Grace and peace to each of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray this letter finds you blessed and thriving by God’s grace, growing and fruitful in the Lord.

As of today (May 31) we officially mark 6 months since our return to Japan. We have seen God working since day one (actually before that!) and we are so grateful that he has allowed us to be a part of it. We are also grateful for your prayers and financial support, which has made these 6 months possible. We rejoice every time we think of all the people who are partnered with us in this work.

May has been a relatively quiet month. Towards the turn of the month, yet another state of emergency was declared and this has been repeatedly extended since that time. In fact, what was a fairly basic declaration has been expanded both in scope and reach. The regulations are stricter particularly in Tokyo and Osaka and a few other places, and the declaration has been amended to include several other prefectures as well. The numbers have declined thankfully, but with the Olympics around the corner, it seems unlikely the declaration will be lifted anytime soon.

In any event, the declaration has shut down many things that had opened in April. Several churches in the Tokyo area continue to hold online worship only. The lady who tutors our children in Japanese took about a month off because of the virus situation. We’ve seen some businesses near us close, presumably because of the financial toll. Yet we are grateful the Matsudo members are willing to continue meeting in person, and that God has sheltered our small congregation from the virus. We pray he will continue to do so.

Although May has been quiet in many ways, we have still seen the Lord at work. Over the past month, Sara has met two women in our neighborhood who we did not know before. One is a mother of some children who play at the playground regularly, and another is a neighbor who lives down the street a few houses (that’s about 50 feet away in Japan!) and also happens to speak English! In fact, one of her children currently lives in the U.S. Have we mentioned how God prepared exactly the right place for us to be? We have seen it so many times, and he continues to amaze us with his provision.
We have also had the opportunity to reconnect with a couple of relationships we had in our previous time in Matsudo. Just yesterday as of this writing, our kids played with two girls and a boy we knew previously. Although we haven’t been able to get together with their parents yet, we hope we may be able to do that again soon. 

As we have seen God provide these relationships, our minds have been turning towards the future and how we can serve God faithfully through what he has provided. Although the pandemic continues to throw the brakes on various activities, the vaccination process in Japan has been ramping up recently. In fact, we are excited to say that one of our members was finally able to get her first shot just this past week. Praise God for his grace! While it’s too early to say when exactly we’ll arrive, it appears to be a light at the end of a long tunnel. Lord willing, before the end of the year we will all be able to receive the vaccine. That is our prayer. At any rate, this change has been enough to allow us, together with the members at Matsudo, to start considering the future.

This coming Sunday (June 6th), Leslie will be speaking with the congregation after worship and encouraging us to start considering the future together. We’ll spare the details for now since we haven’t talked to the Matsudo members yet, but mostly the goal is to request God’s provision and blessing as a church, and to consider how we can use the gifts he has given us to his glory. Please be praying for us as we consider these things together as a body.

In addition to this, Leslie has begun working on discipleship material to use at Matsudo. While there is an abundance of material in English, we haven’t run across much material in Japanese, and at any rate, we believe it could be helpful to have something suited to the context in Matsudo. The basic idea is to have material geared towards both seekers and new Christians, helping lead the prior to faith in Christ culminating in baptism, and the latter to a deeper understanding of the faith so they can be rooted and able to effectively show others the way. Creating this material will likely be a lengthy process and the details are still taking shape, but we pray it will prove fruitful.

Along with the various work and developments over the past month, we’ve had a few personal points of interest. We celebrated Leslie’s 38th birthday this month, and at the end of the month (just last week) we were able to take a family trip to camp in the Fuji Five Lakes area. It was wonderful to get away for a bit and refresh our minds and spirits. We are so grateful to live only 2-3 hours away from such natural beauty. Especially during this pandemic, being able to go away from everything and not have to wear a mask every time we were outside was a blessing!

As we move into the summer months, we are hopeful for what is ahead. We are hopeful not primarily because of vaccines, but because we know God is moving. We are hopeful because we know he knows who is seeking him. We are hopeful because we know his heart is for every nation on earth. Please be praying for us, that we will be useful servants along with the Matsudo church.

Wedding and Hitachi Camp

My friends, Niumaia (member of Taga church) and Rachel (who has been staying with me), wanted to get married by the pond by my house. The State of Emergency in Tokyo (where most of her friends live!) and rain prevented that plan. Anyway five of us enjoyed the tiny wedding in my house. Her father in England performed the ceremony on Zoom. She’s still hoping to have a ceremony with guests this fall. We shall see.

