Hope for Japan

Supporter Dinner Meeting

Sharing at Supporter Meeting

Sunday Worship at Highrock

Speaking at Highrock

Dessert with Monadnock Church

Japan Initivative Team

Our 3rd week in Boston was another eventful week.  We had a church-wide supporter meeting at Highrock where we first shared a meal and had some laughter playing a Japan trivia game, and then we informed everybody about how we spent this past year in Edinburgh, Allie’s birth, Japan Covenant Church visits in January, our church of service (Tsurumi Covenant Church in Yokohama), and our ministry content for the next 2 years as well as our big picture vision of future church planting in the Tokyo-Yokohama area. Then, we concluded the meeting with a time of prayer.

Despite the fact that it was a week night event in the middle of summer, there was a big turn out of over 40 people.  Our core support team did a fantastic job setting up the place, preparing a meal, arranging other logistics, and making the night truly memorable and phenomenal. We felt very encouraged by all these people who have come out to see us and pray for us.

After spending our first 2 Sundays at other churches in New England, we finally got to worship at our home church, Highrock. During two of the morning services, we were able to recast our vision for Japan.  It was really good to reconnect with old friends and meet new members of the church.

One exciting meeting we attended was a kick-off meeting for Japan Initiative ministry at Highrock.  There are currently three other Japanese members from Japan as well as a missionary kid who grew up in Japan and now is studying to teach ESL.  Given the fact that Arlington is saturated with Japanese Ph.D students and their spouses, we are trying to seize this opportunity to reach out to the Japanese locally.  How cool would it be if these Japanese began coming to church in Boston, and once they return to Japan, they already have a church to go to (which is our church!).

We also had a chance to visit another supporting church in New Hampshire, Monadnock Covenant Church. Over delicious homemade desserts, we were able to introduce ourselves and share our passion for Japan with a group of people from the church.

Everything went smoothly this week except that Allie screamed for 20 minutes on the way to New Hampshire when we got stuck in traffic.  There was a time when we had to get off the highway to pull over to the side of the road to stop her cry, but this time, there was nothing we could do as we were running late for a meeting.  But overall, we are very blessed with a very cooperative baby. 🙂