MISSING IN ACTION ?

Beloved, 

It rained in Machida on Friday night and Evergreen Church suffered a severe power outage and most of the building has been without electricity.   That's why you haven't heard from us for the past 3 days.  But we give thanks to God for one shower that has hot water and for blankets (heating units are out).  Thank you for your prayers!

The power is still down, but we've jury rigged an internet connection that may affect what little power we have.  Therefore, this blog entry will be short, but long enough to thank you for prayers.  The team had blessed times with the Bethel Shinagawa and Tama Hillside churches over the weekend.  Updates will follow as the power returns. 

We thank our God for you,

Your Machida Team

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Beloved,
After your team arrived at Machida yesterday, we got ourselves settled and immediately celebrated the birthdays of Miho Uchimura (pastor's wife) and Yuriko.  They wouldn't tell us how old they were so we tried to guess.  Big mistake, but fun.  We spent the day unpacking our supplies and began planning for the weekend outreach activities with Bethel Church (Shinagawa) and Tama Hillside.

This morning, Mizuki (Miho's sister) drove us to Tama Hillside church to inspect the facility and make plans for the Sunday service and outreach.  It was good to meet Minegishi Sensei who is a pillar of perseverance and determination.  After her husband past away years ago, she completed Bible School and planted a new church.  It presently has 10 members and with the help of our team and members from Evergreen Chapel, they will hold their first Christmas outreach for the children in the surrounding area.  They are expecting 17 children.  Please pray that the Lord will open hearts and draw these children to Himself.

We are also finalizing plans for our first outreach event tomorrow at Bethel Church, Shinagawa.  This is the 3rd year that our team has come to help this fellowship which is in need of encouragement.  With a membership of about 12, they are expecting 14 children which is significantly down from the last 2 years.  But our prayer is that the gospel will reach just one child who will make a difference.  Our God is faithful and we thank Him for his blessings on this church.

Thank you, beloved, for your prayers which sustain us.  And we trust that our God is with us wherever we go.

Gratefully,
Your Machida Team

Shota taking a nap after picking us up at the airport.

The Birthday Girls - Yuriko & Miho

Dinner by Evergreen member, Matsuda-san, and 

enjoyed by Yuriko, Diane, Mizuki, Joy

ARRIVED SAFELY

Beloved,
Thank you for your prayers for traveling mercies for Yuriko, Diane and Stan.  We arrived safely in Tokyo this morning. Michael will be joining us on Saturday so keep praying.

We departed from LAX 5 minutes after midnight and we're so thankful for those of you (Crossway and South Bay) who came to see us off.  We landed in Haneda at 4:40am, BTW, Happy Thanksgiving !  Waiting for us were Shota, Shohei and Ku, who we found out later had come to the airport area at about 1:00am and just slept in the car to ensure they would not be late to pick us up.  Love these young men (22 years old).

We had breakfast at this great Japanese Restaurant - Coco's.   It was good and the boys really put away that food.  (Sorry, no pictures - phone ran out of gas).  Joy was waiting for us at Evergreen Chapel and 2/3 of the team is napping right now.  In a few hours, we will be off to eat - again.

Just wanted to tell you we arrived safely.  You are a blessing to all that we have done and will do.  Thank you for being with us on this mission.
Gratefully,

Your Machida Team