The vaccination campaign is off to a very slow start. Japan didn’t get any vaccine until March. I don’t think all the medical workers have received it yet. The city government sent packets of information to the seniors with the warning not to call for an appointment until told to, at least until the end of May. I guess it’s good, in a way. They are giving the vaccine to the hardest-hit cities first, so guess we can wait a little longer. One of my supporters kindly paid for a ticket for me, but I certainly won’t be getting on a plane without my “jab” (British English). I have mixed feelings about getting it.

We had to cancel camp again. 🙁 We just had a one-day workday to keep the jungle from getting out of control. Eight came to help. One of the workers is cleaning off the roof. One job is to clear off the room of leaves and debris.

Thank you for all your help. Jeanne Ray

Grace and peace to each of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that this letter finds you well and blessed, growing daily in Christ, by the power of the Spirit, through the love of the Father.

Spring is fully upon us now here in Matsudo. The barren trees have turned green, and colorful flowers are blooming all around us. Cherry blossom season was as beautiful as always, though the year had a noticeably different atmosphere due to the continuing pandemic. Normally during cherry blossom season, our family goes to a large park just across the Edo River in Tokyo for hanami (a picnic beneath the cherry blossoms). Unfortunately, this year the park was staffed with people going around asking people not to do this. This was disappointing (though understandable), but the trees were still lovely and a welcome sight after the long, dark winter months.

Although the pandemic has prevented certain kinds of outings, it hasn’t shut down our local park. The playground has been full of children playing each day, and often their parents join them, or at least their mothers do.

Before we came to Japan, we wondered how we would make connections here. We knew worship would look different and that we wouldn’t be able to hold events at the building for quite some time. In our previous time here, this was an important means of creating connections. We wondered what we would do without such a valuable tool. Furthermore, we had intended to live in the same neighborhood as the church building – an area called Minami Hanashima, which is where we lived previously. However, when borders closed in April 2020, we lost the apartment we were planning to move into just down the road from the building. We had even paid the deposit already! It seemed hard to understand at the time.

But we continued to pray for God to make us fruitful if it was still his will to send us, and we have come to see that his timing was perfect. (Should we expect anything less?) The house we now have, as we have said in the past, is absolutely perfect for our family. We have a spacious house with plenty of room for our family and plenty of room for hospitality as well. But the biggest blessing of this house is not the house itself, but the playground across the street.

This playground, this humble park tucked between houses and apartments, is where missions happens. This is our Areopagus; it is the Lord’s field, and it is here where we work towards the harvest.

This isn’t missionary rhetoric – God has provided abundantly for us here. We have met 3 families with children who speak English at this park. Three! We didn’t meet another child who spoke English even once at our playground in Minami Hanashima. And we have made other connections besides these. That isn’t intended to be a criticism of our previous location. We have tried to keep up previous relationships, and have connected with a number of previous friends as well. We are grateful for all God did before and the foundation he provided, but what we see at this playground is a testimony to the Lord’s provision for his work now as well.

Through this playground, the Lord has provided friends for our children. They have friends to play with and laugh with each day. That would be a gift in and of itself, but the Lord has gone further. Sara has been able to talk to many of the mothers at the playground while the children play (usually only the mothers join the children, though fathers occasionally come on Sunday afternoons). One mother has asked Sara questions about Christianity and what our worship is like. Another mother said she has been to a church before and would be interested in coming if we have events in the future. Leslie has even been able to meet two of the fathers, and we’ve had one of these families over to our house already for dinner. They stayed over for 4 hours and we had the opportunity to pray together before the meal – quite possibly the first prayer to the Lord they have ever heard.

All of this is God’s provision. Jesus promised it. He tells us in John 15:4-5 that only if we abide in him and him in us can we be fruitful. He tells us to ask for what we need to be fruitful for the glory of the Father. He promised to provide, and he has – abundantly.

This isn’t our doing in the least. If it had been up to us, we would be in a much smaller apartment in a likely less fruitful spot. Instead, we are here, where we can see the Lord providing each day. God provides for his work if we will simply trust him and lean into him and be faithful. That is true here, but it is also true wherever you are.

We are so grateful to everyone who prays for us regularly. Your prayers matter. The image above is proof. Of course, we can’t see the future. Everyone has a choice to make. But God knows those who are seeking, he knows those whose hearts are open, and we believe he has many in Matsudo who are his people (see Acts 18:10). It is our prayer that many of those we have met will be among them. The time is now for planting and watering, and we eagerly await the day God gives the growth.

