Much To Celebrate

Wow, we have been in Japan for 5 months ALREADY, time flies!  …OR… we have ONLY been in Japan for 5 months, it seems longer!  Honestly, I don’t feel that time has flown or that it seems like forever ago.  We have been so wrapped up in the moment, living day-by-day dealing with the challenges that come at times and welcoming the opportunities that God puts before us.  We have definitely seen fruit of the hopes, desires and anticipation of what’s to come with the mission God has us on!  Want to hear about a few?

Connecting

We desired to create a space where people feel like they stepped into a different culture outside of their norm.  Besides the obvious of our physical features and our daily lifestyle, we built a patio area with a large grill (by Japanese standards) to invite others for food and fun.  We have already had some neighbors over for a BBQ!

High School Ministry

We hoped to connect with teens and now have a High School Ministry where we meet every Sunday afternoon for English conversation, games and bible story.

Go Local Japan

For our ministry in Japan, this event is a great tool to actively show what sacrificial love, a Jesus-kind-of-love looks like and an easy way to invite others in to community.

We just finished our first Annual Volunteer Event Initiative here in Japan – GO LOCAL in cooperation with our church community, Crossroads, in the Greater Cincinnati Area.  Where 12,000 volunteers from 10 cities around the U.S. and, now, also Japan go out and “Be The Church” and love and serve our community.  Many of you are familiar with Go Local and some of you may not be familiar, here is a 2017 Recap:

We approached the city of Kagoshima about our desire to clear an existing walkway that is currently not usable.  At first they couldn’t understand why we wanted to do so but were open to letting us do it.  A great opportunity for future collaboration with the city and lead to other doors for growing our future volunteer efforts!

Our location was an existing thoroughfare that had been taken over by trees, bushes and weeds.  Positioned on a hill, rainfall also caused dirt to shift forming new land on top of the pre-existing paved path that exists.  Our hope is to put it back in to use for mostly Jr High School students walking to school at the bottom of the hill.  This was the first time our Japanese friends ever experienced volunteering.

You see, volunteering (and/or donating)  is not embraced as much as other countries, like America.  In short, it doesn’t jive with the Japanese culture.  Let me give you a little depth from my experiences, conversations with other Japanese and input from Megumi.  Freely receiving a gift or a service is not widely accepted in Japan. The receiver will feel as if they are forever indebted to the giver.  So they will always give a gift in return.  There is a term used and a formality that goes with it – Okaeshi (return gift, return favor).  So gifting and return-gifting can go on forever.  Once you are in this type of relationship with others, it’s hard to get out.  Then there is another term commonly used when it comes to engaging or connecting with people (strangers, friends and even with family) – Meiwaku (trouble, bother, annoyance, nuisance).   No one wants to be “meiwaku” for others.  So something as simple as act of service or a kind gesture could and most likely would be translated differently in Japan.  An entire college course could be taught on these cultural mainstays.  I will leave it there for now.   Let’s just say it is challenging to break through this cultural barrier, but with God all things are possible!

English House

In September we are launching a ministry using English learning that will provide a need to the community and allow for us to connect with many at the elementary level on a broader scale.  This is also a great avenue to reach parents as well.  In step with this launch, we will be welcoming a good friend, Hamilton Davis, from Cincinnati, OH. currently teaching English in Northern Japan and has a heart for the Japanese.  Hamilton and I discussed the possibility of this type of ministry 2 years ago in Northern Kentucky at Crossroads Florence when we volunteered together helping Japanese children with their American School homework.  This ministry will support other missionaries, like Hamilton, that desire to come and serve with us and we feel this will be a great training ground for duplicating this ministry in other cities.

There are some other partnering opportunities happening in 2019 that we will establish after we develop some roots in our current efforts!

It’s amazing to see hopes and dreams come alive using our skills and talents to invite and welcome others in to community, connecting them with our Heavenly Father.  God is definitely on the move in Japan and we are humbled to be His workers here.

Prayer and Provision

Provision

Our family is so blessed at how God continues to meet our needs and He has definitely taught us to depend on Him and the family of Christ to support our efforts.  It has been humbling.

When our family left for Japan, we were NOT 100% funded.  We are so grateful to those that are recurring monthly supporters that cover 50% of our operational budget.  And thanks to our one-time donation supporters, that bumped us to 75% of our operational budget for 2018.

In order for our family to continue a full-time effort running after our friends in Japan, we need the support of you, the body of Christ, our Family, who may have considered joining this mission field with us but have not yet done so.  We would like to extend that invite to you today.  Would you consider setting up a recurring monthly gift, partnering with us to share the love of Jesus with our friends in Japan.

What does this look like?  Our current average recurring monthly support is $70 a month.  If we had 30 people commit that amount, we would make budget!  You might be in a position to equal 2 people and you might be in a position to only do half of the monthly average.  Or you may feel God prompting you with a certain amount.

We encourage you to pray and hope you will consider joining us!

All donations are tax deductible

 

Prayer

Megumi and I are still juggling what healthy rhythms look like for us balancing family and mission.  We have experienced a little bit of culture shock for the both of us regarding everyday life, what is required and what is standard.   Norms in the U.S. are non-existent in Japan and getting to know and understand our new norms in Japan takes some getting used to.

We have a Japanese friend that is going through some serious family issues and would like prayer for peace over her life and to bring the right people into her life as to benefit from community support.

 

Gratefully Yours,

Jack, Megumi, Chloe and Ethan