Dear Pastors, Friends, and Faithful Supporters,
At the end of April/Beginning of May, Japan entered golden week. This year two weekends and three holidays aligned. If people took off work on a Monday and Friday, they would have had 10 consecutive days off (Saturday through the following Sunday).
While we didn’t do any major church events for golden week, a 21-year-old named Yuuji did come spend time with us for a couple days. He is a college student that I (James) met at a nearby university, and he came over since he was off from school. I invited him to our church, and he attended with us that Sunday.
Unfortunately, both Rosie and I started feeling sick the following day and our whole family tested positive for COVID. After getting the results, I contacted everyone who had come to church to let them know. Rosie and I had the worst symptoms with body aches, fevers, and headaches for about 5 days. Fortunately, nobody else from church got sick. Since we had been running double digits in attendance for 4 weeks straight, we were glad that an outbreak didn’t happen right in front of us and create negative publicity for the church plant.
We were concerned about what would happen to our relationship with our young friend especially if he got sick and missed school. Thankfully, he didn’t get sick either and we are staying in touch. As our family started recovering, Yuuji and I were on a video call when he started asking some questions about the Bible. We ended up having an impromptu Bible study for about an hour and a half even though our family was still in isolation.
Please pray with us for our young friend as well as others who have come to the church who need to get saved.
As we continue moving forward, we praise the Lord for the people he has been allowing us to spend time with and for the opportunities to share the Gospel. Please continue to pray for us to have wisdom as we work here in Nagoya!
Yours for Japan,
James Miyashita