My book review on a book about marriage – Apr 27, 2021

I recently bought a book called Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work written by John M. Gottman at a used book store. It cost only $1. Although it is by no means a Christian book, I think Christians can benefit from reading it.

Christian books about marriage are Bible-centered so they give us biblical principles for marriage. But they tend to give narrow definitions of manhood and womanhood, which may not fit everyone. Each man has different needs because he is different in character, temperament, and social background. So does each woman.

On the contrary, the author of this book has a needs-centered approach to marriage. He makes a scientific observation on hundreds of married couples in their special labs and draws seven principles for a healthy marriage. He explains why and how some married couples stay together happily while others don’t. Here is a paragraph from the first chapter.

“What can make a marriage work is surprisingly simple. Happily married couples aren’t smarter, richer, or more psychologically astute than others. But in their day-to-day lives, they have hit upon a dynamic that keeps their negative thoughts and feelings about each other … from overwhelming their positive ones. … Rather than creating a climate of disagreement and resistance, they embrace each other’s needs. When addressing a partner’s request, their motto tends to be a helpful ‘Yes, and…’ rather than ‘Yes, but…’. This positive attitude not only allows them to maintain but also to increase the sense of romance, play, fun, adventure, and learning together that are at the heart of any long-lasting love affair. They have what I call an emotionally intelligent marriage.”

To be honest, I got more from this book than the Christian books about marriage that I have read. I believe we can get some insights from non-Christian authors whatever subjects are.

A Brochure for Yokota Church of Christ – Mar 23, 2021

We are making a brochure for the Yokota Church of Christ. We are living in an age of confusion and chaos. I think this is the time we should reach out to people.

In today’s world, everyone is entitled and able to express his or her opinion through the Internet. Even a socially lowest and despised person can make a great impact by expressing his own opinion.

I believe that this is the time we can let Christ’s Light shine by making His message known to the world. Less than 1% of the entire Japanese population is considered to be Christian. Most of the Japanese people have never read the Bible nor known the words of Christ.

Hello brothers and sisters!

We’ve been back in Japan now for almost 3 months, and by God’s grace, we feel we are all settling in well. Between the holidays and family birthdays (Sara, Madeleine, and Boston all have birthdays within the span of about 4 weeks), the turn of the year is always very busy. But we’ve now passed that period, so our family life and mission work is beginning to take shape, to the extent that it can in the midst of the pandemic.

Service Amidst The Pandemic

In early January, Japan declared another state of emergency because the virus was expanding dramatically in several key locations like Tokyo. The Matsudo church has been able to continue meeting, but things certainly look and feel different. Trying to figure out how to minister and reach out in the middle of this has been a challenge, but God has provided many seeds even now (more about that later). Thankfully, the virus situation in Japan has improved considerably since the declaration, and we are seeing hints of warmer days ahead, so we pray more opportunities will open soon.

As we’ve navigated this period, we’ve tried to turn our attention first to what we can do rather than what we cannot. We have invited people to our home as much as possible, although we know not everyone will feel comfortable with that at the moment. We are especially grateful for our sister Nao. She comes over with one or both of her children almost every Sunday after worship and usually stays for several hours. This has been a wonderful time to help disciple her as a young Christian, as she asks many thoughtful questions as we sit at our table together. Her questions are very helpful to us as well, as they reveal some of the specific challenges Japanese people face which we would not understand otherwise. Sara has also been engaging in a Bible devotional program with Nao through their phones throughout the week. We are so grateful for these opportunities and love seeing Nao grow in her faith. Please pray for her, as she navigates the difficult waters of being the only Christian in her family.

In addition to these types of activities, we have tried to use what online connections we have to plant seeds. Leslie has been sharing various devotional thoughts in Japanese online, both on Facebook and on Instagram, accompanied by a simple graphic or video. Aside from the immediate encouragement, we hope this provides, we also believe this can let more people in the community know about the church, and feel more comfortable with visiting at some point. Likewise, we are still working on the church website, which we hope will be up and running by early spring.

Speaking of online efforts, the preachers’ meetings have been online since the pandemic began, operating through Zoom. Leslie had the honor to speak at the preachers’ meeting for February, where he spoke on the subject of bearing fruit. It’s always a bit nerve-wracking to speak to fellow ministers in Japanese, but the lesson seemed to be well-received and encouraging. We are so grateful for the other ministers here who work so hard and dedicate their lives to the service of the Lord. We pray we will be able to be further encouraging to them throughout the year.

