Twenty years---where has the time gone!?

As we prepared to finish our days of formal Japanese language study during our second year in Japan, we were actively praying that God will give us clear direction regarding the location where we should be starting an evangelism and church planting ministry. After a number of visits to another part of Nagano Ken where our good friends, the Coles, were ministering, we were starting to feel the Lord nudging us in that direction. A city about 25 minutes away from where the Coles were working has a population of 53,000 people and only one Catholic church and one protestant church. Within those final months of language school, through the introduction of another missionary, God led us to meet with Mr. Aoki, his mother and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Ozawa, Mr. and Mrs. Kosuda, and a young single adult woman. These eight adults had become believers and were meeting regularly to PRAY that God would build an evangelical church in their city. They had been meeting and praying for five years for this to happen!!! Whoa--did that ever raise the inadequacy quotient? Have you ever felt God telling you that you are the direct answer to someone's prayers!? We were scared spitless. We could barely follow the conversation around the table and had to rely on our fellow missionary for interpretation. This was not the picture we had imagined--the picture of starting slowly with some classes and maybe a Bible study or two while we further developed our language ability, and then down the road, opened the doors for regular Sunday worship services.

Murray often describes these eight believers as being just like a bottle of cola, that has been shaken up well, and the lid is ready to pop!! The moment we agreed that we believed that God was leading us to move to Suzaka, to open the doors of our home to the beginnings of a church, these amazing people popped the lid and their enthusiasm for reaching their friends and neighbors for Christ enabled us to begin laying the foundations for a body of believers in Suzaka, Nagano, Japan.

Our nine years with these beloved people were filled with many challenges. Little by little, we all grew through working together. Our language improved slowly, God sent more believers to pitch in, people were saved and baptized, our son, Josiah, was born, our children grew up, and God established the work.

Hard to believe that it has been twenty years since those first days in Suzaka. We rejoice at what God has done. We are thrilled to see a growing, active local church there following the leadership of a Japanese pastor and a number of elders. We are incredibly excited to return there this weekend to be a part of special services giving God the glory for all He has done in these past twenty years in this small city. We pray that the light of these believers will continue to impact the city for Christ and for eternity.

Coming Soon! English Cafe meets Disney!!

It has been a busy summer, and now we are starting to get back into the swing of a more regular routine. That includes plans for our next English Cafe--featuring a DISNEY SING-A-LONG!! Come in costume, recommend a favorite song (in advance, please) and bring along your singing voice to enjoy the fun!! Starting at 4:45 p.m. on Saturday, September 25th at our usual meeting place, Agape Bible Church near Myohouji station. We'll start doing pickups at Myohoji around 4:30 p.m. Text Kathy at kjtrim@softbank.ne.jp if you would like a ride!! Zip e dee doo dah, Zip e dee day, My oh my what a wonderful day!! Great chance to use your English in a fun, relaxing atmosphere. Of course, plenty of snacks available to munch while you chat.

Agape Bible Church now on Facebook!

You can now find us on Facebook. Click the title of this post to visit our Facebook page. Agape Bible Church

revamped "cry" room

Even though our little Japanese church is growing slowly over a long period of time, every so often we find that the building is starting to need more and more repairs. When our volunteer team was here last December, they did a fantastic job painting and decorating the Sunday School room. We have another small room on the 2nd floor. It used to be connected to the downstairs speakers so that people there could hear what was happening but the inside-the-wall wiring developed a problem and it hasn't been working in quite some time. Some months ago a young mother and her young daughter began attending church most weeks. But sometimes they would have to leave if the daughter got too noisy. So Josiah took it upon himself to figure out how to revamp some wiring so that we could use the upstairs room again for moms with young children. If you click on the title above, it should link you to Josiah's photos of this project.

This sweet mom and her little girl attend on Sundays most weeks and are also members of playgroup. For some reason, the little girl has a strong preference for the noisy toys!! For two Sundays in a row now, the little girl has been able to play to her heart's content and her mom has been able to listen from the upstairs room and follow along. The mom is so happy to have this option.

In the background of the top photo, you can see Mrs. Kurome. Mrs. Kurome is my playgroup Japanese assistant. She is such a blessing to me. She plays with the kids, talks with the moms, prepares the snacks and tea for snacktime, often helps me with Japanese paperwork, and helps with clean-up at the end.

Thanks, Josiah, for making this dream of a room with a speaker a reality at Agape!!

Golden Days

Ken and Rie, Takeshi and Tsuyosyi Sasaki

It is so hard to believe that May is already here. The winter seemed to drag on, cold and rainy, for so long, and now suddenly we have bright sunny days that feel more like summer than spring.

In Japan, April 29 is a national holiday (green day) which is soon followed by Golden Week, May 3-5. Depending on what days of the week the holidays fall on, the Japanese take several days off. This is one of the three times per year that nearly everyone in the entire country is on holiday. You could probably also call it "old home" week because a high percentage of people return to their hometowns or parents' homes for visits. Consequently, the traffic on the roads and the crowded train stations can be a pretty strong deterrent to a desire to go anywhere.

