We hosted our monthly community build event, Bridge International Cafe, last Saturday, 11/25, at Kaneda Community Center in Kisarazu, Chiba. 17 local people, including seven high school students, joined it. These students were from Kisarazu Sogo High School and belonged to the Interact Club. Kota, a member of Yuji’s ECC, is an English teacher at the high school and is also in charge of the club. So, he brought his students. I believe it was an excellent opportunity for the students to experience the “English atmosphere.” We were thankful for being involved in their lives through the BI Cafe.

For Phil, one of our BI Cafe Team, it was the last time to serve. He will move back to the US soon. He helped us with the cafe for several months. I believe God continues to send people from all over the world to us to serve together our local community.

Last Saturday, my team and I welcomed an MTW Vision Trip Team from the US. They are right now traveling in Chiba and Tokyo because they plan to visit several cities in Chiba and Tokyo to meet other MTW teams. They spent four days with us so I could take the team to Kaneda, Kisarazu, our team’s church planting place, on 10/23, Monday. I took them to Costco and its headquarters office in Kaneda West, to Kaneda Community Center in Kaneda East, where we use it for our outreach ministries, and near Sodegaura Station, where many new houses were built and young families lived. Kaneda East, Kaneda West, and Near Sodegaura Station are our three target places for our church planting. Then Tom, my team leader, and I did a presentation for them there. I hope some of them can join this church planting project and live there to become a part of the community! Eri and I plan to move to this area sometime in 2024 next year. We need at least three families/people who can move there to live!

We walked around Kisarazu Station.

At the community center in Kaneda East, Tom and I explained the need for planting an international church in Kaneda, where there is no church at this point. It is growing places and many young families purchased their new houses and properties there, but they often say they have no friends in this community.

After Alive International service, we took the team for supper with us at the food court of a shopping mall.

I was thankful for a mission trip team from Grace Presbyterian Church, Columbia, South Carolina. They sacrificed their time and money to come to Japan and help us. One of the things they helped us with was Bridge International Café on July 22. On that day, we welcomed thirteen local people at the Café. The mission trip team was involved in the participants’ lives by welcoming and spending time with them. For most team members, it was their first time coming to Japan. In other words, they could not understand and speak Japanese at all. However, their passion was strong enough to spend time with our locals. I hope more people come to Japan and join our ministries in Kaneda, Kisarazu City, to advance the Gospel of Jesus. Probably, some want to come on a short-term mission trip. Some may want to come as tent-making missionaries. Some may want to come as fully supported missionaries. Please pray for us and our new church planting efforts there.

I attended MTW 50th Anniversary Luncheon in Memphis, TN, on June 15th last week. This anniversary was a significant milestone for MTW since it began 50 years ago. There were hundreds of MTW missionaries, supporters, and supporting churches there. I was blessed to learn the history of MTW through the speech of Lloyd Kim, Coordinator of MTW, and Ellen Barnett, a long-term missionary in Mexico. At my table, I enjoyed the time with Tom, my current team leader; Dan, my former team leader; Jonathan, Dan’s son and MTW missionary; and Roger, MTW Japan missionary in Tokyo. I pray that God continues to use this mission agency for the advancement of the gospel in the world!

Last Saturday, my team and I hosted a “Bridge International Café” outreach event at a local community center in Kaneda, Kisarazu. This was a part of our new international church planting. We welcomed fifteen local people plus two babies. I worked as the MC and the coordinator, and the rest of the team served as table conversation leaders. We set six tables in the room and had three participants per table sitting with a table leader. Each table conversation leader had their conversation topic, such as “fear” or “food.” The leaders moved to another table every 15 minutes. So, everybody met four native speakers/leaders with four topics for one hour. It seemed everyone enjoyed the time with us. We plan to continue to host it as our monthly outreach event. We hope we can build more relationships with local people through this event!