The Mercers in Manila

PICTURE TIME (James's 15th Birthday, etc...) Well...

2005-01-17T13:31:00.000+09:00

PICTURE TIME (James's 15th Birthday, etc...)

Well, James was able to fix our digital camera, so I have some new pictures!

Alishea served the cake...

James invited seven friends from his discipleship group at church...

Some are computer geeks just like James...

One guy in the house was older than the others, can you tell who??? Yes! I *did* grow a beard over Christmas break. Take a look because its coming off this week.

The ladies had a discussion...

While a couple of friends took advantage of our TV to watch Manchester United vs. Liverpool. I personally enjoyed watching the Vikes trounce the Packers last week but when you have British and South African friends, soccer is a happy medium (much better than cricket or rugby).

This is my first post since "re-entry" in Japan. ...

2005-08-29T23:29:00.000+09:00

This is my first post since "re-entry" in Japan.

I will upload our new family website soon. Next step - change these blogs from "Mercers in Manila" to something more appropriate; "Mercers in Yokosuka" perhaps? Not very creative - but true!

Oops! Almost two months since I updated the blog! ...

2005-04-11T00:34:00.000+09:00

Oops! Almost two months since I updated the blog!
Well if you are reading this then maybe you noticed :-) Too many things have happened to list but I'll try now...

I graduated with honors from Every Nation Leadership Institute and Asian Theological Seminary. Got to attend both schools' graduation ceremonies and recieve a Master of Arts in Christian Leadership degree and a Graduate Diploma of Missions degree. Also received the gold medal award for academic excellence. Wow, look what Jesus can do with a former high school dropout!
Satomi's parents came to visit us for the first graduation ceremony. They are back in Japan now.
The church here had a big outdoor "convergence" service last Sunday. I'm not sure how many came exactly, but I would estimate about 20,000 people showed up! Satomi's parents also came and it was a big change from their usual Sunday experience because the church there usually has about 100 or so. I got to pray with someone to recieve Jesus as Lord, which was awesome. His friend is now following him up and getting him involved in a discipleship group.
I got another email from a student in La Union (wrote about that outreach in the last entry). She is a computer major but couldn't afford a computer! I prayed with her and ask Jesus to bless her with a good computer. She emailed that she now has a new computer!
Pastor Scott and Naomi Douma also visited Manila during the graduation and we got to spend time with them. I'm looking forward to going back to Japan on the 18th and working under Pastor Scott in Yokohama.

I will post some pictures when I get them. Please pray that I can get a new camera soon since the old one has just about given up the ghost. New batteries last for only a few shots now, so I am depending on friends to send me shots of the graduation and stuff.

Also please pray for the guys in my discipleship group here that they will all get plugged in to other groups and continue to seek God and reach out to others.

Baptisms - I had the honor of baptizing two guys f...

2005-02-12T15:55:00.000+09:00

Baptisms - I had the honor of baptizing two guys from my discipleship group today; Charles and Bruno. The bottom picture includes their families.

Photos taken today after Victory Weekend.

I'm starting to get some emails from the students ...

2005-02-18T10:43:00.000+09:00

I'm starting to get some emails from the students in the provinces that I had the privilege of leading to the Lord last month. What an honor to be used by God to help them receive eternal life and purpose. Here is one I received today:

From a student at Don Mariano Marcos State University in La Union
"It was a great blessing meeting you guys here in our campus i have learned many things from you guys and I thank you for your purpose teaching us the word of GOD...yes! i was there at the Youth On Fire meeting, and it was very fun...and thanks again because if without you i can never know GOD..."

Thank you for your prayers and support. I know that those who send are just as important as those who are sent. And, of course, it is God who makes things grow:
"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow" (1Cor 3:6).

January was a busy but exciting month. I went wit...

2005-02-02T02:09:00.000+09:00

January was a busy but exciting month. I went with a ministry team to one of the provincial churches and had the privilege of praying with dozens of college-aged kids to make Jesus Lord of their lives. We also helped start their youth ministry.

Last Monday I went with three pastors and a fellow student from VLI and met with the Principal and Vice-Principal of the Manila Japan School . I will be doing research on Japanese students there and I hope to help create an open door for ministry as well.

