JGPNetwork

An update from E in Japan sharing how God is working!!!!

Praise the Lord!  Thank you for your prayers. We had an Easter Worship service on March 28.  A little early but… Ma, a 13 year old girl, was saved then. Pray for her spiritual growth. I met Mrs.Naga on April 1 and shared the Gospel.  She came to our worship service on 14.  Pray that she will be saved too.

A’s husband, Ke, was saved on April 11.  With Mrs.Kura’s help, I invited him to have worship service and barbecue at her house.  He attended the house church today and had a great time.  He told us that he would like to come to our worship service again. Pray for this young couple to grow in the Lord.

I thought that Mi was saved six years ago, but when I asked him about it to make sure, he didn’t remember if he was saved or not.  So I asked him if he wanted to accept Jesus as his personal savior.  He said yes and prayed. Pray for his spiritual growth, his family’s worship service, and their decision on baptism.  Thank you for your prayers for his parents.

Ka is a jr. high boy who attends the children’s worship who has been trying to read the Bible everyday. Pray that he can do it. Pray for other children to be saved. Also, pray that all of our church members’ families will be saved.

A lot of blessing on to you! E.

God continues to move in the small city of Togane in Chiba. A young high school boy and a young husband were saved a couple of weeks ago. As E disciples Mie and A-san disciples Ken, please pray for the disciplers to have wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and pray for the disciplees to be obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit. As leaders prayer walk each week ask God to continue to lead them to those who want to know God. Ask God to call out laborers.

Soon this site will be connected to our www.outreachjapan.org site and you will be get updates about Togane from there. For a blessing today go back in the archives and read on of the testimonies from 2004 or so. God continues to move in the hearts of people and we praise Him.

I have found myself busy serving the Outreachjapan website and realized that I have woefully neglected the JGPNetwork site.  I was chastised and encouraged to write because I see folks are still accessing the site when in search of information or Christian contacts for Japanese.

The work with the Gospel Penetration Network continues and God is still blessing. There are too many things to write in one update, but I will update again soon with additional information. The work has not been moved to the infamous Step Child status. We are still children of the king proclaiming the message of the King!!!!

And  others are coming to join us. From November 13-22, five clowns from Georgia will be coming to help with outreach in Chiba area. They will also be taking a side trip up to Utsunomiya, a city in our OutreachJapan area. Pray for many to hear the gospel. We will have meetings in parks, at a beach shanty restaurant where we eat after baptisms at the beach, at some of our Baptist churches that we are encouraging. Pray for fruit!! For health for the team!!

During Summer vacation Japanese love to go to the beach. The cars line the expressways on Saturday and Sunday and people don’t seem to mind sitting in their cars for 8 hours to get to spend 4 hours on the beach and play, trying to forget their daily life.

As our house church went to the beach for a baptism last month, people where everywhere along the beach as we searched for a place to baptize two new Christians. Children, who remember their own baptisms at the beach, frolic in the water and collect shells that resemble the ones they collected at their own baptisms.

At these times, just about every one who goes gets wet to one degree or another. The children who are with their families want to get in and wade around. The adults like to get their feet wet too.

We pray that as we gather and sing praises to God in the midst of these crowds of people that our actions and our words will become salt and light that will cause these people who spend their leisure time for self to realize their need for forgiveness of sin and salvation in Jesus Christ.

Also, we are praying that many other Japanese will have the opportunity to witness new Christians following Christ in baptism in the ocean at Kukujuri, Chiba.

On our trip to Niigata we drove through a mountainous area where many Japanese like to go and ski.  Our car rode up and down the mountains and through numberous tunnels. One tunnel stretched about 10 miles through the mountain!  Small towns were tucked in the valleys between the mountains. We talked about the fact that most of these towns have probably never heard the gospel!

We drove through valleys and reached the plains on the opposite side of the mountains.  Rice fields covered these farmlands.  Because it is the middle of summer the fields are bright green, lush and beautiful.  I learned that when the fields are ready for harvest, they will turn white.   Pray that the gospel would reach every mountain town and farming community. Pray for the harvest in Japan.

