Hello again from Tokyo! We missed writing you the last couple of months. Other than a short bout with influenza in February, we are all doing well. In March, we had another worship and fellowship time in our home, and also started a youth night event with some good friends, which will continue every month. Then Manon and I took a two-week trip to America while Kumi and the boys held down the fort at home. It was a wonderful trip beginning to end, I felt that the Lord directed each step. We had time with my parents and sister, visited dear friends and ministered in their church in Colorado. I also attended a men’s retreat at A Place for the Heart, located in North Carolina . My heart was deeply refreshed and encouraged at the retreat through the worship, the beauty of nature that surrounded us, and the many significant conversations with others. But it was especially seeing how discipleship and community were modeled by the Helsers and the Cageless Birds team that was most inspiring. I felt it was confirmation for what we are pressing into here in Tokyo. In our last newsletter, Kumi shared some of the questions we have been asking regarding building community and relationships where we go deep with God and deep with one another, and establishing rhythms of life and ministry (prayer, discipleship, and evangelism) that are life-giving and sustainable. Building with these values flies in the face of the busy pace of life and society here in Tokyo, where so many people are living simply trying to survive the pressure of it all, and are out of touch with their own heart. But God is showing us more and more what the context needs to look and feel like. Building in the context of relationship isn’t something you can rush—it takes time. Yet we know God is working and believe he has prepared us for what he wants to establish.
-Jeremy