Please pray for me this weekend. I will be counseling two men during a Victory Weekend "retreat". This is an overnight ministry event which is held three or four times a year to help new believers get established in the faith.

2004 was the best year of my life. I have grown p...

2005-01-08T11:24:00.000+09:00

2004 was the best year of my life. I have grown personally in so many ways and also experienced being used by God more than ever before. I've prayed with several people to ask Jesus to be Lord of their lives and I am meeting with a group of guys weekly who want to be discipled and lead others to Jesus too. I also have the privilege of meeting regularly with and learning from several great men of God who constantly challenge me to improve and press in to bigger and better things.

In the last couple of months many, many things have happened. I completed my first semester of school, finishing 23 credit hours with high marks. I can really see God's hand in my life because I used to hate studying and now I am doing it more than full time and love it! Alishea participated in the school Christmas play, dancing and singing. She is very artistic and has decorated my office here with both abstract art and pictures of me. Speaking of art, I bought Satomi a pen-tablet for the computer for Christmas so she could try her hand at digital art. She enjoys that and created a beautiful New Year card - but unfortunately it was too late to mail it out.

James is still taking tennis lessons, now he has begun taking three lessons per week. I have commited to going with him on Mondays and taking lessons myself so we can play tennis together when we return to Japan. We had two lessons before the Christmas break and we'll start again in late January. Right now we are in a week of fasting and prayer and can't be athletic, although James is considering eating for one day so he can have a lesson :-)

We had our best family vacation ever when we a friend paid for us to spend two nights on Mindoro island. James and Alishea learned to snorkel in the best coral reef I have ever seen. We bought a small tuna off a passing fisherman's boat for about $5.00 and barbequed that. Satomi reserved about a quarter of it for sashimi of course. The next day we were invited to the owner's grandaughter's baptism party where we enjoyed a freshly killed pig, excellent beef, fresh fruit, etc... on the beach. The islanders really know how to cook! I really love how they use coconut milk, hot peppers, and the native fruits like pinapple, mangos and all the varieties of bananas in the dishes.

Our two-week Christmas / New Year break went by too quickly and now I am back in school. Again I have a heavy load of 18 credit hours (I took a three credit hour class during the fall break to lighten the load on Mondays). The classes I am taking this time are:

Church Planting
Theology
Ethno-Hermeneutics
Church Leadership Series
Cultural Anthropology
Discipleship Startegy

Theology, Cultural Anthropology and Ethno-Hermeneutics are very academic but I enjoy them a great deal because they apply to the ministry we will be doing as church-planters in Japan. The other 3 classes are very practical and involve a lot of ministry outside the classroom.

I'm really excited about 2005. I know this year will again be the best year ever. God is already lining things up for us to return to Japan. We received word over Christmas that there is a house available for us to live in rent-free as we go back. This will certainly help us get our feet on the ground as I need to raise more support in order to live and minister in the Tokyo area which is much more expensive than Manila.

The first semester is over already! That means we ...

2004-10-18T18:08:00.000+09:00

The first semester is over already! That means we have been here almost six months. Last month was the busiest month of my life so far. But in spite of all the readings, assignments and presentations I had to prepare for school, there was much grace. I went to a soccer tournament with Alishea a couple weeks ago. She did great and in spite of getting kicked in the leg and wanting to quit - she hung in to the end.

I even got to coach the 9 and 10 year old boy's team because their coach was on a short-term missions trip to China that week. I don't know who had more fun - me or the kids!

Of course the main thing that consumed my time was my research and papers. If anyone out there is interested in reading some of my work on Japan, I'd love to hear what you think. For now there is a list here that you can download some of the stuff:
http://raymercer.net/mercer/japan

While you are surfing the internet you might want to go check out the new Yokohama Grace Bible Church homepage. I finally had time to update it last weekend and I'm working with a team in Yokohama to add more pictures and fresh content from here on out:
http://www.ygbc.org/

Finally let me tell you the story of Satomi's surprise birthday party through pictures :-)

Here is Satomi trying to look happy on her birthday even though we got her kind of cheap presents and didn't do much to celebrate. What she didn't know is that the kids and I had decided to set her up for a suprprise party two days later...

