Japan Newsletter - Feb 17, 2009

Hello and many greeting to you all.
I thank you for being patient for the coming of this letter. I haven't been able to really have some quality writing time in a while and am glad to finally be able to do so. Again, I am at a loss for words to describe the glories of God in the country of Japan. However, I want to tell you about a few things that happened since I spoke to you all last.

One exciting thing that happened this month was being able to go to a Japanese orphanage for the first time. A couple weeks ago about seven members of the church and I spent time in a Catholic orphanage about and hour away from here. We spent hours playing with the children, talking with them, and teaching them. It was truly an amazing time for me and for the people who went. Also, in speaking to the staff there, they were very interested in having us return. Keep us in your prayers about this. Jeremiah and I have talked about making this a monthly event for the congregation here. I think it is a great idea and a great way to reach out to the kids, so please be praying that this would all come together in God's timing and in God's way and that it would be a blessing to all involved.

This was also the month which marks the start of our Shine Kids Program over in Setagaya. While we have been running the Shine Kids Winter Semester since last month here in Machida, I really felt lead to start another Shine Kids Class in our sister church in Setagaya. So, I prepared all the materials and started on the friday of last week. To my surprise, the children that came to this new program were far younger than those that came to Machida. While the youngest here in Machida are of a kindergarten age, the children in Setagaya where all about three years old. But, with a few quick alterations and the grace of God, the class still went very well and both the children and the mothers had a really good time. It was not exactly how I pictured things working out, but then again I have really come to love God's beautiful little surprises. They make life so much richer. Please be praying that the school would continue to grow and flourish in God's time and by His will. And that He would use this contact with the families and children to bring more people into His saving Grace and love.

Also, there have been some new developements at the Homeless ministry in Yoyogi Park. Because of the current financial crisis, the numbers of homeless people have increased at a alarming rate. When I first arrived here, the Homeless ministry served about 100 people. In this last month alone, this number has tripled. Evertime I go to the homless ministry, I am seeing many new faces. And unfortunately, because of the large numbers of people, it is fairly difficult to find people you have talked with previously which is essential to the ministry, consistant contact. Naturally, I can see how God is using the current economy for good in that more people are having a chance to be exposed to the gospel. But I have a feeling we are going to have to change the way in which we minister to these men and women a bit in order to meet the need and feed hearts as well as stomachs. Please be praying for direction in this ministry.

Lastly, please be praying for the unsaved that attend church services and ministries. There are now serveral people who are coming to the English services here to practice there English. I have been blessed by being able to spend time with these people, talking with them, and being able to share the gospel with them. I have become good friends with most of them and love them very much. But please pray for wisdom and discernment in my relationships with them. With my love for them naturally comes also great concern and great passion for them to come to a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus. But, indeed I must be careful that this passion does not turn into a zealousness that could damage what God is seeking to do through this relationship. I want to minister to them and indeed share the gospel with them, but with the loving patience that God has given to me. Please pray that God would continue to work in me this loving patience and of course please pray that these people would run to the arms of Jesus soon if not right now.

I love you all and miss you all and wish you were here with me. Please write me if you find you have the time. I would love to hear from you.

Yours lovingly in our merciful Lord,
Alex J. Robinson ><>

Japan Newsletter - Jan 8, 2009

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Happy new year!!! I pray that all of you are well and that your Christmas season was truly a joyful one. My December was quite an eventful time for me, full of Christmas outreaches, wonderful ministries, and of course so many blessings from God. Truly, His faithfulness just leaves me awestruck sometimes. Were should I start?
Well firstly, I would like to thank you all for your prayers about my language abilities. I think God has brought me to a bit of a "clicking" point when it comes to Japanese. It is hard to describe it, but some of my Japanese friends who learned English had similar experiences. It's kind of like it just flows out you without having to translate what you are saying into English in your head. Like you are talking from another part of your brain. Anyway, it's pretty cool and I am grateful to God for getting me this far.
Also, thank you for praying for the big outreaches that I mentioned in the last letter. The Women's Christmas Outreach, the Christmas Program. The Christmas Eve Candle Light Service all went very well. All were great and everyone had opportunities to invite unsaved family and friends. And surprisingly, a lot of those invited came. We had a packed house every time. Some have even visited services after the fact which is always a blessing. Please pray for the unsaved currently attending services, pray for good relationships to be formed and for the spirit to be working in their hearts. But I think my favorite outreach in the last month would have to be the Children's English Christmas program in Saitama. Saitama Horizon has a English school functioning out of it and they invited me to put on a Christmas Program for their students. It was an amazing time. We sang Christmas carols, made cloth angels, and I was able to share about gospel to them through talking about the meaning of Christmas. The kids enjoyed themselves and all of them wanted me to come back soon and I hope to be much more involved in this ministry in the future.
Anyway, as for prayer requests, naturally I have quite a few. But the mainstay of them are about the ministries in this new year. Please be praying for the next semester of Shine Kids that will be coming up soon and also for the Shine Kids Program that I am feeling led to start in our sister church in Setagaya. Please be praying for lots of kids, great relationships with families, and that God's will would be done. Also be praying about my possible involvement in the Horizon Language School in this next year. It would be a great opportunity to come in contact with Japanese people I wouldn't ordinarily meet. However, my involvement still remains in question. Also please be praying for Funky Friday. There have been some difficulties in the ministry lately.
God bless you all. I will be praying for you. Please drop me a line if you have the time.
Yours in our Lord,
Alex J. Robinson