Holding the monthly preachers meeting over Zoom from home. It’s wonderful to have this technology, but we can’t wait until it isn’t necessary anymore! Nothing beats face to face.

Seeds For The Sower

One of the big challenges we knew we would face when we arrived was making new connections and reconnecting with old friends. The pandemic creates many barriers for both here. While some people are comfortable getting out and spending time with others, many are less so. If nothing else, the pandemic provides an excuse to indulge in avoidance. However, pandemic or not, we know that it is God who provides the seed. He knows those who are seeking, and he knows exactly which paths need to cross and when. So, we have been praying repeatedly that God provides us with connections by his power and grace. We have already seen him answering.

The kids playing with their new friend Rin (pronounced Reen)

For starters, God has been providing the children with new friends. Cambria recently made friends with a girl her age named Rin. She has connected with her through an online app, and Rin has come to the playground many times to play together. This has given Cambria a reason to work on her Japanese, while also building a connection to the community. This, along with several younger friends at the playground, is a blessing to us all. We would love to see seeds planted through these relationships – please pray that God will provide those opportunities.

Sara visiting with Tomoko at her workplace. We apologize for the blocked faces, but the Japanese are very particular about online privacy. In the absence of permission, we want to be careful to honor that concern in these public newsletters.

We’ve also been reconnecting with some old friends since our return. Without getting into a lot of details, we ask that you pray for Tomoko, as well as the Kawakami family. We’ve been able to reconnect with both since our return, and it would be a tremendous joy to see God’s enlivening power take root in the hearts of these friends – it is a literal daydream! Please pray that God will provide us with opportunities to share his gospel – that he will give us the words to say, the wisdom of when to speak them, and the courage to say them when the time arrives.

Life In Japan

A few other things we would like to mention here…

Sara visiting with Tomoko at her workplace. We apologize for the blocked faces, but the Japanese are very particular about online privacy. In the absence of permission, we want to be careful to honor that concern in these public newsletters.

First, we are so grateful and excited to say that we were able to get a car this month! That is completely and totally due to your generosity, for which we are humbled and thankful. Aside from the benefits, this brings our family, we also plan to use this to visit members of the church and serve as much as possible. Thank you again for your generosity, and please pray that God provides opportunities to use this in his service. As it happens, our sister Sanpei’s husband helped us a whole lot with the car, which gave us some opportunities to connect with him. Please pray for him and for us as we continue to build that relationship. We would love to see him walk with the Lord, and we know our dear sister would rejoice as well.

A map of the recent quake in Japan. The shaking lasted at least a minute, and some people in Fukushima said it felt as strong as the 3/11 quake, though it didn’t last as long. Although it was not as powerful, it was closer to land.

Second, we had a very large earthquake about a week or so ago late at night. It was a magnitude 7.3 just off the coast of Fukushima and was officially listed as an aftershock of the 2011 disaster. Thankfully, there was no tsunami this time, though the shaking was quite strong and did cause some damage and injuries (we were fine, although Cambria did injure her toe as we headed downstairs). On the plus side, the next day was Sunday, and someone who had not visited since we returned did come to worship that morning. God is always working!

Finally, Leslie of course continues to preach each Sunday. Preparing lessons in Japanese is challenging. He writes the sermon in English first, translates it into Japanese, and then practices for several hours and makes edits on Sunday morning before worship. Despite this, there are many hurdles that make it difficult to express what he would like to during the sermon. We request your prayers that his Japanese ability will increase and become more natural so that it will not prove a barrier to teaching the gospel and the congregation’s growth.

Connect With Us!
If you don’t yet, you can follow us on Instagram, where we share daily life experiences and more from our life here.

Leslie  / Sara

Christian Baptism and Conversion – Feb 5, 2021

In the last ten years, several people who were baptized in Christ in other congregations started attending the Yokota congregation. As I talked to them, they confessed to me that they had never experienced a spiritual transformation. They didn’t feel that they had changed anything spiritually. The only difference is that they went to church after their baptism. It is no surprise that some of them faithfully attended the assembly and every bible class available. The confession of those people made me think about the meanings of baptism and conversion.

By baptism, a person is born again in Christ. He is baptized into Christ’s death, buried with him, and raised with him. After baptism, he is expected to continue growing spiritually and be transformed spiritually into the image of Christ. I am afraid that only some of us experience this spiritual transformation. I conclude that a person’s conversion in Christ doesn’t take place in baptism instantly, but takes place in the process as he strives to follow Christ. More importantly, I believe that becoming like Christ is a lifelong goal for every Christian.

