Dear Friends,
We rejoice in what the Lord did today (Thursday, July 23) at Yamamoto
Nozomi Church. We witnessed the fruits of our Saturday English classes
for children, together with those flowing from our semi-weekly Kids'
time -- 2 hours in the afternoon Tuesdays and Fridays. Both activities
have seen improving attendance since late last year.
Every summer, we have held a one day Vacation Bible School. We really
missed the help of volunteer teams from abroad from this year! Today,
18 children joined-- roughly half from each group plus some other
neighborhood kids. Nine mothers also came, sitting with their kids,
through the activities. VBS ran from 9 am to 2 pm, though many of the
kids hung around to play afterward. We were very thankful for the
beautiful weather God gave us during rainy season!
Our schedule included singing "Jesus Loves Me" in both languages, a
craft related to the song, games -- indoor and out, bento (box lunches),
and, of course, two 20 minute Bible messages on the theme, "Who is
Jesus?": (1) Jesus is the eternal Son of God who became man; (2) Jesus
is the Savior who saves us from our sin. The younger kids memorized a
slightly abridged form of Matthew 17:5, while those age 6 and over
similarly memorized a slightly abridged version of Matthew 27:54. All
went home with gifts, generously donated by Elder Ishikawa who continues
to minister to refugees from areas near the damaged nuclear reactors in
Fukushima.
Please pray for these children and the moms; to our knowledge none is a
Christian. Pray the word planted today would find 'good soil' in the
hearts of these 27 attendees.
Thank you for praying for the Kingdom of Christ to come in Japan,
Woody and Laurie Lauer
