Dear friends,

Thank you so much for your continued prayers for our team. Thank you for being willing to set aside time and pray for us and God's work here in Japan. The Bible tells us that when we call to Him, He will answer. Thank you for calling out to Him on our behalf. The Lord has been answering and doing amazing things!

This past week we have been in Miyakonojo. This is our 3rd time to visit this church and every time we come, we love them more and more! We love building relationships with people year after year. This week we were so privileged to minister alongside the Sadowitz family and the Carr family. We will attempt to write and tell you what our week looked like!

Saturday


We arrived in Miyakonojo on Saturday, got settled and then went to the Sadowitz house for dinner. Then we went back to the church and Naomi and Erica spoke for their youth night. Then we went to the park to play night frisbee! (I can't speak for all the CMA girls, but most of us are not very good!)




Sunday

Sunday morning started with us leading their children's "Joy Club" service. Tiffany shared about why we worship and how wonderful it is to find our satisfaction in Jesus. We did a few dances and Katrina taught the group the very energetic choreography to "One Way, Jesus". This church always eagerly attacks learning dances. From young to old, boys or girls, they LOVE dancing and worshiping with us. So fun!
After that we had a part in their main worship service (kids and adults). We did two dances and Katrina shared her testimony. One of the Pastor/missionaries shared a message on Gideon for their church service. It was good to be reminded that He can use us in our weaknesses. We don't need to be perfect or amazingly good at something. God is searching for hearts, and lives that are fully given over to Him.


After lunch we led a (1 hour) mini purity seminar with a group of younger girls. We did skits, shared what God has taught us and Christine taught them a dance called Beautiful. The dance is about finding your beauty and worth in God alone.









Then we had a (2 hour) purity seminar with older girls. We did similar things, just more in-depth for their age group. At the end we had a prayer time. Letting them talk to the Lord about what He wanted to say to them. Then our team went around and prayed with the girls individually. It was a really sweet time.  

After dinner that night they have an outreach called, "Joyful sounds". This is a choir group that sings worship songs each week and performs during the year. People come because they want to sing, but they end up getting to hear about the love of Jesus! Some of the ladies remembered Christine and I from last year. That was really fun! We did 2 dances for them and I shared about all the Lord has done for us and why we want to worship Him.

So as you can see, Sunday was a very full, fun, God-packed adventure day!

Monday

On Monday we were able to help with some service projects around the church. The weather was rainy because a typhoon was blowing in, so some of our outdoor projects had to be postponed. After floors were cleaned and waxed we spent the rest of the day getting dances and testimonies ready for our 90 min performance that night.  Well, Christine did find time to join the church kids for a game of soccer in the almost typhoon! Needless to say, she came home soaked and happy!

That night was quite an adventure! Here is our new saying that really sums it up, "Who says serving God is boring!"






The performance that night was at a PTA meeting at a nearby high school. All day we prayed and wondered if the event would be cancelled because of the coming typhoon. The wind was crazy outside all day getting stronger as evening came. We wondered how many people would even want to go out in this weather. We got ready at the church, where we were staying. We ran to the cars with rain pelting our faces and soaking our clothes. As we drove to the school we saw people walking, trying to use umbrellas that have turned inside out because of the wind! We got to the school and the wind was so strong, it was quite a funny site to see everyone run for cover. In Japan you take your shoes off before you enter a building, but we had to carry our shoes in with us because if we left them outside they would have blown away! We quickly got ready for the performance.

