The average attendance at the worship service was twenty-two people last month. We had six children in the Sunday school, and we currently have seventeen church members.
We mentioned a Christian lady last month who had attended our service after moving here from Kagoshima. This month she brought her mother to the service with her. This was her mother’s opportunity to formally greet us, and she anticipates that her daughter will be attending Shine Church for a long time. We sense she is hoping and expecting us to take good care of her daughter.
- Pray for this Christian lady’s faith walk.
Another man who had moved here from Niigata came to visit our worship service. He has been searching for a church to attend regularly. He found our church through our online services. We understand that he has been looking for a church where he can worship and sing contemporary worship songs. We are interested to see how God develops our relationship with this man.
We are starting our Sunday school for the youth soon. Our format will be a Bible talk time for children and interactions including fun quizzes with answers from Bible verses for ten minutes or so every Sunday afternoon. Please pray for the teacher of this group, he is in his thirties, and for the children as they learn about God’s Word.
We expect to have a church meeting this coming month. We are to talk and refocus our vision and direction as a church group for the coming future. I am looking forward to sharing my perspective and vision from God with our church members. We are praying for unity as we advance our ministries.
We had an opportunity to play indoor soccer (futsal) as church members and non-believer guests at the church. I am intending to promote these kinds of outreach opportunities so we can meet more non-believers who are curious about God and Christianity.
My wife has not been feeling well lately and there seems to be no specific reason or cause that we have yet determined to be the culprit. Please remember my wife in your prayers, especially for her overall health, I suspect menopause based on the symptoms she mentioned and the research I have done but we are not yet sure. My son, daughter, and I are doing well.
- Pray for the pastor’s wife and her health.
I have started a series of sermon messages from Ephesians this month. As the number of people in our congregation increases and the number of volunteers on our worship team increases, I feel a strong desire to learn again about what the Bible says and points out regarding the church. Therefore, I choose to study and preach from Ephesians. In Japan, we hear so much negative news and upheaval including the prime minister being killed, coronavirus, soaring prices of everything, and rumors of war. At times like these, pray for us to stand firm in the Word of God so that as a strong church built upon God’s Word, we can step forward without being overwhelmed by the storms of the world.
- Pray for the pastor and his family to be renewed as they care for others.
- Pray for the pastor to be encouraged through God’s Word and fellowship with other believers as he seeks to encourage the believers to stand firm in God’s Word despite the concerns and storms of the world.
- Pray for the believers to rely upon God’s goodness and love as they face the worries on earth.
