Jesus said, "Ask and it will be given to you..."

Our fourth class at Takeshima Chapel included some seminary students from the Osaka area who were visiting for the weekend. As you can see in the picture above, everyone was studying hard. The text we used was from Luke 11:5-10. As many of you already know, Jesus tells a story about a man who has a friend come to visit and the hosting friend has no bread to offer, so he goes over to his neighbor who is in bed and after repeatedly asking, the neighbor finally gives his some bread. In the same way, Jesus said, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened to you. As usual we read the text together, discussed the contents of the story, and used key words to write our own sentences. After writing sentences students shared their sentences with the class. Still not sure what the Lord is doing here, but for the time it continues, His will be done. Our last class is scheduled for the end of the month.

Jesus was teaching to the multitudes (Mark 4:1-9)

Our third class at Takeshima Chapel went well. We studied Mark 4:1-9; when Jesus was teaching from the boat to the multitudes. Many of the same people from last class came again to this class. One particular lady said that many years ago she studied English, but had forgotten most of it. However, she said that now it is starting to come back. Of course it is great that she is remembering the English she studied, but the best part is that we are reading God's Word. So, it is not just an English lesson, but a cleansing, refreshing, encouragement unto our hearts and minds too. After reading we used the key words of the text to write our own sentences.

Second Class at Takeshima Chapel

We had our second class at Takeshima Chapel. We began with a song that pastor Mori prepared. It was a song by Paul Simon, "Scarborough Fair". We studied the first four lines of that song which was quite interesting because it is very abstract. People seemed to enjoy it, and it even gave me an opportunity to use the popular Japanese comedian's phrase, "soo nano kankenai!" when discussing, "Parsley, sage, Rosemary, and Thyme." It seems to have nothing to do with the question, "Are you going to Scarborough Fair?" Therefore, "soo nano kankenai!" which means "nothing to do with (the previously stated subject)."
Moving on, I chose to use the NIV version of the Bible for the story about Jesus and the Centurion in Matthew chapter 8. It was a little difficult for the group, but we got through it and I think it worked out well. Afterward, we wrote our own sentences using the keywords from the text. The highlight was definitely having two new people join us! Praise the Lord for bringing some new faces! He is gracious and compassionate and worthy to be praised! His will be done.