Japan Newsletter- Dec 3, 2008

Dear brothers and sisters,
Hello and many greetings to you. I am sorry to have taken so much time to write you again. My days have been full lately and God continues to move and work in this land. But not a day has gone by that my heart hasn't found you one way or another. I have so very much to tell you. Firstly, thank you for praying for the events that were coming up the last time I wrote you. The Classical Concert, The Horizon Café, The Setagaya Fall festival all went better than we had hoped and many from the surrounding communities came. Please pray that the strengthening of these relationships would continue and the church would grow to be more and more a place of safety and love in the eyes of the community.
The Homeless Ministry continues on and has been going well. Recently we held the Homeless Thanksgiving in Yoyogi Park not far from where we usually do ministry. We brought a lot of food and clothing and praised be to God, over a hundred and fifty homeless people came for it. Unfortunately, even though the goods we gave to the people there were very much needed (especially with the winter coming upon us so quickly here), we did not have time to talk with anyone as we had to pack everything up quickly before the police arrived. You see, before we had the homeless ministry in Yoyogi, there was another ministry in Shinjuku that was very good and that I was able to serve at in previous trips. However it got very big. And after a while the police shut it down under the heading of park health. They don't like the homeless congregating in large groups because it doesn't make the park look good. And they have started to eyeball us over in Yoyogi as well. So we have to make a fast exit when the police are about to go on patrol. Please be praying about this situation. I have just started to develop relationships with the people that hang out in Yoyogi and know many by name and know their stories. I don't want to have to loose that and start over somewhere else.
The other ministries have been good. Funky Friday, the youth and co-worker outreach over in Setagaya is about to have a big launching event to get us into the community and church eye again. Pray that it will go well. We continue to hope and pray that it will be a way to speak to the large youth community in Setagaya, a place lacking many other churches to do so. The English class over in Setagaya that we teach through the bible hasn't grown, but relationships are being made stronger. Pray for the unsaved within the class. Also, since pastor Jeremiah left, I have been put in charge of leading the International Wednesday Night Bible Study. Things have been going well and God continues to work in the hearts of people in it. Pray for the unsaved that have started attending recently. Pray that they would see God through this study and through the saved that they now spend time with. Please continue to pray for all the ministries, that God would bless them.
And lastly, please be praying for me. Pray for wisdom and that God would continue to grow me into who he wants me to be. Sometimes I step back from the work that I am involved in and say to myself "I am probably the worst choice for this work". My youth and my inexperience in these things often cross my mind. But, God is good and merciful. He uses the least of us to work His wonders. So I am not really worried. Just grateful. But still, growing is good and I still have a long way to go.
Thank you again for your prayer in all this. Come and join me any time you like. The workers are few here.

Lovingly and Gratefully yours,
Alex J. Robinson
P.S. Photos and hopefully video of Shine Kids Club to come.

