Click here to view this newsletter as a PDF.
Dear family and friends,
Warm spring greetings!
The church we regularly attend holds outreach activity every month. In March, there was a Gospel Live concert. Iris invited Guo, a Buddhist adherent mentioned in our previous letter, and her daughter to the concert. Having listened to a few hymns, Guo was so moved that her tears started to fall. Her 7-year-old daughter worried her as she kept weeping over a few more hymns. After the concert, Iris asked Guo about the reason for her weeping. She did not know the reason but just could not keep herself from crying. We understand that our Heavenly Father is working on her heart. We pray that Guo realizes Jesus Christ to be the only Salvation who is able to save her and heal her from the pain of mistreatment and that God opens her heart to accept His great love.
Every week, two teenagers come to our place to practice English. Besides English conversation practice, we invited them to study the Gospels together. They read the Japanese translation, and we read the English one. They learned the Bible stories, what Jesus has done, and who Jesus is through His works. We are thankful that we got the opportunity to share the Gospel to them in the past quarter. Although they did not make the decision to follow Jesus right away, they were grateful to know about the content of salvation. We pray that God gives them thirst for the Truth, leads them to find the direction in life, and draws them close to Himself.
A few months ago, we took a ministry field trip to Fukuoka and Nagasaki in Kyushu, southwestern part of Japan. Thankfully, we gained more understanding of Chinese diaspora ministry in another region of the country. We realize that most Chinese churches in Japan have connection and/or partnership with some overseas churches rather than the local Japanese churches. While giving thanks to God for His love to all nations, we pray that God grants the Church in Japan, regardless of the ethnicities, the vision of unity and partnership to advance His Kingdom. On the other hand, we also visited the Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum, which presents the history of Christianity in Japan from Francis Xavier’s arrival in 1549 until the Meiji Era (1868–1912). The good witness of numerous faithful Christians in Japan during about 250 years of persecution from 1640, which set an example for Jesus’ followers, moved our hearts deeply. A monumental inscription, “Love is stronger than death,” not only reminds us of the immeasurable love of our Savior Jesus Christ for all mankind but also challenges us the depth of our love and submission to God.
While the population of Chinese-speaking diaspora in Japan keeps growing in the past years, God moves some ministers and lay leaders to evangelize Chinese in Tokyo area. Recently, this group of workers contacted and invited us for partnership. There is a new missionary family with young kids arriving in Tokyo in the end of April. We are invited to mentor and provide help to the couple and reach out to the Chinese community together, aiming at planting a Chinese church in the future. We lift it up in prayer and seek God’s guidance and provision.
As we are scheduling church visits in our home assignment, we would love to meet you, share God’s work with you, and give glory to God together. At the time of writing, our tentative plan is as follows. We look forward to seeing you this summer.
- Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario: July to early August
- Alberta: August and September
- British Columbia and the States: online visit and sharing
We greatly appreciate that you keep our home assignment in your prayer, especially for our ministries in Japan during our absence, ongoing online counseling and mentoring ministries, ongoing Japanese language learning, arrangement of church visits in North America, safe travels and driving, health check-ups, family reunion, and rest.
We sincerely thank you for lifting us up in prayer. Without your continued prayer, it is impossible for us to serve on the field.
Serving together for the Kingdom of God,