And here is the surprise! It was perfect. She thought that she had decided the restaurant, the time - everything! She didn't see everyone hiding behind their menus when we came in to the reserved section of this nice Japanese restaurant which is managed by a freind of mine. SURPRISE!

MAN! You mean you planned this! Alishea, I thought you were at a friend's house for dinner! James, I thought you were at church tonight! I thought, I thought...

And that is the story of Satomi's surprise birthday party in pictures!

Family Pictures Ray and Satomi Satom...

2004-09-27T01:32:00.000+09:00

Family Pictures

Ray and Satomi

Satomi

Ray-Studying

James

Alishea

Mercer Family 1

Mercer Family 2

Computer news: I am the proud owner of a new lapto...

2004-08-13T16:39:00.000+09:00

Computer news: I am the proud owner of a new laptop! It is so great to have the right tools for doing school. I bought an Asus L4R notebool computer and it is the best PC I have ever owned. For you techie-types here is a link to the specification:
http://www.asus.com.tw/products/notebook/l4series/l4000r/l4000r_overview.htm

Family News: The kids are having a very good year and God is providing excellent opportunities for them. I am so thankful to serve a loving God that provides for all of our needs and our children's needs. I trusted God when He called me to move to Japan, and again when He called me to quit my job and now when He called us to live in Manila for one year of training. Now the Lord is providing for James and Alishea and training them up in so many ways.

Alishea is taking more tests this week in every subject at school. She is really rising to the academic challenge at Victory Christian School. She looks forward to Sunday School where she has made a special friend already and she is going to invite a couple of her school friends over to our apartment next week for swimming. She will start soccer tomorrow and she is really excited about that - its her first team sport ever. They will meet every Saturday. And finally, one of my classmates named Len, who is doing her research on children's ministry, is going to meet with Alishea one on one for discipleship and bible study. You can read Alishea's online diary here (be prepared to "translate" her cell-phone typing slang):
http://raymercer.net/mercer/alishea

James got plugged into his youth group and cell meeting almost immediately when we arrived and is really blossoming here. He started taking guitar lessons this week. He is also taking two tennis lessons per week now and he will make his "debut" on the drums tomorrow at the Youth on Fire Saturday service. Two of the members of the worship team are in his cell group and are half-American and home-schoolers, so he really has a lot in common with them and is learning a lot from them. Here is James' online diary (he writes some entries in Japanese, and some in English):
http://raymercer.net/mercer/james

Here is a picture of Alishea in her school uniform.

Why haven't I updated the blog lately? My compute...

2004-07-22T08:56:00.000+09:00

Why haven't I updated the blog lately? My computer crashed! But God used the experience - I didn't cry, I just went to God in prayer. I lost all my sermons, financial info, even email addresses and phone numbers. Yes, I have a backup but it is in Japan in my Pastor's attic on a harddisk attached to my desktop computer and no way to get it until next April! But through this I really realized that God is in control. He is my source, my identity, everything I need!

The other good news is that a friend in Japan heard about my crash and sent me a very generous amount of money to fix the computer. I bought a new harddisk, CD-drive and battery and now I am back online! Thank you Jesus!

YOUR PRAYERS ARE EFFECTIVE AND POWERFUL!
Thank you for praying for us. Every time I share a request with our support team these prayers are answered! This last month has been no exception I put 4 specific prayer needs up on this blog and all four have been answered!
#1. Everyone is healthy and we have all found our favorite foods here - in fact we need you to pray that we won't gain weight because we are starting to really love Filipino food.
#2. James' guitar teacher took us to a place where we were able to buy a very nice electric guitar for only about $60 U.S. I've uploaded a picture of it below. James is practicing this guitar every day and hopes to play both guitar and drums in the youth band. I have also used this guitar to lead worship at VLI already.
#3. Finances have continued to flow in from many sources. All of our bills are payed and we have money in the bank. I am always amazed at how God is providing everything we need.
#4. Satomi and Alishea have learned how to use the public transportation to get Alishea home from school each day. I usually take her in the mornings by taxi on my way to school. Today, a member of my cell group offered to take her and pick her up with his kids each day.

