Hi,
Rainy season has begun. That means much rain, but not all the time. It drizzles a lot, even when the forecast is clear or cloudy. Today is “cloudy,” but you must drive with the wipers on most of the time. We have been very busy keeping up with the grass. This year, it started a little early and almost every other week we must cut the grass and pull weeds at the church building. I just took a load of branches to the city incinerator. Only farmers are allowed to burn anything. Even at camp, we must get permission for campfires.
We have finally torn down the old kitchen at camp and almost finished the foundation for the new one. The new one will have walls all around. The dining hall/chapel hall will still have open walls. I am not a professional carpenter, but I am trying to lead the building. This week or next, we will start the walls and roof. This will not be easy during rainy season. It especially makes working on the roof a slippery job. We go up mostly on Saturdays, as most people have jobs during the week. We will also have a week of work camp from July 15th. We also must cut grass and clean up the cabins, etc. during that week. July 22nd is the first day of camp. We are also trying to work out a way to use the camp for some of the children from Fukushima, who were evacuated from the nuclear disaster area. The camp is not an easy place to find and it will not be easy to get transportation from that area to camp, though it is only about an hour or so by car. [Editor: See the gallery of pictures for the kitchen and camp below report.]
The church had a hamburger party at our house last week. We had a really great time of fellowship. It is hard to get some of the newer members interested in coming to fellowship times or any time other than Sunday morning. Please pray that the church here will start studying the Bible more. We are planning another party at the end of the summer and inviting the LST readers and the School of Life students.
If you are on Facebook, Jean (Jeanne Lemm Ray) and I (Marlin Ray) are both on, as well as the Tomobe church of Christ. I try to add pictures and things as they happen, but…. You might like to see some of the things on there now.
Our Let’s Start Talking program has already finished for this year. We had 3 students from Oklahoma Christian who came for three weeks. They are Toru’s classmates. They did a good job, but it is getting more and more difficult to get new students enrolled into our regular classes. Forty people studied with LST, most of whom are repeat readers. Our regular students still keep coming. Sometimes they seem so close and other times seem so far away. Keep them in your prayers. God can do anything and I know that Japan can become a Christian nation. Probably not in my lifetime, but I want to set the foundation on Christ. He is God. It has taken about a hundred years to get to this point. In another hundred years, I hope Japan will be 10% or more Christian. We need to be training more and more dedicated men and women to get into the battle with Satan. It won’t be won in America for the Japanese, but here.
Serving Him in Japan,
Marlin and Jean Ray
