October Newsletter

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I hope you are all keeping warm as winter approaches. During the month of October we had some good opportunities where people heard the Gospel. Even though the ground is rock hard here and people often seem to be indifferent when confronted with questions about life or death or just better living in general, some good Spirit led conversations have been taking place.

At Hiroshima International University we had a very probing conversation during our Monday night English Bible study. After reading about Jesus and his disciples, the question was asked, "Would you follow Jesus?" One student said, "No, because I don't understand him." Which was very honest. Another student said, "Maybe...because he teaches good things." These two responses are par for the course here...But, they keep coming back and "Maybe" the Lord will open up their hearts that they may be saved! Please pray for the students of this class.

At Daichi church on Wednesday nights, we have the regular attendance from a couple of Pastor Lee's daughters and an elementary school student from the neighborhood named Natsuko. For our adult class, other than a couple of church members, we have had one faithful student named Yuko coming to our Wednesday night class. Recently God has opened the door to very deep conversations during our adult class. We have been able to continuously preach the Gospel while teaching through the various scriptures we have studied. As result of our time to together, as God has led the way, we were able to give Yuko a Bible. Of course, we pray that all such efforts would bare fruit. Please pray for these classes.

Our Tuesday night Prayer and Worship time for the city of Hiroshima continues to gather and we appreciate your prayers as the Spirit leads.

Please also pray for Pastor Lee and his family as they have made a decision to home school their children next year. It is not an easy decision since this is a group culture and his oldest son is a 6th grader who has been in the system since the first grade. One of the reasons for the change is due to the endless activities that take place on Sundays. The Lord's day is not a priority here. Particularly, if you are in a school club or sports team, the activities and games usually fall on Sundays. Additionally, school community events also fall on Sundays and there is great pressure for parents, Christian or not, to join the group. That being said, Pastor Lee has been faithful throughout, and has not allowed his children to play the Sunday games or attend the events. I respect him for this decision, especially since some members and or/ pastors of other churches don't think it is such a big deal. As a result, I believe the church is suffering as cultural expectations infiltrate into the church (I believe this is a world-wide epidemic). I think Jesus made it pretty simple when He said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God..." Please pray for the Christians of Japan to stand up and stand out and be radical in a country where being radical generally has severe social consequences.

Thanks for reading,

In Jesus,
Tyler