This is the Time of Evangelism – Feb 5, 20201

This is the 21st century. One-fifth of the century has already passed. I think this is the century of chaos and confusion. In the year 2001, September 11 attacks struck in the US. A big earthquake and tsunami struck Indonesia in 2004. A lot of Japanese people who saw it never dreamt something like that would ever hit Japan, but it happened even in a bigger scale in 2011. In the US, political chaos has been going on. Also, we have been fighting Covid-19 which is a new pandemic all over the world. Who knows what is going to happen this year and next year? What is going to become of the US-Japan relation and treaty? What will become of Yokota Base?

People feel uncertain and insecure about their future. Older generations may have experienced similar uncertainty during the depression and WWII. But things are much different from the past, and I think the degree of uncertainty has been a lot higher than in the past.

I think this is a great chance to evangelize people in Japan. We plan to do the following things.

(1) We will make a tract for non-Christians. This tract has a very important and relevant message to them.
(2) We will distribute the tract in the communities surrounding the congregation as much as possible. This is the toughest part of evangelism in Japan. We have to come up with the most effective way to distribute it.
(3) We will try to become a congregation that people feel friendly, free, and open. Always smile and friendly. No pressures are put on them.
(4) My sermon message is always God-Christ-centered.
(5) Although I am responsible for the entire congregation in many different ways, I don’t represent the congregation. Our members understand that every member is an ambassador of Christ. Nobody is regarded highly among us. Every Christian is considered as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jan 15, 2021 – Hello everyone, and Happy New Year! We hope that your holidays proved safe and uplifting, even as we all navigate this challenging time together.

For our family, this was certainly a very different holiday experience in many ways. After arriving in Japan, we had to quarantine for two weeks. While we were allowed to get groceries and other necessities, we stayed in the house the majority of the time. We did have some visitors who brought us things, including our sister Sanpei from the Matsudo church, and the Adachis, who work with the Ochanomizu congregation in central Tokyo. We were so grateful for their kindness during this time!

Our quarantine period ended on December 14th, so we were finally able to get out of the house and do more than just grab groceries. One of the first things we did was go buy a Christmas tree from IKEA, which allowed us to have at least a little taste of the holidays at home. Most of the holiday season kept us busy trying to set things up more generally – buying appliances and furniture, and then assembling those things for use. Let’s just say the delivery people know us pretty well at this point!

We’ve also been figuring out, during this time, what life is like in our new neighborhood. Among other things, one of the requirements of living where we do is that we are responsible for keeping the garbage area clean. Garbage in Japan is very complicated. You can’t just throw everything out whenever you feel like it. Burnable trash is picked up on certain days, while plastics, cardboard, and plastic bottles must be separated and are picked up on their own individuals days of the month. That is the case wherever you live, but here we have extra responsibilities. For example, each week the responsibility for making sure the area around the garbage area is clean passes to a new person on our street. Naturally, on the first week of our turn, someone who didn’t live in our area threw their trash in our garbage bin, with nothing separated (i.e., they had mixed all their garbage into one bag). One of the ladies on our street came and got Sara, opened the trash bag, and they went through and separated it all together. It was a disgusting job, but at least our neighbor helped!

Much of our Christmas season looked like this – laying on the floor and watching movies with our humble Christmas tree nearby. We are grateful for these memories!

The Adachis came to visit us during quarantine to deliver some food and welcome us back to Japan. We were so grateful for their brief, outdoor visit, and hope to get together again soon!

New Year’s is always a big holiday in Japan. Similar to Thanksgiving and Christmas for those of us from the U.S., the New Year holiday marks a time of gathering with family for traditional foods and is one of the only times of the year that almost everyone in the country is off from work. Especially after so many weeks of craziness, it was nice to have a few days to slow down and reset for the work ahead. One of the highlights of this time was having Mrs. Sanpei and her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchild come visit us. Both her daughter and son-in-law are doctors at a nearby hospital. They talked to us about possibly doing some English conversation time together in the future to help them in their work. As neither are Christians, we are praying this may be an opportunity to shine the light of Christ to them, however infrequently it may be.

The kids help Sara scrub down the trash area – an important part of trash duty for the week! It may seem excessive to us, but this is part of how we shine the light of Christ in this neighborhood.

As the year began, a variety of things start to roll forward for our family and our mission here. Boston began kindergarten on January 4th, and while he struggled for the first few days, he has adjusted well and is enjoying it. We were very blessed that Mrs. Sanpei helped us get Boston into a hoikuen (as opposed to a youchien), which means that his schooling is covered by government funding. The school is also very close to where we live. It will only be for three months, but this will be an important part of Boston’s language development and ability to make friends. Please be praying for him over the next few months, and that God will work through this to help us produce fruit for his glory.