Thanks once again for your prayers - it is a privilege to be your missionary. We are continuing to focus on academics but I'm praying about next October when we are supposed to put together some short-term ministry projects to Asia. Please pray that the Lord will bless our plans and help us put together teams and goals for each nation. Right now there are teams planned for India, Myanmar, and China.

School is now in full swing and right now it is ve...

2004-06-27T23:39:00.000+09:00

School is now in full swing and right now it is very challenging academically. We have 21 hours of classroom time per week plus devotions and preaching in the mornings. This is all graduate level work so the guideline is that we are supposed to have 2 hours of homework for every hour of class time! That means just the academic load is 63 hours per week! I have papers due just about every day until mid-October which is our first scheduled break. October is also supposed to be our first international outreach trip. I'm currently praying about several possibilities. There is a new outreach in Myanmar (Burma) that Glen Nabarrete went to last year, there is a new church in Mongolia that Pastor Scott encouraged me to go to (and to take James if possible), and there is a new work in Hong Kong which probably needs help too that Sam Ng is praying about going to.

I will probably attend my first cell group meeting this week even though Pastor Joey Bonifacio, the leader, is still in the U.S.A. Satomi will also attend her first women's cell group this week. I am happy to see her getting plugged in. I have been hanging out with my classmates of course.

Here is a class picture that one of my classmates (who owns a photography business) took last week. Click on the picture if you want to download a full-sized version.

Here is the VLI (Victory Leadership Institute) building we meet in every day.

Hello again! I have gathered some nice pictures t...

2004-06-12T19:01:00.000+09:00

Hello again! I have gathered some nice pictures this week and I will post several today because it may be a while before I have time to mess with the blog after school starts on Monday. Let me just say what a blessing your prayers and financial support are to us! I have been reminded over and over again this week how it is only by the Grace of God and the love of our friends, family and spiritual family that we get to take advantage of such an awesome opportunity this year - THANK YOU!

Just about a week before we left Japan a dear brother in Yokohama felt led to ask me about whether I needed a notebook PC and a digital camera. Little did he know that I had been praying for specifically those two items for months! So God has even given me the tools to write this blog through the love and prayers of others in the church - THANK YOU!

Alishea is enrolled in 5th grade at school for the first time and we have paid for her first quarter of schooling and bought all her school supplies and uniform. She will probably learn a little Tagalog language this year and definitely make a lot of friends - THANK YOU!

James has been praying for a guitar teacher while we are here and one of the first people we met was Archie Castillo, who is a classically-trained professional guitar player who gave up this career to serve God full-time. Archie lives in the same building as us. He will be going to help start a new church-plant in India next year, but in the meantime he has offered to teach James guitar for FREE.

Once again - THANKS FOR YOUR PRAYERS! They are really making a difference!

CURRENT PRAYER REQUESTS:

For our stomaches to get used to Filipino food

For a good used guitar for James and I

For all the finances to come in that we need for my seminary tuition, books, and ministry trips this year

Safety and protection on all of us, especially Alishea and Satomi as they travel to school and back each day

Now finally to the pictures!
First here is a picture of the outside of our building. It is a pretty big skyscraper (36 floors) and we can always find it because it says "In God We Trust" on all sides of the top floor! Here is a view of the other side.

Today our new friend Archie (the guitarist) took all of us on an adventure into downtown Manila. Here is the group walking in front of me with Archie explaining to Sam how to look like a Filipino. (hint* we are wearing backpacks and carrying bottled water and digital cameras. I think the locals can spot us a mile away!)

We got on a train and headed to a station called Carriedo. This station has a China Town (that Sam wanted to visit) and a district where you can buy cheap musical instruments, electronics and computer parts (that I wanted to see). When we arrived we discovered that it was Filipino-Chinese Friendship Day today so Archie and Sam posed for a picture.