One of the things that I love the most about being in Japan is meeting Japanese. Part of the ministry of JGPNetwork is to distribute the Manga Bible, New Testaments, and the Hope DVD. During our day in the countryside we distributed the materials around a Buddhist temple. Shirley, a volunteer from Hawaii and I saw a group of seniors playing crockett. They each wore a hat and had a number pinned to their outfits. They were hesitant as we approached but as we began to speak with them in Japanese they opened up. They each readily accepted the Manga Bibles that we gave them. And they offered us Japanese tea.

As we continued our journey we came across a man cleaning out the incence basin in front of the temple. He accepted the Manga Bible but not without giving us a couple of hundred yen. He insisted. Sometimes it is hard for Japanese to receive a free gift. Pray that the seniors who received the Manga Bible, the man cleaning the temple, and others would receive the free gift of God; salvation in Christ!

Many people say that the Japanese are not a religious people, but traveling out to the village assured me once again that this statment is not true.  Japanese Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples dot the countryside.  They are found on hilltops, in neighborhoods, or tucked away in small yards.

On Shikoku, one of the four Japanese islands, a Buddhist priest who felt the people very sinful led them to build 88 temples.  It serves like a Mecca of Japan.  Whoever visits the 88 temples in his or her lifetime is assured a place in the Buddhist heaven.  Pray that the light of Jesus would shine in these dark places!

By Rachel Routt, summer intern missionary

Fishing villages dot the shores of the island of Awahishima in the inland sea between Kobe/Osaka and Shikoku Island. The fishermen in these villages go out early in the morning while it is not yet day to catch fish for the market. Jesus passed by some fishermen one day on the shore of Galilee and asked them to come follow Him, and become fishers on men. Will you pray for many fishers of men to come and tell the people who live in villages like this from the north to the south and the east to the west about Jesus.

As you drive along the highway in the center of  Awaji Island you will see rice farms like this. In August the farmers are out harvesting the rice. This rice helps feel the millions of people in Japan. Pray for harvesters to come and reap the harvest of souls of the Japanese who do not yet know him. In the distance you see the low lying hills. At the base of those hills are the temples and shrines that are supposed to shelter the gods that give the harvest.  Pray that the farmers and their families will know there is a living God who causes the sun to shine, the rain to fall and the rice to grow. Pray they will have an opportunity to hear that Jesus is the Way to this living God.

Today Tak and I went to Togane drove through the town and then took a wonderful ride out through the rice paddies.  We saw the carp flying beside the farm houses. We were able to share with people who were walking around the lake near the temples, with a couple who were visiting the graves, and then with a man who was planting rice by hand.

This week in Japan is Golden Week. Farmers are planting rice. Businessmen are off work and families are going on vacations and visiting family or just relaxing. Pray we will be faithful to plant the seeds of the gospel in the hearts of those we meet during this time when they may have more time to listen than usual. Pray that those seeds will be watered by the Holy Spirit and sprout into full fruit of faith. 

Rejoice with us and praise the Lord! We had a great time this morning again having worship with Mr and Mrs. Maka. They were excited when we finished and quickly set another date to meet. Only three days away on Friday! Pray for them to grow and be able to share with her mother and father as well as with their friends. Pray for a group to start soon.

In Ibaragi prefecture about two hours from Tokyo there is a huge “goddess of mercy” that can be seen from miles around.  The hand is extended as if offering help, but this stone god has hands that cannot help and ears that cannot hear. Also, no spirit to touch and heal a broken heart. 

Statues of the “goddess of mercy” like this one can be seen all across Japan. They dot the tops of hills near the ocean or on the plains. This statue has no life and cannot give life. The Bible says those who worship these will be like them. Pray for the people who see these statues to have their spiritual eyes opened to the truth that there is a living God who loves them and sent his son to die that they might live.