Konnichiwa from Japan, IBC!
I’m privileged to be able to write our first update and to report about the great things that the Lord has been doing. We arrived here Saturday afternoon, and were greeted at the airport by Soga-Sensei and Gen, a member at Hamadera Bible Church. On Sunday morning, we were able to attend Hamadera Bible Church where we were greeted with a warm welcome from the congregation. We were blessed to hear about Hamadera’s Joy-Joy Program put on in conjunction with the Grace Church missions team that drew out almost 200 children. We were able to share briefly about our Joy-Joy Program at Izumi-Sano church, and Pastor Dave and I also shared our testimonies. On Monday, we were blessed with some down time in which we were able to finish up some last-minute preparations for our classes and also able to do some sight-seeing. We had our first session yesterday afternoon, and the program got off to a great start. Please enjoy some pictures from our adventures:
This is David with Soga-Sensei. Soga is one of the staff members from Hamadera Bible Church who has been the anchor for Izumi-Sano’s Joy-Joy program for the past few years. He has taken such great care of our team, chauffeuring us around town, making sure we are well-fed, and also providing great leadership and direction. He is such a humble and faithful man, and it has been a great blessing spending time with him.
Tony and Kevin are teaching the older class. Next to Tony is Takashi, who is a great resource because of his English speaking skills.
David Chae and myself are teaching the younger class. We are blessed with much help from the Japanese staff, as well as from Kat (far left), who is the current English teacher at Hamadera Bible Church.
Here’s a nice picture of the kids doing crafts on the first day. Notice all of us in the background, and that we’re all color-coordinated.
Finally, some random ones:
We found a Jin family portrait.
@ Namba . . . everybody look to your left at . . .
😛 (this one’s for you, Ester).
More updates to come.
~Matt