Ministry Highlights of 2007  

Picture:  Sunrise at the Beach on New Years Day, 2007

NEW ZEALAND DTS OUTREACH TEAM
The highlights of 2007 actually begin in December of 2006, when we hosted a YWAM Discipleship Training School (DTS) outreach team from New Zealand. While the school they attended was in New Zealand, the students and staff were from the U.S., Canada, Denmark, and Switzerland. They stayed with us almost 6 weeks.

Most of the people on this team were musically talented, so worship was a big emphasis. This was good for our church, and we had a number of new visitors come to our worship service. Their other strong emphasis was prayer. They did a 24 hour, 7 day prayer chain for us, which was exactly what we needed! In addition, they helped us greatly with Christmas events and with friendship evangelism in our English classes. I especially enjoyed taking them with me to my English class at a local nurse’s aid training school. Each time we went one of the team gave a testimony, and then we had time for them to talk with the students. It was wonderful to see the interest my students had when listening to other students their own age share their experiences of knowing Jesus.

CONTINUING THE REGULAR STUFF
After the outreach team left us in January, we were exhausted; but of course, we continued on with our regular church activities. That included a Wednesday night Bible study followed by a prayer meeting, and Sunday morning worship, and Sunday school for the kids. Although the day-in, day-out regular activities of the church are not always “exciting”, God has been steadily working through them to bring growth and maturity to His people here. I am so thankful for His faithfulness in all the ordinary, as well as the miraculous, things of life!

MORE OUTREACH TEAMS!
The summer of 2007 was an especially busy one, as the Lord sent us three outreach teams!

The first team was from a church in California, and was made up of American college-age students. They helped out a lot at the Kiwi Kids English Preschool, helped out with worship at church, and held an evangelistic coffee/ fellowship time for all of our English conversation students (past and present).They also did a 24 hour prayer chain for us during their stay.

The second team was a team of four Korean Americans from California. Of the four of them, three had not gone through a complete Discipleship Training School, and we saw a great difference in their attitude as compared to other outreach teams. It underscored how the training available through YWAM is really valuable preparation for serving in missions.

The third team was a Surfer’s DTS outreach team from Perth, Australia. They were with us for most of the month of August. Originally, I didn’t even want this team to come, because we had too much going on. Looking back on it now, I know that it was absolutely the Lord’s will for them to come to our church! They really had a big impact on us! We had a special three days of intercessory prayer for Japan over the Japanese Obon holiday. (Obon is the time when Japanese people supposedly welcome the spirits of their ancestors into their homes for a visit. It’s a time of heightened demon activity.) I was so encouraged by the passion of those young people for prayer! We asked the Lord where we should go, then went to different locations around the city to pray. Some of the locations included the airport, downtown Narita, and the Mormon Church in Narita, which had been shown in a vision to one of the students!

Perhaps the biggest impression this team left was in the area of evangelism. We had always used friendship evangelism, thinking that street evangelism would be ineffective in this nation. However, this team was passionate about…you guessed it, street evangelism! And, what’s more, they were seeing results! A number of people prayed to receive Jesus at the train station, at the park, and in various locations in downtown Tokyo, as well! Praise God! We also had some powerful times during coffee house fellowship times and at the Wasegaku High School, where I teach once a week.

In addition, as we had 5 of the women living in our house the whole time, we got to be quite good friends. I saw especially that the team had a big impact on my co-worker and roommate Corrine. Corrine discovered a latent gift of street preaching and evangelism. Within a few days, the team had her out on the streets giving her testimony in Japanese—and she loved it! It was a lot of hard work, but we are so grateful to God for sending us this team!

ALPHA COURSE
After the team left, we had some new contacts to follow up on. We prayed and decided it was time to have another Alpha course (evangelistic course for non-believers.) We had four students this time, and we met on Tuesday evenings from October to December. It was very successful, with three of the four wanting to continue with Bible study after the course finished.

BAPTISM!
In November, we had the long-awaited baptism of Mrs. K.! Many of you have prayed for years for this precious lady to become a Christian, and then for her to be baptized. Your prayers have been answered! The baptism was a joyous occasion, and she continues to grow steadily in her faith!

CHRISTMAS EVENT
We rounded out the year with our usual Christmas Candlelight Service and Party. We had about 30 people in attendance this year. As always, it was a great opportunity to share the true meaning of Christmas and give testimony to God’s saving grace to a group of unbelievers.

PRAISE GOD FOR A FRUITFUL YEAR OF MINISTRY IN 2007!