Time to start! As we walked out on stage we are very surprised to see the amount of people the Lord brought to this event! Praise God! We did our first few dances and testimony, then our translator came back to us and said, "Now you are supposed to teach dance." What? There had been a miscommunication and they thought we would be teaching some dance and ending a bit earlier than we thought. A big change of plans like that has happened right before we start, but not usually in the middle of the performance. We quickly made adjustments and I went out on stage to teach the audience some dance steps. We put on a worship song and then the CD player decided to skip and crackle and make horrible sounds. So sad. We then resumed our program with the next dance but the music  was still horrible. We had to stop in the middle of our dance. We paused changed to different CD player and restarted. The rest of the performance went pretty well. At the end they called us out on stage, asked us some questions and then cried, encore, encore! So we did another dance for them. We were just laughing at all the plans God had for us that night! So different than our plans, but His plans are always higher than ours! Even though we felt like it was a very "shaky" performance, everyone seemed to LOVE what we did and shared. One of the non-Christian ladies who was there, was in tears during our first song (in Japanese). She said the words of the song touched her deeply. Chris Sadowitz said that the testimonies that we shared applied directly to what some of those people where going through. Praise the  Lord who guides us and knows what each one of us need.
*Extra note: The Sadowitz family has been reaching out to their neighbors for 15 years. They shared the gospel with them many times over the years. Their neighbors have been kind but have never wanted to know any more. Just recently they have become interested in the Bible and are attending a Bible study. They came to our performance that night. After 15 years of praying, loving and sharing, this is such an exciting break through!! Please pray for them, that they would fully give their lives to Jesus. Also pray for the Sadowitz family and many, many other missionaries like them in Japan. They are so faithful and give so much day after day, even when they have to wait 15 year to see fruit.

Tuesday
Tuesday the kids didn't have school, canceled because of typhoon. So we had a "typhoon party"! Lots of people from the church came over for lunch. Then we broke into groups for some prayer time. Then we played board games! We wanted to share some of the requests with you, so that you could pray with us!

Prayer requests:

Pray for the Sadowitz family as they are going back to America for a year-long furlough next summer. They are praying that all the many people they disciple will be strong in the Lord even during their absence. Pray also for their kids as they readjust to life in the States

Pray for the Carr family as they will stay behind and run things while the Sadowitz family is gone. Pray that the Lord would provide the workers that they need.

Several kids and teenagers have come to the Lord recently. praise the Lord! Pray for their parents to come to know Jesus as well.

Pray for their Vacation Bible School in 2 weeks that many kids would come and that they would come to know Jesus. Their theme is, "The joy of the Lord is my strength."

Pray for refreshment and encouragement for the Sadowitz and Carr families as they faithfully serve the Lord. They have so many weekly events that are truly making a difference in the lives of those involved (mostly young people). They have such a passion for making disciples and it is wonderful to see their dedication to loving the people of Japan.

That night we lead the Boy's youth Bible study. Their group name is the "Transformers" because they are being changed into the image of Christ. We ate Mc Donald's hamburgers, played some games and then Naomi shared about things the Lord taught her through her experiences with boys she ministered to in Nepal. Then Erica taught them a dance about being alive in Christ, which they LOVED. We laughed so much that night. The boys were so into the dance! They were adding their own flare and sound effects, it was awesome!
Wednesday

On Wednesday we were so happy because we got to help with service projects on the church property. We worked on cleaning up volcanic ash, washing the parking lot/basketball court, painting the deck, pulling weeds, cleaning up more ash and scrubbing down the stone walk way. Then at about 3pm we went and stood outside of schools handing out flyers for their summer camp. So fun to see all those sweet little faces. We are praying that the Lord would draw many children to camp to hear about Jesus!


That evening we had the Girl's youth Bible study. We ate dinner together, played games and did a dance for them. I shared with them about worship being a way of life and how everything we do can bring glory to God and draw others to Him. Then Katrina taught them a dance to a song that fit perfectly with what I had shared. It was really a sweet time of worship. After that we ate cupcakes and hung out and talked with the girls. One girl was there for the first time. She came to the church a few times when she was very young. Chris Sadowitz saw her in the park the other day and told her about us and invited her to come. He didn't think she would show up, but God brought her! She lingered and lingered all night, ending up the last one to leave. You could tell she was searching and that she loved the atmosphere that night. I know that she was feeling something she could not explain; she was feeling God's presence in that building. Please pray with us that she will come again and again to hear more about the God who loves her so much.

Thursday

On Thursday Erica and Christine helped paint the parking lot. We went out to lunch with the Sadowitz family and Izumi who translated for us the last 3 years.  After lunch we worked on packing and getting ready to move to the next location. Naomi and Hannah got ready fast and went to join an English class at a Nursing School. Then that afternoon we packed the cars, said our goodbyes to these sweet families.



We are now safely in Kokubu, but only for 2 days and then we leave for Hiroshima. Please pray for Hannah, her back is hurting her a lot. And pray for Katrina as her body fights off a cold.

Thank you again for standing with us in prayer!

Living and breathing to tell of His Love,