We also saw a statue of the first mayor of Manila and noticed a striking resemblance to Ray. My stomach was a little queasy so Sam assured me that once we reached China Town he could find medicine to cure me of anything! Once I saw the Chinese medicinal stores selling everything from deer heads to eagle claws to who-knows-what my stomachache immediately seemed very insignificant and I told Sam I was feeling much better - thank you! James' stomach was starting to get a little queasy to from the smell from this river. But he wasn't interested in any of Sam's chinese medicinal potions either. So we compromised and let Sam buy us lunch in a Chinese Dim Sum restaurant which was actually quite good. It helped that Sam and our other Chinese friend Fiona were with us because they knew all the good things to order (even after I refused their kind offer of chicken-foot soup).

There are numerous types of transportation in Manila. James especially liked this vehicle but we didn't want to ask the occupants to pose with us because they carry automatic rifles and shotguns! The most interesting form of transportation seems to be unique to the Philippines. It is called "Jeepney" and is sort of a modified jeep that is used as an open-air taxi/bus. Jeepneys are everywhere and depending on how far you want to go you can squeeze in or hang on and ride for less than 20 cents. Inceidentally, the church in the background of the Jeepney photo above is one of the oldest churches in Manila. It was built in 1586 and has stood Chinese and Dutch attacks, the British Occupation Force, the Philippine-Spanish War, Dewey's bombardment, the Japanese Occupation, and the return of MacArthur's troops.

I hope this virtual tour gave you a glimpse of Manila. It is an amazing place with shades of many cultures, influences of Spanish, Chinese, even the U.S.A. We are really thankful to be here and, all tongue-in-cheek humor aside, this is going to be an amazing year!

Here is a riddle; what goes up and down up and dow...

2004-06-05T00:31:00.000+09:00

Here is a riddle; what goes up and down up and down and is extreeeemely slow? answer: my cable internet service in Manila!

Sorry about the bad joke! God is continuing to provide everything we need and he is also teaching us patience and how to pray for the "little things" each day that we sometimes take for granted at home.

Last week our friend Sam Ng, a leader from Dennis & Kaku Sager's church in Shizuoka came to live with us for a while. Sam is going to study at the graduate school of world missions with me this year and is living with us until he can find an apartment and his wife Esther comes to join him at the end of July. Sam & Esther's website is here and you can get another perspective on life and ministry in Japan if you take the time to read some of their posts.

Alishea went and took an evaluation test for Victory Christian School on Tuesday and we will attend an orientation tomorrow where she will be fitted for her new *UNIFORM*. She is excited about going to a traditional classroom school for the first time in her life and she really wants you to pray that the uniform is pretty!

James attended the Youth on Fire meeting again tonight and said they were REALLY ON FIRE tonight - he seems to have made friends already and is looking forward to meeting with his cell group tomorrow. The 15 year old cell leader is named Adrian Gibbs. Adrian sent a scripture and encouragement to James through my cell-phone tonight too. Maybe THAT'S why they call it a cell meeting? OK, it is late and these jokes are getting BAD. I will stop now.

I was pretty sick and slept most of the last two days but I feel much better now. It was a combination of stomach problems and a head-cold but everyone else is doing well and I think I am over it now.

I took Alishea on a "date" tonight. We watched The Day After Tomorrow at the theater. That is one very nice thing about living in Manila - first run movies are about $1.20. Thanks for your prayers!

Well, right after I made the last update the inter...

2004-05-29T21:16:00.000+09:00

Well, right after I made the last update the internet went down again but it looks like they have got things sorted out and I should be online more often now. We are still settling in and learning about living in Manila.

James went to the Youth on Fire meetings called "Youth Jam" last night and again today. Here is a picture - James is up front with the red and white flag on the back f his t-shirt:

He also found some new friends already and I am excited about what God is going to do in him this year as he hangs around with these guys and gets discipled.

Alishea is growing up fast too. We have an appointment at her new school on Monday for an evaluation. She'll be a 5th grader. Here she is:

Here are a few more pictures of our new home. We definitely live in metro Manila - here is the view out our window. Here is one of the uninvited guests who live with us. And here are some of the great mangos we get to have for breakfast in the mornings!

We finally have a working internet connection at o...

2004-05-26T22:58:00.000+09:00

We finally have a working internet connection at our new apartment in Manila and this is my first post from the Philippines! It is definitely a different world here than we are used to in Japan! Yesterday the electric power was cut to our place for several hours and today we have lost our water supply (the water pump for the apartment broke). But Satomi, the kids and I are doing well and it is quite an adventure learning this new culture.

