Past few days

Sorry for the lack of posts for the past few days! Lack of internet connections and just busy days in general. Praise God for the Japanese homestays who really showed their hospitality and love to us!

Friday:

• The team had devotion on the book of Jonah, the runaway witness
• The team prepared for the English Christmas party together, practising the song Indescribable - we struggled a lot with which song to sing and singing together with the piano - it was quite tense especially because everyone was tired
• Tracy and Shirley had dinner together with Mr 'and Mrs Kobayashi, a lovely cute couple. Please pray for Mr Kobayashi who came to church with his wife for a few months but has withdrawn because of uncertainty whether Christianity is for him. Praise God for Mrs Kobayashi who after 10 years of bible study with Jehovah's Witness, came to know the truth about Christ in the bible. She said that she felt it was weird that they never did bible study beyond parts of the bible and apparently the Japanese translation was really bad.

Saturday:

• The team did a devotion together on Abraham, the faithful witness. Praise God for his example in his willingness to go wherever God wanted him to go - even when he didn:t know where it would be, and he took his family and packed everything and went, trusting God -
• English Christmas Party: praise God for the 30 adults there and 15 children who came. We played a couple of games, sang Indescribable and Cerise did her testimony. Praise God that God allowed the team to meet many of the students of the English classes that the church holds during the week and please pray that as they study the bible they will see that it isn't just words but they see God's glory through His word
• The team went to their respective homestays and we were greeted with lovely dinners :) Tracy and Shirley had Okonomiyaki and the Hirose family invited many friends over!

Sunday:

• The team attended the Omagari Worship Service and praise God for Hirano-san who attended church for the first time! Many kids came too. The message was on John 3 about Nicodemus and how you can only go to heaven if you are born again in the Spirit and getting to know Jesus. Saeko-san delivered the message and she used the illustration of a man who had a headache and decided to see a famous doctor about it. While sitting in his waiting room, he talked to other patients and tried out a lot of self help methods to try and ease his headache himself and the man left before he got his name called. Shortly after he left, the nurse called his name. Saeko-san explained that sometimes we are like that too, we fail to fully trust God and place everything into His hands and we just try to do things our own way to try and help ourselves - relying on our actions instead of God's grace.
• Pray that God may be raising up leaders from the church, especially godly men who submit to God's will in their lives. Pray that churches will invest resources in training their members to teach the bible faithfully and truthfully to others, and to learn to pass the gospel to their friends and the next generation.
• Pray for the bible colleges here. We met Matsumi's sister Hiromi who goes to bible college here in Hokkaido where she studies the bible. Pray for more students to go to these institutions where they learn to study the bible and teach it to others. Also pray that they may provide courses for laypeople in churches to be trained, whether it be by conferences or by correspondence courses.
• The church surprised Shirley with birthday cakes and a card at church lunch - she is so thankful and grateful!
• Grace, Carson, Tracy and Shirley then left to go to Mrs Kano's house with Susan. Praise God for Mrs Kano's generosity in providing  newly renovated vacant house for the missionaries to live in during mission and for the hospitality and provision of the Hiraoka church members who lent us stuff to use in the house! 

Monday:

• Our host families took us around on our day off
• Shirley will blog about her 20th birthday at her blog - shirtlek.blogspot.com :) IT WAS SO AWESOME!!! THANK YOU GOD! and thank you for all your birthday wishes even when I'm here!!

 Tuesday:

• We had a team devotion on Jesus - the perfect witness, Praise God for giving us a servant king who understands how we feel and who intercedes for us forever. 
• We spent the rest of the day preparing for the Australian Christmas Culture night on Saturday. Please pray that many people will come and hear the message with open hearts!
• Please pray for humility and unity as a team as we prepare. It is so hectic and stressful and it is becoming so hard sometimes to stay positive, non-complaining, flexible and patient with each other. Please pray that we can help remember that we are here to serve GOD first and hence serving others, and not be served, that we be content and joyful in everything God has provided. Please pray for energy and focus on God too! 

thanks guys! :D - this blog is really stripped down and Shirley will blog in more detail on her blog. Thanks!! 

fmZERO: seeing God's work

It really has been an encouragement to read Shirley's posts. Really funny to see those teammates photos!

Why don't I tell u more about our everyday life as part of this mission for the fmZERO team? Well, Sam & Clare are almost like my real younger sister - Amy & younger brother -Chris back home. Both share the same years of birth and drives the same type of cars as my siblings. We have called our team name as ASC which is Ask with a C and it stands for Ada Sam Clare.

We have known each other quite well during our time together now. Been great how God bring us all three who never knew each other before to this ministry! We are all very different people all united to do Christ's work here in Japan.

