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Ministry Highlights | Fall Update
Hello everyone!
I've been excited to send out this newsletter because I have so many things to share with you all! The past couple months have been filled with teams and visitors, events and lasts, goodbyes and good news.
It's been a time of transitions for our team. The Nakazawa family came back from America at the end of August. My teammate Michiyo also went to America for support raising for about a month and a half and returned in September. Then, after a very busy September, my teammates the Lee's went back to their home in Iowa for their home assignment. They'll be in America for about seven months. Later this month, my teammate Kevin and I will both be returning to the US as we go through the change of status process to come back long term. Before the Lee's left, the team got together and we had some memorable times of fellowship. I'm looking forward to coming back to Japan when we are all together again.
Even through all these transitions God has continued to encourage me and confirm my calling back to Japan. I've faced a lot of challenges the last year. I was sick on and off for months, I felt really discouraged at times, and had a lot of doubts. Finally I'm starting to feel more clarity and as I reflect on those times, I can see the lessons God was teaching me. He's taught me to rely on Him above my own strength and ability. He's shown me what to prioritize and what is uplifting to me. Most importantly though, he's given me a peace about the future that can only come from Him. With all the unknowns that I have coming up, that peace is incredibly valuable to me. And with it, I feel like I can finally move forward.
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Our last team picture (along with Dave Harder) before the Lee's, Kevin, and I go on home assignment.
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Prayer Requests:
- Pray for me to finish well: I only have a few more weeks here and I want to use them wisely. I still have a lot to do and prepare for leaving. Pray that I can say goodbye well, stay motivated to study Japanese, pack efficiently, and still get excited to come home! Pray for the plans I've started to make for when I'm in the states too.
- Pray for my church: Over the past nearly two years I've been able to be a part of an amazing community and although there have been difficult seasons, I'm going to miss my church. We've grown together, prayed for each other, provided for each other, and loved each other. I've been able to work a lot with the youth in my church too. So pray for them. Pray that the church can continue to grow and reach out to people. Pray also that the youth would see their need for Christ and fully surrender their lives to Him.
- Pray for my language learning: I finished up my class at the end of August and have been studying on my own since then. My class was great, but I need to create a good independent study routine that I can do while I'm back in the states. The more I learn now, the more it will help my ministry in the future. Pray that I can be diligent in my studies and integrate the Japanese that I learn into my ministry and be more effective because of it.
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The Next Steps | Back in America
The coming month is going to be really busy for me as I prepare to fly back to the states on the 22nd. I'm looking forward to resting after I get home for about two weeks and then I'll fly out to Minneapolis for my final interviews and some time of debrief. I'll find out the next week whether I've received my final offer of employment with my organization.
Later in November and December I'll start giving updates on my time in Japan at churches around central Vermont. I'm excited to see many of you during that time! As long as I get reaccepted I'l be raising support again too. From there I'll start branching out and traveling more in 2020. My goal is to return to Japan by Fall of next year.
For those of you who financially support me now, I'd ask that you please continue to support me at least through the next month when I arrive back in the US. After that, I would appreciate your continued support as I transition into long term missions work, but I understand that I asked you to originally commit to two years so don't feel obligated to continue if you don't feel led to. Please let me know of your decision either way.
If you currently don't support me financially but would like to know more about what this means, then let me know and we can talk when I get back!
Below is a rough schedule for the next few months. I'll give more details as the days get closer if you'd like to come hear me speak at one of the churches.
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Schedule for the coming months:
October 22nd - I fly back to the States
November 6-8th - Interviews in Minneapolis
November 17th - Speaking at Barre Evangelical Free Church
November 24th - Speaking at Crossroads Christian Church
December 8th - Speaking at East Barre Congregational Church
If you'd like me to come speak at your church or small group then please let me know! You can email me at adam.bailey@efca.org.
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Challenge Team | Youth Ministry
Every other year the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA), hosts a youth conference called Challenge. It's a time for youth from all over the country to come and worship together, hear great teaching, grow in their relationship with Christ, and serve in the community. At each conference they also feature a different city where the EFCA has missionaries. In 2020, Challenge will feature Tokyo and my team.
To prepare for the conference, a team came to Tokyo during the first week of September to hear about what we do, do research into the culture of Tokyo and Japan, and start collaborating with churches and ministries here.
I got to spend a lot of time with the team and lead them around different areas of Tokyo to try to give them more insight into the city. It was encouraging for me to be with them because it helped renewed my vision for Tokyo and it also got me excited about the conference. The purpose of featuring Tokyo is to mobilize youth to pray for the Japanese people and missions work in the city, and hopefully to encourage some of them to think about becoming missionaries themselves. Mobilizing people to pray and consider missions is something that I really love.
During my time in Japan I've worked a lot with the youth in my church and other young people at the local university. I've grown to love working with youth, but I've also seen how important this time is in their lives. When I was in high school I went on my first missions trip and that experience was one of the first steps of the journey God was leading me on that would eventually lead me to becoming a missionary to Japan. Other youth that I do ministry with are struggling with life or with what their future will look like. How much better off would they be if they had Jesus? If they had Christian communities to come alongside them? If they knew that God had a plan for them and loved them?
I'm excited about Challenge because it helps equip youth with tools to face the challenges they'll encounter. It gives them encouragement that if their God is for them, then who can stand against them? And that's exactly what we need in America right now. That's what we need in Japan right now.
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This video gives an overview of the Challenge Conference
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Kingdom Minded | EFCJ's 70th Anniversary
Earlier in September I attended the Evangelical Free Church of Japan’s 70th anniversary celebration. The EFCJ was started by missionaries from the Evangelical Free Church of America (my sending denomination) in 1949 so there is a long history between the two. That shared history was one of the highlights of the three-day conference during which the president of the EFCA, Kevin Kompelein, came to speak. I was encouraged by Kevin Kompelein’s vision to build unity and foster cooperation between the EFCA, the missionary team I am a part of, and the EFCJ through his interactions with Japanese pastors and leaders. Seeing him during the conference and spending time with him personally afterward really made me proud to be a part of the EFCA and proud to represent all of you here in Japan. Another exciting piece to come out of this conference is the opportunities to grow our relationship with the EFCJ and partner with them on things such as the EFCA’s Challenge Conference next July.
That vision of unity is something that I really appreciate about the EFCA because it's a reminder that even though we all come from different backgrounds and denominations, we all are working together for God to build the kingdom. The "free" part of Evangelical Free Church recognizes that we are all part of one body and means that I can work across denomination lines toward what really matters. In my case that means partnering with different people and churches from multiple denominations to reach out to the unreached people of Japan. Without that cooperation, none of this would be possible!
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All the EFCA representatives at the EFCJ 70th Anniversary Celebration.
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Thanks for reading my newsletter!
 The time here really has flown by. As my departure gets closer I get more excited to be home and more sad to leave. I will really miss Japan, but I'm glad that I get to go back to the states and see you all. I'm sure my time back in America will go by quickly as well.
I say this a lot but I just want to thank you again for your prayers and support over the last few years. I'm here because of you and it's been a huge blessing. I can't wait to see how God continues to work through our partnership to reach the people of Japan.
In Christ,
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