Tokyo kids this summer and incorporate the program into our VBS. 

My family and I thank you all for your prayers and support. We thank those who have reached out to us with letters and encouragement. We keep you all in our prayers and look forward to the time when we can fellowship again, face to face. 

Because He lives,

Alex, Tomoko, Daisy, Caleb, Hazel, and Olive Robinson

PS. Our kids are doing great. They continue to home school and serve a lot in the church. Our oldest Daisy has been going crazy about Kenya recently, pouring over books and making clothes and even trying to learn some Kiswahili. (We have some members of the International Service that come from Kenya.) Says she wants to be a missionary there someday. Exciting to see what the Lord has in store for these little ones.