Apples & Oranges?

Comparing ministry in Japan with ministry in the U.S. really is like comparing apples and oranges. In our latest prayer letter (Aug. 2010) we asked ourselves some tough questions about the number of people saved in the last year and the number of people who attend meetings. Hopefully, most readers will realize that things really are different here than in North America. From experience, however, we know that some do not.

Feedback Request Result(s)

Only one person responded to our feedback request (below). Though we are, of course, thankful for this good friend's response, it's rather obvious that blogs, or at least this particular blog, is not of much use in passing along vital information to supporters and friends. Perhaps that is mostly our fault, in not keeping the blog more up-to-date and interesting. At any rate we hope to put out a regular prayer letter soon. Thanks for your patience and prayers.

Feedback Request

Are you reading this? Keeping folks up to date on happening here in Japan is important and various tools are available for doing so, this blog, Facebook, e-mail, Skype phone calls and chat, and ordinary "snail-mail" news letters. Please help us evaluate our efforts and this blog with some feedback. Thanks, Jon

Amy Starts Senior Year

In April Amy began her senior year at Chiba University in the Tokyo area and this week she began three weeks of student teaching at a nearby kindergarten. In addition she recently started working on her senior research project in which she will compare kindergartens and preschools in Japan with those in the U.S.

Amy's church experience during her years in Chiba / Tokyo has been wonderful for her and she hopes to serve the Lord like her parents. So recently we have been checking out Bible schools and seminaries for her. The master of arts program in biblical studies at Calvary Bible College and Theological Seminary in Kansas City is one possibility and Word of Life Bible Institute (in Ontario, Canada) is another possibility for her first year. She may need to improve her English some before going to seminary.

Amy has worked hard at both her studies and her part-time job as a waitress all through college. This has been a big help to us financially, though having two girls in school now and probably for at least a few more years is still a great strain. So please pray for the Lord's guidance in Amy's life and for the sale of our house in E. Machias, Maine.

Yumi Starts Second Year

In April Yumi began her second year (second of six+ years) at the Toyama University medical school. Last weekend I glanced through her anatomy text. Wow, what a lot there is to memorize, in both English and Japanese! Also, apparently this year they will begin putting their knowledge of anatomy to work on real (if not living) human bodies; no more mere animals. I'm glad it's her and not me!

There is a karate (Korean style) club at her school; so Yumi gets to "kick off" some stress that way once or twice a week. She has always been good at sports; so I'm glad I'm not on the receiving end.

She attends a good church near the school and gets home on weekends about once a month. We have ministered in that church often in the past. The med. school is only about an hour and a half drive from our home, but her studies keep her too busy to get home more often.

April Fool & May Day

April fool? No, I don't have a "tall tale" to tell and it's almost May Day instead of April Fool's Day. Even so, April 2010 was interesting to say the least. From the final week of March until yesterday we had a Japanese guest for an entire month, a professing Christian that I (Jon) have know for about 32 years. He came, much like once before, about six years ago, suicidal, broke, and on the run from his company to whom he owed several thousand dollars. I spend many hours counseling him, helping clear up things with his company, taking him to the employment office to look for a new job, and (best of all, perhaps) taking him to a good church and for additional counseling with a Japanese pastor to look for a new life.

There were various blessings in this, especially in the times spent in the Word and at church. A new "relational" Bible study / biblical counseling method was even discovered as I used the Book of Philemon in one of our best sessions together. (I'll undoubtedly share more on this later.) And as the month came to an end I drove Mr. Y and his things back "home" in southern Japan (11 hours each way by "interstate") so that he can look for a job there and hopefully renew fellowship with missionaries and a church in that area.

So why did I title this article "April Fool"? Wasn't April a wonderful month of ministry in every way? Wasn't Mr. Y's extended visit like a robin on the lawn announcing the coming of spring? No, sadly it and he were not! April 2010 was a tremendous struggle, exhausting and exasperating, promising occasionally and discouraging often. Much counsel and practical help was given. But the bottom line (as of yesterday) is that Mr. Y. left far more critical and bitter about the additional practical (financial) help that he wanted and we were not able to give, than thankful for the practical and spiritual help that we, along with others, were able to give. (He did not leave penny-less!)

Were we April fools for trying to help (by God's grace) change Mr. Y's destructive and long-standing lifestyle or is he, himself, still sadly an April fool as we enter the month of May? Humanly, speaking, it appears (so far) that both we and he were and are April fools. Even so, to echo a famous missionary line from the 1950's, my main thought is that "He is no fool who gives to God what he can not keep (his April or whatever month you may name) in order to keep that which he can not loose (God's grace and blessing: present and future)."

April may be ending on this gloomy note with us still as "fools," but God knows and (best of all) He's still at work. Hey, isn't that what May Day is all about? You thought it was a worker's holiday? No, May Day is really another day (and another month!) for God to work! And we know He will.