It has been an eye-opening experience to work together with Sarah & Karin and seeing how they are links in bringing ppl to know Christ. :)

Typical week:
*daily (almost) morning devotions with Karin. Really help us to start the day asking for God's help. We are reading Phillipians & a Japan prayer book.
* English Bible study on Wed nights
* attending Sarah's classes on Bible teaching & English teaching at uni. Today's class re Bible teaching was on the death of Jesus. English class at Hokudai focuses on developing English oral skills.
* attend clubs held at uni & befriending uni students.

It has been a lot of fun so far!

Prayer requests:
There are lots of Christmas events organised by churches happening in Japan in Dec! Please pray that they can be good opportunities for Christians to witness to non-Christians. Pray for God to use these opportunities to bring ppl to him. Pray for pastors and leaders to be given power to preach the gospel msg faithfully.

Next Tues, there is a special fmZERO Christmas event. Please pray for God to prepare the hearts of the students to come! Please pray for guidance as we prepare over the next few days.

Shall write more about the kind of people we meet another time!

Happy birthday Shirley!!!!!!! Hope you have a great day!! :) Love ada, clare and sam

Funny teammates

WEDNESDAY: PRAYERWALKING & MOTHERS’ & KIDS’ ENGLISH CLASS

Today after team devotion, we hung out a bit at Yume Plaza, a community facility where community events are held and kids play after school. Carson and Grace debriefed with Tracy (as the rest of the team had already done it last night) and we found out that the lady that owned the café there was going to come to the Christmas Party on Saturday. Please pray that she’ll be able to come, hear the gospel and know Christ. She’s a lovely lady who seems to know everyone in the area J

Then we went to this restaurant that served buffet – this was our thank you lunch from Oomagari church :D the restaurant used the produce grown on the farm that the restaurant was part of, and the food there was really, really delicious! As we walked in, the head chef was holding the flyer of the event (with our faces on it) as he welcomed us in :O later on we took a photo with him. Please pray that all the employees of the restaurant will be able to come into the Australian Christmas Outreach event together, as the restaurant doesn’t open in winter for dinner.

PRAYER WALKING

Afterwards we went prayerwalking in prayers around the area – Cerise and Karen were with Steve, praying for the older part of Oomagari and passing a lot of the homes of seekers and members of the church that they prayed for. They said they saw a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses also roaming around. Please pray for the people of Japan to know the truth about Christ and not be distracted by Satan’s lies.

There is quite a huge number of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons in Japan and many cults and we found it surprising that they’d convinced the shy and cautious Japanese who they converted to be so pressing and forward to other Japanese people. The lady who did bible study with a Jehovah’s Witness for 10 years said that when you get baptised into Jehovah’s Witnesses you have to sign a contract agreeing to go doorknocking and stuff, and the JWs here have been quite pushy and persistent day after day as they doorknock and often the Japanese feel that out of politeness they are obligated to let them in to talk to them and it’s often hard to break out of relationships even if they are bad. This is why the evangelical churches here avoid doorknocking because the Japanese will often firstly ask Christians whether they’re JW/Mormons…

Grace and Carson went to pray for Yume Plaza where the church holds most of its events while Tracy and I prayerwalked along the main roads for the businesses and the customers and employees inside it, focusing on the supermarket.

Prayerwalking is something I’d like to encourage back home because it really helps us see (if God allows us to) our suburb and our city the way God sees it – not as somewhere fun to hang out at or an awesome place to shop but as a missionfield where there are so many competing idols for our love and worship. It’s pretty much just praying as we walk but trying not to be too obvious but like we’re talking to each other, and we prayed about anything we saw – like this water machine where we prayed that the Japanese wouldn’t be satisfied with water on earth but that they’d seek Jesus, who gives water that gives eternal life… or when we saw bread and we prayed that they might seek Jesus who is the bread of life, or when we saw salt, that the churches would be salt and light in their schools, workplaces and everything :D

MOTHERS’ & KIDS’ ENGLISH CLASS

Before we finished our prayer walk, we realised that we were late for the English class we were helping out with. Susan and Saeko run this English class where kids from preschool to primary school age get to play and learn English and the mothers would be discussing what it means to be a good mother from a biblical perspective.

The kids were asking us what our names were, what food we liked, what animals we liked and stuff in English and it was really awesome to be able to play with them and communicate by laughing or playing because I really had no language – and as Cerise said, it is quite sad when you can’t even communicate with an 8 year old but really thankful that Christ’s love is for everyone and transcends all cultural and language barriers and it was so awesome to be able to serve them and get to know them :)

Afterwards some mothers and children would move down to the play area where we chatted with the mothers (Saeko and Tracy translated for me) about earthquakes and cooking and stuff and really praise God for the time that Saeko and Susan can spend with these wonderful mothers (some who are seeking) where they could build relationships and open up to each other. Praise God that a while ago, one of them even asked to see Saeko to meet up privately read the bible together as a result of this time together :D

JAPANESE BIBLE STUDY

Tonight we visited Steve and Susan’s Japanese bible study where they’ve been going through a series on prayer, and the passage tonight was on 1 Timothy 2. The Japanese speakers read through a book on that topic and Susan translated for us, before we all practised a game we’re going to play at the Hiraoka Christmas service :) Praise God for this small but committed group of Christians and please pray for them as they try to invite non-Christians to join their bible study, and that they’d have courage to invite people to join their bible study.

