Dear Praying Friends
Recently we had an encouraging email. When we were in Tokyo about 10 years ago Ryoko attended church. She didn't believe and after a while left in a huff. But she has now become a believer and as part of her baptismal preparation wrote to apologise. Praise the Lord. Also, that church is now independent with a delightful Japanese pastor.
It is a little daunting to think of returning to Sendai, Japan on 26th Feb. 1) We will be back in ministry immediately and inevitably have missed out on events in people's lives and they will have moved on. And we need to have a smooth handover with Joel who has been pastoring in our absence. We have had a very varied home assignment in UK and RSA but however busy we've been, we have not had to lead a church, which has made it like a holiday. This will all change in 6 weeks. 2) We need to lead the church forward to independence. This in itself sounds like a contradiction. To push, train and delegate the members into taking leading roles while still being responsible expresses it more clearly. Maintaining the status quo will just make them dependent on us. Also the church needs to grow in size. 3) Everything will be in Japanese, and despite one's best efforts to study we have got a bit rusty, as neither of us are especially gifted at the language.
Our goal is for the church to be independent, fruitful and strong, please pray for the Holy Spirit to work through us to attain this.
Thank you for your prayers! We have had a great family holiday with Esther, Andrew and Christine. We are now staying in Simon's Town, hopefully until we leave. Esther needs a furnished flat to rent in Muizenberg until July. Christine arrived safely from India despite being involved in a car accident in Mumbai and being the last to board her flight there. She starts the return journey on 24th Jan. Please pray for it to go smoothly and safely.
Ministry until we leave looks like this:
16th Jan Sun am St Peters Fish Hoek CESA
30th Jan Sun am Bellville Emmanuel CESA
5th Feb Sat Leave for Jo'burg
6th Feb Sun Horison, Krugersdorp CESA
13th Feb Sun Blairgowrie CESA
14th Feb Mon Return from Jo'burg
16th Feb Wed St James Kenilworth CESA
18th Feb Fri Meadowridge OMF prayer group
24th Feb Thu Leave Cape Town for Japan
26th Feb Sat Arrive Japan
"We rejoice and delight in you" (Songs 1:4). May we and you all rejoice and delight in our Saviour, Jesus Christ, and then this 2011 will be blessed no matter how God orders our outward circumstances.
love from Rod and Glenda
Recently we had an encouraging email. When we were in Tokyo about 10 years ago Ryoko attended church. She didn't believe and after a while left in a huff. But she has now become a believer and as part of her baptismal preparation wrote to apologise. Praise the Lord. Also, that church is now independent with a delightful Japanese pastor.
It is a little daunting to think of returning to Sendai, Japan on 26th Feb. 1) We will be back in ministry immediately and inevitably have missed out on events in people's lives and they will have moved on. And we need to have a smooth handover with Joel who has been pastoring in our absence. We have had a very varied home assignment in UK and RSA but however busy we've been, we have not had to lead a church, which has made it like a holiday. This will all change in 6 weeks. 2) We need to lead the church forward to independence. This in itself sounds like a contradiction. To push, train and delegate the members into taking leading roles while still being responsible expresses it more clearly. Maintaining the status quo will just make them dependent on us. Also the church needs to grow in size. 3) Everything will be in Japanese, and despite one's best efforts to study we have got a bit rusty, as neither of us are especially gifted at the language.
Our goal is for the church to be independent, fruitful and strong, please pray for the Holy Spirit to work through us to attain this.
Thank you for your prayers! We have had a great family holiday with Esther, Andrew and Christine. We are now staying in Simon's Town, hopefully until we leave. Esther needs a furnished flat to rent in Muizenberg until July. Christine arrived safely from India despite being involved in a car accident in Mumbai and being the last to board her flight there. She starts the return journey on 24th Jan. Please pray for it to go smoothly and safely.
Ministry until we leave looks like this:
16th Jan Sun am St Peters Fish Hoek CESA
30th Jan Sun am Bellville Emmanuel CESA
5th Feb Sat Leave for Jo'burg
6th Feb Sun Horison, Krugersdorp CESA
13th Feb Sun Blairgowrie CESA
14th Feb Mon Return from Jo'burg
16th Feb Wed St James Kenilworth CESA
18th Feb Fri Meadowridge OMF prayer group
24th Feb Thu Leave Cape Town for Japan
26th Feb Sat Arrive Japan
"We rejoice and delight in you" (Songs 1:4). May we and you all rejoice and delight in our Saviour, Jesus Christ, and then this 2011 will be blessed no matter how God orders our outward circumstances.
love from Rod and Glenda
