Leaders from the house church in Togane have gone and prayer walked the town of Kujukuri. Clown teams have come and shared the gospel in this town. Now the Christians are going door to door to distribute tracts and the story of Christ in Manga form as well as share their testimonies of how they came to know Christ, how he saved them, and what He means to them in their lives each day.

Please pray about where you fit in the scheme of things and let us hear from you.

Tak and Lana

JGPNetwork team

Here are some praises and prayer requests from the Togane House Church network. Praise the Lord! Mr.& Mrs.Yo’s  6 years old daughter was saved and baptized on August 16^th. They  worship every week and now the whole family has become Christians. Pray for the grandmother to be open to the family’s witness and pray for the house church’s growth, as well as fellowship with other churches in the network.

Mrs. Sa and her two sons started reading the Bible every day. Pray that they will understand it and practice what God tells them, that Mr.Sa will be able to read the Bible every day and worship constantly.  Pray for the daughter, Hai, to be baptized, and that Mrs.Sa’s mother who has been sick will be treated well and healed. As God answers their prayers, ask him to increase their faith to pray more boldly.

Ma, whose parents stopped her going to church, met Mrs.M outside of a convenience store. Mrs.M was able to again confirm her salvation experience and found that her heart is still tender toward God. Mrs. M encouraged this young teen to be faithful and obedient and then they prayed together. Keep praying for her faith and her family to be saved.

Many Japanese who have received the gospel message are burdened down with the cares of this world. Pray they will open their hearts and find rest and freedom in Christ as they turn their lives completely over to him.

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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.

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

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.