Weekly Updates

This past Sunday we had Dr. Furukawa come to the church and do a special seminar about the coronavirus. We had one new couple attend who had never been to the church before, and they seemed interested in the English classes that are held at the church. While we did not have a big turnout, […]

This past Sunday night we had an Onigiri event at the church. Onigiri is almost like a sandwich to Japan. It is a rice ball with all kinds of things stuffed inside of it. We had salmon and beef and pickled plum that we served alongside of this. My friend Daiki who I asked many

On Saturday we had a special White Day event at the second church plant. White Day is a Japanese holiday that is exactly one month after Valentine’s Day. This holiday is supposed to be for people to give chocolate back to those whom they received chocolate from on Valentine’s Day. We had six people outside

With the media painting drastic pictures of the corona virus, many schools have decided to take their spring break a little early. Rosie’s language school was one of them, so she finished up her first year a little bit early.  Because the corona virus is a topic everyone is talking about, Bro. Hill was able

During our first short term here in Japan, we have tried to be intentional about visiting another work about once every three months to learn what others are doing to spread the Gospel. Since this past weekend was a three day weekend and Rosie had Monday off, we visited another church to glean from their

This past Friday was Valentine’s Day. We held a special Valentine’s Day event at the church to create another opportunity to invite people to church and share the Gospel. Some of you may remember that I (James) have been volunteering at a local high school since December. We hadn’t seen anything come from it for a

On Sunday nights, we are going through a series on our Identity in Christ. The Bible says if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. But that doesn’t prevent us from thinking things about ourselves that aren’t true. To illustrate, I used a cockroach (it’s a toy), and a lion (both pictured above).

Yesterday (Monday) was a day called Setsubun in Japan. Though not technically a holiday, it is widely celebrated. For Setsubun, a member of the family puts on a mask and pretends to be a demon. The other family members throw some kind of bean or nut (peanuts are used in Niigata) at the person wearing

One book on culture described Japan as a “coconut” culture. People might seem very hard and stiff on the outside (like a coconut), but once you get past that hardened exterior, the inside is soft. We are finding this to be very true. Recently, we have been trying language exchanges to try to meet new people.

If we’ve learned anything over this past year, it has been that people are more likely to come to church through a personal invitation. Don’t get us wrong, we have still been aggressively involved about inviting people to church through different platforms, but as we entered 2020, we are especially focusing on personal connections. This