Leslie delivers his first sermon at Matsudo on December 20th. Wearing a mask while preaching in Japanese can be a bit of a challenge, but we are so glad to be serving.

In terms of our mission, we are still getting settled into life with the Matsudo church in the middle of a pandemic. Worship services are very different from what they used to be. First of all, several members are no longer here, and concerns over the pandemic have kept many past visitors away (although we have been able to gather with some non-Christian friends briefly at home). As you might expect, we are also taking many precautions to protect the members of the church. For example, everyone wears a mask during worship, including Leslie while he preaches, and we only sing one verse of each song. Although it is not what anyone would hope for, we are grateful that we can still meet. Japan declared a state of emergency that includes Chiba Prefecture (where Matsudo is located), but so far they haven’t recommended that groups of our size not meet. Please be praying that this remains the case!

This is an image one of Boston’s teachers sent to us. We are so happy to see him thriving in his new school. Praise God for his blessings!

Despite the challenges to our mission that the pandemic poses, we are certain that it is God’s power that produces fruit even in the best of times, and this gives us comfort. With that in mind, at the beginning of the year, we began a new theme for the year focused on the gospel. The first series of the year is entitled “福音って何”, or “What Is The Gospel?” We are told in scripture that the gospel is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24), and so we want to focus the Matsudo church and all of our family’s work around that power. In the first series, we will cover the basics of the gospel – that Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the dead, along with a few other central topics. This will lead to other series throughout the year that will hopefully focus our hearts and minds around the gospel and the power of God within it. Ultimately, our prayer is that this will fuel fruit production both this year and in years to come. We are still figuring out what our mission will look like in these times, so please be praying that God gives us and the Matsudo church clarity and guidance so we can be fruitful for his glory.

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My prayers for Christianity – Jan 15, 2021

Human history is like a rollercoaster and has gone through ups and downs. One-fifth of the 21st century has passed. I think that the 21st century is the age of confusion and chaos. Name a few chaotic historical events: the terrorism in 2001, earthquakes, tsunami, covid-19, and political chaos.

Likewise, Christianity is more confusing than ever. I am referring to Japanese Christianity. It is often seen that self-proclaimed Christians reprehend one other on the internet. They are often dogmatic about their beliefs and denominations. They are nothing different from street gangs who use vulgar language. Another extreme is to accept homosexuality as normal. This trend among Japanese churches may be stronger than that in the US.

This may be the age that Christ describes in Matt. 24, but I don’t speculate what is going to happen as those premillennialists do. I think that this is the time that I should go back to the basics of the gospel message. Christ warns us to go through the narrow gate.

My prayers are to proclaim the gospel of Christ as simple as possible so that people can understand it. I would like our church to be completely denominational free and free from any trend of religious movements.

The state of Japanese Christianity and my concern – Jan 15, 2021

I have been using Twitter and Facebook. I’ve got to know many people who have had negative experiences with Christianity. Those people visited churches to look for peace in mind and life solutions for their worries, but they had completely opposite experiences.

Denominational preachers bind their members in two wrong ways. All of the preachers in the denominations call themselves “pastors” and claim to have received God’s calling. First, they have ultimate authority next to Christ and preach as the will of God. Naturally, the members are expected not to ask their authority but to obey them. If the members question the validity of their sermons, they are treated as rebellious and lacking faith. Second, they interpret the word of God in order to meet their own agendas and try to use the members accordingly.

A few people who had similar experiences with denominational churches have visited our congregation. They told me about how they were treated. This verified my assumptions.

Besides, in maybe the last 30 years lots of people have had mental illness and depressions. Most of them cannot have regular jobs anymore and become totally dependent on the government. When they come to those denominational churches, they are treated as second class members because they cannot function as regular members.

This has raised great concern. I have decided to try to evangelize more than ever. Our church members are willing to do so. I will write out our own tract to distribute in our communities and towns.

英語クラスの子どもたちと、小さな工作をしました。いつもより少ない人数ですが、楽しい時間を過ごすことができました。メリークリスマス🎄

The children in the English class made some small handicrafts. Though there were fewer than in regular years, we were able to have a very enjoyable time. Merry Christmas 🎄 -Asako Adachi

Thank you so much for planning the party. I think the children really enjoyed it. -Jean Ray

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