Sunday, May 6, 2007
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
April Newsletter
To our Family, Friends, and Supporters,
In our previous letter, we talked about April being a month of new beginnings, and what a new month it has been! As university classes began, we also started our work with campus ministry. Thus far, Dokkyo University has been the campus we have worked with the most. We’ve discovered that it happens to be an exception to Japanese universities due to the fact that it is much more liberal in allowing religious clubs, such as their bible study, to form and gather on campus. During the first week of April, we assisted the Dokkyo Bible Study Club in passing out flyers and sharing their purpose with curious students who knew very little about Christianity or had never even heard of Jesus. Over the past month, we were able to hold English bible studies, lead worship as well as share personal testimonies at various functions with Christian and non-Christian college students. A couple weeks ago, Jeremy was given the opportunity to share a relevant and powerful message of hope and fulfillment at the Dokkyo Bible Study Club kickoff party. Here, many new students came interested in either knowing more about Christianity or simply learning more English. As many of the new students that attended were not Christians, it’s been a blessing to see their sustained interest in the club as they have continued to come to other functions and activities since then.
In addition to helping with Dokkyo University, we have also had the chance to begin assisting with the Chi Alpha fellowships at two of the most influential and illustrious colleges in Japan - Waseda University and Tokyo University (also known as Todai). The work on these campuses has proven to be much more challenging as it requires much more patience and prayer with the fairly small number of Christians on both campuses. And, among these few believers, being outspoken about your faith and fellowshipping with other Christians is not very popular or something to be emulated. Hence, there are many strongholds to be broken in the hearts and minds of both non-Christians and Christians at these colleges. And, it is our objective to not only be Christ’s ambassadors but model it as well.
Furthermore, to expand our knowledge of Japanese, we enrolled in a community language class. Surprisingly, this class has served a greater purpose than just helping us with the language barrier. Along with two other American missionaries from Riverside, we meet once a week for coffee and give some of the teachers and other participants of the Japanese class the chance to practice conversational English in an informal setting. What we call “coffee night” has been a wonderful bridge for building friendships, learning more about the culture, and, most importantly, sharing our faith. Although this process of presenting the gospel to the Japanese has been difficult and slow, the experience has already produced small but significant fruit. On a few occasions, several people have come to church for the first time ever as well as have expressed interest in learning more about Christianity.
April also marked the start of classes for Riverside International School (RIS). RIS classes and staff meetings generally make up our weekdays. Our students have a fairly basic foundation of English, but it can be challenging to teach a foreign language without knowing the native language! Jeremy currently teaches several high school students, while Kathy focuses on elementary children. In addition to their normal subjects, the students have Chapel time every morning, where they learn the Bible, worship and pray together. It has been great having the freedom to pray and worship with our students as well as see them develop into strong men and women of God.
As our time here is still in it’s early stages, please continue to partner with us in prayer for:
➢ The various universities we are working on and the students we are interacting with at Dokkyo, Waseda and Todai: that the Christians on these campuses will be emboldened by the Holy Spirit as well as feel the burden to reach their fellow students for Christ and that many non-Christians will give their hearts to God.
➢ Our “Coffee House” nights with the new Japanese friends we have made: that we will be able to develop stronger bonds with them despite the language barrier and that their hearts will be stirred and opened to the gospel.
Finally, because of your prayerful and generous support, together we will see Japan truly become the land of the rising Son!
Always,
Jeremy & Kathy
Please contact us!
Family 2-bankan 107
3-3-35 Soka
Soka City Saitama
340-0011 Japan
taylorsinjapan@gmail.com
In our previous letter, we talked about April being a month of new beginnings, and what a new month it has been! As university classes began, we also started our work with campus ministry. Thus far, Dokkyo University has been the campus we have worked with the most. We’ve discovered that it happens to be an exception to Japanese universities due to the fact that it is much more liberal in allowing religious clubs, such as their bible study, to form and gather on campus. During the first week of April, we assisted the Dokkyo Bible Study Club in passing out flyers and sharing their purpose with curious students who knew very little about Christianity or had never even heard of Jesus. Over the past month, we were able to hold English bible studies, lead worship as well as share personal testimonies at various functions with Christian and non-Christian college students. A couple weeks ago, Jeremy was given the opportunity to share a relevant and powerful message of hope and fulfillment at the Dokkyo Bible Study Club kickoff party. Here, many new students came interested in either knowing more about Christianity or simply learning more English. As many of the new students that attended were not Christians, it’s been a blessing to see their sustained interest in the club as they have continued to come to other functions and activities since then.
In addition to helping with Dokkyo University, we have also had the chance to begin assisting with the Chi Alpha fellowships at two of the most influential and illustrious colleges in Japan - Waseda University and Tokyo University (also known as Todai). The work on these campuses has proven to be much more challenging as it requires much more patience and prayer with the fairly small number of Christians on both campuses. And, among these few believers, being outspoken about your faith and fellowshipping with other Christians is not very popular or something to be emulated. Hence, there are many strongholds to be broken in the hearts and minds of both non-Christians and Christians at these colleges. And, it is our objective to not only be Christ’s ambassadors but model it as well.
Furthermore, to expand our knowledge of Japanese, we enrolled in a community language class. Surprisingly, this class has served a greater purpose than just helping us with the language barrier. Along with two other American missionaries from Riverside, we meet once a week for coffee and give some of the teachers and other participants of the Japanese class the chance to practice conversational English in an informal setting. What we call “coffee night” has been a wonderful bridge for building friendships, learning more about the culture, and, most importantly, sharing our faith. Although this process of presenting the gospel to the Japanese has been difficult and slow, the experience has already produced small but significant fruit. On a few occasions, several people have come to church for the first time ever as well as have expressed interest in learning more about Christianity.
April also marked the start of classes for Riverside International School (RIS). RIS classes and staff meetings generally make up our weekdays. Our students have a fairly basic foundation of English, but it can be challenging to teach a foreign language without knowing the native language! Jeremy currently teaches several high school students, while Kathy focuses on elementary children. In addition to their normal subjects, the students have Chapel time every morning, where they learn the Bible, worship and pray together. It has been great having the freedom to pray and worship with our students as well as see them develop into strong men and women of God.
As our time here is still in it’s early stages, please continue to partner with us in prayer for:
➢ The various universities we are working on and the students we are interacting with at Dokkyo, Waseda and Todai: that the Christians on these campuses will be emboldened by the Holy Spirit as well as feel the burden to reach their fellow students for Christ and that many non-Christians will give their hearts to God.
➢ Our “Coffee House” nights with the new Japanese friends we have made: that we will be able to develop stronger bonds with them despite the language barrier and that their hearts will be stirred and opened to the gospel.
Finally, because of your prayerful and generous support, together we will see Japan truly become the land of the rising Son!
Always,
Jeremy & Kathy
Please contact us!
Family 2-bankan 107
3-3-35 Soka
Soka City Saitama
340-0011 Japan
taylorsinjapan@gmail.com
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