Please continue to pray for the English Christmas Party the Oomagari church is holding 11^th (this Saturday) – that many will come and that relationships will be built with contacts and that many will be interested in coming to church. Also please pray for the Australian Christmas Outreach event we’re having on the 18^th

·      wisdom for the Committee to plan the event

·      for preparations and energy for the team

·      for Nakamura sensei’s Christmas message God will bring people to the event and that He will open the hearts of those He has chosen to know him, and for the church to spend quality time following up and answering questions J

How great is our God

This morning in team devotions we looked at the book of Jonah. God teaches us all different things but this morning a few things struck me as we were reading through it and discussing it.

God is so powerful. He can do things that we think impossible to do. Sometimes we think of God only being able to do what we can, but God is not limited to human capabilities - he is awesome and powerful. He made the great fish swallow Jonah and spit him out, he caused the city of Nineveh to turn back to him and repent, he worked in Jonah's own heart to help him to remember God's compassion on him. God is a powerful and great God.

I've also been encouraged to be more prayerful. The missionaries who I have met seem to be very prayerful, always committing each task, each person, each ministry, each step of their journey to God and you need to be prayerful here. I was reminded that God wants us to bring even the little things in our lives to Him. It's all important to Him and He can work even in the things that we think seem insignificant.

The people here are a huge encouragement too. The Christians who attend local churches in the area serve faithfully and joyfully. They are a real blessing to the church here and more than that, they have a heart to see God's kingdom grow here. The missionaries here have been taking excellent care of us as well! Always thinking of us and praying for us. They have been great to talk to and we have all been encouraged by their heart for the people here and their faithful service.

The kids here are soooo cute! Kawaii! I want to take them all home with me! They are full of energy too! But pray for the kids here, that their hearts will also be open to hearing about the good news of Jesus too. Kids here are so attentive and they will just listen but you're not sure how much they are taking in. Pray that God helps us to find a way to connect with them and that we can share His love with them too.

1st wk of mission- FMZero team

Hmm...it's been a while since the fmZERO team last blogged. Shirley from the other team, Omagari team had blogged more regularly. Wow, some amazing stuff there Shirley...Sam, Clare and I (fmZERO team) will continue to pray for you guys!

It took a while to blog mainly due to internet issues. But God have given us much blessings since we arrived in Sapporo! Clare mentioned about the international church we went to last Sunday. Yes, it was really encouraging to see ppl from all different continents all in fellowship and glorifying his name! :)

We have met quite a lot of young ppl so far! All with different levels of English speaking abilities but many are keen to practice their English!

The Sapporo city centre have more uni students around. We met with many of the uni students most of whom are not Christians. Last night, the fmZERO team joined Sarah to the English Bible study held at Sapporo International Church. The Bible study was about accepting the gift of eternal life offered and following Christ (taking up the cross passage in Luke). We met an intelligent philosophy student who questioned a lot about the cost of following Christ! He mentioned how hard it is to follow Jesus in Japan ( Christianity - part of a minority) and he also questioned what heaven is like. I was really encouraged by how serious he is in searching for the answers before making any decisions and that he came to the Bible study despite his busy schedule. Please pray for God continue to prepare the hearts of many just like him to come to seek God.

We really praise God for his provision for the Australian night held on the 7th Dec! Before the event, there were many uncertainties esp with food. God provided us with helpers and we were able to cook all the food on time. The event ran relatively smoothly. God answered our prayers! Praise God for the many of the students who were able to come and that many of them brought their friends along. It was awesome to see some of them openly saying that they are Christians! Sarah's talk on God as our creator was really fitting.

Praise him too for the conversations we were able to have. I came across ppl who have been exposed to Christianity in their childhood. One girl said she stopped attending church mainly due to the pressure of studying at university. I've invited her to attend a church with us on Sunday. Even if she can't come, please pray for more opportunities for her to come to know Jesus better. Maybe through Christian friends she meets?

Prayer points - in addition to the above.
* praise him for aust night - the conversations and provisions.
* that God equip us to explain clearly on the gospel for those seeking to know him
* for many students to be able to come to Christmas event on 21st Dec. For open hearts eager to hear about Jesus. Please pray for God's guidance on the prep.

Thanks for reading guys!