Well-Believed & Well-Received

Last Sunday, Feb. 14th (am & pm), I filled in at the Kanazawa Bible Baptist Church; the pastor, Pastor S., is in the hospital, but is expected home this week. This church is not one where I speak regularly, it being part of a "different" group of churches (Japan, BBF). Even so, it was a great time of fellowship around the Word, as I spoke on Ruth chapter four in the morning meeting.

Did you ever notice in Ruth 4:17 that Boaz and Ruth's son, Obed, is the only child in the Bible named by neighbors rather than by parents or relatives? This was undoubtedly an expression of the community's acceptance of both Ruth and her child, even though she at first was an outsider, as a convert from Moab. Earlier chapters clearly show that this acceptance was because of her "like precious faith," rather than because religious leaders in Bethlehem had in any way lowered their biblical standards. She was well-received because she well-believed. - So was I. Praise the Lord!

West Kanazawa Church News

Today, I was the speaker at our main church (shown here), where, on average, I speak about once a month, otherwise being in other area churches at least twice a month. We also had a great adult Sunday school class. (See the previous article.)

Last Sunday, the West Kanazawa church (membership about 35) voted to call a new pastor, who will be coming in April. Pastor K., with whom we have worked closely for about 12 years, will be retiring. We and the church will miss him and his wife greatly. But we are also thankful that the Lord has provided a new pastor for the church. There are very few pastors in Japan; so God's provision is in many ways an unexpected miracle. Most of the other churches where I speak do not have pastors. At the moment we do not expect these changes to affect our ministry in any negative way, but one never knows. Had the Lord not provided a new pastor for the church the opposite would likely have been the case. So we praise the Lord for his provision.

Our Special Adult Class

This photo of our adult S.S. class is unusual, because in Japan Sunday school is almost always for children only. Mr. Ishii, sitting next to me (Jon) leads the class two or three Sundays a month when I am speaking in other churches. We are creating new material, on the questions in John, every week.

Also, today, I got an email from a Japanese friend on the other side of Japan who said he had a great response when he began using our "In Quest" material and method in his adult class there last Sunday. So we pray that adult Sunday school classes like his and ours may grow and spread in Japan. There is a special need for such classes for men, since ladies meetings are often held at other times during the week but there is usually nothing for men to attend.

Our First Rejection Notice

In a close split decision our book on questions in John was reject on January 12th by the new products committee of AMG Publishers. (Most texts don't get this far along!) Apparently in the end the marketing people overruled others who really appreciated our work. (We, too, continue to appreciate the work of AMG Publishers.)

A publisher's rejection notice is like an obituary. All the praise in the world therein (and there always is some, of course) doesn't change the fact that you and your work are dead as far as that publication is concerned since they have concluded that the "living ink" does not flow.

Even so, work on this great Bible study text continues as zealously as ever. Today, I'm working in chapter 16 of John, in part for my adult Sunday school class tomorrow as well as for the book.

Physically our house is about "six feet under," under the snow, that is. But rumors of our demise and the end of this book project are not at all true. Spring shall come and the snow will melt; so, too, our temporary "burial" under the disappointment of this first rejection shall be undone, in the Lord's time and way. The work goes on! Praise the Lord!

John ch. 10 Sample Page

This page from our book on questions in John is page three of chapter ten and concerns the Good Shepherd. The top portion of the page is a dialogue or discussion and the bottom portion is an original diagram of the passage. Click on the page / photo to see it in full size print.

Snow out Front

Roof Top Snow

Taking care of the Nickerson's car while they are on "home assignment" in Canada is a lot more work this time of year. Here Mitsy is "brushing off" the car roof after four consecutive days of snow. Today the town warned residence to consider doing the same with the snow on the roof of their homes, as well.

Four Feet of Snow

It has been snowing all day and night for three days! So we now have over four feet of the pretty white stuff, including on the roof. So the building is much harder to see from the road and our cars are entirely hidden. Fortunately, the weather was OK when we were traveling for meetings on Tuesday (the 12th) and the weather is supposed to be OK again on Sunday. One of our cars (a Toyota) is also four wheel drive, which helps a lot this time of year. But, of course, it is the Lord who keeps us safe.

"Becoming Adult Day"

Today is national "Becoming Adult Day," a Japanese holiday for all those who turned 20 in the previous year. This time that included, our daughter, Yumi. So, according to tradition, she dressed in a kimono and attended the town sponsored meeting and small party. She had a good time seeing a lot of her former classmates for the first time in several years.

Another first today was Yumi driving back to college by herself. When our coworker, Tomi, left for the U.S. last year we obtained her car for Yumi to use. We have a lot of snow, as you can see out our living room window in this photo. So we do appreciate your prayers for safety of all of us this time of year.