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.