Reuben and Leah, with their four-month-old baby, Theo, flew to Japan to visit us in Kaneda, Kisarazu, Chiba, on Wednesday, June 18. Eri and I could spend four days with them by having them involved in some of our ministries. This family also brought their Filipino friend, Gabbie, to us. Thus, we also had Gabbie experience our ministries here. One of our primary prayer requests is to recruit people for our church plant. I pray that they can come back to Kaneda to join our team for God’s glory!

We took the family and Gabbie to our three target places: Kaneda East, Kaneda West, and near Sodegaura Station. In Kaneda, there are the Costco warehouse, its headquarters office, Mitsui Outlet Park (the biggest outlet mall in Japan), and a brand new community center called Kaneda Community Center. We took them to these locations with prayers.

On the last day of their stay with us, we had Reuben, Leah, and Gabbie help with Yuji’s English Conversation Club at the community center. Approximately 15 people joined us and had a wonderful time with us.

The family arrived at Tokyo Narita International Airport in Chiba!

Reuben & Leah, baby Theo, and Gabbie were with us at Kaneda Community Center for Yuji’s ECC.

Leah spoke about Canada using the whiteboard.

The MTW vision trip team from America did a great job helping with our community building event called Bridge International Café (America Version) at Kisarazu City Kaneda Community Centre on the 31st of May! They served our local people so well, although it was their first time being involved. Additionally, we used the gym at the community center for the first time for the B.I. Cafe. It worked very well! Fifteen adults and fifteen children from our community joined us. I believe the participants not only had a good time with the team but also must have been impressed by their servant hearts for our local community. I pray that at least one person out of the team will come back to join our Bridge International Team in the future!

We welcomed MTW Vision Trip Team to our house yesterday. As you can see, our small living room was full of people! (14 people!) We have welcomed many people since we moved here, but it was the first time for Eri and me to host such a large number of people! We had a good time getting to know each other and talking about the Bridge International Café, which they will help us with, this coming Saturday, May 31st. I appreciated their enthusiasm for traveling to Japan and getting to know the country. I gave them a presentation of our Bridge International Church plant at my house. I pray that God sends at least one of the team members in the future to Kaneda, Kisarazu, and joins our Bridge International Plant Team.

I trust the Lord saying, “Harvest is plentiful but the workers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the Harvest to send out more workers into His harvest.” (Luke 10:2)

Eri and I spent three days this week with our team, the Chiba AO Team, in Kujyukuri, Chiba. We focused on team building, resting, playing, and praying together. You can see the Pacific Ocean behind us. It was beautiful. The hotel we stayed at was located alongside the ocean, so we often could spend time on the beach to walk, talk, and pray.

Through the retreat, I once again realized that it was good not to be alone. Spending three days with my team made me think about it. I believe that one of the dangers of working for the gospel is the risk of isolation. Working with godly people keeps me from such danger. I learned that we each on the team were different in many ways: ages, experience, gifts from God, and nationalities. However, God can use us as a group for the gospel for His glory.

It took us a month to finish furnishing our living room! We purchased most of the furniture online, assembled each piece after it was brought to our place, and put the national flags of many countries on the front door, forming “B.I.,” i.e., Bridge International, with them. Our townhouse is a part of a big building where eight other families live. As far as I know, our neighbors are unique and international-minded people. For instance, our next neighbors, Eiji and Sakiko, with four small children, hope to immigrate to Holland in the future for their children. Another neighbor who lives in the same townhouse building is Tomoyuki and Ayako, with a tiny child. Tomoyuki is a former Olympian in Snowboarding who travelled a lot in the world for the competition. Another neighbor is Anri and her Turkish husband – I don’t know his name yet- with a small child. They are an international married couple. I would love to invite them to our place to get to know them!