Japan Newsletter Oct 14, 2008

Hello and many greetings to you my spiritual family!
This is Alex Robinson again writing from Tokyo and pleased as punch to be doing so ^_^. Things here have been going very well but very fast. It seems as soon as I get my head out of the water to catch my breath, another two weeks has gone by and I am writing you again. Sometimes it is hard to believe how busy it can get over here. Everybody on staff is going all out all the time and it seems as though I am doing the same ^_^. You see, because there are so few people really a part of ministry here, everyone has to take on many different roles. Pastors are counselors, teachers, administrators, janitors, repairmen, cooks, English teachers, worship leaders, garbage men, and everything in between. And the rest of staff fills in the gaps as best they can. Sometimes stepping back from the whole situation, it's weird to see how uneven everything is. There is so much opportunity for ministry and evangelism here, so many places that even I, with my limited perspective of this place, can see such need. But there are almost no workers for this harvest… I guess it's the same in every ministry. But here, with the heart God has given me for Japan, it hurts so much. I want to do so much more than I am, but I don't think I can… not at the same time. Please pray for me in this. Pray that God would give me perspective and guidance as to which ministries He wants me to take part in now, which ones he wants me to take part in later, and which ones he doesn't want me to be in at all. Also, please pray for the church here. Pray that more workers would come and that God would begin to work His wonders through them. I thank you for your prayers already in these things and for me. Please know that even now, I have been truly blessed by the prayer cover from the saints there. God has been working all around me, through me, and within me to make me into the man and servant I should be for this mission. And has even been giving me more patience when it comes to missions work here, which is essential for missionary survival in Japan ^_^!
Speaking of ministry opportunities, there are a few in particular that I would really like you to pray about. Recently, my schedule changed a little bit. I am now spending the entirety of my Fridays over in Setagaya. If you don't remember from my last letter, Setagaya Horizon Chapel is our small sister church that was started a little less than two years ago in a very unreached area about thirty minutes by train from here. Not too much has been happening in the way of outreach there so far, but the church there has been growing in both the English and the Japanese Fellowships. Fortunately for me, there are two outreaches there that just are just starting or are about to start that I am can be a part of. The First is an Bible English Class.
Now you may be thinking "Al, you got it wrong. It's an English Bible Class." But they are a bit different. A Bible English class is one in which we offer an English Class to those that want to learn. But instead of using some kind of text book we use the bible. We read the bible, translate the bible, discuss the bible, and then teach English through the bible. We simply talk about what words mean and how sentences in English work, and don't directly evangelize because it might scare off students. However, as we all know, "the Word of God is living and active… Sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joint and marrow." (Hebrews 4:12) Eventually the students have questions about what they are reading. And this gives great opportunity to share the love of Jesus with them. The class is just starting, so it is a bit small still. Please be praying for this ministry, that God will open up more and more opportunities through this class. But the other outreach, which God Has on my mind most often, is a ministry called Funky Friday.
When I came here last year, Funky Friday was already in full swing. I believe they have this outreach back in the states somewhere. But here, it was sort of just a night of fun things to do where people could invite their co-workers and friends. It was really a awesome night and God used me in it a lot the last time I was here. However, the Bible College student who was running it, Sho San, left and is now a pastor in Los Angeles. This left my friend Daichi in charge of it. However, he didn't understand the concept that well and soon it turned into a small Christian Fellowship time. This is fine, but Daichi has told me that he wants to re-make Funky Friday to be an outreach again. So we prayed about it a lot and think we know a bit more what it should look like. We are going to be starting it all up in November and I will keep you up to date with everything that is happening there.
Anyway, there is a lot happening in children's ministries and Shine Kids here. But I'll have to save that for another time. I pray that you are all well and hope to hear from you when you get the chance that I may know what to pray for there.

Yours in our Lord with all sincerity,
Alex J. Robinson ><>
P.S. Also, we have several big outreach events coming up this month. It is amazing how many people in our church are classically trained in music. So we are having two concerts that are coming up fast. Also we are having a horizon Café. It's going to be kind of like a festival in the Church and everyone in the Community is invited. And Lastly we are having a masquerade party for kids in the area at the end of the month. Please bathe these events in prayer that the Lord would use them how He wishes for His kingdom. Thank you.