This year we made the wise choice, as we most often usually do, to stay close to home and let others come to us! What a joy it was! Rie Sasaki was an English student of ours in Suzaka about 12 years ago. Her Christian friend, Naoko, often invited her to church and Rie became a Christian. 10 years ago (on May 3rd) we had the privilege of attending her wedding to a wonderful Christian guy named Ken Sasaki (who we had previously met while helping out with an English camp ministry). Now they have two great boys, ages 5 and 3 and they all came to visit our part of Japan over the holiday. We had such a great time hanging out together and showing them some of our favorite spots in the area. Rie could hardly believe that all of our kids are adults now. We have so many great memories. It is difficult for me to even try to describe the joy of seeing Rie and her husband living for the Lord, being active in their local church in Kashiwazaki (a different part of Japan), and raising their little boys to love Jesus. Takeshi and Tsuyoshi were delighted that our little dog (Toby) prays before he eats and (usually) waits patiently until he hears the "Amen" before he starts to eat!

It was a delightful few days at a different pace, and now we get ready to get right back into the swing of daily life, starting with Moms and Tots Playgroup on Thursday mornings. This group has openings for new members so please pray that God will send us some more moms and kids soon.

Night of the Arts and Music

This month during our regular English Cafe slot we decided to add a twist to usual format. We underemphasized the English, and added more special musical numbers and invited local artists to display their art. It turned out to be a big hit and the multi-purpose room was packed with both regulars and quite a number of newcomers. Some of the art on display included oil paintings, pastels, framed photographs, pottery, and fabric art.

We also enjoyed quite a variety of music and other forms of art. Mrs. Miyoshi and her friend played traditional flute-like instruments called karinas. Their duets were beautiful. Manaka Ueha amazed everyone with her gorgeous soprano voice, singing two numbers from different operas. Manaka gave a recital the previous Wednesday at her university and I am going to put a video clip at the end of this blog that was actually recorded at her recital. Manaka started attending Agape Bible Church at the end of summer and made the decision to follow Christ several weeks later. She also plays the flute and is a wonderful addition to the worship band.

One thing that really excites us about these monthly events is that some of the members of the church are starting to invite and bring their friends. We long to see more of that happening because the main purpose of these events is to use them as an opportunity to deepen our relationships with people. As we model this, we desire for the Japanese believers to see how they can do it as well.

The four people in the picture below are very special to us. In the back are Mr. Tsuchiya and Mr. Toshihiro. In the front are Mrs. Kobayashi on the left and Alice Kai on the right. These four senior citizens live in the neighborhood near our home. They warmly welcomed us into their community two years ago when we moved in and we've been able to continue a good friendship with them. Alice is holding a special wall hanging called a kakejiku. She and her husband restore these hangings years after they were originally made and have started to deteriorate. Alice is Malaysian, married to a Japanese man. All four of these people regularly attend our monthly events. Even though they have mentioned visiting a Sunday service, they have yet to take that step. All four of them enjoy various forms of art and were delighted to be involved in our recent event.

ariette: "Je veux vivre" from the opera " Roméo et Juliette"

service project at Mrs. Hatada's

Mrs. Hatada (left) is a widow who started attending

Agape about six months ago after first attending Mr. Kaneda's Christian funeral. She has been studying English for years with a number of different missionaries as her teachers. Mr. Kaneda was a relative of her former teacher so she attended the funeral. She was very moved by the songs and the message of hope. She is becoming more and more interested in Christians and what motivates them, etc. After last week's typhoon, I learned that there was some damage to a wooden gate at her house. Repair would involve some woodwork and some painting.

Saori holding the broken gate

I decided to ask the young adults if they would be interested

in helping out as a way to show Christ's love in a practical way

to Mrs. H. We picked yesterday, a national holiday to go and

help her, but some that wanted to go were unable to because

of previous plans. The Lord gave us beautiful weather with the sun shining brightly, warm temperatures, and a bit of a breeze! At first, Mrs. H. was very hesitant to accept volunteer help, but as she saw how eager and skilled we (Ben and Josiah) were. she gradually let us help with several projects. Even her granddaughter, Ami, who was visiting for the day pitched in and helped by holding things. Ami has visited Sunday School several times when visiting her Grandma and we hope she'll come back again. At the end of the day, she served everyone curry rice. She was so appreciative of the help, but more so, the fellowship of having everyone there for the day, working together and then sharing a meal together. She has a lovely house and garden but it requires a lot of upkeep for just one woman. She was particularly pleased that Ben and Josiah were able to reuse some of the original wood when they repaired the gate and recreate it in the same style. Her late husband had made the original gate and it holds many memories for her. Hopefully, the new memories of her church friends coming to help her fix things up will also stay with her for a very long time. If you click on the link above, you can see more pictures from our day. Saori Wada, pictured at left with the broken gate, has been actively participating in church and music, even though she is now a high school senior and is preparing for the huge college entrance exams. Pray for Saori as she studies hard and works toward entering college in the spring. Pray that God will give many more opportunities to minister to our contacts/believers in practical ways. Another exciting result of this wonderful day is that we learned that Mrs. Hatada has many woodworking tools that had belonged to her husband and we will be welcome to use the tools in the future for other projects!!

If you'd like to see more pictures, click on the title above.

fixing the 2nd floor deck boards

Ami helping out with the gate repair