|
Spring Update
May 2023
It's currently Golden Week here in Japan which is a series of holidays that are lined up to give most people the week off. I've been enjoying the break from my language class to rest more and catch up on a few things like sending out this newsletter! It's been a busy couple months.
At the end of February, I attended our Asia Division Conference which is a gathering of all of ReachGlobal's missionaries in Asia. We got together in Thailand for a week of good fellowship, good teaching, and good food. I really loved seeing other missionaries and ReachGlobal staff who I've become friends with over the years. The weather was great too and being by the ocean was a big plus for me.
One of the highlights for me was getting to lead the Men's Gathering time where we had about fifty guys. The main event was an Asia Themed Trivia game in which the teams had to pick the correct Asian countries from just the outline of their borders, answer some trivia about Christianity in Asia, convert Asian currencies into USD, guess the right answer to some interesting facts, and draw some Asian mythological creatures from just the name. It was a ton of fun! From what others told me it seemed to go over pretty well too.
A few weeks after the conference, my teammate Kevin got married to Jane who was a missionary working with Cru here in Tokyo. They just went back to the States at the end of April and plan to return to work with our team next January. Their wedding was beautiful and it has been such a blessing to be friends with both of them, but I am sad for them to be gone for so long. You can be praying for their time back in America and their first year in marriage.
Around the week after the wedding the cherry blossoms began blooming in Tokyo which were beautiful as always. When they arrive they signal the coming of warmer weather and everyone begins perking up a little more. I spent a day walking around the city taking pictures of all the cherry blossom trees and it was really relaxing.
In April we gathered our three churches and had our Easter celebration service which went well and then the next day I had my church over at my apartment for an Easter themed game. I enjoyed hosting and hope to do it more in the future.
I had my intensive class in April as well and it felt like I had a lot of homework for it. The material is continuing to get more complicated, but I'm feeling more confident in my Japanese ability.
From Monday I'll be starting class again. This month will also involve a lot of planning for the Apex trip that I am helping co-host this summer. It's exciting that it's almost here. This summer will definitely be pretty full though.
|
|
|
|
This is me giving some instructions during one of the games I led at the Mens Gathering time for the Asia Division Conference.
|
|
Church Updates
Things have been going well for my church recently. While we are sad to see Kevin and Jane go for the next eight months, we've had a lot of visitors and some new people join. A couple times we've had up to 15 people try to fit in my teammate's Michiyo or Melanie's apartment. It can be difficult to host so many people in such a small space, but it's not a bad problem to have. It's exciting to see the church grow.
We also have a new Japanese believer who just joined our church. Michiyo has been reaching out to her for a while and she just accepted Christ the night before Easter. She ended up coming to my apartment for our Easter gathering and she shared her testimony. Her and another newer believer from my church are hoping to get baptized in June!
Even though I often come to church pretty exhausted from a long week of Japanese classes, I'm still really enjoying my time with the church. They are a big encouragement to me!
|
|
|
|
The Yamabukicho Small Church gathering at my apartment for Easter.
|
|
Friends Visiting
We had a few friends of the Tokyo team visit in the last couple months. From the end of February to mid April Howard and Marilynn Plucar were in Tokyo. They used to be missionaries in Japan and then more recently our team's pastors to missionaries and did (and still do) an awesome job really caring for all of us. Now that they've retired, they are considering what to do and if they want to join our team. Their trip was to explore what that would look like and it was really great to have them with us!
We also got to see Bryce and Anna Landenberger while they were in Japan visiting their daughter. Bryce and Anna organize a ministry of praying for our team and other Japan missionaries every week. I'm really grateful for their constant prayer!
I don't have a picture with them, but Lisa Siu and her family came to Japan recently as well! Lisa was my trip leader when I first came to Japan on an Apex trip in 2016. I hadn't seen her since last time she was in Japan in 2019. I'm excited to be carry on what she started and co-lead the Apex team that we have coming this summer.
|
|
Japanese Learning
After my break in February and March, I am back in my intensive class and it continues to go well. I have felt like I've been progressing with each new class, but this past month it finally feels like I can start to have more interesting conversations with people which is encouraging. There's only so much talking you can do about what you like or don't like or where you went over the weekend before it starts to get repetitive.
Starting in April I had new classmates so it's been fun getting to know them. One of them is a missionary with SEND, another organization here in Japan. None of the others are believers, but we've had a few conversations about what I and my other missionary classmate believe and do here. I will have class again with many of them this coming month so I am hoping to continue to build friendships and maybe have an opportunity to share the gospel.
I ran into Mimi the other day and she seemed to be doing well, but I otherwise haven't seen my previous classmates that I shared the gospel with much. You can continue praying for them. I'm not sure if their interest is fading or if it's just that we haven't been able to meet to talk more.
|
|
I recently got lunch with a few of my classmates from April at another of our classmate's workplace. She works at Google so she gave us a tour and then we all ate in the Google cafeteria which was really good! The view was also really cool. The Google offices we went to were just built a few years ago.
|
|
|
Apex 2023
Besides taking Japanese classes, probably the biggest ministry thing I'll be working on is hosting an Apex team this summer. Apex is a program through ReachGlobal that organizes short term missions trips for college age students that go to locations all over the world. This year we will be hosting a team of six students in Tokyo. My teammate Kim and I have been preparing for the team to come for a while now, but there is still much work to do since they are arriving next month!
Our goal is to give the students an understanding of what life and ministry looks like in Japan. We want to get them connected with our ministries and help them to grow in their faith. While it seems like a lot of work to do everything to host an Apex team, I think it is worth it not just for the connections they might make to benefit our ongoing ministries, but also because by equipping and training the students, we are mobilizing them to be future prayer warriors, future people who send missionaries, or possibly future missionaries to Japan. The Tokyo Team has had many of our members come from Apex, myself included.
I'm looking forward to sharing with you about how God uses this Apex team for His ministry here in Tokyo so stay tuned for more in the months to come!
|
|
Prayer Requests
- Pray for the Apex team. Pray for all the planning and details that still needs to go into hosting the team this summer. Pray that God would prepare the hearts of the students to be open to what He has to teach them and how He wants to work through them during their time here. Pray as well for the ministries they will be a part of and the people they reach out to that even though they don't speak Japanese, they would still be able to make an impact.
- Pray for my Japanese study. I have one more month of intensive classes before the Apex team arrives and I will have to cut down on my classes to work with them. Pray for a good month and pray that even when I am not in class I will be able to study effectively. In all the busyness, please pray for balance and enough rest to keep me going through my studies.
- Pray for my classmates. Please continue praying for my classmates from before who heard the gospel as well as my newer classmates. Pray that I can continue getting to know them and have more opportunities to share the gospel.
|
|
|
|
If you'd like to give, please click on the link below!
|
|
Thanks for reading!
I appreciate you all! As always, feel free to email me at adam.bailey@efca.org or text or call me at 802-505-7676. You can also go to my website at adamintokyo.com. Thanks! - Adam Bailey
|
|
|
|
|