For now let me post a few pictures of the inside of our new apartment. Here is the kid's room, the kitchen, the living room, and the dining room.

And here is a picture of me trying to figure out what people are saying in the Tagalog language!

Yesterday, God provided about one third of what we...

2004-05-09T00:10:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, God provided about one third of what we need to move into our apartment in Manila through a special financial gift from someone who is already supporting us monthly. We are continuing to receive money unexpectedly almost daily since we decided for sure that we would go. A few weeks back we needed $800 per month more of committed monthly support and that has almost entirely come in. We also need about $7000 in one-time expenses for the year and we have received over $2000 of this in just the last three weeks! Satomi says "God has given us wings to fly", and this is literally true. We bought our plane tickets this week and now he is giving us a place to land because we have a good chunk of the deposits we need to move into our apartment.

Today, Satomi's mom took us to visit her brother whom she has been praying for diligently. He has Parkenson's Disease and sometimes stays at a medical center when his wife is working. He is a retired architect and his mind is still very sharp but he has been quite depressed lately. By the Grace of God I was able to pray with him to become a Christian today! Please pray for Satomi's uncle - Mitsugi Sakakibara. I am also praying that he will be healed and that he will be able to share his new faith with his wife.

Last week was pretty much a blur of activity as we...

2004-05-06T14:38:00.000+09:00

Last week was pretty much a blur of activity as we had to pack up all of our stuff in boxes and move it to Pastor Scott's attic. James was a great help with carrying the heavy loads. We finished moving everything by Thursday pm and then I attended the Men's Victory Weekend on Friday and Saturday.

Thank you for praying for that event. It was a powerful two days of breakthrough for the 20+ men who attended. We confessed, and prayed, and cut off generational curses and roots of bitterness that had held us back in the Lord. I realized that I had tried to take back control of my life and was not resting in the Holy Spirit as I should. I have repented of that pride and yielded completely to Jesus once again. Lord, help me obey You completely. I also finished reading a book called the Heavenly Man last week. In fact I am reading it again out loud to my family one chapter each morning during our devotions. This book really inspired me to obey and trust in Jesus 100%.

On Sunday we packed everything in the car and went to church in Yokohama, then after lunch we headed straight to Nagoya. It is Golden Week holiday season in Japan this week so the trip took about 6 hours instead of the usual 5 because of heavy traffic on the expressway. We arrived at Satomi's parent's house in Taketoyo at about 9:00pm.

The kids always love coming here because Grandpa and Grandma Yamada are such interesting and friendly people. Yesterday James and Grandpa Yamada went to teach a class of kids on how to make "taketombo" or toy helicopters (literally: bamboo dragonfly) in the traditional Japanese manner. Over 30 students learned how to carve the bamboo with a sharp knife while James and Grandpa Yamada demonstrated. This is the sixth year that Satomi's dad has volunteered to teach this class and this year the local T.V. station even showed up to film the event.

Satomi and I spent several hours yesterday with some friends of ours. Pastor Hino and his wife came from Nagoya to see us and tell us about his new church building. They will break ground at the end of this month assuming all the city approvals come in. He was my very first Japanese teacher when I moved to Japan 11 years ago. At that time I helped he and Pastor Archie Alderson start a church called "Hope Chapel" in a rented room in Nagoya by passing out fliers and leading songs, etc. Pastor Archie retired from the mission field a few years ago but Hino-sensei has continued to minister, sometimes in a rented room and sometimes in his home. It is very exciting to see that they are ready to build their first building - please pray for this church and the leaders there. Hino-sensei shared with me that his group is praying to get back to it's roots of evangelism and they are focusing on the youth to stir up the fire in them to desire to plant churches from town to town here in Japan. It is a new season here and all of the church groups are starting to sense it - we must look to the harvest!

Today we paid the remainder of our plane tickets to Manila. God is continuing to provide all our finances. It is a great feeling to know that we are doing what the Holy Spirit has called us to do. We are all excited about going to Manila on the 18th.

It truly is a new season in Japan! Every service ...

