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Easter Update
April 2024
Christ is Risen!
キリストがよみがえられました！
Happy Easter! It was raining almost all last week and then suddenly on Sunday the weather was perfectly sunny and the warmest day we've had in a while. I think it was really fitting! We had such a great service outside at Koganei Park. We sang worship, listened to an Easter message, ate lunch together, and enjoyed a lot of great fellowship. The four small churches in our network gathered with a lot of new people too. I think we had over 50 people which is the most for any of our celebration services!
One of the new people that came was a Japanese guy named Yutaro who I actually met last summer when we had the Apex team. It was great to reconnect with him. He's not a Christian yet, but is very interested in studying the Bible more. I invited him to join my church and he said he wants to come!
With church, I've actually been really encouraged lately as I've been able to understand and even participate a lot more in Japanese. I started a new month of Japanese class today (4/1), and I can see how much I am improving. As I learn more and am able to interact more in Japanese both in church and in my daily life, I am excited to see how God uses it for my ministry.
I plan on taking intensive Japanese classes for the next two months at my same language school, but after that I am exploring options to switch to a more speaking intensive school or possibly private lessons because I feel like my progress is going well, but I want to be able to speak better and know especially some of the Christian vocabulary that will help me share the Gospel. My goal is to finish up full-time language learning and hopefully move into more ministry by the end of the year.
Last month though I did have a break from my Japanese classes because of a scheduling issue with my school. But, I was really glad for the time off because it allowed me to be a part of some things I usually can't. One thing I was excited to join again was our weekly prayer ministry, Pray Yamanote. It was great to spend the time praying for Tokyo and something new that they've started is that we will get off the Yamanote train line at one of the stops, we will pray for the area, and then we will hand out gospel tracts in Japanese. It was a little nerve-racking at first, but I ended up enjoying it.
On one of the days I joined, I shared a devotion from Luke 15:11-24 about the parable of the prodigal son and I felt like God led me to that passage because of the image of the son who went away to spend all his wealth and time and dignity to search for some kind of meaning only to come back after finding nothing and be embraced by his loving father. So many people here in Japan are chasing meaning in their work or success or so many other things, but if they could just see how much the Father loves them and the hope found in Him, they could be reconciled and find salvation and meaning. That is my prayer and the reason I am here.
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Our PrayYamanote group at Okachimachi Station before we handed out tracts
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Prayer Requests
- Pray for my Japanese learning. I just started another month of class today. I have eight people in my class which is pretty rare to have so many. I like the smaller classes because I get to participate more. Pray though for my relationships with my classmates and teachers and that I can be a good witness to them. Please pray that I can learn well and absorb all the content we are studying.
- Pray for my church. There are some transitions coming up in my church in the coming months as some of my teammates are going on home assignment and Kevin and Jane who are helping lead are also having a baby in June. So, pray for us as we navigate through those changes. Pray that I would be able to help more even while I am in language school and am more limited in my Japanese ability, but pray that this opportunity could help me Japanese as well. Also pray that others in my church would step up too.
- Pray for the Gospel in Japan. Please be praying with me that God would open the hearts of the Japanese people to hear the Gospel. Whether that's through a tract handed to them, or from visiting a church, or just from having a Christian friend who tells them about their faith. And, pray for me too that I could deepen my relationships here with people like Yutaro and that I could be bold in sharing the Gospel with them.
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If you'd like to give, please click on the link below!
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Thanks for reading!
I appreciate you all! As always, feel free to email me at adam.bailey@efca.org or text me at 802-505-7676. You can also go to my website at adamintokyo.com. Thanks! - Adam Bailey
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