Japan Newletter - Sept 28 2008

Greetings to you servants of the one true God,
This is Alex Robinson writing you for the very first time from Tokyo, Japan. Please excuse my tardiness in writing, but things have been very busy here since my arrival. Please know firstly that I am safe and well. The church family here has been very kind and has accepted me with open arms. Please praise God in this because even though the pastoral staff here know me well, I am not so well know in the church body, at least in the Japanese Fellowship here in Machida. However, Pastor Watanabe was able to put a insert in the church bulletin about my presence here and what God is calling me to do here. This was very well received and the church body seems to be behind me and the mission. This is wonderful and is important considering all the ministries I have been made a part of and will be a part of in the future. I will need all the support I can get. Speaking of which, I really want to tell you all about the ministries and what has happened in them thus far.
It has been only a little more than a week and yet so much has happened. I have been made a part of all the bible studies, home fellowships, and church fellowships (there are about four total running out of the church in Machida and in the small sister church in Setagaya). The pastoral staff believe that perhaps God can use me to help encourage the believers here and maybe fan the flames in their hearts towards evangelism and ministry. From talking to people from the church so far, I think big things may be happening soon in their lives. Many want to serve and are just trying to figure out where God wants them. This is a great place to be and I hope and pray to see big things and movements in the church and I hope and pray I can be a part of them.
Also, I have been put in charge of children ministries for the International Fellowship in Setagaya. It has grown so BIG!!! It used to be that we only had about six children at that fellowship. But now, because of all the families that have come, we now are working with twenty kids! Praise God! Working with them has been a joy far and we hope and pray that we would just keep growing. Along with this, the church has placed me in several outreaches and each one has just been amazing.
The first is Shine Kids. For those of you who don't know, Shine Kids is an English ministry that was started last year that we could reach out to children in the community and also to their families. You see, because of prejudice most Japanese people have against our faith, a church is not a trusted place. In fact, many fear it. But through the Shine Kids English club. We have been able to turn the church into a place of safety, peace, and love for the children in this area. And it has done the same for the parents. Many of the stay at home moms around here like to bring their kids and then just hang out. And we have tea and conversation with them. True this outreach is more of a bridge building nature and thus we can't talk about Jesus directly to the kids. But God has used it to open many doors to evangelism and many families have come to God because of it. This last week was our first for the fall season. We are working with about thirty kids at this point and perhaps more later on. It was really a great time and we had some great conversations with the kids and the parents. What was even better was that because it was a Japanese holiday that day, we were also able to meet many fathers which we usually aren't able to see because most work long hours. So, please pray for this ministry and the direction it is supposed to go. Pray that God would continue to work within the ministry.
Also there is the homeless ministry in Yoyogi Park. It happens on the first and third Thursday of every month and soon it will also be every Saturday morning as well. I have only been able to be there one time. However, that one time was really amazing. I spoke to this one homeless man for thirty minutes and somehow, by God's divine grace, I was able to understand most of what he said and also was able to share Jesus with him as well. He believed that Jesus was the god (little "g") of America. And that while He could work good there, here they had their own gods and because of it He could only work bad here. I told him that with the universe being so big, the creator of it would have to be bigger. And that a God that big would not care about nationalities. I said, or at least God said through me in Japanese, that we are all the same, all human, and had the same needs and the same problems. I told him that Jesus loves all of us and that He is here right now waiting to love you and save you from the things you've done. He thought about it, but in the end was just uncertain. However, for a man as confirmed in his beliefs as he was, I think that uncertainty is a good start. Please pray for him and for the ministry. We need a lot of guidance.
And best of all was the ministry in Negoya. In Negoya, there is a small house church and Pastor Hirano, the senior pastor, visits on a monthly basis to encourage the believers and to help with other ministries there and I have been asked to go with him during these times. So we got up there and I was able to share my testimony and Hirano Sensei spoke and the whole evening, you could feel the spirit moving. God was working in hearts. And after everything was over, three people asked to be prayed with to receive God's gift of salvation… Praise God and shout and sing for joy! God has called three more people into His kingdom! Three have been saved! It was so beautiful. Please pray for these believers as they start their journey in this harsh land and that God would surround them with Himself and with other believers that they would grow in Him.
Well, like I said, so much has gone on. It has been beautiful and amazing. And even now I am sitting in one of God's works, my apartment. It is a lovely place with everything one needs in a place to live. True, it isn't very big, especially by American standards, but it is comfortable and homey. And I couldn't have asked for a better roommate than my pal Hide. He's a great guy and I think I can learn a lot about the language from him. Oh, and the last big prayer request I have is in language. It took me a few days to be able to understand anything. English and Japanese sentence structure are so very different that you have to almost change your whole way of thinking to really pick up on it. And even though God is good and I have almost got my linguistic feet underneath me, I still have a long way to go. So please pray that God would continue to work with my mind and tongue and that he would train both in the Japanese language. Thank you all very much for your prayers and support, I will continue to write home on a regular basis and pray that you are all well and more in love with God than ever. Please don't hesitate to write. I would love to hear from you all and what is happening back home.
Because He lives,
Alex J. Robinson ><>

Tokyo 07 Last Blog

Hey everyone,
Alex here again, just doing a quick check in with you before I leave. It is my last night here and I guess it is a fair night to have a last night on ^_^. The Modesto team is here and is wrapping up their trip just as I am. Honestly a good group all things considered. Had kind of a rough start and some hard times along the way, but they all pulled through and today was a very good day. The shine kids week long vbs style club has been awesome and has been very fruitful in the building of relationships with the community, and even in drawing people closer to God. I am not going to tell you every cool thing that happened this week. But I am going to say that there was a woman who brought her child on the first day of this week, that said she would not come back after she found out that this was a church. Then she saw the program we put on here and how passionate we all were about sharing our love with the kids. And she came the next day, and then the next, and then she came again today and approached Jeremiah with a bible, asking if it was a good one and saying she wanted to learn more about what we believe... I know that it doesn't seem like much, but in this country that is HUGE ^_^!!!!!!!!!!!! Just another one of God's blessings on this trip! Anway, I look forward to seeing you all soon and hope you are all well.