2004-04-28T16:53:00.000+09:00

It truly is a new season in Japan! Every service someone is getting saved. Today (Wednesday) the father of one of our youth came to church and heard Pastor Kawamata preach. After the message he came and asked Pastor Kawamata if he could attend the afternoon "foundation class" which is a class that new believers go through. Pastor K. asked him to go through the One2One book with him first. This is a book we have translated into Japanese which teaches what the bible says about 12 foundational areas of life. The first chapter is titled "Salvation" and teaches that we must be saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. After reading the scriptures together, Pastor Kawamata asked this man whether he believed and wanted to be saved and he said "yes". So they prayed together for salvation. Later Satomi and I talked with him and prayed with him some more.

It is amazing how when one youth gets saved it opens the door to the entire family. This man's daughter has been part of this youth group for some time and her father must have been affected by the change in her life. I am praying that the entire extended family will come to know Jesus as Lord.

Here is a picture of Nao and her brother Kazuyoshi. He just got baptized last month. Nao got saved a couple of years ago and started praying for her family. In the last year Nao's mother, brother and father all got saved and last Sunday her grandmother got saved too!

Please pray for our church this weekend. On Friday and Saturday we are going to have a Men's Victory Weekend. Over 20 men who are leaders in the church are going to gather to pray through different issues that may be holding them back like unforgiveness, sexual sin, etc. We want to implement this in the church on a regular basis so that eventually everyone who becomes a Christian will go through this soon after being baptized. First the leaders will do it and next time they will pray for those under them and so on. Please pray that the Presence of the Holy Spirit will truly give everyone who participates this weekend victory.

It is truly a spiritual war in Japan. People are ...

2004-04-28T17:15:00.000+09:00

It is truly a spiritual war in Japan. People are starting to get saved regularly and the devil is frightened. I just talked with one of the youth today. She goes to an international school here in Yokohama. Yesterday an 11th grader there commited suicide (hung himself) in the school. He was found by a teacher this morning and the students are in shock.

I'm angry that the devil stole this precious young life but I know that God is going to turn this situation around and cause many of these students to turn to Him. Please pray that the Christian youth at that school can be a light of hope there during this dark time.

Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world and there are many youth living in hopelessness and despair, but we have a message of hope for them. The devil's days here are numbered and he know it! Please pray that the youth will be inspired by this tragedy to lift the banner of Christ even higher in the schools!

We have decided that we are definitely going to Ma...

2004-04-21T16:23:00.000+09:00

We have decided that we are definitely going to Manila for 10 months! The Lord is providing miraculously and we have enough to buy our plane tickets and about 90% of our monthly budget commited. Please pray that the money for the deposit on our apartment will come soon.

The biggest problem we have is that we are so busy it is hard to get ready to go! This is a good problem to have because there are many great things going on - but we appreciate your prayers that we will have time to do everything we need to do to prepare. Visas, dentist appts, I have a surgery on my ear scheduled for April 26th to remove a small benign tumor, I need to renew my driver license, pack and ship some things ahead of us, etc, etc, etc. We have a looooong list of things to accomplish this month.

We also need to move out of the house that we have been living in by the end of the month. We plan to visit Satomi's parents in Nagoya and then the Sagers in Shizuoka before we leave.

This week Sam & Nancy Webb came to Japan along with Nancy Ho to minister at our MSI-Japan pastors conference. They are also travelling around to many of the churches in the next couple of weeks to preach and encourage the people around Japan. Here is a picture taken last Monday of some Pastors and Missionaries who came to Yokohama to hear the Webbs.

On Wednesday, Nancy and Millie spoke during our morning service. We had a good turnout for a midweek service. About 75 ladies came to hear the message and I saw some new faces in the crowd. Afterwards, "Auntie Millie" Ho taught some of the ladies how to hula dance. Here are some pictures from Wednesday.

Satomi led worship, I played guitar and James (not in picture) played drums:

Lots of ladies showed up Wednesday to hear Nancy and Millie preach the Gospel:

Nancy Webb Preaching:

And here is Millie Ho teaching hula after lunch

Here is a picture Pastor Glen Nabarrete sent me fr...

