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 the mask. While most people do it just for fun, we realize that there are real demonic forces at play here in Japan. Because of this, we looked at Jesus defeating demons in Luke 8:26-29.
In case you missed it, the 1-minute version of the VR missions trip is now available on our website. We highly recommend trying it out while wearing a Google cardboard headset and some headphones for the full experience. Also we wanted to make sure that you know the signup deadline for the 2020 Summer mission trip to Japan is the end of next month. If you are planning on attending and please be sure to sign up.
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Use your smartphone to get gimmicks. See the news section.
Praises
- Multiple opportunities to share the Gospel
Prayer Requests
- Rosie’s Japanese studies
- Hope Baptist Church and the Hill Family
- “Bible and my ____” series at 2nd church plant
- Ten Hundred Thousand Churches (details here)
From the News
In almost every shopping mall in Japan, you will be able to find a wall of gachapon machines. These are little machines with plastic toys stashed in capsules for people to buy (mostly kids). While usually you need to put in some coins, one company is trying to change that. See the details here.