Bye for now but not for long ^_~
Yours in our Lord with all sincerity,
Alex J. Robinson ><>

Tokyo Blog 07 Blog 8

Hello everyone,
Sorry for missing the saturday blog time. It was very full and by the time I got home, it was about four hours before I had to get up to make it to Tokyo Horizon on time. So I decided to put it off until I had some free time, like now for instance ^_^. So let's see, where should I begin. Like I said in my previous blog, I did alot of running back and forth this week. The VBS in ... sorry, I forgot that place's name... was interesting. It was unfortunate that we didn't really get to help out alot. It was very well manned and well planned out and we rarely fit into that plan. However, the ideas we got from that place were Cho Iketeru(Very very good). You see, one of the main aspects of ministry that the church here is trying to start is childrens outreaches. Making Horizon a place that they can always feel safe to come and a place where they know they will be cared for and have great experiences. And most of all, a place where the children will be exposed to God's love on a weekly bases if not daily, either from the teachers, or the lessons or the people in the church. And also a place where their parents can feel the same thing. So we are brainstorming programs and other things mostly focusing on English, a subject that most people here hold very important. But anyway, like I was saying, the VBS gave us alot of ideas for this. Of course big ideas for Shine Kids, the door opening children's program here which we soon hope to expand into a two or three day a week language club. And also, ideas for other activities we can have for the kids in conjunction with Shine Kids, like maybe story telling after school. But not read out of a book story telling. At the VBS, for the lesson time, they set up the room to look like what they were talking about. The teacher dressed up in robes and other such things. They had sound effects going in the backround, they even projected sky on to the ceiling. They also had the kids participate in the story. One time during the lesson, there was a knock on the door and they said "It's the Roman soldiers!! Everyone hide!" And they through a blanket over them and had the gaurds come in, talk sternly, poke at the blanket a little, and walk out. And it made me think of perhaps an after school kind of thing. I mean we are within easy walking distance of three different schools here. And we could use bible stories which pretty much all of them haven't heard before. Dress up appropriately. Robes for peace and some kind of armor for war. And for the battle bible stories, we could have armies yelling in the backround if we could get a sound bite like that. So pray about these kind of ideas and the others for reaching out to the kids and their parents. It is a huge opportunity if we can only pull it off. And if the Lord wills it, we most certainly can.
And of course we had another shine kids program, both this mourning and last tuesday. It has been going extremely well and new kids are coming all the time. The parents are very pleased with the program thus far and say they are eagerly awaiting a time when this can become a after school program. This is all such a blessing to us. It has been opening up alot of doors and bringing in a lot of people who have never been in a church before and, in many cases, have never talked with a Christian before. And to be able to teach these kids and to show them the love Jesus has for them, through the love He has given me for them, is such a beautiful thing to be a part of even if I cannot speak to them directly about it right now.
Oh, but that reminds me of the best experience I had this week which was the teaching in Sayama. We started out the week with a huge English party for all the students that are have English Classes in Sayama Horizon Chapel. We had a great time of course and did the same kind of program we do for Shine Kids. But the major difference was that we were allowed to speak to them about God ^_^!!!! Keep in mind that these were not Christian kids for the most part, only children from the surrounding area. But for some reason that I am not quite sure of, the teachers there were given permission from the parents to use the bible to teach them English. I think it was just something the people at Sayama Horizon said upfront about the program. But because english programs are so rare here that don't cost a arm and a leg, they have about thirty students. And even though I love doing the Shine Kids Ministry in Machida, being able to open up my mouth about Jesus's undying love for those kids and how much He wants to be with them and have a relationship with them, even though we have all walked away from Him... it was absolutely amazing ^_^!!! And then I was able to continue to build on the first lesson in the classes I taught there throughout the week. Words cannot express how great it was. Opportunities like that are so rare here. Most ministry here comes little by little, like getting small drops of water on your tongue. And to have a experience like that was like having someone unleash a river on me ^_~! It was beautifully overwhelming ;D! Please pray for a opening up of that ministry and for a full time English speaker to be able to come to that church. It would so incredibly increase the amount of students.
But anyway, I should probably be letting you guys go now. Thank you so much for listening to what I have to say and my prayers requests. Your prayers are greatly felt here and appreciated beyond what words can describe.

Yours in our Lord with all sincerity,
Alex J. Robinson ><>