2004-04-13T23:29:00.000+09:00

Here is a picture Pastor Glen Nabarrete sent me from a recent "convergence" meeting in the Philippines

On this day the MSI churches in Manila held a joint celebration service outdoors inviting all the members from the 40 or so congregations around the city. More than 10,000 people showed up at this meeting. I am excited to be going and working with these great churches which are currently experiencing revival in terms of both numbers of people getting saved and also in the affect they are having on this generation and the nation they live in.

Both Satomi and I are believing that we are going to receieve an impartation of the radical passionate spirit that is in the churches and leaders in Manila and bring it back to Japan with us.

Here is another picture he sent from that meeting. They used huge screens so the entire crowd could see and hear the speakers and leaders on the platform. The meeting lasted from morning and into the night.

We are making good progress toward our financial goals for living in Manila. As of today we are very close (more than 90%) to our goal for a monthly budget. Please pray with us that the Lord will also provide the finances we need to pay for our plane tickets, tuitions, deposits on our new apartment, visa fees, etc. Through your prayers and support we are almost there! Thank you!

We had a great weekend. On Friday our friends and...

2004-04-12T12:34:00.000+09:00

We had a great weekend. On Friday our friends and ministry partners Ron and Lisa Wetter from San Jose took us out to eat "shabu-shabu". This is a great Japanese dish of meat and vegetables which are served sliced raw on a plate which you dip into a pot of boiling water in the center of the table and then into various sauces before eating. It was all-you-can eat and I ate too much!

Saturday was mtg day, with a men's mtg in the morning and an elder's mtg in the afternoon. I also finally got a great anti-virus program running on the church email server (clamav running on our hosted BSD server at pair.com) which has virtually eliminated all virus attachments to email sent to ygbc.org email accounts!

On Sunday we had an awesome Easter service (pictures to follow). The building was packed out and my Japanese friend Shigenari Abe visited church for the second time with his wife and boy. We took them out to eat lunch and then came back to church for an easter egg hunt in the afternoon. Please pray that they will keep coming back and become believers. There was also a baptism service in the afternoon and three more new believers were baptised! The Japanese man who ran forward to become a Christian last week has now returned to his job in New York city, but I heard that he was also baptised this week in the Morning Star Church in Times Square.

Please continue to pray for us as we prepare to move to Manila next month. I received word from the landlord over there that we can move into our new apartment for only 2 months deposit plus one month's rent in advance. We have almost enough to live in Manila comfortably now but we are still praying for the intial moving expenses, plane tickets, visas, and school tuitions.

It's picture time! Here is a picture from the Lad...

2004-04-09T15:22:00.000+09:00

It's picture time!
Here is a picture from the Lady's Encounter Weekend that Satomi preached at last weekend

Here are some of our crazy youth - Satomi, James, Alishea and I are all in this picture. Are you ready to play "Where's Waldo"?

I led worship and Tomi played piano during the Wed...

2004-04-08T10:09:00.000+09:00

I led worship and Tomi played piano during the Wed service yesterday. I invited an old friend I used to work with at Macnica to bring his wife and kid to church on Easter Sunday but haven't got a response. If he doesn't want to go to church I will just have lunch with him. Pastor Scott said that after church last Sunday one man *ran* up to him and said "I want to get saved!". I'm praying to see this more and more here in Japan. Up till now, I haven't seen it much! We are having a baptism next Sunday (Easter) and he will be baptised along with a couple of other new Christians.

I got an email yesterday from one of the leaders who's dad has been in the hospital in critical condition. He asked me last Wed. to pray for his dad to be healed because the doctors were telling him if he didn't put his dad on a repirator machine he would probably die soon. Basically they were telling him if he did, his dad might live a little longer but wouldn't be able to talk or eat becasue of the tubes, etc. Well, instead this man prayed and asked the Lord to heal his dad. Yesterday, his health suddenly improved - it is a miracle.

The Ladies Encounter Weekend went very well on Friday/Saturday. Satomi preached one session and participated in praying for and counseling two of the ladies. We are now planning the first Men's Encounter Weekend, scheduled for May 1st. Please pray for breakthroughs in the spiritual lives of all participants. I will put some pictures of the ladies mtg soon.