Grace and peace to you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!
The month of May was a relatively slow and restful month for our family – something we definitely needed! – but that’s not to say the month was uneventful.
The beginning of May is always marked by Golden Week in Japan. Golden Week is a string of national holidays and one of the few times Japanese people get off throughout the year. Unlike in the U.S., few people here have vacation days outside of national holidays, so basically all travel and vacation happen at the same time. As you can imagine, things can get pretty crowded, but it is a good time to get together with people.
During Golden Week, we first went on a hike with our sister Nao and her daughter Miyama up Mt. Tsukuba. As it is a convenient location from Tokyo, it took us about an hour or so to find parking, just to give you some idea of how crowded things get at this time of year! That said, it’s such a rare gift to gather with Christians during the week here, and we were grateful for the opportunity. Nao is a wonderful blessing to our lives and to the congregation.
As we mentioned last time, there are many smaller interactions we have each month that are notable, and yet not particularly significant in the immediate sense. For example, we had several people over to our house this month, in part because of the time our friends have off during Golden Week. These get-togethers are simple affairs, but give us opportunities to show what Jesus looks like in our own lives in a genuine way. These interactions build relationships and establish our presence in the community. They are opportunities to plant seeds. Whether or not these seeds grow and produce fruit or fall into harsh soil we can only leave in the hands of God, but we continue to pray for each of these people that God will work and pull on their hearts, and that they will respond one day in faith.
While May was relatively quiet, we did have one major event in our family at the end of the month. On May 22, after Sunday worship, both Cambria and Madeleine were baptized! They had been asking questions about baptism at various times over the last year but never seemed quite ready to take the step on their own. Recently, however, they began thinking and talking about it more in earnest, so we took a week to read through some passages together and to pray and talk, and after several talks with Leslie and Sara, they felt it was time to make that commitment. We are so grateful to God for this gift! To see our children commit to following Jesus as disciples for themselves is (as many of you know) one of the greatest blessings we can experience as parents. We are excited to see them come to know the joy of the Lord more directly in their lives. We are excited to see how God works in and through them. We are filled with joy and gratitude to the Lord for his provision and would ask for your prayers for them as they continue their walk as followers of Jesus.
One of the interesting parts of Cambria’s and Madeleine’s baptism is that it gave us an opportunity to share the gospel message with some friends here. We have mentioned previously a family here who said they weren’t interested in religion and really didn’t care to be invited to any events for the church, though they appreciated our mutual friendship. That’s a hard response to face, but because their children are close friends with ours, we wanted to invite them to be witnesses to this important step in our children’s lives. Somewhat surprisingly, they agreed to come, which meant we had at least this one chance to present the smallest glimpse of the gospel. Perhaps the only chance!
Given the context, it’s hard to know what to say. You certainly can’t say everything you want to say or that needs to be said. Tempting though it may be, it would be unwise to get sidetracked and aim your words at certain individuals. It’s also challenging because you don’t entirely know what background they are coming from. What would you say if you knew you could share only a snippet of the gospel in the context of an introduction to what baptism is about, with people whose entire exposure to Christian teaching is probably through Wikipedia?
It’s easy to put intense pressure on ourselves in these situations and feel like it’s all up to us. But Jesus promised in the Great Commission that he is with us. Yes, we are called to make disciples, but it’s not all in our hands. People have a choice to make, but most importantly, God is at work even when we don’t say all the right words in exactly the right way. Leslie did his best to share the core Christian message, and we are confident they saw the genuine love and tenderness of the Christian community during their brief time with the congregation. For now, we continue to pray that the Lord will work and use our friendship to produce fruit and faith. We prayed before and we continue to pray now, and we trust God listens and is working. We are grateful for even these small opportunities to participate in his work!
Since this May had five Sundays, Brother Aikawa Sr. from the Ochanomizu congregation in Tokyo came to speak, which meant Leslie had the day off from preaching. We took the opportunity to enjoy a family vacation that week camping in the mountains near Takayama in Gifu Prefecture. It was such a wonderful getaway, and a much-needed refreshment, especially as we head into what will likely be a busy remainder of the year (more on that in a moment). The region is known for its lovely natural scenery, as well as unique history and cultural heritage, so it’s a great place to experience as a family.
Additionally, we were able to visit with the Ochanomizu congregation this past Sunday (May 29), which is the first time we have worshiped away from Matsudo since arriving in Japan a year and a half ago. We worshiped both at the Japanese and English service, so it also was the first time worshiping fully in English since coming to Japan. As missionaries, we focus much of our lives on feeding others, and though we do our best to drink from the Lord’s spiritual storehouse on a personal level, nothing replaces the fellowship of other Christians and the ministry of others sharing the meat of God’s word with you. We are so grateful to be partnered with the Ochanomizu congregation, and thankful for this time we got to share with them. We hope that as pandemic protocols are eased, this will be able to happen more frequently.
Speaking of that easing, we are very excited for the remainder of the year. Japan has finally opened its borders to tourists for the first time since the pandemic began. The first groups will only be allowed in on packaged tours, restricted to specific areas with those tours. However, this is the first step in a more general opening, so we are grateful to see things moving in that direction. Most importantly, this opens the door for plans we have been making for some time. As of now, we are planning to have our first English worship service at Matsudo on June 26th. We are very excited about the possibilities that extend from this and would ask for your prayers that it goes smoothly and proves to be as fruitful as we think it can be. There are plenty of English-speaking foreigners in Matsudo and surrounding towns, and we would love for this congregation to be able to serve and disciple them. In addition to these plans, we are also seeing others who are becoming willing to spend time with us at our home. This coming Friday, we are having a neighborhood friend over for the first time, who is one of the mothers who regularly attends the English Bible Class that Sara has been heading up. Please pray our time together is fruitful and that we may have opportunities for spiritual discussions.
As you remember our work in prayer as we head into the summer, here are some things we would love for you to remember:
- Prayers for Cambria and Madeleine as they begin their personal walk with the Lord
- Prayers for our upcoming English worship service
- Prayers for our brother Matthieu as he travels in June, and as his girlfriend from Lithuania moves to Japan
- Prayers for upcoming interactions with those who will visit with us
- Prayers for Leslie as he teaches at the upcoming All-Japan Preacher’s Meeting, and prepares for classes with JSE next year
- Prayers for Sara as she continues to engage with people in our community
- Prayers that God will provide Leslie with more opportunities to engage with men
- Prayers for continued success and fruitfulness with the Kids’ English Bible Class
- That the COVID situation in Japan will continue to improve and we will be able to extend our work further at Matsudo
- Some specific names you can pray for: Mrs. Aoki, Mrs. Yamaya, Matthieu, Tomoko, Kawakami family, Kobayashi family, Mr. Gotou, Fujita family, Ebata family, Toyoda family, Shirouzu family, friends of our children, coaches and staff at tennis
Miscellaneous images from May:
